Damn, spent another four hours playin' Star Ocean: The Last Hope.
I am happy to say that this is the first SquareEnix title that I've actually enjoyed playing thus far.
I'm going to go as far as to say that this is exactly what Final Fantasy XIII should've been. An actual story, but with freedom to actually move around and play more, discover a ton of quests and have to freedom to level up as much as possible thanks to the multiplier, while still providing a good challenge.
The only major flaw is that the dungeon design is something of an annoyance. Like I stated before, most of the areas just look too much alike, with narrow corridors that all look alike and for some reason I can't see too far when I boot up the map.
The characters are also way more interesting than all of the ones I've seen in Final Fantasy XIII. While they fall into a lot of your average japanese anime stereotypes (Hulking silent type, cutesy teenager, flirty elf chick with distractingly huge cans, underdressed catgirl) at least they don't sound like philosophy majors, like that other game.
You know, Tales of Vesperia is the best JRPG on the 360, but... I think that's about to change.