This time I am covering tales of Vesparia.

I'm not going to try to understand the storyline, seems like the misadventures of an Inuyahsa style group of adventurers, a little one, a version of Kagome that's less obnoxious, another female, and of course a male lead named Yuri.......

When I saw his name (as is the tradition with JRPG's I generally mistake the male lead for a chick until I realize otherwise) I of course, did not snicker, nor laugh, nor smirk, nor verbally express hope that they catch the other definition of "yuri", because of course that would give off the impression that I was one of "those" anime fans...... you know who I mean. Anyone of us who have seen "Kannazuki no Miko" knows the lighter side of what I mean, it's not a pornographic term, but of course most people won't get that.

Having played "Tales of Symphonia" and thouroghly enjoying it (it was a rental, so I didnt beat it, sadly) I had a pretty good feel for the combat, which hasn't changed much, I still would have liked the demo to have included a tutorial, after all the previous game hasn't been on my mind for years, but its essentially the same, your avatar (Yuri, of course) wanders through a forest until an enemy avatar makes contact with you, and both sides' parties fight, after that we return to the forest and continue on. The gameplay is still pretty solid, but I just wish the demo hadn't ended with the player losing control and all the protagonists (who range from fairly likable, to total bitch, to, well, a guy named Yuri) being beaten by a giant wolf thing, now the game doesn't tell you you've lost control, it took me a full minute to figure it out since the attacks it pulled where what I had wanted anyway, but I digress.

I also realize that Yuri is a Russian name, and if the game were European, or North American I would be able to forgive such an oversight, but the makers are Japanese, and surely SOMEONE on the design team realized the error, however, that won't make the game lose too many points, since only one (maybe two) of my friends would get that reference.

I would give it an 8/10, and thats just the demo, I would actually like to see how the full game plays out. Based on the demo it's essentially the same type of thing as Symphonia, but I think it could turn out well, and this coming from someone who doesn't generally like JRPG's.

Sanity is for the weak!