Ramdom can answer better than me (and already has it looks like), but Abyss is absolutely amazing. I liked Symphonia more (Symphonia is actually in my top 5 games), but Abyss had some really interesting themes and great character development. Also some great tracks...this was my alarm tone for a long time.

Haven't played Legendia, but I mean to someday. 

More people need to play both Symphonia and Abyss though...both are amazing and the franchise deserves more recognition.

I really love that song, it's like an instrumental version of the song from the opening.

I liked Tales of the Abyss a lot,  I actually liked it more than Symphonia.

Also, I would really like to play Vesperia, since I've heard great things about it, but lamentably the game is stuck in the X360 in the West (the PS3 version, which is the definitive version of the game, wasn't localized). I wish they remastered the PS3 version for PS4 or Nintendo Switch.

I don't even have to think about this, even though JRPGs are my joint favourite genre and I love a lot of games from almost every system over the past 30 years. It's Final Fantasy for me. I love Star Ocean, Tales of, Breath of Fire, Shadow Hearts/Koudelka, Dragon Quest, SaGa, that Illusion of Time Soul Blazer Terranigma series on SNES, Phantasy Star, Dark Cloud, Mario RPGs, Wild Arms, Grandia, Seiken Densetsu, Xenoblade, Lunar, Earthbound/Mother, Kingdom Hearts, Shining Force/Soul/Wisdom/Holy Ark+ and many more but it's definitely Final Fantasy.

Including games like FF Tactics under the umbrella only strengthens it's number one position for me, but even just counting the core fifteen games with no spin-off titles it is still at the top very easily.

You remind me of Jade :P

As far as series go, Etrian Odyssey, Xenoblade and Persona blow everything else out of the water. Final Fantasy is a completely different beast from what it was in the 90's, and it had those awkward "we don't know what we're doing" years between FF X and FF XV. Dragonquest is a pretty good series, but to be honest Level 5 did such a perfect job with DQ8 that I just can't play the previous games in the series anymore. Going from DQ8, back to DQ7 is like going back to play goldeneye after enjoying a modern shooter. Paper Mario was a good series, but is now dead, so it doesn't count. The Tales Of Series is really good, but only consistently good. I've yet to experience the highs of Symphonia from any other tales game. But then again I've only really played Vesperia and Symphonia. Berseria/Abyss sits in my collection as we speak and I'll get around to it eventually.

What makes Etrian Odyssey so damned good is the brutal challenge, and the freedom to build your party however you like. Anybody that likes grinding and breaking games like Disgaea will love EO. Why? Because EO games are like.... So you broke me? That's ok. My bosses are beyond nuts anyway. Come at me with your busted party. :D

Xenoblade started out as the perfect 100 hour long JRPG, with an original live action battle system, cool characters, and an over the top plot. Then with X they kind of overscoped a little. Then with 2, they overscoped again, but in a really good way. Everything extra was thrown in for a reason.

Persona is really just the long running SMT series, but with fun little things to do outside of the relentless crawl.

Just a quick question, has anybody played the Shadow Hearts series?

Xenoblade though I don't like Xenoblade 2, Suikoden, and hopefully Ni No Kuni can be added to this ( though there are only 2 seems both are fantastic haven't played but a few hour of 2 and it's great so far).

FaiFan

Tales of series
Xeno series
Final Fantasy
Fire Emblem
Terranigma (I know it's not a series but the game is really good and very nostalgic. I had this for the SNES when I was really young).
...Plus other JPG games here and there.

I paid $70 for a repro cart of Terranigma here in the states. It's a decent action rpg for sure. Not exactly worth the asking price, but it's at least as good as Phantasy Star IV, and Super Mario RPG.