Speaking of animated Tales stuff I finally got around to seeing Tales of Vesperia: The First Strike the other day and it was a bit better than I was expecting it to be but I didn't really have any high hopes for it anyway, it serves as a nice bit of extra backstory at least.
As for Vesperia itself I helped a friend through the Blade Drifts of Zopheir which turned into a hilarious disaster, the man hadn't even changed Yuri's artes from the default four you earn first nor had he mapped any others to the right stick, he had no idea there was a skills screen, didn't appear to use overlimits and he also never ever blocks, so this led to some GREAT fun with the area boss. Here we had three player co-op, one of which was playing this game for the first time, a man who has barely grasped how to play the game after 30-40 hours and I barely have a handle on the other characters myself meaning I was in control of a very shaky Judith.
I don't think i've ever been involved in such a titanic struggle, this was the opposite of a well oiled unit, it was a shameful display that came down to the wire, never again!
Going from Graces back to Vesperia made it feel even stiffer than usual so to speak, I think Graces is a game that would play a hell of a lot better with multiple players due to how it handles TP, less constant trips to the menu for one thing.
(even though I do like the character). IIRC, most of his abilities to regain CC were from defeating enemies, so he wasn't super helpful on bosses. If I used him, I basically gave a non Swordian member his doll so he doesn't have access to his level 3 BC.