Review cover Tales of Zestiria (PlayStation 4)
Official GBAtemp Review

Product Information:

  • Release Date (NA): October 20, 2015
  • Release Date (EU): October 16, 2015
  • Release Date (JP): January 22, 2015
  • Publisher: Bandai Namco
  • Developer: Bandai Namco Studios
  • Genres: JRPG
  • Also For: Computer, PlayStation 3

Game Features:

Single player
Local Multiplayer
Online Multiplayer
Co-operative
I hope you’re ready for the next entry in Bandai Namco’s acclaimed Tales of series! This is Tales of Zestiria on PS4! Thank you to Bandai Namco for providing GBAtemp with a review copy.

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Sorey’s Story [Say that five times fast]

Tales of Zestiria places you in the role of Sorey, your typical chosen one hero archetype who is tasked with uniting the human race with the spirit world before both of their worlds fall apart at the seams. It’s your average adventure story but hey, it’s all about the execution right?

Along the way you will be met with various allies and adversaries that will help or oppose you in your quest. The characters all have their own quirks and charms about them but nothing that really stands out. The setting and story of Zestiria sets a very lackadaisical precedent from the start, and happens to carry through most of the game. There are no big shocks or truly over the top engaging moments to Zestiria’s story and at times it makes it hard to go on.

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Funnily enough, earlier advertisements in Japan focused more on the character Alisha, who is also a rather interesting character, ended up getting way less screen time than I was made to believe. In fact, she ended up being sold as a DLC side story, which quite frankly was a silly decision on the creators’ part. Fortunately you can get this DLC for free on both PC and PS3/PS4 by heading to either Bandai Namco’s website or by downloading it from the PlayStation store. The DLC does end up taking place after the main game, so I would advise holding off on looking up anything about it if you still plan on experiencing the story.

Gameplay and Battle System – A work of Arte

Like many RPG’s, Zestiria has its’ fair share of exploration, but the execution of it is rather hit and miss. There are broad open environments that can be empty and boring and have you stuck roaming them for minutes agonizing to get to your next objective, or you have the overtly linear dungeons that make things a walk in the park as far as finding your objective goes.

To be fair to the game, it does make dungeons much easier to complete and brings down the lost and walking in circles aspect a bit, and there’s plenty of bonus treasures and collectibles to find within the tight spaces. Just be aware that boring layouts set in lackluster themes may be enough to make you lose interest.

As always the highlight of this Tales of game is its battle system. Taking an even bigger action oriented approach to and adding some elemental and spiritual flair to the mix, the possibilities increase dramatically.

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You’ll start off the game with a basic 4-hit combo moveset that relies on Spirit Chain Energy to perform attacks. Draining your SC quickly by button mashing however, will leave you vulnerable to attack, and enemies on harder difficulties will punish you for this. You’ll have to monitor your SC gauge and learn when to guard and when to move away from combat, allowing it to recharge faster and letting you get the most out of fighting. The best part is, these limitations can apply to your enemies as well, so paying attention to your enemies’ attack patterns can show you the perfect time to wreak havoc on them.

Utilizing Seraphim, spirits if you will, can either have them fight for you as regular party members that utilize elemental based attacks, or have them combine with other human characters in order to increase HP and utilize new combos.

The new options make the game more interesting and it allows you to play around with a lot of different strategies. Your combos are key to increasing damage output, so finding ways to increase them is always a good thing. The implementations of elemental weaknesses also allow you to strategize the best ways of defeating enemies, and how to defend against them.

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And as always for the Tales of franchise, you have the option of setting different strategies for your AI to use including auto-guarding and going berserk with all-out attacks. There are also plenty of meta-abilities such as treasure-finding to help make your search for cool loot even easier with AI notifications. All in all, combat feels great this time around and the multitude of options can be the saving grace for this title.

How does it look and sound?

Zestiria’s art style is certainly charming, but it has its' rough patches as well. The graphics in environmental areas can be a bit jagged and washed out, and it looks somewhat empty with colors thrown in to offset the mid-tier environments. The overall design and aesthetic is a plus, I just wish it looked cleaner and even more vibrant both in and outside of combat. 

The sound of the game is very pretty however, and has dual audio included for those of you that tend to prefer Japanese voices with subtitles over English voice acting. The skits, cut scenes, and in-game audio are all voiced, so no awkward mouth movement skits with no physical dialogue.

Verdict

What We Liked ...
  • Great Battle System
  • Good sound design
What We Didn't Like ...
  • Lacking story
  • Visually washed out
7
Gameplay
Gameplay was easily the highlight of this title, notably for its battle system. While the open world left more to be desired it was a welcome inclusion and I hope to see it utilized even better in the future.
5
Presentation
Zestiria's presentation lacked a lot of the things that make Tales of such an interesting franchise. I feel like this entry dropped the ball in regards to its story presentation.
6
Lasting Appeal
If you can find the will to keep playing through the rather lackluster story, Zestiria will hold its appeal for you. Otherwise you may find you dragging yourself along to finish the game.
6
out of 10

Overall

Zestiria does some interesting things with its battle systems but really falls short in terms of story telling and artistic presentation. Although I feel this title would make for a better entry point into the Tales of franchise, it hardly feels like one of the more stellar games in the series. Give it a shot if you're a die-hard fan, but take caution if you're new to the Tales of games.
Eh, I thought Dezel in particular stood out, but they have their quirks all of them. But Tales have never really been that great with story as much as they have with main character interactions (though they did drop the ball here a bit)

If I may, the "4-hit combo" is really just that you have 4 actions you can take before your character pauses; Whether that be using the Martial/hidden artes or Hidden/Seraphic artes, or frustratingly enough, side stepping (where most of your damage reduction for harder mode comes from because guarding stops working the further you get) that can be interchangeably used (and why side stepping is so frustrating in combination with weakness exploitation here as opposed to say; Graces F).

Strategy menu has been nerfed fairly badly and there's a massive lack of option now.

Finally, Chavo, I am simply APPALLED that you did not bring up the GRADE shop for Lasting Appeal. Basically the New Game + allows you to go through a new playthrough with a myriad of options such as increased health (which you do not get much in this game) or increased EXP or keeping weapons or items from prior playthrough (and most prominently keep Lord of the Land perks which were introduced here).

Edit: Also should point out that Alisha story DLC is only free til November 19th
Edit 2: and almost all story segments (ones that take place "in battle" excluded) can be skipped too so >_> it makes secondary playthroughs quicker and more enjoyable.
 
Finally, Chavo, I am simply APPALLED that you did not bring up the GRADE shop for Lasting Appeal. Basically the New Game + allows you to go through a new playthrough with a myriad of options such as increased health (which you do not get much in this game) or increased EXP or keeping weapons or items from prior playthrough (and most prominently keep Lord of the Land perks which were introduced here).
If those are the best features of the "New game+" system, then that's probably why he didn't mention it.
 
If those are the best features of the "New game+" system, then that's probably why he didn't mention it.
Ouch, yeah, I probably brought up lamer stuff than I could have :/ I was thinking in terms of secondary playthrough practicality.

How about this then:
Inherit battle acts from previous playthroughs which is where most of the gameplay is spiced up from, inherit arte usage which slowly gave them further gameplay quirks, or even double damage for both you and the enemy. These really do spice up further playthroughs.
Also has options to make the rather underplayed equipment fusion system more usable.

And after all, it's been a staple of the series.
 
To be fair, how may reviewers ever mention what's in new game plus unless the game is like 5 hours long? I'd imagine the majority of gamers come to a JRPG for the initial playthrough, not what might or may not come in a new game plus mode. With that said though don't all Tales games have a new game plus? Or at least the majority of them?
Also isn't this a PS3 port? Seems like minimal effort went into the nextgen versions.
 
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Ouch, yeah, I probably brought up lamer stuff than I could have :/ I was thinking in terms of secondary playthrough practicality.

How about this then:
Inherit battle acts from previous playthroughs which is where most of the gameplay is spiced up from, inherit arte usage which slowly gave them further gameplay quirks, or even double damage for both you and the enemy. These really do spice up further playthroughs.
Also has options to make the rather underplayed equipment fusion system more usable.

And after all, it's been a staple of the series.
Like T-hug said, most people aren't even interested in NG+, and the features you mentioned just sound like stuff they should've implemented in the base game. I imagine a lot of players are like me in that they're only interested in NG+ if there's additional content (more than just one secret boss) or if it's a game with multiple routes that don't just branch at the very end of the game. Sure, being able to turn on certain gameplay features may change the way it's played and offer lasting appeal, but I doubt a lot of people will put an additional 30-50 hours into a playthrough just for extra skills and double damage taken/received.
 
To be fair, how may reviewers ever mention what's in new game plus unless the game is like 5 hours long? I'd imagine the majority of gamers come to a JRPG for the initial playthrough, not what might or may not come in a new game plus mode.
Like T-hug said, most people aren't even interested in NG+, and the features you mentioned just sound like stuff they should've implemented in the base game. I imagine a lot of players are like me in that they're only interested in NG+ if there's additional content (more than just one secret boss) or if it's a game with multiple routes that don't just branch at the very end of the game. Sure, being able to turn on certain gameplay features may change the way it's played and offer lasting appeal, but I doubt a lot of people will put an additional 30-50 hours into a playthrough just for extra skills and double damage taken/received.
That's fair enough. I think in regards to this series my mentality is "push the gameplay mechanics to their fullest" but I'm in no way against people playing their own way. A passing comment about a feature, should it exist however, strikes me as something worthwhile including, regardless of if people use it or not.
With that said though don't all Tales games have a new game plus? Or at least the majority of them?
Also isn't this a PS3 port? Seems like minimal effort went into the nextgen versions.
Since Symphonia (localized anyways, otherwise since Tales of Destiny 2) but not all games have handled it the same way. This one handles it in a peculiar way in fact.
and yeah, PS3 port (that's localized too). Character textures, lighting, some soreyly need anti aliasing (though still weak) further draw distence, depth of field.

Edit: while we're on the topic of replayability and people playing how they want, game also has 6 difficulty settings (the last two are unlocked by playing on the highest available difficulty) and these can be changed any time.
 
I really like the game and enjoy it. It is the best tales game since graces. They improved the tales series. I would give a 8.
 
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I think the hardest part of reviewing games like these is the fact that there are so many tangents and so many things that I could go on and on about about very minimal details of the battle system or very minute things about the game that I wouldn't want to bog down the reader with details that don't really affect their main enjoyment of the game.

Obviously the diehard fans will be able to break down everything about the game systems that I didn't mention in the review but for anyone simply wanting to know interesting things about the game and the mechanics of the game I try to explain it in a much more accessible way.
 
I would give this a 7/10

I agree the story is pretty lackluster but I'm used to JRPG cliches by now.
The overall story for this game is
A great evil has awoken once again and the evil miasma Malevolence has spread throughout the land and Arthur Pendrago--I mean Sorey, the Shepard, pulls out the holy sword and smites evil.
I don't particularly care about the Alisha/Rose debacle.

As for battle system, I liked Graces and Xillia more. Armitization is like Xillia 2's Chromatus except more spammable, I found it too overpowering.

Music wasn't bad in this. Go Shiina has always been good, Sakuraba is okay.
 
Hmm... Plot fallacies, huh? Tbh, I can never properly gauge that until I actually play the game. Sometimes a reviewer will say a game has a bad plot, but I'll end up loving it. Anyways, I'm eyeballing this game on Steam right now. I think I'll add it to my wishlist and just wait until a sale comes along. If I can get it for a low enough price, I'll go for it. I'm a pretty big fan of the Tales series, and I hope this game still has it's fair share of charm.

Anyways, I'm really excited for Tales of Symphonia on PC, which is coming out next year. Now that will be something to look forward to!
 
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Honestly, (this being the first review I've looked at since coming back to GBAtemp) I'm surprised they gave you guys review copies considering the sites purpose and whatnot. Lol

Either way, the score is lower than I expected, but gave some insight. I'll see if I agree in a few days I suppose. <3
 
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Got this game on Steam, and one thing that truly irritates me, is the fact that a lot of animations seems very stiff. To be fair, I'm only about 2 hours in, but it really annoys me. Story dlc is a bit weird for steam, you also need to go to the site. It will be free until the 19th of November, and after that it'll cost money.

Also, you have noted that this game doesn't support co-op, while it actually does. You can play with another controller, and you can have the other person control another party member when in battle. That's the only way of multiplayer though, so not sure if it should be mentioned specifically.
 
20 years in the making... Does this mean the maker of the Tales series is who really created Hat-n-Clogs? I love the classic Tales series up to Symphonia, but sadly it looks like they are joining the ranks of NFS, AC, Sports games, etc.
 
Got this game on Steam, and one thing that truly irritates me, is the fact that a lot of animations seems very stiff. To be fair, I'm only about 2 hours in, but it really annoys me. Story dlc is a bit weird for steam, you also need to go to the site. It will be free until the 19th of November, and after that it'll cost money.

Also, you have noted that this game doesn't support co-op, while it actually does. You can play with another controller, and you can have the other person control another party member when in battle. That's the only way of multiplayer though, so not sure if it should be mentioned specifically.
Yeah, when the camera is zoomed way out during a battle or when there's a lot going on, it seems like the frame rate of the ANIMATIONS (not the game) are cut in half. Me and my friend have noticed this when we played it the other day.

Also, the Tales series is kinda known for 'Player 1 in the Field does everything while Players 2 and 3 and 4 can join in when in battle'. But I don't expect you to know that if this is your first roundabout.

My biggest issue with the game is the camera in battles when you're in SMALL areas. It literally is so bad that me and my friend had to fight a boss with the camera shoved up the guys ass and we just had to guess what we were doing. UGH.
 
Review cover
Product Information:
  • Release Date (NA): October 20, 2015
  • Release Date (EU): October 16, 2015
  • Release Date (JP): January 22, 2015
  • Publisher: Bandai Namco
  • Developer: Bandai Namco Studios
  • Genres: JRPG
  • Also For: Computer, PlayStation 3
Game Features:
Single player
Local Multiplayer
Online Multiplayer
Co-operative

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