Board 8 > Best Tales game?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Inspired by the other topic

Abyssssssssssss

everybody just needs a tales of rebirth peach pie and chill the f out

Well, I came in with one thought, but then I saw Tales from the Borderlands...

Gamefaqs needs rank choice voting.

I also feel like a lot of people voting Symphonia haven't played it in a long time or it's the only one they played.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

I also feel like a lot of people voting Symphonia haven't played it in a long time or it's the only one they played.

It's the FF7 of the series what can you do v___v

berseria easily

My true answer is Tales of Abyss but I played that ages ago. I most recently played Tales of Zestiria earlier this year and enjoyed it very much so it gets my pity vote.

Abyss, though I haven't played any of the ones newer than that (besides like 30 minutes of Vesperia)

if anything from my recent Tales series playhtrough, Abyss was worse than I remembered

The Akzeriuth plot is iconic but after that the plot just kinda chugs along. Picks back up a bit in the end but not enough. Natalia definitely better than I remembered but Van was disappointing, outside of now recognizing his VA as FFCC Jegran & Tales of Phantasia the Animation's Mars

Symphonia > Abyss > Xillia

Berseria, with Symphonia not far behind.

Side note... I started Vesperia last week and thought it aged horrendously. Very disappointed after waiting so long to play it.

Berseria.

Tales from the Borderlands is also better than everything except Berseria.

Older Tales games are harder to get back into. I'll still probably play them but the last time I went for Symphonia, and Abyss it was a slog at times. PS3/360 era is still fine, I like Xillia more than Vesperia. Zestiria is, uhh still not very good(even though I liked the combat).

Arise was very good, but I feel like it could be so much better so I'm hoping the next installment becomes the premiere Tales game.

I'll go with Berseria. It's simply the best package overall in terms of story, characters, combat is very enjoyable, plus it's the only one I have the urge to go back to from time to time.

This is a heretical thing to say on GameFAQs, but older JRPGs are hard to go back to, period. They're often missing important quality of life improvements and have janky production values.

radiant mythology is what i would probably say is my "favourite" idk what i'd consider the best one

KamikazePotato posted...

This is a heretical thing to say on GameFAQs, but older JRPGs are hard to go back to, period. They're often missing important quality of life improvements and have janky production values.

I somewhat agree, but it depends on the JRPG. I still think some turn based JRPG's hold up infinitely better than some action based combat like Tales. Don't get me wrong a lot of them are just painfully slow due to the lack of QoL and other things, but I can go back to stuff like some SNES titles, or even painfully slow titles like Skies of Arcadia and still have a more enjoyable time compared to some Tales titles.

That's true. I desperately want Skies of Arcadia HD for PC just so I can download the inevitable Very Low Encounter mod. Literally the only change I need.

Vesperia > Berseria > Symphonia > Abyss > Arise

The public perception of Vesperia over time has been interesting to watch. People seemed to really like it until they got the chance to play it again.

my Rebirth playthrough was done in 2021 and it became a top tier tales for me

although you could say I was cushioned from playthroughs of the earlier games that kinda took a while to have decent stories/characters.... although I don't really think they're that bad

but I played Legendia after Rebirth and that game became my bottom tier

I tried Vesperia again recently. Dropped it. Never again. But it's not all JRPGs. You can find stuff on the SNES, maybe even NES, that's still engaging and fun. But a lot of the ones that people say are the greatest, yeesh. PS1 JRPGs often have big problems with style over practicality, but it's not just PS1.

KamikazePotato posted...

This is a heretical thing to say on GameFAQs, but older JRPGs are hard to go back to, period. They're often missing important quality of life improvements and have janky production values.

Symphonia was already dated when it came out. FFX came out 2 years before.

I played Vesperia within the last 3-4 years!

Vesperia's reputation has declined a lot since the HD release. It was the only major Tales release between Berseria and Arisex and compared to Berseria it falls pretty short. A lot of it I think has to do with, outside of Zestiria, it has the worst 3rd act in the series.

Vesperia had multiple writers, and it's common belief that the 3 acts were each written mostly independently other than the general thrust, and that the writer on the 3rd act was most likely...Hideo Baba.

foolm0r0n posted...

Symphonia was already dated when it came out. FFX came out 2 years before.

I'm no ToS Stan but I'd still take it over FFX!

I played that game the whole way through for the first time a few months ago and I did nooooooot enjoy myself all that much.

Berseria has a worse 3rd act than Vesperia for sure. You can at least ignore Vesperia's and be content that it doesn't retroactively damage the earlier parts of the narrative.

The only part of Beseria's third act I didn't like was the final boss and ending cutscene, and the credits still got to me.

pyresword posted...

I played Vesperia within the last 3-4 years!

You're entitled to your opinion but I cannot fathom why so many people agree with you.

KamikazePotato posted...

That's true. I desperately want Skies of Arcadia HD for PC just so I can download the inevitable Very Low Encounter mod. Literally the only change I need.

The only mod Skies of Arcadia needs is the ability to use S-Moves that damage all enemies right from the jump instead of having to build up your SP to get there.

You can get a Very Low Encounter accessory super early in Legends anyway.

I would definitely take Berseria 3rd act over Vesperia's, but it kind of depends on how your playing.

If you're mainlining Berseria and not doing all the content, a big part of the third act that stands out is the final dungeon which is just frankly, unfathomabley abysmal, one of the worst, which is impressive since bad dungeons are Berseria's biggest flad to begin with.

Meanwhile you have Vesperia, whose third act is bad but not intolerable...unless you are trying to do all the content. Vesperia sidequest in general, especially endgame sidequests, are absolutely terrible, boring slogs. If to want to do all of them you could be looking at a bare minimum of a dozen or so hours of uninteresting crap, and so much of it is one after the other in those final chunks. People remember Fury Sparks, but I can say from experience that a completion playthrough will result in the time between that scene becoming available and you actually glong to do it make you want to quit the game outright now matter how much time you've invested.

The final boss is also one of the weakest in regards to relevance in the main story around, not counting final bosses who straight up don't exist until you have to go fight them.

Yeah I'm not a completionist typically, and don't think I did much side content in any Tales game.

I will also say in Berseria's case I guess I mean "finale" more than "third act", because there was some great stuff around the 75-80% point or something.

Maybe it's just me, but I feel like a lot of JRPG's rarely if ever nail the final section.

Edit: By that I mean it's rarely ever the best part of the game, and usually leans towards not being fun.

Yeah that's true honestly. Even RPG's with fantastic endings I feel like frequently have not great stretches leading up to the ending.

I can always get through a dumb story if playing the game isn't a miserable slog. I don't expect great stories from Tales of, in general.

Sorozone posted...

Maybe it's just me, but I feel like a lot of JRPG's rarely if ever nail the final section.

Edit: By that I mean it's rarely ever the best part of the game, and usually leans towards not being fun.

I don't disagree, but I also think most media in general struggles to end well, and that as far as video games go, western games are way worse about it than eastern games are.

Symphonia, easily. Though Vesperia is a strong second and then Xillia.

The latest like 4-5 tales games just haven't interested me in the slightest. They just don't feel the same.

Abyss is far and away the best Tales game. It's also the best JRPG ever made.

Bite me.

Berseria for sure. Symphonia was also great, not that I've ever gone back to it. I enjoyed Vesperia quite a bit too, and Xillia was fun despite its flaws. Upgrading shops rocks. Abyss is the one I remember the least. I'd rank most of them above Arise, though me playing that one recently might be a disadvantage for it.

Also, I'd probably rank the ones I've played as...

Abyss > Berseria > Xillia 2 > Symphonia > Xillia 1 > Graces > Vesperia > Zestiria

Also one game that doesn't exist below Zestiria. If you're reading my playthrough, I'm consistently quibbling about the writing and having a lot of fun mocking it, but that's about the ONLY fun lol

Not sure why people are saying Symphonia. That game hasn't aged well at all, and the bloated party doesn't work well, either. I'm guessing it's people who haven't played it in a while or fail to appreciate the depth and complexities that the much superior Abyss has.

It'll always be Graces f for me, even acknowledging how bad the overall plot is. Great characters, great battle system, good extra content. Berseria is second.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

I'm no ToS Stan but I'd still take it over FFX!

I played that game the whole way through for the first time a few months ago and I did nooooooot enjoy myself all that much.

There's no accounting for bad taste, but even that can't overcome the dated tech

I just can't deal with the fact that Symphonia doesn't have a battle camera designed to work for more than one player. Co-op is what carries Tales of.

BlueCrystalTear posted...

Abyss is far and away the best Tales game. It's also the best JRPG ever made.

Bite me.

I don't fell like us Abyss fans have to get all defensive anymore, it's become a pretty common opinion nowadays lol.

Abyss is a top 25 game for me.

But Symphonia is a top 2.

BlueCrystalTear posted...

That game hasn't aged well at all, and the bloated party doesn't work well, either. I'm guessing it's people who haven't played it in a while or fail to appreciate the depth and complexities that the much superior Abyss has.

Why replay a game that hasn't aged well? I'd rather have my happy memories of it.

Only played Symphonia, Vesperia, Berseria, and Arise

Berseria was probably my favorite but Arise has a cute owl so I voted for that

KamikazePotato posted...

This is a heretical thing to say on GameFAQs, but older JRPGs are hard to go back to, period. They're often missing important quality of life improvements and have janky production values.

mario

Berseria then Symphonia of the ones I've played.

I was only ever able to play a small amount of Xillia so i can't fairly rank it, but I didn't come close to finishing Zestiria or Abyss. Phantasia is so old I barely even remember it at this point.

I made the mistake of playing Berseria before Zestiria because I knew it was a prequel and wanted to play the two in chronological order, but after playing Berseria it was such a downgrade in virtually every way that I just couldn't take it.

Abyss > Berseria > Xillia 2 > Graces > etc feels about right

The swinging of opinion on Vesperia once everyone replayed it isn't too hard to explain, I think. Vesperia is literally a bridge between the old Symphonia/Abyss style of gameplay and the craziness of Xillia onwards, and it happens as the game goes on. The combat starts extremely simple and then very, very slowly unfolds as the game progresses into legit one of the best combat systems the series has ever had. The issue is it takes dozens of hours for this to happen, so if you've played it before - and especially if you've played all the stuff that came after it - those first 30-40 hours feel miserable, and Vesperia's story doesn't have the strength of Abyss to keep it afloat.