Tales of Zestiria

From my experience, the Tales series has always straddled the line between great [Tales of the Abyss], good [Tales of Symphonia, Tales of Vesperia], and not good at all [Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World]. Over the course of 20 years, there have been a lot of main series entries, but I’ll admit that I haven’t played one since 2008’s Tales of Vesperia. I went to into Tales of Zestiria with somewhat low expectations, but I definitely came out satisfied; even if the final product doesn’t do enough to differentiate itself from other iterations.

Teaming up with developer tri-Crescendo, makers of the highly original Eternal Sonata, Bandai Namco began development on Tales of Zestiria with the intent of producing a suitable product for the series’ 20th anniversary. Tales of Phantasia, the original game in the series released on the SNES back in 1995, was the framework for Zestiria’s core design. As a result, the team wanted to alter the tone and morals behind recent narratives, trading themes of dark justice for one of hope and zest. Yes, that is where the title comes from. Yes, it is in fact absolutely dumb. The game would in fact be released in time to accommodate for the anniversary, outputting in Japan in January 2015 and stateside later that October.

Here we have Glenwood, a somewhat underwhelming name for the entire grassy continent that composes the setting of Zestiria. Politically split is the monarchy of the Hyland Kingdom and the Rolance Empire, essentially representing two ideally polar countries. Amongst the people within these distant lands are the Seraphim, a race of supernatural beings that cannot be seen by humans with the exception of those without specific malevolence. Malevolence invests this world, a ideologically vessel that represents the absolute negative emotions and intents of people, surfacing in the form of fictional Hellions. Our journey is based around curing this influence from the fiction’s world, and only a select few can accomplish it, which is where our story begins.

Adventure-seeking Sorey serves as the game’s protagonist, a human who was uniquely brought up and raised by a collection of Seraphim. After coming across another human named Alisha in nearby ruins with his elemental friend Mikleo, they decide to escort her back to the royal city of Elysia; because of course, she’s a princess. However, once they arrive in the city, Sorey finds himself in a situation that grants him the power to fight hellions, gifted from a fire Seraph named Laliah. Now officially deemed a heroic title of ‘Shepard,’ he begins his trek along with other Seraphim to purify the Hellions and search for the main source of the malevolence that plagues the land; otherwise known as the "Lord of Calamity.” Perhaps Zestiria’s largest issue of all is that the plot itself is nothing to write home about. Its moral message is blatantly obvious, and the dialogue has no subtlety. That said, there were some completely awesome set-pieces within the narrative, it’s just the literal synopsis doesn’t set itself apart from other JRPGs. It should also be noted that Alisha, initially presented and marketed to a main character, completely vanishes about five hours in. She doesn’t re-enter your party at any time, and when she arrives within the plot points yet again, it’s incredibly brief. Why? Because DLC! Now, it is free for certain duration, but this is nearing unacceptable territory.

Ever since Tales of the Abyss, the Tales franchise has taken on the form of an action role-playing game within a three-dimensional circle that you can freely roam around within battle. Attacks are split between typical physical strikes and arts, which a selection of special techniques dictated by the dedicated button and a direction on the analog stick. However, unique to Zestiria is a special Armatization system, that lets you morph yourself with a fellow Seraph within your party. You gain additional health along with other moves that are unique to specific Armatization between specific party members. This system is new and engaging for the Tales series, and is easily the best defining attribute of the game. Commonplace enemies and bosses have instances of weaknesses that will be dependent on the select Armatization between your allies, making it necessary for you to use each party member throughout your playthrough. Based off what I’ve experienced, blocking is also a necessity here, as the damage you receive normally in this game can account for massive amounts. As a result, Zestiria is easily hardest in the franchise that I’ve played, and the blocking juxtaposed with Armatization adds for an intriguing challenge and a required strategic element.

While the combat is as good as it’s ever been, the other parts of the game I can’t defend in the same light. Dungeons are extremely linear, with puzzles that are either way too easy or frustratingly monotonous (I’m looking at you water temple). I’ll admit, I like the alternation to the world map, as well as the thoughtful fast travel implementation, but some of things appear to just be pointless. The Chrono Trigger-esque battle sequencer is cool, but for some reason, swinging your sword preemptively at an enemy does nothing to the encounter. Nothing occurs when the enemy sneaks up on you either. At first I thought this was a glitch with the PC version or something, as this was a series staple from as far back as I can remember, but the problem never changed, which leaves me to believe that it was simply left out for a reason I can’t say. All that said, I have to add in that Zestiria got off to a very slow start, gameplay-wise. Honestly, the first ten hours were purely hard to get through, which lead me to question my purchase at first. Now, I know this is often dismissed as a rather lame excuse for other JRPGs, but believe me, this one truly picks up once you get all your party members together and forms of specific strategy begin to instantiate.

Do not mistake Tales of Zestiria’s technical quality; this is a PS3 game simply ported up a generation. While I generally like to stand by my usual notion that a great art style can be superior to a photo-realism of the age, I can’t necessarily say I think the art direction here is anything to write home about. It doesn’t look bad, it’s fine, but I think Tales of Vesperia, a 2008 game, is clearly the more visually appealing game with its cel-shading. As far as the audio direction goes, the music is fairly engaging and a surprise stand-out element, even if it’s sometimes too overblown within certain settings. Voice acting on the other hand, is spotty. Characters like Rose present their personalities through the energy in their voice, while others just appear bored. Also in the audio department, it’s worth noting that the PC version has a few rough spots. The game itself plays fine, so there’s really no reason to not get that version if you can, but this edition has a glitch with its sound output. If you switch between headphones and speakers whilst in the middle of playing, you’ll completely lose sound altogether. Closing and relaunching is the only way to fix it, which sucks, but it could definitely be worse. The only other issue I had with the PC version was an excessive amount of screen-tearing when I first launched it on the day of release. This was immediately solved through turning on vertical synchronization, but just that in mind if you plan on getting it on PC (which I still recommend).

Tales of Zestiria is a good game and I enjoyed it, but I don’t think it’ll have legs for attracting any sort of new audience. If you’ve enjoyed Tales games in the past, this will be no exception; it’s probably somewhere in the middle quality-wise, but it’s generally an entertaining ride. If you’ve never been into JRPGs before, this will not convince you otherwise. The genre’s typical cheesiness can still be found here, and its presentation does not deviate from what’s been seen in the franchise’s past. However, if you want to get into a Tales game, I don’t think this is where you should start, as I still feel Tales of the Abyss is the best entry. Given you can find a copy of the PS2 game, I highly recommend it. I’m not going to tell you to stop what you’re doing right now and purchase Tales of Zestiria, but if you’re interested at all, you probably won’t be disappointed.