Out of your first list...

Go with FFT or Castelvania. The 2D Castlevania's are amazing and have always done superb work. The stories are cool as well as the various game systems they use.

FFT is one of the most mature and well written FFs in the series (sans the shoddy localization:rolleyes2 ) and despite what MILF says, it is one of the better SRPGs on the market. Just make sure you avoid Gamefaqs or the FFT forum so you don't learn any of the games "cheats" and you will find it to be amazing. It's story starts at a slow pace but it's really worth it if you keep at it.

As for your second group...

Damn you for making me say this but FFVII...

I don't know much about this Pokemon incarnation so I can't give a fair judgement but I've never been a fan of the Tales series. There plots are generic JRPG stories that are incredibly cliche ridden and easily predictable. There characters are 2 dimensional and their "action battle system" requires little to no strategy or skill. They're fun to play but you will quickly get bored after awhile when you begin noticing it's "processed feel".

FFVII has not exactly "aged" well compared to other FFs but at least you can finally understand what all the pointless fanboy/girl nonsense is all about. The gameplay is fun though it sufferes from "late game godhood" that plagues the series and it's story is not exactly original or well written but at least for it's time it was pretty damn good and it's actually enjoyable when you get past the hype. It's a good game (like all of the FFs) it's just not necessarily the best (like all the FFs:rolleyes2 )