Ranking the Tales Series script

Intro:

Ah, the Tales series - the awkward, dorky, far less popular cousin of Final Fantasy. While it’s been steadily gaining popularity in the west over the last couple decades, it’s still not one most people are aware of. Which breaks my heart, cuz this series has some of the best, more enthralling character writing I’ve ever seen. Even if the plot is kinda basic, the casts are still comprised of relatable dumpster fires you can’t help but root for… most of the time.

The Tales series is one that entirely owns my heart and soul, and best believe me when I say that these characters have given me severe brain rot. Even my least favorite games in this series usually have something to enjoy. And so today, we’re gonna rank the Tales games I’ve played.

I should say this isn’t gonna be comprehensive by any means. I’ll be giving my overall thoughts on each entry, and y’all should know I’m a  characters and story girlie, so those always get priority over gameplay. But if you feel differently… good for you. This is my video. Deal with it.

Now, since this list consists of the games I’ve played and finished, there will be exclusions. The two notable ones I wanna get outta the way now are… Symphonia and Graces. Yes, I know, Symphonia is THE fan favorite Tales. I’ve tried playing it, and admittedly, it’s difficult to get into because I’m so used to all the recent entries. However, I am determined to finish it one day… but that day is not today.

And Graces… I might get killed for this. I couldn’t finish it. I just didn’t care for the cast at all. Yes, I know, y’all love her gameplay, but as I said, if I don’t care about the cast and/or story, I’m out. So… there we are.

Number 7, Tales of Hearts R:

Yeah, I don’t think this one’s all that surprising. Released for the PSVita in Japan in 2013, and western regions a year later, Tales of Hearts R is a remake of a DS game. If you were wondering what the “R” stood for… yeah, it’s for “remake.”

Set in the world of Organica, the story follows local loser Kor Meteor… or Shing Meteoryte, depending on who you ask - more on that later. Kor lives in the coastal village of Seaville with his grandfather, and is training to wield a soma: a device which allows the wielder to enter the hearts of others, called spiria, and purify them of spiria-eating monsters called xerom.

One day, a young girl named Kohaku washes up on shore, and she and her brother Hisui are being pursued by a psycho robot lady named Incarose. During Incarose’s attack, Kor’s grandfather dies, and in an attempt to help Kohaku, Kor accidentally shatters her spiria, sending out shards of each of her emotions across the world.

So now, Kor must venture out with Kohaku and Hisui to help restore Kohaku’s spiria, in the process discovering who Incarose is, why she’s after Kohaku, and how all of this will of course lead to the end of the world. JRPGs gonna JRPG, after all.

I very much enjoyed this game when I initially played it, but upon revisiting it last year… yeah, it’s safe to say my standards have risen. That’s not to say Hearts has a bad story; rather, it’s one that is incredibly… trite. I have seen this premise and these archetypes done better, often in other Tales games, and there’s not enough uniqueness here in this cast to make Hearts an entry I truly love.

Plus, there’s a weird amount of casual misogyny here I don’t usually find in the Tales series. Like, Kohaku continually getting kidnapped, benched, and tortured for the sake of Kor’s journey and ego. Still not as bad as Kairi in Kingdom Hearts, but that bar wasn’t very high to begin with.

Perhaps it also doesn’t help that Hearts suffered due to peculiar localization. I assume because Namco was assuming this game wouldn’t sell well, one because it was an era Tales was still considered niche, and also because the Vita was owned by a collective five people and a toaster, they decided that rather than dub the game, they’d simply translate the text.

What makes this odd is the choice to not only water down dialogue to try and inject more personality into the characters, but also to change character names. Shing Meteorite was renamed to be Kor Meteor, which is odd, cuz you can still hear the Japanese voices referring to him as Shing. A few other name changes were made, and lord knows why.

I get choosing Kor as a name, since it comes from the Latin word for heart, “Cor,” but… why do this if you’re not dubbing it? And why then leave Kohaku and Hisui’s names, instead of changing them to Amber and Jadeite? This game does have a gemstone motif, after all.

In terms of gameplay, Hearts is also fine. It’s nothing special, but it is made a little bit worse for me thanks to the random encounters. I just… I’m sorry, I hate random encounters. It makes me ultra paranoid about every single step I take on the map, and want to actively avoid exploring the environment. That’s just who I am.

All in all, not a terrible tale, but a deeply forgettable one, hence Tales of Hearts R falling to the very bottom of the list.

Number 6, Tales of Arise:

This will also not shock any of you, given me yelling about my disappointments with Tales of Arise for 11 fucking hours. It’s a talent to keep talking for that long, okay?

Set in the world of Dahna, Arise follows the story of Alphen, a masked man who cannot remember his past. He and the other Dahnans are enslaved by the colonizing Renans, whose leaders are currently competing to become the next Sovereign of their homeworld Rena. Things change when Alphen comes across a Renan woman named Shionne, who’s being pursued by other Renans after she steals a precious relic from one of the Renan lords.

Alphen can’t feel pain, while Shionne suffers from the Curse of Thorns, which causes incredible pain to any who touch her. Together, these two work to liberate Dahna from Renan rule, along the way learning the truth behind Shionne’s curse, and behind the real reason for Renan occupation. Spoilers: it’s incredibly stupid, and boils down to faceless aliens inventing racism and brainwashing Renans.

Oddly, while most Tales games feel like ensembles, with attention given to protagonists, antagonists, and the supporting cast, Arise really only seems to care for its protagonists. All but maybe one or two supporting cast members are entirely forgettable, and the ones that aren’t are only memorable because of their tragic deaths.

Because of that, combined with how the world is laid out for the player, Arise feels particularly hollow and lifeless compared to other Tales entries. All its effort went into its graphics via the new Atmos Shader, and while it is beautiful, there’s more to a good story and a good game than just good graphics.

The protagonists are… fine. I like most of them, but any chances at depth are stolen from most of them being given nothing to do but stand around and monologue about the game’s themes, rather than actually being allowed to have their own arcs, or moments to be proactive in the story.

Antagonists are incredibly shallow and forgettable, which is a crime in a series rich with fantastic villains. Each is disconnected from the others, and only gets to shine for a handful of scenes in each arc of the game before being switched out for the next boring baddie. The true big bad, Vholran, is by far the worst of the bunch, due to an underwhelming presence, and a lacking motivation and backstory that you don’t even get to witness. You just read about it in optional walls of text before the cast yells it at you.

And sadly, when you have weak antagonists, that comes at the cost of your protagonists, because the dynamics between these groups not only provides interesting conflict, but helps you to understand the flaws and virtues of everyone involved.

The final quarter of the game kicks all these problems into overdrive. There’s no actual antagonist in this section, but rather, faceless aliens that serve a big dumb alien monster, which are the real cause of all our problems, rather than actual named characters we might have any kind of real relationship with. There are interesting ideas here, but it’s all so abstract that it holds no weight. I’m just ready for the game to end.

That’s also compounded by the gameplay. Initially, I very much enjoyed Arise’s gameplay, but over time, it’s definitely soured on me, especially replaying older Tales entries. There’s hardly any thought or strategy beyond waiting out your combo cooldown, the combo attacks get old real quick, as they’re the same cinematics over and over with no cost to the player, and enemies take FOREVER to kill.

I’ll probably be murdered for this, considering Arise’s popularity when it dropped back in 2021, but I must speak my truth: I dislike Tales of Arise. I at least respect the ambition behind this title, and I can see the skeleton of a great story within, but potential isn’t enough. That said, if you love Arise, cool. Good for you. Please let other people feel differently.

Number 5, Tales of Zestiria:

Ah, Zestiria - one of the series’ black sheeps. But one that fascinates me to no end, as I continue to revisit its story and characters. Like Arise, I find Zestiria incredibly disappointing, but I feel a bit more… soul behind this one. This one haunts me in a far more pleasant way, where I can’t help but imagine what could’ve been.

Released in 2015, Zestiria is set in a medieval fantasy world, where the dark emotions of mankind transform them, animals, and even spirits into horrible beasts called hellions. Because of this, the spirits of the land - the seraphim - keep their distance from humans, not that humans would be able to perceive them anyway, as most humans believe their existence to be mere legend.

Our hero is Sorey: a sweet cinnamon roll who is the only human raised in a mountain village of seraphim. He’s a big ol’ nerd who loves exploring ancient ruins with his best bud and definitely not boyfriend Mikleo. One day, they meet a young knight who stumbles inside the mountain ruins near their home, and curious about the world she comes from, Sorey and Mikleo descend into the human world.

What’s most compelling about Zestiria, at least to me, is its world. I usually love the worlds the Tales series creates, and I absolutely love this fusion of Japanese shinto with Arthurian lore, even if the Arthurian bits are quite superficial. The inclusion of malevolence likewise could make for an interesting exploration of human nature, but Zestiria doesn’t quite deliver. This one’s really proof that cool worldbuilding is no replacement for a compelling story.

The cast is quite lacking here. It’s far better than Arise, in the sense that I remember most of the names of villains and supporting characters, but that’s not a very high bar to clear. Most of the protagonists don’t really feel like they have a reason to be here, nor do they have upfront arcs that help you to get to know them better. Most of their character work is subtle to the point of being buried under skits upon skits about equipment skills and equipment fusion.

Sorey himself is… fine, and while his archetype has been done to death, I at least feel his love for history and his earnesty make him endearing enough to work for me. But the rest of the cast… eh. Mikleo’s got nothing really going on other than supporting Sorey, Zaveid feels like a cameo character with no reason to be here, and while Rose, Lailah, Edna, and Dezel all feel like cool premises for characters, that’s all the feel like at the end of the day: cool premises.

The most complex of the bunch, Princess Alisha - that knight I mentioned earlier - is written out of the story a third of the way through the game. Her struggles in finding her place in a kingdom that resents her feel glossed over, as while we know her mother was a commoner, we don’t know anything else about her family to help us understand her better.

The villains suffer even more. It’s similar to Arise, in that most of them are disconnected from each other, even if they’re supposedly working together offscreen. Some are interesting, like the holier-than-thou Cardinal Forton, or Symonne, an illusionist seraph whose curse of death has plunged her into self-hatred and loneliness, but their lack of presence in the story prevents them from living up to their potential.

Other villains, such as the fox assassin Lunarre, also severely lack in presence, but also have barely anything beyond the barest of archetypes. The main villain, Heldalf, is the Lord of Calamity, and he’s… one of the most boring, underwhelming villains I’ve ever seen. He has no real connection to the protagonists, hardly any presence, and even when you learn about how he became what he is now, you’re just like, “... Okay? And?”

The story, structurally, feels solid enough, but like it’s missing a lot of the fluff and connective tissue that would help fully flesh out its cast. Even so, at its core, Zestiria is a stock-standard story of good versus evil that flirts with the idea of complexity, but ultimately, doesn’t feel like it quite knows what it wants to say.

And gameplay-wise… Zestiria’s not much fun to play either. A lot of ambition was put into creating a large scope and deeper immersion, but both backfired. Fields are large, barren wastelands that take far too long to traverse, battles no longer have separate arenas, causing many a camera issues because these places were not designed for close-quarters combat, and basic copy-paste ruins and caves that have no character whatsoever.

At the end of the day, Zestiria feels incomplete. Even with a cliche story, if more effort was put into giving the characters things to do, creating more interesting, active antagonists, and fixing the goddamn gameplay, this could’ve been a solid entry. But as it stands, Zestiria is… meh. It’s pretty much just there for you to daydream about the cool worldbuilding that a cooler story might exist in… FORESHADOWING IS A NARRATIVE DEVICE--

Number 4, Tales of Vesperia:

This one’s a fan favorite, so I gotta be careful, in case this one also gets me killed. Not to say I dislike Vesperia. I never got to play it, since it released on the Xbox 360 in 2008, and I was never an Xbox girlie. But when the game got remastered, I finally was able to give it a chance, and while it didn’t become an all-time favorite, I still very much enjoyed my time with it.

Set in the world of Terca Lumireis, humans live in… the Empire. Yeah, it’s just the Empire. Okay. But most humans rely on the protection of the Empire from monsters, primarily through the use of technology called blastia to perform magic.

Our hero, Yuri Lowell, isn’t a teenager. I know, it’s so rare for anime-adjacent stories to acknowledge anyone between the ages of 18 and 80. Yuri used to be an Imperial Knight, but left because they were corrupt sons of bitches, and he was too cool for school. He now lives in the neglected slums of the capital city of Zaphias.

Some asshat steals the blastia that powers the slums’ fountain, causing severe flooding, and Yuri then goes on a quest to get it back. Along the journey, he and his fighting dog Repede meet Princess Estelle, who takes far too long in the game to reveal she is in fact the princess, and after escaping the castle, they go to find Yuri’s bff and possible ex Flynn… for reasons Estelle will not discuss.

From here, the story continues to expand in scope and change direction, which often gave me insane amounts of whiplash. And it all culminates, of course, with our heroes trying to stop climate change… okay, sure, why not?

I adore Vesperia’s main cast. Collectively, it’s giving a band of misfit nerds and dorks who don’t always get along, but that just means more chaotic fireworks to enjoy. Yuri’s a bad boi who means well, but his chaotic good nature often puts him at odds with the law, especially when he takes matters into his own hands.

Estelle is a princess and a healer, and though she is quite sheltered, she can still handle herself, and easily keep up with Yuri’s nonsense. Flynn’s a good bean who’s very much still lawful good, but he means well. Even if he’s not the sharpest tool in the shed. I expected to hate Karol as the obligatory kid character, but he’s quite endearing, trying to find his place in the world and prove himself.

Rita’s definitely a favorite for her misanthropy and quick wit, especially as she has to reevaluate her love of blastia when their destructive nature is discovered. Judith, though, takes the cake, because not only are her motivations intriguing, but I adore the way she manages to be both unhinged and chill at the same time.

Raven and Patty are… fine. I didn’t really start to care about Raven until the big twist with his character (if you know, you know), but he’s still my least favorite member of the cast, alongside Patty. Patty’s understandable, since she was introduced to the game when it got ported over to PS3. For the most part, her inclusion is pretty seamless, but I can’t help but wish she felt less… irrelevant? Also the details of her backstory still deeply confuse me, but that’s for another time.

Sadly, my enthusiasm doesn’t extend to the antagonists. I’m noticing I tend not to like it when antagonists are all disconnected from each other, but at the very least, Vesperia antagonists are a bit more fun compared to those from Arise and Zestiria. Like, Zagi, the Tumblr assassin whose love for Yuri makes him wanna kill him real bad. Deeply irrelevant, but I commend his efforts to try and be relevant. We stan.

Alexei, our pretend big bad, suffers from both lack of presence and being boring as sin, but at least his bad voice acting makes him a bit… funnier? And the real big bad, Duke, has a killer design, but… that’s about it. His misanthropy and backstory are interesting, but he’s basically just a cameo for 90% of the game ‘til he becomes the final boss.

Ultimately, what holds Vesperia back for me is its disjointed story and theming. While I do love the protagonists, and the chill vibe of their journey, their stories don’t coalesce into a greater whole. The debate between Yuri and Flynn about whether to do murder for the sake of justice, Estelle reckoning with the inherent destruction brought by her existence, and the whole “Oh no, blastia is destroying the world” thing?

These all could feed into each other, but don’t. They feel like separate stories and separate themes all haphazardly stitched together, so it never feels like Vesperia is building to this one thing it’s trying to say. Instead, it feels like it has far too many things to say, and no idea how to weave them all together. Ironically, Xillia 1 shares a lot of similar themes and elements, and feels like a more refined version of Vesperia’s story.

At the very least, the gameplay is fun. The combat’s a bit slow for my liking, especially compared to more recent entries, but at least this one doesn’t actively irritate me like Arise and Zestiria? At the end of the day, Vesperia is good for the vibes, even if its story is lowkey a mess… highkey a mess.

Number 3, Tales of the Abyss:

Ah, my first Tales game… but not the PS2 version. Nah, I didn’t get to experience this one ‘til its 3DS port. The 3D feature was awful, yes, but I never used that to begin with, so who cares? The point is that when I played Abyss, I was hooked, and it’s been a Tales spiral ever since.

Taking place in the world of Auldrant, the people here live by an ancient prophecy known as Yulia’s Score. It’s said that to live by the Score guarantees prosperity, but since its conclusion is missing, the nations of Kimlasca and Malkuth have been warring over it for centuries, with the Order of Lorelei, a theocracy built around the Score, acting as a middle man.

Our story follows Luke fon Fabre, the scion of one of Kimlasca’s most prominent noble families. Luke was kidnapped, allegedly by Malkuth, when he was young, and since his return, he’s developed amnesia. He can’t remember anything from before his kidnapping, but he also had to re-learn how to walk and talk. Because of that, his parents have forbidden him from leaving their manor, much to his chagrin.

One day, while training with his swordmaster Van Grants, a highly esteemed member of the Order of Lorelei, an assassin breaks into the manner to try and kill him. Trying to save Van, Luke jumps in the middle, and as a result of he and the assassin’s powers clashing, they’re teleported halfway across the world.

The assassin, revealed to be Tear, the younger sister of Van, has no beef with Luke, and so offers to take him home, but of course, they accidentally wind up deep in Malkuth territory. And in that journey to get Luke back home, our leading dumbasses wind up becoming ambassadors for peace, working against an insidious scheme to incite war.

Abyss takes so much care to make you understand its entire cast, be they a hero, villain, or even a minor character. Luke’s journey of self-discovery and acceptance, going from a spoiled brat to a humble hero, is one of my favorite character arcs… pretty much of all time.

And the villains in Abyss? Dare I say? They’re probably the best set of villains in the entire Tales series, because the game takes the effort to not only provide them with plenty of screentime and presence, but also to make sure you understand their motivations and goals. They are people first, antagonists second.

I don’t even wanna get that deep into the story, because it is that engaging, and probably the heaviest on plot twists the series has ever been, but holy moly does this one throw you for a loop. Can this one get a remaster please? With voiced skits, perhaps?

There are a few hiccups holding it back from the top spots, though. The last quarter of the game features a lot of backtracking. You’ll be going from one town to another for cutscenes, with not much action in-between. Not an issue for me, but it can get grating.

But the real killer… is the lexicon. It’s no secret fantasy stories and JRPGs will use a lot of made-up words, but Abyss takes it to another level: fonon, seventh fonons, seventh fonists, isofon, fon slots, aggregate sentience, hyperresonance, fomicry, Planet Storm, memory particles, Sephiroth (no not that one…).

The game does explain these terms, but it can still be very difficult to follow, and when I hear about criticisms for Abyss, it usually has to do with how much of the script gets dogged down by the sci-fi word salads. I still love it, but I do realize that if I were to introduce this one to newbies, I’d have to do a lot of leg work to translate this into normal people speech.

Number 2, Tales of Xillia 1 & 2:

Yeah, these two have to go together. They just do. Regular viewers, you probably know I already made a video about my love for the Xillias. If you don’t… GO WATCH IT NOW. Or you’re grounded. But suffice to say, I loved the Xillias when they came out, and my love for them has continued to age like a fine wine.

But tldr, Xillia 1 is set in the world of Rieze Maxia, where our dual leads are Milla Maxwell, the enigmatic Lord of Spirits, and Jude Mathis, a 15-year-old medical student. Still not over that. Milla’s out to destroy a weapon of war that also kills spirits, and Jude ends up getting mixed up in her mission. And Xillia 2, set one year later, follows Ludger Kresnik as he’s tasked with destroying alternate timelines to save his own. Yes, they are related, and yes, they share a cast, and yes, it is wild.

I love the story, I love the cast, and these are arguably the most chill entries of the series. Xillia 2 specifically really gives the vibes of trying to navigate adult friendship while also saving the world… and destroying it? It’s complicated, much like adulthood.

Xillia 1 feels a bit rushed towards the end, and Xillia 2 is definitely far more convoluted, but the theming and character work is just so good, the pacing’s great, the fantasy terms aren’t too overwhelming, and the gameplay SLAPS. Highkey, Xillia 1 and 2 have my favorite combat systems in the entire series, being both fast and robust.

Number 1, Tales of Berseria:

Surprising no one, Tales of Berseria is absolutely my favorite Tales game, and one of my favorite games of all time. Every time I replay this one, I find new things to love, and I cry. Like… waterfall cry. Every hour. On the hour.

Set in the same world as Zestiria, but a thousand years prior, our story follows Velvet Crowe, a girl from the small, rustic village of Aball. She lost her older sister Celica seven years ago during the Scarlet Night, where a disease known as daemonblight began turning people into bloodthirsty monsters called… well, daemons. Since then, Velvet has been taking care of her sickly younger brother Laphicet, albeit with the help of her older brother-in-law Arthur.

Another Scarlet Night occurs, during which, Arthur sacrifices Laphicet in a ritual to try and counter the daemonblight. Velvet tries to stop him, in the process becoming a daemon herself. But not just any daemon - one that devours other daemons with a massive claw for a left hand. Arthur, now Artorius, has imprisoned her, and become known as the world’s savior. Three years later, Velvet breaks out, and will stop at nothing to kill Artorius and avenge her brother.

Unlike most other entries, Berseria leans hard into most of our cast this time around being anti-heroes… if you can even call them that. They’re not out to save the world, but rather, only end up doing so pursuing their own individual agendas. Selfish coexistence, you could say.

But ultimately, that winds up working perfectly in service of this game’s themes about human nature, morality, and emotion versus reason. And as a queer person surviving the 2020s… yeah, the idea of fighting back against institutions, especially heavily church-coded ones, that are hellbent on stamping out your existence? Yeah, it shouldn’t be a shock I’m very much down for burning the Abbey to the ground.

Berseria’s complexity, aided in its perfect pacing, its resonant emotional storytelling combined with great conveyance, and its willingness to lean into the inherent messiness of human emotion all conspire to make this the perfect entry for me. The combat may be very… button mashy, especially compared to other entries, but it’s smooth and cathartic enough to work for me. Especially compared to its predecessor.

Conclusion & Outro:

So… yeah. There’s my ranking, as of right now, of the Tales series! How about y’all? What’s your favorite Tales, or your least favorite? How much do you want me dead for dissing your beloved? Be sure to let me know in the comments for that sweet, sweet engagement, because unlike Magilou, I care far too fucking much.