I found the review informative. I also found the reviewer to be fair. Regardless of what other members are saying in this thread the reviewer considers a 7.1 to be a decent title. Which does not equate to a poor, bad, or average title. So it is slightly above par. Nothing ground breaking but most certainly playable, and as the review said it is enjoyable.

What I found interesting was the games length, the micro management, the overabundance of characters, and the lack of compelling side quests. Those can be virtues or vices dependent on your own personal tastes. I have a couple epic length JRPGs thus far this generation, and I could see the joy in playing a shorter linear title. Especially with that over abundance of characters giving me ample incentive to play through again with different teams. For me side quests are not necessarily important aside from a compulsion to complete everything, and micro management is also not a terribly frustrating issue for me as long as the game doesn't hinge on me needing all my characters in constant top form.

So when I read this review I see two things. The first thing is no cataclysmic flaws. The second thing is that the game is playable if not fantastic it is still worth playing.

See, the thing about Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey was/is that user reviews have been far more favorable than the traditional review websites.

Blue Dragon: #130 Reviewer Rankings. #42 User Rankings

Lost Odyssey: #110 Reviewer Rankings. #16 User Rankings

Is it just me, or does the comparison between reviewers and users seem a little odd?

Because what i read about it sucks.

What i like about JRPGs

Story-IU story is blah

Time it takes to complete- This game is short

Lots of awesome sidequests- this game does not have many

Graphics- Looks like they are blah also reading this review

So this game in my book is a complete fail

Dont Assume i didnt read it when i posted the damn review on the site. I knew all i needed to know in the last paragraph of this review... (mab i shouldnt of read it and just skipped to the last part)

Anti-360 trolling with misinformation. Are we to believe you were ignorant, or lying?

Yeah, that's why I bought Tales, and didn't perorder this. I was afraid this might happen.

For the record,

Tales of Vesperia:

Gamespot 8.5, IGN 8.2

hope those guys who still buy it will enjoy it - doesn't look like a bad game at all, although it seems to have some faults

but one thing really got to me "The voice acting offers only English dubbing" .. ugh... to me that would be a hard pill to swallow (judging by the videos I've seen of the english version)

Thats too bad, this JRPG looked good. Maybe other reviews will be better?

Are you telling me the thought of Capell shouting "prancing melody" doesn't get you all giddy inside?

The english dub only is a pretty big negative for me, but I pre-ordered anyway.  The comments about how linear it is and the whiny persona of the main character make me think "Oh god, not Tidus and FFX and that pile of crap again", but the rest of his commentary about the story and gameplay were pretty positive.

This tidbit - "In fact, there are 18 characters you'll be micromanaging during the course of this fairly brief adventure" - is a huge plus for me, since I do in fact enjoy the managing aspect of my characters, and I like large character casts (like FFVI, which had an awesomely huge cast). 

I didn't see any real complaints about combat or gameplay, mostly just story/game length, and since party management is a plus for me and not a negative, I don't think I'll regret my preorder :) 

Yes, but the characters in FFVI were fleshed out.  One of the negatives of the IU review was that some of the characters didn't fell very important in the story