But for the most part, the best tracks in the game are the battle themes, and they are pretty fitting for the battles in each game. This music usually ranges from symphonic and even breathtaking at times, to forgettable and even ear-grating (looking at you, Graces). For the majority of the series, Sakuraba does all the composing with Tamura by his side, and there is A LOT of music in these games. The Tales Series is also host to a myriad of music from four different composers: Masaru ‘Go’ Shiina, Kazuhiro Nakamura (no relation to the wrestler of the same name), Shinji Tamura (also known as Hibiki Aoyama), and the god of high-tempo battle themes himself, Motoi Sakuraba. (I’ll wait here for a while so you can look up half of those names.) When you’ve got talent like Tomokazu Seki, Kikuko Inoue, Akira Ishida, Jun Fukuyama, Norio Wakamoto, Masaya Onosaka, Nobuyuki Hiyama, Kenichi Suzumura, Chihiro Suzuki, Takehito Koyasu, Ikue Otani, Joji Nakata, Mai Nakahara, Kumiko Watanabe, Takahiro Sakurai, Kana Hanazawa, Shiho Kawaragi, Daisuke Namikawa, Miyuki Sawashiro, Tomokazu Sugita, Takashi Kondo, Daisuke Ono, and (dare I say it?) Hikaru Midorikawa, you really cannot go wrong with your characters. Every character is memorable (in a good or bad way, depending on your perception) and a lot of that has to do with the voice actors. The characters are the other reason this series is so popular. ![]() There are a ton of little things that keep the games enjoyable, and almost every sidequest has something new to offer, be it titles, costumes, a powerful set of weapons, or a game-breaking spell. Each new game improves upon the last (with the exception of Legendia, which seems to go a step backward) when it comes to battle systems, and each one is a lot of fun to play through. Now, I’m not the most hardcore fan of the series (I only own eight of the sixteen mothership titles as of this post, and I have only completed two of them), but this series is a ton of fun, especially if you are as much a fan of niche games as I am. A fighting game-esque battle system? An anime aesthetic? Top-notch Japanese voice acting? Relatable characters? Music by Motoi Sakuraba?! Sign me up! It has been around for as long as I have been alive, but I did not discover it until I found a ROM of Tales of Phantasia for the Super Famicom, and played a bit of that. I am proud to be able to start this topic, because the Tales of Series is my favorite JRPG series of all time.
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