In case you’ve been living under the rock, there is a JRPG series called Tales Series that has just as many games as the Final Fantasy franchise. If you’ve never heard about this series, you better stick around as we will be having a six-part article about their games! For those of you who’ve only played some of them, maybe you’ll find a new favorite in this list!

Before we jump on to the list, let's make a few things clear. First, we will focus more on the mothership title, which means the main title that has their own cast of characters. Second, the list will be divided into a few articles where they will be divided based on their original release date. Third, there might be spoilers, but we’ll keep it to a minimum. Anyway, without further ado, let's jump into the list!

Tales of Phantasia (1995)

Tales Series first ever game was released back in 1995 for the SuperFamicom. Tales of Phantasia was a huge success that was ported and remade to multiple consoles including PlayStation, Game Boy Advance, as well as the Playstation Portable. Tales of Phantasia revolve around our main character, Cless Avein, and his journey to beat a powerful sorcerer king, Dhaos. Technically speaking, Dhaos was already sealed 12 years ago, but thanks to his magic and ability to travel through time, he managed to escape. Now that he is out wreaking havoc everywhere, Cless and his friends have no choice but to raise their weapon and fight for humanity.

Tales of Destiny (1997)

A hero with a dark past? That’s too mainstream! In Tales of Destiny our naive main character, Stahn Aileron, ended up becoming a hero because he accidentally fell asleep while hitchhiking on an aircraft. Right after he got caught by the crew, the aircraft was attacked by monsters. While trying to find a safe place, he accidentally met a swordian called Dymlos who now became his partner. Along the line, we found out that there are people who tried to use ancient technology to basically annihilate tons of people for a better world, kinda like Thanos. With Swordian being the only thing that can stop them, Stahn got no choice but to become a hero (not that he minds tho!).

Tales of Eternia (2000)

Our main protagonist from Tales of Eternia, Reid Hershel, becomes a hero not because he wants to, but because he wants to keep an eye on his childhood friend, Farah. Their story begins when a UFO with an alien girl called Meredy landed in their small village. With the super broken communication, she explained that their two planets are about to collide and  Reid possessed a special power to stop it. At first Reid was far from interested in leaving his simple-peaceful life behind. However, since Farah insisted that she wanted to help Meredy, with or without his help, he ended up tagging along to make sure Farah did not run into any problem. So if you ask him whether he really wants to be a hero or not, he’d probably say no.

As you can see, although all of them are about saving the world, Tales Series offers a colorful array of main characters. Out of all three, you’ll want to try Tales of Phantasia if you are looking for something classic. If you prefer a bit more comedy, we highly recommend you to go with Tales of Destiny. Their skits are just on point and the unrecruited love story is just *chef kiss*. However, if you are easily distracted, go with Tales of Eternia as they offer quite a lot of side quests as well as mini games.  Now, those are the first three in our list. Better buckle up and click here for the second part of our list!