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The only games with really 'clunky' gameplay are Legendia and Symphonia 2. And Phantasia, I guess. Most everything else is pretty smooth, even the PS1-era stuff.

Anyway -

Symphonia is a little dated in terms of both writing and gameplay. Gameplay's fine, but it's a little awkward and there's not much room for comboing - it's their first attempt at 3d, and it shows graphics-wise and gameplay-wise. The plot's a little clunky, but the one thing it has to its name is that its constantly moving, there's no real 'dead' spots in terms of plot, everything moves at a steady clip. Most of the cast is decently characterized, though some get way more than others. Zelos gets a lot of focus put on his characterization and development, but Regal just kind of blends into the background once his fifteen minutes are over. In addition, the game kind of lacks a fully formed party dynamic, which is, in my opinion, the biggest weakness of it's writing. Zelos and Sheena have a lot of interaction, but Sheena barely interacts with, say, Presea, even though they're both in the party.

Overall, it'd be a good entry point if you wanna jump on at the point most people did. The dub isn't *terrible*, but it's clearly a product of its time, but the PS3 port has a japanese audio option if you can't stand it. OST wise... eh, it's Sakuraba. A few tracks are good, most are blandly decent, a couple are bad.

Tales of the Abyss has a much smoother combat system, though it has a few gimmicks that can be kind of hard to figure out, and free-run (being able to run around freely in 3D instead of being stuck on a limited plane between you and your target) clearly wasn't balanced that well - you can beat most bosses just by running figure 8s around them. In my opinion it has the best plot in the series, with actual themes and an idea that it sticks to from beginning to end, as well as pretty solid characterization too, with characters that bounce off each other in an entertaining way. That said, one word of warning in that regard is that the main character is a gigantic brat in the early going of the game, and one of the party members is extremely fond of withholding information that could be useful. They both get over it, but I know some people can't stand that sort of thing.

Gameplay-wise, one thing to note is that Tales of the Abyss absolutely adores missable sidequests that are never hinted at and often require you to ignore what you're 'supposed' to be doing. If you don't care about sidequests at all, then its' not a problem, but if you care about that sort of thing you'll want a guide.

Audio-wise, the dub is very impressive for the time. A few of the voices don't quite land, but most of the voices fit and give decent-to-good performances. In addition to Sakuraba doing his usual 'decent but not particuarly memorable outside of a few tracks' OST, they brought in Bump of Chicken's guitarist, I believe, to compose a few songs himself, and all the ones he composed are very, very good songs, Meaning of Birth especially. Sakuraba also hits the mark more times than he misses, so overall it's one of the better OSTs in the series.

Tales of Legendia... Tales of Legendia...

Okay, I'm a big fan of Tales of Legendia, but it wasn't developed by either of the core Tales Teams, Symphonia or Destiny, but rather by a team composed mostly of Tekken or Soul Calibur devs. It, uh, kind of shows. The combat system attempts to be action-er, and lacks 3D movement at all, but it's very clunky and stilted. Once you get used to it it can be kind of fun, but it feels sluggish, for lack of a better word.

Writing-wise... it certainly exists. The party has a decent dynamic going, and most of them are pretty likable, but a few of them are kind of boring and one of them is a very 'love them or hate them' type character. Its plot has a few issues and logical gaps, but it goes in interesting directions that other Tales games kind of wouldn't.

Since the game wasn't developed by either of the core Tales teams, Sakuraba doesn't compose - instead, it's Go Shiina, who you might know from Tekken and God Eater He delivers a very, very unique soundtrack, that I personally adore, but I could see some people disliking it. Here's an example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PetEZ_ahg-Q

Dub-wise, the performances are competent, but only a few really standout. Unfortunately, the second half of the game is completely unvoiced in the US release - apparently all the dialogue was mislabeled as sidequest dialogue by the translators, or something.

Overall, I wouldn't recommend Legendia as a starting point. It's a unique entry in the series that a lot of people don't like, and even the people who adore it tend to love it with a few caveats. It's the sort of game you play if you're really looking for more Tales, and want a different spin on the idea.

I'm not a big fan of Vesperia, so I don't have much to say about it. I'll do it in a brief pros/cons style list.

Pros:
Great dub
Good characterization
Snappy battle system
Very pretty

Cons:
Has a big to-do about morality and whether it's right to break the law to kill someone evil, then drops it halfway to focus on a dumb environmental message
Very bland, almost outright bad OST save for a few songs

Overall, I'd recommend Vesperia as a starting point if you want a more 'modern Tales game', and don't wanna go back to the PS2/gamecube era, can handle a plot that kind of falls apart in the third act, and if you really, really fucking love Troy Baker.

Tales of Graces is my personal favorite in the series.

Its gameplay is extremely, extremely fast, with a big focus on combos and reflexive dodging. The game does away with MP (or TP as the Tales series calls it) entirely, instead just assigning a CC cost to all moves. Characters have a certain amount of CC, and it replenishes if they back off and block for a couple of seconds. This keeps combat going very quick. Here's a video showing just how crazy combos can get in Graces: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ckt3fX-O74&feature=kp

Unfortunately, the plot doesn't quite match up. It has a few interesting ideas, but after about a third of the game is gone it jsut devolves into a series of things that happen. You go to a place, there's a guy there doing a thing, you beat the guy, then the main villain of the game shows up and laughs maniacally, then flies off. This happens no less than three times. The plot is very, very disjointed, is what I'm saying here.

Characterization-wise, however, it's pretty strong. A few of the characters have a surprising amount of depth, considering the story they're placed in, and another few are just flat out hilarious. I'd say Graces's biggest strength, writing wise, is its sense of humor, and that humor makes it easy to like the characters. Just about every Tales game has a few jokes and gags thrown in, and the Skit system that the series has been using since the beginning means its easy for there to be random laugh out loud moments, but Graces has tons of jokes, from the skits all the way down to descriptions of items or equipment. It makes the clunky plot a lot easier to swallow, and gives the game a pretty big charm factor.

I couldn't think of anywhere else to put this, but FYI: Graces has some rather hard and complex puzzle dungeons. Flipping switches and teleporter puzzles and that sort of thing. Fortunately, you can just look up videos on youtube and copy what they do to get past them, if you aren't into that sort of thing - they're complex, but not especially time consuming once you know what to do.

OST-wise... it's more Sakuraba. The only songs that stand out are a brief selection of songs from a certain location in the game, where the OST inexplicably gets very celtic. It's interesting, memorable stuff, but sadly the whole OST isn't like that - it lasts for a couple of dungeons and then a boss fight.

Voice acting wise, every VA turns in solid performances, if occasionally sounding like its their first time reading their lines. The exception is the main character, Asbel, whose VA sounds like this isn't just his first time reading the lines - its his first time experiencing human thought. He gives everything this bizarre, questioning tone, even when it's supposed to be a statement, and it makes Asbel come across very wishywashy and bland. There are a few scenes where he seems to finally get a grasp of the characterization, but they're few and far between. It's not insufferable, but it's very noticeable.

Overall, I'd recommend Graces as a starting point if you're big on combat and humor. Bear in mind that since its combat system is so unique from the rest of the series, it can be difficult to get a grasp on at first. Also, the game has an opening that drags just a bit too long, with all the characters as kids. It's a neat concept, but it doesn't do much with itself, and goes on about 20 minutes too long. It's only an hour and a half or so out of a 60+ hour game, though, so it's not too big of a deal.

Tales of Xillia... I like it a lot, but it has its problems.

Writing-wise, Xillia is pretty strong, with well-defined characters and a decently set-up plot. Unfortunately, the game was rushed out to release, and it shows. A few plot threads get dropped completely, the main antagonistic group is sort of half-formed and fuzzy save for their leader, and once you reach the last fourth of the game it drops a thousand plot points on you at once. It's very clear that they had to cram 25 hours of gameplay into 10. The game makes a decent showing of it, and even reaches a fairly satisfying ending, but the road to get there can be a little bumpy once you reach the third act.

Gameplay-wise, it's a fusion of the CC system from Graces and the TP from past games. It works well enough, and combat is snappy and fun, but like much of the rest of the game, it feels half-formed - the game has a system where you team up with party members and can do combo attacks with them, but only the main characters, Jude and Milla, have any real combo attacks between them. They have about ten with each other, five with every other party member, and then the other party members have five with Jude/Milla and then maybe two or three with each other. It's annoying if you're playing as one of the non Jude/Milla party members.

Speaking of Jude and Milla, the game has a choice of protagonists at the start, but again... half-formed. Jude gets a full opening that introduces him to the world and eases into the adventure, Milla just sort of shows up and hops into the first dungeon. The camera does a lot of POV tricks with Jude's point of view in cutscenes, even if you're playing as Milla. In the last third of the game, Jude gets to kill off two of the antagonists and discover a major plot-twist - Milla wanders around a beach for an hour while a mole takes a nap.

Playing as Milla isn't a complete bust, since there are a few neat things in there, and as far as the game itself is concerned, she is the party's leader, the one leading them onwards and the one most dedicated to their goals, but Jude's story just feels more complete.

Speaking of complete, dungeons in Xillia are just hallways with occasionally branching paths for treasure chests. There's almost no puzzles to speak of in the game. In addition, a lot of the generic 'town' locations are reused. You're going to see the same port five times, like it or not. I don't particuarly mind it, since I've never liked puzzles in JRPGs, but it does feel a little amateur hour, and is another clear sign of how rushed the game was.

OST wise... It's, again, Sakuraba, but all of the tracks sound inexplicably muffled in-game. Maybe it's just me.

Voice-acting wise, it's another decent-to-good showing from all the voice actors, with a few standouts. Milla's VA gives her a very noticeable lisp. Some people don't like it, but I think it's, well, cute, and fits the character rather well. Fair warning that the game also has a kind of shrieky mascot character whose dialogue is 50% boob jokes. I didn't think he was that bad, and even thought he led to a few actually funny boob jokes, but I could see where someone would find him completely insufferable.

Overall, I'd recommend Tales of Xillia if you wanna play the newest Tales game. It certainly feels the newest - it looks the best, plays the smoothest, and just feels really slick, for lack of a better word. Tales of Vesperia was released in 2007, back when the 360/PS3 were new, and Graces was originally developed for the Wii, which is less powerful than the 360 and PS3, but Xillia is using modern technology to its fullest. That said, you have to be prepared to make a few allowances for the fact that the game needed another six months or so in the oven.

thank you for the many words!

once i've finished tales of the abyss i'll probably check out graces next from what you've said

No problem! One thing I can recommend doing before committing to buying a tales game is looking at a few gameplay videos to get an idea of the combat system and a few skit videos to get an idea of the party dynamic. Skits rarely have any real spoilers in them, and it can give you a pretty strong idea of what the characters are gonna be like.

I'm playing Vesperia rn, that's pretty disappointing that it's going to shove the more interesting plot for the environmental plot.

i love the heck out of vesperia but the overall plot really does go down the drain

thankfully the great individual character arcs still make the game worth it imo

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