February 1, 2023

Tales of Zestiria Review: Some Fine Lipstick On That Pig

NOTE: The images used in this article are promotional pieces from the developer.

 

 

 

Sorey, a young man blessed with the ability to see "Seraphs" (a type of spirit, also called Malakim), enters into a pact with a Seraph of fire, marking him as the "Shepherd". The Shepherd acts as a stabilizing force in the world, purifying "Hellions", a type of demon born from malicious desires. While cleansing the continent of Glenwood, Sorey and his companions search for the main source of the malevolence plaguing the land, an individual known as the "Lord of Calamity".

Zesteria has a lot of baffling design and narrative decisions. The first few hours are spent without a driving force (no purpose) in the company of your only human companion (Alisha), who is later replaced with a different companion (Rose) for seemingly no good reason. The player is then sent through a long series of barren dungeons. What bothered me the most about Zesteria's story was the straightforwardness and lack of mystery. From the very beginning you know that Sorey is the Shepard destined to save the world. You know who your companions will be based on their elements, and you even know who the final boss is. Significant events unfold, but they don't build up to it. There is no emotional investment or deeper meaning to Zesteria's tale. No plot twists or growth and development of character. This point was really driven home for me after a party member died about half way into the game. There is a lengthy scene dedicated to their death, and it is clearly intended to be an emotional moment but I just couldn't have cared less - and this is coming from someone who plays games primarily for the story and characters! In my opinion, he was one of the more interesting companions as well, but was introduced so late in the game that I hadn't really gotten to know him well enough to become invested before he was given the axe.


 

As Sorey journeys through the land there will be optional Lords of the Land who offer special bonuses in exchange for offerings. They also double as a fast-travel system. Now, I have always had a bit of an issue with navigation in Tales games, but Zestiria is the worst one I have encountered so far. I hate, hate, hate its map and menus. The names of locations are not marked directly on the map, forcing you to continually scroll through a long list of fields, caves, and towns until you find the one you are looking for. To make matters worse, this teleportation system is constantly "out of service" for quest related events - meaning you will have to walk from one end of the world to the other. It is about as fun as it sounds. I also thought Zestiria didn't have any side quests for the longest time because there wasn't a record book anywhere. Two thirds of the way into the game, I accidentally discovered that one of Sorey's companions acts as a human bookkeeper and provides "hints" about side quest objectives. These oddly implemented systems were just frustrating and confusing to me.

The biggest change Zestiria makes over it's predecessors though, is the shift to an open world. It isn't an "open world" in the truest sense of the word; just several large areas linked by interconnected paths and loading screens. A linear map has always suited the Tales series well enough, so the switch to an open world feels unwarranted, especially if they weren't going to do anything with all the additional space. Each area is painfully minimalistic, to the point you can see straight across the map, from one end to the other, 90% of the time. For me, one of the Tales franchises greatest weaknesses have been the environments, possibly because the games are focused more on the story than exploration. The franchise tends to use very basic environment design, an almost copy/past approach that leads to everything looking "samey", especially in dungeons. With Zestiria, there is now 5x the map space and no content to fill it, aside from more enemies.

 

 

Characters battle within an enclosed field using both physical and magical attacks, which can be chained together into combos. The new Armitization feature allows Sorey, and his human companion, to fuse with their seraphic friends to become a powerful, elemental entity on the battlefield. These systems are tied to a series of gauges that help to limit your use of the more powerful abilities. Naturally, an enemy’s particular strengths and weaknesses will also need to be taken into consideration during battle. It's a fairly simple combat system. One additional feature is the little bear-like creatures called Normin that grant buffs and skills to equipment. (EDIT: Apparently, they can only increase the rate at which monsters with a specific trait drop items. I think? Maybe? Man, I hate this game's weird systems and ambiguous translation!)


 

Rather than try to revolutionize with every title, Namco makes just enough tweaks to the formula to keep the series fresh, and give each title it's own identity. Zestiria's anime imagery is gorgeous. Aside from that, there isn't much else I can say about the game that is positive. The story is stagnant and uninteresting. The protagonist is a dime-a-dozen character that fails to stand out amongst all the other young and kind hearted Tales protagonists. I was constantly battling with the wonky menus, which made basic navigation next to impossible. The environments and story were sorely lacking in compelling elements. The cast was underwhelming, and their conversation skits were downright pitiful, even by Tales standards.

I ended up abandoning Zestiria half way through, but decided to give it a second chance and somehow stuck with it until the very end. I never did beat the final boss because the last dungeon was a fabulous mess of maze-like halls and doors. I had already suffered enough; I wasn't going to punish myself any further. Is it the worst game ever? Well, no. But it is one of the worst Tales games I have played. On a positive note, Zestiria's prequel Berseria (set 1,000 years in the past) is quite good. Berseria helped to put Zestiria in context and made me appreciate it more (not that Zestiria isn't still painful). Berseria turned out to be one of the best Tales game I have ever played and I believe it wouldn't have been nearly as good without having played Zestiria first.


First posted to videogamegeek.com

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