both are great, but LO is better

LO

lost odyssey by a huge margin. lost odyssey gets my vote for the best rpg in the past decade. :)

sadly i have to say lost odyssey, but just by a little. they are both great games and should both be pickd up if you have not already(+viva pinata).

Battle System: Tales of Vesperia by far
Story: Lost Odyssey

Overall: Tales of Vesperia

I haven't played either, but a generalization based on the opinions I've read:
Tales of Vesperia for hardcore JRPG fans - those who play every JRPG they can find.
Lost Odyssey for casual JRPG players - those who stick mainly to big JRPG franchises like Final Fantasy.

Lost Odyssey, its no contest.

I havn't played a JRPG since Zelda on the Cube. I do miss them though I don't like random fights with pointless enemies you can't see simply for being out in the open. I liked Grandia 2 style enemies which you can choose to fight by running into them. I don't mind turn based.

Is Lost Odyssey turn based with invisible enemies that come out of nowhere all the time? (ala Skies of Arcadia/Eternal Arcadia- great rpg but way too many unwanted battles)

i think its better to compare ToV with SO4 , Lost odyssey seem bit more realistic and more serious
while ToV and SO4 are more anime styled and funny at some points.

Tales of Vesperia.

I personally found Lost Odyssey to become downright boring around the end of disc 3 and most of what I played in Disc 4. I also found Kaim to be a very boring character. I also didn't like the leveling system.

At first the game was really good, I don't know what happened.