This game is so close to being a 9, although I couldn't tell you why.
User Rating: 7.5 | Tales of Vesperia X360
I think that this game is one of the most interesting games I have played. the graphics are very interestingly done, with most of it being a cartoon. This seems to be a good game for someone who likes anime. I do not enjoy the gameplay that much, maybe because I am new, but I hate the way that no conversations can be skipped out on, no easily accesible quest log, no real period of time where the action isn't intense. This can be good, but there is one boss fight in the beginning of the game that took me forever to do. I really don't think that I am that bad at RPGs, but all it is is button mashing. There can't be that big of a strategy, so I don't know what I was doing wrong there. I also think that the way the map is made is really a horrible way of presenting it. I hate how your character is literally bigger than the city on the map (traveling) screen, but when you enter is smaller. I also highly dislike how there is no fluid world to travel in. The game could have made some beautiful backgrounds, like in Elder Scrolls Oblivion, to travel by foot in between cities was both rewarding and entertaining. In this game, I feel like a lot of things are chores. There is no arrow pointing in the direction you need to go in, so if you were to pick up the game a week later from when you last played, there would be no telling what the hell you have to do.
Another big problem I have with it is that you run around, but none of the other characters you are partied with are shown, only in the cutscenes and fights are they shown. It is a little bit weird to have that happen.
To its advantage, the graphics are beautiful and it is occasionally funny. There are times when the game almost makes fun of itself for the characters being so over the top. The main character, Yuri, is very likeable and takes a very blunt, sarcastic view on things. He also can be very passionate at times. I guess this is the best part of the game, because not much else is that great. I will keep playing for now, to see if it does get better. 
