all games are not created equal

Eternal Sonata is an oft over looked JRPG that has a lot of really good qualities.  Lost Odyssey is also a JRPG which is simply run-of-the-mill.

ES has a wonderful story, top notch gameplay and combat system, and has a little something for everyone, without making any particular piece boring.  The only down side to ES is it's incredibly childish fell.  The combat system alone makes up for this however.  Combat is active and very much skill based.  You can win or lose a fight based off of how well you know your characters and their strengths and weaknesses. 

LO is quite predictably setup.  The combat system is familiar and it leaves little action within combat to chage the course of the fight.  The story is strong and meaningful but if you are not big into stories than LO is really overkill.  At some points you will have small chapters to read, and it reads like a book.

Overall, ES wins of LO because it creates a desire to continue playing.  I will admit that i got about 70% of the was through LO before I simply quit.  But after beating ES last year, I have returned again to see if I could beat it again. 

Both story lines were long yet very good.  LO is a traditional JRPG with turn based battle where ToV has a real-time battle system.  I am an old school FF fan so I did enjoy LO a lot.  The characters were lacking personality though.  ToV's characters were exciting and fun. Also the cell-shaded citys were unbeleavable.

Overall I feel that Tale's has the advantage of the two.