Where to start in the Tales Series?

[DayDreamer]

I recently started playing Tales Of Phantasia (Gba) and Im loving it. I was shocked to see the story catch me off guard a few times when I expected the normal cliche's to roll in like most jrpgs. But all that is beside the point.

My question is whats a good modern tales game to play?
I'd love to try symphonia but i dont feel like taking out my gamecube for it.. or my wii.
Im more interested in getting a tales game for the ps3 or tales of abyss on the 3ds.
I just dont know where's the "best place" to start.

Spoiler!

This made me smile.. xD

[NoiseHERO]

Easily Symphonia (probably the most famous one) last one I played was abyss which I liked...

Heard Vesperia was good, cept for a certain game breaking boss... >______________>;;;

My order was phantasia, Symphonia, DS one that was fan translated that I didn't like much so much to the point that I forgot the name, then abyss.

There's also some PSX ones.

Otherwise other fans could suggest you better.

[DayDreamer]

Easily Symphonia (probably the most famous one) last one I played was abyss which I liked...

Heard Vesperia was good, cept for a certain game breaking boss... >______________>;;;

My order was phantasia, Symphonia, DS one that was fan translated that I didn't like much so much to the point that I forgot the name, then abyss.

There's also some PSX ones.

Otherwise other fans could suggest you better.

Yeah i'd play Symphonia if i could.. but i cant xD
Vesperia seems like a lot of fun but isnt that still an xbox exclusive to NA?

I know Xilla is getting released here but i dont want to wait that long 8'D

[Griffin]

Stop being lazy and get out your Gamecube! What kind of gamer are you anyway?!

[NoiseHERO]

Unless you have the actual discs I heard symphonia is still kinda pricey... >_>;;

[blace]

Tales of Symphonia is both famous and priciest of the series. As for PS3 Tales of Graces f is decent, and is a port from the Wii version with extra content.

[Shinji Kazuya]

If you can't wait for Xillia to come out, get Graces f. I've been having a blast with it.

The battle system is awesome.

[CelestialBlade]

Best to go from the oldest on up. Going from newest down is gonna bore you because of the periodic battle system improvements. I can't think of a really bad Tales, so you should be good with any choice.

[Mkan]

I would recommend with starting with Tales of the Abyss or Tales of Symphonia. They're both pretty easy to grasp (though Symphonia is considerably simpler) and two of my favorites in the franchise. You can get Tales of the Abyss for the PS2 or the 3DS if you have one (I prefer the PS2 version, but I own both and they're both good.) If you have an Xbox 360 I'd highly recommend Tales of Vesperia, as it's similar to both Abyss and Symphonia but a little bit more complex in terms of battle system. Tales of Graces f for the PS3 is also a great game, but made by a different development team than the other aforementioned games(Tales of Graces f is made by Team Destiny, wheras Abyss, Vesperia, and Symphonia are made by team Symphonia). The Team Symphonia games carry more traditional RPG battle mechanics in that you need a certain amount of TP to use your attacks/spells/etc. Tales of Graces uses the CC system present in all Tales of games made by Team destiny (IIRC anyways) where you wait for your CC meter to fill up before you can attack and chain your special moves.

So yeah, to work yourself into the franchise I'd recommend any of the Team Symphonia games, especially Tales of Symphonia or Tales of the Abyss. Have fun and good luck

If you decide to play any of these games I'm sure you'll find they're all blatantly superior to Phantasia.

[DayDreamer]

Stop being lazy and get out your Gamecube! What kind of gamer are you anyway?!

What kind of gamer am I?
A lazy one :3 I'll get around to it though :U

Anyway so I guess the choice is between tales of abyss and tales of graces f (for now). Is tales of graces f a sequel to tales of graces or does it just have more content? Might be a stupid question but Namco did a good job confusing me with all the games that havent been released in the US xD