Tales Series

Symphonia is a distant prequel to Phantasia but the story is entirely self-contained so no knowledge of To P is needed. It's graphics and game play have not aged very good compared to newer tales games. It's story however is one of the better.

Zesteria is very disputed but by most considered to be below average on every aspect except music.

Berseria is a prequel to Zesteria. It can be played without knowledge of Zesteria but some plot-threads are left open because they get resolved/continued in Zesteria. It is overall considered to be a big improvement over Zesteria and an above-average Tales game overall.

One could argue that it is best to start with Symphonia because after playing other tales games Symphonia will feel more dated. Berseria and Zesteria can be played in either order though many would argue that for Zesteria watching a plot summary/walk-through might be a better option.

Personally I didn't mind Zesteria as much, it was still an above average JRPG but it IS a weak Tales game.

edited 2nd Aug '17 7:04:28 AM by Kiefen

I agree. Start with Symphonia.

It also helps that Symphonia probably has the best English dub in the series to date. Mostly because Nintendo helped splurge out on big name V As.

I'm quite confident in my shitposting you know

Symphonia was the high point of Tales stories, sadly the combat and dub quality did not age well.

Zesty is a gd disaster of a game all around, terrible story, half the characters are meh at best, camera issues etc.

Bersaria is alright, it's a bit above average but being a prequel to a disaster brings the game down.

If only they would port Graces or Hearts R to PC. Funny as hell, some homerun characters and probably the best combat out of all the Tales games.

edited 2nd Aug '17 7:09:59 AM by Memers

Hmm. Alright.

I'd prefer not to need to play multiple games together so Symphonia sounds best.

It'l go on my too play list!

I heard some bad things about the PC port.

Have those been fixed?

It's only $5, so if its not too bad I might grab that so I can play on PC instead of PS 3.

If not I'll just stick with the PS 3 version.

edited 2nd Aug '17 7:15:17 AM by 32ndfreeze

"But if that happened, Melia might actually be happy. We can't have that." - Handsome Rob

That's what I asked last page lol.

I played a bit of the PS 3 version and it had issues with stuttering on the world map that drove me absolutely nuts.

Since you have a PS 3 though look into getting Tales Of Graces F.

The few issues it had got patched. There is also this fix which further stabilizes the frame rate and can additionally add 4k HD textured.

edited 2nd Aug '17 7:18:26 AM by Kiefen

Oh, now I see it.

Would Graces F or Symphonia be a better starting point do you think?

Thanks!

"But if that happened, Melia might actually be happy. We can't have that." - Handsome Rob

You said you were coming off FFX... well umm Symphonia has an astonishing amount of similarities with FFX. Which could be good or bad depending on your opinion on if you want more of that. It's dual audio which is nice since in the dub skits are not voiced.

Graces F is a bit more anime and tropey but has some of the best character interaction in Tales and has a huge amount of content. The main story is one of the longer Tales stories and the F arc is a post arc that is like 30 hours in its own right. It's starts off slow though with a KH 2 style arc before the game kicks in. (That can be skipped on subsequent playthroughs if you wish.).

Personally I would start with Graces but no other reason besides personal preference, got a full dub, and the combat is easier to get into.

edited 2nd Aug '17 7:40:56 AM by Memers

Thanks for all the advice everyone.

I've still got to get though X-2. So which game I play should depend on if another sale comes out for Graces F between now and then it's on the PSN Store for $25, so if I can get it cheaper either online or in a store I'll grab it and play that. If not I'll stick with Symphonia.

"But if that happened, Melia might actually be happy. We can't have that." - Handsome Rob

There's also Xillia 1 and 2 if those look good to you. X1 is...meh. X2 fixes a few of its flaws but its clear its protagonist was an experiment they couldn't be bothered to see through to the end properly.

I'm quite confident in my shitposting you know

Xillia is... well... YMMV... Nice ideas crappy execution. X1 was rushed to all hell to the point it is a half a game and only 2 characters were really fully playable. And X2 really screwed the pooch with strange design decisions across the board but it is a complete game though.

But he said he didn't like multiple games connected to each other.

edited 2nd Aug '17 8:40:58 AM by Memers

Here's hoping it only focuses on the good characters ie Layla and Zaveid.

Heart of Stone

Honestly, with how some people feel about most of the characters in Zestiria (especially two of them), I'm thinking they'll probably keep it to the few that people like.

One Strip! One Strip!

The characters are Mikleo, and Edna. You will later on get Velvet and Laphichet looks like he'll join too, they're all under the same symbol.

They stupidly decided to add in Alisha too(The JP fans smashing TOZX discs didn't make them learn), so there's one unwanted character there. But since you only need Edna and Mikleo to unlock Velvet and Alusha is event only you can gleefully ignore her.

The only dispised characters of Zesty are Rose and Alisha.

edited 2nd Aug '17 3:30:24 PM by TheTropeEater

That's a little ridiculous

Rays is pretty intimidating

I know Ix's VA but who is Mileena's

Zestiria's whole cast is really forgettable at best and grating at worst. Kind of glad I felt no interest in Rays because from what JP people are saying the dub is quite unfaithful. Why can't Bamco go back to Graces F dub quality? Now that was a good dub.

Oissu!

Rays has no dub, just an English translation, and yes it is pretty obvious that the characters are saying different things sometimes.

I thought Edna and Mikeleo were well liked at the least?

One Strip! One Strip!

They are, JP players have no problems with them. IN fact they loved their interaction with Velvet and Laphichet. Alisha though is a different story, they're just getting tired of her.

People think they're alright in general. I just don't like any of them. I find Edna's too much of a Jerkass and Mikleo's just boring.

Oissu!

Mikleo and Edna's interactions were literally created to be those of a brother and sister, in case you didn't catch it. Basically the squabbling siblings.

As for Mikleo, he's fine, he's not really boring, but then again most of the information about his character is unavailable to English speaking fan.

Meebo is Fine. A good character, even tho he's not as interesting as the other playable Seraphim, and he and Sorey are cute together.

Heart of Stone

I just never felt like Meebo was much of his own character, he always was just sort of like an extension of Sorey. Did he even have a character trait on his own?

He does, he's a worrywort, is easy to tease, a tsundere, etc. but Mikleo was created to compliment Sorey's.

It's pretty much design a heroine, put pants on her and call her a dude.

edited 3rd Aug '17 4:04:01 AM by TheTropeEater

You know, that sounds a lot like...

...a lot like that, yeah.

One Strip! One Strip!