Xeogred wrote:PartridgeSenpai is one of the experts I think.
I'm very flattered, Xeo Senpai, but I honestly think Popo Sensei has played a lot more of them than me. Also I have very little experience with the older games, so I'm not sure how to talk about them. The oldest one I've played is Eternia (which I will admit is a pretty damn hard game) but I never beat it. I could honestly talk about the series a LOT either way though, but I'll try and spread that out over several posts by mostly responding to what y'all are talkin' about (as that's what's on my mind atm).
For the record, while I own every one but Tales of Destiny 2 (the one that isn't Tales of Eternia) and Berseria, I have only beaten:
Tales of Symphonia
Tales of the Abyss
Tales of Innocence R (which I technically haven't beaten yet but I'm nearly at the very end, so I'm counting it here)
Tales of Vesperia
Tales of Hearts R
Tales of Graces f
MrPopo wrote:The Tales games tend to be very formulaic from a story perspective. In addition to common elements like the summon spirits you usually have the case of discovering that some element that everyone relies on actually comes from a horrible place, and the party has to decide what to do about it. The other main thing is the obvious action battle system.
The formulaic nature of the narratives is something I've noticed is a lot like how Final Fantasy does it (I haven't really played many JRPG's outside of FF, DQ, or Tales, for the record). In Final Fantasy you have some summon/spirit names which appear in a lot of the games, and similarly Tales has recurring elements like the summon spirits with the same names. On a more structural level, as both series tend to have a save the world/universe (not usually universe in Tales, tbh), they both have very common trends that revolve around changing the player's perspective on the world. There's usually some system or mcguffin that makes that particular entry different from your standard Western Fantasy game in some way. In Tales of the Abyss it's Phonons, in Tales of Vesperia it's Blastia, in Final Fantasy 6 it's Materia, in Final Fantasy 10 it's the summon spirits/summoner's pilgrimage thingy.
Then at some point around the end of the first or second section of the game, there's some revelation about this system that completely changes how your characters (and by extension the player) view the world and everything in it. Tales doesn't always follow this formula (I wouldn't really say Innocence does), and neither do the FF games (I'd be hesitant to say 4 does, for example, but perhaps I'm remembering incorrectly), but it's a general rule they tend to stick to. I think Tales tends to use the tropes well and tell very good stories with likable, well written characters. I haven't had any huge grievances with the writing of any particular game in the series, with the only sticking points being Hearts and Innocence (for different reasons which maybe I'll write about later as they don't feel appropriate to insert into this very general conversation about the series as a whole).
MrPopo wrote:Personally I think the best places to jump into the series would be either Phantasia if you want to go from the beginning, or your choice between Symphonia and Vesperia. Both of the two are very representative of a core Tales experience and core combat and character advancement systems. Some of the other titles get into some more esoteric mechanics that can turn someone off; Zestiria comes to mind.
I also agree that the beginning is as good a place to start as any, or Vesperia if you want a good current-ish-gen burst of Tales (as that's one of my personal favorites). While I do love Graces, as Xeo points out, it's a bit complex for someone who's unfamliar with the series to just jump right into it. Hell, even for a veteran like myself, the combat took a lot of time to get the hang of.
While Symphonia is certainly popular (for whatever reason
), I'm not sure it's the best entry point in the series. I didn't feel it had a terribly gripping story, no matter how quality the English voice cast is. The combat system also has some really serious problems given how you fight in 3D environments which you can't properly navigate. Free-running (moving in a direction other than forward and back between your target) wasn't introduced until the next game in the series, and I feel Symphonia suffers for it. On that note, however, that next game in the series is a very quality one, in my opinion, and Tales of the Abyss is a much better mid-2000's entries-level place to start in the series, I feel. The mechanics are very similar to Symphonia's, and as it's also an entry available on the 3DS, it's very palatable to be played portable. I will mention, however, that even though Tales of the Abyss was the first game in the series I played and beat, I didn't really fall in love with the series until Vesperia, so take that for what you will.
I identify everyone via avatar, so if you change your avatar, I genuinely might completely forget who you are. -- Me
