Hey, it's been awhile since my last 360 purchase (focused on my 3DS the past couple of months), but I jumped back in with a purchase of Tales of Vesperia!

I'm not too far in yet (just fixed a barrier in a town called Halure), so I've only played for a few hours, but man is this game absolutely gorgeous (probably the best looking RPG I've played).

Anyhow, I loved Tales of the Abyss back when I played it on my 3DS, and I'm quickly getting into this as well (Repede may already be one of my favorite party members in any RPG, lol).

I've seen this game pop up over and over again at my local Gamestop. I'm curious to try it, but I remember not being impressed with Tales of Symphonia's ending when I was little so I keep passing on this. Let us know what you think when you finish the game.

btw, have you played Symphonia? is Vesperia better?

@Utena-mobile, I haven't played Symphonia before (Abyss was the first and only game in the series I've played until now).

I'm only 4-5 hours in, so I can't give too much detail yet, but compared to Abyss, this seems like it's more of a challenge (I played Abyss on Easy, while I don't think this gives you any difficulty options).

As for advancements since Symphonia, neither Abyss or this feature chibi character design outside of battle (characters are full size all the time), and I believe Abyss was the first game in the series that allowed you to move about freely during battle (this is the case here as well). As for new features this game introduces, it features link encounters (whenever you make contact with an enemy on the world map, if another enemy is close enough, both groups of monsters they represent will fight you together). Also, I've noticed boss battles have some extra flair. One boss you can stun if you hit it from behind when it's charging it's big attack, and another boss features paralysing plants on the edge of the battlefield, and you can stun the boss if you make it hit one (they can stun your party members too, so be careful). I don't think any of the boss fights in Abyss had any such gimmicks.

Tales of vesperia has to be one of my favourite role playing games and have played through it a couple of times. I really liked the characters and thought Yuri was quite a bad ass! I have played symphonia and abyss and thought they were pretty cool, didn't think much of xillia and the new one they released recently..

Okay, I'm past the 10 hour mark (actually about 12 hours, to be specific), so I'll give some thoughts.

Heroes - The newest addition to the team, Raven, is quite fun, but other than him, the cast hasn't been standout. Yuri is the standard anime "kinda rough on the outside, but really a good guy" type. Repede is cool, because having a badass ninja dog on your team is neat, but there's not much in the way of character. Estelle is your prim & proper princess. Karol is the usual "tagalong kid" type, which I never really gravitate towards. Then there's Rita, who's the mage, and is okay I guess.

Villains - Zagi is a perfectly sadistic rival, but other than that, there's not much to say yet. There have been some bad people showing up, but as of yet, not much in the way of an actual hierarchy, or even an overall big bad (the guy their currently pushing, the head of the Blood Alliance, just doesn't have the big bad look, and I'm assuming there's someone bigger).

World - Being on an HD system, it looks wonderful. Not that the locals are notably better or worse than Abyss, but they sure as heck look good.

Gameplay - Well, it's a Tales game. Like Dragon Quest, if you've played one entry in the series, you're going to know what your getting yourself into when you play one (unlike, let's say Final Fantasy, which really likes to experiment with it's battle system game to game). Luckily, I like how these games play, and as I mentioned in my last post, it has it's new twists on the formula.

I'm liking my time with it a great deal, though.

One of the better jrpgs of last generation, no doubt! Had a good time with it and want to play it again, but i'm waiting out for BC on Xbox One ( against better judgement though ).

Well, for the first time I'm at the point where I have to grind (which is a bit disappointing, since I don't avoid fights, in fact I generally go out of my way to clear every enemy in a room before moving on). Anyhow, I'm having trouble with the fight against Alexei at Zaude. They spammed their Mystic Arte like 5 times during my last attempt, and there's absolutely no way to avoid or nullify it.

What's more problematic is that I can't even use my own Mystic Arte. I have the skill equipped, but it requires a level 3 Over Limit, and it won't charge beyond a level 2. Not only that, but I've noticed that the entire time I've played, none of the computer controlled party members have even used Over Limit (it seems like only the character you're controlling can Over Limit, which is different from Abyss, where the computer controlled party members could as well).

With that down in the dump talk over with though, I'm absolutely loving the game otherwise. I've really grown to love the cast (largely due to the plethora of skits, which really flesh them out), and just like Abyss, once it's over I'm going to feel like I'm going to be saying goodbye to close friends, lol.

Well, it took awhile, but I finally beat it!

Characters - Over the course of the game, I've really come to like them. None of them had the immense character growth that Luke did in Abyss, but they had great chemistry together, and I didn't even find the "tagalong kid" in Karol to be annoying (which I did think about Anise in Abyss). I'd say my favorites were Raven, Judith, Yuri, and even Rita.

Story - It's pretty standard JRPG fair, but it was enjoyable nonetheless, and I could esily follow it, which is something I will give it over Abyss (which had a lot of techno-babble which I never fully grasped).

Gameplay - It based on the same real time battle system that all Tales games use, so if you've played one before, you'll know what to expect. I will say I thought it was a slight step back from Abyss, though. I missed the Field of Fonon system Abyss had, which allowed you to power up your special attacks if you used one in the same area an ally had just cast a magic attack. Also, in Abyss, all party members could use Mystic Artes in battle, while in Vesperia only the character you're controlling can, which I felt was a step back. Vesperia added Fatal Strikes (which allowed you to kill basic enemies in one hit occasionally), and Link Encounters (where if you came into contact with one enemy on the world map, if another was close enough, you'd face off against both groups of monsters they represent at the same time), but I don't feel they added much to the gameplay, personally. The one thing I really liked was the special hidden weaknesses bosses had that you could exploit, as it was fun discovering it. Oh, I found Vesperia's difficulty to be higher (though I played Abyss on Easy, while Vesperia didn't have any difficulty settings), which I ended up liking.

World - The HD visuals mean that it not only looks better than Abyss, but any other JRPG I've ever played as well (it truly is gorgeous). There are lots of side things to do (I didn't do everything), and I don't think there's much that's locked away if you don't do it at a certain time, which I liked (that was something I didn't care for in Abyss, where there were sidequests that got blocked off if you didn't do them at a certain time, losing you special items, and even a couple hidden locations). In Abyss you had to revisit many dungeons a second time (going deeper to new parts, but still), while here they are one time only visits (except for hidden extras), which was nice. However, I thought the cities/towns were smaller in general. In Abyss, there were many non-essential buildings/residences you could visit, while in Vesperia, it was mostly just practical buildings (like inns), and story relevant locations (all other doors were locked off).

Overall, there were things I liked more about Abyss, and things I liked more about Vesperia, but they're both fantastic JRPGs. Oh, and it took me around 60 hours to complete it, which I think was about the same for Abyss, lol.

BTW, @Dee0342, I love your avatar. I'm currently playing through Pirate's Curse (it's my first Shantae), and it's been great so far.

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