"Tales Of" Series...

[90snostalga]

I picked up a Tales Of game for the Wii the other day at GameStop only to take advantage of the buy 2 get 1 free and because it has a cool cover.  I do not have really any knowledge of the Tales games and have never played them, or known any one personally that has.  Would the "Tales Of" franchise be a great series to get into?  And should I play them in order?

[turf]

My brother loves that series. I have a few of them, but haven't played them.

[dreama1]

I picked up a Tales Of game for the Wii the other day at GameStop only to take advantage of the buy 2 get 1 free and because it has a cool cover.  I do not have really any knowledge of the Tales games and have never played them, or known any one personally that has.  Would the "Tales Of" franchise be a great series to get into?  And should I play them in order?

Yes but not the wii version it's considered the weakest in the series. Go with the gamecube version or playstation 3.

[karyann]

I picked up a Tales Of game for the Wii the other day at GameStop only to take advantage of the buy 2 get 1 free and because it has a cool cover.  I do not have really any knowledge of the Tales games and have never played them, or known any one personally that has.  Would the "Tales Of" franchise be a great series to get into?  And should I play them in order?

Yes but not the wii version it's considered the weakest in the series. Go with the gamecube version or playstation 3.

^ He's talking specifically about the Tales of Symphonia games here. Overall, all the Tales Of series have little in common story-wise, so you can pretty much play them in any order you like. As for Symphonia, I definitely suggest playing the first game first, as Dawn of the New World's story is set a few years after.

And in my current experience, Tales Of games are usually awesome

[insektmute]

Of those I've played so far, I'd rate Xillia and Vesperia as my favorites. I got bored with Abyss though, despite a couple of people telling me it's their favorite of the series.

[argyle]

It's funny, I never could get into the series in previous generations.  I kept trying & losing interest about a third of the way through the games.  But for whatever reason, this gen they just "clicked" with me and now I'm obsessed.    I played Vesperia first on the 360 and loved it.  But I'm pretty much equally fond of both Graces f & Xillia on the PS3.  Still haven't played the Symphonia remake on the PS3 (FYI, this has both the Gamecube original game & the Wii sequel - aka the one you just bought - so if you have a PS3 you may wanna return the Wii version & just go this route).  Definitely looking forward to Xillia 2 later this year, and I'm psyched that we're getting Tales of Hearts on the Vita. 

I'm not sure why it took me so long to get into them, but the Tales games are fantastic if you like JRPGs and definitely worth your time. 

[dreama1]

It's funny, I never could get into the series in previous generations.  I kept trying & losing interest about a third of the way through the games.  But for whatever reason, this gen they just "clicked" with me and now I'm obsessed.    I played Vesperia first on the 360 and loved it.  But I'm pretty much equally fond of both Graces f & Xillia on the PS3.  Still haven't played the Symphonia remake on the PS3 (FYI, this has both the Gamecube original game & the Wii sequel - aka the one you just bought - so if you have a PS3 you may wanna return the Wii version & just go this route).  Definitely looking forward to Xillia 2 later this year, and I'm psyched that we're getting Tales of Hearts on the Vita. 

I'm not sure why it took me so long to get into them, but the Tales games are fantastic if you like JRPGs and definitely worth your time.

You play the psp, and 3ds games?

[argyle]

It's funny, I never could get into the series in previous generations.  I kept trying & losing interest about a third of the way through the games.  But for whatever reason, this gen they just "clicked" with me and now I'm obsessed.    I played Vesperia first on the 360 and loved it.  But I'm pretty much equally fond of both Graces f & Xillia on the PS3.  Still haven't played the Symphonia remake on the PS3 (FYI, this has both the Gamecube original game & the Wii sequel - aka the one you just bought - so if you have a PS3 you may wanna return the Wii version & just go this route).  Definitely looking forward to Xillia 2 later this year, and I'm psyched that we're getting Tales of Hearts on the Vita. 

I'm not sure why it took me so long to get into them, but the Tales games are fantastic if you like JRPGs and definitely worth your time.

You play the psp, and 3ds games?

I've just picked them up recently - I know the 3DS game is a remake of the PS2 game, so not sure which version of that I'll eventually end up playing.  The PSP Tales game is a spin-off game - Tales of the World, that is.  I've noticed that Tales of Eternia was released in the UK, so I'll have to work on importing a copy of that. 

It's one of 3 UK PSP games I want actually, the other 2 being Breath of Fire III & the White Knight Chronicles game. 

[dreama1]

It's funny, I never could get into the series in previous generations.  I kept trying & losing interest about a third of the way through the games.  But for whatever reason, this gen they just "clicked" with me and now I'm obsessed.    I played Vesperia first on the 360 and loved it.  But I'm pretty much equally fond of both Graces f & Xillia on the PS3.  Still haven't played the Symphonia remake on the PS3 (FYI, this has both the Gamecube original game & the Wii sequel - aka the one you just bought - so if you have a PS3 you may wanna return the Wii version & just go this route).  Definitely looking forward to Xillia 2 later this year, and I'm psyched that we're getting Tales of Hearts on the Vita. 

I'm not sure why it took me so long to get into them, but the Tales games are fantastic if you like JRPGs and definitely worth your time.

You play the psp, and 3ds games?

I've just picked them up recently - I know the 3DS game is a remake of the PS2 game, so not sure which version of that I'll eventually end up playing.  The PSP Tales game is a spin-off game - Tales of the World, that is.  I've noticed that Tales of Eternia was released in the UK, so I'll have to work on importing a copy of that. 

It's one of 3 UK PSP games I want actually, the other 2 being Breath of Fire III & the White Knight Chronicles game.

No the psp game is complicated or I don't understand it quite, tales of eternia is number 2 or something with the numbering. Like how they messed up the final fantasy numbering.

[redblaze57]

Tales of the world is like a dungeon Crawler with the Tales of Series Combat system and the Tales of characters that appear contain their personalities but are completely different from their origin game. kind of a multiverse type of thing if that makes sense. as for Symphonia: dawn of the new world on the Wii it is the weakest of the Tales of series. It's takes a long ass time for the tutorial BS to get completed there is a lot of reused locations from Symphonia, the previous heroes getting level caps is complete Bullshit and the story is pretty bland, but once things get rolling I found the combat to be really fun and actually the Wii version allows you to set up the most artes so you can pull off some insane combos.

From the ones I've played I would suggest starting with Tales Of Phantasia on the GBA since that is actually a rtemke of the First Tales of Game back on the Super Famicom if you have the money then go to Legendia, Symphonia, Abyss, DOTNW(optional), Vesperia, Graces F, then Xillia. it is a series that with each installment they do add things that make that game better overall.

For me the Tales of Series is my personal favorite JRPG.

[MJMaranan]

I only played Tales Of Destiny on the PlayStation.  I loved everything about that game and was excited when I heard about the then-upcoming games.  Sadly, when I played the next iteration, I saw that the games were adding with grading systems, collectible Titles, an unnecessary Cooking skill for each character, and the story wasn't as interesting, in my opinion.

Besides, I've become somewhat tired of the kids-or-teenagers-must-save-the-world formula.

[doctorlaudanum]

Speaking as someone who - despite what my collection may imply - doesn't care much for JRPGs, I think the Tales of... games are among the best in the genre, and some pretty great games in their own right. Fantastic music, a unique fighting system, and some wonderful plots and characters that just love to viciously turn traditional JRPG cliches on their heads. Shame that only maybe half of them were ever localized, though. That atrocious Tales of Phantasia GBA port doesn't count.

However, to be perfectly frank, I think introducing yourself to the series with Dawn of the New World (which is what I'm assuming you just picked up) will end in disaster. I personally think it is the weakest in the series, both story- and gameplay-wise. (And I'm not at all bitter because Symphonia is my favorite in the series, no sir...) I suggest trying out Symphonia, Xillia, Vesperia or Graces before anything else. Tales of the Abyss is also pretty popular, though I personally thought it was overrated. Like karyann said, each game is self-contained - with one or two notable exceptions - so you should have no problem playing them out of order. Good luck!

[doctorlaudanum]

No the psp game is complicated or I don't understand it quite, tales of eternia is number 2 or something with the numbering. Like how they messed up the final fantasy numbering.

Are you talking about how they gave Tales of Eternia a completely wrong title when it was localized for Europe and Australia? I believe it was renamed Tales of Destiny II, despite being completely unrelated to the original Tales of Destiny. Never understood that.

[karyann]

No the psp game is complicated or I don't understand it quite, tales of eternia is number 2 or something with the numbering. Like how they messed up the final fantasy numbering.

Are you talking about how they gave Tales of Eternia a completely wrong title when it was localized for Europe and Australia? I believe it was renamed Tales of Destiny II, despite being completely unrelated to the original Tales of Destiny. Never understood that.

Wow, how can one company fail that much with their own title? 

[argyle]

I dunno about the UK numbering, but in the US this is what happened.  Tales of Destiny was the first Tales game released over here, so when they localized Tales of Eternia they decided to rename it Tales of Destiny 2 for name brand recognition.  On the bright side, they named them all correctly after that - still better than what Square did w/ FF.