Three years ago, I would have laughed if you told me that the Xbox 360 would be the JRPG system of the next generation. But - lo and behold - it has become just that. Ever since the "opening shots" Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey were fired, we've been subjected to announcement after announcement of both exclusive and non-exclusive RPGs coming to the platform. This fall we have Infinite Undiscovery and Last Remnant, and next year (hopefully but doubtfully given the game's history) we'll have the one and only FFXIII.
Namco-Bandai has been a part of this trend as well, starting first with the graphically pleasant but sorely lacking vapid WTF storyline in Eternal Sonata and later releasing the latest full-fledged entry in the Tales series exclusively for the console. It was Tales of Vesperia - not Blue Dragon, not Lost Odyssey, not The Idolm@ster (thank god) - that finally managed to get the original shipments of 360s to sell out. In fact, the game has caused massive shortages of the console...so much so that MS is redirecting shipments to the country (sadly, Vesperia fever will have died down by then, but it's still a remarkable achievement nonetheless).
The game itself is what you'd expect from a Tales entry. Traditional JRPG. It looks like a prettier version of Abyss, plays like the best parts of Symphonia, and all the private events are even fully voiced this time around. I'm currently about 5 hours in, and while the first 2-3 hours are EXTREMELY slow, the game quickly gains momentum and the drive to keep playing just to see what happens next kicks into full gear. The combat system models Symphonia and Abyss and is both deep and rewarding. Difficulties can arise when controlling AI partners (as they tend to hesitate very little before draining your inventory of healing items), and there aren't as many options for AI behavior as in past games, but in most cases a few modifications to party strategy will fix these issues when they occur. The achievements are a mixed bag. Unlike Eternal Sonata, which cockblocks players by withholding upwards of 600 points of content until conquering the game a second time on a higher difficulty setting, quite a few (though definitely not all) of Vesperia's achievements can be conquered on the first playthrough. Private actions are frequent - almost TOO frequent in fact - but at least you have the ability to skip them by pressing the Start button.
Despite the flaws inherent with RPGs of this type, I am confident in saying that I definitely recommend the game for fans of the series. Between the beautiful graphics, the above-average voice acting (though the lack of a Japanese track does hurt a bit), the depth of the real-time combat system, and the unfolding plot, it looks like Vesperia is shaping up to be a worthy entry in the long-running Tales series.
All that being said...there are a lot of great things about this game. But there isn't a whole lot we haven't seen before in the previous generation without the shinier graphics. Tales of Vesperia continues the Devil May Cry 4 style of Japanese next-gen development...that is, if it ain't broke, just make the graphics shinier and leave everything else as-is. For most people, that isn't a problem, but for others, the lack of anything revolutionary will be a dealbreaker.
Thus, X-Play (along with most other American mainstream press) will hate on it. No surprises there.
That being said, the most amazing part of this generation is... Who ever thought we'd have effeminate-yet-angsty hero-types and space marines in abundance on the SAME console?!
