I love Tales of Symphonia. It was my favorite game of all time for a long time. Even now it's still in my top 5. I wanted to like Abyss and Bersiria, but they just never really grabbed me quite as much. As of writing this, I've yet to try Phantasia, Eternia, Graces, Xillia, or Zestiria out of fear of further disappointment. It's not that they're bad games, far from it, I just felt let down in comparison. It just felt like something was missing.
That is not the case here. I quite enjoy Vespiria, from what I've played of it so far. I took a break, but only because I was having some RPG burnout (Oblivion, Planescape Torment, Romancing SaGa 2, Trails in the Sky, and some others I don't remember). But out of all of those, I was enjoying Vespiria the most, and it's the one from that time of my life I find myself most wanting to revisit. At first, all the characters seemed to be a little generic by themselves, but their interactions with each other more than made up for what individual shortcomings they may have appeared to have at first glance. The writing walks a fine line between being too silly and taking itself too seriously. Fujishima and Sakuraba's art style and soundtrack are charming and listenable as ever. The combat system is neither too barebones nor too complex. Troy Baker, Sam Riegel, DC Douglas, and other well known actors' voice work in the english dub as the main characters is just as solid as one would expect from their pedigrees. The worst I can rate any aspect of the game is a B+ and that's if I'm being cynical.
It's a real shame that since 2008 was such a stacked year for RPGs- Chain of Memories, Crisis Core, The World Ends With You, Wrath of the Lich King, Yakuza 2, Fallout 3, Fable 2, and Persona 4, just to name the few I remember- it seems that Vespiria fell through the cracks for a lot of people.
It may not be the best but it's still a solid choice from [arguably] the golden age of gaming.
