Your ranking just proves that the Tales of Series is so diverse that no Tier list is the same. I disagree with some of your placements, but I respect them nonetheless.
Tales of the Abyss is definitely my top pick. The cast is just next level in that game and the story just hits in ways the series has just never topped since.
Beseria was a terrible tales of game, main character in combat kicking felt like she was playng the game for me I didn't few l a part f the combat first Tales of to exist and videogame to ever do thst to me and I played at least over 2000 games before Berseria so you can't tell meyour wrong, this is the first game to really p me off with the characters and story everythng was played safe and the little boy in the game was a girl that st last is second they changed to a boy, you can even put a bow on him in accesories if you want to, how gy can you get.
@@AceMan2k Oh yes, the classic ranting of someone who didn't play the game. The combat was better than some other tales including Symphonia, or at LEAST on the same level as. The only part you could argue is frustrating is the soul system because some monsters are relentless and you'll be hitting like one button for a bit. Other than that, the cast is incredible, diverse and fun, and the main character goes through many stages of psyche during her adventure. She isn't your regular edgelord from beginning to end; as a matter of fact, she becomes vulnerable and more human. The bosses are way better than ARISE despite being an older game and each boss has some significance to the story or some link tied to the heroes. They aren't just random enemies the game puts in the game. Berseria is great and if they ever remake the game it will be better.
As much as I love Vesperia’s art style, I can’t excuse the way the third act drops so freaking horribly, even if Yuri was the protagonist. That, and I really wasn’t a fan of the cast overall (Karol aside). Abyss was one of the very few Tales that never loses focus of its story and I applaud it tremendously for achieving something very few games in general have done.
Abyss drops the third act horribly as well. I'd rank it much higher if it just ended after Act II instead of going straight into hours of filler before repeating most of the dungeons.
@@ThanhTriet600 It’s nowhere near as Vesperia. You can argue that maybe some things could have been cut out, but certain plot points could only be achieved in the third act (Luke’s final resolve/showdown with Asch, resolution with some of the God Generals, etc).
Vesperia combat delay after attacking with Yuri was the worst in any tales of for a main protag, I played everyone but him and then the story close to the end made me go sell the game to Gamestop.
Honestly, I would say Vesperia drops the ball even earlier than that, it is just that it becomes more obvious in the third act. And it is such a shame given it started really damn promising.
I don't know exactly why but Vesperia just didn't click with me. I never played it when it launched and only got it 3 years ago the switch version, and thought it was so boring I didn't even get to finish it. For me Abyss is one of the best, and I really REALLY enjoyed Eternia on the PSP lol. Also for me Arise was alright, but the battle system got repetitive quite fast. Never got to play the Xillia ones as I never owned a PS3, would be nice if in the future they make remakes/remaster.
Xillia 1 was an incomplete game with a play it safe story so nothing cool in it in scenes and no plat twists very barebones and boring and many same character models in each town reused, xillia 2 was and addon to xillia 1 because they had more to tell about xillia 1 since it was rushed and incomplete but it flopped big time as it had a debt system which pops up on screen every couple whe you input how much to pay your debt and it also wiuld jot allow you to enter new town until you psid off a certin amount.of debt the game does not tell you the debt agency calls you and tells you so you have no ballpark just keep kiling mobs and farming drops and dungeons almost all of them were recycled from Xillia 1, this of Xillia 2 as Tales of symphonia dotnw and multiple thst by 2-3 of how annoying you can make a tales of and you have Xillia 2 I mean in every single cutscene you have at least 2 choices to choose what to respond with and until you keep watching the scene yiu have to make the choice and to top it off the min Protage Lugar is his name he is silent and even after you completr game and new game plus he will only talk by saying an answer to the choice you make in all the cutscenes and he only says one to 3 words like okay or okay cool or sounds good yeah or oh I am sorry, one of the worst videogames ever and I can't stand people who like that trash likr thst is litteral puke and I traded that game in way back when and never looked back.
agree with you 100% I recommend Xillia, and agree with Xillia 1 was meh trying to do a spin to the formula but fell flat... but you should play it because Xillia 2 story itself was interesting! the way they utilized the characters in 2 and the various endings you could choose was so good. But I agree maybe Ludger isn't the most interesting but he was made to be that way and he still has enough conflict and character growth
Zesteria was honestly the breaking point for me. I managed to clear it somehow. but I had absolutely no clue what the story was about. combat was annoying with a bunch of unfair game overs for attacks being straight up NULLIFIED in bossfights especially the final battle. I spend a great deal of time trying to upgrade my strongest equipment but it felt like it did NOT get stronger at all. Xillia, Xillia 2 and Graces F are my favourite go to tales games to play.
i had similar experience. No part of zestiria clicked with me. Story was bad and badly told. Combat was messy and repetitive. The character development system too complex to be worth engaging with.
I was rushing in the end just to get it over with. I remember the world being way too big, the combat system being unusual and till this day I still don't know what the story was about. Also having 1 party member die forever and the other one that leaves you for most of the game. I was afraid to try any 'Tales of' game after that, but then I got Arise and enjoyed it.
Yeah Xillia 2 was the last Actually good Tales of still not a great game though since it had the stupid debt and player choices keep popping up every few seconds during the game, I think Graces F was the last fantastic Tales of game. Xilia 1 has reused character's in many Town's such as little girl and some other characters I forget and also some dungeon's were very lackluster and dull and story was when tbey first decided to play it safe and made the story mediocre for all Tales games after this since playing it safe is at has been killing many videogame franchises, there is a reason ps2 sold so much, because devs were allowex to and made games by taking a chance n be being a big C (big chicken).
Still though Xillia 1 and 2 were bad enough that I only played them through once and tried to force myself to replay them again to no avail, it was lacking that tes of spark that graces and titles before it had.
I like how they released the same crappy ps2 port of tales of symphonia to the switch like we haven't got enough of that port already, pc and ps3 looks at, so why didn't they do a tales of abbys port at least? They did it on the crappy 3ds handheld that had terrible resolution so it would have been a smart move to port it over from 3ds to Switch and woild make much more money than a crappy tales of symphonia ps2 port. Namco is stupif like it's no womder thry are losing money and had to scrap a couple games this year that they were planning on making. Would like to meet the id10t that is charge of deciding what games get released because even I can strategize and plan better than that. Must be a toddler running it to kake this many poor choices for so many years.
Finally someone else says it. I try to be pretty unbiased and fair in most things, ESPECIALLY things I enjoy because I don't want to be blinded by favoritism. I genuinely think Vesperia is just...awful. And I really wanted to love it. For many years always saw the love it got, loved how the combat LOOKED, loved the character designs, and it has one of my favorite openings in Tales, but then Definitive came out, I played it, and...oof. Wow. Wooooow. I had never felt a bigger disconnect from the Tales fandom. Until Arise released, the fandom collectively heralded it as a masterpiece, and I have taken every possible opportunity to depose that flaming trash heap of a game. I have now effectively entirely alienated myself from the fandom.
Yeah, while I like Vesperia and think it's a good game, I can say that it's easily the most overrated game in the entire Tales franchise and it's not even close. Symphonia is only really overrated by Bandai Namco themselves. And while I fucking hate Arise with a passion, I can at the very least acknowledge that it's a divisive title among the fandom, not really overrated and certainly nowhere near as overrated as Vesperia is.
Btw, one of Lifebottle's team members, Stewie, has been working on Hearts DS on the text insertion side of things. If you happen to know anyone who is knowledgeable about Hearts DS' story and lore, please send them over. As for Rebirth, look forward to that.
Zesteria was bad though, the combst and the story were so bd it was laughable same for Arise having on guard button just a dodging back flip that your ai teammates die to since they to dodge often and dodging takes extra sxonds which slows down combat only thing was attacking with the sworx or gun looked and is was so much fun but everything else the story and characters and music were trash and many people agree with me even kn Reddit when I posted a couple months ago so I know I am not alone.
I mean the latest Tales of games just arents very good, even Berseria was fun yes but was it amazing, no it wasn't and I have played amazing tales of games before Zesteria came out so I can clearly see the wuality drop and it's quite frankly boring and I no longer support the new Tales of.games I play the better older ones well a couple of them at east.
@@AceMan2k It is still subjective, the most important thing for game is that if people enjoy playing them. Regardless of whether you think a game is amazing or not since people have different taste they will get different levels of enjoyment to the media they are enjoying. Like since you said it yourself you did not like the latest tales games where as the most general opinion is that the lates Tales game (Arise) is that it is great and well recieved. Just take gacha games for examples, you can have the mediocre gameplay but if the charcters, story etc. is enough for a number of people then people still will play them.
@@Snzn_7 Idk how pekple could enjoy Arise when it is one of the worst optimized games to exist, people just have such low standards and will literally play garbage, sorry but I don't see how a tales of.game is released and your ai team members die in 1 hit to a boss becauze the guard is removed that has existed and was needed in all tales of games, whoever decided that was a good idea lost a buyer me a lot time fan since the very first Talsz of game and this was the first tales game I did not buy because they had to remove a game mechanic that was neded in all tales of games!!! I realized lately that more people are getting dumber insted of smarter and that they have less and less standards, heck Switch sells and yet it is mostly a port console terrible low fps in many games and has joycon drift and a memory bug, If sega released the megadrive which had a battery life problem or whatever it was in th day and age people would buy it is cause they don't have any brain cels in their head anymore no matter how much they think they do.
@@AceMan2k at some point you got to realize you have some issues dude. Like listen at how the way you talk. Get of your high horse and touch some grass. It may make you understand people more. Like I don't mind people having preferences but don't push you "subjective" ideals and standards to other people and don't think "they don't have brain cells" if they don't have the same ideals and standards as yours.
Did Eternia extremely dirty and dotnw really dirty putting it under Tempest especially. Still, I respect the grind and the list. I dont think we will get to Hearts DS any time soon since Phantasia X and Eternia with skits are our next big projects after Rebirth, but one day we will probably get to it.
Honestly kinda agree with most opinions on the games I have experienced this far. As I probably mentioned in that retrospective I didn't really like vesperia that much so I would't put it so high, but besides of that I kinda agree with everything and this shows you really tried to enjoy the unique aspects of each game too. Overall an enjoyable series of videos to watch, will enjoy videos on the remakes if they ever come out
Interesting list, because I don't really agree with the placement of several titles from later C tier and onward, but I can understand your reasoning behind each game you ranked, since the kind of stuff you value in a Tales game is slightly different from mine (and plenty of others.) I did find myself caring less about the actual ranking, and more on what you had to actually say about the titles after you ranked them, which I think is a good thing. You straight up said anything from B tier on higher is good, and I think a lot of people gloss over that and usually go in with the mindset of "A/S are the only games worth playing."
I only played Tales of Zestiria, Berseria, Symphonia and beat Vesperia yesterday (all on Steam). For now Berseria takes my top spot. Great Characters, more Casual friendly Combat System, good Story. Zesteria was a little bit all over the place, Vesperia's Combat was a huge step down and focusses more on doing insane combos by manual set up and cancelling, or you will die. Symphonia was really grind heavy and the combat was not fun at all. I still have both the Xillias and Graces F, left on my PS3 to play. As for Arise. I don't know if I want to play it.
Like... Berseria was so much of a slumpf to finish... Maggielou was OBNOXIOUS to the point where I didn't wan't to play the game anymore. If you asked me RIGHT NOW the characters in that game... I COULD NOT tell you. All I remember was demon hand girl lost her brother, found someone that looked like her brother and eventually fought some notion of a God-Like being (who also resembled her dead brother?) DON'T CARE, DON'T @ ME.
@@billieeyelash7015 you dont really play Berseria, that's a great game with a solid story, about loss of people who you love, what vengeance does to yourself, not being selfish and care about others, forgiveness, the importance of forgiveness. And Velvet has a beautiful character development.
@@evanmiller4502too Bad the combat is a massive slog, a mindless button masher, i just beat Oscar and her transformed sister and i've been doing nothing but smashing the same button over and over
It's more Namco and the fanbase's fault for overhyping the game and creating high expectations that an early 3D Tales game can't really match. The combat is some of the messiest in the series.
@@NerevarineKing Speak for yourself the combat is still to this day my favorite tales of combat and some of the music is so mystic I can never get more pumped, Lloyd Irving master swordsman is the quickest most fluid sword attacker protag in any tales of game and his delay after attacking is super minimal way less than Guy in Abyss and Yuri in Vesperia, think the only one who comes close is Arise guy protag whatever his name is but I hated the dodge button eith no guard button and ai teamates kept dieing so I dropped the game about15 hours in.
It's like Lloyd Irving Says: "Inferior beings". Damn I miss the days when tales of would go all out, now it's just cheap ai cgi characters no hand drawing and no water color gorgeous art like in talss of graces. Ai and cgi is trash because cgi doesn't add enough outlines making most characters look artificial and ai goofs up how a human body should look so it ends up looking not as real and you cring at it.
I'm also not the biggest fan of Dawn of the New World, but last place seems a bit harsh. Yes, it stumbles in a lot of ways, but I've played at least 3 Tales of games I liked less than Dawn (Innocence R, Hearts R and Destiny PS1).
I don't like it when people rank games based on when they came out like, sure game B is better than game A but game A was a better 1998 game than game B was a 2008 game.
My only disagreement is your take on Eternia. I played it and Symphonia pretty much at the same time, and I was much more invested in Eternia personally (i do like Symphonia too, just not as much). I also really like the story and cast, I think the core 4 are brilliant and while the extra members are of course less of a focus, it just was what the series did at the time for those first 3 games. I find it a pretty charming aspect of that era, and Eternia imo came out with the best ones in making them feel relevant still, moreso than Phantasia's and Destiny's (though i enjoy those characters still too). Edit: also the anime was weird but damn if I didn't enjoy looking at it lol.
Man, I understand the love for Vesperia, but to me Vesperia was a game with a lot of promise and I love Yuri, but that last quarter of the game feels so lame to me. It really droped the ball imo. Plus, the story can sometimes wank Yuri way too much. I know he’s cool, but goddamn, you arrive and immediately the guild leader is like: I like this kid that I just met so much I want him to be my successor. Idk. I still think Vesperia is in the top 5 for sure, but above Beseria? Eeeeeeeeh
Gameplay is what gives Vesperia the edge for me. Games before it where all 3 hits->arte->arcane arte. And games after where all, "you have 5 attacks do whatever you want". Vespeira was the only game to keep the classic attack hiracy and yet allow unique combo paths and styles.
@@xenosanctum2531 Absolutely valid. I also prefer this style too and to be clear. I love Beseria to bits, I do. But I disliked the actual gameplay. However the story was so good, I didn’t mind the subpar battle system. I just like to put a bit more stock into the actual story since it sticks with me so much. But yeah. If this was in terms of gameplay I would absolutely rank Vesperia high. Definately.
@@kyrudo TBH if we where ranking Berseria puerly of gameplay it would be just above Hearts in B tier. The fact the story was able to carry the game up to 2nd on my list should be considered a big deal.
@@xenosanctum2531 I remember just holding my controler with one hand and watching sowm youtube on the side while I grinded a bit in Beseria. Not only is the system not engaging but Velvet might be imo the most overpowered MC in Tales. She’s an absolute unit, the others are just there for moral support haha
@xenosanctum2531 Vesperia does kinda shoot itself in the foot though early game, stripping back a ton of combat options for the sake of creating progression in the skill system as they slowly dole them out. Without learning manual cancelling, Yuri has no moves early game that won't leave him wide open for an eon after every attack. It makes combat feel too sluggish early even if it opens up wide when we get mid to late game.
Just watched this. I found it really nice for someone who finally played and gave some love the Japanese only PS2 games! I might of disagree on the top spots( I love Destiny 2 and Rebirth), I loved how you focus on gameplay and story!
God I wish I saw in Vesperia what everyone else does. There's some very interesting character moments, and the mechanics are really strong, but the story just... can't hold me. Both times I think I dropped the game around the big meeting/reveal at the colosseum (or maybe I played some more past that?), and I felt like I was forcing myself to keep reading. Maybe I'll check it out again someday, hopefully I can pick up where I left off.
To me as a game I will always judge a game based on its gameplay 1st and formost. Although I frequently find JRPG players who don't seem to agree with me on that.
The games dosnt have a cohesive story. More of a series of loosely connected episodes, making it feel like an anime, whitch some people like but i dont. Also, the main character has a huge following solely based on his charisma- read looking and acting as a bad ass. While he is cool he is also a murderer and not a great character.
@@goncaloferreira6429 Every JRPG character is a murderer at least Vesperia has the balls to admitt it. I like Yuri as the grey role model protagonist. I find he is morally comlex and intresting as to why he does the things he does.
@@xenosanctum2531 i know you dont think to must about story but still that reply is poor. sure jrpgs have battles but murdering people in cold blood? in narrative context/presentation is everything. A protagonist that does justice by his own hands? a role model?
@@goncaloferreira6429 I do think highly of story, a JRPG with a really bad plot can bore me out of finishing it. Yuri is a role model to Karol due to his confidence and combat skill. However, Yuri doesn't want Karol to become a cold blooded killer like him so isn't super keen on being the role model. I think its a good dynamic.
My top 3: Tales of Eternia Tales of Graces F Tales of Lengendia (I LOVE Norma) Honorable mention: Radiant Mythology Tbh, I think I value a good battle system.
I'm super surprised so many people love Xillia, I had to grind through the first one and the 2nd was the first Tales game I bailed on half way through. Art style was good, that's fair.
Awesome seeing the 2 xillia games this high up they're my favs ❤️❤️ As for Vesperia though, I really tried my best to like it. I was 20 hours in but couldn't be bothered to continue playing cuz the combat didn't feel right and the story had no direction.
Combat definetly takes time to get good as all of the cool mechanics are locked behind skills you don't get until the 20+ hour mark. Story is very much just chracters do stuff, if you don't like the characters you will struggle to enjoy it. I still think based on flaws its still the game with the weakes ones. Its not aged like Symphonia and Phantasia nor does it have massive issues like Berseria's Combat and Xillia's pacing issues.
My first Tales game was Graces f and I finished it and liked it very much. The Xillia games after that I liked even more. My favorite is also Vesperia after completing it on the Nintendo Switch a few years ago. I didn't finish 3 tales games I bought: Symphonia, Zestiria and Berseria. All for story reasons. But the main reason was really my entry to the Xenoblade series, and also the trails series, I don't have too much time for gaming anymore lol so I have to be picky. If they do a remake for Abyss anytime I would definitely buy it though.
Zestiria's issues often boil down to Rose, and the series feeling like it wasn't evolving or getting time to release a full, uncompromised game. Xillia was notably compromised in development, and Xillia 2 was crunched enough to get slapped with it's debt mechanic. Honestly, considering how Rose is despised in both Japan and NA, I... can understand a bit. It's a very C-Tier for me personally. Anything it does that I actually DO like about it... I could probably just play another one, y'know?
Tales of Berseria and Tales of Symphonia both vy for my top spot. Stories are what stick with me most in jrpgs and these two games have the best stories in the series imo. Berseria has the better cast but Symphonia has the better setting.
The story wasn't really the problem for me. The combat and characters didn't feel like a tales game. If it was released under a new IP, I think it would have been better received. But a lot of people felt that Bamco released it under the "Tales of" title in order to cash in on an already established fan base.
@@corytanksley7909 For me it was a worthy entry into the franchise, again we have games like tales of tempest. If you've played all the games, you'll notice that it's a varied series. Compare tales of Phantasia to Symphonia to Vesperia, they are all very different, but doesn't mean they are not tales games. The way the story and the world is handled is very much Tales, to be honest and I really enjoyed the changes to the combat too.
My problem with Arise, like with Vesperia is that it drops the ball story wise about a little after the halfway point of the story. The midway twist was eye rolling but not terrible, but the last area was miserable. Im not a fan of Beseria’s combat system, but the story was so great, Im willing to take an L in the combat for a story that genuinely moved me to my core. Arise’s story wasnt good enough in its later half to compensate for a kinda lame combat system. Its a shame too! Cause Arise has has a really strong cast. Definately top 5 for me, but idk what happened the writers just didn’t know what to do with them after the mid way point. Its a damn shame. I really want to love Arise, I really do
Tales of Phantasia really good game in SNES and PS1. I'm still impress on the many complex dungeons. And many dialogues so good, so fun to read and play through.
The combat is a total mess of unreliable AI and waiting for long battle animations to finish. It completely fails at being a good action game. Which is a shame because that's what you spend most of the game doing due to the encounter rate.
I feel like I’m the one person in the world who doesn’t hate dawn of the new world. As someone who found the first Symphonia’s story and characters incredibly boring and generic, I actually found Emil and Marta a big improvement in terms of their journey. Emil especially is a far better protagonist than Lloyd, actually having significant character development with fighting against his Ratatoskr persona and becoming a stronger person. Though of course I do admit it’s very lacking in terms of the overall gameplay and content. It’s not perfect, but I’d hardly call it the worst thing in the entire world.
How can anyone handle Scared little Emil always afraid of everything over Lloyd learning so much and also starting off as quite a bonehead. Marta also super annoying just being in love with Emil. The plot of symphonia felt better. Love this series cause it’s insane where we put our games. lol props to you for enjoying it but I definitely couldn’t. Played it once and that was it. Berseria and Xilia 2 are at my tops. With vesperia and symphonia after
In terms of personal opinions. My personal reason for not liking Zesteria is 2 key issues. 1. The characters feel way too frail to me. it is designed for you to tag and Armatus freequently to make up for the party feeling like they are made up or paper mache. 2. (Technically Berseria has this issue as well but i liked the rest of the game enough to mostly ignore it) the equipment system. it went from a steady progression of equipment in the games before to a "Each weapon doesn't matter as much as the randomly placed skills they can get" system that urked me. you spend most playthoughs truing to get a high level set of gear that has the exact skill combination to match what you want. it's equipment skill system is far too complicated for it's own good. My top 3 games (Not including remakes) would be Abyss, Graces (Technically i played Graces F on the PS3 but since it was the world wide release i count it) and Berseria.
Vesperia was my first Tales game and is was really hard to find another entry that grabbed me as much as it did. I remember playing it from start to finish which is a very rare thing for me and I also remember wanting to start a new game right after finishing it as newgame plus was a thing that opened up after your first run through. This was an awesome addition as I really didn't expect anything more from it. Shame my 360 died as did all notion of another playthough. Great memories still and I highly recommend it as a solid game throughout with a likable main character that calls out bullshit, which is so rare! :D
Tales of arise is a tale of two games for me. First half of the game was super fun. Liked the characters, liked the combat, found the story to be interesting with some good mystery surrounding the main protagonist. But after picking up the last two characters and starting the second half of the game everything fell apart. Story went off the rails, combat became spam one move over and over and the final two characters felt so slapped on that they didn’t mesh at all with the rest of the cast. It was such a let down after such a strong start for me.
Out of the games I've played I rank them as follows: 1. Tales of Symphonia 2. Tales of Vesperia 3. Tales of Xillia 4. Tales of the Abyss 5. Tales of Xillia 2 6. Tales of Phantasia I know ToS has ages a bit, but to me its gameplay is still tight enough and a good base for the following games without too many bells and whistles. Its story though is still unmatched, the way it hits on xenophobia, the world(s)building, the characters; I love it all so much. Currently playing Tales of Eternia on an old PSP. Planning on buying a PS5 this year and playing Tales of Arise, Berseria and Zestiria!
Ranking all Tales of games I played so far based on how much I enjoyed their combat system 1.Tales of Graces F 2. Tales of Xillia 2 3. Tales of Berseria 4. Tales of Vesperia 5. Tales of Xillia 6. Tales of Arise 7. Tales of Symphonia 8. Tales of Zestiria
In my opinion: 1. Symphonia 2. Vesperia 3. Arise (?). Dawn of the new World And the other following ranked games i have not finished yet: 4. Destiny 5. Abyss 6. Phantasia 7. Berseria And the worst one was Zesteria
Graces does have the best combat system in seres. I might need to play Xillia 1 and 2. That might be better. I totally want a fighting game off Graces system
@@Seph4096 I would agree if Xillia 2 didn't use Graces weakness system. They should have used Innocence R's guard counter mechanic to allow for longer combos instead of using Graces weakness system to completely sideline Xillia 1's counter system. I still think X2 combat is top 3 for sure though.
There are currently only 5 Tales games on Steam, I'd love for the rest to be remade, remastered or whatever and put there and on modern consoles. I'd love to be able to play Eternia and a few others without having to spend hundreds of dollars or find a rom. Bandai Namco, I'd like to give you some money, how about you make that easy for me?
Yeah same I genuinely loved the characters but the story... not so much and the gameplay it sucks to the point where i just start spamming break soul to just get abit of fun in the game
Haven’t finished arise yet but I agree symphonia is overrated but I don’t think it should be that low. Out of the ones I played as of now I rank that one 2nd. Vesparia I remember trying it and I instantly returned it. Could not beat the first boss and it’s not that I’m bad. The game for me has such input delay that I couldn’t even react to anything. Xilia is next my list to try
Haha arise c tier you funny. 😂 abyss had way to much go back to a town you visted million times to talk to one person. Honestly took me years to beat because of that. It sooooo slow. Agree on vesperia and and xillia being great tho
I need to play more. I played part of Symphonia back in the GameCube day and never finished it and decided to pick up Arise randomly when it came out. It got me through having Covid as no other game could hold my interest at that time. Sad to see it at a C, but agree with that you said. I liked what I played of Beseria and don’t know why I stopped because I liked it.
Since posting that, I finished Symphonia (loved it), finished Berseria (loved it) and am about 2/3rds the way done with Zestiria. I thought Zestiria was underrated…until I got to the fetch quest. Ugh! Such a slog. Hopefully it picks back up afterwards.
I'd of put Arise in C as well. I didn't like the level like structure to the story. I actally liked the last part of the game because it broke away from feeling structured. I view level structures kinda like the part in Final Fantasy VII where you have to get the huge materia and then I try imagine what if it wasn't just a small part of the game but instead half of the game and you had one huge section getting the first one and so on. If it was like that the game would have not been anywhere near as good and the story would have felt slow.
I played and beat tales of a rise. It was my first tails game. There was a surprising amount of voiceover work done in these things called skits as you know. However the writing was really generic and repetitive. They just kept repeating the same thing over and over again. The maiden feeling depressed or angry or some other kind of emotion and then the main character constantly showing concern and then her getting upset. And then the constant lines of how friendship makes things better and how they work together. It was very generic. The combat was also really bad. A lot of the enemies were just completely unbalanced. Wolves hopping around non-stop appearing to have no cooldown making it very difficult to hit them. Rock dudes jumping up slamming down three times over and over again. And the game even on very easy with the artifact is still extremely difficult compared to other games I've played. I still enjoyed playing it and had fun. But I have to wonder if the other games offer a much better story in much better writing.
@@xenosanctum2531 I have homebrew installed on my 3ds, so I have it on there. Vesperia is cheap on the Switch so will pick up a copy next. P.s long live the 3ds via homebrew, it's the best!
@@xenosanctum2531I have it on my 3ds, picked it up as I read it had a great story, and it does! Vesperia is pretty cheap to pick up as a Physical copy on Switch so will get that soon 👍
I 100% disagree with your take for the combat of arise. As a person who is not nostalgia blinded because I came into the series later, the other tales combat systems have honestly felt so fcking stiff. Been playing through graces and people gas that combat system up. For me… arise was just better. Maybe not as complex but I felt like I had more control and fun. And before anyone says it’s a skill issue, I’m playing graces on hard and my issue is not dying. I just hate feeling like I’m playing a turn based game everytime I have to block, dodge, attack and repeat
Completely disagree with everything you said about dawn of the new world. It's not S tier but still good for story, characters, and combat. I loved marta and she was voiced by my fave voice actor too Laura Bailey. It's A tier for me That being said you at least put Xillia in S rank. My S rank is the holy trinity of Xillia, Xillia 2, Graces F
So, basicly, if i can't stop to adore Berseria cast and story, the only one that can be comparable is remaster of old-stuff Vesperia and bit outdated Xilia. Why does the world so hard on me?
@@xenosanctum2531 sorry, english not my native language. In other words, if i like Berseria and want something similar, only option Vesperia and Xilia, and I'm bit upset with low amount of similarly good games
@@АртурШатилов-б1п Anything in B tier and above is worth your time if you ask me. Infact the gameplay in most of them is better than Berseria. Only the D tier are games I would tell you to avoid unless you want to play every Tales game.
From the video i can make out one clear red line going throught all the reviews: "If i cant stagger the enemies for 5 minutes with combos i hate the game" 😂
If I master the combat I should be rewarded with 5 minute combo's. Whats wrong with that? BTW I never got that good in any Tales game but knowing I could alway play better kept me invested to improve.
@@xenosanctum2531 comboing an enemy for 5 minutes doing 5 million damage makes every fight trivial and boring to me. I hate when i see others play tales of games having their charakters overleveled, their gear overleveled and staggering a Boss till hes dead with zero fight back of the enemy. Especially on games i cant play because i Lack the console or its japanese only Maybe because im a dark souls Player, but i want bosses to be a challenge. Something i just whipe away like a fly will not stay in my memory. When i replay a JRPG, no matter what game, i allways play it like i would when i first did. Even though i exactly know how i could overlevel myself Quick. But especially at the Finale, i battle a god with a group of mostly humans, so i dont want to stagger him into oblivion or oneshot him and if he uses a Skill that looks like it would destroy a batrle Tank i want my Party to be hurt if they get Hit by it.
@@RealEvilLordExdeath Again, its not trivial becuse you can only combo lock the boss by doing every move perfectly. Vesperia is a great exsample as your limited in how many attacks you can make and you need to know which attcks will move the enermy away vs cause you to jump ect. Its like those Dark Souls videos of people causally beating a boss by perfectly walking 2 pixels outside of the bosses hit box. BTW overlevleing makes any Tales boss easy regardless of staggering or not. What staggering does do is allow a really good player the chance to beat a boss way above them if they can master the game mechanics. Again emphasis in on the tearm MASTER. Games which make combos easy are not a good, hence why I have issues with games like Hearts and Xillia.
Tales of Symphonia is the only JRPG I ever actually finished, I guess besides the incredibly short Golden Sun (still havent finished lost age) I played Chrono Trigger MANY times, never finished it, and have dabbled across the wide board, but TOS is the only one I ever actually played until the end and even NG+ed
@@xenosanctum2531Video games do not "age". Tales of Phantasia is still the fantastic game it was 20 years ago, and implying that standards for games have increased over the years is foolish.
What, dawn of the new world was my intro into the series back on wii. Emil is my fav character. I dont see why everybody hates it. Tales of Arise was good gameplay wise but half way through when his mask came off I was underwhelmed. I was left thinking after all that build up bc of his mask, thats it? The story got so boring and tedious.
He looked so bland without the mask I wanted to put it back on lol otherwise he could blend in with the NPCs. It didn't help that his personality was also bland.
@Hexadecimal_QueenofChaos 😅 I completely agree. Nothing about him was interesting anymore. The story went down hill shortly after to 🤭 He's basically a npc that got thrown into the plot as a main character
@@Imjustme1943 🤣Not only that but his expression beneath the mask looked perpetually shocked like he was in a mugshot taken for a DUI. I’m sorry but [endgame spoilers] when he put on his white suit costume it was even worse for him because the Renan NPCs had a similar looking outfit and he blended into the background even more lmao. The only thing that made him stand out was his height. Even the hair sucked lol. I’m surprised his design was this bland because every other character looked beautiful and unique. Lmao! @ “he’s an NPC that got thrown into the plot as a main character”sadly he had the intelligence level of the NPCs too lmao 😑 and 99% of them were obnoxiously dumb, i suppose that was the writers' attempt to add more drama. 😑 I want to forget that awful part of the game where his mask came off and he washed up on shore and suddenly [spoilers] he realizes he’s 300 years old or some sh*t??? 😵💫And the group just accepts it like its nothing… it was a huge “revelation” but weirdly underwhelming, probably because it was so nonsensical. And the game from that point on tried to make each new plot twist as weird and unbelievable as possible. I should’ve known that was the point that the game was taking a turn for the worst but I kept pushing myself through the sh*tstorm lol. It was so weird to see the game pile on more and more lore about him being some great almighty “Sovereign” in an attempt to make him more interesting when his character was literally sleep inducing and added nothing at all to the story with his dialogue, personality (lack of) or reactions. I’m sorry to say that, I liked him at the beginning but by the end he was either invisible or too obnoxious with the “friendship saves the universe” speeches (I had to skip many of them lol…). Once the game ended, I could not buy him as a great hero who just saved the entire universe because he was so plain and his ideas were so basic. I literally groaned out loud with his “Vholran u are evul because of lack of friendship” wtf? He also forgot to solve his initial goal of “cancelling racism once and for all”. Him being so docile and optimistic was totally unrealistic for me considering everything he’s been through, i wish they had gone in a different direction with his character. He's "nice" but not a good choice for a main character. Sorry just had to rant because I do not understand some of the love I see for his character and his "epic romance" with Shionne... it was so plain and cliche for me. If you read that whole rant thanks and I'm sorry lol!!!!
Its artstyle is really lame, the combat lacks the polish of the core entries also the game has a very poor translation which makes the characters sound really dumb.
I just got into Tales in 2023. Out of the five entries I’ve played, my ranking of them from best to worst: 1. Tales of Arise 2. Tales of Vesperia 3. Tales of Berseria 4. Tales of Symphonia 5. Tales of Zestiria
Everyone has their own opinion, but I have to disagree with almost 70% of what was said in the video. In the end, these types of lists don't make much sense since taste is a very personal thing. For example, I really liked Berseria's battle system, but the story didn't really grab me. I'm currently playing Arise and it's clearly an evolution of all aspects of the other games, and although I'm really enjoying playing it, it seems like they tried to make it more accessible to players who aren't used to the "Tales of" series, making the battle system more dynamic and less difficult. And this may be a negative point for many people, but I certainly wouldn't put this game so low on my list because of it. Lastly, I didn't find the boss battles that long. For me, it's still in the "Tales of" standard, those who have played FF12 know what a really long boss battle is.
Playing Arise's 2nd half literally gave you the feeling of being a turd being flushed down the toilet with no way to fight for yourself or stop what's happening... you're just plunging into inevitable doom wondering wtf is going on. The game started off so strong then completely squandered its own potential and contradicted its own arguments in favour of attempting a huge epic "twist" to the story, and in the end it failed to be epic in any way. This is what makes it terrible. If the game had been consistent all the way through it would be passable, as it stands its incomplete. Even the combat becomes a chore to play as time goes on.
I could overlook Arise's repetitive combat and generic story if only the characters had interesting personality and good synergy with each other. Going from likable cast of Vesperia to Arise was so disappointing
Idk if it's the way the dialogue was written but the Arise cast was so awkward during conversations I had to skip the cutscenes and skits and just read the plot online. It's like they weren't humans but robots trying to communicate with each other in the most long winded, inoffensive way possible, like their interactions weren't true to the way people actually speak. Also in the end they never actually figured out a way to "solve racism once and for all". Alphen giving a "friendship saves the universe" speech didn't solve anything... I think most people were just begging for the torture to end at this point and just checked out and didn't realize this about the story.
i was on board until zesteria. its just...that game was so boring imo. the combat system did nothing for me, it was like everything fun about graces but stripped down completely. its characters seemed fine, but it wasn't enough to make me want to sit through more of those battles. Otherwise solid list
opinions aside the Tales games i have played are Tales of Vespiria Tales of Graces F Tales of Zesteria Tales of Berseria Tales of Xillia Tales of Xillia 2 Tales of Arise I have really enjoyed each and everyone of them i dont Agree where you put Tales of Arise at all to low 🙂but my Fave of them all is Tales of Graces F even tho my first one was Tales of Vespiria. Tales of Symphonia i have tried to play but never finished sadly but i have watched others play it i guess its just one of those games i prefer to watch than play my self maybe one day i will finish it.
Eternia being the "most forgettable " despite being the originator of Cameo battles, Mystic artes and other interesting secrets(like Maxwell extensions) has got to be the worst takes I have ever seen. While very few people played Eternia, absolutely nobody of those who did deem it forgettable
Symphonia in 10 is a joke really the story is so deep amd elaborated It is the game that takes out the tales series from japan only and has a a battle system simple but envolvent and a profound elaboration of the cast history
This year I bought Vesperia and Arise for PS4 and never played any Tales of game before. Loved both, did all the side quests, got best weapons etc, just because wanted to spend more time in these worlds. But when I hear from some that Arise is 2/10 and Vesperia is 9/10 games I am surprised, because if looking at any other competition, like Dragon Quest VIII, XI or Xenoblade Chronicles (1st) both games feels unpolished in comparison. Looks like only true fan of series can tell difference by such margin, since series as a whole is mediocrity lacking in at least some aspects in every iteration. Vesperia is far from perfect, even far from really good, and Arise is a tad weaker. There is not that much difference to celebrate one or banish the other.
Tales of Zestiria is good game . combat is hard to learn, but system really works. music is very great. story is weak,but i love The brotherhood between Sorey and Mikleo
Your ranking just proves that the Tales of Series is so diverse that no Tier list is the same.
I disagree with some of your placements, but I respect them nonetheless.
It proofs that the games are very different from each other wich is a good thing
I'm looking for a tier list. No video gets the same ranking, interesting
Tales of the Abyss is definitely my top pick. The cast is just next level in that game and the story just hits in ways the series has just never topped since.
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Vesperia has a great cast of characters? They have the mental IQ of 11 year old children.
I bought Berseria just looking for a mindless way to kill time, but it turned out to be much more than that. Definitely deserves S tier, imo
Beseria was a terrible tales of game, main character in combat kicking felt like she was playng the game for me I didn't few l a part f the combat first Tales of to exist and videogame to ever do thst to me and I played at least over 2000 games before Berseria so you can't tell meyour wrong, this is the first game to really p me off with the characters and story everythng was played safe and the little boy in the game was a girl that st last is second they changed to a boy, you can even put a bow on him in accesories if you want to, how gy can you get.
@@AceMan2k Oh yes, the classic ranting of someone who didn't play the game. The combat was better than some other tales including Symphonia, or at LEAST on the same level as. The only part you could argue is frustrating is the soul system because some monsters are relentless and you'll be hitting like one button for a bit. Other than that, the cast is incredible, diverse and fun, and the main character goes through many stages of psyche during her adventure. She isn't your regular edgelord from beginning to end; as a matter of fact, she becomes vulnerable and more human. The bosses are way better than ARISE despite being an older game and each boss has some significance to the story or some link tied to the heroes. They aren't just random enemies the game puts in the game.
Berseria is great and if they ever remake the game it will be better.
Well that you sure was your take on the Tales series… Still, I did agree with where you put Symphonia 2
As much as I love Vesperia’s art style, I can’t excuse the way the third act drops so freaking horribly, even if Yuri was the protagonist. That, and I really wasn’t a fan of the cast overall (Karol aside).
Abyss was one of the very few Tales that never loses focus of its story and I applaud it tremendously for achieving something very few games in general have done.
Abyss drops the third act horribly as well. I'd rank it much higher if it just ended after Act II instead of going straight into hours of filler before repeating most of the dungeons.
@@ThanhTriet600 It’s nowhere near as Vesperia. You can argue that maybe some things could have been cut out, but certain plot points could only be achieved in the third act (Luke’s final resolve/showdown with Asch, resolution with some of the God Generals, etc).
Vesperia combat delay after attacking with Yuri was the worst in any tales of for a main protag, I played everyone but him and then the story close to the end made me go sell the game to Gamestop.
Honestly, I would say Vesperia drops the ball even earlier than that, it is just that it becomes more obvious in the third act. And it is such a shame given it started really damn promising.
I don't know exactly why but Vesperia just didn't click with me. I never played it when it launched and only got it 3 years ago the switch version, and thought it was so boring I didn't even get to finish it. For me Abyss is one of the best, and I really REALLY enjoyed Eternia on the PSP lol. Also for me Arise was alright, but the battle system got repetitive quite fast. Never got to play the Xillia ones as I never owned a PS3, would be nice if in the future they make remakes/remaster.
Xillia 1 was an incomplete game with a play it safe story so nothing cool in it in scenes and no plat twists very barebones and boring and many same character models in each town reused, xillia 2 was and addon to xillia 1 because they had more to tell about xillia 1 since it was rushed and incomplete but it flopped big time as it had a debt system which pops up on screen every couple whe you input how much to pay your debt and it also wiuld jot allow you to enter new town until you psid off a certin amount.of debt the game does not tell you the debt agency calls you and tells you so you have no ballpark just keep kiling mobs and farming drops and dungeons almost all of them were recycled from Xillia 1, this of Xillia 2 as Tales of symphonia dotnw and multiple thst by 2-3 of how annoying you can make a tales of and you have Xillia 2 I mean in every single cutscene you have at least 2 choices to choose what to respond with and until you keep watching the scene yiu have to make the choice and to top it off the min Protage Lugar is his name he is silent and even after you completr game and new game plus he will only talk by saying an answer to the choice you make in all the cutscenes and he only says one to 3 words like okay or okay cool or sounds good yeah or oh I am sorry, one of the worst videogames ever and I can't stand people who like that trash likr thst is litteral puke and I traded that game in way back when and never looked back.
agree with you 100% I recommend Xillia, and agree with Xillia 1 was meh trying to do a spin to the formula but fell flat... but you should play it because Xillia 2 story itself was interesting!
the way they utilized the characters in 2 and the various endings you could choose was so good. But I agree maybe Ludger isn't the most interesting but he was made to be that way and he still has enough conflict and character growth
Zesteria was honestly the breaking point for me. I managed to clear it somehow. but I had absolutely no clue what the story was about. combat was annoying with a bunch of unfair game overs for attacks being straight up NULLIFIED in bossfights especially the final battle. I spend a great deal of time trying to upgrade my strongest equipment but it felt like it did NOT get stronger at all. Xillia, Xillia 2 and Graces F are my favourite go to tales games to play.
i had similar experience. No part of zestiria clicked with me. Story was bad and badly told. Combat was messy and repetitive. The character development system too complex to be worth engaging with.
I was rushing in the end just to get it over with. I remember the world being way too big, the combat system being unusual and till this day I still don't know what the story was about. Also having 1 party member die forever and the other one that leaves you for most of the game. I was afraid to try any 'Tales of' game after that, but then I got Arise and enjoyed it.
Yeah Xillia 2 was the last Actually good Tales of still not a great game though since it had the stupid debt and player choices keep popping up every few seconds during the game, I think Graces F was the last fantastic Tales of game. Xilia 1 has reused character's in many Town's such as little girl and some other characters I forget and also some dungeon's were very lackluster and dull and story was when tbey first decided to play it safe and made the story mediocre for all Tales games after this since playing it safe is at has been killing many videogame franchises, there is a reason ps2 sold so much, because devs were allowex to and made games by taking a chance n be being a big C (big chicken).
Still though Xillia 1 and 2 were bad enough that I only played them through once and tried to force myself to replay them again to no avail, it was lacking that tes of spark that graces and titles before it had.
I like how they released the same crappy ps2 port of tales of symphonia to the switch like we haven't got enough of that port already, pc and ps3 looks at, so why didn't they do a tales of abbys port at least? They did it on the crappy 3ds handheld that had terrible resolution so it would have been a smart move to port it over from 3ds to Switch and woild make much more money than a crappy tales of symphonia ps2 port. Namco is stupif like it's no womder thry are losing money and had to scrap a couple games this year that they were planning on making. Would like to meet the id10t that is charge of deciding what games get released because even I can strategize and plan better than that. Must be a toddler running it to kake this many poor choices for so many years.
In regards to Symphonia being the 'most overrated Tales game', that honor now belongs to Vesperia.
Finally someone else says it. I try to be pretty unbiased and fair in most things, ESPECIALLY things I enjoy because I don't want to be blinded by favoritism. I genuinely think Vesperia is just...awful. And I really wanted to love it. For many years always saw the love it got, loved how the combat LOOKED, loved the character designs, and it has one of my favorite openings in Tales, but then Definitive came out, I played it, and...oof. Wow. Wooooow. I had never felt a bigger disconnect from the Tales fandom.
Until Arise released, the fandom collectively heralded it as a masterpiece, and I have taken every possible opportunity to depose that flaming trash heap of a game. I have now effectively entirely alienated myself from the fandom.
THIIIIIIISSSS
Absolute, both of them are extreme overrated
Exactly. Vesperia was a step back from Abyss in many ways
Yeah, while I like Vesperia and think it's a good game, I can say that it's easily the most overrated game in the entire Tales franchise and it's not even close.
Symphonia is only really overrated by Bandai Namco themselves.
And while I fucking hate Arise with a passion, I can at the very least acknowledge that it's a divisive title among the fandom, not really overrated and certainly nowhere near as overrated as Vesperia is.
I subbed your channel when you were early into your "Tales of" Retrospective series.
So this video was really satisfying to watch.
Btw, one of Lifebottle's team members, Stewie, has been working on Hearts DS on the text insertion side of things. If you happen to know anyone who is knowledgeable about Hearts DS' story and lore, please send them over. As for Rebirth, look forward to that.
The people hating on Zestiria in a similar fashion you are specifically hating on Arise.
Zesteria was bad though, the combst and the story were so bd it was laughable same for Arise having on guard button just a dodging back flip that your ai teammates die to since they to dodge often and dodging takes extra sxonds which slows down combat only thing was attacking with the sworx or gun looked and is was so much fun but everything else the story and characters and music were trash and many people agree with me even kn Reddit when I posted a couple months ago so I know I am not alone.
I mean the latest Tales of games just arents very good, even Berseria was fun yes but was it amazing, no it wasn't and I have played amazing tales of games before Zesteria came out so I can clearly see the wuality drop and it's quite frankly boring and I no longer support the new Tales of.games I play the better older ones well a couple of them at east.
@@AceMan2k It is still subjective, the most important thing for game is that if people enjoy playing them. Regardless of whether you think a game is amazing or not since people have different taste they will get different levels of enjoyment to the media they are enjoying.
Like since you said it yourself you did not like the latest tales games where as the most general opinion is that the lates Tales game (Arise) is that it is great and well recieved.
Just take gacha games for examples, you can have the mediocre gameplay but if the charcters, story etc. is enough for a number of people then people still will play them.
@@Snzn_7 Idk how pekple could enjoy Arise when it is one of the worst optimized games to exist, people just have such low standards and will literally play garbage, sorry but I don't see how a tales of.game is released and your ai team members die in 1 hit to a boss becauze the guard is removed that has existed and was needed in all tales of games, whoever decided that was a good idea lost a buyer me a lot time fan since the very first Talsz of game and this was the first tales game I did not buy because they had to remove a game mechanic that was neded in all tales of games!!! I realized lately that more people are getting dumber insted of smarter and that they have less and less standards, heck Switch sells and yet it is mostly a port console terrible low fps in many games and has joycon drift and a memory bug, If sega released the megadrive which had a battery life problem or whatever it was in th day and age people would buy it is cause they don't have any brain cels in their head anymore no matter how much they think they do.
@@AceMan2k at some point you got to realize you have some issues dude.
Like listen at how the way you talk.
Get of your high horse and touch some grass. It may make you understand people more.
Like I don't mind people having preferences but don't push you "subjective" ideals and standards to other people and don't think "they don't have brain cells" if they don't have the same ideals and standards as yours.
I am sad Tales of Rebirth has never gotten an English release. Veigue look so damn badass.
There's just now a fan base translation available
@@supalognon Huge thanks for informing me!
Putting Zestiria above arise is insane
Did Eternia extremely dirty and dotnw really dirty putting it under Tempest especially. Still, I respect the grind and the list. I dont think we will get to Hearts DS any time soon since Phantasia X and Eternia with skits are our next big projects after Rebirth, but one day we will probably get to it.
Honestly kinda agree with most opinions on the games I have experienced this far.
As I probably mentioned in that retrospective I didn't really like vesperia that much so I would't put it so high, but besides of that I kinda agree with everything and this shows you really tried to enjoy the unique aspects of each game too.
Overall an enjoyable series of videos to watch, will enjoy videos on the remakes if they ever come out
Interesting list, because I don't really agree with the placement of several titles from later C tier and onward, but I can understand your reasoning behind each game you ranked, since the kind of stuff you value in a Tales game is slightly different from mine (and plenty of others.) I did find myself caring less about the actual ranking, and more on what you had to actually say about the titles after you ranked them, which I think is a good thing. You straight up said anything from B tier on higher is good, and I think a lot of people gloss over that and usually go in with the mindset of "A/S are the only games worth playing."
If you have the time I have done full retrospectives on each of the games mentioned here. So check them out if you want to hear my full opinions.
What's your personal ranking?
I only played Tales of Zestiria, Berseria, Symphonia and beat Vesperia yesterday (all on Steam).
For now Berseria takes my top spot. Great Characters, more Casual friendly Combat System, good Story.
Zesteria was a little bit all over the place, Vesperia's Combat was a huge step down and focusses more on doing insane combos by manual set up and cancelling, or you will die. Symphonia was really grind heavy and the combat was not fun at all.
I still have both the Xillias and Graces F, left on my PS3 to play.
As for Arise. I don't know if I want to play it.
I disagree with about 50% of your takes...
Like... Berseria was so much of a slumpf to finish... Maggielou was OBNOXIOUS to the point where I didn't wan't to play the game anymore. If you asked me RIGHT NOW the characters in that game... I COULD NOT tell you. All I remember was demon hand girl lost her brother, found someone that looked like her brother and eventually fought some notion of a God-Like being (who also resembled her dead brother?) DON'T CARE, DON'T @ ME.
Berseria has the best story! The characters are awesome as well. The only thing I didn't care for was the combat.
Berseria just does everything better than all the other tales games. best story, only one with actual memorable characters
@@billieeyelash7015 you dont really play Berseria, that's a great game with a solid story, about loss of people who you love, what vengeance does to yourself, not being selfish and care about others, forgiveness, the importance of forgiveness. And Velvet has a beautiful character development.
@@evanmiller4502too Bad the combat is a massive slog, a mindless button masher, i just beat Oscar and her transformed sister and i've been doing nothing but smashing the same button over and over
Calling Symphonia overhyped is the most contrarian thing I have heard today
It's more Namco and the fanbase's fault for overhyping the game and creating high expectations that an early 3D Tales game can't really match. The combat is some of the messiest in the series.
@@NerevarineKing Speak for yourself the combat is still to this day my favorite tales of combat and some of the music is so mystic I can never get more pumped, Lloyd Irving master swordsman is the quickest most fluid sword attacker protag in any tales of game and his delay after attacking is super minimal way less than Guy in Abyss and Yuri in Vesperia, think the only one who comes close is Arise guy protag whatever his name is but I hated the dodge button eith no guard button and ai teamates kept dieing so I dropped the game about15 hours in.
It's like Lloyd Irving Says: "Inferior beings".
Damn I miss the days when tales of would go all out, now it's just cheap ai cgi characters no hand drawing and no water color gorgeous art like in talss of graces. Ai and cgi is trash because cgi doesn't add enough outlines making most characters look artificial and ai goofs up how a human body should look so it ends up looking not as real and you cring at it.
I'm also not the biggest fan of Dawn of the New World, but last place seems a bit harsh. Yes, it stumbles in a lot of ways, but I've played at least 3 Tales of games I liked less than Dawn (Innocence R, Hearts R and Destiny PS1).
Sticking to the originals is the kind of hardcore spirit I appreciate
I don't like it when people rank games based on when they came out like, sure game B is better than game A but game A was a better 1998 game than game B was a 2008 game.
My only disagreement is your take on Eternia. I played it and Symphonia pretty much at the same time, and I was much more invested in Eternia personally (i do like Symphonia too, just not as much). I also really like the story and cast, I think the core 4 are brilliant and while the extra members are of course less of a focus, it just was what the series did at the time for those first 3 games. I find it a pretty charming aspect of that era, and Eternia imo came out with the best ones in making them feel relevant still, moreso than Phantasia's and Destiny's (though i enjoy those characters still too).
Edit: also the anime was weird but damn if I didn't enjoy looking at it lol.
Man, I understand the love for Vesperia, but to me Vesperia was a game with a lot of promise and I love Yuri, but that last quarter of the game feels so lame to me. It really droped the ball imo. Plus, the story can sometimes wank Yuri way too much. I know he’s cool, but goddamn, you arrive and immediately the guild leader is like: I like this kid that I just met so much I want him to be my successor.
Idk. I still think Vesperia is in the top 5 for sure, but above Beseria? Eeeeeeeeh
Gameplay is what gives Vesperia the edge for me. Games before it where all 3 hits->arte->arcane arte. And games after where all, "you have 5 attacks do whatever you want". Vespeira was the only game to keep the classic attack hiracy and yet allow unique combo paths and styles.
@@xenosanctum2531 Absolutely valid. I also prefer this style too and to be clear. I love Beseria to bits, I do. But I disliked the actual gameplay. However the story was so good, I didn’t mind the subpar battle system. I just like to put a bit more stock into the actual story since it sticks with me so much.
But yeah. If this was in terms of gameplay I would absolutely rank Vesperia high. Definately.
@@kyrudo TBH if we where ranking Berseria puerly of gameplay it would be just above Hearts in B tier. The fact the story was able to carry the game up to 2nd on my list should be considered a big deal.
@@xenosanctum2531 I remember just holding my controler with one hand and watching sowm youtube on the side while I grinded a bit in Beseria. Not only is the system not engaging but Velvet might be imo the most overpowered MC in Tales. She’s an absolute unit, the others are just there for moral support haha
@xenosanctum2531 Vesperia does kinda shoot itself in the foot though early game, stripping back a ton of combat options for the sake of creating progression in the skill system as they slowly dole them out. Without learning manual cancelling, Yuri has no moves early game that won't leave him wide open for an eon after every attack.
It makes combat feel too sluggish early even if it opens up wide when we get mid to late game.
Tales of Eternia is one of the bests
My only issue with Vesperia is the end of the plot feels odd to suddenly have the final boss we have.
Just watched this. I found it really nice for someone who finally played and gave some love the Japanese only PS2 games! I might of disagree on the top spots( I love Destiny 2 and Rebirth), I loved how you focus on gameplay and story!
That was one of the hottest takes I’ve heard on symphonia lol
God I wish I saw in Vesperia what everyone else does. There's some very interesting character moments, and the mechanics are really strong, but the story just... can't hold me. Both times I think I dropped the game around the big meeting/reveal at the colosseum (or maybe I played some more past that?), and I felt like I was forcing myself to keep reading.
Maybe I'll check it out again someday, hopefully I can pick up where I left off.
To me as a game I will always judge a game based on its gameplay 1st and formost. Although I frequently find JRPG players who don't seem to agree with me on that.
The games dosnt have a cohesive story. More of a series of loosely connected episodes, making it feel like an anime, whitch some people like but i dont.
Also, the main character has a huge following solely based on his charisma- read looking and acting as a bad ass. While he is cool he is also a murderer and not a great character.
@@goncaloferreira6429 Every JRPG character is a murderer at least Vesperia has the balls to admitt it. I like Yuri as the grey role model protagonist. I find he is morally comlex and intresting as to why he does the things he does.
@@xenosanctum2531 i know you dont think to must about story but still that reply is poor.
sure jrpgs have battles but murdering people in cold blood?
in narrative context/presentation is everything. A protagonist that does justice by his own hands? a role model?
@@goncaloferreira6429 I do think highly of story, a JRPG with a really bad plot can bore me out of finishing it.
Yuri is a role model to Karol due to his confidence and combat skill. However, Yuri doesn't want Karol to become a cold blooded killer like him so isn't super keen on being the role model. I think its a good dynamic.
My top 3:
Tales of Eternia
Tales of Graces F
Tales of Lengendia (I LOVE Norma)
Honorable mention: Radiant Mythology
Tbh, I think I value a good battle system.
I'm super surprised so many people love Xillia, I had to grind through the first one and the 2nd was the first Tales game I bailed on half way through. Art style was good, that's fair.
@@TheQuickyouknow Yeah same here Xillia 2 and 1 were Lazy and terrible trash play it safe reused pallets games.
I have to say rating Tales of Phantasia D-tier is just criminal. That game is a classic that I will always be able to come back to.
No arguments here that it is a classic. I just like most of the later games more.
@@xenosanctum2531 completely valid. I’m a sucker for retro rpgs.
Awesome seeing the 2 xillia games this high up they're my favs ❤️❤️
As for Vesperia though, I really tried my best to like it. I was 20 hours in but couldn't be bothered to continue playing cuz the combat didn't feel right and the story had no direction.
Combat definetly takes time to get good as all of the cool mechanics are locked behind skills you don't get until the 20+ hour mark. Story is very much just chracters do stuff, if you don't like the characters you will struggle to enjoy it.
I still think based on flaws its still the game with the weakes ones. Its not aged like Symphonia and Phantasia nor does it have massive issues like Berseria's Combat and Xillia's pacing issues.
My first Tales game was Graces f and I finished it and liked it very much. The Xillia games after that I liked even more. My favorite is also Vesperia after completing it on the Nintendo Switch a few years ago. I didn't finish 3 tales games I bought: Symphonia, Zestiria and Berseria. All for story reasons. But the main reason was really my entry to the Xenoblade series, and also the trails series, I don't have too much time for gaming anymore lol so I have to be picky.
If they do a remake for Abyss anytime I would definitely buy it though.
Zestiria's issues often boil down to Rose, and the series feeling like it wasn't evolving or getting time to release a full, uncompromised game.
Xillia was notably compromised in development, and Xillia 2 was crunched enough to get slapped with it's debt mechanic.
Honestly, considering how Rose is despised in both Japan and NA, I... can understand a bit. It's a very C-Tier for me personally.
Anything it does that I actually DO like about it... I could probably just play another one, y'know?
Tales of Berseria and Tales of Symphonia both vy for my top spot. Stories are what stick with me most in jrpgs and these two games have the best stories in the series imo. Berseria has the better cast but Symphonia has the better setting.
Never understood the hate for Tales of Arise, it was my GOTY for 2021 as the story impacted me like nothing else I played that year.
So people keep telling me.
The story wasn't really the problem for me. The combat and characters didn't feel like a tales game. If it was released under a new IP, I think it would have been better received. But a lot of people felt that Bamco released it under the "Tales of" title in order to cash in on an already established fan base.
@@corytanksley7909 For me it was a worthy entry into the franchise, again we have games like tales of tempest. If you've played all the games, you'll notice that it's a varied series. Compare tales of Phantasia to Symphonia to Vesperia, they are all very different, but doesn't mean they are not tales games. The way the story and the world is handled is very much Tales, to be honest and I really enjoyed the changes to the combat too.
My problem with Arise, like with Vesperia is that it drops the ball story wise about a little after the halfway point of the story. The midway twist was eye rolling but not terrible, but the last area was miserable.
Im not a fan of Beseria’s combat system, but the story was so great, Im willing to take an L in the combat for a story that genuinely moved me to my core. Arise’s story wasnt good enough in its later half to compensate for a kinda lame combat system.
Its a shame too! Cause Arise has has a really strong cast. Definately top 5 for me, but idk what happened the writers just didn’t know what to do with them after the mid way point. Its a damn shame. I really want to love Arise, I really do
So you only played tales of arise in the entirety of 2021?
Tales of Phantasia really good game in SNES and PS1. I'm still impress on the many complex dungeons. And many dialogues so good, so fun to read and play through.
The combat is a total mess of unreliable AI and waiting for long battle animations to finish. It completely fails at being a good action game. Which is a shame because that's what you spend most of the game doing due to the encounter rate.
ive tried like 4-5 times to get into symphonia and it just doesnt do it for me
Ppl hate my top 5 list
Tales of Symphonia : Dawn of the new world
Tales of Arise
Tales of Xillia 2
Tales of Berseria
Tales of Vesperia
I feel like I’m the one person in the world who doesn’t hate dawn of the new world. As someone who found the first Symphonia’s story and characters incredibly boring and generic, I actually found Emil and Marta a big improvement in terms of their journey. Emil especially is a far better protagonist than Lloyd, actually having significant character development with fighting against his Ratatoskr persona and becoming a stronger person. Though of course I do admit it’s very lacking in terms of the overall gameplay and content. It’s not perfect, but I’d hardly call it the worst thing in the entire world.
Agree 100%
How can anyone handle Scared little Emil always afraid of everything over Lloyd learning so much and also starting off as quite a bonehead. Marta also super annoying just being in love with Emil. The plot of symphonia felt better. Love this series cause it’s insane where we put our games. lol props to you for enjoying it but I definitely couldn’t. Played it once and that was it. Berseria and Xilia 2 are at my tops. With vesperia and symphonia after
Been a tales fan since my parents bought me destiny in the late 90s.
It went from #13 to #11. Did nobody else notice? Saw no comments
@@anonymoose2474 Innocence was supposed to say 12 on the title card.
In terms of personal opinions. My personal reason for not liking Zesteria is 2 key issues.
1. The characters feel way too frail to me. it is designed for you to tag and Armatus freequently to make up for the party feeling like they are made up or paper mache.
2. (Technically Berseria has this issue as well but i liked the rest of the game enough to mostly ignore it) the equipment system. it went from a steady progression of equipment in the games before to a "Each weapon doesn't matter as much as the randomly placed skills they can get" system that urked me. you spend most playthoughs truing to get a high level set of gear that has the exact skill combination to match what you want. it's equipment skill system is far too complicated for it's own good.
My top 3 games (Not including remakes) would be Abyss, Graces (Technically i played Graces F on the PS3 but since it was the world wide release i count it) and Berseria.
I'm interested what made you prefer Hearts so much more than Hearts R.
Tales of the Abyss and Vesperia were the peak for me
Vesperia was my first Tales game and is was really hard to find another entry that grabbed me as much as it did. I remember playing it from start to finish which is a very rare thing for me and I also remember wanting to start a new game right after finishing it as newgame plus was a thing that opened up after your first run through. This was an awesome addition as I really didn't expect anything more from it. Shame my 360 died as did all notion of another playthough. Great memories still and I highly recommend it as a solid game throughout with a likable main character that calls out bullshit, which is so rare! :D
Tales of arise is a tale of two games for me. First half of the game was super fun. Liked the characters, liked the combat, found the story to be interesting with some good mystery surrounding the main protagonist. But after picking up the last two characters and starting the second half of the game everything fell apart. Story went off the rails, combat became spam one move over and over and the final two characters felt so slapped on that they didn’t mesh at all with the rest of the cast. It was such a let down after such a strong start for me.
Out of the games I've played I rank them as follows:
1. Tales of Symphonia
2. Tales of Vesperia
3. Tales of Xillia
4. Tales of the Abyss
5. Tales of Xillia 2
6. Tales of Phantasia
I know ToS has ages a bit, but to me its gameplay is still tight enough and a good base for the following games without too many bells and whistles. Its story though is still unmatched, the way it hits on xenophobia, the world(s)building, the characters; I love it all so much.
Currently playing Tales of Eternia on an old PSP. Planning on buying a PS5 this year and playing Tales of Arise, Berseria and Zestiria!
Ranking all Tales of games I played so far based on how much I enjoyed their combat system
1.Tales of Graces F
2. Tales of Xillia 2
3. Tales of Berseria
4. Tales of Vesperia
5. Tales of Xillia
6. Tales of Arise
7. Tales of Symphonia
8. Tales of Zestiria
In my opinion:
1. Symphonia
2. Vesperia
3. Arise
(?). Dawn of the new World
And the other following ranked games i have not finished yet:
4. Destiny
5. Abyss
6. Phantasia
7. Berseria
And the worst one was Zesteria
Graces does have the best combat system in seres. I might need to play Xillia 1 and 2. That might be better. I totally want a fighting game off Graces system
Def play Xillia 2 it's the peak of combat in the franchise
@@Seph4096 I would agree if Xillia 2 didn't use Graces weakness system. They should have used Innocence R's guard counter mechanic to allow for longer combos instead of using Graces weakness system to completely sideline Xillia 1's counter system. I still think X2 combat is top 3 for sure though.
I recommend putting the list in the comments section, in order. Thanks for the recommendation
1000% agree about Zesteria. Yes it didn't blow me away but story and gameplay are solid and it does what it wants well... unlike others
This list feels almost RNG to me, once we get out of the D-tier, but maybe that's a testament or how consistently good this series is.
There are currently only 5 Tales games on Steam, I'd love for the rest to be remade, remastered or whatever and put there and on modern consoles. I'd love to be able to play Eternia and a few others without having to spend hundreds of dollars or find a rom. Bandai Namco, I'd like to give you some money, how about you make that easy for me?
I've only played about a 1/3rd of the Tales games, but I know whose advice to take when they rank Arise as low as I do. xD
For the most part I agree. Sorry for putting symphonia above abyss though but that main character just annoyed me.
Your Tales of tastes differ a lot from mine lol like, I genuinely believe that Berseria and Vesperia are not that good.
Yeah same I genuinely loved the characters but the story... not so much and the gameplay it sucks to the point where i just start spamming break soul to just get abit of fun in the game
The only tales game they play exactly the same is tales of the abyss tales of vesperia and tales of sophonia
Except they don't, Symphonia only has 2D movement in battles
Haven’t finished arise yet but I agree symphonia is overrated but I don’t think it should be that low. Out of the ones I played as of now I rank that one 2nd. Vesparia I remember trying it and I instantly returned it. Could not beat the first boss and it’s not that I’m bad. The game for me has such input delay that I couldn’t even react to anything. Xilia is next my list to try
Tales of Syphonia DotnW is S teir for me and you cant take it away from me.
Haha arise c tier you funny. 😂 abyss had way to much go back to a town you visted million times to talk to one person. Honestly took me years to beat because of that. It sooooo slow.
Agree on vesperia and and xillia being great tho
I need to play more. I played part of Symphonia back in the GameCube day and never finished it and decided to pick up Arise randomly when it came out. It got me through having Covid as no other game could hold my interest at that time. Sad to see it at a C, but agree with that you said. I liked what I played of Beseria and don’t know why I stopped because I liked it.
Since posting that, I finished Symphonia (loved it), finished Berseria (loved it) and am about 2/3rds the way done with Zestiria. I thought Zestiria was underrated…until I got to the fetch quest. Ugh! Such a slog. Hopefully it picks back up afterwards.
I'd of put Arise in C as well. I didn't like the level like structure to the story. I actally liked the last part of the game because it broke away from feeling structured. I view level structures kinda like the part in Final Fantasy VII where you have to get the huge materia and then I try imagine what if it wasn't just a small part of the game but instead half of the game and you had one huge section getting the first one and so on. If it was like that the game would have not been anywhere near as good and the story would have felt slow.
I played and beat tales of a rise. It was my first tails game.
There was a surprising amount of voiceover work done in these things called skits as you know.
However the writing was really generic and repetitive. They just kept repeating the same thing over and over again.
The maiden feeling depressed or angry or some other kind of emotion and then the main character constantly showing concern and then her getting upset.
And then the constant lines of how friendship makes things better and how they work together.
It was very generic. The combat was also really bad. A lot of the enemies were just completely unbalanced. Wolves hopping around non-stop appearing to have no cooldown making it very difficult to hit them. Rock dudes jumping up slamming down three times over and over again.
And the game even on very easy with the artifact is still extremely difficult compared to other games I've played.
I still enjoyed playing it and had fun. But I have to wonder if the other games offer a much better story in much better writing.
I've only currently played Tales of the Abyss, and I loved it. As you've put it towards the top I will listen to your words and play Vesperia next 👍
@@leecoll78 Abyss is a weird one to start with these days as it's really inaccessible these days.
@@xenosanctum2531 not if you have homebrew installed on your 3ds. I do buy new games too, but my 3ds xl lives on.
@@xenosanctum2531 I have homebrew installed on my 3ds, so I have it on there. Vesperia is cheap on the Switch so will pick up a copy next. P.s long live the 3ds via homebrew, it's the best!
@@xenosanctum2531I have it on my 3ds, picked it up as I read it had a great story, and it does! Vesperia is pretty cheap to pick up as a Physical copy on Switch so will get that soon 👍
I 100% disagree with your take for the combat of arise. As a person who is not nostalgia blinded because I came into the series later, the other tales combat systems have honestly felt so fcking stiff. Been playing through graces and people gas that combat system up. For me… arise was just better. Maybe not as complex but I felt like I had more control and fun. And before anyone says it’s a skill issue, I’m playing graces on hard and my issue is not dying. I just hate feeling like I’m playing a turn based game everytime I have to block, dodge, attack and repeat
Tales of the Abyss is my favorite. Berseria, Xillia, and Symphonia are close seconds.
Can't stress it any further. Bandai namco where is them remakes
Completely disagree with everything you said about dawn of the new world. It's not S tier but still good for story, characters, and combat. I loved marta and she was voiced by my fave voice actor too Laura Bailey. It's A tier for me
That being said you at least put Xillia in S rank. My S rank is the holy trinity of Xillia, Xillia 2, Graces F
I’m sad that abyss didn’t make it to top 3 but I’m happy it made it to top 5
For me the three best would be: Vesperia Berseria Abyss I definitely hope the new titles look less like Arise and more like Berseria or Vesperia.
It's somewhat comforting to know that, even in 2024, Xenosanctum will hate on Arise viciously
In the wise words of George Lucas "I may of gone a bit too far in some places."
It's deserved
It's not a tales game anymore.
@@jamalstar4243 nah not really
@@yogirajmore63 that sentence makes no sense
Tales of arise is my only tales game so far and I love it.
So, basicly, if i can't stop to adore Berseria cast and story, the only one that can be comparable is remaster of old-stuff Vesperia and bit outdated Xilia. Why does the world so hard on me?
@@АртурШатилов-б1п I'm sorry, what?
@@xenosanctum2531 sorry, english not my native language.
In other words, if i like Berseria and want something similar, only option Vesperia and Xilia, and I'm bit upset with low amount of similarly good games
@@АртурШатилов-б1п Anything in B tier and above is worth your time if you ask me. Infact the gameplay in most of them is better than Berseria. Only the D tier are games I would tell you to avoid unless you want to play every Tales game.
From the video i can make out one clear red line going throught all the reviews:
"If i cant stagger the enemies for 5 minutes with combos i hate the game" 😂
If I master the combat I should be rewarded with 5 minute combo's. Whats wrong with that? BTW I never got that good in any Tales game but knowing I could alway play better kept me invested to improve.
@@xenosanctum2531 comboing an enemy for 5 minutes doing 5 million damage makes every fight trivial and boring to me.
I hate when i see others play tales of games having their charakters overleveled, their gear overleveled and staggering a Boss till hes dead with zero fight back of the enemy. Especially on games i cant play because i Lack the console or its japanese only
Maybe because im a dark souls Player, but i want bosses to be a challenge. Something i just whipe away like a fly will not stay in my memory.
When i replay a JRPG, no matter what game, i allways play it like i would when i first did. Even though i exactly know how i could overlevel myself Quick.
But especially at the Finale, i battle a god with a group of mostly humans, so i dont want to stagger him into oblivion or oneshot him and if he uses a Skill that looks like it would destroy a batrle Tank i want my Party to be hurt if they get Hit by it.
@@RealEvilLordExdeath Again, its not trivial becuse you can only combo lock the boss by doing every move perfectly. Vesperia is a great exsample as your limited in how many attacks you can make and you need to know which attcks will move the enermy away vs cause you to jump ect.
Its like those Dark Souls videos of people causally beating a boss by perfectly walking 2 pixels outside of the bosses hit box.
BTW overlevleing makes any Tales boss easy regardless of staggering or not. What staggering does do is allow a really good player the chance to beat a boss way above them if they can master the game mechanics.
Again emphasis in on the tearm MASTER. Games which make combos easy are not a good, hence why I have issues with games like Hearts and Xillia.
Not much to say here other than I completely agree with your list. Although I couldn't get into berseria as much so I'd switch that with abyss
Tales of Symphonia is the only JRPG I ever actually finished, I guess besides the incredibly short Golden Sun (still havent finished lost age) I played Chrono Trigger MANY times, never finished it, and have dabbled across the wide board, but TOS is the only one I ever actually played until the end and even NG+ed
Yikes... You lost me at Tales of Phantasia... The GBA port, sure - but the SNES original?
Have you played it? Sure for a SNES game its great but in the modern era I don't find its combat or story that intresting.
@@xenosanctum2531Video games do not "age". Tales of Phantasia is still the fantastic game it was 20 years ago, and implying that standards for games have increased over the years is foolish.
@@LezardDesu If video games didn't "age" we wouldn't have console genrations now would we.
@@LezardDesu they do age. Chrono trigger released back then s tier. If they released it now b tier.
@@xenosanctum2531 Just curious, did you play Phantasia on emulator?
What, dawn of the new world was my intro into the series back on wii. Emil is my fav character. I dont see why everybody hates it. Tales of Arise was good gameplay wise but half way through when his mask came off I was underwhelmed. I was left thinking after all that build up bc of his mask, thats it? The story got so boring and tedious.
He looked so bland without the mask I wanted to put it back on lol otherwise he could blend in with the NPCs. It didn't help that his personality was also bland.
@Hexadecimal_QueenofChaos 😅 I completely agree. Nothing about him was interesting anymore. The story went down hill shortly after to 🤭 He's basically a npc that got thrown into the plot as a main character
@@Imjustme1943 🤣Not only that but his expression beneath the mask looked perpetually shocked like he was in a mugshot taken for a DUI. I’m sorry but [endgame spoilers] when he put on his white suit costume it was even worse for him because the Renan NPCs had a similar looking outfit and he blended into the background even more lmao. The only thing that made him stand out was his height. Even the hair sucked lol. I’m surprised his design was this bland because every other character looked beautiful and unique. Lmao! @ “he’s an NPC that got thrown into the plot as a main character”sadly he had the intelligence level of the NPCs too lmao 😑 and 99% of them were obnoxiously dumb, i suppose that was the writers' attempt to add more drama. 😑
I want to forget that awful part of the game where his mask came off and he washed up on shore and suddenly [spoilers] he realizes he’s 300 years old or some sh*t??? 😵💫And the group just accepts it like its nothing… it was a huge “revelation” but weirdly underwhelming, probably because it was so nonsensical. And the game from that point on tried to make each new plot twist as weird and unbelievable as possible. I should’ve known that was the point that the game was taking a turn for the worst but I kept pushing myself through the sh*tstorm lol. It was so weird to see the game pile on more and more lore about him being some great almighty “Sovereign” in an attempt to make him more interesting when his character was literally sleep inducing and added nothing at all to the story with his dialogue, personality (lack of) or reactions. I’m sorry to say that, I liked him at the beginning but by the end he was either invisible or too obnoxious with the “friendship saves the universe” speeches (I had to skip many of them lol…). Once the game ended, I could not buy him as a great hero who just saved the entire universe because he was so plain and his ideas were so basic. I literally groaned out loud with his “Vholran u are evul because of lack of friendship” wtf? He also forgot to solve his initial goal of “cancelling racism once and for all”. Him being so docile and optimistic was totally unrealistic for me considering everything he’s been through, i wish they had gone in a different direction with his character. He's "nice" but not a good choice for a main character.
Sorry just had to rant because I do not understand some of the love I see for his character and his "epic romance" with Shionne... it was so plain and cliche for me. If you read that whole rant thanks and I'm sorry lol!!!!
What's wrong with Tales of Hearts R remake?
Its artstyle is really lame, the combat lacks the polish of the core entries also the game has a very poor translation which makes the characters sound really dumb.
I just got into Tales in 2023. Out of the five entries I’ve played, my ranking of them from best to worst:
1. Tales of Arise
2. Tales of Vesperia
3. Tales of Berseria
4. Tales of Symphonia
5. Tales of Zestiria
I agree with this list largely. I like the tier system. Perhaps I'll have to shift to this one in my own reviews.
Always thought symphonia was slow and boring honestly. I get why Its loved but I always preferred abyss and vesperia.
Everyone has their own opinion, but I have to disagree with almost 70% of what was said in the video. In the end, these types of lists don't make much sense since taste is a very personal thing. For example, I really liked Berseria's battle system, but the story didn't really grab me. I'm currently playing Arise and it's clearly an evolution of all aspects of the other games, and although I'm really enjoying playing it, it seems like they tried to make it more accessible to players who aren't used to the "Tales of" series, making the battle system more dynamic and less difficult. And this may be a negative point for many people, but I certainly wouldn't put this game so low on my list because of it. Lastly, I didn't find the boss battles that long. For me, it's still in the "Tales of" standard, those who have played FF12 know what a really long boss battle is.
Playing Arise's 2nd half literally gave you the feeling of being a turd being flushed down the toilet with no way to fight for yourself or stop what's happening... you're just plunging into inevitable doom wondering wtf is going on. The game started off so strong then completely squandered its own potential and contradicted its own arguments in favour of attempting a huge epic "twist" to the story, and in the end it failed to be epic in any way. This is what makes it terrible. If the game had been consistent all the way through it would be passable, as it stands its incomplete. Even the combat becomes a chore to play as time goes on.
I like tales of arise although I've only played all the games available on ps4/ps5 so far
I could overlook Arise's repetitive combat and generic story if only the characters had interesting personality and good synergy with each other. Going from likable cast of Vesperia to Arise was so disappointing
Idk if it's the way the dialogue was written but the Arise cast was so awkward during conversations I had to skip the cutscenes and skits and just read the plot online. It's like they weren't humans but robots trying to communicate with each other in the most long winded, inoffensive way possible, like their interactions weren't true to the way people actually speak. Also in the end they never actually figured out a way to "solve racism once and for all". Alphen giving a "friendship saves the universe" speech didn't solve anything... I think most people were just begging for the torture to end at this point and just checked out and didn't realize this about the story.
You said only mainline games, Dawn of the new world isn't canon to the symphonia timeline.
@@Gabvrie194 Bandai Namco reclassified the games in 2020 which made DoaNW a Mainline game
i was on board until zesteria. its just...that game was so boring imo. the combat system did nothing for me, it was like everything fun about graces but stripped down completely. its characters seemed fine, but it wasn't enough to make me want to sit through more of those battles.
Otherwise solid list
opinions aside the Tales games i have played are
Tales of Vespiria
Tales of Graces F
Tales of Zesteria
Tales of Berseria
Tales of Xillia
Tales of Xillia 2
Tales of Arise
I have really enjoyed each and everyone of them i dont Agree where you put Tales of Arise at all to low 🙂but my Fave of them all is Tales of Graces F even tho my first one was Tales of Vespiria.
Tales of Symphonia i have tried to play but never finished sadly but i have watched others play it i guess its just one of those games i prefer to watch than play my self maybe one day i will finish it.
I also love Arise and zestiria!
Just want to said one thing
I don't like your list 😢😢😢😢
I will never understand the love for Tales of Vesperia. I played 25 hours of that game and was bored with every single facet of that game
@@Kyekyre I kinda agree
I played 1000 hours. Best tales of games
Tales of vesperia story was lackluster
Eternia being the "most forgettable " despite being the originator of Cameo battles, Mystic artes and other interesting secrets(like Maxwell extensions) has got to be the worst takes I have ever seen.
While very few people played Eternia, absolutely nobody of those who did deem it forgettable
Symphonia in 10 is a joke really the story is so deep amd elaborated It is the game that takes out the tales series from japan only and has a a battle system simple but envolvent and a profound elaboration of the cast history
This year I bought Vesperia and Arise for PS4 and never played any Tales of game before. Loved both, did all the side quests, got best weapons etc, just because wanted to spend more time in these worlds. But when I hear from some that Arise is 2/10 and Vesperia is 9/10 games I am surprised, because if looking at any other competition, like Dragon Quest VIII, XI or Xenoblade Chronicles (1st) both games feels unpolished in comparison. Looks like only true fan of series can tell difference by such margin, since series as a whole is mediocrity lacking in at least some aspects in every iteration. Vesperia is far from perfect, even far from really good, and Arise is a tad weaker. There is not that much difference to celebrate one or banish the other.
Sucks to see my fav Tales of game (Symphonia 2) so low
I like your taste man vesperia was the first tales of game I never beat and got in to tales of in the first place 🥇
clicked away when you had the audacity to say zestiria is better than symphonia. so unserious
Tales of Zestiria is good game .
combat is hard to learn, but system really works.
music is very great.
story is weak,but i love The brotherhood between Sorey and Mikleo