The worst part of every Tales game 

I disagree with your point about Berseria (obviously just my opinion) because while yes, you can set your strongest skills to be spammed on one button, I don’t think it’s ‘encouraged’ rather than left to the player. When I first saw the combat system, I got excited because it seemed to more so be telling me “here ya go, create your own mapped paths to reliable combos” since I’m able to combo out of any string of button combos into one of my other self made combos.

Zestiria: Am I the only one who thinks that the story was just plain old boring? And the combat and leveling system was a bit too complicated to understand.

I think the biggest issue with Tales of Eternia is due to the craymel cage system Max and Chat are rendered pointless. You brought up how people don't remember it...well besides it being a late PS1 game, for those few of who did play it at release because it came out September 10,2001 most of us Americans Is draw a blank when it comes to that period. We did things to escape from the news but we can't remember what that was. I remember being sent home from school going to my room and I think I may have played Tales of Eternia but since I haven't played it 20 years a large chunk of that game is a PTSD blackout.

Arise is definitely my favorite and I love the battle system. I think it's extremely fun.

In arise you need to set the team to do the correct type of damage to chisel the boss

With Abyss the real issue is needing a guide to not miss the titles and sword skills for Guy and Luke. That's so annoying. With Symphonia, probably just like Abyss, the unvoiced skits don't help much. They were voiced in Japanese so what the hell.

Tales of the abyss is actually my favorite one in the series. I never really saw the backtracking as bad because it made every town feel like it had a purpose like it was lived in and breathed in. I think that's a big part of the reason why the people who really like this game it's not just one of the best games in the series but one of the best games to be ever made. I can't deny there are some flaws here and there but none that correlate to the story or revisiting towns. I actually really like that aspect of it and if I had to point out any flaws it would probably be the mystic art glitch in the US version of the game where if you use a characters enhanced mystic art it'll cost spellcasters to freeze until you use a physical mystery with someone like guy or Luke. Another weird issue is the world map music glitch but I feel like that one is a lot more minor in comparison to the mystic art one which heavily if x gameplay but I know my way around it so it doesn't really bother me.

God, I can agree with the issue of Tales of Innocence. I don't want to be running around the whole dungeon just to find the next boss or story beat. That water temple was the worst for me since it pathways kept leading me to dead-ends.

I also think OG Hearts was WAY more fun than Hearts R, mostly because it has a CC system that works on DS. I also think Berseria's boring ass combat brings it to potentially the best to just good

I've had similiar problems with Phantasia as well, where I thought some story elements could be executed better and make more sense - but I've only played the SNES version, so maybe it was changed in future releases. I think the reason why not many people remember Eternia is simply the fact that not many have played it. In west it was first released on PS1, a year after PS2 became available, and the second time on PSP, but only in Europe and Australia. To add that people rarely play Tales games that were released before Symphonia. But for me, my biggest issue with Eternia were additional party members, Chat and Max, and how underused and undeveloped they were in the game. I've had some problems with Tempest, but story wasn't one of them. For me it was inability to change artes and equipment during battles (but it toned down after playing Phantasia, but in it I could at least choose which artes other party members could use in battle), as well the overworld - it was very empty and movement in it felt very slow.

In most cases I do agree but for some games I think that I would add/change a bit: -Destiny : a lot of dungeons are frustrating like the one where there is venom cloud during all the duration for example. -Vesperia: poorly managed difficulty the first act is by far the most difficult fights like the first zagi are too hard for it's own good, I also feel that the acts don't feel consistent story wise thought that might be me -Berseria: until you get the bienfu powered board, the dungeons can be too slow for their own good, once you get it that problem becomes less prevalent Although on berseria I also gotta say that I personally liked the syste like yeah it can be a bit button massy but finding good strings combining good sets of equipment that were actually effective against the enemy type and the in combat switching helped make stuff fun during my run of the game, tough it starts slow and I understand if people didn't like it

Off the top of my head: Abyss: My favorite Tales, but definitely can give off the wrong impression to someone new, especially if they are willing to deal with the party being a bunch of assholes, Luke in particular for the first few hours of the game Legendia: Performance. Idk if this game performs better when emulated, but I distinctly remember that this game would take like 15-30 seconds to load into a battle once you hit a monster bubble. Killed the pacing of the game drastically. There's also the fact that the character quests are not voiced. Vesperia: Honestly can't really fault this game. It's the quintessential Tales game, and I can really only fault it for how long it took Bamco to get this game off the 360 and onto to other platforms for the west Berseria: Spot on with the combat system. Berseria's combat is terrible. It feels like I'm mashing auto combos with one button like some modern fighting games have implemented. Random attributes are also a terrible idea, since some random attributes in this game let you actually have fun with the combat, but again its random and not guaranteed to roll on your gear Zestiria: The crafting system. You can knock this game for a lot, but if you thought Graces crafting was bad, Zesty's crafting takes this to a whole different level of convoluted. Whoever thought tying skills to equipment, then adding on the most convoluted crafting system this series has ever seen for equipment should be demoted Graces: Power of friendship. The most generic anime/JRPG plot you could ever think of Arise: The break system blows. All the fun is stripped away when you realize you have to break the enemy before you can actually have fun. I also think the Arise characters are some of the most one note characters the series has ever had. This is the first Tales where every party member has been paired off couple, but I feel like romance is the the defining trait for all the characters. The romance takes so much of the center stage, the characters have no room to develop in any other areas. Romance is cool, but good Tales characters have all developed in different ways, without resorting to romance as their main defining trait. Just a real disappointing cast

I tend to disable voice in Tales of series. Hearing everyone screaming their attacks names kinda ruins my immersion IMHO.

I’ve only played both Tales of Berseria and Tales of Arise. While I don’t have a lot of problems of Berseria, I have a few with Arise. 1. The whole Shionne kidnapping thing was stupid. It’s starts with Vholran poking Alphen in the chest so hard, he collapsed on the floor. And then Vholran wrapped his arms around Shionne and she was all like “Oh save me, save me. He’s too strong.” Hell, both Rinwell, Law, Kisara and Dohalim didn’t even lift a finger to help her and they just watched as Alphen was electrocuted. 2. The whole second part of the story felt like a mandatory quest with a lot of info dump. 3. The gang letting the Red Women get away with the Renas Alma, the only thing Shionne needs to lift her Thorn Curse. Hell, they didn’t even kill Vholran as he was bound to the Forbidden Zone during the Ceremony.

I agree that Arise and Besaria's combat is rough

Symphonia: a twist in the second half not really being a twist because he goes by his real name. Legendia: going through each dungeon twice. Abyss: the plot has no direction for thr first several hours. Graces: underwhelming villains. Only one has more than a scene or two Xillia: not really having an ending and just just kinda stopping the conflict. The resolution in the sequel not being the focus and being underwhelming didn't help. Xillia 2: reusing almost every dungeon, as is, from the first one. Symphonia 2: the returning characters, aside from Regal, not progressing their characters and still dressing the same. Hearts R: I don't remember anything that stood out. Name changes didn't bother me. Other games have name changes too. Eternia: unbalanced difficulty Destiny DC: storyline in the first half has far more direction. The second half is a bunch of nothing dungeons for no reason. Zesteria: blank, nothing villains aside from the loli. Berseria: I don't remember anything that stood out. Arise: info dump at the last area ruining the pace Phantasia (PS1): haven't been able to finish it. Doesn't keep my interests.

So I recently found out that it IS actually possible to control the battle camera in Zestiria.... IF you have 2 people playing. For some unfathomably stupid reason when playing with a 2nd player it moves party commands to their right stick and allows P1 to move the camera freely in combat. Why we couldn't have just had this as a feature by DEFAULT is beyond me especially when you consider this is more complicated than it has to be and someone had to go out of their way to design it like this

The problem with vesperia is easy to pick out, the story is hot garbage. It goes from politics and intrigue to a fking out of nowhere eco terrorist end boss.

IMHO: Symphonia: Slow pacing both at the start and the end of the game. Abyss: The party, I can't stand any of them other than Luke, Mieu and Guy (Because they seek redemption), Tear, Jade, Natalia and Anise are all hypocrites. Vesperia: The plot, it kinda feels directionless. Graces: The party, they're so boring. Xillia: Milla's voice acting, how rushed the ending is. Xillia 2: The massive amount of roadblocks and reused content. Zestiria: Rose and Dezel, just ugh. Arise: The ending, idk how but it's both rushed and a slog, also how spongy the enemies become.

The worst part of Abyss is that Anise isn't roundly bitchslapped and verbally destroyed by the entire party for her immense fuckups(leading to the death of Ion and Arietta never having a chance at redemption) whereas Luke gets shit on at the start despite literally no one in the party doing anything with *critical information*

I 100% agree about Arise combat. Awful

Why do fans dump on the Switch version of Symphonia? That’s what I wanna know.

Bro you did not even give Tales of Rebirth a serious knock against it Yeah you said prejudice is in it, and you played it around Black Lives Matter, but how is that the game's fault? Prejudice is a real issue and fiction is allowed to use it as a plot point, a theme, maybe it has something to say about it Hell, even Tales of Symphonia featured prejudice as a main plot point, so why didn't you harp on that? C'mon man. "It has racism in it and that makes me sad" is not a negative point.

Tales of Arise while being in my top 5 is probably going to age like milk the more they iterate on its mechanics. AI party members dodging.

7:58 what about flat square arenas?

Didn't Eternia PSP come out in 2006? Still doesn't change the point though I guess lol.

The worst part of Tales of Arise to me is fishing.

Tales of eternia was my fav

The worst part of Destiny 1 is the awful pacing in the second half. The remake can't and doesn't fix that so my problems with it don't go away with that version.

Berseria: combat (hi R2 claw spam) Zestiria: equipment system Xillia: nothing Xillia 2: debt system Graces F: nothing Symphonia: EX system Symphonia 2: elemental field system Legendia: random battles, no mini map, combat Abyss: Field of fonons Vesperia: nothing Arise: everything

So, hot take. "I think the Combat system peaked in Xillia 1 and 2." I did not enjoy Graces F. The story and characters make it impossible for me to care what is going on. Especially Asbel. "Maybe she isn't human." >Blows up on the one person making sense to explain the unexplained things they witness in their life that does not conform to reality. Cheria did not deserve that lol. I remember playing the Arise Demo and sorta glaring at the combat system. "You essentially need Semi-Auto just so your attacks snap to the opponent. And only allowed to map 6 arts? What the fuck. I don't hate the idea of some mechanics, but why dummy it down? It was literally perfect in Xillia." You could do INSAINELY long combos if you knew what you were doing, had good timing and so on. But no. "Here is 3 ground and 3 air arts." I avoided buying it for that; I don't care how good the story could be. If the game portion isn't my cup of tea, then why would I play it? Oh, and probably the biggest, sacrilegious hot take. "Lloyd Irving is the least interesting character in his own game. The Racism plotline is really dumb, because he just sorta shakes his fist and everyone smacks their lips going 'Mmmmhmmm. Racism bad. Preach.' and it just... really takes me out of it. It takes zero thought to do that type of moralizing. It is why he is so boring."

I'll try too be quick with one's I've played Symphonia - some pace issues at start and end a few cheesy moments Abyss - Pace issue at start and only liked a few party members Vesperia - bland villain weak third act Bersaria - only cared for velvet combat had issues Arise - All of it Dawn if the new world - .... Phantasia - I only played a few minutes not a bad game just wanted too mention I wish I finished

NICE

I like both Emil and Marta. Speak for yourself haha. Laura Bailey did a great job once again

I played tales of vesperia and loved it. I played it when it came out. I went back and played others and newer ones. I really can't get into the series anymore. Idk why I loved vesperia so much and the rest are pretty bad to me.

Link to my Arise Livestream, ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-3j4g2YabvDY.html

Even in this small sample of comments we see people having very different opinions. Instead of going game by game allow me to do something diffferent. This is what i want from the series . 1- Improve storytelling. Tales is yet to have a game with a great AND well told story. We need better writting from beginning to end, characters that have a natural connection to the main plot and are equaly explored. 2-more anime cutscenes.that actually requires more investment. 3- tone down the anime influences. this may seem contraproductive but i thing it would go a long way to atract new players. Another way of looking at this is using the style and the tropes more inteligentely, making the main story more"mature"and "serious" and leaving the sillyness to the optional content.