[quote name='Nephlabobo']Avoid the Tales games - they're terrible.[/quote]
Really? I'd put the Tales series at the top of the pile with the Final Fantasies and SMT series. You can try to say that they're button mashers but you can't really beat Symphonia by just mashing the attack button. You can however, beat Final Fantasy X by just "mashing" attack. You can go through with Auron, Tidus, and Wakka attacking, Yuna healing, and Lulu casting the appropriate magic. You could also have Rikku steal at the beginning of every battle but it's not that important in the long run. Seriously, do just that and you'll beat the game with no problems. That being said, I'm a huge fan of FFX so it's not like I'm just bashing on the game to piss you off.
I had to constantly tweak my strategy in Symphonia. It's difficult to pull off combos with Lloyd and monitor the whole team in real time but it's a beautiful thing when a strategy comes together and a boss goes down. It's a challenge and a perfect game for someone that's not new to RPGs. Don't forget Symphonia doesn't have random battles. You can always see the monsters (or rough approximations of the party) before you run into them and start throwing down. FFX is cutscene, run down path, cutscene, random battle, finish running down path, cutscene, etc...
I probably like the Tales series more because I was already burned out on FF when I played Symphonia. Instead of killing my 1 millionth Cactaur, I had new enemies to figure out and a new battle system to learn and enjoy. Don't get me wrong, FFX has the best battle system for any turn-based RPG but the cutscenes and low difficulty make it a beginner RPG. It was a great showcase for the PS2's graphics (Yuna's scene in the beginning is stunning) but doesn't beat Symphonia.