I personally kind of take to the Tales series like comfort food a bit. I've gotten all of the main series since Tales of Phantasia (with some of the side games) and they can be up and down in quality. I think this one is good if not great. It's got a great cast, which is one of my main reasons for getting the series (who doesn't love the skits?), soundtrack and battle mechanics. The thing that seems weird is how Alisha kind of drops out of the picture, and the DLC featuring her doesn't do great in explaining/justifying that part. There is also the slow build up, which is getting a tiny bit annoying in JRPG. I'd say it's a good entry, but not needed in the collection if you want to skip this one for something else. One thing I would add is there seems to be optimization issues with the game engine. It may be from my PS3 version, as the game is also available for PS4, but the game will chug at times. Given the weirdness with the DLC I wouldn't be surprised if this entry was a bit rushed out the door.