Tales of Tales of Zestiria

[-Cynthia-]

Yes, Rising Up is pretty amazing.

Finished the game, overall...it was pretty good but not great. There were a number of plots/subplots that seemed half-finished and/or confused.

[eclipse]

A lot of the skits seem to play at the inn. For example. . .

The question of "what about that lie we told Sergei?" is resolved by an inn skit.

[Magical CC]

So how do I know what kind of arte the enemy is using?

[Fateborn]

Seraphic is the one where you channel, so there's that.

Martial artes are basic punching/things where you just hit things with a specific attack key and it changes based on the direction your gamepad is moving. up, left, right, or down.

Hidden artes is artes that executes quickly.

Example since I'm playing keyboard/mouse I'm using that version:

Martial Artes= Left click, A + Left Click, S + Left click (etc) I just regular punched someone then unleashed martial arte relative to the direction I would had moved if I didn't left click.

Hidden Artes= Rose/Sorey Right Click. (Dream Slasher from Rose for example) + Armazation Left clicks. (However, Armazation Hidden Artes has their specific direction as well. Up and down are same, left and right are same. Default are its own artes.)

Seraphic Artes= All Seraph + Armazation Right clicks.

Edit:

To judge which artes enemies are using is the same concept as your own.

Channel= Seraph

Artes name appearing without channel= Hidden

They punch you then Arte name appears= Martial.

Edited November 10, 2015 by Fateborn

[-Cynthia-]

With seraphic artes the enemy has the staff symbol appear and the circle bar should start filling up, so don't use hidden artes then.

[Intoner Two]

but I really hate using my blast gauge to extend a combo

Unsure how many people know this but I learned about a day or two prior that the Stack x16 bonus skill (might be called Infinity?) is one which causes the character to never stop attacking as long as they have SC and continue pressing artes button. Which is pretty neat but might take some effort to do. Fortunately it can be done pretty easily lategame. The steps are, essentially...

1). Get any Lord of the Land to at least Blessing lvl 6 (or whichever one says "Allows Lord of the Land to Bless equipment that have been fused to +10 or higher," something like that).

2). Set a Normin to this Lord of the Land with the skill you want to get a stack 16 for (something that reduces SC cost or replenishes it would probably be pretty darn swank).

3). Begin farming equipment in the domain with the skill you want. Fuse as much as you can and begin blessing the items.

What blessing does it changes the item's variable name (i.e. Calcite, Adamantine, Feldspar, etc.) to "Unnamed" (I think?) and the top skill will become x2 (meaning you literally get the skill twice, in NG+ files, x2 or x3 skills can be permitted to count that many times in stacks/unions while they normally cannot, nifty!). What's more important is that Unnamed items can be fused to any other item of the same type (umbrella, hat, ring, whatever) AND these items blessed by your Lord of the Land can be inherited through multiple playthroughs using the Grade Shop.

4). With patience and a bit of luck (but mostly patience), you can have your 16 Chein blessed items and totally school Chaos difficulty bosses. (and laugh as they one shot the terrible AI, lol)

[Snowy_One]

Having played it a bit now on the PC...

1) FUCK THE WATER TEMPLE!

2) FUCK THE WATER TEMPLE!

3) Okay.... Happy place...

The game is pretty good on the whole, but it has an issue with some glaring flaws that feel outright oppressive. For example; the idea of being able to mix and combine pieces of equipment is interesting and potentially good, and it ALMOST works; but then the game screws itself over hard by making the loot drops RNG based (except for the first slot) and only one set of skills worth having... yet said one set is potentially better than even upgrading to better weapons so long as you don't botch up upgrading. Or the difficulty. In theory going on harder difficulties makes the game harder but gives you more options than the straight-up brawl. In practice going on any mode lower than 'hard' except against bosses is a terrible idea because it's far too easy to play 'match the element' and shred apart enemy groups and the damage boost from matching far outweighs any EXP penalty. Not to mention that the higher the difficulty the better the broken skills. So, in the end, NOT fighting on at least hard is shooting yourself in the foot.

But that ignores that it is actually doing something to reduce attack spamming, encouraging at least semi-skilled play, and the like. IMO... Well... The game tried too hard to appeal to too many people but it isn't a bad game. Just feels like its been stifled by the stupid choices.

Also... Alisha... is annoying. I mean the controversy surrounding her. She isn't the first character to leave the party for good, and will unlikely be the last, but the problem is that so much of the game seems to suggest that she was either expected to rejoin or not leave at all since you can do things like find her spears for sale in later areas she'd never normally reach. What sucks is that she was so obviously shoved out of the story in favor of Rose and not much comes of it in the story itself. It feels really... backhanded.

As for Sorey being gay... *sigh* My biggest problem with it so-far is, actually, that I don't get why him and Mebo are attracted. Maybe I'm not deep enough into the story yet but while I see them clearly being friends I've yet to catch any real romantic overtures from them and... well... Uggg. It's just annoying because, in prior games, there has always been at least one clear romantic relationship between the characters, yet here it seems so... understated in all directions. Most of the characters are female with only one other guy who... isn't really 'romance' material. Meanwhile Sorey just seems... Uninterested in anything romantic as of now. It honestly feels a bit backhanded towards both Alisha and Rose since he doesn't even have a moment of realization where he goes 'I.... I like Micleo and not women. I'm sorry Alisha/Rose'. I know neither of them really has romantic feelings for him, but the lack of even an attempt feels a bit lazy.

*sigh* I'm probably over-thinking it and just being annoyed by the various mechanics which is causing me to be illogical, but...

On the whole I like the game and consider it a good purchase. I don't regret buying it at launch. I just want to pummel the guy who made the water temple. As well as for them to rethink the direction they're choosing.

[Magical CC]

So basically:

_Martial artes are just left mouse attacks. You click attack + W, A, S, D to decide what martial artes you want to use.

_Hidden artes are right mouse attacks. You click right mouse + W, A, S, D to decide what hidden artes you want to use.

_Seraph artes are charge right mouse attacks.

_Martial artes are basically fighter's artes while Seraph artes are mage's artes in the older games.

Does I get it right?

[eclipse]

So basically:

_Martial artes are just left mouse attacks. You click attack + W, A, S, D to decide what martial artes you want to use.

_Hidden artes are right mouse attacks. You click right mouse + W, A, S, D to decide what hidden artes you want to use.

_Seraph artes are charge right mouse attacks.

_Martial artes are basically fighter's artes while Seraph artes are mage's artes in the older games.

Does I get it right?

Almost! The hidden arts are closer to the fighter's artes of old. Martial artes are closer to the vanilla attacks in the older games. Otherwise, that looks about right!

[Magical CC]

Almost! The hidden arts are closer to the fighter's artes of old. Martial artes are closer to the vanilla attacks in the older games. Otherwise, that looks about right!

Great! So now, about item skills.....can you give me a well explanation like before? I am also lost at item skill and item fusing.

[Fateborn]

So basically:

_Martial artes are just left mouse attacks. You click attack + W, A, S, D to decide what martial artes you want to use.

_Hidden artes are right mouse attacks. You click right mouse + W, A, S, D to decide what hidden artes you want to use.

_Seraph artes are charge right mouse attacks.

_Martial artes are basically fighter's artes while Seraph artes are mage's artes in the older games.

Does I get it right?

Pretty much, the directional cast also influence Seraphic artes, you just gotta set them before battles. It's pretty nice triangle though.

Bit bummed that only Sorey and Rose can cancel enemy seraphic artes. :\ (I don't count Alisha because she's not there for 85% of the game) considering you have 4 (5 if you count Dezel) seraphs to use.

Would had been nice if we have more options. Maybe a Light and a Dark seraphs to join us for more interesting combo.(idk)

[eclipse]

Great! So now, about item skills.....can you give me a well explanation like before? I am also lost at item skill and item fusing.

Alright. . .I'll do my best!

On the PS3 version, if you press R2 on the equip screen, you get a nifty little graph with symbols that look like sheet music from hell. If it's totally blank, it'll look something like this:

   0  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9
V
F
E
W
A

(I use zero-indexed columns for my sanity; V=non-elemental, F=fire, E=earth, W=water, A=wind (air))

In the beginning of the game, you'll see some weird symbols on this graph, sort of like this:

   0  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9
V  X
F
E     X
W
A  X

(note: not what you actually see in the beginning of the game)

Each little symbol gives the character a very slight boost. For example, the first symbol in the non-elemental column gives attack+4%. By themselves, they're kinda meh. However, when you start filling out the table like a bingo card. . .things happen.

   0  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9
V  X
F
E     X  X
W
A  X

See the two X marks next to each other? By aligning stuff in a row, you get an effect. In the table above, you have two X marks next to each other in the earth row. Two in a row gives 10% damage reduction to the element that's lined up - in this case, earth. As you get more in a row, the effect changes. You can also do something like this:

   0  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9
V  X
F
E  X  X     X  X     X  X
W
A  X

and stack the 10% reduction in earth damage (for a total of 30% in this chart).

The next direction is vertical. Unlike the previous rows (get two in a row), you need ALL FIVE for the column effect to kick in. So this won't give you any special column bonus:

   0  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9
V  X
F  X
E     X
W  X
A  X

but this will:

   0  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9
V  X
F  X
E  X
W  X
A  X

If you manage to align that first column, that's a +20 to all stats - great early-on, not-so-great come lategame. Each column has its own effects, which are tied to its column type (stats in the first one, guard? in the second one, SC and BG in the third and fourth ones, etc.)

The final bonus you can activate is what's known as a stacking bonus. Say you wind up with two pieces of gear with attack+4% and wear them. You'll get an additional effect besides MOAR ATTACK - in the case of getting two skills with the same name, stagger time is reduced (or something like that). The stacking bonuses get really, REALLY good, right down to "keep the combo going as long as you have SC" at 16 stacks.

So what should you aim for? Check what the situation calls for! If you're going up against a boss with super-strong fire attacks, get some fire damage mitigation in! If you're going up against something that spams status effects, stack a skill until you get Aegis (I think that's at five stacks). If you always want a spare BG, go for the BG column skill! The armor system is pretty flexible!

And a quick side note: You can eventually influence what skills drop on an equipment - it's not guaranteed, but it's better than blind fishing! If you're not seeing drops, raise the difficulty (I play on Moderate, and that's enough to get the stuff I need) and kill the enemy with a mystic arte. . .or empty your inventory, if you're carrying a lot of stuff that's never going to be used!

[Fateborn]

Snip

Chiming in, but doing all of these will tax your mind, so try to not focus on it too much, there's a reason why it's a difficult content.

You don't need these very badly on casual or normal mode, however you would probably need to be able to fill in a good chunk for hard, and even more so for the later 2 difficulties where you would probably need a very good skill management.

[eclipse]

Chiming in, but doing all of these will tax your mind, so try to not focus on it too much, there's a reason why it's a difficult content.

You don't need these very badly on casual or normal mode, however you would probably need to be able to fill in a good chunk for hard, and even more so for the later 2 difficulties where you would probably need a very good skill management.

Many of them are nice bonuses. The ones that I feel are must-knows are the elemental resistance (two in a row) and the stat/BG column (get all five symbols). Everything else is gravy, so far.

On Moderate, you can still get away with spamming attacks - just make sure to aim for enemy weaknesses!

[Magical CC]

Sigh.....I somewhat understand. It's all about drops, never sell old items that has effects you want and fuse everything for ultimate items in late game similar to Dynasty Warrior.

[Lethakitty]

i still haven't played zestria but i have heard its amazing ost

[Fateborn]

Many of them are nice bonuses. The ones that I feel are must-knows are the elemental resistance (two in a row) and the stat/BG column (get all five symbols). Everything else is gravy, so far.

On Moderate, you can still get away with spamming attacks - just make sure to aim for enemy weaknesses!

Well to be fair, one of my friend cleared Brutal on first try, he did moderate then when he unlocked Brutal, he went right into that difficult from the get-go. He's fucking crazy.

[eclipse]

Well to be fair, one of my friend cleared Brutal on first try, he did moderate then when he unlocked Brutal, he went right into that difficult from the get-go. He's fucking crazy.

Your friend sounds awesome.

i still haven't played zestria but i have heard its amazing ost

There's a little something for everyone in Zestiria! The number of musicians that are listed in the credits is outright insane.

Oh right. . .finally beat the game~! Post game here I come~!

[Magical CC]

Currently at Marlind. I have 3 things to say:

_Despite reading about the combo stuff, I only spam and spam. Wel...

_Edna is freaking cute!

_I knew the US version of the intro is lacking something. It turned out to be the instrument version of the Japan intro. And honestly, I find myself enjoy the instrument version much more than the vocal version. The beat and guitar are beast. I think I will enjoy the vocal version much more if it's sang by Freddy Mercury. For some reasons, I think of Freddy when I heard the intro...

Edited November 12, 2015 by Magical CC

[Water Mage]

I bought the game, and I'm enjoying it already.

I just finished everthing Marlind, and I've noticed some things,

is it just me, or is the fire fusion is not very useful? It's just so slow as well.

And I seem to be using the water fusion the most, and it's not just because water is my favorite element, but it really does seem to be the most effective and useful fusion now.

And about the seraphs characters

I have to say, when it comes to battle, Edna and Mikleo seems to be the best seraphs, especially Edna, she's really strong. She's definitivelt staying in my main party.

That is not say Lailah is bad, she pretty good too, but Edna and Mikleo are just so effetive together.

[Magical CC]

I found Edna Armirite is the strongest. Her combo is strong and fast. Edna herself is also good in combat.

[Water Mage]

Yeah, when it comes to combat, Edna really is the best seraphim.

The reason I think the Water Armirite is best fusion, is because you can safely attack the enemy from a distance with the bow, and it's also especially useful when Sorey is alone. That being said, the Earth Armirite is pretty good too, and tend to use those two a lot.

Really, it's just the Fire one that doesn't seem useful compared to the other two.

[Fateborn]

If I recall right.

Fire= Damage

Water= Safety

Earth= Defensive

Wind= Control

I enjoys Fire more than Earth personally, mainly because Fire looks good on Rose. .w.

Edited November 13, 2015 by Fateborn

[-Cynthia-]

I like Lailah's armatization the best personally. Mikleo and Edna are my favorites for being alone due to stronger heals.

Also... Alisha... is annoying. I mean the controversy surrounding her. She isn't the first character to leave the party for good, and will unlikely be the last, but the problem is that so much of the game seems to suggest that she was either expected to rejoin or not leave at all since you can do things like find her spears for sale in later areas she'd never normally reach. What sucks is that she was so obviously shoved out of the story in favor of Rose and not much comes of it in the story itself. It feels really... backhanded.

It was a pretty clumsy 'transition' between the two. I think Rose's role is pretty important so I'd still want her around, but I wouldn't have minded Alisha as a party member with more of a focus on politics.

As for Sorey being gay... *sigh* My biggest problem with it so-far is, actually, that I don't get why him and Mebo are attracted. Maybe I'm not deep enough into the story yet but while I see them clearly being friends I've yet to catch any real romantic overtures from them and... well... Uggg. It's just annoying because, in prior games, there has always been at least one clear romantic relationship between the characters, yet here it seems so... understated in all directions. Most of the characters are female with only one other guy who... isn't really 'romance' material. Meanwhile Sorey just seems... Uninterested in anything romantic as of now. It honestly feels a bit backhanded towards both Alisha and Rose since he doesn't even have a moment of realization where he goes 'I.... I like Micleo and not women. I'm sorry Alisha/Rose'. I know neither of them really has romantic feelings for him, but the lack of even an attempt feels a bit lazy.

*sigh* I'm probably over-thinking it and just being annoyed by the various mechanics which is causing me to be illogical, but..

Eh, I didn't personally care that there weren't any romances in the game. Sorey being asexual makes sense to me especially given his unusual upbringing. Vesperia didn't have an romantic couple either I believe(didn't play it much).

[Water Mage]

I like Lailah's armatization the best personally. Mikleo and Edna are my favorites for being alone due to stronger heals.

Really? Lailah's armatization always feel slow and clunky to me. I wonder if I'm doing anything wrong or maybe there is something that I should be doing while armatized Lailah.

Is there some specific way to use the fire armatization? I will admit, I still haven't completely mastered the mechanics of this game.

I really like the battle mechanics of Zestiria, but it takes quite a while get used to it.

Edited November 13, 2015 by Water Mage