Great post to OP. I feel exactly the same way. Tales of Vesperia is a much bigger deal to me than any other JRPG that were announced for any other console this year. Yes, this includes even Dawn of The New World. The fact that Vesperia was made by Team Symphonia alone warrants a purchase.

Microsoft IS giving JRPG fans what they want. Because of their great JRPG library (or soon to be) it is that I'm buying a Xbox 360.

I CAN'T WAIT FOR VESPERIA!!!

Anyone think I should make an Unholy Mass Anticipation thread for Tales of vesperia where we can build up a huge amount of hype so we enjoy it even better? I desperately want to. Of course I'd put details, screenshots, ect.

I hate to be party pooper, but by throwing Final Fantasy and Metal Gear in the same breath as Tales, I think you're way over-inflating the Tales series. I would compare the Tales games more to the Disgaea, Shin Megami Tensei, or Suikoden series. At best, they're in between FF and the series I mentioned.

Great post. I knew nothing of the Tales series other then it was a distant 3rd behind DQ and FF. The only two I've played were Phantasia and Symphonia. I'm looking forward to ToS2 but will wait on a price drop on Vesperia since IU in coming out soon after. I also seem to be one of the few hoping ToH gets a U.S. release.

FF, and DQ aren't the most popular in Japan. That title belongs to pokemon.

You have a hole in your logic. It comes in an inconsistancy with "relativity," and the fact that your benchmarks for what makes an object relevant are your opinion, and not a fact.

I feel that any game that appeals to a group of hardcore players, especially if those players purchase hardare of a particularly stagnant system in a given region. The 360 does desperately needs a foothold in Japan and games like this making headway is relevant. I would argue that anything relevant is a "big deal," but then we're just arguing cemantics.

However, again, the problem with your logic is with your presumptive scope. You seem to have inadvertantly cherrypicked the assumption that only titles that appeal to the mainstream audience, and specifically titles that sell over a million copies, could ever quality as a "big deal" in the gaming community, and therefore be relevant to said community.

Relevance, even in sales, isn't directly dependant on sales(ask God of War vs Animal Crossing topic, or Pokemon verses Final Fantasy), and even then, who is to say what qualifies as a "big deal" or "relevant sales" to the larger gaming community. If a shovelware title sells a million copies, isn't that a big deal? Also, if a huge title flops in sales, isnt' that also a big deal, and completely relevant to the community at large?

I'm sure in certain circles, "Carnival Games" was considered a big deal, but not to the audience I'm speaking with on this forum, and with this topic. Here, all core games are relevant, and JRPGs this generation have been particularly lax. Therefore the first good one on a HD console, to our community, no matter how poor the sales are, is a big deal, in some of our eyes, and even in your eyes, assuming you would enjoy and purchase the game if given the option. Let's hope this game is good and fills that position. Again, however, it is relative, and me telling you the game is a "big deal" is no more accurate than you telling me it is "not a big deal," and then specifying a cherrypicked audience, like the "average gamer."

That said, I should have called my title, ..."...Vesperia is a big deal to the current Tales of fanbase, while not necessarily a big deal in console or software sales outside of Japan" but it wouldn't have fit. It certainly has been a console mover for the 360 in Japan, which is a relatively big deal, imo, for reasons which don't include actual numerical sales, or any false belief that it permanently changed something.

Discussing sales or marginalizing Vesperia as unimportant BECAUSE OF SALES and/or popularity, is off topic. Let's please drop the issue of "is this game a big deal to a general man walking down the street?" I'll help you out, it's not. It is, however, relevant in discussions of gaming and in fact very important to a lot of us here on this topic. We could just drop the issue of sales completely, as it has been discuessed very well in this topic already.

Jist: Let's drop this line of discussion, with this post, and from here on in, stay on topic.

So wait... who developed Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World if Team Symphonia did Vesperia!?

I'm not talking about the Tales of "series," when I mention Final Fantasy. I'm talking about games by "Team Symphonia" of which there have only been 2.

Both of those games, I feel, are better than FFIII, MGS2, and FFIX. Many, many people agree with me. While I agree with you that the series of FF and MGS are far better than the "Tales of" series in general, I disagree with your assertion that games made by "Team Symphonia" are easily disposed of as AA or lower games, despite the fact that both titles performed averagely at best on gamerankings.

Every series has bad spots, and some series have amazingly high spots. They just all aren't readily apparently by a quick glance at gamerankings, despite what our immediate gratification based society would hope for. There is knowledge beyond what the casual user can learn in the span of 20 seconds.

A generic team from Namco with no avatar, that had help and guidance of several members of Team Symphonia. That doesn't mean the game will be bad, or not as good, it just doesn't have the name behind it.

The bottom line is different developers developed ToS2 than ToS, and ToV is developed by the team that made ToS.

It is difficult to understand, lol, but I think I've lain it out well.

A) I thought that was proven fake. Either way nothing came of it.

B) That's nice, but they aren't the same team.

Depends on who's actually doing the porting if they actually port it to the PS3.