Finished the game around 60 hours and then spent another 10 doing some post game quests + bonus dungeon. Overall I thought it was a pretty good rpg, and a great Tales game.
Pros:
+Characters are likable, no real annoying characters outside of
+Battle system is the best 3d Tales battle system yet. More enemies + wide range of skills + pretty good artes = lot of fun.
+Final dungeon was great
+Loooooooots of optional subquests. More than Abyss and that had a ton.
+++Tons of costumes and accesories for stylizing your characters.
+Story is great for the first act, then generic rpg for the rest. But at least since it's not terrible and annoying and the cutscenes are short I'll call that a plus.
+Secret missions were a neat idea
+Flynn
+Graphics are excellent throughout, no framerate problems or loading or tech problems like certain other rpgs.
Cons:
-Downing enemies seems to happen way more frequently here than any other Tales game. It's annoying having to set your AI characters to not use a chunk of their artes that down the enemy if you don't want to have an AI knock the enemy down and break your combo mid-combo. It also just adds extra seconds to the battles having to wait for the enemy to get up if you want to do a full ground combo.
-Game is really combo friendly, but the bosses just walk out of your combos or break out of them with overlimits all the time. Kinda makes the combo-ability of battle system pointless in the long run.
-Cast could have been a little more lively, Yuri is great but I don't really think any of the rest will be memorable characters years from now like other Tales characters.
-Music was really weak
-Dungeons were generally pretty dull. Not much too them other than running from one point to the other. Very few puzzles
-A lot of empty on the world map. Really could have used a few more towns or dungeons, especially optional stuff after you get the airship.
-TERRIBLE.BONUS.DUNGEON; I went my 6 hours back. What a waste of time that was.
-Also the game was kinda easy for a Tales game. Didn't really have that intense life or death feel in boss battles outside the optional super boss
Obervations:
-Judy seemed like a better character gameplay-wise. You grab the enemy and fly out of the battle arena so no one can interrupt your combos. You also miss being hit by most attacks because you're in the air. Unfortunately the enemies/bosses who can't really be lifted turn her completely useless since her ground game sucks.
-Mastering every recipe with someone is a pain in the ass. OTOH, cooking was pretty useful in this game.
Overall I'd say it's about an A-/B+ rpg. It's fun and doesn't have too many flaws but it doesn't quite stand out as something amazing either IMO. Very few Tales games do. Placing Vesperia vs. the other Tales games I've played I'll go:
Abyss > Vesperia > Eternia (mainly for the cast) > Symphonia > Rebirth (for the GREAT battles, even if the story sucks) > Destiny 2 > Phantasia > Innocence > Legendia > Tempest. Still need to play ToDr & finish KoR though.