It might be hard to go -back- and play Symphonia for the first time, after having played it's successor (what I mean by "successor" is really loose here)
That being said, once you get used to the graphics, style, and gameplay of ToS, I think you'll find it more enjoyable. You have to be much smarter and have very quick reflexes in ToS. It's extremely satisfying when you beat a hard boss, because you truly have to use some mad-skills to pull it off.
Free run destroys the difficulty and messes up the battles in the recent Tales games. I found the battle system much more intricate and detailed when you -couldn't- free run. Having to actually block...parry..counter..things like that. In ToS2 and ToV you just have to free run behind the stupid enemy AI (who clearly wasn't programmed to work with free run) and slash them from behind right after they do an attack. It's too simple.
That being said, ToV is hella fun and I absolutely love that game. It's much more enjoyable to play ToV and ToS2 with friends. In ToS, the camera is only fixed on P1, so P2+ sometimes get completely lost on (and off) screen and it's extremely annoying.
