I have played Symphonia, Vespiria and Tales of Eternia(Tales of Destiny 2 in the states). I really like Symphonia and Vespiria, Eternia was okay for the time but I think the design shows its age.

What I like about Symphonia and Vespiria is that despite a how serious things get, they manage to maintain an air of breezy fun. Things interaction between the party members is always some good fun and they add all of these extra scenes that you trigger all over the game.

I also really like a lot of the simplicity such as victory cheers changing as you progress through the game. It is just one of those things that show that the characters grow outside of the story. It might not seem like a lot but I think it adds that extra something that many games lack.

The battle system is largely the same throughout all of the games and I think it has good pacing so that things can remain challenging and fresh as the game progresses. I never feel like I have learned everything by the end and the abilities add more to the gameplay than most games.

I want to pick up Tales of Graces f on the PS3 which just came out.