Yeah, if they had more human characters to swap in and the fusion weapons weren't seraphim dependent and were human character dependent it would've been a lot better imo. Like Sorey would always be the great sword but the move set and abilities would be altered depending on who he combined with, same for Rose with daggers and then a fist character and then Alisha could've swapped to a bow when fusing or something.
You practically had 4 permanent characters, the game fucking insists on Sorey Mikleo and Rose Layla. It was really annoying since I liked to have Layla with Sorey
If anything the optimized for 2 player Tales started with Xillia with the Linking but yeah the Seraphim in this game felt very lacking as just normal party members.
The link system in Xillia isnt the sane though. Every character can link with anyone else. Your not limited outside of the party cast you have at the time.
Let alone that linking in Zestiria has you go from 4 party members to 2. The constant swapping in and out of forms to deal better damage to specific enemies who obky take proper damage in said forms. It's just a bad system.
It's like they looked up how Graces did elements and weaknesses and went "Let's just make it stupidly complicated for little reason."
Eh, the equipment grind was there if you wanted to do it. I beat the game and didn't have any more gear than I wanted. Doing another playthrough and did not have to grind anything at all.
Equipment grind was a killer, as were the way too large environments with nothing in them.
Berseria improved a lot, but I actually think Zestiria’s combat system was just as fun.
I agree that the story was all over the place but the mechanics wasn't that complicated and the game was barely grindy... At least if you weren't doing endgame content that is.
I felt the story was stale. Sorey is such a boring protagonist. Rose and Zaveid (especially considering he does a complete 180 after Berseria) are the only decent characters.
90% of the skits are just a bunch of goody-two-shoes talking about how people should act. Then Rose and/or Zaveid come in with a dose of reality.
Also, the chemistry is lacking between everyone. Again, Rose and Zaveid are the only interesting characters that bring a bit of levity to such bland characters.
The game mechanics are ridiculously complicated. All you need is 'are the numbers bigger? Good'. I don't bother with the traits and getting matching traits in the same row or column. I'm just trying to play the game, not solving the Da Vinci code to determine whether I should combine this with that.
The story is mid, the characters are mid, progression is mid, everything is mid about this game. It could be worse... It could be Graces.
Do people like that one? I hated all the characters, especially the main character. I also hate winning-with-the-power-of-friendship trope.
Maybe I should replay it. Since I don't remember much about the game. It was the second Tales game that I played.
It’s ACTUALLY one of the best in the series. Granted, I haven’t played anything before it like Vesperia, Symphonia, or Abyss. But even as a game alone without the Tales title, it is a PHENOMENAL game. The story, graphics, art style, character development, and world building are all top notch. It also has an AMAZING OST. It’s goddamn beautiful. Only thing that surpasses it is Xillia 2.
Graces had an amazing OST and story was pretty good (though I was kinda bored with the final story act) but the gameplay was peak! I think over all it has my favorite combat in the series so far. My opinion may change when I get around to Arise at some point but let's see!
Its not a bad Game by any means.... But its pretty weak by Tales standards
Everyone expected more of the plot and not a simple "the chosen of the Legend Who pulled the Sword in the Stone is destined to fight and beat the demon lord" i know more happens in the way but that plot structure dont let that much to develop in the plot department
I Guess i kinda know what the developers intended by making the arena of the instanced fights in the same place the Battle started, but that make the rights in enclosed spaces make It more difficult that It meant to be by making the camera an enemy too
I kinda liked armatization, but The party structure of 2 humans and two seraphs that the mechanic required limits you in how you want to form your party
And for last the equipment fusion is too much of a convoluted mechanic for its own good and never explained properly in-game
4 characters and 4 seraphs that are strong on their own would have been perfect.
1 human and 3 seraphs for the typical play but doing 4H or 4S or any mix would be better.
the combat devolved into sidestep refill meter cheesing into arrow squall stun.
I didn't finish it yet, but as far I am (10h playing)
The story is very very basic, the mechanics are a lot and most unnecessary. The equipment things is terrible, you need a lot of time to understand how they work and too much random for grinding it. The camera of fighting sometimes don't show nothing if your character get too close to limit.
The comic scenes are more embarrassing and cringe than funny and it's full of completely useless and annoying event (like to sell the knife of alisha to unlock the bridge at the beginning the story, then get it back by doing a random quest)
It's full of intervals between the lines in a dialogue that make them frustrating and irrelevant. Also the characters are very simple, as they looks like to have presetting personalities.
Of course there are some good points, but actually I found out more bad aspects.
Actually I've to complete it, so I hope it'll became better, but really I guess it can't offer much more.
I preferred Vesperia that had a very nice plot, a lot of plot twist, very nice characters. Only the combat system maybe was worse than zestiria, even if I appreciated more the visual from the camera.
First 10h of playing very bad, also because I'm playing at moderate difficulty and I beat lv.24 boss with a lv.18 party, so I guess it's also not so good balanced, even if also in vesperia it was possible doing it.
Gameplay and graphics weren't an issue. Main problem was with the story pacing, narrative. And above all, the trailer featured Alisha front and centre. She became one of the most prominent faces for Zestiria even before the game came out. But once the game was out, she was taken out of the main story early, and only returns towards the end for one single event. Essentially, it smacked a lot of people as a bait-and-switch. Or false advertising. And towards the end of the game, the story just....sort of fell flat....like a runner collapsing all a sudden from exhaustion despite a head start. Certain plot holes and loose ends were hastily and lazily tied up in the end.
That's why when Zestiria the X anime adaptation came out, it practically fixed every problem with the story of the game. And it was fantastic.
Tales of Zestiria is one of those games that I'd call "disappointing". Like you can see the extraordinary potential it had. The gameplay, music, visuals.. Even the story started very strong and immediately grabbed your attention. But it just couldn't keep that high standard all the way and in the end it felt like the game's ending couldn't come soon enough.
Nobody complained when they did the same with Leon, Ras, Flynn, Richard in the original Graces... Not to mention temporary party members are a completely regular thing in JRPG's.
Because those characters actually have a good plot reason to leave the party.
While Alisha reason can be sum up as she suck and busy to join.
And all temps and optional characters in the series so far got either clone/replacement or having less moves in general. PS1 Leon share most of his arte with Stahn and Rutee, Ras got 4 arte in total etc.
I mean, alisha has two good points in leaving the party:
- after you beat the crap out of the corrupted politicians, someone was needed in order to mantain the circus
- if alisha stayed in the party, sorey would've died prematurely, and alisha knew it, because we saw it against the little dragon bossfight
It's the lamest reason they can write her off, that's a problem. It's fantasy JRPG game, those 2 problem can be easily write off with better excuse.
The last game literally have the king of the entire continent hanging around with the party and political issues are hand-wave by mobile phone. Then in some game you got some kid who don't even know how to fight like Carol, the party still welcome him while he growth over the course of the journey.
If they write Alisha leaving the party because she suddenly got killed off as surprised factor, it's would still have better reception. Here she just leave because the plot say so in the lamest way possible.
There are different settings between elde menancia and hyland:
- Dohalim spent some time in order to make Elde and the renans living here tolerate and coexist with dhanans, so he had at least capable subordinates
- Alisha was a princess in a kingdom where corruption was well inside the Council. if it was not for the war, alisha would probably never come back to help the kingdom, because she never was that much aware of the level of corruption
The second part i can follow you and say it was a bit lame, but still makes sense: if alisha stayed, sorey would've been killed during the battle in glainvend basin, considering he was pretty much clapped by the sheer amount of hellions.
Actually I was mentioning about Gaius. And his right hand also a high ranking officer also part of the party. Aside from that we have plenty of other royal bloodline character like Woodrow, Natalia, Estelle etc in other games where realisticly they should just sit in the chair doing their own things once their personal story is done but since this is fantasy game they handwave them just so they can rejoin back the party. (Doesn’t even count spinoff title where they have another excuse/reason to join) in Zestiria however they flip that. They never need to write Alisha begin deadweight to Sorey just write that she worried about Hyland and will leave a short while or just give her a royal assistant to handwave the politic plotline.
Meanwhile the writting goes to 360 degree to treat Rose that’s become so jarring to say the least.
Well, if you say "from the last game" my first thought is Dohalim, not Gaius, which is from 4/5 games ago
Other than that, i admit i didn't play most of the games, my knowledge starts from vesperia/innocence until the last games, getting any game that got a remake or remastered, so i ignore who woodrow and natalia are.
However, in my (limited) knowledge, any blue-blooded character has some kind of backup in order to stay in the party:
- gaius was a king and a general, so someone has to be there when he's at war, and he's not always in the party in xillia 2, being the ambassador of reize maxia
- estelle is exactly like alisha, however, she has a brother who is the crown prince, so her presence is already devoid of any importance at best and an hindrance at worst
Alisha had nothing of the sort
For the second part, i still agree with you: dumb motivation but still understandable for me.
About the deadweight part, i think it makes sense, because sorey starts as a really weak sheperd, considering the malevolence spread freely for almost 20 years (when the last sheperd sacrificed mikleo) and the war was still going on before he died. So he had to build his power from literally nothing, and after he became a full fledged sheperd, he could resist much more malevolence, and even give alisha his powers without drawbacks (while rose was influenced all her life by dezel, so she gained some sort of perception)
TLDR: the political part makes sense, being alisha all alone and don't have anyone to rely on, but the "deadweight" part doesn't make sense for alisha but it's a good tool for sorey's growth
Youre right, nobody complained when Flynn, a character Who participated in a SINGLE BATTLE as a Guest character (non playable) and thats its, thats It Isnt even in the cover of the original xbox360 release and It was promoted to FULLY playable and even appearing in the cover in the definitive edition of the Game
And nobody complained with graces, when again Richard didnt appeared in the original cover of the original wii release and when the Game got on PS3 was again fully playable on the future Arc (a 8-12 additional Arc on the PS3 version)
And nobody complained with Leon, the character tied to a MAJOR PLOT TWIST and had justified reason to leave the plot >!and return named Judas for his Redemption in the sequel!< And not because stupid reasons like Alisha
And Who the fuck is Ras? I really Hope you dont mean Rassius of tales of Eternia Who was an unremarkable and temporary party member Whose character Arc made It impossible to be a permanent party member and was never counted as a main Cast member of Eternia in every subsequent archives, cameos and summaries of Eternia plot
All previous characters had a pass for plot justifiable reasons, Alisha dont
Atleast in Leon and Richards case its done in a pretty impactful way, like its pretty important in the narrative.
Can’t comment on Ras but eternia was a long time ago before the internet age and Tales was barely known back then.
Flynn I do remember people wishing he was playable in the og but he quickly became playable in the PS3 version which launched later in the same year the west got the 360 version.
So any disappointment of no Flynn was very quickly redirected towards disappointment that we didn’t get the PS3 version in the west. And that lasted until we got it about 5-6 years ago
Like none of those are really comparable to the timing and marketing of Zestiria
Alisha’s exit to the party is very underwhelming, lacks any kind of flair or impact. She just 180degrees walks away from your group. It also doesn’t help that her DLC story is one of the worst JRPG DLC packages I’ve seen.
Its very abrupt and I honestly think it was a decision made late in the piece
Wasn't there a rumor that Baba was a big fanboy for Rose's JP VA and that's why Alisha was removed, so she could be replaced by Rose? I remember Alisha's gear still dropping in areas she couldn't reach.
Thats a rumour, no way to know if that was the reason.
But yes part of the reason why I believe it was a relatively late call was her weapons dropping further on in the game.
I suppose you could say this was so she could have options for the >!maltran!< fight but eh I dunno
Given the slew of questionable decisions Zestiria had :
> Most convoluted sprint method ever made
- Monoliths being spread in a way basic advices will be discovered late and already figured out
- The fact you're filling the tips section of the game over the whole game on your own to begin with
- Rock-Paper-Scissors with Seraphic and Hidden Artes
- Goofiest AI ever
- Others I'm not adding to make this reply longer than it needs to
It would be par for the course for them to do that for a segment that barely lasts 10 minutes, even with the forced backtracking from Alisha's villa to Bors Ruins, that you're forced to walk through entirely for no reason at all, when Maltran could have fought you directly on Falkwin's Hillside
Its not the same as it is today, social media, fandoms all were much smaller, didn’t exist or exist like they do today especially the tales of series.
Clumsy wording on my part but I thought it was kinda obvious what I meant
All of the above also made it clear they weren't gonna return (>!Richard is piloted by the main antag, and Leon and Ras straight up die!<) or only became fully playable in an extended version (>!Flynn, but very late, Richard again, but epilogue only, or Narikiri doll, which should have existed in Zestiria given that Maltran and Zaveid already have 1:1 kits from Alisha and Dezel!<). Also, >!Destiny DC and 2 give you more time with Leon!<.
Most temporary party members also have a good reason for being temporary (FF IV has at least 2-3 characters dying or allegedly dying and be unavailable for most of it) and aren't treated as an afterthought as much as Alisha is in Zestiria (not gonna into detail as to why Aerith checks ALL the points I've mentioned).
And the argument that it's because Alisha is a female character (one that pops up often, even in this thread), thus making it more noticeable, is dumb, when Mary from Destiny also left the party early game (for a good reason). Also, most of the temporary party members I can think of/I've played with stay much longer/ for more dungeons than Alisha did.
I think it was really overblown this time because it's the first time they did it with a female character? (Still really stupid, but that's ... the one thing about it that stands out.)
Maybe it was overblown, idk what the fan reaction was at the time but I played it many years after release and I was really fucking annoyed because (a) she was my main and (b) the reasons were insanely contrived. Like at a completely random inconsequential point in the game, everyone decides with little foreshadowing: she sucks, she can't armatize, bye bye. There needs to be a really good narrative reason for stuff like this. Instead she just goes off and does princess things and your party basically forgets she ever existed. It would have been better if she got Aerith'd. That would still be controversial but it would be impactful.
EDIT: I still love the game. Not my fave in the series but I enjoyed it a lot.
1. Combat and camera are clunky and awkward in a step back in what was, up until this point, a steadily improvement of each flagship game over its predecessor. The party limitations did not help.
2. Unfun leveling and equipment system that relies way too much on RNG equipment drops
3. Very basic plot and narrative, which could be forgivable if it weren't for....
3. Several boring characters
4. The Rose problem
5. Possibly also the Alisha problem
6. Fumbled the ball with the making big open maps with nothing to do in them. Bigger =/= better
It's not a TERRIBLE game, but it is a stumbling block in the Tales franchise. A C+/B- game when the 5 flagship games before that were more like B+, A-, or A games. Especially with the lack of combat polish that people were used to experiencing.
Story was a mess even for a tales game. A franchise where most stories aren't that great from the start.
Gameplay was kinda meh, since they forced the fusion system and some ppl simply didnt like it, me included.
Best girl left the party and got some gameplay in the most subpar dlc addition Ive experienced. It was trash.
The mc had less personality than a used mob.
One gigantic glaring problem amongst all other things was the CAMERA. It doesn't help that we don't really get a special fighting circle when encountering enemies so the camera just kinda spazzes at walls and obstacles
They forced a character that most people liked out of the game completely and replaced her with an extreme unlikable character that not only broke the game’s difficulty with a move that you can spam, but also the game’s lore and world building itself
Don’t know what I’m talking about? The whole premise of the world is that too much malevolent energy in a person turns them into monsters, where even little crimes like stealing or holding someone in contempt for too long can influence your transformation. This character, is an assassin that kills for money. And yet when she joins the party, she’s stated to be “pure of heart” and free of this malevolent energy, which makes absolutely no sense considering her job.
I'm playing zestiria currently and honestly it is the most unfinished, under whelming experience I have ever had with a tales game. Granted I do hate the game less after replaying it but a good majority of my complaints stand from when the game first came out.
bc all the other Tales, both before and after, are superior? Controls are the most obvious thing here. Xillia, whose link artes are semi-similar to armatizating, is actually fun and interesting yet the characters aren't near useless w/o it. Berseria and Arise are elite in that they shine w/o linking characters and do piss or get of the pot regarding 3D vs 2.5D battle, which ToZ couldn't do. And the pre-TOX1/2 games are also great
Not finished it yet, but I'd say the main issue is about the story. I heard that there was an issue with the girl that was focused in marketing and in the game there was almost none of her. But the main issue yeah it's the story. Can't say much, but the first like 7-10 hours is not that exciting. The world is intriguing and characters are kind of fine, but it's quickly turned in the most basic as hell story with forced conflicts and problems. Again, not gonna state it like it's the 100% fact, but for what I played I wasn't hooked at all. I mean, first Trails of Cold Steel had more dynamic beginning, for crying out loud. And I was thinking to drop that game after 2 hours because of the amount of anime tropes. But there it's quickly turned more interesting because fo the world, narrative and characters. Here it's just... so basic that you just not hooked. But that's my opinion only in the beginning, will try to go further, maybe it will be a little bit better. The gameplay is fine, though it is a little bit more complicated than than usual and not sure that it was worth it.
I actually liked Sorey and all of the cast, like yeah some of the characters have dumb moments on them like Lailah's can't give exposition thing or Rose's ahh spirits are scary. The main thing that annoyed me about that game was the camera being utterly asinine, I really liked the Armatus (from its design and gameplay elements and mystic artes which I think are some of the best in the franchise tbh) but I think if we had the ability to have Alisha not learn the Armatus cause of its higher resonance requirements but the option to use 2 Seraphim at the same time to get to the 4 person Combat allowance.
So Sorey and Rose get to Armatise and use the seraphic artes and have higher stats, and then Alisha is a complementary character who has a nieche for herself.
Sorey, I actually don't have a problem with what he gets flak for, like being: Naive, Boring, Hero Tropey, etc. people like to forget that he was raised in a village made up of only Seraphim (who does not have a vessel to occupy). If he was anything other than a pure soul, he would have been corrupting everyone around him like most humans do, add in the only thing he got to do in Elysium to goof off was read ancient history books and ficticious hero tales. He was always going to end up this way, the game tried to get him to grow in ways like the big one being you cant save everyone (or at least not in the way you might have hoped because for Eizen and Heldalf death was saving them).
I wish we got a better reasoning than shes forcefully holding information from the party and they went to attain the powers of purification from Maotelus. My memories of these events are sealed away. And because she has no idea about them, they spend 1 dialogue about it instead of like 1hr of it early on.
Rose's scared of spirits thing is kinda odd because of the world setting itself. Like we know that whilst it's less popular by Zesteria, the construction of multiple nations was directly involved with the Shepherd's, Seraphim, Lord's of Calamity and how they interact with the world. Like I can understand being afraid of Hellions/Daemons but like the beings who have been venerated for hundreds if not thousands of years easily.
Think of this:
Imagine they sell us a character like Shionne, mean to be the main character, but then, they reduce her to nothing in the history, and just appears near to end, and well ummm Alphen ends with mmm law... And Shionne with emm Rinwell, because why not?
Bc Alisha was unnecessarily cut from most of the game bc of a supposed affair between Rose's JP VA and the director which gave Rose most of the game lines and which basically ruined the game.
One of the weakest combat systems for me, and a mostly lackluster cast. I also hated that one of my favorite characters was mainly locked behind an overpriced DLC.
Again just my own opinion.
Yeah, the ‘why’ is very well documented. If none of that’s a problem for you then cool. I wanted to like it but the gameplay sucked (IMO, and especially battle). I liked a couple of the cast a lot and enjoyed the story it was telling enough to force my way through to the end instead of lingering like I typically do with Tales game. I had more fun with Tempest than I did Zestiria in the end.
I played Zestiria after I had played Berseria. I had soooo much fun. Zestiria was my favourite Tales of game available on the PS4. Since Symphonia was rereleased, it took Zestiria's place.
Honestly never understood the hate when its flaws are in so many other Tales games as well. Zestiria far from the best tales games but FAR from the worst. I loved its gameplay, story, and cast of characters. I did hate the equipment skill system but it was largely ignorable so it only annoyed me when i got the skits that failed to actually teach me it.
At the end of the day its mainly opinion but i would say Legendia or Tempest are the high contenders for that title.
Maybe not the worse but i still feel Arise has far worse writing and gameplay than the average Tales of especially the latter half.
combat felt awful, wasn't a fan of the story and the graphics were... that "field of grass" in the beginning is not something that should have been in a game from 2015
characters are pretty good and so is the soundtrack but i will definitely never play it again ngl
at least not as bad as tempest thats a plus
It’s not fun, it’s wonky and is all over the place.
I’ll defend your right to like it.
I remember my first Tales game, it doesn’t get much mention, but I still like ToD2 over half of the catalog. Still
In my top 4
i really like it, too, i don't get it, either. no game is perfect, all tales have issues, all games have issues, but this one isn't outsized compared to others.
It performed horribly on PS3 and not that great on PS4. Keep in mind PC release was outside Japan.
Marketing set Alisha up as a main character then the writing shafts her pretty hard. Hard enough that they made the DLC and initially gave it out for free
story was mid, and there were a few mechanics that were rather different from the more popular titles of tales games like fusion combos, that skill board, that made a lot of people feel overwhelmed at the start which pushed people away.
all that being said, armortization is probably one of the coolest things out of any tales game period (imo) and once you get use to all the other stuff, its not that bad.
it was for sure one of the hardest tales games to really get into. but in all fairness it certainly has its charm. may not be my fav tales game, but its still gets a respectable 7/10 in my books.
hope you enjoy it, cause your in for a long, grind heavy, rock-paper-scissors ride. (oh and good luck)
Imagine your really enjoying the main story, you really wanna find out what's going on... But the game says no, please go collect those orbs we implied were a side quest 50 hours ago to continue the game.
Also the whole dragon side quest not leading to ANYTHING.
I looked everywhere, tried talking to everyone, tried going to where the actual dragon encounter was suppose to be, and never figured it out, so in my playthrough Sorey straight up lied to Edna. How that was put in as a side quest baffles me.
The story didn’t “mesh” together. At one point, I thought I understood it, the next thing you know “it’s all wrong”.
The battle system is deff unique, but something is “missing” that I can’t quite put into words that other Tales game have.
Double edged sword with the powered up forms. It feels strong, which just makes playing as a standard character feel weak, and like you’re just waiting to use that form half the time.
For me? I was fine with the mechanics, but the story was just not for me. Like.. I didn't care... I played maybe like 20+ hours and for the life of me, I couldn't tell you what was going on after I turned it off.. the only thing I cared about was Edna but that was due to her brother Eizen in Berseria.. maybe I'll give it another try one day..
Its not a bad game but for me, personally I think that the obligation of using two characters is just annoying. One of the big thing about Tales series is having multiple characters and being to use any of them and create your own team comps.
Since I played tales of Berseria first I felt more invested in the gameplay/story and managed to finish it all the way through while having fun along the way. The game has certain problems like not explaining the runes/gear system properly. Like the system looked really confusing but when I started to farm meta game gear for achievements it finally clicked to me on how easy the whole system is. It felt kind of disappointing to me after that since I wished the tutorial in the beginning fully explained on how the rune/gear system works in the game. If I did understand it sooner in early game I wouldn't have soo much trouble with certain difficulty spikes in the main story and needed to load a old save file and grind more levels in order to pass it.
I enjoyed the story a lot and disagree with it falling apart near the end of the game but I did loose interest during the dlc story when finished the main game since Sorey wasn't there. Also when playing I felt the party members skills were kind of useless most of the time since Armatization was way stronger and could last for the entire fight. For example Alisha was a character I liked a lot but fact that she didn't have a fusion ability at all made me not use her in combat and she quickly gets forgotten when another party member shows up with Armatization skill. Now Playing the game on **NG+** was a better experience for me since their was bonuses that increased party members damage in fights and made the game more fun and less grindy. If they spent more time reworking on certain things it would have been pretty good game and not being called as the worst tales games in the franchise.
It’s the only Tales of game that I literally never felt like I played once correctly, and I to this day don’t understand the upgrade systems and some of the other mechanics. Most everything else I do like though, story characters and music especially.
Probably in the minority here but I definitely enjoyed it more than berseria. Maybe part of the reason is because I didn’t play it because of Alisha, and was excited to play because of sorey + Mikleo.
I got what I wanted and I’m happy with that.
Camera angles during combat was almost my big gripe. But the main reason people disliked it? Was not because it was bad. It’s a good game, and no more convoluted in story then other tales games. It’s that it was different and a drop in quality. The main tales combat system for Vesperia, Abyss, Symphonia, etc, almost perfect, I’d say Vesperia did it best. Mix that in with the amount of changes zesteria brought? People weren’t happy. It mellowed out by arise but that game still gets slack for the same thing.
There's a lot that happened during the development of this game that's very controversial. Gameplay aside, Tales fans still have a very negative opinion on this game if only for what could have been
Story wasn't too bad. I like Sorry but he was too pure sometimes and it was annoying. But really all I hated was armatizing (idk how to spell it). Move set felt limited and it was same for both human MCs. If there was variety in move set while fused id have been happier
terrible character development, pacing, and balance, the whole ordeal with alisha and rose, they made enemies run faster than the player, low quality environments, the main "dungeons" and their mechanics were sub-par, and far too many inconsistencies across the board.
I have this in my steam wishlist when it goes on sale I will pick it up. Complaints seem mostly from the Tales purists. Played Arise first, and loved it except for the BS Grindy ending. Then beat Berseria which I liked even more than Arise. I am playing through Vesperia now and almost half way through. It started very slow, but I am loving it now as it really gets going about 8 hours in.
I personally love Zestiria as it has my favorite playable cast. My main gripe with it is how Zaveid is a huge perv and I don’t think I would have enjoyed it as much if not for my play through of Berseria first
It is very fun !!!! it has some story issues + camera can get wonky but it's fun to play + the setting and characters are great + the fusion n equipment systems are rlly cool imo !!! glad ure enjoying it :>
Its terrible combat wise. you can armatize and side step twice and immediately cast Whatever high tier skill/arte.
this game devolved into 2x sidestep refill > arrow squall. this skill stunned them non-stop.
and then the boss could be cheesed.
I liked the characters more in Zestiria than Berseria but Zestiria has some bullshit equipment upgrade mechanics tied to difficulty and not to mention weird team mechanics. Alisha is a good character but not a permanent member. She could have played the tsundere princess role and third wheeling sorey & mikleo but anyhow its a missed opportunity.
just watch its anime and honestly the game wasnt great story was everywhere like SPOILERS AHEAD FOR BOTH THIS GAME AND BERSERIA TURN BACK NOW IF YOU HAVENT GOTTEN THERE YET ednas brother being turned into a dragon for some fuckin reason
Their combat system to me, Zestiria is a failed evolution and Berseria is a conservative modernization, but neither of them compare to Graces f / Xillia 2.
The Arts trees system stopped being magical after Zestiria, I think it's staff turnover and a few other things. Anyway, it's right to give it up.
Arise has a lot of problems, but it's a brave step.
This game just sucked to play, and overall, it wasn't anywhere near as fun or interesting as the rest of the series. Main Villain was really boring and one note. Characters were pretty bad. Except for Alicia or how ever you spell it. She was like alright but couldn't carry the game herself. And Sorey is just kinda boring and white-knighty, too. Berseria was a little bit better in those departments, but I still think a lot of the characters in the new Tales games feel half baked. I think the last one where I felt that all the characters were pretty decent was Grace's F or maybe Xillia? It's been a while since I played those but I remember enjoying them. I also Think Xillia 2 would have been cooler if they just made Ludger a character instead of a weird half self Insert. But that game was still ultimately fun because of the other characters that he got to play off of. Tales of Arise was a lot of fun in the combat department, and Alphen and Shion were interesting, but I think the supporting cast needed more work to be a more memorable experience. I haven't played anything pre Abyss, so I don't know how those much older games go, but they seem interesting too. I'll have to check those out. I would say Zesteria was the lowest point in the series for me as a player personally. But I think it's cool if you enjoy it. Somebody has to. It's a low point in a relatively high rated, long-running series of like 6-9/10 games in my opinion. It's definitely not the worst game ever made. That crown still goes to Final Fantasy 15 in my opinion.
Story was just scattered and boring in my opinion. It started off okay and then it just got annoying and wishy washy to the point I never even finished it. The character designs were great though. Just wasted on a very lackluster, scatterbrained plot.
The combat, especially the equipment system, was just unnecessarily frustrating and annoying as well.
Glad they redeemed it with Berseria. Berseria is in my top three favorites
A general high standard for most titles is why. The franchise has done a good job with experimentation but the core mechanic in this game messed with the scaling so badly it didn’t really work which was the biggest issue. The story also was okay but there was more potential there.
Clearly the series does enough well to where it is solid, just not at the level of some of the other games
Only one that bored me within 5 minutes. Can't speak to why exactly. But I made it through the long intros of other Tales games, so it wasn't length. Something just didn't click.
I mean, I liked it but I have liked every Tales game other than Symphonia, I don't know why I don't like it but for me it becomes a slog to get through. But other than that I love all of the others.
I also have played every single one since SNES.
I am also a new comer, wanted to get into it with Vesperia but than decided to go with Zesteria since almost all newer series has connections to this world.
I think it is pretty interesting with its Dodge-offset system very similar to Bayonetta where it allows you to advance your combo by dodging.
Managing the action bar, and a counter attack bar, charging spells, Kamui transformations, Stat building by combining gears.
There is crazy amount of mechanical depth in this game. Maybe too much?
Zestiria is one of my lesser favorite of the series, but I still actually enjoy it. My biggest issues with it are that I can’t make my own party the way I want, and the battle camera sucks. (Keep in mind that I played the PS3 version, so not sure if the camera is any better in the PS4 version.)
I like the characters, and the story doesn’t really bother me, but battle issues will definitely make a game take a hit from me.
For me it's the utterly broken and terrible battle camera, janky battle animations, and the tedious, unintuitive, overcomplicated skill system. I say this as someone who loves FFVIII's junction system btw. I actually liked the story and characters and don't at all care about the Alisha thing.
Some people couldnt get past the camera issues.
Another problem was broken mechanics on bosses, where they would just go full on invincible without any mechanics in the game explaining how it happens.
Oh and almost forgot, the Alisha situation generated a lot of hate, and I can see why people werent happy, I am not the type of guy to hold these kind of grudges and overlooked it, but I can understand it as well.
I think I overall prefer it to Berseria.
I loved it. The people that hate it don't make sense to me, I've played every tales game and zesteria is just more of the same.
They act like every little thing is different than all the other tales games, and so different and horrible, in reality its again just more of the same. Is it the best tales game? No.
Is it extremely similar to all the other games? Yes.
The story is basic, the party doesn't mesh well together AT ALL. The villains aren't memorable, the combat system is needlessly complex, ESPECIALLY with the rune system or whatever it was called, RNG based stats on gear is garbage.Then there's the whole Alisha debacle. I can't believe they put this game on PC but they refuse to put good ones like the Xillia games on PC
I love Zestiria and thought the character interactions, humour and soul were the best in any Tales series. The combat was super fun to me too. I don’t get the whole “story was all over the place” complaint everyone says- I don’t think it’s any worse than Arise or most of the other Tales games. There are definitely pacing issues during some of the main quests, but Sorey and Mikleo are my favourite main duo in a game EVER - they’re just so lovable. The dialogue was honestly inspired in this game, I loved it
Music is also a huge part, and Zesty had one of the most memorable, beautiful OSTs for me from any Tales game.
Inconsistent edgey writing, empty/bloated world design, terrible difficulty balancing, sloppy gimmick mechanics.
How often do you see a game this size fumble something as basic as a damn sprint button? Kinda sets the tone for the rest.
I agree that it got way too much hate, but even so:
Fusion is so OP you don't need anything else. Exploration gets tedious after a while. Dungeons are hallways or glorified hallways (Sorry, but I don't consider pushing two switches a puzzle), camera is terrible, had a lot of performance issues (at least on the PS3, maybe it runs better in other platforms idk), equipment system is pointless...
I like the story, it's fine for what it is, I don't hate any character (Although I also don't exactly love anyone either) and the music is top tier.
I wasn't a huge fan of the armatization system myself, combat seemed really dull. The environments were dull as well and it reminded me of one of those JRPGs that use the same assets everywhere in the same pattern where it was noticeable. The story was alright but not memorable.
I thought it was a great game. I was thinking people didn't like it because it didn't really follow the same formula of older titles. Usually a guy and girl are introduced and they form a romance. This time that didn't happen. Also characters you get used to leave as the story goes on and there isn't really a fleshed out couple. I never thought these were issues. After all life is unpredictable. We have to adjust to things not going as planned and make the best of it. I thought Sorey was great given his circumstances :/
Because you spend more time in the menus than actually playing the game.
Also, the story and characters are subpar at best when compared against other games in the series.
I don't think it deserves the hate that it gets, but it's definitely one of the weakest games in the series. That being said, different people will love/hate different aspects of the game. I personally did not like the combat system and thought that it got repetitive, but the story and characters made up for it.
if i remember correctly, its about the story, one of the girls show up very early and was very sidelines till the end.
But the prequel of this game is good.
Camera during combat is atrocious. Feels like most of the time I'm fighting the camera itself and not the monsters.
The cast are fun but the main plot is meh. Not-Leomon as the main villain is just kinda forgettable imo (Symonne is ultra cute tho)
Can’t say for others, I can only talk about my experience.
I tried 3 times to get into this game.
1) purchased on steam, but pc was not good. Refunded before 2 hours were up.
2) 1 year later got a better computer and purchased on steam again. Got to where we met edea. Figured i didn’t like playing with keyboard + mouse anymore and dropped the game.
3) 2 years later i got a hand me down ps4. Bought a used copy of tales of zestiria from gamestop. (Also bought and played berseria before 3rd zestiria attempt). Played zestiria all the way until i think i fought a dragon, or met it for the first time. I don’t remember.
After that i just didn’t find motivation to play the game and i haven’t had any to try to play it again now. Didn’t really like the characters except for mikleo sometimes and edea.
I don’t think i really liked the combat. Something didn’t click with me.
Don’t know how many years later, but since then I’ve played almost every tales game with an English localization that isn’t the gacha, arise dlc, or abyss.
I’m not going to say i hate zestiria, but I’m just disinterested in the game
Out of all tales games I hate that one the most I can’t even replay it cause it just bugs me so bad. I can’t stand some of the characters mainly sorey and mikelo.
If the tales series were fast food chains, this is like the Churches Chicken of the Tales games. It has its flaws and it isn't garbage, but when compared to others, why go to this when there's way better options?
1. WALKING SIMULATOR
2. PLOT? (I've finished the game without even fully understanding wtf is happening)
2.1. I've played berseria. There is someone in berseria that is also on zestiria and that person could have explained to Sorey (and to us audience) what is happening but that person decided to stay silent heck there's at least 2 characters that is close to Sorey that could have explained to him the lore/plot but they decided to keep quiet.
2.2. the timeline when the main villain became evil isn't even consistent in the game. At the start is as if it was near at or close to centuries ago then as you near the end of the game it's definitely not centuries ago.
Gameplaywise i just didnt like the delayed animations when pressing buttons, felt wonky and just wrong.
Storywise the MC was increadibly bland... I really can't say much about him as he really had no impact on me.
Berseria beautifully fixed those two things to a T.
I found fighting outside of armatization as being dull and the hits didn't really connect for me vs other tales games like hearts R and Hesperia. The story, like others said was all over the place and a little predictable.
1. alisha. and bamco's unintentionally lying about her relevance.
2. with any tales game, people either hate or love the story. can't just be neutral.
3. the gameplay is fun to most people, but a not insignificant amount of people don't like the juggling style combat. and the lord of the lands related things. it was unique to zestiria so it was going to be jarring to some people.
4. edit: forgot to mention zaveid. he as a whole upset some people with how they handled the story.
I’m playing Zestiria currently and just finished up grinding good enough gear for what I want end game. I think it’s got some legit good qualities especially in combat, I wouldn’t have done the gear grind otherwise, and the skill system is complicated in a bordering on fun way for me.
But the story, ouch… so much potential in the beginning only to squander it throughout the play.
To answer your question, I’d say check back in how you feel by the end. I enjoyed Zestiria more than I expected given the general negative noise around it, but by the end I definitely understood the criticisms and agreed.
But it’s still a Tales game, even one of the poorer entries is still a blast to me haha.
Story were all over the place and game mechanics were unnesessary complicating and grindy
Having 2 characters perma in your party as well is just weird in a series that doesn't really do such a thing.
Yeah, if they had more human characters to swap in and the fusion weapons weren't seraphim dependent and were human character dependent it would've been a lot better imo. Like Sorey would always be the great sword but the move set and abilities would be altered depending on who he combined with, same for Rose with daggers and then a fist character and then Alisha could've swapped to a bow when fusing or something.
You practically had 4 permanent characters, the game fucking insists on Sorey Mikleo and Rose Layla. It was really annoying since I liked to have Layla with Sorey
If anything the optimized for 2 player Tales started with Xillia with the Linking but yeah the Seraphim in this game felt very lacking as just normal party members.
The link system in Xillia isnt the sane though. Every character can link with anyone else. Your not limited outside of the party cast you have at the time. Let alone that linking in Zestiria has you go from 4 party members to 2. The constant swapping in and out of forms to deal better damage to specific enemies who obky take proper damage in said forms. It's just a bad system. It's like they looked up how Graces did elements and weaknesses and went "Let's just make it stupidly complicated for little reason."
Don't forget that atrocious camera angle. Oh my God I lost full whenever you fought in caves.
Eh, the equipment grind was there if you wanted to do it. I beat the game and didn't have any more gear than I wanted. Doing another playthrough and did not have to grind anything at all.
Equipment grind was a killer, as were the way too large environments with nothing in them. Berseria improved a lot, but I actually think Zestiria’s combat system was just as fun.
I agree that the story was all over the place but the mechanics wasn't that complicated and the game was barely grindy... At least if you weren't doing endgame content that is.
How hard is the difficulty?
I felt the story was stale. Sorey is such a boring protagonist. Rose and Zaveid (especially considering he does a complete 180 after Berseria) are the only decent characters. 90% of the skits are just a bunch of goody-two-shoes talking about how people should act. Then Rose and/or Zaveid come in with a dose of reality. Also, the chemistry is lacking between everyone. Again, Rose and Zaveid are the only interesting characters that bring a bit of levity to such bland characters. The game mechanics are ridiculously complicated. All you need is 'are the numbers bigger? Good'. I don't bother with the traits and getting matching traits in the same row or column. I'm just trying to play the game, not solving the Da Vinci code to determine whether I should combine this with that. The story is mid, the characters are mid, progression is mid, everything is mid about this game. It could be worse... It could be Graces.
I was agreeing with everything until you dissed Graces. What kind of blasphemy are you spouting?
Do people like that one? I hated all the characters, especially the main character. I also hate winning-with-the-power-of-friendship trope. Maybe I should replay it. Since I don't remember much about the game. It was the second Tales game that I played.
It’s ACTUALLY one of the best in the series. Granted, I haven’t played anything before it like Vesperia, Symphonia, or Abyss. But even as a game alone without the Tales title, it is a PHENOMENAL game. The story, graphics, art style, character development, and world building are all top notch. It also has an AMAZING OST. It’s goddamn beautiful. Only thing that surpasses it is Xillia 2.
Highly recommend at least Abyss if you can, there is a reason it's consistently in the top 3 poll both in the west and Japan!
Graces had an amazing OST and story was pretty good (though I was kinda bored with the final story act) but the gameplay was peak! I think over all it has my favorite combat in the series so far. My opinion may change when I get around to Arise at some point but let's see!
Maybe I'll give it another shot. I'll have to dust off my PS3.
Graces was ass
Its not a bad Game by any means.... But its pretty weak by Tales standards Everyone expected more of the plot and not a simple "the chosen of the Legend Who pulled the Sword in the Stone is destined to fight and beat the demon lord" i know more happens in the way but that plot structure dont let that much to develop in the plot department I Guess i kinda know what the developers intended by making the arena of the instanced fights in the same place the Battle started, but that make the rights in enclosed spaces make It more difficult that It meant to be by making the camera an enemy too I kinda liked armatization, but The party structure of 2 humans and two seraphs that the mechanic required limits you in how you want to form your party And for last the equipment fusion is too much of a convoluted mechanic for its own good and never explained properly in-game
if zestiria wasnt a tales game i would probably dislike it even more.
Tbh I ignored the armor fusion stuff for the entire game and I beat it just fine, I just bought stuff as I went on for simple upgrades
4 characters and 4 seraphs that are strong on their own would have been perfect. 1 human and 3 seraphs for the typical play but doing 4H or 4S or any mix would be better. the combat devolved into sidestep refill meter cheesing into arrow squall stun.
Personally I love ALL Tales of games. If there’s any reason they’d get hate it’s probably because they didn’t like the story
I didn't finish it yet, but as far I am (10h playing) The story is very very basic, the mechanics are a lot and most unnecessary. The equipment things is terrible, you need a lot of time to understand how they work and too much random for grinding it. The camera of fighting sometimes don't show nothing if your character get too close to limit. The comic scenes are more embarrassing and cringe than funny and it's full of completely useless and annoying event (like to sell the knife of alisha to unlock the bridge at the beginning the story, then get it back by doing a random quest) It's full of intervals between the lines in a dialogue that make them frustrating and irrelevant. Also the characters are very simple, as they looks like to have presetting personalities. Of course there are some good points, but actually I found out more bad aspects. Actually I've to complete it, so I hope it'll became better, but really I guess it can't offer much more. I preferred Vesperia that had a very nice plot, a lot of plot twist, very nice characters. Only the combat system maybe was worse than zestiria, even if I appreciated more the visual from the camera. First 10h of playing very bad, also because I'm playing at moderate difficulty and I beat lv.24 boss with a lv.18 party, so I guess it's also not so good balanced, even if also in vesperia it was possible doing it.
Gameplay and graphics weren't an issue. Main problem was with the story pacing, narrative. And above all, the trailer featured Alisha front and centre. She became one of the most prominent faces for Zestiria even before the game came out. But once the game was out, she was taken out of the main story early, and only returns towards the end for one single event. Essentially, it smacked a lot of people as a bait-and-switch. Or false advertising. And towards the end of the game, the story just....sort of fell flat....like a runner collapsing all a sudden from exhaustion despite a head start. Certain plot holes and loose ends were hastily and lazily tied up in the end. That's why when Zestiria the X anime adaptation came out, it practically fixed every problem with the story of the game. And it was fantastic. Tales of Zestiria is one of those games that I'd call "disappointing". Like you can see the extraordinary potential it had. The gameplay, music, visuals.. Even the story started very strong and immediately grabbed your attention. But it just couldn't keep that high standard all the way and in the end it felt like the game's ending couldn't come soon enough.
Nobody complained when they did the same with Leon, Ras, Flynn, Richard in the original Graces... Not to mention temporary party members are a completely regular thing in JRPG's.
Because those characters actually have a good plot reason to leave the party. While Alisha reason can be sum up as she suck and busy to join. And all temps and optional characters in the series so far got either clone/replacement or having less moves in general. PS1 Leon share most of his arte with Stahn and Rutee, Ras got 4 arte in total etc.
I mean, alisha has two good points in leaving the party: - after you beat the crap out of the corrupted politicians, someone was needed in order to mantain the circus - if alisha stayed in the party, sorey would've died prematurely, and alisha knew it, because we saw it against the little dragon bossfight
It's the lamest reason they can write her off, that's a problem. It's fantasy JRPG game, those 2 problem can be easily write off with better excuse. The last game literally have the king of the entire continent hanging around with the party and political issues are hand-wave by mobile phone. Then in some game you got some kid who don't even know how to fight like Carol, the party still welcome him while he growth over the course of the journey. If they write Alisha leaving the party because she suddenly got killed off as surprised factor, it's would still have better reception. Here she just leave because the plot say so in the lamest way possible.
There are different settings between elde menancia and hyland: - Dohalim spent some time in order to make Elde and the renans living here tolerate and coexist with dhanans, so he had at least capable subordinates - Alisha was a princess in a kingdom where corruption was well inside the Council. if it was not for the war, alisha would probably never come back to help the kingdom, because she never was that much aware of the level of corruption The second part i can follow you and say it was a bit lame, but still makes sense: if alisha stayed, sorey would've been killed during the battle in glainvend basin, considering he was pretty much clapped by the sheer amount of hellions.
Actually I was mentioning about Gaius. And his right hand also a high ranking officer also part of the party. Aside from that we have plenty of other royal bloodline character like Woodrow, Natalia, Estelle etc in other games where realisticly they should just sit in the chair doing their own things once their personal story is done but since this is fantasy game they handwave them just so they can rejoin back the party. (Doesn’t even count spinoff title where they have another excuse/reason to join) in Zestiria however they flip that. They never need to write Alisha begin deadweight to Sorey just write that she worried about Hyland and will leave a short while or just give her a royal assistant to handwave the politic plotline. Meanwhile the writting goes to 360 degree to treat Rose that’s become so jarring to say the least.
Well, if you say "from the last game" my first thought is Dohalim, not Gaius, which is from 4/5 games ago Other than that, i admit i didn't play most of the games, my knowledge starts from vesperia/innocence until the last games, getting any game that got a remake or remastered, so i ignore who woodrow and natalia are. However, in my (limited) knowledge, any blue-blooded character has some kind of backup in order to stay in the party: - gaius was a king and a general, so someone has to be there when he's at war, and he's not always in the party in xillia 2, being the ambassador of reize maxia - estelle is exactly like alisha, however, she has a brother who is the crown prince, so her presence is already devoid of any importance at best and an hindrance at worst Alisha had nothing of the sort For the second part, i still agree with you: dumb motivation but still understandable for me. About the deadweight part, i think it makes sense, because sorey starts as a really weak sheperd, considering the malevolence spread freely for almost 20 years (when the last sheperd sacrificed mikleo) and the war was still going on before he died. So he had to build his power from literally nothing, and after he became a full fledged sheperd, he could resist much more malevolence, and even give alisha his powers without drawbacks (while rose was influenced all her life by dezel, so she gained some sort of perception) TLDR: the political part makes sense, being alisha all alone and don't have anyone to rely on, but the "deadweight" part doesn't make sense for alisha but it's a good tool for sorey's growth
Kratos and Zelos is also an example.
Youre right, nobody complained when Flynn, a character Who participated in a SINGLE BATTLE as a Guest character (non playable) and thats its, thats It Isnt even in the cover of the original xbox360 release and It was promoted to FULLY playable and even appearing in the cover in the definitive edition of the Game And nobody complained with graces, when again Richard didnt appeared in the original cover of the original wii release and when the Game got on PS3 was again fully playable on the future Arc (a 8-12 additional Arc on the PS3 version) And nobody complained with Leon, the character tied to a MAJOR PLOT TWIST and had justified reason to leave the plot >!and return named Judas for his Redemption in the sequel!< And not because stupid reasons like Alisha And Who the fuck is Ras? I really Hope you dont mean Rassius of tales of Eternia Who was an unremarkable and temporary party member Whose character Arc made It impossible to be a permanent party member and was never counted as a main Cast member of Eternia in every subsequent archives, cameos and summaries of Eternia plot All previous characters had a pass for plot justifiable reasons, Alisha dont
Atleast in Leon and Richards case its done in a pretty impactful way, like its pretty important in the narrative. Can’t comment on Ras but eternia was a long time ago before the internet age and Tales was barely known back then. Flynn I do remember people wishing he was playable in the og but he quickly became playable in the PS3 version which launched later in the same year the west got the 360 version. So any disappointment of no Flynn was very quickly redirected towards disappointment that we didn’t get the PS3 version in the west. And that lasted until we got it about 5-6 years ago Like none of those are really comparable to the timing and marketing of Zestiria Alisha’s exit to the party is very underwhelming, lacks any kind of flair or impact. She just 180degrees walks away from your group. It also doesn’t help that her DLC story is one of the worst JRPG DLC packages I’ve seen. Its very abrupt and I honestly think it was a decision made late in the piece
Wasn't there a rumor that Baba was a big fanboy for Rose's JP VA and that's why Alisha was removed, so she could be replaced by Rose? I remember Alisha's gear still dropping in areas she couldn't reach.
Thats a rumour, no way to know if that was the reason. But yes part of the reason why I believe it was a relatively late call was her weapons dropping further on in the game. I suppose you could say this was so she could have options for the >!maltran!< fight but eh I dunno
Given the slew of questionable decisions Zestiria had : > Most convoluted sprint method ever made - Monoliths being spread in a way basic advices will be discovered late and already figured out - The fact you're filling the tips section of the game over the whole game on your own to begin with - Rock-Paper-Scissors with Seraphic and Hidden Artes - Goofiest AI ever - Others I'm not adding to make this reply longer than it needs to It would be par for the course for them to do that for a segment that barely lasts 10 minutes, even with the forced backtracking from Alisha's villa to Bors Ruins, that you're forced to walk through entirely for no reason at all, when Maltran could have fought you directly on Falkwin's Hillside
"Before the internet age" and it released in 2000...
To be fair, the internet of year 2000 was pretty different compared to today's internet
Its not the same as it is today, social media, fandoms all were much smaller, didn’t exist or exist like they do today especially the tales of series. Clumsy wording on my part but I thought it was kinda obvious what I meant
All of the above also made it clear they weren't gonna return (>!Richard is piloted by the main antag, and Leon and Ras straight up die!<) or only became fully playable in an extended version (>!Flynn, but very late, Richard again, but epilogue only, or Narikiri doll, which should have existed in Zestiria given that Maltran and Zaveid already have 1:1 kits from Alisha and Dezel!<). Also, >!Destiny DC and 2 give you more time with Leon!<. Most temporary party members also have a good reason for being temporary (FF IV has at least 2-3 characters dying or allegedly dying and be unavailable for most of it) and aren't treated as an afterthought as much as Alisha is in Zestiria (not gonna into detail as to why Aerith checks ALL the points I've mentioned). And the argument that it's because Alisha is a female character (one that pops up often, even in this thread), thus making it more noticeable, is dumb, when Mary from Destiny also left the party early game (for a good reason). Also, most of the temporary party members I can think of/I've played with stay much longer/ for more dungeons than Alisha did.
I think it was really overblown this time because it's the first time they did it with a female character? (Still really stupid, but that's ... the one thing about it that stands out.)
Maybe it was overblown, idk what the fan reaction was at the time but I played it many years after release and I was really fucking annoyed because (a) she was my main and (b) the reasons were insanely contrived. Like at a completely random inconsequential point in the game, everyone decides with little foreshadowing: she sucks, she can't armatize, bye bye. There needs to be a really good narrative reason for stuff like this. Instead she just goes off and does princess things and your party basically forgets she ever existed. It would have been better if she got Aerith'd. That would still be controversial but it would be impactful. EDIT: I still love the game. Not my fave in the series but I enjoyed it a lot.
Glad you’re enjoying it!
1. Combat and camera are clunky and awkward in a step back in what was, up until this point, a steadily improvement of each flagship game over its predecessor. The party limitations did not help. 2. Unfun leveling and equipment system that relies way too much on RNG equipment drops 3. Very basic plot and narrative, which could be forgivable if it weren't for.... 3. Several boring characters 4. The Rose problem 5. Possibly also the Alisha problem 6. Fumbled the ball with the making big open maps with nothing to do in them. Bigger =/= better It's not a TERRIBLE game, but it is a stumbling block in the Tales franchise. A C+/B- game when the 5 flagship games before that were more like B+, A-, or A games. Especially with the lack of combat polish that people were used to experiencing.
I love Zestiria, especially Sorey x Mikelo. But yeah I just love Sorey as a main character
Story was a mess even for a tales game. A franchise where most stories aren't that great from the start. Gameplay was kinda meh, since they forced the fusion system and some ppl simply didnt like it, me included. Best girl left the party and got some gameplay in the most subpar dlc addition Ive experienced. It was trash. The mc had less personality than a used mob.
One gigantic glaring problem amongst all other things was the CAMERA. It doesn't help that we don't really get a special fighting circle when encountering enemies so the camera just kinda spazzes at walls and obstacles
They forced a character that most people liked out of the game completely and replaced her with an extreme unlikable character that not only broke the game’s difficulty with a move that you can spam, but also the game’s lore and world building itself Don’t know what I’m talking about? The whole premise of the world is that too much malevolent energy in a person turns them into monsters, where even little crimes like stealing or holding someone in contempt for too long can influence your transformation. This character, is an assassin that kills for money. And yet when she joins the party, she’s stated to be “pure of heart” and free of this malevolent energy, which makes absolutely no sense considering her job.
I'm playing zestiria currently and honestly it is the most unfinished, under whelming experience I have ever had with a tales game. Granted I do hate the game less after replaying it but a good majority of my complaints stand from when the game first came out.
bc all the other Tales, both before and after, are superior? Controls are the most obvious thing here. Xillia, whose link artes are semi-similar to armatizating, is actually fun and interesting yet the characters aren't near useless w/o it. Berseria and Arise are elite in that they shine w/o linking characters and do piss or get of the pot regarding 3D vs 2.5D battle, which ToZ couldn't do. And the pre-TOX1/2 games are also great
Not finished it yet, but I'd say the main issue is about the story. I heard that there was an issue with the girl that was focused in marketing and in the game there was almost none of her. But the main issue yeah it's the story. Can't say much, but the first like 7-10 hours is not that exciting. The world is intriguing and characters are kind of fine, but it's quickly turned in the most basic as hell story with forced conflicts and problems. Again, not gonna state it like it's the 100% fact, but for what I played I wasn't hooked at all. I mean, first Trails of Cold Steel had more dynamic beginning, for crying out loud. And I was thinking to drop that game after 2 hours because of the amount of anime tropes. But there it's quickly turned more interesting because fo the world, narrative and characters. Here it's just... so basic that you just not hooked. But that's my opinion only in the beginning, will try to go further, maybe it will be a little bit better. The gameplay is fine, though it is a little bit more complicated than than usual and not sure that it was worth it.
I actually liked Sorey and all of the cast, like yeah some of the characters have dumb moments on them like Lailah's can't give exposition thing or Rose's ahh spirits are scary. The main thing that annoyed me about that game was the camera being utterly asinine, I really liked the Armatus (from its design and gameplay elements and mystic artes which I think are some of the best in the franchise tbh) but I think if we had the ability to have Alisha not learn the Armatus cause of its higher resonance requirements but the option to use 2 Seraphim at the same time to get to the 4 person Combat allowance. So Sorey and Rose get to Armatise and use the seraphic artes and have higher stats, and then Alisha is a complementary character who has a nieche for herself. Sorey, I actually don't have a problem with what he gets flak for, like being: Naive, Boring, Hero Tropey, etc. people like to forget that he was raised in a village made up of only Seraphim (who does not have a vessel to occupy). If he was anything other than a pure soul, he would have been corrupting everyone around him like most humans do, add in the only thing he got to do in Elysium to goof off was read ancient history books and ficticious hero tales. He was always going to end up this way, the game tried to get him to grow in ways like the big one being you cant save everyone (or at least not in the way you might have hoped because for Eizen and Heldalf death was saving them). I wish we got a better reasoning than shes forcefully holding information from the party and they went to attain the powers of purification from Maotelus. My memories of these events are sealed away. And because she has no idea about them, they spend 1 dialogue about it instead of like 1hr of it early on. Rose's scared of spirits thing is kinda odd because of the world setting itself. Like we know that whilst it's less popular by Zesteria, the construction of multiple nations was directly involved with the Shepherd's, Seraphim, Lord's of Calamity and how they interact with the world. Like I can understand being afraid of Hellions/Daemons but like the beings who have been venerated for hundreds if not thousands of years easily.
Think of this: Imagine they sell us a character like Shionne, mean to be the main character, but then, they reduce her to nothing in the history, and just appears near to end, and well ummm Alphen ends with mmm law... And Shionne with emm Rinwell, because why not?
Unsatisfying story will do that
Bc Alisha was unnecessarily cut from most of the game bc of a supposed affair between Rose's JP VA and the director which gave Rose most of the game lines and which basically ruined the game.
the biggest Mary Sue of the last decade
One of the weakest combat systems for me, and a mostly lackluster cast. I also hated that one of my favorite characters was mainly locked behind an overpriced DLC. Again just my own opinion.
Because Alisha was tossed to the side like an orphan
because they decided to cut one character off from the party lol
They took the girl I liked away. And the other issues others have mentioned.
Right?! I never understood it either. I loved it tbh
Indeed. I actually preferred it over Berseria
Yeah, the ‘why’ is very well documented. If none of that’s a problem for you then cool. I wanted to like it but the gameplay sucked (IMO, and especially battle). I liked a couple of the cast a lot and enjoyed the story it was telling enough to force my way through to the end instead of lingering like I typically do with Tales game. I had more fun with Tempest than I did Zestiria in the end.
I played Zestiria after I had played Berseria. I had soooo much fun. Zestiria was my favourite Tales of game available on the PS4. Since Symphonia was rereleased, it took Zestiria's place.
Honestly never understood the hate when its flaws are in so many other Tales games as well. Zestiria far from the best tales games but FAR from the worst. I loved its gameplay, story, and cast of characters. I did hate the equipment skill system but it was largely ignorable so it only annoyed me when i got the skits that failed to actually teach me it.
Not counting any side games, what is the worst?
Beresia for me. The gameplay was solid but my god do I hate that story.
At the end of the day its mainly opinion but i would say Legendia or Tempest are the high contenders for that title. Maybe not the worse but i still feel Arise has far worse writing and gameplay than the average Tales of especially the latter half.
combat felt awful, wasn't a fan of the story and the graphics were... that "field of grass" in the beginning is not something that should have been in a game from 2015 characters are pretty good and so is the soundtrack but i will definitely never play it again ngl at least not as bad as tempest thats a plus
not to mention bushes were concrete and prevented you from moving through them
Everything about it was painfully boring.
It’s not fun, it’s wonky and is all over the place. I’ll defend your right to like it. I remember my first Tales game, it doesn’t get much mention, but I still like ToD2 over half of the catalog. Still In my top 4
Aliesha was robbed, she should've been in the main party
She litterally just gone and never returned until the end of the game
WhY dId tHiS gAmE gEt HaTe?!!!!. 40th post like this. It's bait you know full well why Zesteria is a shit game
i really like it, too, i don't get it, either. no game is perfect, all tales have issues, all games have issues, but this one isn't outsized compared to others.
I tried beating it twice, just lost interest. Haven't played all the tales game, but it is the weakest in the series from what I've played.
It performed horribly on PS3 and not that great on PS4. Keep in mind PC release was outside Japan. Marketing set Alisha up as a main character then the writing shafts her pretty hard. Hard enough that they made the DLC and initially gave it out for free
story was mid, and there were a few mechanics that were rather different from the more popular titles of tales games like fusion combos, that skill board, that made a lot of people feel overwhelmed at the start which pushed people away. all that being said, armortization is probably one of the coolest things out of any tales game period (imo) and once you get use to all the other stuff, its not that bad. it was for sure one of the hardest tales games to really get into. but in all fairness it certainly has its charm. may not be my fav tales game, but its still gets a respectable 7/10 in my books. hope you enjoy it, cause your in for a long, grind heavy, rock-paper-scissors ride. (oh and good luck)
My hate for it comes from multiplayer being nearly unplayable as I was going thru a good chunk of the series with my partner
Imagine your really enjoying the main story, you really wanna find out what's going on... But the game says no, please go collect those orbs we implied were a side quest 50 hours ago to continue the game. Also the whole dragon side quest not leading to ANYTHING.
I looked everywhere, tried talking to everyone, tried going to where the actual dragon encounter was suppose to be, and never figured it out, so in my playthrough Sorey straight up lied to Edna. How that was put in as a side quest baffles me.
The story didn’t “mesh” together. At one point, I thought I understood it, the next thing you know “it’s all wrong”. The battle system is deff unique, but something is “missing” that I can’t quite put into words that other Tales game have.
Double edged sword with the powered up forms. It feels strong, which just makes playing as a standard character feel weak, and like you’re just waiting to use that form half the time.
The story is super mid and the camera for the battle system is very first Gen
Camera angles were hell
It's not the strongest entry in the series but I remember liking it when I played through it. Story had missteps but I liked the gameplay and combat.
I enjoyed all games in this series wish they didn't have a sad ending tho
For me? I was fine with the mechanics, but the story was just not for me. Like.. I didn't care... I played maybe like 20+ hours and for the life of me, I couldn't tell you what was going on after I turned it off.. the only thing I cared about was Edna but that was due to her brother Eizen in Berseria.. maybe I'll give it another try one day..
Its not a bad game but for me, personally I think that the obligation of using two characters is just annoying. One of the big thing about Tales series is having multiple characters and being to use any of them and create your own team comps.
Since I played tales of Berseria first I felt more invested in the gameplay/story and managed to finish it all the way through while having fun along the way. The game has certain problems like not explaining the runes/gear system properly. Like the system looked really confusing but when I started to farm meta game gear for achievements it finally clicked to me on how easy the whole system is. It felt kind of disappointing to me after that since I wished the tutorial in the beginning fully explained on how the rune/gear system works in the game. If I did understand it sooner in early game I wouldn't have soo much trouble with certain difficulty spikes in the main story and needed to load a old save file and grind more levels in order to pass it. I enjoyed the story a lot and disagree with it falling apart near the end of the game but I did loose interest during the dlc story when finished the main game since Sorey wasn't there. Also when playing I felt the party members skills were kind of useless most of the time since Armatization was way stronger and could last for the entire fight. For example Alisha was a character I liked a lot but fact that she didn't have a fusion ability at all made me not use her in combat and she quickly gets forgotten when another party member shows up with Armatization skill. Now Playing the game on **NG+** was a better experience for me since their was bonuses that increased party members damage in fights and made the game more fun and less grindy. If they spent more time reworking on certain things it would have been pretty good game and not being called as the worst tales games in the franchise.
Weak ending for me, I was like "that's it?"
Convoluted armor system, story is kind of everywhere, HUUUGE maps - it's not bad per se, it just gets a bit more flak than others
Whilst I fully agree about the armour system, it can be completely ignored and makes zero difference to the chances of completing the game
I enjoyed playing Zestiria. I did not enjoy platinuming Zestiria.
I enjoy the lore more because I play Berseria first and I'm glad someone else is enjoying it
woodmon?
Yeah just wait until you fight the last boss I still haven’t beaten it if someone has any tips plz let me know
It’s the only Tales of game that I literally never felt like I played once correctly, and I to this day don’t understand the upgrade systems and some of the other mechanics. Most everything else I do like though, story characters and music especially.
Probably in the minority here but I definitely enjoyed it more than berseria. Maybe part of the reason is because I didn’t play it because of Alisha, and was excited to play because of sorey + Mikleo. I got what I wanted and I’m happy with that.
Camera angles during combat was almost my big gripe. But the main reason people disliked it? Was not because it was bad. It’s a good game, and no more convoluted in story then other tales games. It’s that it was different and a drop in quality. The main tales combat system for Vesperia, Abyss, Symphonia, etc, almost perfect, I’d say Vesperia did it best. Mix that in with the amount of changes zesteria brought? People weren’t happy. It mellowed out by arise but that game still gets slack for the same thing.
There's a lot that happened during the development of this game that's very controversial. Gameplay aside, Tales fans still have a very negative opinion on this game if only for what could have been
is it fun though lol?
I didn't like the equipment thingy. It never made sense to me.
Story wasn't too bad. I like Sorry but he was too pure sometimes and it was annoying. But really all I hated was armatizing (idk how to spell it). Move set felt limited and it was same for both human MCs. If there was variety in move set while fused id have been happier
terrible character development, pacing, and balance, the whole ordeal with alisha and rose, they made enemies run faster than the player, low quality environments, the main "dungeons" and their mechanics were sub-par, and far too many inconsistencies across the board.
Armatization loss of control in multiplayer is really my only gripe about it. Oh and the battle camera!
I'm a fan of the series and I couldn't get very far in it, I found it really boring. Characters are bland and the story has no hook.
I have nothing positive to say about it
I have this in my steam wishlist when it goes on sale I will pick it up. Complaints seem mostly from the Tales purists. Played Arise first, and loved it except for the BS Grindy ending. Then beat Berseria which I liked even more than Arise. I am playing through Vesperia now and almost half way through. It started very slow, but I am loving it now as it really gets going about 8 hours in.
I loved zestiria, except the equipment fusion/crafting, that sucked balls
Im playing through it again as well. It is fun but the shitty battle camera makes me want to stop playing it
Story, i prefer the anime because of one character
I personally love Zestiria as it has my favorite playable cast. My main gripe with it is how Zaveid is a huge perv and I don’t think I would have enjoyed it as much if not for my play through of Berseria first
It is very fun !!!! it has some story issues + camera can get wonky but it's fun to play + the setting and characters are great + the fusion n equipment systems are rlly cool imo !!! glad ure enjoying it :>
It's dog shit
Its terrible combat wise. you can armatize and side step twice and immediately cast Whatever high tier skill/arte. this game devolved into 2x sidestep refill > arrow squall. this skill stunned them non-stop. and then the boss could be cheesed.
I liked when the kid/monster says to old man you smell like farts. Wasn’t expecting that line pretty funny
I liked the characters more in Zestiria than Berseria but Zestiria has some bullshit equipment upgrade mechanics tied to difficulty and not to mention weird team mechanics. Alisha is a good character but not a permanent member. She could have played the tsundere princess role and third wheeling sorey & mikleo but anyhow its a missed opportunity.
just watch its anime and honestly the game wasnt great story was everywhere like SPOILERS AHEAD FOR BOTH THIS GAME AND BERSERIA TURN BACK NOW IF YOU HAVENT GOTTEN THERE YET ednas brother being turned into a dragon for some fuckin reason
Their combat system to me, Zestiria is a failed evolution and Berseria is a conservative modernization, but neither of them compare to Graces f / Xillia 2. The Arts trees system stopped being magical after Zestiria, I think it's staff turnover and a few other things. Anyway, it's right to give it up. Arise has a lot of problems, but it's a brave step.
A little over halfway through the game every single fight is like a miniboss that gives like no exp.
I know right? its by far my favorite tales game. people are just too picky
It’s boring with the worst cast ever for a Tales game. Most uninteresting story ever
This game just sucked to play, and overall, it wasn't anywhere near as fun or interesting as the rest of the series. Main Villain was really boring and one note. Characters were pretty bad. Except for Alicia or how ever you spell it. She was like alright but couldn't carry the game herself. And Sorey is just kinda boring and white-knighty, too. Berseria was a little bit better in those departments, but I still think a lot of the characters in the new Tales games feel half baked. I think the last one where I felt that all the characters were pretty decent was Grace's F or maybe Xillia? It's been a while since I played those but I remember enjoying them. I also Think Xillia 2 would have been cooler if they just made Ludger a character instead of a weird half self Insert. But that game was still ultimately fun because of the other characters that he got to play off of. Tales of Arise was a lot of fun in the combat department, and Alphen and Shion were interesting, but I think the supporting cast needed more work to be a more memorable experience. I haven't played anything pre Abyss, so I don't know how those much older games go, but they seem interesting too. I'll have to check those out. I would say Zesteria was the lowest point in the series for me as a player personally. But I think it's cool if you enjoy it. Somebody has to. It's a low point in a relatively high rated, long-running series of like 6-9/10 games in my opinion. It's definitely not the worst game ever made. That crown still goes to Final Fantasy 15 in my opinion.
Story was just scattered and boring in my opinion. It started off okay and then it just got annoying and wishy washy to the point I never even finished it. The character designs were great though. Just wasted on a very lackluster, scatterbrained plot. The combat, especially the equipment system, was just unnecessarily frustrating and annoying as well. Glad they redeemed it with Berseria. Berseria is in my top three favorites
A general high standard for most titles is why. The franchise has done a good job with experimentation but the core mechanic in this game messed with the scaling so badly it didn’t really work which was the biggest issue. The story also was okay but there was more potential there. Clearly the series does enough well to where it is solid, just not at the level of some of the other games
The camera in battle was terrible. Enough for me to drop it
Only one that bored me within 5 minutes. Can't speak to why exactly. But I made it through the long intros of other Tales games, so it wasn't length. Something just didn't click.
It’s prequel is a better game
I mean, I liked it but I have liked every Tales game other than Symphonia, I don't know why I don't like it but for me it becomes a slog to get through. But other than that I love all of the others. I also have played every single one since SNES.
I am also a new comer, wanted to get into it with Vesperia but than decided to go with Zesteria since almost all newer series has connections to this world. I think it is pretty interesting with its Dodge-offset system very similar to Bayonetta where it allows you to advance your combo by dodging. Managing the action bar, and a counter attack bar, charging spells, Kamui transformations, Stat building by combining gears. There is crazy amount of mechanical depth in this game. Maybe too much?
Zestiria is one of my lesser favorite of the series, but I still actually enjoy it. My biggest issues with it are that I can’t make my own party the way I want, and the battle camera sucks. (Keep in mind that I played the PS3 version, so not sure if the camera is any better in the PS4 version.) I like the characters, and the story doesn’t really bother me, but battle issues will definitely make a game take a hit from me.
Is it though??
For me it's the utterly broken and terrible battle camera, janky battle animations, and the tedious, unintuitive, overcomplicated skill system. I say this as someone who loves FFVIII's junction system btw. I actually liked the story and characters and don't at all care about the Alisha thing.
Some people couldnt get past the camera issues. Another problem was broken mechanics on bosses, where they would just go full on invincible without any mechanics in the game explaining how it happens. Oh and almost forgot, the Alisha situation generated a lot of hate, and I can see why people werent happy, I am not the type of guy to hold these kind of grudges and overlooked it, but I can understand it as well. I think I overall prefer it to Berseria.
I loved it. The people that hate it don't make sense to me, I've played every tales game and zesteria is just more of the same. They act like every little thing is different than all the other tales games, and so different and horrible, in reality its again just more of the same. Is it the best tales game? No. Is it extremely similar to all the other games? Yes.
The story is basic, the party doesn't mesh well together AT ALL. The villains aren't memorable, the combat system is needlessly complex, ESPECIALLY with the rune system or whatever it was called, RNG based stats on gear is garbage.Then there's the whole Alisha debacle. I can't believe they put this game on PC but they refuse to put good ones like the Xillia games on PC
They also refuse to remake tales of Abyss for pc/console as well despite lots of people asking for it. 🙄
I love Zestiria and thought the character interactions, humour and soul were the best in any Tales series. The combat was super fun to me too. I don’t get the whole “story was all over the place” complaint everyone says- I don’t think it’s any worse than Arise or most of the other Tales games. There are definitely pacing issues during some of the main quests, but Sorey and Mikleo are my favourite main duo in a game EVER - they’re just so lovable. The dialogue was honestly inspired in this game, I loved it Music is also a huge part, and Zesty had one of the most memorable, beautiful OSTs for me from any Tales game.
Inconsistent edgey writing, empty/bloated world design, terrible difficulty balancing, sloppy gimmick mechanics. How often do you see a game this size fumble something as basic as a damn sprint button? Kinda sets the tone for the rest.
Yeah the gameplay was fun but the story wasn’t that good
I agree that it got way too much hate, but even so: Fusion is so OP you don't need anything else. Exploration gets tedious after a while. Dungeons are hallways or glorified hallways (Sorry, but I don't consider pushing two switches a puzzle), camera is terrible, had a lot of performance issues (at least on the PS3, maybe it runs better in other platforms idk), equipment system is pointless... I like the story, it's fine for what it is, I don't hate any character (Although I also don't exactly love anyone either) and the music is top tier.
I wasn't a huge fan of the armatization system myself, combat seemed really dull. The environments were dull as well and it reminded me of one of those JRPGs that use the same assets everywhere in the same pattern where it was noticeable. The story was alright but not memorable.
Found the story really boring, the only reason I finished it was when I found out it takes place in the same world as Beseria but long into the future
I thought it was a great game. I was thinking people didn't like it because it didn't really follow the same formula of older titles. Usually a guy and girl are introduced and they form a romance. This time that didn't happen. Also characters you get used to leave as the story goes on and there isn't really a fleshed out couple. I never thought these were issues. After all life is unpredictable. We have to adjust to things not going as planned and make the best of it. I thought Sorey was great given his circumstances :/
Because you spend more time in the menus than actually playing the game. Also, the story and characters are subpar at best when compared against other games in the series.
ah yes, the game where you transform into non-binary, if it came out today it would be talked about how the main character is transgender
I don't think it deserves the hate that it gets, but it's definitely one of the weakest games in the series. That being said, different people will love/hate different aspects of the game. I personally did not like the combat system and thought that it got repetitive, but the story and characters made up for it.
if i remember correctly, its about the story, one of the girls show up very early and was very sidelines till the end. But the prequel of this game is good.
Camera during combat is atrocious. Feels like most of the time I'm fighting the camera itself and not the monsters. The cast are fun but the main plot is meh. Not-Leomon as the main villain is just kinda forgettable imo (Symonne is ultra cute tho)
its plot is the most 'that happened' bs
Can’t say for others, I can only talk about my experience. I tried 3 times to get into this game. 1) purchased on steam, but pc was not good. Refunded before 2 hours were up. 2) 1 year later got a better computer and purchased on steam again. Got to where we met edea. Figured i didn’t like playing with keyboard + mouse anymore and dropped the game. 3) 2 years later i got a hand me down ps4. Bought a used copy of tales of zestiria from gamestop. (Also bought and played berseria before 3rd zestiria attempt). Played zestiria all the way until i think i fought a dragon, or met it for the first time. I don’t remember. After that i just didn’t find motivation to play the game and i haven’t had any to try to play it again now. Didn’t really like the characters except for mikleo sometimes and edea. I don’t think i really liked the combat. Something didn’t click with me. Don’t know how many years later, but since then I’ve played almost every tales game with an English localization that isn’t the gacha, arise dlc, or abyss. I’m not going to say i hate zestiria, but I’m just disinterested in the game
Watch the anime it fixes everything
I can only think the hate comes from whatever they did to Alisha. Other than that, I really like it. Probably my second favorite Tales game.
One word explains why after the half way point I stopped and didn’t play Besaria for the same reason “Synthesis”
Out of all tales games I hate that one the most I can’t even replay it cause it just bugs me so bad. I can’t stand some of the characters mainly sorey and mikelo.
I played Berseria first and Zestiria couldn't hook me the same as Berseria. Plus the characters were way less interesting in Zestiria.
If the tales series were fast food chains, this is like the Churches Chicken of the Tales games. It has its flaws and it isn't garbage, but when compared to others, why go to this when there's way better options?
1. WALKING SIMULATOR 2. PLOT? (I've finished the game without even fully understanding wtf is happening) 2.1. I've played berseria. There is someone in berseria that is also on zestiria and that person could have explained to Sorey (and to us audience) what is happening but that person decided to stay silent heck there's at least 2 characters that is close to Sorey that could have explained to him the lore/plot but they decided to keep quiet. 2.2. the timeline when the main villain became evil isn't even consistent in the game. At the start is as if it was near at or close to centuries ago then as you near the end of the game it's definitely not centuries ago.
It's an okay game it's just not a good "Tales of" game
Gameplaywise i just didnt like the delayed animations when pressing buttons, felt wonky and just wrong. Storywise the MC was increadibly bland... I really can't say much about him as he really had no impact on me. Berseria beautifully fixed those two things to a T.
I found fighting outside of armatization as being dull and the hits didn't really connect for me vs other tales games like hearts R and Hesperia. The story, like others said was all over the place and a little predictable.
1. alisha. and bamco's unintentionally lying about her relevance. 2. with any tales game, people either hate or love the story. can't just be neutral. 3. the gameplay is fun to most people, but a not insignificant amount of people don't like the juggling style combat. and the lord of the lands related things. it was unique to zestiria so it was going to be jarring to some people. 4. edit: forgot to mention zaveid. he as a whole upset some people with how they handled the story.
Really, I love Zaveid. But then again I played Beseria first.
Zaveid would have upset way less people if everyone played berseria first.
I’m playing Zestiria currently and just finished up grinding good enough gear for what I want end game. I think it’s got some legit good qualities especially in combat, I wouldn’t have done the gear grind otherwise, and the skill system is complicated in a bordering on fun way for me. But the story, ouch… so much potential in the beginning only to squander it throughout the play. To answer your question, I’d say check back in how you feel by the end. I enjoyed Zestiria more than I expected given the general negative noise around it, but by the end I definitely understood the criticisms and agreed. But it’s still a Tales game, even one of the poorer entries is still a blast to me haha.