So, i do agree that the series is going downhill, but i have a different view on the why.
Immediatly striking me as odd is that you didnt seem to enjoy TaotA much when your favorite is Symphonia. They are very similar games. Maybe it was because of the small 3DS screen?
I have not played Hearts yet ( i havent had time but i have it and tried it out a bit) but i'm not suprised it turned out to be good.
And finally you say the combat of Tales of Graces F is good, and i see some people saying this, but i completely disagree and i think it was the beggining of the downfall.
So, immediatly i will say what the reasons are. They are the combat, wich with every new games gets farther and farther away of what made it unique and the removal of the world map, wich just increases boredom time.
So, combat first. The classic 2D gameplay like system, may seem dated and simplistic, but in fact it isnt. It's fast nature with precisesiveness and the management of your TP and MP is what makes it singular. The choice of how you are going to combo the most out of your opponent and wich artes to use with each other to try and extend the combos, while minding your health and resources.
Now, on Graces this all went out the window. You had no TP. The character basically spams a string of attacks and all you do is sidestep or weave an arte in there. The control level is way lower than it used to be because the combat accelarated to the point where you lose most control of your character actions. Not only that, but all these artes didnt feel rewarding because in that game you needed to attack at the same time as your party member to see a damage reward. So, you are no longer simply in control and managing. You are hitting repetitive wet noodles that do nothing by themselves until they are coinciding with a party member. You have little to no control and it doesnt feel rewarding. Does it look flashy? Yeah sure it does, but its very frustrating.
The other thing that disappeared was the world map. This is an effort to follow FFX and that series as a whole.
I have never understood this move. It was always a poor one for either series. A world map gives the world a sense of scale that a connected landmass can't. It makes the game bigger, more epic and allows you more development time to focus on the fun things the player will do, rather then the how they are going to get there.
But Graces still managed it better than later games, but it obviously gave it the feeling of a very small world.
Queue in Xillia. They do the right thing and go back to 2D gameplay. The game garners alot of hype and launches to save the series. But, a nasty suprise awaited us. The field in between zones are now vast and filled with nothing but collectables. The story still progresses slowly because of this. The battles became easier than ever and end with you doing just a combo or two unless you are fighting a boss.
Xillia saved the series with the return to form in the combat but it was unbalanced, unrewarding and there were new flaws that are difficult to overlook. The extra development time for making the bland large areas had consequences on the development of the game's story and characters. The realistic models had difficulty portraying the anime style the series is know for and looked like a step down.
Now, the problem here is that Xillia gave them the wrong idea. And not only that but fans saying the Graces combat is good also gave them the wrong feedback.
Comes Xillia 2 and the same problems remain, plus they add a mute character and a frustrating game progression system in the debt system besides re-use of the same areas. Sales suffered.
From that the tales team concludes: It must be the combat!
Come Zesteria, lets go back to the graces system but with all the same problems still intact. Big boring fields of Nothing. Spammy uncontrolable combat.
It was the worst of both worlds Xillia and Graces put together.
Now we see Berseria and we see that nothing major is set to change. The series has been declining in sales and is aproaching dangerous levels once more. With their current sales they will never have enough budget to build a proper open world if thats what they want to try and do and they are too clueless to understand that they are trying to change something that worked.
