Rating: 7.5/10
Systems: Playstation 3, Playstation 4, PC
ESRB: T
Genre: Role-Playing Game
Number of Players: 1-4 local multiplayer
The “Tales” series has been one of the JRPG long-runners, but it has not been as visible outside of Japan, having been in the shadow of “Final Fantasy.” However, recent years have seen success with “Tales of Graces f,” “Tales of Xillia” and “Tales of Xillia 2.” The most recent game in the series, “Tales of Zestiria,” has some rough spots but it still offers a good time.
The story revolves around Sorey, a “pure” young man who has been raised among a race of demigods known as the Seraphim and has lived a sheltered life away from the outside world. When a knight named Alisha stumbles upon his home and is followed by monsters known as Hellions, Sorey must leave the familiar scenery in order to become the legendary Shepard and save the world from these beasts. This story would sound familiar to anyone who has experienced any kind of fiction, but like other games in the “Tales” series, things are quickly deconstructed. Most notably, the game takes a shot at the concept of purity by showing how easily someone who is pure can be corrupted and that “pure” does not necessarily mean “good.”
“Zestiria’s” world is made up of wide open scenery with towns and dungeons scattered across the landscape. While the player is restricted to a single continent, there is a lot to see, although most of the landscapes are fields, caves and ruins. Still, you are given a set of four elementally-based abilities to get past obstacles, giving the world more interactivity than the average JRPG, with the dungeons in particular giving you several opportunities to do so. For example, you could use fire to melt ice, wind to dash across gaps or through certain walls, a bubble to sneak past sentries, or a fist empowered by the earth to smash through boulders. They can even be used to begin battles with a preemptive strike.
Battles in the “Tales” series are in real time, with up to four active party members taking engaging the enemy. Zestiria is no exception, but it adds a little rock-paper-scissers aspect to the fights beyond the usual elemental weaknesses. Here, abilities, known as artes, are divided into three types. Martial artes are quick physical attacks that can interrupt seraphic artes or spells. Seraphic artes, in turn take time to cast, but the caster will not flinch from hidden artes, or special physical attacks which instead shorten the casting time. Finally, hidden artes are slower than martial artes, but will win out in a clash between the two. Keeping this in mind is critical to success. Furthermore, some of the human characters can fuse with one of their Seraph allies to get more powerful attacks, but sacrifice their martial artes, for magic, keeping this mechanic from becoming an instant win technique.
However, some of the later enemies will not stagger even if you hit them with the correct attack, or even become invulnerable for a short time without warning. This can lead to some cheap deaths. The camera during battles can also rotate in weird ways, keeping you from seeing everything. This is particularly prevalent in the Playstation 3 version of the game, while the Playstation 4 and PC versions do not have this problem. Another issue with the battle system is that when there is only one human in the party, you are restricted to two active party members, even if more than one seraph is with you. When in battle, the AI-controlled characters are not as smart as in past “Tales” games. Unless you customize their behavior beforehand, your allies will rush in without regard to their health and potentially end up in critical condition or get killed. They also tend to focus more on fighting and neglect party members in need of healing. Fortunately, this problem can be mitigated by spending time customizing battle strategies or having friends control the other characters.
Another hang up of the battle system is that you cannot restore health at all if you have any status ailments such as poison or paralysis. While this would be understandable if this were limited to one particular ailment, this makes ailments even more annoying than usual. The lack of universal ailment removal or revival spells compound the issue, as well as being limited to carrying only 15 of each consumable item. This includes Panacea Bottles to remove all ailments and provide temporary immunity against them, and Life Bottle for revival. Fortunately, humans can quickly be revived by fusion and seraphim by switching them out of battle.
One thing that I cannot complain about is the acquisition and uses of loot. Enemies nearly always drop weapons or armor when defeated. If you have a surplus of a particular piece of equipment, you can fuse them together to boost their stats and carry over passive skills. Each piece of equipment can have up to four skills attached to it with the first skill on the list being locked to all specimens of that equipment. Equiping different combinations can unlock new skills that can turn the tide of battle. When fusing equipment, skills can either be carried from the original items to the new one, or combine to create a new skill. This gives battles a lot of depth a lot of freedom to customize your characters.
Outside of battle, some other problems rear their heads. While there is a fast travel system to move between save points, it costs in-game currency to do so, with the rate rising as you progress through the game. Compare this to “Tales of Xillia,” in which you could fast travel to the beginning of any given location, no matter where you are, for free. Also, the PS3 version has some frame rate issues when viewing things from a distance.
Despite these flaws, the story, battle system and equipment systems will hooked you to the very end. While not up to the standards of past “Tales” games,”Tales of Zestiria” is worth a look if you like JRPGs.
Gentleman Gamer 
Good Review
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