Eleth Mix It Up, Namco

I finally started seriously playing Tales of Graces f this week! It actually got here on release day (I was surprised, too), but I was a little over-engrossed with Avatar at the time, so I didn't do too much in-game. Now that I'm done Avatar, though, I've been playing regularly.

I think they really did a good thing by trying to mix up the battle system a little. Each character plays distinctly differently and has different nuances to their play style, the world map is a decided improvement (though approximately on par with Vesperia's, regardless).

However, I think Tales Of needs to reconsider its story-writing strategy.
( TL;DR with no spoilers. )

Wow, I organize my thoughts really poorly.

Before I stop, I just want to add that Graces is by no means a bad game. The core of any game is, well, gameplay, and it does that really well. There's a lot to collect and find and make, and the fighting is fun. If you've never played a Tales game, you're not as likely to see everything coming from 50 miles away--maybe just 40 instead. ;)

But it's solid, and the PS3 needs more JRPGs, even if they're a little predictable.