Vesperia probably took the longest of the three to "click" with me, which was mostly my own doing. There were two or three difficulty spike boss fights in the first half of the game that threw me off and I often spent weeks, sometimes months, not playing, so I didn't really get a full handle on the battle system until the second half of the game. In the end though, I had a lot of fun and burned through the last 2/3rds of the game over the past week and change. The cast and story are both really good, Yuri made for an interesting twist on the typical JRPG protagonist, I was impressed by just how well Patty was woven into the fabric of the game, the skill system reminded me a lot of Final Fantasy IX's (anything that reminds me of FF9 is a good thing), there are a ton of sidequests, it remains a very nice looking game and it probably has the best battle system of the Tales games I've played (though depending on my mood, I might give that to Xillia).

As for how I'd rank the three games... hmm, well, I'm honestly not sure. Symphonia is probably still my personal favorite, just because of when I first played it and my attachment to that game's cast (I'll admit, it's largely a nostalgia pick, haha), but Abyss and especially Vesperia are both better, more polished games overall. Symphonia's overall plot is probably the most conventional of three, while Abyss' has a main protagonist that takes a while for a lot of players to warm up to. In a vacuum, I'd say Vesperia is the superior game of the trio, but there's not really a lot separating these games when it comes to how much I like them.

If you loved Vesperia, you should be in for a great time with either of Symphonia or Abyss, so long as you keep in mind that their visuals and systems aren't quite as refined. I think they're both still fun to play, and their characters, stories and themes still hold up.

I wouldnt necessarily not recommend Symphonia. it's a good game, but the gameplay mechanics are limited and far less evolved than what you have in Vesperia. basically, it's a downgrade, and could be hard to get used to after playing the improved system (Symphonia was before they added freerunning to battles, for example)

however the story and characters are well-written and memorable, though I may still prefer Vesperia's, but it's subjective of course.

you could get it on gamecube but i have heard the Steam version is quite good, and definitely looks (and probably plays) much better

glad you're enjoying Vesperia, and yes Yuri is hot

Yeah, there are four more job shrines scattered throughout the last group of areas in the game, where all of the Chapter 4 stories take place. Though the big differences here are that, unlike the 8 regular job shrines, you have to beat a pretty dang tough boss fight in order in earn one and there are high level enemy encounters throughout the area.