I've never played a Tales Of game, but in all honesty I can say Metroid is among my favourite series of games, for the sheer amount of depth it has, the exceptional music, etc. It easily stands up with Zelda- if anything it's just Zelda in the future. <3 Metroid Prime and N64/GBA Zelda.
If I can recommend a game better than Zelda, I'd have to say Pokemon or Metal Gear Solid, all three series have had disappointing new installments, so knocking the newest games off from each series, Pokemon R/B/Y/G/S/C/R/S/E and MGS 1, 2, and 3 are all awesome. I'm not sure about the original Metal Gear games.
I say we turn this topic into our favourite games we think are better than Zelda.
I love you, Kyubi <3. Those series are among my favourites ever. I love Metroid, Metal Gear and Pokemon. And Zelda, obviously. Actually, all of the games in those series have impressed me (yeah, I liked Diamond/Pearl and I haven't played MGS4 yet). The Mario games are also decent, but their abundance often results in poor installments. Games like Mario Galaxy, Paper Mario (1 & 2), Mario & Luigi, Mario Kart and Mario Tennis are all great, but other games like Mario Party just let the franchise down. I think those are the only decent game series out there.
Other series I think are okay are Resident Evil (except Resident Evil 3), Mother (actually, I only like Mother 3). Oh, and I
don't like Final Fantasy.
Speaking of Metroid, this game needs to be made:
And a Pokemon game with similar graphics technology would be cool, too.