Tales Series Discussion Thread!

Hi there! This thread is here for you to discuss the Tales of Series games from Namco!
Credits to neogaf for the layout!


Namely, are you a Tales fan? What do you think of the Tales games in general? Which of the Tales games have you played, and which ones are your favourite? Which characters are your favourite? What do you think about the idea that the majority of these games have not been released outside of Japan? Why do you like the Tales Games? Any other thoughts / stories / any mondo that you want to share?


What is Tales?

Tales is a long running JRPG series. It celebrates its 17 anniversary this year in Japan and 15th anniversary in the West. It features an action-combat system with real-time combat. Each title in the franchise is grounded in the Linear Motion Battle system where characters move on a linear plane much like a side scroller. Over the years the series has evolved to allow characters to run freely without being restricted to a line or radial movement for dodging. The series has a deep combat system that encourages pulling off special moves called Artes and create unique combos.


List of games:

Generation 1 (SNES)



Tales of Phantasia



Tales of Destiny / Tales of Eternia



Generation 3 (Gamecube, PlayStation 2)



Tales of Destiny 2, Tales of Symphonia, Tales of Rebirth, Tales of Legendia, Tales of the Abyss



Generation 4 (Xbox, PlayStation 3, Wii, Nintendo DS)



Tales of Innocence, Tales of Vesperia, Tales of Hearts, Tales of Graces, Tales of Xillia , Tales of Xillia 2

Escort Titles

Tales of Phantasia: Narikiri Dungeon 1, 2, and 3
Tales of the World: Summoner's Lineage
Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology 1, 2, and 3
Tales of the World: Material Dungeon
Tales of Phantasia: Narikiri Dungeon X
Tales of the World: Dice Adventure
Tales of the World: Tactics Union
Tales of Fandom Vol.1 and 2
Tales of the Tempest
Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World
Tales of VS.
Tales of Kizna
Tales of the Heroes: Twin Brave
Tales of Card Evolve

As what sort of fan I am for the Tales series, I am a low level fan. When it comes to the Tales series, I have played only one game in that series. That game that I played and own is Tales of Vesperia. For playable characters in that game, here is the order that I like them:

1. Judith
2. Yuri
3. Estelle
4. Repede
5. Raven
6. Karol
7. Rita

I could be considered a bit of a Tales fan. I really do like the games that I have been able to play (or watch a playthrough of). The games that I have played are Tales of the Abyss, Tales of Vesperia and another one which I believe was Tales of Phantasia. I couldn't choose a favorite between Vesperia and Abyss because I liked the characters in Vesperia more than in Abyss but I liked the storyline in Abyss more than in Vesperia so... its between those two.
My favorite characters would have to be:
1. Yuri
2. Tear
3. Judith
4. Jade
5. Luke
6. Asch
Regarding the games that haven't been released, I personally would like to play them since the Tales of games that I have managed to play or watch were really good and would like to experience them myself at some point.
I like the Tales of games because they all have a different storyline to it. Sure they might have a damsel in distress here or there and maybe the world is in danger but they all experience something different in their journey and ultimately end up doing something different in the end. The characters aren't the same in every game as well which keeps the games refreshing in a sense

I ♥♥♥♥ing hate the Tales series its the worst thing ever!


Nah, I'm kidding. I like the series. I've played Symphonia, Dawn of the New World, Vesperia, and Xillia. I also got partway through Abyss before the PS2 crapped out on me. My sister got the 3DS version of it, and I'm waiting on her to finish it so I can give it a whirl. It might take her a while to do that....


As for my favorite, I'm kinda torn between Symphonia and Vesperia. If ToS Chronicles actually updated the battle system beyond adding mystic artes and making the camera suck less, I'd probably go with that, but it didn't, so I'm still a bit undecided on which I think is better.


And I hate ToS: Dawn of the New World. Which some of you have heard me say....several times.....

I've only played Symphonia (and its sequel), Vesperia, and Abyss.

I love Symphonia. It's story and it's cast. This is a very personality-driven franchise, and I like nearly every character in this game. Regal's a bit boring, but okay. Only one I really can't stand is Emil.

With Vesperia, I enjoyed most of the cast again. Rita's super cool, Estelle's adorable, I like Yuri's sarcasm, same with Judith's kind of teasing wit, etc. Really just didn't care for Karol (I think? Nothing stands out there lol), I guess and some of the npc/supporting cast. Story and scenario... maybe about 50-75% of the time? I remember the beginning being kind of slow

Abyss, I didn't like the plot or the cast. All it had going for it was Tear and Jade (both of whom are great. Loved Jade's snark!). Game has some of the most gratingly annoying characters I've ever encountered in a game (Mieu, Ion, Dist) and I did not enjoy playing it as a result.

Being a primarily Nintendo gamer, I haven't had the chance to play as many entries in the series as I would like to. But, I do consider myself a fan and I do want to play more should I ever get the opportunity.

I want to play Hearts, Graces, and Xillia

I heard there's a new Tales game coming out for Japan; does anyone know anything about that? o:

Ahhh, Tales. One of my favourite franchise of all time.

I'm a huge Tales fan. My first ever Tales was actually a badly done fan-translated patch version of Phantasia. This was back in the early 2000's before Symphonia's release. As I was playing for the first time, I was enjoying the experience, and loved how the combat wasn't turned-based. Of course, I was pretty young back then so I didn't exactly pay attention to the title of the games I played, so it wasn't until much later I learned it was actually called Tales of Phantasia, haha. But, for my first "official" experience with Tales, would have to be with Symphonia. My brother bought the game, and both of us fell in love with it. We would spend hours playing co-op with each other, having the time of our lives. After Symphonia, I would become so engrossed with the series that I was willing to import them just to play the games. xD

For games that I have played in the main series are Phantasia, Destiny R, Symphonia, Rebirth, Legendia, Abyss, Vesperia (both versions), Hearts, Graces F, Xillia, and Xillia 2. As for escort titles, I've only played Radiant Mythology 1, Radiant Mythology 2, Dawn of the New World, Tempest, and Vs. It's a shame that most of the Tales games didn't even make it across shores though, especially Destiny R.

For my favourite characters in the series, I'm going to split the list between genders. For females, I absolutely love Millia, Judith, Estelle, and Rutee. For males, I like Ludger, Gaius, Malik, Jade, Yuri, and Kunzite. Yeaaaah, the male list completely dwarfs the female list LOL.

One of the main reasons why I love the Tales series, is its battle system. My two favourite video game genres are RPGs and fighting games, Tales is sort of a mixture of the two genres. Giving me the freedom the move around while be able to do combos, while also being an RPG? Oh, Tales why are you so amazing? Another mechanic that I absolutely love in Tales games, is it's co-op. It's always fun to play games with a bunch of friends, especially in pure mayhem, which will happen a lot in the boss fights for Tales.

tl;dr I love Tales and combos. Whoops, I forgot to mentions skits! Yeah, the skits are hilarious.

Dragon said:

I heard there's a new Tales game coming out for Japan; does anyone know anything about that? o:

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Tales of Zestiria! Coming to Japan later this year to PS3, and already has a Europe and NA release confirmed. Latest subbed trailer here.

So hyped for Zestiria :D

I myself have played Vesperia, Abyss, Symphonia 1 and 2, And a really bad port of Phantasia. Out of the 5 I've played, Abyss is definitely my favorite, it may not have had the most memorable characters but it's story was great, especially the Rivalry between Luke and Ashe. Oh, and the battle system was the best of the ones I played, I loved working with FoFs.

As for characters go my favorites in order are.
1: Rita
2: Luke and Ashe (Yes I know I'm somewhat cheating but they don't make the list alone)
3: Jade
4: Raven
5: Collette

I know this is a VERY unpopular opinion, But I like how Symphonia 2 didn't focus on the cast of Symphonia, but rather on Emil, Marta and Tenebrae. They all already had their story and while it was cool to see them again, the story wasn't about them. They just hit the spotlight for a second and flew back under the radar.

Burg said:

I know this is a VERY unpopular opinion, But I like how Symphonia 2 didn't focus on the cast of Symphonia, but rather on Emil, Marta and Tenebrae. They all already had their story and while it was cool to see them again, the story wasn't about them. They just hit the spotlight for a second and flew back under the radar.

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Which is funnily enough one of the reasons why I dislike ToS:DotNW. The cast of the first Symphonia is a pretty good one, and to have them hardly be in a game with "Symphonia" in the title just doesn't seem right. Now, I could forgive that if Emil's, Mart-mart's, and Tenebrae's story was good...but it wasn't. World has problems after being joined? Richter's got a revenge subplot because his friend got killed? Holy ♥♥♥♥, I totally didn't see all that coming! The story was just so meh, and Emil....goddamn is Emil annoying. Mart-mart (and Tenebrae, to a lesser extent) was pretty good, but she can't carry the whole game by herself. And if the new peeps aint any good, I wanna see more of the old ones. There's also the issue of the original ToS cast being terribly equipment, arte, and level locked for the parts they're in, and the monsters you get aren't very good substitutes for battlers, so its basically Emil and Marta fighting off everything (and I was a little pissed that you temporarily lose Lloyd an co. just before that fight with Alice and Deceus or however his name is spelled, which made the fight such a pain in the ass).

Tales is probably my favourite gaming series, although I could just be saying that because it's been so freaking long since we got a new Kingdom Hearts game. But it's right up there! I started with Symphonia back when it came out in North America and I've been a fan ever since, although I couldn't really get into Legendia so I almost gave up on the series there. For mothership titles, I've finished: Symphonia, Abyss, Eternia, Vesperia (both), Graces f, Xillia, and Xillia 2. I own Innocence R, Destiny PS2 (well, I've been borrowing it from a friend for over a year now), and Phantasia but haven't had a chance to play them yet. Oh, and Legendia but I've pretty much completely given up on that. The escort titles I've played are Symphonia 2, Radiant Mythology, and VS. I also own Twin Brave, RM2, and Fandom 2 but I either haven't finished them or, again, haven't had a chance to play them.

I'm also currently rather addicted to Tales of Asteria and Tales of Link for Android/iOS... if anyone else is playing them, we should exchange friend codes. :D

My favourite Tales characters are... you know what, I'm gonna do what Arc did and split it by gender. Females: Colette, Milla, Rita, Estelle, Anise and Patty. Males: Lloyd, Alvin, Jude, Jade, Richard, Flynn, Gaius (X2, mainly), and Ludger. And Lulu (Rollo?), if Lulu counts. My favourite ensemble cast was Graces's. I thought they meshed the best.

What draws me into the Tales series is the battle systems--battles are so much fun and they're even better with a friend. Honestly, my main disappointment with Xillia and its sequel was the broken co-op system since it made it difficult to play with more than one other person and, quite frankly, it was best on your own. Graces had my favourite battle system of any game. I'm STILL discovering little nuances to it and trying to master the characters.

What interests me most, though, once I've already been drawn in, are the characters. I fall in love with the Tales characters so easily. Even if the stories usually aren't very good, it's the characters that really turn the games into something great. I love skits and seeing them interact as they wander through the world, I love seeing how the story affects each character, and I love seeing them come together by the end to achieve their goal. It makes everything seem so much more relateable and I wish more games focussed on character dynamics like Tales does. With most games, I'll set the controller down and come away from the game thinking "well that was nice, it was fun". With Tales? When I get into a Tales game, I won't stop thinking about the characters for months. I get so, so invested in them. Literally no other series does this for me.

Honestly, I'm not too excited for Zestiria yet. The thing about it that excites me the most is that it won't just be Motoi Sakuraba doing the music because his soundtracks have gotten so dull lately. Milla's side in Xillia + the jazzy parts in Elympios were good but otherwise, I haven't heard any memorable tracks from him since Abyss and that's just disappointing. So it'll be nice to have some different influence in the music of Zestiria. Everything else I've been looking at and kind of going "ehhh". I want to be excited, since everyone else is, but the character designs aren't doing anything for me (although I never really get attached to characters until I'm playing the game) and all of the locales look really washed out and empty. But I'm sure it will be great anyway... I'm just not really the kind of person who gets hyped up for something so far away from its release date, I think. For now I'm a lot more excited about the Tactics Union remake for 3DS... Reve Unitia? I like the character listing for it! I looove crossovers.

If anyone is interested, I translate a lot of Graces & Xillia comic strips on my blog. :)

Catchy battle themes, colorful characters, and an addicting battle system are the highlight of the Tales franchise for myself. Tales of Destiny for the PSX was my first experience with the series, but I didn't really get into it until Symphonia, like most of the western world. I've played most of the mothership series titles, importing the ones that weren't localized. Don't really have a favorite as Graces f has my favorite battle system, Destiny 2 with the story, Vesperia with characters, and Legendia with music. (They really should let Go Shiina compose another Tales game)

As for characters, there's a lot. {:3} Leon, Stahn, Estelle, Kyle, Mao, Arche, Jude, Leia, Yuri. and Dhaos to round off the list.

Atm, I'm playing Xillia, which I bought when it was released here, but never really got very far into it before I stopped playing (where Rowen joins) Nothing wrong with the game itself, but I put it aside and eventually just forgot about it. Hearing that Xillia 2's release was already approaching here, I decided to finally get around to finishing it.

Looking forward to Hearts R on the Vita as well.

I've only played Tales of the Abyss and tbh I still need to beat it. :( I love it though. Like Cherrim said, the characters are so easy to fall in love with after a certain red head has a hair cut anyway. I wish I had more to say. :( I'd really like to play more, like Symphonia and Vesperia but I have so many other games I'm working on and I haven't been able to find them anyway.

By the way, I found a GBA version of Phantasia at Replays and I've been thinking about picking it up next time I go if it's still there. Is it good? Would anyone recommend it? I mean, typically if I can pick up games cheap, I don't feel too bad about letting them sit on the back burner until I actually get a chance to play them, soooo.

Burg said:

I know this is a VERY unpopular opinion, But I like how Symphonia 2 didn't focus on the cast of Symphonia, but rather on Emil, Marta and Tenebrae. They all already had their story and while it was cool to see them again, the story wasn't about them. They just hit the spotlight for a second and flew back under the radar.

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I too actually like Eh-mule, Mart-mart, and Braebrae. But, I felt that they were honestly shoehorned into the world of Symphonia. While I was playing Dawn of the New World, the three of them never really "fit" in the world of Symphonia both in design, and personality. I myself would vastly prefer that these three would have gotten their own game, with their own world and such, since they're absolutely lovable characters.

Jak said:

By the way, I found a GBA version of Phantasia at Replays and I've been thinking about picking it up next time I go if it's still there. Is it good? Would anyone recommend it? I mean, typically if I can pick up games cheap, I don't feel too bad about letting them sit on the back burner until I actually get a chance to play them, soooo.

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Phantasia GBA is decent, but it's plagued with some audio problems. When I say audio, I'm talking about the god-awful voice acting that can not be turned off. It's not even voice acting that can be tolerated either, it's just horrendous. Aside from that, Phantasia GBA is a decent port.

Wooo Tales! Unfortunately I've only finished Vesperia, Graces f, and Xillia. I started Innocence but never finished for whatever reason. I rage quit on Tempest, might pick it up again but I really don't like that game. I want to get the PS3 version of Vesperia, I want to also pick up Abyss, and Legendia. I'm going to get Symphonia Chronicles eventually.

Also quick question what's everyone's favorite Tales game? I can't choose between the ones I finished, they're all just so good!

When it comes to favorite Tales games, I would have to choose between Vesperia and Abyss (bought the 3DS version of Tales of the Abyss earlier this month). Since I am still early in Abyss, I would have to go with Vesperia since I have beaten it.

Jak said:

I've only played Tales of the Abyss and tbh I still need to beat it. :( I love it though. Like Cherrim said, the characters are so easy to fall in love with after a certain red head has a hair cut anyway. I wish I had more to say. :( I'd really like to play more, like Symphonia and Vesperia but I have so many other games I'm working on and I haven't been able to find them anyway.

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Play Symphonia, play Symphonia!

Vesperia has some really great characters. I've been meaning to replay this lately.

Jak said:

By the way, I found a GBA version of Phantasia at Replays and I've been thinking about picking it up next time I go if it's still there. Is it good? Would anyone recommend it? I mean, typically if I can pick up games cheap, I don't feel too bad about letting them sit on the back burner until I actually get a chance to play them, soooo.

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I've been eyeing this for ages too. I've heard such mixed things about it though. It does have audio issues, like Arc said.

If you can, track down the PAL release of Phantasia GBA. From what I've read, the voice acting clarity was improved, the colour palette was restored (it was altered for North America for some reason), the menu flow is improved, it has a different/better translation compared to the NA release too (no Kangaroos). Only downside compared to the NA release is they used an ugly font.

An Aselia-obsessed acquaintance of mine insists that the GBA version of Phantasia is the worst one you could play, aside from the iOS version. The translation is shoddy (I can confirm this from comparison screenshots, at the very least), the sound is terrible, and the graphics aren't as good.

The PSX version has more content and was fan-translated... supposedly very well. I've been told to play that when I finally get around to it, and the site for it is here.

Tales of series is one of the best old-school JRPG series out there eight now (well, there isn't many old-school series out there anymore). Although that is in part because they didn't evolve that muchs, battle system aside. Sometimes I'd wish Namco would create a really innovative game, even if there is a chance it won't be as good. There's always risk when trying to do something new, but I think is worth it.

The best aspect in my opinion of the series is it's gameplay. The battle's are fast-paced, yet somewhat strategic, very dynamic and addictive without loosing it's deep. The worst for me is the music. It is not by any means bad... It just is pretty generic sometimes and apart for one or two themes I don't usually remember any of the music in this games.

I've played Symphonia, Abyss, Vesperia, Graces F and Xillia. The best in my opinion is Symphonia, with the worst being Graces F. Symphonia has the best dungeons and is the longest, with multiple endings also and tons of optional content. Graces F on the other hand has a great battle system but pretty much everything else was mediocre for my. The small world, the repetitive dungeons, the uninspired cities...

As for the newest games. I liked Xillia pretty much, however the world seem too empty for me, and the game was shortest than other Tales of games. The game seemed somewhat rushed too, because of the recycling in several areas and all the ports. The story, being an anniversary games, had some references to past games, that made the plot twist predictable, but it still was a fine tale. The battle system was at it's finest in Xillia too!

I wonder if Zestiria will bring the innovation I ask for... It looks really interesting!

PD: My favorite character would be Zelos from Symphonia. His backstory and twist was really something! Yuri from Vesperia might be the most interesting protagonist in the series, too!