My First Impressions of the Tales Series
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- Опубликовано: 21 июл 2024
- In this video, I take a look at 5 games in the Tales series, give you a brief review of them based on roughly 5 hours played of each (except Zestiria), and then conclude by making a suggestion for which games I'd suggest to someone also looking at getting in to the Tales series based on my experiences so far!
Tales of Hearts R gameplay source: • Tales of Hearts R (Vit...
Intro: 00:00
Tales of Zestiria: 02:00
Tales of Hearts R: 06:23
Tales of Berseria: 10:07
Tales of Vesperia: 14:24
Tales of Arise: 18:58
Overall Conclusions: 24:38 
Игры
For me personally, the best starting entry is Abyss. Favorite in the library of Tales games though is the Xillia duology. I have liked most of the games, but like any long-running series there will always be games that someone won't like. I did not like Zesteria or Graces, but a lot of people do and I can respect that. Glad to see Arise getting talked about. I enjoyed that one, just no as much as Xillia.
Abyss, Graces and Symphonia are also must plays imo.
I didn't mention it in the video but I started playing a bit of Abyss on the 3DS and been enjoying that a fair bit!
@@DastyDan abyss clears everything
Eh, Graces is a pretty weak entry, tbh. It’s good, but still one of the worst in the series imo.
@@yedffgd No way, it has an awesome battle system probably the best of the series.
@@yedffgd best battle system tbh
Seeing someone new to the series talk about its good qualities and its bad qualities is extremely interesting and honestly makes me really happy. As someone who was introduced to JRPGs as a whole with this series, it holds a special place in my heart. Hearing you treat it with such care as to not be overly biased in one direction or the other was a great change of pace.
So I guess I just want to say, thank you for making this video. It makes me really glad to hear that newcomers enjoy the series. I hope you continue to have fun with these games, especially Xillia and Xillia 2 because their characters are so precious.
That's very kind of you to say, thank you! :)
Tales of the abyss will forever be my favorite
I haven't played that game for many years but I can hum Tear's song like I've heard it yesterday.😆😁
@@yugifrolife I can't do that, but I still remember the feeling I had after seeing fall of Chessedonia and even something as small as random guy who wanted Jade to acknowledge him and scribed glyphs into his eyes... Which went south.
Vesperia is so damn good just because Yuri. Probably my favorite jrpg protagonist. Hes just so smooth with it.
I think the whole cast are so damn good. It just works so well on every level. Naturally with Judith being the best Waifu in the series, Vesperia was revolutionary
Growing up with the series, I'm so glad it's gained a decent fanbase and managed to stay alive against heavy hitters like Final Fantasy and DQ. Bringing more attention to the series makes me happy and hopes it brings some JRPG enjoyers some good times like it did for me.
Berseria, Vesperia, and Symphonia are must plays. Glad to see two of those here.
I'm extremely interested in seeing a follow-up when you've finished the games you chose and see how Tale's "backloaded" (for lack of a better term coming to my head) storytelling makes you change your mind.
I want to play Zesteria purely because of how much it ties in to Berseria and it's characters. I need to get around to that here soon.
Yeah, that's certainly a video for the future. EVERYONE seems to talk about Symphonia's quality though, so I was thinking of concentrating on that and making a video on just that specifically. So many comments in here suggest how amazing it is, so I'd find it interesting to put my faith in the community!
@@DastyDan I haven't played the whole way through yet, but I'm enjoying a lot of the troupes they make fun of.
Though I still think Berseria is far and away the best and most complex of the Tales games, so I would personally love to see a deep dive on that over any of the others.
@Hirschy Kirkwood yeah it certainly seems to deserve more than the 5 or so minutes I gave it in this video lol consider that added to the project list!
@@DastyDan Woo! Notifications are on for when you get to it!
@@HirschyKiss I'll have to play the first few hours again for footage though, I deleted the files! I wasn't expecting this video to get anywhere near as popular as it is... I don't mind though lol
Excellent video Dan, fantastic! Made me want to pick up Arise again 😂
Xillia 2 is my personal favorite. Fun yet extremely dark story.
Arise is my next favorite, followed by Graces F then Berseria.
Really wish Xillia series was on Steam. That's on my bucket list for games i would love to play. 😁
Always loved the Tales series, nice video man!
Thanks! I'm surprised I never really gave it much of a look before now tbh, they're (mostly) very solid RPGs!
Abyss, Symphonia, and Vesperia are all equally good as far as the older style of Tales games goes. Each have their own strengths and weaknesses but any one of those three would be fantastic entry points.
My take: Abyss and Berseria if you like it when the game doesnt hold back on how dark it is, I forgot to save my PCSX2 memory card for Abyss so I lost 47 hours of progress accidentally when I wiped my computer, but where I got in the story I couldn’t put it down and almost made myself late for work some days, the story is very good. I am currently going through Berseria on PC at 39 hours and the story hits you with a right hook at certain moments, idk how the ending is so I can’t say, looks pretty grim though
Most broken mage classes: Tales of Vesperia and Tales of Arise, chain casting is nuts when you get your party members up in the levels. Rinwell in Arise is my favorite Tales of mage to this day:
Story wise: Phantasia, Abyss, Berseria/Zestiria, this is in tandem with my first example; these games dont hold back on story progression and how deep the iceberg goes.
I’ve only played those I’ve mentioned to this date, it is very hard to find the games on their proper consoles only coz I dont want to fork some little amount just to play 1 game when I have A PS5 that can have the games ported if they’re popular enough.
Berseria is great
Berseria was my favorite absolutely love pretty much all the main cast
@@kahel3094 agreed, Velvet was such a great protag
Just got berseria. Vesparia was my intro to the series and is in my top favorite jrpg easy.
Once I'm done with arise I'll start berseria.
my entry to tales game. perfect pacing, great character and easy to understand combat.
tales of arise is good too, better combat maybe. but i cant seem to enjoy it as much as berseria
It was one of the best. But the last one was epic!
Tales is one of the only long running JRPG series that I have played a decent amount of games in. The combat, while it can be bloated in terms of mechanics, feels so good to get better at. Zestiria has so much shit going on and the combat felt really limiting, but once you “figure it out” it actually became one of my favorite combat systems in the series. And all the games feel like that. Going from little 5 hit combos ending in Demon Fang to 70-100 hit combos with your whole team wailing on a higher level monster, with bursts, or links or whatever the game has, makes you feel like an absolute monster when it all comes together.
Finally. Someone else gets Velvet's outfit. I always see people just comenting on how fanservise or sexual it is.
To me it always conveid a wild and savage nature instead of sexual. How Velvet is more if a beast than human.
Both is true if we're being honest. Not that I mind though.
I only played two games of tales until now, but i know some of the others being Symphonia, Xilia and Abyss. My first one it was tales of Zestiria and i fell in love with the game, it's a pity that some people hate it but tastes are tastes. The other one that i played is Tales of Arise i loved too. I'd like to try the duology of Xilia, it's a pity that the game don't exist for the ps4 and ps5.
Play Berseria!!!
It's good to see you back!
I've played Arise on the PS5, and Hearts R on the Vita, and loved them both. Currently playing through Graces f on the PS3 and am really enjoying it so far as well. I've got a number of others still to play: Symphonia Chronicles, Xillia, and Xillia 2 on the PS3; Vesperia, Berseria, and Zestiria on the PS5 (using PS4 backwards compatibility); and just today got in Abyss for the 3DS. Easily my favorite JRPG series, and am looking forward to trying out all the other titles!
Symphonia is my favorite! Hope you enjoy it when you get to it!
I'm looking forward to getting around to it! The comments have got me excited for it for sure!
Ive played all the Tales games, one of my favorite series! Vesperia is my favorite id definitely recommend playing more of it, the story gets really good and the characters are so likeable especially by the end
Berseria, Vesperia and Xillia would be the order of my favorites. And they can all be played multiplayer.
For me xillia 2 and graces F are peak overall. Arise had that nice first time experience, it felt too good to finish.
But its a tales game that i would redo, like nier automata its a Wonder when you do it for the 1st time but its so good that you don't see the point in re-playing.
Dude get out of my head lol Xillia 2 and Graces f are my 2 number 1 favorites in the series as well! Zestiria onwards the games have felt weird, and really don't like the direction. Party members have been really lacking, spell casters are kinda bad ngl, along with a myriad of other issues.
@@Rex13013 yeah zestiria party management was pretty bad , ia is stupid , we can only play 2 characters thats too frustrating . only somewhat good caster is edna because of she has gravity magic but most of the time every fight are cleared with armatization xd
Agreed Xillia 2 and Graces are peak. Zestiria was terrible in every way, imo. Luckily they learned and went hard with Berseria.
I love the older games more. Really wish they make an hd remaster of tales of the abyss
Some corrections, in Hearts R its not Shing that causes Kohaku's spiria to break, its actually Lithia, the girl with green hair who he meets in there that decides to break it in order to protect herself from Incarose, the woman that was chasing Kohaku and Hisui in the intro. Also in Vesperia, you do not need to synth an item to play as other characters, you only need the Moon Selector to switch characters mid battle. You can always switch outside of them. Also you'd need the Special Flag in order to change who you run around as on the field, and the Special Flag-R to run around as Repede.
Ah fair enough, I thought you needed to craft the item to play as someone else after looking it up. Maybe I got mislead by what I found from googling. Must have overlooked switching outside of battle. Ty for setting those straight for me though!
My top 3 has got to be, Xillia, Vesperia, and Symphonia.
I have only played Arise, so now I'm worried I'll have problems going back to older entries that doesn't play like it... but at least this video has pointed me in the direction of Vesperia and Berseria, whose premises I at least find interesting enough that I'll probably be able to overlook any gameplay irritations I might find. So thanks for that!
Yeah you’d have to had play the others before Arise if you want the original experience. Arise is their culmination of everything up to this point. Berseria will feel a little slow starting out, but you’ll get the feel for the Soul Gauge and how it works. It was a learning curve for me until I figured out an always guaranteed stun arte combo as Velvet, the main character. She’s the most broken in Tales of Berseria
As for Vesperia, as long as u have MP you can cast artes like crazy, it plays a lot like Abyss. Raven, Rita and Judith have the most OP combos in that game.
Overall, this series' strong point is in its combat system and character interactions. Story can be hit-or-miss depending on the game, so it is best to not expect too much from the story from this series. Usually, titles that are praised with amazing story is mainly Phantasia, Symphonia, Abyss, and Berseria. Also, it is common for the story to start slow in the series, where the first 10-15 hours of the story is usually kind of plain / boring / simplistic, but things start to become quite interesting later on (Except for Berseria & Arise since the main plot starts earlier).
Yeah I certainly got that impression! With Zestiria, it felt like the true colours of the story didn't really show up until about half way through
Interesting. I've always found the combat to be at best good enough. With the characters and some of the more intricate story and plot to keep it from being mediocre.
@@HirschyKiss I see. For me, I think the series' combat system is unique enough than most other RPG out there, therefore the uniqueness became its strong point in my opinion.
But I can see how some of the combat is only good enough at best depending on the title. So the story or characters carried it. But there are definitely some combat system that stood out a lot even within the series. For example the combat in Tales of Graces F (PS3) is highly praise for being one of the best combat system.
@@simonlow0210I mean, the combat is pretty unique but I don't play jrpgs for their combat. I like stories and characters so that's what stand outs for me.
I've played Berseria and I loved it, I'm playing Vesperia now and it's looking great too. I'll probably play some more 😂
Berseria and Xillia are my favorite. Arise was really good
I got almost every Tales of game on all the Sony PlayStation console, but I don’t think I ever finished any of it. I remember liking Xillia a lot, but then I got distracted by Persona 5 XD
Definitely willing to give a chance to Zestiria and Vesperia cuz I like main characters’ designs a lot.
Thanks for the video! I really hope your channel gets more attention, you deserve it ✨
I think Zestiria's on sale atm for dirt cheap too if you wanna give it a go! Its a cosy time! And thanks for your comment, means a lot :)
@@DastyDan i got ‘em all on my PSN account) so it is just a matter of time 🎮 thanks for responding 🙏
@@ADAMAGAYAN ah well happy gaming when you get to it!
Symphonia, is a must play for sure. it was my first tales of game as a teen back in the day and the story is near dear to my heart. if someone had to start with any of the games in the series you couldn't really go wrong with the games PS2 games and GC. but Symphonia is my pick. but again I'm biased. TwT; I like the others too like Abyss was great.
I've been playing through Symphonia since this video. Not too far yet but I'm quite enjoying it so far! I've just got to assaulting the second ranch we see, if you want an idea of where about I got to!
Edit: I do wish I'd played some of the older games for this video, like Symphonia and Abyss, although these were the most accessible to me at the time with them having pc ports. Namco should give us more ports of the older games though!
I haven’t played all of them but my thoughts:
Abyss, Xillia 2 and Berseria nailed the balance of the darkness with the light. Also very compelling entries.
For someone looking for beginner friendly instalments maybe Arise, Xillia 1 or Symphonia. All offer a thoroughly complete story.
Finally Graces F, Vespiria or Zestiria if you want something softer for the palette and more party focused and character driven.
Haven’t played any of the others unfortunately. 😢
please please please finish vesperia. it has such a deep and emotional story (imo) once you get past the first 1/3. (it has like a 3 part story kinda, and the last 2/3rds are just like omg.) ive played it twice now and it made me emotional both times lol
Don't worry, it's definitely on the 'to complete' list!
The line of Symphonia-> Abyss-> Vesperia-> Xillia-> Xillia 2 are my favorites. If I had to name a single favorite, it would probably be Vesperia.... but IMO Abyss has the best combat overall, and Graces F has the best characters/skits/interactions.
They really don't make them like they used to.
I miss the uniqueness from them. But arise was a nice step 😊
Tales of Destiny: Director's Cut, and Tales of Symphonia are amazing. I'm still playing through Vesperia, so its hard to say I love it or not, yet, but so far it seems good.
When it comes to today's generation, Tales of Vesperia might be easier to start with due to the graphics, but a case can be made for Tales of Destiny: Director's Cut as well for having a timeless aesthetic.
Yes Dan! I was looking into Tales of Arise!
It's pretty good!
play Tales of Abyss next 😊
Tales of Z!!!!
Love the game. And it's still the best intro music.
I will say Hearts R starts out really rough as far as characters go, but gets a LOT better when you pick up Gall, Ines, and especially Beryl for me. Their dynamics are amazing, and definitely help to make up for Kor and Hisui, for me at least.
I think Tales is one of those series that I buy them all but just sit in my backlog. I’ve only finished Zestiria and people say it’s the worst!
Doesn't help when they go on heavy discounts in the sales! 😅
It’s really not, people go at it just because of how the game was advertised, even though we did get DLC specifically addressing the issue that everyone just adores to ignore.
DotNW is hated so much purely because it couldn’t live up to Symphonia, it’s still a decent game, I don’t think any of the Tales games are below a 5.
Arise and Legendia are criticised for more or less the same reason, that being that they’re both very different from the rest.
Objectively I’d say tempest is the worst in the series, bad graphics, short story, bad gameplay, no voice acting, u name it, the story, characters, mood and systems do have a ton of potential tho, only if we had an actual Tempest R rather than an April Fools joke.
Personally I find Berseria severely overrated, the world didn’t match the tone of the story, the combat felt spammy ah, dungeons were just so unnecessarily long, I find Velvet insufferably edgy, too many skits replacing cutscenes and the Katz costumes mechanic just felt tedious.
And before I get chewed on about the Berseria comment, by no means do I think it’s a bad game, but having it in the same discussion as Vesperia, Arise and Symphonia is ridiculous. I can say Arise is my favourite, but ranking Abyss, Vesperia, Symphonia, Graces f, Xillia, Legendia, Rebirth and Destiny (DC) is impossible, they’re all in around the same area imo, then they’re followed in this order: Berseria, Eternia, Xillia 2, Zestiria, Innocence R, Hearts R, Destiny 2, DotNW, Phantasia (just because it’s old), Tempest.
Phantasia needs the Star Ocean First Departure R treatment, Eternia the same, Tempest needs the R treatment, Destiny DC, Destiny 2 and Rebirth need localisations, DotNW, Abyss, Legendia and Symphonia need the DE treatment, not the “Remastered” BS they did to Symphonia, and the rest need PC ports at minimum, I’m okay with emulating but running natively would be so much more convenient and consumer-friendly.
Either way, point is, do not let ur own opinions be influenced by those around u, including mine, and enjoy the games, as I said they’re all good, even the worst are still decent, apologies for the rant.
@@adonicetrig8908 I appreciate the comment! The only thing that lets Zestiria down for me are the big open areas that feel very empty it’s like they wanted to expand the locations you get to explore but they didn’t really do much with it for whatever design reason.
I’ve played about 15 hours of Berseria I like the combat but like you said it feels a bit overrated I was expecting more. I’m actually enjoying abyss a lot more despite it being more dated.
I always hear great things about Symphonia, Vesperia, and Xillia but yet to see if they’ll be the same as Berseria or if I really get into them.
@@ScottMakesGames and I appreciate u for replying so quickly lol, but yeah, they bit off more than they could chew with Zestiria’s open design, the aesthetic was completely intentional but the execution wasn’t great, the game was rushed and they struggled with the console hardware at the time too apparently, plus they had close to no experience with the open world design philosophy, supposedly why it ended up the way it did, just like other Tales games tho I can’t shit too much on it, still an enjoyable game.
I think many hold Berseria in such a high regard because a lot of people started with it, fair enough but defo biased, their opinions are valid but they can absolutely create unreasonable expectations for the game, like it’s good but nowhere near close to the level some build it up to be.
If u run Abyss on pcsx2 make sure to use the hd texture pack and to upscale the game, it looks genuinely beautiful even by today’s standards with those modifications.
Make sure u run DE Vesperia, best version by a long margin, my one complain with is the duration of the black screens after fights, they’re slightly annoyingly long.
U will 100% find Symphonia charming, that’s the best word to describe it, I can guarantee that. Xillia’s combat and atmosphere are some of the best in the series, used to be my favourites before Arise’s.
Again sry for the long comment but I lose track of typing when talking Tales.
@@adonicetrig8908Glad I'm not the only one who thought Velvet was annoyingly edgy. She's like Sasuke or Haseo from .Hack but without the character development.
Honestly Eleanor would have made a better MC.
Underrated channel.
Tales of Abyss, Eternia, and Arise are my favorites in the series!
I've seen Eternia turn up a fair bit in the comments. That's the one with 2 planets close to each other right? I think I had it on my PSP when I was younger but my UMD broke irreparably a few hours in 😅
@@DastyDan yes the very same!🤩
Omg😭🤧
That's so sad, I hope one day you will pick it up again and give it another go!
Eternia is what got me and my brother into the series! It's like playing a cool 90's anime!😁
Great video, man. I'm a big fan of Tales, but I think the best games series has to offer are from the pre-PS3 era.
Tales of Symphonia is fan favourite and for a good reason. My second favourite game of all time after Final Fantasy IX. It's just all around lovely game.
Tales of Eternia and Tales of Phantasia (especially PS1 version) are fantastic. I think they're underrated. Slower-paced battles, beautiful graphics and that old school JRPG/anime feel. So, so good.
Tales of the Abyss and Tales of Vesperia are also solid, but after those two, Tales series has been alright at best. I think it's the linear gameplay and low budgets that kinda make them seem bland to me. Tales games used to be the best looking games back in the days, but now things are different. Oh well.
Thanks a lot! I'm actually starting to work on playing through Symphonia for review due to how much people have been singing its praises in the comments!
Yeah, time seems to change a lot of these series, I think, for good or bad. I really liked what I played of Arise, but I totally understand why some of the old school fans might not gel with it.
Phantasia was my first game that sparked my addiction that lasts today so many good memories
I played (and completed) most of the Tales games. My favourites are interestlingly Vesperia, Xillia 1+2 and Arise. My least favourite were Berseria and Symphonia(+the followup) these 2 bored me to death. I had to force myself to cmplete them.
Tales Of Berseria for my favorite story and Arise for my favorite combat system within the series. ❤
I see "Tales" I just click. I haven't touched Arise yet due to waiting for a super cheap price. Also, I have a slight annoyance with the changes. Beseria technically very dark tone in the story line I did like it. Symphonia is far more memorable for me, but that is more nostalgia from the GC era. Vesperia was my first real experience and my enjoyment of the Tales of series. I will stand by Vesperia as the best. Zestiria has its "haters", but one can argue the opening theme is the best of the tales of series. Tales of the Abyss was another enjoyable experience for me and I can also say that it's intro theme is a strong 2nd and I expect a "debate" I don't feel like to go in.
16:00 I'm confused? You simply switch characters by switching who's in slot 1 on the party menu. You can do it as soon as you get Estelle. This works the same for basically every game in the series I believe
The item you mentioned is specifically for switching characters mid-combat, you can switch any time outside of combat
Yeah I think I got myself confused there tbh. I didn't remember the game telling me how to play as someone else so looked it up online and found info about that item first. I must have misinterpreted what it was saying and assumed you needed it to switch at all!
The song used in the animated vesperia intro slaps hard
Yeah I should have mentioned that! Say what you want about the game but that intro goes hard!
Xillia was my first and I definitely recommend it, the sequel too which has one of my favorite characters.
Something I’d love to see is a remaster of Xillia 1 & 2. They were amazing on PS3 back in the day, and they have redone Symphonia a few times, so why no love for Xillia :(
Legendia is one of my favorite games from my childhood
One thing to note tho, is in the Arise section you said a change they made to normal attacking. But the way you describe it in the other games makes it sound like you were playing with Semi-Auto controls. As I haven't played Arise yet I'm wondering do you mean semi-Auto isn't in the game/starts you manual mode or does Semi-Auto work differently in it?
Yeah kind of. I was in semi-auto in those older games but Arise starts you in that manual mode whereas the others default to semi-auto. I've tried the others in manual since the video but I still think Arise feels somewhat different to those older ones. Mainly that in that your movement isn't locked on. Berseria's like that too I think though.
@@DastyDan Ah, okay. Then I'm looking forward to how Arise plays like when I get to it, currently playing the xillia duology on an emulator and on the final boss of xillia 1
The last game look and sounds like the best :3
Also, Shion is pretty
Yeah, Arise is very good! And yes she is! :D
my first entry was vesperia and it made me feel like i was a child again.
great characters, an atmospheric world and a combat system that felt rewarding.
my second game was berseria and its a bit of a oddball.
while playing i did enjoy it.
however, every time the game wasnt on, i also didnt had the urge to boot it up.
i guess it was mostly for the combat. the fact that you could just mash the a button and win every fight made it kinda unrewarding, while trying harder difficulties paired with the strange combo system made it somewhat frustrating.
however, the cast and jokes are great and the world itself is, i would say alright. it fulfills its purpose to underline the story theme, but its not a world that makes you want to revisit it for its beauty.
Zrsteria was also my first a few months ago. Now I've played about 7 of them so far, expecting to play more of them in the future
Nice! Which has been your favourite so far?
Zestiria is one of the weaker Tales games overall, but if you liked it enough to get into the series you're in for some great fun as most are better than Zestiria. My favorite is Arise, followed by Vesperia. I haven't played all of them yet or probably ever but I think the series is on the right track with Berseria and Arise being the latest and two of the best. I've played Phantasia, Eternia, Abyss, Symphonia, Vesperia, Zestiria, Berseria, and Arise so far. I hope you enjoy as you delve further into the world of Tales.
@@DastyDan tales of xillia or Abyss
@@acidwizard6528 arise meh S .... v couldn't finish. B good, Z great.
@@acidwizard6528I was about to say the same thing. I hated Zesteria, but if you liked it, then you are really gonna love the other games.
I've played Arise and Berseria and they're fantastic RPGs. Combat in the games are very enjoyable and there's at least one character I feel like everyone would enjoy playing. I like Berseria's vast array of equipment and builds, but this also kinda hurts the game considering how you can easily get like 15 of the same equipment piece, which you're forced to sell, dismantle, or let clog up your inventory.
i got arise quite a while ago and didn't play much of it, i got vesperia more recently I think last year, loved it to death
I played, in order: Abyss (on the 3DS), Berseria, Vesperia and Arise (all on PC)
Overall, Vesperia was my least favorite, but that doesn't mean it's bad. It's more like a 8.5/10 for me.
Abyss is a solid 9, Berseria is a 10 and Arise is also a 10.
Vesperia had something the others didn't, though: Yuri was voiced, in Japanese, by the same guy who voiced Mista from JoJo Golden Wind, which I was watching at the time, so I instantly felt "connected" to the main character thanks to that alone lol.
I'm surprised you didn't mention the series' trademark anime openings to emphasize how heavily it leaned into that style
The best tales games are, Symphonia, Vesperia, Beseria, Graces, Abyss, & Arise
I literally have Symphonia, Vesperia, Abyss, and Zestria but its sooo hard for me to get into the series 😭😭😭 i havent finished playing any of the games im still in the beginning hours.
Stick with one long enough and it seems to click! Try just dedicating to one (ideally with a theme you like) and just stick with it and see how it goes!
Can confirm Symphonia is great.
Vesperia is good but it kind of drops the ball on its story. It sets up a great moral conflict between Yuri/Flynn and Yuri/Phaeroh but never capitalizes on it. Yuri is the main character so everything he does is right.
Zestiria definitely has a weaker story individually. But looking at it together with Berseria I think it does a lot right. Trope subversions work because other stories play tropes straight, and a lot of moments in Berseria hit much better because of setup in Zestiria.
now take a dip into both of Nihon Falcoms JRPG Series "Legend of Heroes" and "Ys" for some pretty different representations of JRPGs. :D
Not a bad idea!
If you like these games I'd highly recommend Eternal Sonata for the 360. Such an amazing rpg.
I tried it at the time actually! I should give it another shot as I never ended up finishing it
Looking to get into the tales of series? Here are my top 3 recommendations. Tales of the Abyss. Tales of Arise. Tales of Vesperia. You cant go wrong with any of those games.
Only one ive played as of now is berseria, and i loved it.
the first I played was Zestiria then Berseria followed by Vesperia. I do plan to play arise and symphonia along the way. I'm just so occupied by other games right now like Xenoblade 3 and Fire Emblem Engage. Not to mention the upcoming Zelda lol.
I know right, there's so much! I still need to finish Xenoblade 2 🙈
Not having Symphonia on the list is fucking bizarre.
One of my favorite is Stories of an Incline
If you want to play them for the story then symphonia, eternia, abyss, vesperia and berseria and imo even phantasia is a decent story keeping in mind it's the first one and for gameplay I would say xillia 1-2, arise and graces f, vesperia (slow start though before fun combat) and tales of the abyss, I personally like symphonia's battle system but I am super biased towards symphonia so objectively I would call it outdated, it's kind of like tales of the abyss but a bit "older/step behind". Personally I think they all have their charm but I did not like berseria, zestiria their gameplay at all it was too "automatic/easy" compared to the others, graces F somewhat the same but it felt better somehow, if I put up the difficulty in graces/got further into the game I had to actually think about when to block etc so it felt more rewarding while berseria and zestiria felt like I didn't have to think at all in battle after the first few minutes and rarely ever died.
I've been a bit hesitant to getting into old series like these, hell it took me years till I properly played a Mario game due to the legacy being so overwhelming, its also the same reason why I still flake out of trying Final fantasy, though after finally playing the demo to Arise after my curiousity got the better of me, I actually enjoyed it from what I can remember, the only thing I found inherently bad about the game/demo was the characters over talking and just rambling through the combat, I plan on actually getting Arise after my experience with it, though while I want to play other tales games outside of it, the rambling and squaking throughout Arise left me concerned the other games have similar if not worse issues
Yeah I totally get that. I think there are options for that in the options in most of the games for battle bark volume, because it can get very overwhelming at times lol after a while you kinda get used to it, but it's definitely a distracting element of the combat
Thanks for the video glad to RUclips push your video. Gained a sub, Looking forward to new videos!
Hey, thanks a lot that's very kind of you! Next video may or not be Tales related but I hope you end up liking it regardless :)
oh man! you should play the old classics like tales of destiny and phantasia LOL those were gems.
to me, the anime design of tales isnt generic. It's what separates it from dragon quest and final fantasy like you said. And personally what pulled me in. To have an awesome anime main character is a cool breath of fresh air for me when coming from final fantasy and dragon quest. i also dont understand how ur saying dragon quest often has better graphics than tales.. lol
Yeah that's fair. I do sorta regret that point, mostly in terms of describing it as 'generic' as even if they use the typical anime style, they're definitely designed distinctly
@@DastyDan yup they look cool and have cool combos (usually lol).
I think the best time to get into Tales was 2015 with PS3 and Vita back in 2015 i think we had more retro game stores so with luck could find PS2 games
My games
Tale of Syphonia chronicles = Syphonia and Symphonia Dawn Of New World. ps3
Graces f PS3
Hearts R Vita
Tales of Legendia PS2
Tales of Vesperia definitive PS4
Tales of Zestiria PS4
I have played Links, The Rays and Crestoria but not long enough to talk about it
Thankfully emulation will help the PS2 era games. Abyss and legendia look fantastic at 4K. There’s even fanmade HD texture packs that clean up the UI elements and makes it look like a modern day release.
I wouldn’t recommend a new fan to track down the original copies since they’re getting expensive and the original hardware looks ugly on anything that isn’t a crt
I highly recommend Tales of Xillia -- it's my favorite one! ^_^
I wish they put it out on pc or ps4 :(
I finished Zestiria not too long ago and it was alright. I thought the characters were decent mainly Sorey, Lailah, Edna and Mikleo. The rest were fairly forgettable. The ending was satisfying and set itself up for a follow up but I doubt we'll ever get one.
Best jrpg series no question
favorite rpg series
I liked it when *SPOILERS* (For Vesperia)
Yuri Lowell straight up caps villains.
Id say give tales Hearts R another shot. The beginning few hours are slow and give plenty of people cringey whiplash from the brother/sister dynamic. Bit as the story gets going and the party expands, it got waaaaay better. Its definitely one of my favorites for sure.
Okay sure, I'll dust off the Vita at some point and try to push through!
@@DastyDan Story of Hearts R is quite good later on. I think you just have to bear the game for the first 10-15 hours or so. The characters grows more in their attitude and things become more serious and less tropey.
@Simon Low yeah I'll start taking my Vita with me again and give it more time!
One of the problems with the R version is that they butchered the story and characters. The original DS game is much longer and the R version cuts out quite a bit of the plot, gives lines from characters away to Gall, removed entire characters from the plot etc. Despite that, I love Hearts R quite a bit, though the original is a better experience.
symphonia and abyss are some of the best.
I just finished Tales of Arise on Game Pass and became a fan of it. I normally don't even try this type of game.
I'm not gonna try the older games but if they release a new one I'll buy it for sure.
Nothing wrong with that! It's been a while since Arise now, Bandai have gotta be due to announce the next game soon, surely.
In my opinion, the most must play is tales of destiny 2(eternia in Japanese) tales of destiny ps2, tales of vesperia and tales of arise, hate berseria and those two KPop males like....😅 I didnt even bother to remember their titles
Xillia 2 was my favorite
If you have a PS3, I highly recommend (As someone who has played and finished almost all of the 3d Tales games) playing Xillia and Xillia 2. Xillia 1 is excellent over all, and Xillia 2 has one of the best, most impactful stories in the entire franchise. Both games also have excellent combat gameplay and great casts.
Berseria is over all my favorite (Especially the cast) but Xillia 1-2 are right up there in my top 5.
I also recommend Abyss, but that can be hard to get into, and suffers from Symphonia's extreme difficulty hike, though it's not quite as bad as in that game.
Also honestly I don't think Symphonia is a particularly great game. It's worth playing if you have the time, but I always have a hard time actually recommending it. I wish Bamco would just remake the game already instead of remastering it for the 30th time.
Hold up, you're saying that the character designs for Tales of are generic but you use Dragon Quest to compare it to? In Dr Slump Akira Toriyama broke the fourth wall and admitted that he could only draw a single female face. Seriously go play Dragon Ball Xenoverse and see how many Dragon Quest characters you can make in the character creation.
My point is that you wouldn't mistake it for anything else just from looking at them. You see a DQ character, you can probably comfortably guess what series they're from just from the design and art style. Toriyama has his flaws, as you've rightly pointed out, but that doesn't stop it from being recognisable and unique.
Aww I LOVED Hearts R when it first came out. Tales has been my favourite franchise since Symphonia. Hearts R was the reason I got a Vita and I loved the combat and cheesy story. The combat was nice because it was more like the older Tales games than the more recent ones, and I liked the story and characters because it was so cheesy and fun. Both very nostalgic of the older games.
I couldn’t get into Zestiria and didn’t end up completing it. I loved Berseria comparatively, with the better combat and characters. I loved all the side quests and unlockables, and felt more like a return to form for the franchise.
Vesperia is my absolute fav though. Love the characters, combat is my fav in the franchise, and the story is good too (although not as good as Symphonia imo). If you keep playing Vesperia I’d highly recommend using a walkthrough for the side quests. There are SO many and the game does no favours to help you access them. A lot are specific to certain points of the plot, so they can be time specific. There’s good stories, alternate costumes, and weapons you can get.
I haven’t finished Arise yet, but I’m enjoying it so far. Not in love with it but I’m still only quite early on. I’m really liking the combat though and I’m glad it seems to be well received.
Xillia 1 & 2 are a good blend between the older and newer combat. The stories and characters are amazing, and they tried mixing a few different things in the combat. There’s some really good choreographed combat cutscenes as well. Would absolutely recommend both. I prefer the second but just barely.
Symphonia is absolutely worth playing too. It holds up on so many levels. Until they patch the current release, I’d recommend the OG Gamecube version (if you can get your hands on it), as it’s seen as widely superior by most to the PS3 remake/port to modern consoles. Symphonia’s story and characters are on another level - I still think of those characters fondly, the game is legendary.
All the positive talk in the comments about Symphonia make me wish I had a Gamecube when I was younger! Other people have also said that Hearts gets a bit better as it goes so I may give it a few more hours and see how I feel! Just a very big reflex reaction from me in the opening hours unfortunately haha!
@@DastyDan yeah I think it was endearing to me because it’s nostalgic of the earlier games in the franchise. Lots of tropes and character beats that are endearing and can make me overlook the cheesiness and very unoriginal story lol.
And Symphonia is still well worth it even on the PS3/current gen games!
Where is the love for my boy Graces F, i love him so mich that im always hoping to get another port on recente support ( or a remake who knows)
@@daikaichis6229 I wish it would get a remaster, Graces f and Xillia 2 are my favorite ones in the series tbh, Graces has the best battle system and Xillia 2 is up there and a the battle system is good compromise between the one from Vesperia/Abyss/Symphonia and Graces.
@@Rex13013 since they are gonna start doing remake with the 30th anniversary we might get a chance
OMG new Dasty D!
ZOMG!
Imo Xillia 2 and Graces F have the best battle systems in the Tales series. Wish Bandai would port them to PC as well as Abyss and Destiny DC, instead porting Symphonia over and over again.
My personal ranking of each main series game from best to worst:
1. Vesperia
2. Abyss
3. Berseria
4. Symphonia
5. Xillia 2
6. Destiny 2
7. Xillia
8. Legendia
9. Rebirth
10. Arise
11. Zestiria
12. Eternity
13. Phantasia
14. Hearts
15. Destiny
16. Innocence
17. Graces
18. Tempest
19. Symphonia 2
Didn't realize this was a review based on only a few hours of gameplay for some of these games. Some of these titles are 100+ hour epics counting side quests so I would caution against writing anything off too quickly.
Few things most Tales fans will expect you to know already:
ALL of the Tales games have toggles for Manual or Auto control, you didn't notice the feel of this until playing Arise, but the automatic movement of the character to their target is something you can and should toggle depending on your needs. Certain artes combos and playstyles are not possible without using both semi-auto and manual mode.
Most gameplay tutorial text dumps are things from other entries in the series with minor tweaks and upgrades. The earlier entries use less hard text dumps and incorporate story tutorials much more gracefully. Symphonia 1, Eternia (Destiny 2 in the US/EU), and Abyss, all handle teaching the player how to do things much more effectively than Vesperia onwards.
Timeline. There's no need to play the Tales games chronologically, but certain character types and key features exist in most of the games. Puzzle solving ring usually exists in some capacity, people in cat suits are pretty frequent, pirate king Aifread is usually referenced or is pursued via side or main quests.
Terminology like Strike/Magic Artes is mostly consistent throughout the games. Most titles feature some form of Limit Break (Overlimit/Accel/Arles Break/etc) these time frames give access to many characters' Mystic Artes (you may see this referred to as Hi-Ougi or Secret Hidden Arts), although some games restrict Hi Ougi usage to when a character is in critical hp or once per combat etc etc. For some games this is important as the Final Bosses are exceedingly difficult to deal with without the use of these mechanics.
My Opinions:
The best games in terms of character writing and world building are Abyss > Vesperia = Berseria > Arise > rest don't matter. Abyss is so solid it has it's own animated series that is one of only a handful of video game adaptations to other media I consider valid across 30 years of Japanese video game/anime culture. It lacks the best voice acting though, which is why...
Weighted for quality of voice acting Berseria > Vesperia > Abyss > rest. Berseria is so good you can play the game in both English and Japanese and the dub work is phenomenal. Vesperia is almost entirely carried by Yuri and Abyss has that awkward still not sure how to get voice acting done well thing that you can hear in the ps2 era of JRPGs (even FFX suffers from this to some degree, but much less so than Abyss).
Rating for Ease of Entry and Fun in a Tales game. Symphonia > rest and it isn't even remotely close. Symphonia is the easiest to learn has hundreds of super satisfying combo chains across the whole cast of characters. It's the best game to play to learn using diverse characters in the Tales games that aren't Jrpg boi with sword (Velvet is basically this just without the boy parts).
Rating purely for Mechanics in combat, Graces F > Xillia 2 > Xillia 1 > Vesperia > Arise > rest. Graces F is near the bottom for character writing and it's world building was a real stinker compared to the other entries, but it has some of the absolute cleanest combat engines with an absolutely sky high skill ceiling. Some people may contend Xillia 2 has more flair since the player insert character has basically all weapon access, but my opinion, Graces F has the cleanest combat gameplay that is rewarding for its own sake. I dinged Arise for using the Stagger mechanic developed for FF13 that too many games use these days, that shit is lame, no boss is going to just lie down and take it as you bash their brains in, the struggle should go until health bars hit 0.
Thanks for the input! It was only really Hearts' story and characters that made me really have a dismissive reflexive reaction. I'll admit to totally overlooking manual mode, I'll give it a shot next time I play and see how that feels! I wish they'd incorporate tutorials more seamlesslessly like in those older games then. Just because they largely explain tutorials from older games isn't great when any entry can be someone's first due to the disconnected nature of the series.
Just out of curiosity, when you were ranking the series based off of character writing and world building, was this based off of all the games in the series including Japanese only? I just thought it was strange that after listing Arise you said the rest didn't matter lol.
Like commented and subscribed 👍
Would love to see your takes on some western RPGs if you ever have the time, Elder Scrolls, Dragon Age, Mass Effect, Pillars of Eternity, keep up the good work mate 👍
Yeah that's something to consider! Dragon Age might be a decent shout tbh
@@DastyDan Especially with Dragon Age Dreadwolf on the horizon!
@UnchainedGoku yeah that would be pretty decent for the #algorithm :P
i still defend tales of phantasia (psx or psp) are the best story in the franchise. for gameplay its tales of eternia for traditional tp, destiny remake DC for non-tp.
I hope they port all of that tales game in Nintendo switch. 🙏
I've never cared much for the game showing it's age. If it's fun, it's fun. Chrono Trigger is still amazing, and it's 16bit. Even with it's low visuals, Tales of Berseria will always be a favorite of mine.
Agreed 100% I've played a game made for the ZX Spectrum and thought it was really fun!
I love the series. Have played through every one except zestiria since tales lf symphonia. Zestiria wasnt so good..
We need a remake of Destiny (again) and 2 ported to the west NAO
All time favorite mc is velvet all day and not cuz she’s smoking hot her character writing and back story are by far some of the best in any jrpg I’ve played in my 32 years