Tales of Vesperia - Xbox 360

I was not sure whether I would love Tales of Vesperia or just like it, as most game sites scored it around 8/10. But after watching a few hours of gameplay on youtube and enjoying it, I knew playing it would be even better so I bought a copy. I think Tales of Vesperia deserves to be in the upper 8 to lower 9 range (out of 10 points). It is now one of my favorite games.Pros:-Most of the characters are well-voiced and have interesting back stories. The main character, Yuri, is not your stereotypical hero. In fact, he has a bit of a dark side to him, which makes his character even more interesting. Some characters might seem over the top at first, but they all grew on me after a few hours, and I don't dislike any of them. One of the girls can be a bit annoying (Estelle), she does play the naive, cute heroine well though. Even the little boy, Karol, who I thought would annoy me (as most kids in JRPGs do), is actually pretty well voiced and I grew to like him as I played.-If you love dialogue, you'll get tons here. Most if it is well written and quite funny at times. If you only want action, stay away from this game (though I'm not sure why you would be looking at an RPG in the first place).-The story is mostly good, though people who have played tons of RPGs might find it a bit stereotypical. Even so, there are enough surprises to keep you playing. People who haven't played many RPGs will probably love the story.-The battle system is fun. No random battles, and you get to control the characters.-Friends can join in during battles and take control of a character (only local co-op, no online). Friends can drop in and drop out easily.-Huge world to explore. This will take you at the very least 50 hours to finish.-Very pretty environments and characters. The graphics aren't taking the Xbox 360 to a new level, but they do look great overall. I particularly like the Anime style.-Grinding isn't really required to beat the bosses, as long as you fight most enemies in the dungeons.-Tons of optional side quests. Lots of items and monsters to find/fight.Cons-Near the end of the game, the story slows down a bit. The story in general might be considered average by hard-core RPG gamers.-Dungeons are pretty linear, and the puzzles are extremely simple. This isn't Zelda. Luckily, dungeons aren't huge, there's just a lot of them. So in between dungeons you'll generally get some story progression. I've played Baten Kaitos (Gamecube), which has similar linear dungeons, but for whatever reason I liked Vesperia's better. Could just be because I care about the characters a lot more, so the linear dungeons don't bother me as much.-Some people might find the characters/dialogue cheesy. I personally didn't, but I can easily see how others might feel differently.-Only local co-op, no online.Overall 9/10. One of my favorite games, and highly recommended. If you've never played an RPG before, you'll probably enjoy this game a lot. If you are unsure, watch walkthroughs on youtube to get an idea of the gameplay/story.

I picked this game up on release date at a GameStop (recently purchased for a friend), and it was their last copy. I was deciding between this and Mario Strikers: Charged, and I sure as hell don't regret my decision.The story follows Yuri Lowenthal, a former Imperial Knight, skilled swordsman (left-handed as well!), who sets out to help the lower quarters of the village in retrieving a stolen power source of their's, known as blastia. He soon runs into Estellise, or Estelle for short, a princess of the land, who is affiliated with a childhood friend of Yuri's, Flynn, who's a captain of the Imperial Knights. Yuri and Estelle, both with their own goals and motives, set out on their journey, uncovering an evil that plans on threatening the entire world. They meet various fun and ecstatic characters that join their party, others are NPC, as well as different enemies, monsters, etc..The gameplay is superb, with up to four players able to jump in and out whenever they please, picking their characters and using them in battle. There's no random enounters but rather, bumping into the monsters that show up on the map as you travel. Player 1 obviously controls most of the game, whilst the other players have full control during battle. You're free to move in a set area during battle, and as you gain experience and new weapons/items, or even with story progression, you can further your combos, artes (magic abilities), and burst limits. With all the different strategies and actions available to you, the gameplay always feels fun and refreshing.I haven't played an RPG in a few years before hitting this title, and it couldn't come at a better time, as I felt I appreciated the genre much more than before. Granted, RPG genre is one of my favorite genres, but the RPGs were growing stale for me at the time. The graphics welcome the anime style...speaking of which, Bamco (Bandai+Namco xD), really outdid themselves with this category. The 3D typical anime style, then there's the skits and such with character faces in 2D talking, and the third (yeah, three different art styles in this game, incredible), is an amazing CGI-anime style of cutscenes used...rarely shown but once you see it, you'll be amazed.Music is, well there. There's some moments that mess with you, such as battling against an ally, the music really hits home and is, in a sense, sorrowful. I especially took notice of the intro theme, Ring a Bell, wonderful song.I know I should give a few flaws for the game, as no game is perfect, but this is more my satisfaction with the game rather than a pros and cons list at the moment. If I had to throw in some flaws, it'd be that this version is inferior to the one on the Playstation 3, which I hope they'll bring over to the States. Flynn was one of my favorite characters, but we were only teased with him as far as playable characters go. I also found some backtracking to be a bit annoying, but there wasn't too much backtracking like in other games, and some character voices were meh, but even that has it's reasoning...they were all fitting to their character.I thoroughly enjoyed this game and would love to go back to it. I hope this helps convince you to check it out because it really is deserving of the Tales of series title. There's also a prequel film: ToV - First Strike I believe the name is I've yet to check it out myself, but I heard it was decent in it's own right. If you like RPG's, try this. You'll find something to like of it, something that'll keep you playing until the end, I found plenty myself.