Been playing the game for 20ish hours....

And I think its AMAZING. The battle system is addicitng, and yeah definitely the best battle system BY far in the tales series and in JRPGs in general. I actually think that the music is fitting and there are some memorable tracks. Wouldn't say it has the best OST in the series but not the worst for sure. I think that the story isn't bad at all, neither are the characters. I don't understand why people whine about Asbel. Hes better then Gary Stu, Yuri. Asbel was a brat but then he became kind, humble, strong and he really cares for his friends. He just seems like a really good guy and he has the best artes out of any character in the series. I also want to say that the term cliche can be applied to ALL things in todays time. Seriously its so annoying, you want to know how to avoid the whole "cliche" plague? Play the game with an open mind. I feel like A LOT of people, myself included, forget to play a game like its our very first game. I guarentee you, play a game like that and you will see things from a whole new perspective.

tl;dr I think that this game is great, has a nice plot, awesome characters and an amazing battle system. I don't understand the hate for it. Also the replay value and side-quests seems INSANE.