I really dislike MMOs but I thought an MMO based on one of my favorite RPGs would turn it around for me but now. Unfortunately, this feels like every other MMO with a severely uninteresting story, no interesting characters, and even with friends who have experience in the game it was boring to play. The combat was incredibly boring and devolved to me spamming the same 5 or 6 spells over and over. People say it gets better after the base game story but I won't be finding that out since I have zero interest in ever returning to it.

The only reason I gave this half a star is because I don't know how to go any lower on here. Valkyria Revolution had an extremely troubled development but also a severe lack of understanding about what makes action RPGs fun. Instead of being a cool, stylish action spin off to one of my most beloved RPGs it was a tremendously boring, uninteresting, thrown-together slog. Fun fact: months before the game came out, they restructured the entire combat system. Now you have a single attack button that does a set three-hit combo and a spell button with painfully uninteresting effects. This never changes for the entire game and there's not even a Warriors-like attack system. You get the one button for attacks and a handful of borderline garbage spells. Bosses are also damage sponges so be prepared to spend 30 minutes or more on a single boss fight, doing the exact same three-hit combo and maybe a spell or two if it's weak to the element. I got to the final boss and gave up. After multiple hour long attempts at getting the final boss to half health I gave up. There was no way I'd level grind for this awful game that made me frustrated and miserable. I moved on. Looked up the ending on YouTube, it sucked. Not worth it. Gameplay, arguably the most important aspect of every video game, is so astronomically terrible that you should not even bother trying this. Don't do it for the meme, don't do it if you're a fan of the series, and especially don't do it if you care about your mental well-being to any amount. Valkyria Chronicles 4 came out after this game and I couldn't be happier. Let this game die and never attempt it again if this is the end result.

A welcome entry after the generally not well-received Tales of Zesteria. While this game serves as a prequel, it's almost entirely disconnected in terms of the main narrative and it's better for it. The main issues I had with the game are the combat and Skits. Combat was incredibly "mash to win" and Skits constantly felt like they went on for too long. Characters would say their piece but... just keep going for another 4 or 5 lines. These are the longest Skits in the series and it's incredibly exhausting to sit through them in just one playthrough, let alone subsequent ones.

I'm in a weird place with this game because I adore Tales of Vesperia. It's my favorite Tales game, hands down. This version is what everyone was asking for: the fabled PS3 version with the extra content and voice over but... it was a monkey paw release. All the new stuff is fully voiced but the returning actors sound incredibly flat in their delivery and for any actor they replaced, they only voice the new lines. Meaning you get both old and new voice lines mixed in, sounding incredibly awkward when character voices switch mid-dialogue. Objectively speaking this is the better version since it's just Tales of Vesperia: But More Edition but I can't help feel that this release was poorly handled in terms of localization and it feels weirder as a result. Overall the better experience and far more accessible than the original but it has some quirks.