Hey Bebpo, what are your thoughts on Symphonia, Vesperia, and Graces F so I can contextualize your opinions?
Sure.
Graces - Fantastic Tales game outside story which is generic anime 7/10 and the cast is nothing special 7/10, but the gameplay is fantastic. Best 3d Tales that feels like the original 2d Tales.
Vesperia - First half is excellent, great lead character with Yuri, Flynn is a good rival, story is interesting about anti-hero justice, gorgeous world, mediocre battle system. Second half is dumb story, nothing special cast. Ok game.
Symphonia - Was fun when it came out other than being overly long and padded with a kind of simple 3d battle system. Would not reply it today because all that stuff is gonna make it feel really dated. Story was ok, cast was nothing special.
Abyss - Improved battle system from Symphonia, good cast (Jade is top 3 Tales character), pretty epic FF-ish story, good antagonists, great art design. For the time at PS2 was great, but like Symphonia probably doesn't hold up as well these days.
Zesteria - Weaker Graces combat, but still fun. Terrible story, good cast. Some good music. Mixed game.
Rebirth - Shit story, mediocre characters, amazing battle system. Worth it for the gameplay while ignoring everything plot.
Legendia - Kinda boring way too long story with bad pacing and kinda boring battle system, but interesting cast and battles for at least being different. Clay animation style is gorgeous and the music is the best ever. A boring game that was still worth playing through.
Destiny 2 - nothing special story, ok cast, ok battle system. Was good at the time but wouldn't want to replay it.
Eternia - ok story, great cast, good battle system. Still holds up I think as classic Tales.
Destiny R, ok story, good cast, great battle system. Good stuff.
Phantasia, ok story, ok cast, ok battle system. Good first game.
Can't really say much about Xillia because I dropped it after about 10 hours and never played Xillia 2 since I didn't finish Xillia. Berseria I dropped, and one day I might go back to it, but honestly I'd rather pick up Xillia again than Berseria since the cast was a lot better/more interesting in Xillia even if the battle system and fields are just as boring as Berseria.
After I dropped Berseria, I picked up Tokyo Xanadu Ex+ and having 10x the amount of fun with it. Much better arpg combat, way better dungeons/fields, and better writing imo. I feel like Berseria was made for a very specific part of the Tales fanbase (mainly for people who hate Tales and Vesperia is the only one they really liked), and isn't made to appeal to the Tales fans that want a modern Tales game to feel like a fun modern 3d Tales formula game. Graces was that. So people who hate/dislike Graces should really like Berseria. People who really liked Graces got Zesteria which was a much weaker Graces.