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[YAWN]

Tales is ace.

I'll never understand the stigma against it. Yeah, the stories are pretty meh, but what JRPG story isn't these days. At least they're inoffensive. And while the characters are based on tropes, they have a lot of development compared to many JRPG parties, and actually feel like friends thanks to the skit system. The battle systems are always engaging and make grinding actually not boring.

Yeah, it's anime, but at least the fanservice is generally kept to a minimum and the characters are well designed. The open world did suck ass though, it's something Tales is not.

 

[GKSilKamina]

ETERNIA - My Tales adventure started in an EB Games when I came across a used copy of Tales of Eternia (or "Destiny II") for the PS1. I was intrigued by the generic anime cover and purchased it. What followed was a mind-blowing experience. I hadn't played many RPGs at this point (I think I had only played Lunar 2, Golden Sun, Evolution, Final Fantasy IX and Pokemon then) so everything about it was crazy: gorgeous 2D visuals, lots of (questionable) voice acting, action-based battle system, TWO WHOLE WORLDS TO EXPLORE, great soundtrack, lots of mini-games and sidequests, etc etc. Eternia remains my favorite Tales game to this day.

SYMPHONIA - Next came Symphonia, which I also went crazy for. I have a big soft spot for it, but I don't think I'd love it as much if I replayed it now.

PHANTASIA (SNES) - I played the fan translation version of Phantasia next. I never did get around to finishing it since it felt slow and clunky. I do like it, though.

PHANTASIA (GBA) - This version of Phantasia, however, is a fucking trainwreck.

DESTINY - Questionable translation and clunky gameplay aside, I had a lot of fun with Destiny.

DESTINY R DIRECTOR'S CUT - But I had a LOT more fun with this version of Destiny. Easily one of the best - if not THE best - game in the franchise.

ABYSS - Despise everything about it except for Jade and Guy.

LEGENDIA - Lots of interesting ideas, but ultimately a boring and disappointing game. The main cast is charming, at least. Also that soundtrack is AMAZING.

VESPERIA - The last "great" Tales game. Looks amazing to this day. Yuri is a great leading man. More of him and less good-natured country bumpkins!

SYMPHONIA: DAWN OF THE NEW WORLD - ...it's okay? Why are all the returning cast members from the first Symphonia still wearing the same clothes? I remember they came up with some joke about it for Regal, but the other characters have no excuse.

GRACES F - Amazing battle system. Hubert is best boy. The rest of the game is complete fucking garbage.

XILLIA & XILLIA 2 - Decent games with decent casts. Really not a fan of the graphical style. The boring dungeons and world design hurt these games a lot.

ZESTIRIA - HATED IT.

HEARTS R - Charming. Kind of feels like an old-school Tales game. Enjoyable but forgettable.

BERSERIA - A return to form for the series, and I'm glad for it. It's still heavily flawed, but the positives outweigh the negatives. I hope future Tales games keep up the momentum.

 

[dannyglover]

Here's what I remember and liked about the games:

SYMPHONIA - Really, the first multiplayer RPG I played. I found it interesting that your actions choose whether Kratos or Zelos are on your team. I also liked how Lloyd had scenes with the most used partners, with mine being Genis, Raine, and Colette. I can't remember the combat too much, but I'm guessing it was running up to guys, pressing A for normal attacks and B for using TP required artes.

VESPERIA - I loved the customization you could perform on the characters and I think these dungeons were very memorable. The villains and side characters were very memorable too. Raven being a giant perv is what I remember most about the main characters. The combat I remember linking a lot of artes in a row, with Judith's aerial combos being very fun. My sister loved playing Rita when she could spam a button to decrease the spell cast time.

GRACES F - My favorite combat system. Pascal being a giant klutz was fun character. I got real good playing as Hubert (rolling and shooting guns) and Cheria (lots of heals while also having some combat spells). I also liked the Supers you could perform in Graces F mode. I spent the most time in this Tales game playing post-story dungeons as I just loved the combat.

XILLIA & XILLIA 2 - I enjoyed the story of Xillia while I loved playing as Gaius and Muzet in Xillia 2. Something just felt very powerful when you actually get to play as the final bosses from the previous game. The link system was fun but also meant you had to switch off some characters when in multiplayer (for the Jude - Milla combo). I think Xillia 1 had a good main story while Xillia 2 had great side stories for all the characters.

ZESTIRIA - Stopped about 2 hours in because the camera system was broken in mulitplayer.

BERSERIA - I was very confused on if we were the bad guys since we burned down a town and pretty much beat up the guards protecting the city from monsters. But the game did a decent job addressing that point. Magilou was fun in the skits and I liked the Rokurou and Eizen bromance/rivalry. The combat was doable for me, but I never felt like I mastered it. I seemed to just spam the same few combos over and over, unless I took the time to go to the menu and switch it up. The side characters were great in this game as well and I liked having skits with them, with Lyle being the standout.

 

[ED Cantu]

I love this series, playing Tales of Symphonia for GameCube with my little brother is a very fond memory, we finished it like 4 or 5 times haha (there were optional scenes we wanted to see).

I think my favorite would be Vesperia, followed by Abyss and Symphonia maybe tied in second place, actually any game of the Yoshito Higuchi trilogy could be my favorite, I cosidere those the high point of the series but Vesperia is the best overall.

As for more recent Tales games, I just don't like the direction the series followed after Graces, same looking style, bland overworld and boring and repetitive dungeons without real puzzles, Berseria was a step in the right direction and I hope they keep improving from it.

And here's my list:
1)Vesperia
2)Abyss
3)Symphonia
4)Berseria
5)Xillia
6)Graces
7)Hearts (DS)
8)Xillia 2
9)Zestiria
10)Legendia

 

[Sparrowhawk]

I remember getting Tales of Symphonia on a whim because I was starting to get into anime and JRPGs and goddamn, that game ate up hundreds and hundreds of hours of my free time. That game did so many unique things that I'd never encountered in a game before and it'll always hold a special place in my heart.

 

[BY2K]

Symphonia was my first and my most replayed JRPG by far.

Vesperia is the best. It's like Symphonia cranked up to 11.

Recently went through Berseria. Good story, amazing cast (Magilou the best), great combat, ok music, SHIT dungeons.

 

[Sparrowhawk]

Symphonia was my first and my most replayed JRPG by far.

Vesperia is the best. It's like Symphonia cranked up to 11.

Recently went through Berseria. Good story, amazing cast (Magilou the best), great combat, ok music, SHIT dungeons.

Damn, I own Vesperia, but I haven't gotten around to playing it. Maybe I should put it higher up on my list.
Thinking about buying Berseria when it's on sale again. What didn't you like about the dungeons compared to Symphonias?

 

[BY2K]

Damn, I own Vesperia, but I haven't gotten around to playing it. Maybe I should put it higher up on my list.
Thinking about buying Berseria when it's on sale again. What didn't you like about the dungeons compared to Symphonias?

Most of the dungeons are just rooms and hallways.

Only a few rare ones have actual puzzles and even then the puzzles are boring as hell.

 

[DataBased]

I remember playing though Versperia and Symphonia at a friends house full coop.Those games were tight as fuck. Finished Berseria recently and it was a good return to form. Wasn't huge on Zesteria :/

 

[SephLuis]

I started the series with Tales of Destiny II, which actually was Tales of Eternia and I loved that game back in the PSX era. I still need to replay it after so many years.

After that I played Symphonia and went into a big hiatus. I didn't own a PS2 so I would just play Abyss much later. A few years later I played Symphonia 2 on the Wii and a little bit later managed to play Abyss. I played those games around Vesperi's launch and the announcement of the PS3 version.

By that time, aside from Vesperia, which was published by Microsoft, Namco had forgotten about Tales of fans in the West. Thanks to that (and Sega being very slow localizing Yakuza games) I decided to learn Japanese. After that I played Vesperia PS3 and the games started being localized again with some delay. I played Graces F in English and then played both Xillia and Zestiia before they were localized (re-played them once they were). Berseria was the first one I waited for the English release in a long time.

I just hope the next one shakes up the formula, it's been a while.

 

[nintendork666]

So Symphonia is better than Zesteria?

Those are the two I have on Steam, and likely only have the energy to commit to one.

 

[Obliterator]

My 2 favorite games in the franchise are Xillia 1 and Bersaria. Loved both of them dearly. I do however feel its really time for the franchise to take a substantial leap forward. It kind of feels like its just a series treading water at this point. But I'm still gonna be there for the next entry for sure.

We should be getting a new one in 2018 right?

 

[koutoru]

For me, personally:

Favorite Overall - Tales of Symphonia

Favorite Party - Tales of Vesperia

Favorite Character Arc- Tales of Abyss

Favorite Battle System - Tales of Zestiria

 

[SephLuis]

So Symphonia is better than Zesteria?

Those are the two I have on Steam, and likely only have the energy to commit to one.

Depends on what really. As a package, yes, Symphonia is better than Zestiria.

Symphonia has better characters and story, however, the pacing is slower than Zestiria (around 80 hours the main game, while modern Tales of games finish by the 40 hour mark) and the battle system also feels dated if compared to Zestiria.

Zestiria, however, has a simpler story, the dungeons are worse, the characters aren't as interesting as Symphonia's cast and managing some systems in this game is a royal pain. The battle system, however, is faster and more interesting than the ones in older Tales of games.

Start with Symphonia and then play Zestiria. I think it's the best thing you can do.

 

[Fisico]

Symphonia has better characters and story, however, the pacing is slower than Zestiria (around 80 hours the main game, while modern Tales of games finish by the 40 hour mark

If "modern" Tales are 40h for the main game then by no standard is Symphonia 80h, maybe up to 50-60h at best but even that is stretching it.

Everything else you said seems on point.

 

[Rapscallion]

Just started Besteria and I'm not quite feeling it yet. Feels not dissimilar from Zesteria.

Love the franchise. Favorites are symphonia, vesperia and xillia

 

[SephLuis]

If "modern" Tales are 40h for the main game then by no standard is Symphonia 80h, maybe up to 50-60h at best but even that is stretching it.

Everything else you said seems on point.

I used to have a lot of 80+ hrs saves on those, but doing a lot of optional things too. I haven't replayed those in a long time, so the 80 hours measure stuck with me.

 

[MrSaturn99]

So Symphonia is better than Zesteria?

Those are the two I have on Steam, and likely only have the energy to commit to one.

Zesteria is a modern train-wreck. Limp combat, baffling plot (they replace a party member a 1/3 of the way through for absolutely zero reason), padding upon padding, and awful, awful overworld/dungeon design. The Xillia games already showcased Namco's ill-suited budget for attempting to make the games more "AAA" than they really were and Zestiria cranked that blunder up to 11.

Symphonia was dated even for its time and I'd argue it's something of a "you had to be there" thing (hence why I wanted a remake), so it wouldn't be fair to harp on Zestiria's (terrible) aesthetics when Symphonia's not so hot in that area either, but it is so goddamn charming and impressively dense in the options and content it features. Give it a whirl.

 

[Fisico]

I used to have a lot of 80+ hrs saves on those, but doing a lot of optional things too. I haven't replayed those in a long time, so the 80 hours measure stuck with me.

Well looking at howlongtobeat for main story (not 100% accurate but it gives a rough idea)

Tales of Vesperia 50.5
Tales of the Abyss 50
Tales of Symphonia 48.5
Tales of Graces F 46.5
Tales of Berseria 45
Tales of Zestiria 41
Tales of Xillia 36
Tales of Hearts R 34
Tales of Symphonia DotNW 33
Tales of Xillia 2 33
Tales of Legendia 32.5
Tales of Phantasia 31.5
Tales of Destiny 31.5

Numbers don't give the whole truth either, Symphonia has way more worthwhile content than Zestiria and even for the main story the time spent there is much more meaningful on Symphonia.
But it's not twice the hours for Symphonia vs Zestiria.

My first playthrough on Symphonia in 2004 took me 43h and I didn't rush especially, my saves are up to 150h but that was just me screwing around in a new game+

 

[rickyson1]

i've only ever played Vesperia,(around half of) Zestiria,and Berseria

I recall enjoying Vesperia and got Zestiria on the strength of that but didn't like it very much and just kinda stopped halfway in

I was ready to call Vesperia a fluke and give up on the series entirely but everyone was saying that Berseria was much better so I tried it out and ended up liking that one too

we'll see how the next one turns out I suppose

 

[RalchAC]

Just started Besteria and I'm not quite feeling it yet. Feels not dissimilar from Zesteria.

Love the franchise. Favorites are symphonia, vesperia and xillia

Give it time. The game takes a bit of time to find the right balance in tone (beginning is too sweet, first few hours Velvet is too edgy). Once the party gets bigger it's quite better.

Personally, I found the first 10-15 hours of the game quite great, everything moves at quite a brisk pace.

 

[Fou-Lu]

I have been with Tales since Destiny (though Symphonia was when I really got into it) and consider it one of my favourite series. I know I am going to have fun and fall in love with the characters when I sit down with a Tales game. Plus the ability to play a JRPG with my friends is amazing every time. I plan to keep playing Tales as long as they keep me entertained, which only Xillia and Xillia 2 have had some difficulty doing.

My main issue with the series is that the gameplay loop in the newest entries is very threadbare. Where before you would have good puzzles, exploration AND combat with great character moments in between, you only get the combat and character moments now. Also introducing loot to Tales is the worst idea the series has seen.

There are still quite a few games in the series I haven't played or completed, which I hope to rectify.

 

[Sandfox]

I would probably put Graces in the Golden Era because the changes in the series started with Xillia.

My favorite games in the series are Vesperia and Abyss and I'm not too big on the modern games. I have ToB sitting on my desk, but ToZ really hurt my interest in the modern games. I'll get to it before the next game come out lol.

So Symphonia is better than Zesteria?

Those are the two I have on Steam, and likely only have the energy to commit to one.

ToZ is one of the worst games in the series while ToS has imo aged poorly. I would probably go with ToS though.

 

[Mr.Deadshot]

Xillia 1+2 are my favorites. Cast, story, gameplay, world, pacing. Everything is great in those games.

Berseria, Abyss (didn't finish it yet) and Symphonia are great.

Zestiria and Vesperia are not as good as the above, but still good games.

I disliked the cast and story in Graces F, but the gameplay was good.

Tales of the Worlds or what it was called on the PSP wasn't good. Didn't play this for long.

Didn't play the rest yet.

 

[Geido]

Symphonia always has a spot in my top 10 of all time. It really clicked with me at the time. The ~12 hours twist blew my mind.

It replayed it 3 times on the Gamecube and 6 times (for the platinum) on the PS3. Enjoying every single moment of it.

 

[kromeo]

If I had to rank the ones I've played to completion

1. Abyss - The only Tales game I'd really say I found the main story interesting. The way the cast turn on Luke after the big event is ridiculous but I still like all the characters except for Natalia. Ending gave me feels

2. Symphonia - I was young when I played this so there's a lot of nostalgia at play but I have great memories of this game. My major complaint was that most of the characters are garbage to fight as

3. Vesperia - I hate the two main characters in this game but everything else about it is enjoyable. Not the only Tales game guilty of this but it feels 15 hours too long

4. Xillia - The field areas and "dungeons" are garbage but I like the characters and the combat is the best in series

5. Xillia 2 - Shares Xillia's great combat, just with more characters. Extremely lazy sequel though, 99% of the game is just reused from the original. Story is decent and great endings

6. Zestiria - The skills system is overly complicated and time consuming if you want to get anything out of it and the story is extremely generic even by Tales standards. Has some good music and the skits are enjoyable

7. Graces F - I'm right at the end of a replay of this and combat that every seems to rate so highly I actually found pretty awful, the enemy AI is extremely cheap, there's far too many enemies with ranges attacks that ruin the fun of playing as either of the casters and for 90% of the game you don;t have enough CP to string together much of a combo. Only really gets good once you get high level weapons. The story and characters are unbearably bad

8. Eternia - Rubbish story and horrible maze dungeons

9 . Symphonia 2 - Don't think this one needs explanation



I played Destiny a long time ago but I don;t remember it clearly enough

 

[Philippo]

Only played Abyss like, 5 or 6 years ago, had mixed feelings about it.

Other than that i only tried Radiant Mythology on PSP (pretty garbage tier imho).

I still don't get the combat.

But Berseria is one of the next games i'll play, pretty hyped for it.
I'd also love a Vesperia Switch port, cause that one always looked way more appealing to me than the others.

 

[kromeo]

I'd also love a Vesperia Switch port, cause that one always looked way more appealing to me than the others.

Might have expired now but I suspect Microsoft had exclusivity rights over the game outside Japan

 

[RalchAC]

Might have expired now but I suspect Microsoft had exclusivity rights over the game outside Japan

I don't think it really had anything to do with that. But early in the 7th gen, there were quite a few Bamco JRPGs that were released on X360 and then got an expanded PS3 release. Those may have not been profitable (considering they had to localize more lines), or at least not as much as they hoped, so they just decided to not localize Vesperia.

In late 2000s Bamco didn't treat its niche games as well as it does nowadays, IIRC. Their localization became rather dire for 2-3 years.

 

[Turin]

*sigh*

Vesperia is definitely on my video game bucket list but I'm not going through the trouble of getting an old console just to play it. I'm not that committed.

 

[ShiroAmakusa]

Damn, my first thought was "It's of course the one with Claude and Rena!" until I realized a moment later that I'm thinking about Star Ocean: The Second Story, hahaha!

Tales of Vesperia is my favourite "Tales"-Game, though I didn't play them all.

 

[Hippopuncher12]

I have played I believe every tales game released in the US except for Legendia or whatever it was called.

Destiny was my first game. Vesperia is still my favorite, it's the full package in my opinion. Plus it still had a traditional world map which is something I miss from the newer ones. Most of the modern ones I have enjoyed sans Zesty, that thing can burn in a fire.

 

[Peltz]

Never could get into this series. One thing I will say though, Tales of Phantasia is a masterful production on the Super Famicom. The graphics are other-worldly for that hardware.

 

[LambdaTeos]

Saw this thread and I HAD to post here

Been a fan of Tales of Series since I was 14, almost 13 years ago, started with Symphonia, I just fell in love, played it around 25 times and knew the game for start to finish, doing combos and grinding a lot, getting all secrets... mind you I was a teen and my mind blew up when ii found out all the additional content added to the Ps2 version...

Tot his day I have been collecting tales of Merchandise, have almost all games that have been released, have figurines, limited editions, keychains, posters, bags, etc... pretty tough to get all this since I live in mexico, a place where Tales of is basically unknown

I Can't decide which is my favorite tales of series since almost all of them have something that I love

Vesperia: Love the battle system, characters (except karol) and music
Legendia: music is the best
Abyss: character development, battle system, music and the whole customization of characters
Eternia: Battle system, story, music
Destiny, Desitny 2 and Director's cut: combining all 3, story, characters, music, battle system
Zestiria (oh yeah, i'm going there): characters and music, battle system is good, but lackluster, and camera does not help, story... if the story was the one included in the anime adaptation, it would have been better
Berseria: Music, battle system, characters, story

I could go on and on, but you get the point on what I love of each games
To this day, I still collect tales of series things, buying limited editions and figurines, buying merchandise in general, I lack a small amount of games for my collection and I think I haven't played only a few titles, but i'm on it

to this day, there are 2 things I NEED and I'm in the progress of getting one, maybe by the end of the year
1.- Game cube tales of symphonia edition
2.- Going to a Tales of Series concert

Oh and...sorry,... but Vesperia is NOT the best tales, I know, shocking, but it is just not, not at least for me... nor Symphonia... dun dun!!!

 

[SatelliteOfLove]

If I had to rank the ones I've played to completion

1. Abyss - The only Tales game I'd really say I found the main story interesting. The way the cast turn on Luke after the big event is ridiculous but I still like all the characters except for Natalia. Ending gave me feels

2. Symphonia - I was young when I played this so there's a lot of nostalgia at play but I have great memories of this game. My major complaint was that most of the characters are garbage to fight as

3. Vesperia - I hate the two main characters in this game but everything else about it is enjoyable. Not the only Tales game guilty of this but it feels 15 hours too long

4. Xillia - The field areas and "dungeons" are garbage but I like the characters and the combat is the best in series

5. Xillia 2 - Shares Xillia's great combat, just with more characters. Extremely lazy sequel though, 99% of the game is just reused from the original. Story is decent and great endings

6. Zestiria - The skills system is overly complicated and time consuming if you want to get anything out of it and the story is extremely generic even by Tales standards. Has some good music and the skits are enjoyable

7. Graces F - I'm right at the end of a replay of this and combat that every seems to rate so highly I actually found pretty awful, the enemy AI is extremely cheap, there's far too many enemies with ranges attacks that ruin the fun of playing as either of the casters and for 90% of the game you don;t have enough CP to string together much of a combo. Only really gets good once you get high level weapons. The story and characters are unbearably bad

8. Eternia - Rubbish story and horrible maze dungeons

9 . Symphonia 2 - Don't think this one needs explanation



I played Destiny a long time ago but I don;t remember it clearly enough

Oh lordy, don't take this badly but you were playing this wrong. Everything revolves around CC recovey and wave dashing.

The casters are probably the most "realized" in an ARPG outside Dragons Dogma. Look up Pascal, Cheria, and Malik solo battles: combo parry combo parry combo!

As for me, i recently shelved Zestiria. Didnt feel any real push to keep going but the parts i was warned about werent as bad as i was warned about. I guess ill just skip to Bursitis.

 

[OrionX]

The Tales series will never be my most favorite series, but it'll always be one of my favorites. They don't do much to shake up the formula between each installment, but I like that I know exactly what I'm getting when I play a Tales game. I usually always end up loving the characters, and I love a story with dramatic twists, which Tales often likes to supply. lol

For me, personally:

Favorite Overall - Tales of Symphonia

Favorite Party - Tales of Vesperia

Favorite Character Arc- Tales of Abyss

Favorite Battle System - Tales of Zestiria

Hmm... yeah I think I agree with this! Those are definitely my top 4 in the series at least. Symphonia was my first so some of it's probably nostalgia, and Vesperia was a peak for the series in a lot of ways for me. Edit: Actually wait, replace Zestiria with Berseria then we're talking.

I've played almost all of them besides the Destiny games. I keep thinking maybe they'll do a remaster or remake at some point.

 

[bunkitz]

I've only played two, sadly, Tales of the Abyss and Tales of Xillia, but I love both dearly. Tales of the Abyss is still one of my all-time favorite games, and it always gives me such strong feelings when I look back on it. Its opening theme, Karma, moves me like no other J-pop song does and it's my favorite opening theme of anything ever.

I ship Luke and Tear hard, and it's still one of my favorite ships, so of my many fond memories from Abyss, they would have to be moments between the two characters. My favorites would be:

Spoiler

Luke cutting his hair and displaying his newfound resolve and maturity to Tear

, and

Spoiler

their last moment together when Tear whispers "I love you." as they say goodbye to each other

.

It's fun to think back to when I was younger and playing Tales of the Abyss for the first time, discovering how fun the combat was, and figuring out my plans for New Game Plus, which I immediately started right after beating the game.

But man, Karma is the shit.

 

[Swiggins]

Symphonia will always be my favorite in the series, and probably my overall favorite JRPG of all time

 

[kromeo]

Oh lordy, don't take this badly but you were playing this wrong. Everything revolves around CC recovey and wave dashing.
.

I'm fully aware how the combat works thanks

 

[Aeana]

I'm fully aware how the combat works thanks

Then why don't you have enough CC for 90% of the game to string together a combo?

 

[asagami_]

I like Phantasia and Abyss, and I want to try Symphonia. The PS3 port is good?

 

[kromeo]

Then why don't you have enough CC for 90% of the game to string together a combo?

Because enemies outside of bosses have tiny hp and fights are over in seconds even on hard

I've never been a fan of the a artes, b artes system in Graces and Zestiria

 

[RalchAC]

Then why don't you have enough CC for 90% of the game to string together a combo?

I remember Graces having a equipment enhancement system that was actually good and allowed for some customization. You could increase the min and max CC you could get in battle that way right? Or am I wrong?

I'm sure there was a way to increase CC.

 

[BorkBork]

This piece of music is my favourite memory.

 

[thefil]

I have a somewhat unconventional history with the series, with Legendia being my favourite entry so far.

I started with Tales of Phantasia, but with the weird DeJap translation (I was around 10 and had no idea I was even doing anything wrong by downloading the ROM). I never finished it but I would play the beginning over and over for the combat and the music until it got to hard for me. Phantasia, with the strange translation giving it a weird mystique, kind of put the worm of the series in my ear so that I would always pay some attention to it. That said, I think a lot of what I liked from this early entry ended up going into the Star Ocean side of the lineage instead.

The next game I played was Legendia, due to it returning to a 2D plane of combat and the amazing soundtrack as highlighted in trailers (can anyone find that "Project Melfes" trailer from before the game was clearly in the Tales series?). The game has a bad reputation but I have only good memories of it. I loved playing a brawler and the throwing mechanics, and I liked re-exploring the world in the second half for expanded character stories. It's very possible the music carried me through this game and made it so good in my memory; I've since noticed how much credit I give to music when I look at my favourite games.

Very shortly after Legendia I borrowed Symphonia from a friend, and I had a hard time with it. It wore its tropes too much on its sleeves for me, and the plot seemed to be a clumsier version of that of Final Fantasy X. I remember joking to a friend that it would have a stupid twist like

Spoiler

Kratos being Lloyd's father

, only for that to turn out to be true. My character/voice/story issues overshadowed everything else and I only stuck it out due to the game's reputation.

Hoping that Abyss would rectify my issues with Symphonia, I gave it a try but quit when the plot didn't grab me immediately. The same thing happened with Vesperia. After Symphonia, I just wasn't willing to give the series a fair shake if I didn't like the cast/story in the first few hours.

Now, this past weekend, I picked up Tales of Berseria and... I'm super into it! The plot is an unconventional one I haven't played in an RPG before. I haven't really played an action RPG in this style in 5+ years, so even though the game is recognizably full of the tropes I remember from 10 years ago it feels engaging.

But I think the #1 contributor to my being able to get into Berseria is the option for Japanese voices. This isn't because I think the Japanese voices are better than the English. Rather, I'm not equipped with enough Japanese to *tell* if the voices are "tropey" or not. This really sidesteps the issues I had with characters in the PS2/GCN/360 generation as I can bring a lot more of my own interpretation to the text.

On the whole I like Tales of and as a dev I especially appreciate how they were able to keep the series going as many other franchises buckled under the pressure of modern AAA production values. Berseria isn't the most amazing looking game in the world but it feels like they knew their limitations and put the money in the right places. I'm glad to have come back to it and I hope that Berseria will be the game to get me back into anime RPGs after a long post-PS2 hiatus.

*edit* I do lament the descent into fanservice, though. The default costumes for female characters in Berseria are things I would be embarassed to be caught playing a game with.

 

[Khrysler Jerikho]

I remember Graces having a equipment enhancement system that was actually good and allowed for some customization. You could increase the min and max CC you could get in battle that way right? Or am I wrong?

I'm sure there was a way to increase CC.

It's been a while since I played Graces F but I recall some weapons giving additional CC at the start along with some titles.

 

[DeadMoonKing]

I have a fairly long history with this series running all the way back to the first US release, Destiny. I know that a lot of people find the stories and characters cliche and trope-laden, but I mainly play games for the story and characters moreso than the combat, so my thoughts below are going to reflect that.

Destiny - I remember reading about Destiny as a kid in EGM and running to preorder it. The day I picked it up, the store employee told me the they had only ordered 3 copies, 2 for preorders and 1 for the store! I remember being so excited for the old school graphics and overall anime style. Sadly, nothing about the game ever hooked me. I beat it, but I can't point to anything about that version of the game that I really enjoyed. (Played in English)

Eternia - This was more like it. I found Reid and Farah to be compelling leads and the game's graphical style was really colorful. I felt the battle system was also a bit more fun than Destiny as well. (Played in English)

Symphonia - I really loved this one. All the characters were very interesting and the story was fun. I ended up playing this one after Vesperia, so the battle system seemed primitive, but I still ended up having a lot of fun with it. (Played Japanese PS2 release.)

Rebirth - Played this one a few years ago. It's funny, I normally find Tales stories to be either either hackneyed or needlessly complex, but I ended up really enjoying the story for this one. On the other hand, I usually love the characters and their interactions. Not so with Rebirth! I didn't find any of the characters really compelling on their own, but they worked well in service to the story. Another noteworthy aspect of this title were the beautiful 2D graphics. My only complaint is that the towns had too few screens in them to enjoy the art! (Played Japanese PS2 release.)

Abyss - For a while, this was my favorite Tales game. I really loved the characters and, though I had no clue what was happening towards the end, I liked the setting very much as well. Would love for a remaster of this one ala Symphonia on PS3! (Played in English on PS2)

Destiny DC - I had heard such good things about this one that I had to track it down. I definitely enjoyed it more than I didn't the first time around. I really grew to like all the characters and Stahn and Rutee (who I admittedly enjoyed from the PS1 version) and their relationship really shined on this version. Weirdly enough, I never got into the battle system and ended up just putting the difficulty down to easy just to finish the game. It was also awesome getting to play as Lilith! I never got around to the Lion's side part though... (Played in Japanese on PS2)

Vesperia - Here is it is. This game restored my faith in JRPGs after a period of not being too enamored with them. In short, it was because of Yuri. He has a refreshingly non-normal JRPG protagonist outlook and he doesn't delve into the dark, brooding antihero either. The supporting cast was also fantastic (except for Raven, who even though got his day in the sympathetic sun, rode the "lecherous old man" trope waaaay too hard for me). Graphically, the game also feels like it finally delivered on the promise of a playable anime. (Played in Japanese on PS3).

Graces f - I played this one relatively recently and it was one of the few games I've gotten that hooked on at this point in my life. I can't even really point to what it was about the game that I loved so much. I think the banter between the characters is fantastic and Malik is a older man character done right. As embarrassing as it is, the battle system literally did not click for me until the final dungeon, but once it did, I was enjoying the hell out of it. I never started the epilog, but someday, someday.

I have Phantasia (the version that came with Narikiri Dungeon X), Legendia and Xillia sitting on my shelf, but I think I'm most excited to play Beseria in the future given what I've seen and heard about it.

 

[Celcius]

Do you guys think Xillia 1 & 2 will get remastered for current gen systems and Steam either this year or next year? I've got both on ps3 still but I'm going to hold off on a replay until I can play them on Steam in 4K 60 fps I think...