Tales Series

The Tales of (テイルズオブ) series is a franchise of role-playing games developed by Namco (now Namco Bandai). Originally started by Wolfteam, which had later formed into the Namco Tales Studio, the Tales of series began with Tales of Phantasia on the Super Nintendo in 1995. Since then, eight other Mothership Titles, or main games, have been released, along with many remakes and ports, an Escort Title (Tales of the Tempest), various spin-offs, and Tales of Mobile games.

-ia in the game's title
Half - five - Mothership Titles have had "-ia" at the end of it's name. Some of these are derived from the names of various sorts of musical compositions, such as "Phantasia" and "Symphonia"

Titles
Many Tales games, starting with Tales of Eternia, have titles for all of the playable characters. Though the effects are always different (or have no effect at all), titles always have a sentence describing it (these lines are sometimes humorous). Though some are aquired by story or level, many come through battle, sidequests, and more.

Skits
Most Mothership Titles have voiced skits, extra lines of dialog not essential to the plot. However, the voices were always, with the exception of a few occasions in Tales of Legendia were completely cut from the English versions of the games (and sometimes the skits were cut completely).Newer games (such as Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World) and Tales of Vesperia have fully-voiced skits.

Battle System
The Tales of series is most notable for it's Linear Motion Battle System (LMBS), which each Mothership Title has had some variation of. It is an action-packed battle system, in which the player can only run back and forth on a single line (as the "Linear" suggests) to attack the enemies, in a similar fashion to 2D fighting games. However, not all games limit the player to a single line - in Tales of Rebirth the character can switch between three lines, and Tales of the Abyss introduced Free Run, or the ability to run anywhere on the battlefield. Various kinds of attacks can be performed by using direction and button combinations, and skills are assigned similarly, though they consume TP, or technical points, in most games. There are also options to guard and even command allies.

Most noted among the abilities a character has are the Hi-Ougis (otherwise known as Mystic Artes). They are powerful attacks unleashed under special conditions, such as being in overlimit (the guage for overlimit varies between games). Sometimes, these attacks have extra effects, such as reviving.

There are three settings in many Tales of games for a player to control a character: Manual, Semi-Auto, and Automatic. Manual allows the player to completely control a character - for instance, if the attack button is pressed, the player will have to go up to an enemy to hit. Semi-Auto, however, automatically moves the character to the enemy when a skill or attack is used. Using these two settings, many of the more recent games (excluding Tales of Legendia) have allowed four players to fight at once in the place of the computer-controlled characters. The final setting, Automatic, allows the computer to control characters. However, these Automatic characters have additional settings, such as the distance from the enemy, how much TP to uses, and much more.

Summons Spirits
Many Tales of games have included Summon Spirits (known as Greater Craymels in Tales of Eternia) in some form or another. While some allow to actually use them in battle - through magic, Hi Ougi, or item - others merely have a small cameo role.

Coliseum
Though not quite an established trend, some Tales games have a coliseum wherein one can fight characters from other games in the series. They are entirely optional, and meant to be a challenge. Some titles come from the coliseum.

Cooking
Though not necessary, cooking is a useful aspect in many games. It is used for various effects, such as HP and TP recovery. There are various recipies to collect, each having a unique effect. Titles are often acquired through cooking.

Spa
Like the coliseum, spas are not yet established as a trend, but a few games include them. Usually, some of the arguably most humorous parts in said games occur in the spa.

Character Designs
Only three artists have worked on the Mothership Titles: Mutsumi Inomata, Kosuke Fujishima, and Kazuto Nakazawa. They each have very distinct styles, giving characters from different games unique looks.

Musical Composer
Only the well-known Motoi Sakuraba has done the music for the Mothership Titles, excluding Tales of Legendia.

Connections between Tales of games
Beyond simple cameo roles, most games in the Tales of series have no connection. However, a few games are connected by story.

Destiny timeline

 * Tales of Destiny
 * Tales of Destiny 2 - Starts 18 years after the first game.

Aselian timeline

 * Tales of Symphonia - The prequel to Tales of Phantasia, starting at least 4000 years before.
 * Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World - Takes place two years after Tales of Symphonia.
 * Tales of Phantasia - Takes place in three different time periods, the "present" being 4304 of the Aselian calendar.
 * Tales of Phantasia: Narikiri Dungeon - 104 years after the "present" time of Tales of Phantasia.
 * Tales of the World: Summoner's Lineage - 461 years after the "present" time Tales of Phantasia.

Mothership Titles

 * Tales of Phantasia (SNES)
 * Tales of Destiny (PS1)
 * Tales of Eternia (PS1) Known as "Tales of Destiny II" in North America.
 * Tales of Destiny 2 (PS2)
 * Tales of Symphonia (GCN)
 * Tales of Rebirth (PS2)
 * Tales of Legendia (PS2)
 * Tales of the Abyss (PS2)
 * Tales of Innocence (DS)
 * Tales of Vesperia (Xbox 360)
 * Tales of Hearts (DS)
 * Tales of Graces (Wii)

Remakes/Ports
Tales of Phantasia:
 * Tales of Phantasia (PS1) - Remake
 * Tales of Phantasia (GBA) - Port
 * Tales of Phantasia: Full Voice Edition (PSP) - Port

Tales of Destiny:
 * Tales of Destiny (PS2) - Remake
 * Tales of Destiny: Director's Cut (PS2) - Remake

Tales of Destiny 2:
 * Tales of Destiny 2 (PSP) - Port

Tales of Symphonia:
 * Tales of Symphonia (PS2) - Enhanced Port

Tales of Rebirth:
 * Tales of Rebirth (PSP) - Port

Tales of Vesperia
 * Tales of Vesperia (PS3) - Enhanced Port

Tales of the World games

 * Tales of Phantasia: Narikiri Dungeon (GBC)
 * Tales of the World: Narikiri Dungeon 2 (GBA)
 * Tales of the World: Summoner's Lineage (GBA)
 * Tales of the World: Narikiri Dungeon 3 (GBA)
 * Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology (PSP)
 * Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology 2 (PSP)

Tales of Fandom

 * Tales of Fandom Vol 1
 * Tales of Fandom Vol 2

Other

 * Tales of Eternia Online (PC) - MMORPG
 * Tales of the Tempest (DS) - Escort Title
 * Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World (Wii) - Spin-off Sequel
 * Tales of VS. (PSP) - Escort Title

Tales of Mobile

 * Tales of Tactics
 * Tales of Breaker
 * Tales of Commons
 * Tales of Warheit
 * Craymel Check
 * Craymel Lab
 * Groovy Arche
 * Whis Battle
 * Klondike
 * Reversi
 * Mieu no Daibouken
 * Tales of Quiz

Anime

 * Tales of Phantasia: The Animation
 * Tales of Eternia: The Animation
 * Tales of Symphonia: The Animation
 * Tales of the Abyss (Anime)

Misc. Animations

 * Tales of Fandom Gaiden
 * Tales of Viva - Bonuses with various games