Basically I want you to rank the main party members and the antagonists from each game that you've at least seen a good chunk of from Tales Of Symphonia, Abyss, Berseria etc.
At the moment I'm watching someone I know play Tales Of Vesperia, and I'm pretty sure that he is getting near the end of the Game now so my opinion won't change that much on what I'm thinking of the characters personalities, progression, and storylines in general. Obviously I can't actually judge them as fighters so that will handicap my list a little bit.
So from the Tales Games that I've seen, this is how I rank the characters in each of them.
Tales Of Vesperia:
1. Raven
2. Zagi - Zagi's not as well developed as a lot of the other characters I've placed below him. But I found his performance in the Game fun.
3. Yeager
4. Duke
5. Patty
6. Repede
7. Ragou
8. Cumore
9. Barbos
10. Alexei
11. Gauche And Droite
12. Yuri - Yuri for the most part is a very well written character imo, it's just this current Estelle storyline that imo is deeply irritating is making Yuri amongst a few other party members come across as deeply annoying to me. I know that I'm being harsh on Yuri, and I know that he is a loved character within the fandom, but he is very heavily apart of a storyline that I can't stand. And ultimately puts him below characters that I also like but have never annoyed me.
13. Judith
14. Karol
15. Hunting Blades
16. Rita
17. Flynn
18. Estelle - Her character has just gotten worse for me as it's gone along, and I fear that her character is gonna get a cop out ending that ends up breaking a few characters personalities in the game because the developers have stupidly given her an incredibly bleak plot that doesn't quite fit the audience that Namco intends to market the Game towards. Also the Estelle type of characters never really appeal to me at the best of times if I'm being entirely honest.
Tales Of Symphonia:
1. Mithos
2. Kratos
3. Zelos
4. Sheena
5. Presea
6. Raine
7. Regal
8. Rodyle
9. Genis
10. Kvar
11. Lloyd
12. Pronyma
13. Magnius
14. Forcystus
15. Colette - The only character that I personally didn't like in the game.
And yes Yuan doesn't count on this list sadly.
Tales Of Zestiria:
1. Zaveid
2. Edna
3. Dezel
4. Bartlow - He had one of the most exciting segments in the whole game imo.
5. Mikleo
6. Symmone
7. Heldalf
8. Maltran
9. Sorey - A likeable but sadly underdeveloped lead imo.
10. Lailah
11. Alisha
12. Rose - Completely irrelevant to the main plot, and just hijacks the Game from everybody else. Easily my worst character in the franchise.
Zestiria is my least favourite Tales G plotwise, so if I've missed characters off I do apologise.
Tales Of Berseria:
1. Magilou
2. Velvet
3. Eizen
4. Bienfu
5. Teresa
6. Seres
7. Oscar
8. Rokurou - He was a good character, he did need more focus though imo.
9. Melchior Mayvin
10. Artorius
11. Shigure
12. Eleanor
13. Laphicet
In fairness to Berseria I'd say that every character was well written and their actions within the world they were in made perfect sense. Personal preferences aside I can't actually bitch about this cast for poor writing because I didn't really notice much of it.
Tales Of The Abyss: My personal favourite overall Tales cast for anybody that cares.
1. Jade
2. Luke
3. Asch
4. Guy
5. Dist
6. Anise
7. Arietta
8. Sync
9. Tear
10. Legretta
11. Largo
12. Ion
13. Van
14. Natalia
I did feel bad for where I was placing certain characters on my list there.
Tales Of Graces:
1. Pascal
2. Richard
3. Hubert
4. Malik
5. Sophie - I mean she does have a bad habit of hijacking the Game imo, but her character is thankfully more likeable and interesting to me which makes her presence in the Game much more bearable for me.
6. Emeraude
7. Fodra Queen
8. Asbel
9. Cheria
Tbh I haven't seen Graces in a long time, so I'm struggling to remember antagonists in the Game.