Tales Series

As a gamer, I believe that the most important aspect of a game is its gameplay. If a game isn't fun to play, it's not worth your time. With that said, I can respectfully say that the Tales series is the RPG series that understands that aspect.

Allow me to be brutally honest for just a moment. I find most RPGs to be boring gameplay wise. The turn-based battle system that so many have is so tedious and un-original, that they are sometimes even difficult to play. Now, don't get me wrong, if a game's story is decent, then the gameplay won't matter. However, if the gameplay is boring, then it's the game's job to hook you with a story, to make you want to play the game to see the story. If the game fails to do that, then the game's battle system will not only have to be good enough for the gamer to want to play the game, but it will also get the spotlight, perhaps making the gamer harder to please. However, I digress.

The Tales Series is the one series that I think understand this. The LMBS (Linear Motion Battle System) is so brilliant and fun to play, as it takes aspects from fighting games and puts them into a RPG. This will make battles require more skill, and perhaps even more frustrating if you lose a fight. However, despite any frustrations that may have come from the games (i.e. Tales of Destiny 2 for the PS2), the game is at least fun to play, and mostly easy.

The stories of each game are also quite interesting. However, they tend to copy each other. Each story tends to be able some protagonist becoming more mature or one character that is either a copy (REPLICAAAAAAAAAAAAA) of another character or someone of higher importance than the lead. To many, this may be a turn-off in terms of story, but I don't mind it. I'm a believer of the idea that it doesn't matter how unique a story is, but how well the story is told. Of course, that doesn't mean that Namco should make a deliberate attempt to copy other stories, but rather, they should focus on making the story as good as possible, and if it turns out that it's similar to another story, then that's fine. All great stories come from something, anyway.

The design of each game is always fun to look forward too. The character designs in particular are always so colorful no matter what kind of theme the game has (for example: Tales of Rebirth has a dark theme, so the design uses dull colors to make the world look less happy). Sometimes the designs don't look very good, making it hard to enjoy the characters, but it's mostly excellent.

The music tends to be decent songs, but very rarely are the soundtracks ever worth remembering. A lot of the time, the music is just there, and the sound track will have at least one good song. However, there are some games that have great soundtracks (Tales of Legendia and Tales of Rebirth). It's ultimately a matter of musical preferences.

In conclusion, the series is great. If you are looking for a RPG series with a great action battle system then this is the one for you. I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoys games.