Easily the best JRPG on the Xbox 360, and one of the best RPG's I have ever played.
Tales of Vesperia is the latest in the long-standing "Tales of" series. Perhaps the most well known of the Tales games was Tales of Symphonia, which was one of the greatest gamecube games. The game manages to combine great RPG storylines and characters with fast paced action. Tales of Vesperia manages to carry out this tradition with grace and style, and is definately worth adding to your collection.
Graphics: Graphically, this game is amazing. It's not realistic, but that doesnt matter, because the charming graphical style will win you over from the very first scene of the game. Instead of having CG style cutscenes, the game instead offers fully-drawn anime cutscenes at a few major points in the game. The rest of the cutscenes are managed the games beautiful in game art-style, and you wont be dissapointed by the results. The character models are good, the weapons are good looking, and all the spell effects look amazing as well.
Gameplay: Now, as previously stated, the game does have traditional RPG elements, but it puts them in a nifty, action-filled package. Monsters roam the world freely, and if they see you, they begin to pursue you. If they touch you, you are taken to a separate battle-field and you must fight the monsters in a ring-style arena match. Battles can last anywhere from a few seconds to several minutes, and trust me, the longer battles are heart-pounding. You can go from near death to a full party with good health in seconds and trust me, its a great feeling to do so. The enemies are strong and the bosses are ruthless, so get ready for some stiff competition.
Of course, the game wouldnt be an RPG without a leveling system. This game does feature a leveling system just like any other, but it doesnt allow you to assign points or anything like that. In this game, leveling increases your health, your damage, and other base stats of your character. For this reason, you may find that you arent as psyched to level up as you would be in other RPG's. Still, leveling is usually not something you focus on exclusively, and grinding is a very rare occurence. When you arent in battle you will be moving through towns, perhaps solving environmental puzzles in dungeons, or just trying to find where to go next. The areas in between battles are far from boring, and often provide key plot-twists to keep you interested. However, you may see a kind of pattern emerge where you will split from the whole party, go find and talk to them all, come back to a designated location, and move on. It happens usually after a major story revelation, and it hardly gets in the way of gameplay.
Story: The story in this game is good at some moments and amazing at others. The game will sometimes leave you stunned, with your mouth agape, and will sometimes leave you simply saying "I saw that coming." Still, the story and the characters are half of what keep you motivated in this game, and you will find that you genuinely care about each character's respective destinies. The game is at some times cliched, but as mentioned, if you are an RPG fan, you will like the story here.
Sound: The sound in this game is good as well. The sound effects of moves are good, and the voice acting is superb. There are times when the music in the game makes the experience as intense as the toughest action game or survival horror game. The atmosphere is easily one of the game's best selling points, and you will find that the music will grow on you until you begin to hum along to the tune. All of the characters sound good, and their voices simply compliment their personal characteristics. Yuri has a rather resonating deep voice, that remains cool and calm even in the toughest situations. Judith almost never acts surprised, and her voice reflects that character trait, as she sounds pretty monotone even when she is in danger. The voices of the characters will most likely bring you to love them even more.
Overall: Overall this game is about as good as it gets in terms of JRPG's. It has great loveable characters, and fun unique storyline to follow, and lots of fast paced action riddles with tough boss fights to keep you constantly challenged. Furthermore, this game will last you a good 60 hours from start to finish and trust me, its hard to be bored with a game this good. If you are an RPG fan, you owe it to yourself to buy this game.