Tales of VS is hardly recent, I've played that game to death when it first came out in Japan >_>
I just remembered that this came out like three months ago and promptly ordered it and crammed my way through it. I... developped a couple new crushes as a result (YES I'M ADMITTING IT LAUGH AT ME) although now that I've been through all the story modes I'm now very aware that the game did -not- design its AI to be a challenge at all, nor did it really do much to give content or objectives outside of the main story. Yeah, there's the special battles, but that has nothing to do with your level. ...I mean, I still levelled a few people to max GP, but still.
It's the one time I've -really- liked the 2D battle system. For some reason, the ones that I've played in 2D (Phantasia, a small chunk of Destiny, Legendia, and Narikiri 3) just weren't as fun as those that at least attempted some aspect of 3D, although Legendia at least gave you a bit more variety due to throws (Where are those in the newer games anyway!?) and other reasons for me to like it (Read as: character development, and Moses and Grune), and Narikiri 3 was just awesome fun due to lolhugecast and actually letting you have more than one party so you could
use lots of those people.
For the record, I've done also gone through Symphonia (Still one of my all-time favourite games, I know a lot of people bitch about the other games being superior, but I still haven't liked a single one nearly as much as I like Symphonia even playing it now), Abyss (Pretty good, but it felt too 'subdued' in a lot of respects for me, even if Jade was a riot), and Dawn of the New World as well (Liked it on its own, didn't quite like it as a sequal however). Planning to start Innocence soon since Ruca makes me want to go around with a free hugs sign.
Though, right now, I'm trying to get through Vesperia finally; new game on Hard. It's being a bit of a pain, but I'm spending virtually no time levelling and I kind of keep running out of life bottles and stuff prior to reaching any bosses... which makes them sort of rage-inducing. Yuri's fun, Karol's adorable shota, and Repede is a goddamn pimp, but right now I haven't grown to care at all for the rest of the cast (Player -and- NPC) which is unfortunate.
