First, please don't flame the game. We're expecting reviews to run from 7.5 to 8.5. This is a niche title, like Disgaea, and isn't for everyone. The two best games in the series have averages of 7.9 and 8.5 on gamerankings.

Ok, so far we have:

Gamespot - 8.5 http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/rpg/talesofvesperia/review.html?tag=topslot;thumb;2

IGN: 8.2 - http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/902/902269p1.html

Tales of Vesperia is a strong anime-style Japanese RPG with a wide-ranging story, compelling characters and an intense real-time battle system that keeps you on your toes. Although it has a somewhat inconsistent visual style and is relatively low on graphical details, the character designs and animations are very good, and there’s a ton to explore in the world. The storyline isn’t breaking any new ground and begins to unravel somewhat at the end, but there’s power here, and the characters will definitely stay with you after the battle ends.

1up (B+, A+) - http://www.1up.com/do/reviewPage?cId=3169579&p=4

For years, detractors have labeled the conventional Japanese RPG a dated genre that simply doesn't have a place among the likes of Gears of War and Halo. Tales of Vesperia exposes that assertion for what it truly is: a load of bunk. Traditional elements -- an anime-styled cast, a lush, expansive overworld, and a familiar fantasy setting -- will always be welcome, so long as they're done well. And Vesperia succeeds as well as any Japanese RPG this generation.

Hardcore Gamer: 4/5 - http://hardcoregamer.com/index.php?option=com_magazine&id_rubrique=1&type=article&id_article=190

Tales of Vesperia is a great way to kick off the Tales series in this generation of gaming. The graphics are stunning, the characters are interesting and the game is simply really fun to play. Hopefully, this will be the game that gets the Tales series noticed by people who think Final Fantasy VII was the last good RPG in gaming.

Team Xbox 8.1 - http://reviews.teamxbox.com/xbox-360/1553/Tales-of-Vesperia/p2/

There are a certain amount of gamers –and you know who you are– that will be purchasing Tales of Vesperia simply due to its franchise’s legacy; you guys will not be disappointed with Tales first HD/Xbox foray. Tales of Vesperia will also be satisfying to those that didn’t even know that Tales of Vesperia is a late-model part in a long lineage of stout JRPG titles; that is, as long as the end user can put up with a few of the game’s quirks. If gads of dialog, characters that ooze personality and freer form combat sounds like an RPG delight to you, then order up Tales of Vesperia pronto.

Game Informer 7.25, 8 -http://gameinformer.com/NR/exeres/5EA9B0F4-3BA9-4C60-B932-089EB1FF6032.htm

If you’re still a fan of the old school approach to storytelling and gameplay, you’ll be pleased to know that Vesperia is a tour de force of what you love. For the rest of us, this series meets our modest expectations, albeit with a pretty visual overlay.

Second Opinion: Fans of the Tales series will undoubtedly love this one, but anyone who digs a fun adventure should check it out.

Gamespy review - 4/5 http://xbox360.gamespy.com/xbox-360/tales-of-vesperia/902961p1.html

GameSpy has seen a few solid JRPGs on the Xbox 360 (Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey and Eternal Sonata), but until Tales of Vesperia none have really exploited the raw graphical power that the system offers. Vesperia may not deliver a totally fresh plot, but well-written character dialogue and a great combat system go a long way towards mitigating the cliches. A superior blend of style and production values, Tales of Vesperia is the best JRPG on the 360 thus far.

GAmesRadar - 8/10 http://www.gamesradar.com/xbox360/tales-of-vesperia/review/tales-of-vesperia/a-2008082614214051003/g-20080227101627662014

Tales of Vesperia is an incredibly deep experience. Thanks to the high quality of each of its parts (gameplay, plot, graphics, music, voice-acting), it's deeply satisfying even when it's mind-blowingly frustrating. You could be done with the story arc in 30-40 hours, but between optional bosses, hidden dungeons, side-quests and the glorious cooking system, you could spend months exploring the wide word in Tales of Vesperia. Tales of Vesperia is one of the best JRPG experiences out there.

OXM: 8.5 - [Oct 2008, p.82]

Incredibly satisfying.

Gamepro - 3.5/5 http://www.gamepro.com/article/reviews/206882/tales-of-vesperia/

Tales of Vesperia is a fairly straightforward Japanese RPG, which isn't a bad thing at all. Sure, it's clich?d and it doesn't reinvent the wheel. I'm not telling you to run out and buy it as the next big innovation in role playing, though; I'm saying if you have a soft spot in your heart for RPG games and you liked the other Tales titles, then this is a pretty safe bet for you.

Keep an eye out for Gametrailers specifically.

Tales fans will be interested to know that all the skits are voiced. Which is amazing considering their frequency.

When a new review pops up, post it here and discuss. Hopefully this will help us from having to make a new topic everytime a review comes out, and get everyone the information before gamerankings refreshes their site. Also, it can keep people from cherrypicking positive or negative reviews. If I recall, this was tried before with Ninja Gaiden 2, with mixed success, so hopefully since this game is less hyped, it won't turn into pointless trolling.

This is an experimental topic, and it might not work, so I figured we've got nothing to lose by giving it a try.

The game is set to release Tuesday, August 26th.

Disgaea is more nitch than this game will ever be. But I like the idea of the post instead of having a million threads per review.

I'm very interested to see how both this and Disgaea do in reviews. I'm highly surprised Disgaea has been keeping it's reviews to the 80's considering the visuals.

I'm actually slightly surprised that this game isn't being reviewed better, only because I don't think there's something specifically wrong with it like with Disgaea (from a technical standpoint) but perhaps I haven't looked into it enough.

This looks good but IU looks far better imo

Thank you sir. While I disagree about your Disgaea comment, I appreciate your compliment on the threads premise.

Afterall, if we didn't have diverging opinions, there would be no need for message boards.

The better the reviews the more I'm hoping for/cant wait for a PS3 version.

How do you make the call for which one is more niche or whether they are the same or not?

That's the thing, Disgaea isn't pushing the envelope with anything immediately noticeable really. 

They have a formula/look that defines them and that's what they stick to.

I have plans on playing this game in the future, but this feature right here is turning me off big time from wanting to sit through another 70+ hours Tales game, no matter how great the gameplay is. The voice acting in the demo I found atocious. Thank god the skits are optional.

@WoW
and I love the games, I just figured they would get more lambasted from reviews, but perhaps that was a false assumption. You are correct though that there is really nothing that need to change with their games in my mind, innovation is nice but not always necessary.