These characters are what will suck you in and give you fond memories for a long long time.
I'm not here to explain the Tales games, but to give you an overview of this particular one and why it shines so bright.
The world in Tales of Vesperia has the type of setting your probably use to in an RPG; a world currently at a restless peace relying on technology left behind by some ancient civilization. That technology being "blastia", which is a, for lack of a better term, magic imbued crystal like substance that seems to be operated with science. Yes, science. They have "scripts" and "solution" and just plane scientific coding and computer like programming which is written into the blastia to give it the desired function.
Probably the main use for blasita is the Barrier Blastia, which is used to created a barrier around towns and settlements that keeps the monster – which the world is riddled with and no one known why – out. Blastia has other functions as well, i.e. pumping clean water into cities. And last, but not least, use for things like combat by imbuing the wielders with a magical type prowess and skill.
The main character is an ex-knight, vigilante, rebel with his own cause. Sounds stereotypical, right? Well, Yuri Lowell is anything but. And in my opinion one of the best leads in an RPG in years. Yuri has a dry sense of humor, which is exercises liberally. I have read a lot of reviews making him sound emo and quiet. That is SO not true. He is a sarcastic in almost everything he says and does, yet in a very friendly approachable way. He has zero respect for authority, yet he seems to grant it to them anyway, subtly enough they don't even realize it. His hunger for trouble and fun is mixed in so well with his nonchalant persona mixes together so well he constantly manages to somehow keep you guess while predicting him at the same time.
The storyline isn't anything ground breaking, the combat is nicely Tales with some good upgrades, the replay value is high, the game isn't overly difficult.. But where this game shines above so many others is the character interaction.
I cant recall any other RPG with such great inter party interaction. Characters such as a dog who wields daggers by holding them in his mouth, a teenage pissy female genius mage, a charmingly naive yet book smart princess, a young scardy cat boy trying to find his spine, a voluptuous female warrior with a charming sweet personality yet totally lacking social common sense and a creepy old man that no one seems to know anything about.
After each battle, while the spoils add up your characters always have some type of interaction. They repeat, but there are so many of them you want to sit and watch. Some of their interactions, things they say, and jokes they make off of others speeches from previous battles and occurrences had me rolling. For instance one of them party members took turns doing a " Our weapons are love, justice…" etc, to everyone else sighing. Then sometime later a particular character says "our weapons are LOVE, JUSTICE and Seeeexuuuality~" and it was so out of place I almost peed in laughter.
Then there are skits. If you have played any other Tales you will be familiar with them. Certain things trigger then, you hit a button like select, and you get a skit with characters which just shows individual little windows of just a head shot of the characters and their dialogue. I have never encountered skits as good as these. The images are slightly animated. Yet it works remarkably well. And they are all fully voiced. Their facial expressions, things they say and do.. I have never seen a game pull of subtle little teeny teeny tiny emotions and humor in such a way. I can't even describe it in a way to do it justice.
Of course their interaction in normal cut scenes is great as well. The voice acting fails at times, but normally only the intense emotional moments, which aggravates.
This game also had some very, very dark and intense scenes. Being as how everything seems to bright and funny, then these dark scenes.. You expect them to end in a jolly happy type of way. They don't. Because of the normal atmosphere of the game and these dark scenes feeling so out of place they really get your heart pounding. Because evil, and darkness SHOULD feel out of place in the world and feel so alien and completely out of context as to offend your very sensibility of "this should not be happening." And it does that to you. Perfect.
There are a couple of very good plot twists I didn't see coming, but nothing as drastic or deep as say, Tales of Symphonia, but still very good non the less.
I'll wrap this up by saying my only real complaint with this game was the music. It was very inappropriate at times. A scene is playing where you should be crying and the music feels like your in a disco. An intense scene is playing where you should be white knuckled and the music is inciting you to break dance. A romantic sweet moment and you're resisting the urge to start krunking. Etc etc.
In closing, this game may not be ground breaking in terms of story or concept, but the ride is very enjoyable from beginning to end and the characters have more life and character then I have almost ever encountered in any game to date. You will never forget them.