About 15 hours in, right now, at Keiv Moc.

I must say, Tales of Vesperia is possibly the best action-oriented Japanese RPG I have played since a few notable SNES masterpieces (Seiken Densetsu 2, Secret of Evermore, and the Terranigma series). The characters are great, they interact well with eachother, and Yuri is one of the best anti-stereotypical male leads in quite some time.

The battles are insanely fast paced, and are one of the most strategic examples of a battle system I've seen - I can beat many battles in a matter of seconds using the right combos.

Music is very good, and compare favorably with some of the best of the generation (which would be in between LO, ES and BD).

Oh, and the graphics: Despite the fact they are rather simple for being cell shaded (not as impressive as ES in character models), the game is possibly the smoothest, fastest-loading JRPG I've played in ages. Battles do NOT bog down regardless of what's going on the screen - I've had over 15 enemies onscreen at once (via encounter links), while throwing every arte in the book at the opponents...No frame dropping...Nothing.

Tales of Vesperia, to me, is the first TRULY next-gen JRPG in the fact that the game is the most well-polished I've played - It doesn't suffer from the technical glitches of Lost Odyssey, or even Western fare such as Mass Effect or Oblivion.

Not only this, I have yet to read a single user review that slams any aspect of the game. It's litterally flawless (that is, unless you have personal preferences against what ToV brings to the table).

Come October, I think that Fable 2 and Fallout 3 may have some serious competition in the RPG GOTY category. Who else thinks so?

Eternal Sonata looks pretty interesting to me. I believe they've gotten similar review scores. They both seem pretty fun.

I agree on pretty much all points. Yuri represents quite a nice change from the usual spiky haired emo boy, from his look (black samurai garb FTW) to his attitude. The game has a great sense of humor and is much, much better in both narrative drive and gameplay than Eternal Sonata (which I've been playing but have put on hold for ToV). RPG of the Year candidate, for sure.

It'll be a clash between White Knight Chronicles (if December in Japan release is ok), ToV, and Fable 2. Maybe Last Remnant as well.

Eternal Sonata sucks in comparison to Tales of Vesperia.

Although ES starts out great, the fact is, at the 15hr mark on Eternal Sonata, I was mocking half of what was in the game. The combat became very repetitive, and shallow. The story was becoming very confusing, and the game was unbalanced.

Tales of Vesperia is like Eternal Sonata if Eternal Sonata was done right. Every flaw in ES was "fixed" in ToV (although they are different franchises, ToV is superior in every way aside from character detail).

Eternal Sonata was sooo BOring! I just beat Tales of Vesperia last night. 36 hours over 5 days. It is the best game I have ever played in a long long time. Surprisingly deep and surprisingly fun. Im in love with it!

yeah, possible i guess, is SE losing touch?

No I will not listen! I'm not getting this game until later I must not kill myself wanting it!

Parts of SE already lost touch. *prays for good FF13 and better FFv13*

woopah - Are you referring to Infinite Undiscovery?

There are quite a few IU user reviews, and breakdowns of key good/bad points. It seems that IU winds up being a phenominal game once you get past the initial crappy first hour or two...But it's no where near as polished as ToV.