See also:
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Original Titles
- Tales of Phantasia
- Tales of Destiny
- Tales of Eternia
- Tales of Destiny 2
- Tales of Symphonia
- Tales of Rebirth
- Tales of Legendia
- Tales of the Abyss
- Tales of the Tempest
- Tales of Innocence
- Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World
- Tales of Vesperia
- Tales of Hearts
- Tales of Graces
- Tales of Xillia
- Tales of Xillia 2
- Tales of Zestiria
- Tales of Berseria
- Tales of Crestoria
- Tales of Arise
- Tales of Luminaria
Crossover Titles
Tropes with their own pages:
- Alternative Character Interpretation
- And the Fandom Rejoiced
- Best Boss Ever
- Broken Base
- Complete Monster
- Die for Our Ship
- Game-Breaker
- Magnificent Bastard
- Moral Event Horizon
- Narm
- Player Punch
- Rescued from the Scrappy Heap
- The Scrappy
- Scrappy Mechanic
- That One Achievement
- That One Attack
- That One Boss
- That One Level
- That One Sidequest
- The Woobie
- Complacent Gaming Syndrome: In any game that allows it, most players prefer using a single melee fighter to distract the boss while mages safely cast from afar. Having more than one melee fighter means the boss can just hit them all with melee attacks, which is inefficient in a battle of attrition.
- Ensemble Dark Horse: Among the summon spirits in the various entries, Celsius is easily the most popular of them to the point she was included as a playable character in Radiant Mythology 2 & 3 which based her design from Tales of Eternia.
- Fandom Rivalry: In the West, this series has a strong one with Final Fantasy over which long-running JRPG series is better.
- Friendly Fandoms: Many fans of Tales might also enjoy the Star Ocean series, due to the many similarities between them, this is because the team that worked on Tales of Phantasia went on to form Tri-ace and create the Star Ocean series as well as Valkyrie Profile.
- Tales fans will also recommend the Ys series, due to the fact that both series are the oldest Action-JRPG franchises that are still going strong today. Both are also anime-esque and have remained largely traditional, albeit evolving to fit the times.
- Some players of this franchise are also fighting-game players as the combat system is very similar to that of a combo-focused fighting game. With Tales of Legendia being developed by those who worked on Tekken and the Soul Series and Lloyd Irving appearing in Soul Calibur Legends. It helps that the BlazBlue series was getting started when more Tales of games were coming out internationally alongside a revitalization of the 2D fighter.
- Once Original, Now Common: For some of the most veteran fans, the Deconstructor Fleet has been done so many times in the series (both well and badly executed) that it has become a cliché in it on itself by this point. Never mind the fact that some of the games were considered damn smart in this regard when they came out.
- Overshadowed by Controversy: Hideo Baba was the brand manager and series producer of the Tales Series from Tales of Innocence (2007) to Tales of Zestiria (2015), but he's most well-known among franchise fans for mishandling Zestiria and eventually quitting Bandai Namco Entertainment a year after the game's release. Infamously, the character of Alisha Diphda had been very prominently featured in pre-release marketing as the game's Deuteragonist and female lead, but ended up only being a Guest-Star Party Member who left early in the game. When Japanese fans were outraged, Baba made multiple contradictory statements trying to explain why it made sense, some of which were perceived as blaming the fans themselves for not understanding the game. Zestiria was also the third mainline game in a row to have suffered a Troubled Productionnote and released in an incomplete state, further displeasing fans on how the franchise had been treated under Baba's leadership.
- Seasonal Rot: The titles released after Tales of Vesperia and before Tales of Berseria are viewed by some as the lowest point for the series. The titles between those two suffered from repetitive gameplay (all the games used the same core gameplay mechanics used in Graces), while relying on gimmicks more and more over sharpening the mechanics or exploring new forms of gameplay. The stories and characters during this time were also criticized for over relying on series tropes that became stale, not helped by the stories often feeling unfinished. The fact each game released during said period suffered a Troubled Production in some form (such as Graces having the buggy Wii version, or Xillia being admittedly rushed by the devs) didn't help either; only Tales of Xillia 2 didn't suffer one on account of being a direct sequel. Tales of Zestiria is often seen as the worst example of this trope in the franchise for both gameplay and narrative, having all the issues mentioned on top of the marketing aspects making the game rife with controversy. It wasn't until Tales of Berseria came about did the series get out of the rut it was in.
- Win Back the Crowd: After several Broken Base games, especially with Tales of Zestiria, Tales of Berseria was released and received great critical reception in both the East and West, although in the former, the game sold only 200k in the first week. Tellingly, the game that came after, Tales of Arise, was a major success, indicating that the series has gotten back on track for many.
