Is Tales of Vesperia fun? Yes. Yes it is. There's lots of dungeons to explore, lots of items to find, many abilities to acquire, tons of sidequests, plenty of different monsters to fight, and so forth. TOV runs on the same engine as Tales of the Abyss, but because it runs on the Xbox 360, there's shorter load times, less lag, better graphics and sound, and a refined combat system. TOV is the best selling 360-exclusive game in Japan right now, and there is a dedicated fanbase in America as well.
What then, could be wrong with TOV? Well for one thing, it's not very challenging. If you're an RPG veteran, this game won't be very challenging for the most part. Throughout my entire playthrough, I only experienced one game over, and that was because my party was turned to stone. (Much like in Final Fantasy, the stone status ailment is a one-hit kill) Most of the bosses aren't much tougher than the regular enemies, and by the time you get to the final boss, it won't be much of a challenge if you're high leveled enough. Still, an easier game is easier to delve into than a hard game, and is less intimidating than something 'hardcore.'
Much like other Tales games, the story in TOV tries to be a real story. However, it's not up to the standards I've come to expect from a Tales game. Tales of Phantasia and The Abyss were far more epic, and even Legendia, if you're willing to overlook its few flaws in storytelling, surpasses Vesperia in this regard. Then again, it's rather unfair of me to knock TOV for its writing. Within the last year, I've played (most of) Persona 3, Mother 3, and Lunar: Silver Star Story, stat-based RPGs with way better writing than Vesperia's. And yet, the story in Vesperia is not a complete disaster. It is above-average. Vesperia's storytelling strengths comes from the JRPG cliches it avoids, thus presenting something a little more original, especially for jaded RPG gamers. Yuri, the main protagonist, is not a shrill teen boy, but rather, a twenty-something who prefers to do something about it rather than complain, unlike 90 percent of other RPG heroes. Estellise, the stereotypical healer girl, is . . . a girl who wants to save people with her powers, but is not a Mary Sue-ish moe girl like, say, Shirley from Legendia, and is actually pretty strong in physical combat; she's far from helpless. The ending isn't grand, but there is one twist, one I did not see coming. (I can't tell you what it is, because of spoilers) While not having as strong of characterization as most other Tales games, Vesperia has this going for it; the story is better than Tales of Eternia's, and there's no one in the game who is annoying like Legendia's Norma Beatty. (Thank Lorelei for that last one. TOTA reference!)
RPG snobs may overlook Vesperia because its story isn't the best ever. If they do, then they're missing out on one of the best games out for the Xbox 360. Remember, the earliest video RPGs did not have otherworldly narratives, yet some of them still sold well. If you're like me, and you play games for the actual game parts, then you owe it to yourself to play Vesperia. It is never boring.
Tales of Vesperia Final Score: 10 out of 10.
