Opinion: It was right for Tales of Zestiria’s Alisha to leave the party

Warning! Spoilers Ahead!

“Tales of Zestiria” may have been released worldwide in late October, but Japan had the game ever since this past January. At the time of release, the game had been surrounded with controversy over how the developers handled the character Alisha Diphda. She was one of the first characters shown to the public, causing many to assume she would be the female lead, and thus accompany the protagonist, Sorey, to the end of the game.  Indeed, she is introduced early on and give Sorey the motivation to go out into the world. But then she leaves the party less than a quarter of the way through. This lead some people to accuse the publisher, Namco Bandai, of false advertising. It did not help that she is seemingly replaced by another character named Rose. Now that I have played the game for myself, I feel compelled to weigh in on the matter. I actually believe that making Alisha a temporary party member was the right thing to do.

First, we have to look at why she left in the first place. Sorey making Alisha his Squire seemed like a good idea at the time. This allowed her to interact with the Seraphim, who made up the rest of the party at the time, and fight off the Hellions. Later, we find out she is not powerful enough, so she ends up taking a toll on Sorey. This is foreshadowed by a brief first-person view showing his vision blurring. This comes to a head when Sorey goes blind in one eye, leaving him unable to stop a surprise attack that seriously wounds Alisha. After hearing this, Alisha decides to stay behind and focus on doing what she can as a princess and a knight.

About an hour of playtime later, Rose shows up and proves to be a much stronger Squire. This means she does not affect Sorey, and can even armatize, or fuse, with the Seraphim, which is thought to be something only a Shepherd, such as Sorey, can do. Rose then stays with Sorey for the rest of the game.

From a story perspective, I think Alisha’s situation can be compared to someone underperforming at their job. If you fail to meet expectations and cause problems in the workplace, you are going to get fired. However, Alisha willingly left the party, so it is not like she was cast aside. Even though she is no longer playable, she still plays a big role in the story as a diplomat trying to avert war.

From a gameplay perspective, Rose is superior to Alisha by virtue of being able to armatize, while Alisha cannot. A lot of the tougher battles are extremely difficult to win without the use of armatization. When Alisha is with the party, she will have to do without the powerful attacks and healing spells that this state offers.

That’s not to say this was handled perfectly. I still think there could have been a good story arc involving Alisha at least becoming powerful enough to not burden Sorey. Also, the game does a poor job of explaining how Rose, the leader of an assassins’ guild, is able to be as powerful as a Shepherd, who is supposed to be pure of heart.

While there is a DLC scenario starring Alisha, it really shows just how weak she is compared to Rose. Furthermore, not all of the main game’s party members are available, meaning you do not have as many elements to work with. It does not help that there are a lot of enemies that resist the elements your party members specialize in. Storywise, it is an epilogue, and does not give any essential plot points. Therefore, unless you really love Alisha, it is not worth your time and money.

At the end of the day, Alisha’s departure from the party was for the best. Do you agree? Feel free to discuss this in the comments.