Is this a decent place to start with the Tales series...

Is this a decent place to start with the Tales series? I've never played them but I picked this up on a psn sale a couple months ago and was thinking of giving it a go. If it isn't which one is?

Also Tales thread I guess.

it's like Final Fantasy man, pretty much any mainline title is doing it's own thing. some games have their own direct sequels like Xillia 2 but generally you can jump in anywhere

Smug, smug, smug, smug, smug, smug, :D

God no. Xillia is one of the worst Tales of games. I can't speak for the sequel but that is not the best choice for your first experience with the series

I would like to start with a good one though.
So what is?

Tales of Vesperia.

Or if you really want to play Xillia, just play the Xillia 2 instead. Xillia 1 was butchered, rushed, and has a bunch of cut content that they slapped into 2 instead.

I have to disagree. I think the combat is for sure in the top three and some of the characters are great but I can understand hating it for the nonsensical story.
Like I love alvan as a character but his whole IM A BAD GUY NO IM A GOOD GUY IM A BAD GUY IM A GOOD GUY shtick is just dreadful. The copy and pasted areas are also truly grating but for some reason I can't help but love the game. Some of the zones/dungeons that arent copy and pastes are some of the best in tales which usually just end up being forest mazes in other tales games.

Also I highly reccomend xillia 2. It basically fixes all the problems of the first, keeps the solid characters intact, makes the battle system even better, and has one of the most heart pulling video game stories ive seen in a while.

Xillia is probably a good starting point.
Characters are good, level design is good, music is good, mechanics got tightened up & streamlined.

Also you can play Xillia 2 if you like it.

Its definitely a good place to start before you play Berseria (which is good).

Also, Zestiria is awful but it is the prequel to Berseria.

>Zestiria is awful but it is the prequel to Berseria.
I thought all the games existed in their own universe's ala Final Fantasy. That not the case?

xillia 1 and 2 are connected
symphonia 1 and 2 are connected
berseria and zestiria are kinda connected. its the same world and a lot of the same themes pop up and even some characters but its hundreds of years apart and they try to be as different as possible.

Start with one of the earlier Tales, like Symphonia. If you start with the more recent ones you'll never want to play the classics.

Honestly, I'd suggest Tales of Destiny but since I've only played the original because Namco are fucking kikes who never released the remake in the west, I'd go with Symphonia for sure.

It's where I started so I recommend it

No, some have direct sequels. Not many though.

>Also, Zestiria is awful but it is the prequel to Berseria.

You flipped it. Berseria is the prequel to Zestiria.

Don't listen to this cunt. Berseria is just as as bad as Zestiria, it only gets lauded on Sup Forums because of waifu fags. Plus, in order to get all the references, you'd have to play the predecessor. Which means actually buying and playing Zestiria. Fuck no to that

The only Tales you should concern yourself with are Symphonia, Abyss and Vesperia. Then move on to games like Xillia

It's the best one.

>Abyss

Abyss isn't a good game though

Yes
It's not the best but does have a place in my heart

I think Symphonia was like 2 dollars more. Guess I fucked up.

Fuck no. Xillia is a rushed mess that shits itself halfway through the game. The characters are pretty shit and so are the "dungeons". If anything, just skip to Xillia 2.

And Xillia is? Wew boy

tales of eternia

You're better off emulating the Gamecube version anyway. It has a bit less content but it runs at 60fps and if you have a good PC you can upscale it to look better than the PS3 version.

...

>if you have a good PC you can upscale it to look better than the PS3 version.
I do not. In fact I can't bring myself to game on a pc at all because I stare a computer all day at work and when I get home I don't even want to touch the things.

this

I dropped the game after Alvin did this for 6th time. But I did enjoy the combat system to an extent.

I guess you fucked up then. It'll go on sale again eventually.
Xillia isn't bad anyway, it's just not one of the best in the series. The sequel is much better.

Interested in this too.

I got Xillia a couple years ago but I never came around to actually play the thing in earnest, made it just through the prologue, but I might just pick it back if Xillia 2 is as good as says. I've always been curious about this series after all.

I also wanted to check out Symphonia at the very least, it's music theme really got my attention. How is the OST of the game? I hope stellar. They boasted about the score in the magazines way back in the day

Vesperia is also good I hear?, what are the other good ones?, I'm an SMT / Persona buff and I played my fair share of FF, all of KH and lots of rpgs (Last Story, Ni No Kuni and such) so I'm interested in what Tales of has to offer that I haven't seen yet.

3 Tales threads in 2 days, is this real life?

PD: How's the Tales of the Abyss remake for 3DS, Does it make any improvements from the original?

Anywhere after Symphonia is a good place to get started, gameplay wise.

No. Any Triple AAA Jrpg that doesn't have a world map is shit.

Only loading times were improved (which is a non issue if you have a hdd installed or emulate), everything else is identical save from some textures that look worse and resolution that is obviously lower.

How's pre-Symphonia?, kind of interested inDestiny 1 & 2.

Symphonia and Phantasia are connected as well.

Destiny was good at the time but it's aged worse than milk, so unless you understand moon runes I'd just forget about it

Is Abyss a good game anyways?, by the name the game sounds like it'd be set in the aftermath of an early instalment. I'd like to play the first if that's the case.

FUCK OFF NOVA, YOUR SISTER IS SO MUCH BETTER THAN YOU

Everyone here seems to really like to shit on those games for some reason, but I still think they hold up decently and are still worth playing.

The story's good but the mc going from insufferable to boring can turn you off. And no, Abyss doesn't have a predecessor.

Ok, noted. What about Symphonia itself?, by looking at the concept you'd think it'd have a lot of unique mechanics and a pretty original gameplay. What about the OST?, Can't have a game centered around music with a shitty score.

>been playing on intense since i unlocked it
>at the end of the game doing side quests
>party is 20+ levels below all of the enemies
>party dying left and right because they don't have a "spam to heal" button
>can stay alive as velvet, but if i fuck up even once/boss uses a mystic arte i have to use a life bottle
>bosses nonetheless take minutes of spamming square to kill
>the only way to deal with this is to grind for hours
why do people recommend playing like this? it's not even hard, it's just fucking boring.

...

Well, that is encouraging. And you say that despite that the story makes it worth the pain of having to put up with what I assume will be the edgiest of fedoralords?

Asking if X is a good game in the Tales series is going to get you a ton of different opinions. Personally, Abyss is my favorite but I can see why some people prefer other ones. It is definitely worth a playthrough. It is also its own story, most Tales games are or it is obvious when there is a connection (Xillia 1 & 2, Zestiria/Berseria) or the connection barely matters (Phantasia/Symphonia).
Symphonia isn't centered around music, but the OST is alright. All Tales games have at least a 6/10 OST. Symphonia is arguably the best place to start as it is new enough to get a playable fun game, but old enough that there are newer games that improve on the combat. It would be a lot more frustrating to play Vesperia, Abyss, or Xillia then go back to play Symphonia

I've played Phantasia (SNES) like 6 months ago and Destiny like a year ago.
Phantasia felt really rough gameplay wise at first, some quality of life improvements are absent (most notably manual mode and that you can only control Cless), but you get used to it pretty quickly and the story is one of the best so it keeps you hooked.
Destiny felt very good gameplay wise, manual mode is present (you need to waste an accessory slot because you have to equip the technical ring to be able to use it) and most of the modern quirks of the fighting system were added in this game (you can play with a friend if you equip the channeling ring to another party member, you can't change the main character though but you can use that to kind of bypass it), the story isn't for everyone though (pic related best girl though).

You're reading too much into these names; Symphonia isn't about music.

I'm playing berseria right now and I do not give one shit about the combat. It's terrible and needlessly complex. I turned that shit to easy.

Luke's personality sucks but his development and the effects his development have on the rest of the party make putting up with him worth it.

Needlessly complex? You should get the grasp of it within 2 hours at worst.