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I consider myself to be a big fan of the Tales series of RPGs. I love the colorful graphic style, the characters, and the action based combat systems.

To be completely honest however, I have only played Tales of Symphonia and Tales of Vesperia to completion, both of which I loved.

So here's what I'm thinking. I have almost the entire series in my collection, and I'd love for the next Tales I play to be a generally well regarded one, like Abyss or Graces F for example, but I think that if I keep knocking out the good ones off my backlog I'll be left with only the various black sheep of the series.

So here are the titles I'm looking at. Any info, especially informed info from people who actually played the games, would be appreciated. Please tell me why you did or didn't like them specifically, because for my play style I usually have a high tolerance for things like random encounters instead of enemies onscreen, or lack of an overworld map. Also, I'm the kind of person who finds a satisfying challenge in trying to enjoy something that is universally disliked. For example I played to completion and quite enjoyed my time with The Last Rebellion. What I'm saying is if you say "Don't play Dawn of the New World, it sucks!" I'm probably going to want to play it even more.

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Tales of Phantasia - GBA - It's the first game in the series and by most accounts it is actually a very good game, however the Game Boy Advance version is supposedly a horrible port marred by graphical problems and even worse, incredible slow down during battle sequences. I'm usually pretty tolerant of shoddy port work if it affords me an opportunity to play a game I wouldn't otherwise be able to. I played, and highly enjoyed Chrono Trigger on the PS1 for example. I will eventually suffer through this version of Tales of Phantasia as it is the only version of the game officially released in North America. I recently picked up a really nice complete in box copy of this game so it would be cool to jump right into it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6fE1ITKQ0Q

Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World - Wii - The first Tales game I played was Tales of Symphonia. I was new to RPGs at the time and to that point it was by far the longest game I'd ever played, with my playthrough clocking in at over sixty hours. I was excited to hear about the sequel, but it gets tons of hate. People seem to have problems with the new characters and some tweaks to the gameplay. Worth noting however, is that the glaring majority of user reviews for this game on gamfaqs.com are either eight or nine out of ten. Is this simply a game that was panned because it didn't quite live up to the beloved status of its predecessor? Also, I know that even though I own the original versions of both Symphonia, I will end up with the PS3 remaster because of my collecting habits. Actually playing it would be a great reason to pick it up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4h2DytVxzTY

Tales of Legendia - PS2 - This game is actually more polarizing than universally considered "bad." Developed by Namco's Soul Calibur team, Project Soul as opposed to the Tales Studio, and there are apparently some major differences in gameplay, most notably the return to a two dimensional fighting system. I must admit, this title may be the most intriguing to me out of this list, and also it's on the PS2, my favorite console.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwxtemQXF1o

Tales of the Tempest - NDS - This one is the hardest to find information about. Not only is it considered by many to not be worth playing, but it also was not released outside of Japan. Complaints are pretty general and tend to seem to be more about the DS' hardware limitations. That being said, most people like Tales of Innocence so I'm not sure what is going on between those two that makes one loved and the other hated.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pweZS7cmclk

I haven't played a lot of Tales games yet. I haven't played any of the PS1 releases yet. I do remember renting Tales of Legendia after it came out. All my friends that had Gamecubes were talking up Symphonia and how awesome it was, and I wanted to see if it was everything they said it was. The closest I could get at the time was Legendia and I wasn't too impressed with it, and didn't bother with Tales of the Abyss when it came out like 8 months later. Xillia's the one that really hooked me and I'm going to grab the rest of the PS3 releases and Vesperia on 360 before going backwards.

I hear Tales of the Abyss was pretty meh. Who said it good? I know it's totally subjective so one man's trash can be another's treasure.

Abyss is actually very highly regarded.

Well, your options...

Tales of Phantasia
Tales of Destiny
Tales of Eternia (Tales of Destiny 2 in US)
Tales of Destiny 2 (JP only)
Tales of Symphonia
Tales of Rebirth (JP only)
Tales of Legendia
Tales of the Abyss
Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology
Tales of Innocence/Tales of Innocence R (JP only)
Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World
Tales of Vesperia
Tales of Hearts/Tales of Hearts R
Tales of Graces (JP)/Tales of Graces f (All)
Tales of Xilia
Tales of Xilia 2

...and a ton of Tales stuff that hasn't been localized yet. Figured I'd stop there.
The only ones I've not heard much about that have been localized are Abyss, Legendia, Dawn of the New World and Tales of the World. The others I've only heard good things about.

Tales of the World is like every fan favorite and main character from Tales games getting together for one epic adventure. Its not considered one of the strongest games but the fanservice is strong with it. I have it but haven't really played it yet.

@Shadow, thanks for umm, listing every Tales game.

I'm looking for more info on the ones I mentioned in the OP. Has anyone played any of them?

ha! you thought people played video games here? what were you thinking

Oh brother, you have a point there.

Well thanks anyway guys, I'll see if I get Symphonia Collection for Christmas and then I'll make a choice.

Didn't know what you owned or had played yet, so I was just trying to list out options. If you're focused on those particular titles, I'd say Tales of Phantasia since it'd likely be easier to pick up and put down in smaller intervals if you feel like you're slogging through it.

I appreciate it, and wasn't trying to be a dick btw.

All good. It's hard to piss me off, or for me to take things the wrong way for any length of time anyways. I work in an industry full of people who think they know everything and that their way is the only way, so I've learned how to deal with all types of personalities. I knew you weren't trying to be a dick.

I've not had a chance to play any of those - in fact, I own half of the Tales series and I haven't played any of them. I don't think I've played an RPG in 5 years, honestly, since I like to binge play RPGs and I don't find that I typically have an hour to myself in a day.

I would go with Tales of Legendia. It's the only tales game I finished and then said nope no more. It's also the only game in the series that I didn't connect with the characters nor did I find the story that appealing. Legendia is a slow burn in both gameplay and story but I have played worse games.

I've only played Phantasia for around six hours and need to finish it, but from what I've played I really like.

Tales of the Abyss is one of my favorites in the series. It starts slow but picks up steam about half way through. I played through most of the after ending content.

I also have Tales of the World but haven't played it.

Let me know if you need more information and happy playing!

Now that's the kind of answer I was looking for from the exact man who I was hoping would see this thread!

Thanks Addicted, I'm going to carve out some time for Legendia. It just gets more and more intriguing.