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Rating: 
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This guide is an enormous disappointment. It offers a good linear walkthrough, but you don't need a guide for that. Some of the boss strategies are useful, there is help for getting some of the Acheivements, and a few of the side missions are covered; but an enormous amount of optional material is mentioned in passing or not covered at all. It's that "optional" material that most people look for in guides, not pages and pages of weapon stats that are readily available when the weapons are.
The physical (paper and cover) quality is good, and everything seems accurate if it is included; perhaps I have high expectations, but simply "not being crappy" only merits two stars to me. The obvious work that went into it makes me feel like it was rushed, more than being a failing of the author. Good intentions don't make up for a product that isn't providing any value, though.
Rating: 
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I normally purchase strategy guides for many of my role-playing games in order to master the game with little to no spoiling of the story. I have come to rely on companies such as Prima and Bradygames to deliver complete, spoiler-free strategy guides which are both attractive on my bookshelf and fully functional.
Unfortunately, I recently found myself very disappointed with the strategy guide for Tales of Vesperia. While very well-done in terms of strategy (tips, clarity of instructions, item lists, screenshots, etc.), the guide is chock full o' spoilers. I cannot tell you how many times I have tried to read ahead (in order to queue within my mind the next steps to take) and come across spoilers that ruin specific parts of the game for me.
An example (no worries, no spoilers): There is a part of the game where you are led to walk into a particular area of a town, get attacked, and then be saved by an ally. The guide not only tells you how to fend off your attackers, but mentions who saves you and what you discuss with them after being saved -- all in the same paragraph.
Instances such as these are present all throughout the guide, and I must say that I stopped using it halfway through the game. I am enjoying the game now, but am certainly missing out on key factors for full or near-full completion. I refuse to return to this guide, however, because I would much rather enjoy the story without reading a summary first.
All in all, it's a good guide, but this seemingly minor flaw may be enough for you to put the guide down and move on as well. I gave it three stars because I know the author did a great deal of work on it. It really deserves two for its spoilerage! Oh well -- hope this review helped you, and happy gaming. Tales of Vesperia is friggin awesome!
Rating: -
The Expectations of a Bradygames signature series guide are usually higher than that of other guides. Lately, it seems like the only real difference between signature series and not is the quality of the paper. The Tales of Vesperia Guide, while good, doesn't really feel like a "Signature Series" guide at all. Some of the things that detract from it are things that a Signature Series guide ought to have. And not just a signature series guide, but any strategy guide in general.
The guide begins with a prologue that introduces you to the story of the game. It's short and sweet. Although it's not really all that good for anything. After that we get into the characters. The guide shows you their titles as well as their stat growth. The title list would be helpful if it also noted anything special that they do. It's unfortunate, but probably not something most gamers will find to be a big deal in the long run. It is still, however, something very essential to the game itself.
We then get into the basics, which manage to be good for anyone new to the Tales games. Veterans of the Tales series (particularly Tales of the Abyss) will find that they don't need to take a peak at this section at all. Still, there's a vast amount that can be gathered for anyone who isn't familiar with the mechanics of a Tales game.
All this preliminary stuff is covered rather quickly. The walkthrough is where the guide has me divided. Its divided into chapters. Each chapter begins by talking about the story and showing a step by step breakdown of what you'll have to do for that entire chapter. Needless to say, there are spoilers in this guide. Each area you'll visit has its own little walkthrough that covers a lot of the game in great depth and detail. The boss strategies in particular, are excellent. The screenshots are crystal clear.
There are some things, however, the walkthrough doesn't do well. While screenshots are clear, some of them are rather small and hard to make out. Some screens were also taken before the final release of the game and could be missing details (something the author warns you of). I'd have gladly waited a little longer for them to get everything accurate first. On the whole, though, this problem rarely surfaces. There are also some sidquests that are covered in the walkthrough but it might say something like, "Come back when you're at a higher level." Unfortunately, you'll go through a lot of page flipping once you reach their prerequisite just to find the boss again. This wouldn't be such a burden if they at least directed you to the page number. What makes this problem worse, however, is that there are some side quests that are actually covered in their own section. It might've been best to just throw all of the sidequests in there.
The biggest problem with the walkthrough, however, is that there are absolutely no maps of the dungeons or areas in the game. By now including maps should be standard, especially in an RPG guide. The text in the walkthrough is really detailed, but maps to show where to find the treasures or where to go would've been much better.
Don't think for a second this walkthrough won't help because of those problems. There may be no maps, but the walkthrough is so detailed you probably won't need them (this doesn't excuse neglecting them). If you're having trouble with this game it's a great guide to get. It's just hard to let some of those problems go. The screenshot issue isn't so bad, but the side quests and maps can be a huge problem for some gamers who are interested in fully completing the game and finding everything.
Everything after the walkthrough is good, though. Every characters artes are covered and the weapon and items list is fantastic. All the weapons even show the abilities. It's a helpful resource in that area. We then get to the "Extras" chapter. It's good but it only covers what isn't in the walkthrough already. I already talked about how mashing the sidequests into the walkthrough may not have been the best idea, but here, there are some optional things to do that don't get nearly as much attention as others. It also would've been nice had they had a list to point you back to the optional areas in the walkthrough so that the player at least knew where to flip to. The worst part is that the game mentions about a Bonus Dungeon on the second play through but doesn't even bother to detail it at all.
The Tales of Vesperia guide can be summed up easily. It's not a horrible guide or even bad, but it is most certainly mediocre. For an RPG guide not to cover all the sidequests fully and lack maps is unacceptable. You'll get through the main game fine with this guide, but don't expect to master it.
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