TLR isn't that a bad of the game. Your enjoyment of the game will essentially come down to two things. Your tolerance for technical issues and your opinion of the battle system. The battle system is excellent. I haven't enjoyed a turned based system this much in a long time. The technical issues are problematic but never to a game breaking level. I have logged probably 40 or 50 hours into the game and I have never had a game breaking bug.

I also agree that the TLR is better than Eternal Sonata. ES is one of my least favorite games. I had to force myself to finish and I haven't touched it sense. MrStickball gave a great description of the games problems. ES had great potential. However it's linear even by JRPG standards. The story is awful. The characters are even worse, and the only bright spot for me was the art style and the battle system. The battle system actually starts handicapping you as you get further into the game. You would think leveling up the battle system would aid, but no in ES, it actually does the reverse.

I hope the TLR team gets to make another game using this battle system. If they can iron out the technical issues and write an improved narrative, you'd have a exceptional game. Instead you have a good game mired in technical imperfections. They seemed to want to work on another 360 title, I hope SE obliges them.

Who cares, it's an RPG...

Don't you guys remember how low the frame rate was on Final Fantasy X on the PS2?

It's a good RPG, not great but then there is no great RPG these days.

I beg to differ with the last sentence.  Persona 4 and Valkyria Chronicles were both great RPG's from my own personal experience, and from talking to friends ToV is great as well.

There are still good JRPGs, and Torillian just listed them

Tales of Vesperia, bar the anime graphics, is one of the better JRPGs made...Ever. Most have voted it best in the entire Tales series, which is one of the largest non-Square series out there.

lol that's me told! :)

I mean it's been a good long while since we got a FFVII\FFIX\FFX\Chrono Trigger\Chrono Cross\Phatasy Star that was like OMFG!

Chrono Cross especially for me, was RPG of the century.

I enjoyed eternal sonata a lot. I know people look down on it but I found it fresh compared to other recent RPGs where they try to bring back the magic of the 90s and fail miserably. At least eternal sonata took it in another direction.

I know there are some Blue Dragon lovers in the house (mrstickball) I really honestly don't see the appeal in that game, felt like playing an RPG for children with some highlights.

LO is very good and has some of the old fashioned appeal but gets very bland at times more than I was comfortable with. Last Remnant, can't comment on that right now I'm only 5 hours in but it looks like it has the making of being similar to LO with slightly better production values but jerky at times and not polished as it could be.

Hey there we go just my take...coming from someone who loved the cheesy gay-isms of enchanted arms I'm not sure anyone would take my view seriously :)

Don't feed the troll.

Btw, the framerate was 30 FPS just like every other game in existence...

well by "friends" I meant Naznatips, and some guys on VGC whose opinions I respect when it comes to RPG's.  I'm afraid none of my in person friends are into JRPG's like I am, so they are useless for such discussions.

Blue Dragon *was* childish. The VA was very Saturday morning cartoon-ish, but below that lied a very comprable Dragon Quest-esque game, with an impressive class system, and strategic combat system. Had the game been slightly more mature, it would have garnered better scores, I believe. Otherwise, the game is very impressive, and either my 2nd or 3rd favorite JRPG this gen (depending on my feeling of Lost Odyssey).

And my question would be: What was good about Eternal Sonata that Tales of Vesperia didn't have? ToV took every good thing about Eternal Sonata, and made it 10x better. It also took every bad thing about ES and fixed it too. No lame characters, Yuri is a tortured fiend of a protagonist vs. the cheezy Allegretto and lame Chopin. Visuals are comprable between both games, but ToV adds the whole fact that there's an actual overworld that you can free-roam in vs. Eternal Sonata which may be the most linear JRPG in history. Music is great in both games. ToV's story arc, as well as dialogue is actually understandable! I get the hole idea of Blastia, aer, and what's going on vs. Eternal Sonata's retarded story about the evil king and his mineral powder.

I'm maybe 40% of the way through Tales of Vesperia, about 25hrs in. I beat ES in that same amount of time.

Every Eternal Sonata fan is demanded to play Tales of Vesperia. Again, it's like arguing Beyond the Beyond against Final Fantasy VII. If you liked Beyond the Beyond, you should love FFVII    There is nothing in Eternal Sonata, nothing. That makes it better than Tales of Vesperia. The only arguable thing may be some graphical fidelity, and the music score has Chopin in ES. Otherwise, Tales of Vesperia is 10x better. I feel so sorry for the Europeans that haven't got this game yet.

You will see the PC version before the PS3 version. I would not be suprised if they just out right cancel the PS3 version, because they have not said anything about it since it was announced.

I'm sorry simply couldn't get my head around the main character in BD. He was so annoying, nene seemed like an old guy that had gone senile with delusions of taking over the world. Still it wasn't terrible just some game breaking annoyances that spoilt it (wasn't too impressed with the selling point of *something* being in nearly every nook and cranny!)

1 gold....1 gold....1 gold...ahhhhhhhhhh help.

On the TOV...I'll confess I haven't actually played more than 10 mins of it :(

But by all accounts it sounds like a fantastic game. Euroland isn't fun.