Thanks Pumpkin! Saves me a search of old messages.

I feel like regardless of Zesteria's flaws (who knows whether I'll end up agreeing?), I should probably play it before Berseria, so the links come through.

Graces/Hearts seem like they can be put off until much later. I'm reminded of Fox's point about Vesperia aging if I dive too deeply into the most modern installments, and the same is probably doubly true for Symphonia, though wasn't there a PS3 re-release a few years ago? Abyss also has a 3DS re-release. Wow, all these old games are getting ported versions.

Not sure which to pick as my inter-game between the Xillia duo, to be honest! I could go with Symphonia, because honestly Pumpkin's description of the trope deconstruction sounds interesting, and it is one of the earliest Tales game in the series, so any game after that will look polished in comparison, like Abyss.

Of course, this won't be for a while yet. I next have to do a Milla play-through of Xillia, which'll go much faster thanks to the Grade Shop. Then there's also ME: Andromeda as well...