Rafael Peixoto

2.5 stars are fair enough to Tales of Vesperia. What I like: graphics - pretty good battle system model - real time battle system where the player can move freely in the battle field, perform arts and combos, defend, etc. What I do not like: the battle system mechanics - It is unnecessarily overwhelming and time consuming. There are dozens of arts, altered arts, burst arts, mystical arts, attacks, combos, etc, that can be explored. On top of them there are many skills granted by weapons and cooking. The goal is offering tons of options that will let players customize the fight styles. The down side is the time wasted to explore all these things. The game can be beaten easily with a fraction of those arts and skills. Characters - The main story is what we expect from JRPGs (a bunch of characters that eventually save the world from an unprecedented crisis). The down side are the characters. They are odd, stereotyped, and childish. I particularly like to play games with complex characters (like the gang from FFVII, Octopath Traveler, etc). This game fails badly on the development of their characters. They look cool when they are introduced but end up not being well developed as the plot discloses. Soundtrack - Some soundtracks are annoying like the one played in Dahngrest city for example. Skits - Some of them are fun in the beginning but they get repetitive and are affected by the never-change stereotypes of the characters. One example is Raven who always makes comments about being an old man amid a group of young people (he makes some sexist comments too almost all the time). The game let the player disable, skip, or ignore them at least. To those who are seeking a good JRPG and bumped into this one. Pick this game if you have Game Pass (or similar) as it is free. Do not waste money buying it unless it's on sale. I dare to recommend other better JRPGs like Dragon Quest XI, Octopath Traveler, FFVII (original and remake), etc. Play these if you haven't did it yet before go with ToV.