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[aravuus]

I never understood the hate on Graces characters/story... It's no worse than any other tales game in that regard. Especially Symphonia and it's sequel which seem to get a surprising amount of praise despite the entire story being complete tripe.

Lol no. Easily the shittiest characters and while most of the Tales stories are very cliche, at least they have a few entertaining twists here and there usually. Graces has nothing like that. Easily the best combat and character progression systems though.

 

[Cess007]

OP, as you can see there's little to non general consensus about the Tales games (nor about their general quality), but i personally recommend of the 3D ones:

- Symphonia (overall, the best of all)
- Abyss (Main character is an ass at the beginning, but the game main point it's his development as a character. Also best Op )
- Graces f (best combat, and i liked Pascal dammit!)
- Both Xillias (story is better on Xillia 2, but you need to play both to full understand the meaning of some events)

I was never a fan of Vesperia, as i didn't really clicked with the Yuri, but almost everyone else say it's one of the best.

 

[Vincent Grayson]

It refines the combat of the first game and has an overall better story. Most people believe it would have been better if it was a standalone game, which is honestly true.

It has some problems with the debt system only existing to slow down the game (you can't proceed past certain points without paying a certain amount of in game money), the silent protag choice not working out all that well, and 80% of the game being reused areas from Xillia 1.

However, there's still a bunch of good in the game. There's a bunch of extra content that was missing from the original game (side quests, coliseum). The main character can also switch between 3 different weapons on the fly making him the funnest and most versatile Tales character to play in the history of the series.

Yeah, I liked a lot about Xillia 2, and in many ways, it made me like Xillia 1 better.

The game is vastly improved by using a clear save so you can play the whole game with the protagonist's voice turned on though.

 

[Twilight Princess]

The formula is too stale now IMO. I beat destiny 2 and symphonia, managed to play through about 2/3 of vesperia before quitting. They need to do something radical to breathe new life into the series.

 

[Datschge]

The formula is too stale now IMO. I beat destiny 2 and symphonia, managed to play through about 2/3 of vesperia before quitting. They need to do something radical to breathe new life into the series.

lol at stopping right at the point after which they actually stopped following many Tales traditions (to the chagrin of many fans) and complain about too little changes in the series up to then.

 

[Mr YuYu]

I did not really like tales of graces f. Story was to dumb for words...

Played abyss on the 3ds and quite liked it. I did drag on for to long though.

 

[RPGCrazied]

Vesperia, Symphonia, Abyss. Top 3 for me.

Sadly I can't play Vesperia anymore, don't have a 360.

 

[Ralemont]

My favorite game of the series is Legendia, but I'm aware this is an incredibly unpopular opinion.

I like the old school Tales games better (Destiny, Phantasia, Symphonia...).

Legendia has in my opinion the only soundtrack that can rival Chrono Cross's. It also has a surprising amount of likable characters, and they are needed to balance out the damage Shirley does to the game's story. I also really liked the idea of the postgame centering around resolving the characters' personal arcs. Negatives were the aforementioned Shirley, a clunky battle system (Eternia's 2d system is way better than Legendia's) and poorly designed dungeons and puzzles, though frankly that has been an issue since Symphonia's excellent dungeons.

 

[RPGCrazied]

Yeah, Legendia, forgot about that one. Add that to my list. The music is just godly in that. Say what you will about Shirley though.

 

[Levyne]

Vesperia was the only one I could really like as a full product. Symphonia as well though I was a lot younger and I can never remove the nostalgia and truly know whether I would have liked it if I was in my 20s when it came out.

I feel like a lot of the rest of the titles have glaring deficiencies that keep me from recommending them a lot. Whether it's the non-mechanics of Graces (basically anything outside of controlling the characters in a fight), the reused assets in Xillia, the weird debt system in Xillia 2, repetitiveness of RM, weird monster mechanics of ToS2..none of those things are true deal breakers because those games have other components holding them up (sometimes), but all I know is that I certainly enjoy them a lot less.

 

[PassiveObserver]

Of the ones I've played (mostly the 2D ones), the best would be Tales of Eternia. Looked fucking beautiful coming at the tale end of the PS1 era and it stood out as the nicest looking RPG next to Breath of Fire 4.

 

[Twilight Princess]

lol at stopping right at the point after which they actually stopped following many Tales traditions (to the chagrin of many fans) and complain about too little changes in the series up to then.

The newer ones aren't that different from the older tales games IMO. For example, the world map despite its cosmetic upgrade is essentially the same as the older games in terms of gameplay and is still barren and bland. We have very different ideas on what changes are considered big or small.

 

[Rolf NB]

Last but not least, AVOID SYMPHONIA 2

This is the most important of truths and we should all share it. Mah lord what a waste of everything wastable.

 

[Spehornoob]

Part of me wants the series to go back to classic Tales stuff. The World Map, the fixed camera angles, the slightly more traditional fantasy setting.

But I don't know if that's because I prefer it that way, or because Xillia's environments were so bad. I mean, I like Xillia, but the map/dungeon design was horrid.

 

[Datschge]

We have very different ideas on what changes are considered big or small.

This much is apparent.

 

[Trojita]

ETA on that English Translation of PS3 Vesperia?

Spoiler

Never

 

[Owwari]

Play the one with a conclusive romantic ending.

 

[Spehornoob]

Man, I honestly liked Symphonia 2. Yeah, the main character was annoying pretty often but I think it had some good character development and it's deconstruction of the typical JRPG romance was well done. Plus it played really well.

It's biggest sin was not allowing you to level up the Symphonia 1 party members.

 

[Zafir]

I never understood the hate on Graces characters/story... It's no worse than any other tales game in that regard. Especially Symphonia and it's sequel which seem to get a surprising amount of praise despite the entire story being complete tripe.

The real issue with Graces is the world is too small and you spend too much time within a 60 second span of the same road.

Meh. I actually don't like Symphonia's story or cast that much either, in fact Colette is probably one of my most disliked characters ever. She irritates me so much. That all said, I still think it's better than Graces F cast. At least there was some characters in Symphonia I liked Sheena, Kratos, Raine, and was okay with most of the rest. Where as Graces F was just mostly blergh. Only one who was all right to me was Malik.

I can't comment on the second, I own it but never really had the motivation to try it, it's entirely possible that is worse.

Even Legendia, another one which a lot of people dislike, I got through the main story(Got bored going through character stories). Which suggests I cared at least a little.

Either way, to answer the TC. I'd suggest Abyss, Vesperia, Xillia 1 & 2 and Hearts R.

You can give Graces F a play if you think the game play is enough to carry you through. It does have the best battle system so far.

 

[Ralemont]

Man, I honestly liked Symphonia 2. Yeah, the main character was annoying pretty often but I think it had some good character development and it's deconstruction of the typical JRPG romance was well done. Plus it played really well.

It's biggest sin was not allowing you to level up the Symphonia 1 party members.

...Go on. I ended up buying the package with ToS1 but don't have much desire to play it, so feel free to spoiler in tags if you want. I love me some deconstruction.

 

[ubercheez]

If you enjoyed Symphonia, Abyss and Vesperia should be right up your alley. They're both created by the same team as Symphonia, and they both employ evolutions of the same kind of world exploration, towns, and battle system. You can't go wrong with either one, but if you plan to do both you should go for Abyss first (release order).

Of the PS3 offerings, you'll probably like Xillia. Graces is harder to recommend.

 

[Spehornoob]

...Go on. I ended up buying the package with ToS1 but don't have much desire to play it, so feel free to spoiler in tags if you want. I love me some deconstruction.

I suppose I shouldn't say it was objectively well done, but I liked it.

Spoiler

It's not a particularly dark deconstruction, but it was interesting. So, the main female lead, Marta, believes that the male lead, Emil, had saved her life at the beginning of the game. So when she meets him again, she's immediately infatuated with him and begins treating him as some knight in shining armor and basically throwing herself at him. Emil, though, is actually a really meek kid and really uncomfortable with it all. And instead of coming into his own as she encourages him, as you would expect in a lot of stories like this, she just comes off as pushy, and he ends up growing to resent her. Finally he ends up snapping at her and tells her to stop trying to make him into something he's not. Then the party goes through a really awkward period, and the relationship kind of starts over from there, and takes a more 'realistic' path as they grow to care about each other for who they actually are.

I think the problem people have with it is that the characters are really overplayed. Emil is so meek that he can barely finish sentences and every other line from Marta is some sort of flirt. So it can be overbearing.

 

[Ralemont]

Spoiler

I think the problem people have with it is that the characters are really overplayed. Emil is so meek that he can barely finish sentences and every other line from Marta is some sort of flirt. So it can be overbearing.

Thanks for the write-up. I'd say the issue of taking potentially interesting character ideas to the extreme is a problem with the anime JRPG scene in general, so that makes sense.

 

[thesaucetastic]

Legendia has in my opinion the only soundtrack that can rival Chrono Cross's. It also has a surprising amount of likable characters, and they are needed to balance out the damage Shirley does to the game's story. I also really liked the idea of the postgame centering around resolving the characters' personal arcs. Negatives were the aforementioned Shirley, a clunky battle system (Eternia's 2d system is way better than Legendia's) and poorly designed dungeons and puzzles, though frankly that has been an issue since Symphonia's excellent dungeons.

Yeah, the only game I've played that has a soundtrack that can rival Legendia's is Baten Kaitos, honestly. I didn't even mind the dungeons because the more time I spent in them, the more I got to hear the awesome music. I did still think they were bland though, and it was a pain to go through them all again in the character quests. I thought the battle system was passable enough, but it obviously wasn't great.

Besides the music, the cast is what kept me playing. I got very attached to Chloe in particular, but they were all pretty entertaining except for that dead weight Shirley. The character quests were great; usually, I'd prefer the subplots to be integrated into the main plot, but this worked out good because everything seemed sort of self-contained. It even seemed like the first half of the game was Senel and Shirley's character quest.

I think the setting was the game's strength though. Seriously, a country on a giant ship? That's sick.

 

[Sheriff_Battlesnake]

I loved Vesperia, and I was pretty dang fond of Xillia. Destiny was my first and the one that got me into the series, but it was a friends so I only played little varied chunks. The only one to be extra weary about is Symphonia 2. I didn't love it, but I have seen a handful of positive comments about it.

Also, most of the lead characters have super lame names. Lloyd? Stahn? They sound like 50 something office workers.

 

[orthodoxy1095]

It's honestly the only one I've finished, but I really enjoyed Hearts R. The story is pretty average, but I felt that the cast was imminently lovable and the battle system provided some solid fun. It was refreshingly nostalgic while feeling new.

 

[devious.one]

Despite being called a bad port, I still really enjoyed Abyss on the 3ds, and that was my first 'Tales of' experience.

Currently midway through Symphonia HD and while starting off slow (what's new?) it's really picked up since the beginning.

 

[BokehKing]

Tales of Legendia
I loved that there was a whole mother story after the car campaign

 

[The Red Wizard]

I have only played Symphonia, and like I said in the OP this would have been in 2004 or 2005, so I would have been 17 or 18 I think

I really liked it at the time, but seeing as I was an N64 and then Gamecube owner I was also kind of starved of JRPGs, I've always wanted to try another in the series because I enjoyed the first one I played so much

The three I could get, Xilla 1 & 2 and Graces F get some good reviews and some bad reviews, and that has always stopped me from pulling the trigger, whereas Symphonia and Vesperia seem to generally get good reviews

I loved Symphonia and Vesperia. Graces f is my favourite of all three thanks to the great battle system. I've yet to play Xilla 1 or 2 but I'm planning to do so soon. I recommend picking up Graces f.

 

[Weiss]

It's difficult to get a consensus on the good Tales games. Everyone has a different opinion on which ones are good, some of them never came out overseas, and others are really hard to find.

Since you've only got a PS3 and a Wii, I recommend Tales of Xillia, Symphonia Chronicles (an HD compilation of both Symphonia games) and Tales of Graces. Xillia has really good combat and a fun story, but the world and art design is kind of sterile. Graces gets a lot of deserved flack for its awful story and characters, but it's usually said to have one of the best combat systems in the series.

Tales of Zestiria is coming soon on PS3.

 

[Ralemont]

Yeah, the only game I've played that has a soundtrack that can rival Legendia's is Baten Kaitos, honestly. I didn't even mind the dungeons because the more time I spent in them, the more I got to hear the awesome music. I did still think they were bland though, and it was a pain to go through them all again in the character quests. I thought the battle system was passable enough, but it obviously wasn't great.

Besides the music, the cast is what kept me playing. I got very attached to Chloe in particular, but they were all pretty entertaining except for that dead weight Shirley. The character quests were great; usually, I'd prefer the subplots to be integrated into the main plot, but this worked out good because everything seemed sort of self-contained. It even seemed like the first half of the game was Senel and Shirley's character quest.

I think the setting was the game's strength though. Seriously, a country on a giant ship? That's sick.

Agreed on all fronts. Chloe was great, but I think the real stand-out to me was Norma, who succeeds at being the Tales' series best attempt at the spunky nerdy girl trope.

I don't think the battle system is "bad", either, but more that Eternia's is just that good. From what I remember, in Legendia it was difficult to chain artes together. So you'd constantly be using one or two moves and then needing to reset, and since movement in general is cumbersome this becomes a problem. Additionally, melee moves rarely tracked targets, so you could easily miss with a move and get frustrated quickly. One thing I loved about combat was how epic the big spells were, with the characters chanting before the final cast, where the camera would shoot over to them and then back to a devastating elemental scene.

 

[VanillaCakeIsBurning]

My eyes glaze over whenever I see the word "tropes" now.

I'll list the Tales of games that I have personally found to be enjoyable experiences in no particular order.

Tales of Phantasia (SNES, GBA, PS1)
Tales of Destiny (PS1)
Tales of Destiny Remake (PS2)
Tales of Symphonia (GC, PS3)
Tales of Symphonia 2 (Wii, PS3)
Tales of the Abyss (PS2, 3DS)
Tales of Graces f (PS3)
Tales of Xillia (PS3)
Tales of Xillia 2 (PS3)
Tales of Vesperia (360, PS3)

And hopefully I can soon add Tales of Zestiria to that list. If you are limited on time or funds then you could go for Abyss(PS2/3DS), Graces f(PS3), Xillia(PS3), and Vesperia (360, PS3 is JP only) for games on more recent systems.

 

[Ralemont]

My eyes glaze over whenever I see the word "tropes" now.

Is that not a trope or...?

 

[Son Of Sparda]

Tales of Graces f (avoid it if you can't stand annoying characters)
Tales of Xillia
Tales of Xillia 2

And Tales of Vesperia (if you have a 360)

 

[chaostrophy]

I played a decent amount of Abyss on PS2 years ago, but never finished it. At the time I was more into turn-based RPGs so the combat felt kinda chaotic and frustrating, and there were so many other JRPGs coming out, I got distracted and moved on to something else. But I've played a lot more realtime/action RPGs since, so maybe I'll enjoy it more now. I should pick it back up (still have it and my PS2). I'm more interested to get into the series now since so many JRPG franchises have dropped off but Tales seems to still be going strong.

 

[VanillaCakeIsBurning]

Is that not a trope or...?

People not liking others using tropes as a substitute for analysis? Maybe there is a page for it on the site. I don't know.

 

[GKSilKamina]

I'll go ahead and toss in my opinions on the Tales games I played:

PHANTASIA - Play the fan-translated SNES version. For the love of god, avoid the Gameboy Advance version. I bought the GBA one and dearly regretted that decision afterwards. SNES Phantasia, however, is easily one of the best RPGs on the system.
DESTINY - PS1 version hasn't aged too well, and is notorious for having a mistranslation that renders a certain puzzle unsolvable. The characters are fun and the story is good overall, so I recommend it if you're interested into getting into "classic" Tales. The Japan-only PS2 remake is god tier.
ETERNIA - Absolutely fantastic even to this day. Play it!
ABYSS - Seems to be love it/hate it. I hated it due to an annoying cast and too much backtracking.
LEGENDIA - Not well liked, but worth a play. Battle system isn't all that great, but the cast is fun and the music is absolutely amazing.
SYMPHONIA 2 - Whether or not you like this one is based on if you can stomach the main characters and the monster raising gimmick.
VESPERIA - Loved it. Great cast, great visuals, great gameplay.
GRACES F - IT'S AWFUL. Except for the battle system, which is easily the finest in the entire series.
XILLIA/XILLIA 2 - Great games that suffer from rushed productions and crappy budgets. Xillia 2 is shameless in its asset re-use.

 

[SamuelSupreme]

Tales of the Abyss still remains one of the best JRPGs I've ever played in my life. The development of Luke is second only to Tidus in a JRPG

 

[Shojx]

If you liked Symphonia:

Tales of the Abyss -- I've seen a number of people who didn't like this one because of its story, but the story is actually one of the things I liked the most about it. It's got, in my opinion, a cast of interesting characters, and though the main character is pretty annoying, it works into the story pretty well, and starts to make more sense later on. I want to emphasize here that the MC's character development is crucial to the story. The battle system is pretty much an improved version of Symphonia's, and also introduced the free-run aspect, which allows you to move in any direction if needed, as opposed to the linear movement in Symphonia. I also love the Field of Fonons system, which allows you to use different (usually improved) versions of moves in battle. I think this was also the first game to start using full-sized character models as opposed to the chibi-like models in previous games. It's also got my favorite soundtrack of the games. I personally consider this one of the best Tales of games, and it shuffles in and out of my #1 spot.

Tales of Vesperia -- This one's got a great cast of characters like Abyss, and a pretty good story as well. I really liked the relationship between the main heroes Yuri and Estelle. It also looks really good, having returned to a cel-shaded style, and has a lot of interesting locations. The battle system is like a slightly improved version of Abyss's, although there aren't any Field of Fonons... ;'( The game's also got a pretty good soundtrack. Though I can't really think of anything to say about this game that makes it amazing, I can't think of anything bad either. Overall, Vesperia is just a really good, definitive Tales of experience. It's hard not to love it!

Tales of Graces f -- Like Abyss, although even more-so, this one is often criticized for its story and characters. Unlike Abyss, I can sort of see why. Sometimes the characters are a bit annoying, in their actions and general personalities. But I didn't think it was that awful. A bit cliche, yeah, and maybe not amazing, but it had its moments, and overall I liked it. The battle system though, is one of the best we've had in a Tales of game so far. It's a lot quicker than the previous games, and does away with TP in favor of CC points to perform your combos. At first, I didn't like that, but it actually worked out quite well, and allowed me to feel less limited when performing combos. It's not my favorite battle system, but it's definitely one of the best, and if the gameplay itself is one of the reasons you enjoy Tales of games, you'd probably like this one just for that.

Tales of Xillia -- One of the best Tales of experiences I've had, up there with how much I enjoyed Abyss. The characters are all generally likeable and have some of my favorite character designs, and the story was fairly enjoyable, much more so than Graces f. The setting itself is really nice looking, with some very interesting locales that vary from anything we've seen in previous Tales of games in both style and vastness. It's also the first game to allow you to fully control the camera around you outside of battle. The battle system is very similar to Vesperia, except a bit faster, along with a linked-combat system, where you can link up to another party member and perform combos together, which works pretty well. One thing I didn't really like about Xillia though was the lack of interesting dungeons. The fields outside of towns felt like bland, generic landscapes with monsters and treasure randomly sorted throughout them. The "dungeons" that did exist didn't feel very interactive, and I felt like there was a distinct lack of puzzles in the game. Regardless, I really enjoyed Tales of Xillia and would definitely recommend it as one of the best Tales of games in recent years.

Tales of Xillia 2 -- I've got to be honest with you, I'm skeptical about recommending this one. A lot of people seem to like it, and the general consensus seems to be that it's improved over the first Xillia. But I actually don't agree with that. I liked the first Xillia better. The new characters in this one are great, in both design and personality, and I really liked the personal relationships between all of them. The returning characters were also as likeable in design and personality as they were in the first. However, and this may be borderline spoiler material (though I'll try to word it ambiguously), I felt like the Xillia 1 cast were more like observers than part of the actual story in Xillia 2. The game tried to include them and make them feel like their existence and past experiences from Xillia 1 were directly relevant to Xillia 2, but I wasn't really convinced. At the end of it all, I felt the inclusion of Xillia 1's cast was more of an obligation than anything, and the over-abundance of main characters made it difficult to care for each one individually, though I still ended up liking the new characters quite a bit. Also, considering the game is a sequel, I expected to revisit some of the past locations from Xillia 1, but the re-used assets highly surpassed the new ones, which was kind of disappointing. There was maybe a handful of new cities and locations. Although, I will say that I found the design of some of the new locations to be very interesting, particularly the modern or futuristic-ally inspired ones. As for the story itself, I was also left feeling a bit disappointed. I've already touched on how I felt the returning Xillia characters didn't tie into the story very well, despite the game's efforts to do so. Though the new characters themselves were interesting, and I really liked the relationships between them and how they applied to the story, towards the end, I started feeling like things weren't coming together very well. I won't share my detailed opinion on the ending, but it's easy to infer how I felt about it. The MC Ludger's lack of a voice only ever worked against the game, though I have yet to play through it again with his voice on to see if that makes any difference, though it likely won't since the dialogue itself isn't going to change just because he's voiced at certain parts. Anyways, despite what I didn't like about the game, it wasn't all bad. The battle system was essentially the same as Xillia 1's, with the exception of Ludger and his abilities. He's able to use "special powerz" to change weapons in battle, as well as change into a special form that allows you to use some really neat moves. He's very versatile, and likely has the more moves at his disposable than any of the previous Tales of MCs ever! Also, if you really liked Xillia 1's characters, you'll probably love seeing them again in Xillia 2. Each character has their own short side-story, which I thought was pretty fun. And the ability to make "choices" throughout the story was pretty neat, even if most of the effects caused by these choices were incidental. It was a fun game, but didn't live up to my experience with Xillia 1.

And... that's that. I think I typed too much with that last one.

 

[Heyt]

I remember Symphonia being harder than that, I died a good few times and scraped though boss battles on more than a few occasions

If you would like a harder game you can either play on a different difficulty or play Graces. iIf challenge is a main thing for you over story I'd go for Graces. Xillia offers a more Symphonia-like experience imo, though.

 

[Ralemont]

People not liking others using tropes as a substitute for analysis? Maybe there is a page for it on the site. I don't know.

It wasn't meant to be a substitute for analysis. I was simply identifying a character trend of which Norma is a part, and since I wasn't using the word to disparage something I'm not sure why you're irritated. Identifying something as a trope doesn't make it a negative. I really like Norma.

 

[oni-link]

If you would like a harder game you can either play on a different difficulty or play Graces. iIf challenge is a main thing for you over story I'd go for Graces. Xillia offers a more Symphonia-like experience imo, though.

Its not that I like harder games, but if I'm going to be sinking 40 or more hours into a game I don't want to be able to beat it on auto pilot

I think I had to grind a few times in Symphonia before I could beat a few bosses

 

[Lelcar]

I really enjoyed Symphonia and Vesperia, I thought they were amazing, but then I fell out of the series hard for some reason. I can't enjoy Tales games anymore, I must just be burned out, but I didn't like Xillia (I beat it) and I couldn't get into Abyss either. idk. I'm going to keep trying to play the new games that come out though, maybe something will click again.

 

[FSLink]

Tales Symphonia: Dawn of the New World is a spinoff "sequel" or Namco likes to refer them as "escort titles" instead of a "mainline title". Sequel in story but as far as mechanics and budgeting went, it's not a fully fledged sequel. There's a reason why it wasn't called simply Tales of Symphonia 2 or Tales of ______.

Story wise was a bit disappointing since I was hoping it'd bridge Symphonia and Phantasia much better, but I do find it amusing that people think it's the worst game in the series. You guys need to try Tempest or VS.

 

[oni-link]

I really enjoyed Symphonia and Vesperia, I thought they were amazing, but then I fell out of the series hard for some reason. I can't enjoy Tales games anymore, I must just be burned out, but I didn't like Xillia (I beat it) and I couldn't get into Abyss either. idk. I'm going to keep trying to play the new games that come out though, maybe something will click again.

Seeing as it's been a decade since I played Symphonia, I'm kind of worried I won't like one of the newer ones, though I will probably go for Graces f and hopefully the story won't put me off too much

 

[JuanLatino]

i fell in Love with Vesperia....Then i played Graces F on Ps3 and lost the interest in the story...

The Battlesystem was great in Graces F...But damm that story, those characters and the dialogues


Still im looking forward to the first Next Gen Tales of on Ps4

If it goes back into the Vesperia Direction im in.

 

[Reset]

I played Graces F, Symphonia, Phantasia, and Abyss.
From those four, my favorite is Abyss since it had the best cast of characters. The only exception was Anise. <_<

 

[JuanLatino]

Vesperia: Released 2008

7 Years later --> Tales of Zestiria


how could this happen?

 

[Biker19]

30 FPS and graphics downgrade. It's playable, though. There's nothing absolutely broken about it.

Also, iirc, Symphonia HD (and the PS2 version it's taken from) run at 30FPS, as opposed to the GameCube version which ran at 60FPS.

It made sense for Namco-Bandai to use the PS2 version, because it features additional content as opposed to the Gamecube version.

But I do agree with you about 30 FPS being a drawback. They could've done what Capcom did with the Wii version of Resident Evil 4/BioHazard 4, which was combining the GC version for the graphics (in Symphonia's case, 60 FPS), along with the PS2 version for extra content, & put it all into one.

 

[Tidus_Great]

Abyss
Xillia 1
Xillia 2
Symphonia

those are the most wortwhile ones to play IMO becausethey have the best storylines of the bunch. xillia 2 having the best gameplay.