is Tales of Zestiria "worth it"?

[Rapier]

I know the title is crappy but that's what I could think of. I like the Tales series (I've played the SNES and PS1 one, both of which I've disliked because of the faux "free" gameplay despite the cool story/characters, then I've played Tales of Innocence and Dawn of the New World, both of which I've really liked), especially for their fun gameplay, worldbuilding and characters, and I wonder how well Zestiria manages to stand up to those standards.

The next on my list is Tales of the Abyss, which I've already got on my 3DS and I plan on starting soon. The others that I want are for consoles that I lack (PS3/PS4, Xbox 360/One), so I can't play them, or Tales of Symphonia, which looks cool but I heard the PC version is a mediocre port.

[Water Mage]

I would say it's worth it. I personally liked the game, and the battle system, but admittedly, it's not without flaws. Particularly the story, there's one character that is partuculary sueish and quite frankly harms the story in my opinion.

It's not the main character, but you will realize who it is eventually.

Still a great game though.

And Abyss, my favorite entry in the Tales franchise, and a game that has one best stories of any video game.

It's really good.

Some advice, try playing with a spoiler-free side quest guide, becuase they are really easy to miss, and they are really interesting story wise.

Not to say the main story is bad without them.

The main story by itself is incredible, but the side quest are really interesting as well. I would advise to talk to the NPCs, so you can get a real feel of the world.

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

Zestiria had a good battle system but the dungeons disappointed me a bit.

They don't have many monsters which isn't a bad thing since generic monsters don't give you much experience at all. Only the elite monsters and bosses give you serious exp.

[spoiler=The variety of the dungeons is rather low.]mainly caves and ruins

Only the shrines had interesting mechanics.

It was ok for me but not a Tales of part which could impress me.

However it had an amazing soundtrack (opening excluded!!!).

If you want to have good battle system and good dungeons, then I recommend Graces or the Xillia parts (but as for Xillia their dungeons aren't too spectacular either).

I'd start with Abyss right now because story, gameplay and dungeons are almost perfect. Definitely my favorite part of this series!

Edited October 8, 2016 by Ayama Wirdo

[Rapier]

I don't mind sueish characters unless the favoritism about them is really blatant (for example, I liked Ike and Micaiah in FE10 and they're... controversial, to say the least).

I'll give Tales of the Abyss a try. The last game that I've played which gave me a better feel of the world through talking to NPCs was Trails in the Sky (the worldbuilding, cities and NPCs seemed "alive" and "fresh", I really liked it). I missed that kind of thing from Earhbound/Mother 3. I'll try to keep a look at the guide (although that's really inconvenient, as I like to chill somewhere far from the PC while playing on a 3DS) and not miss the side quests, since I'm really good at missing things that aren't shining with rainbow colored neons.

Zestiria has good battle mechanics but the dungeons disappointed me a bit.

They don't have many monsters which isn't a bad thing since generic monsters don't give you much experience at all. Only the elite monsters and bosses give you serious exp.

Only the shrine temples had interesting mechanics.

If you want to have good battle system and good dungeons, then I recommend rather the Xillia parts (mainly 2) or Graces.

No PS3, sadly.

Also I don't really mind dungeon variety. I thought that some dungeon puzzles in Dawn of the New World were kind of there to fill holes and I don't mind straightforward dungeons (like FF dungeons I guess, unless I am wrong about the PS2 and later FF dungeons). I'm used to Skyrim-esque dungeons. To me, the "ideal" kind of dungeons would be Bravely Default/Second's dungeons but they're really not that impressive.

Same about monsters. I prefer having less but relevant monsters than a lot of monsters that I don't even remember / haven't cared about because they have very similar properties to that other kind of monster they're almost a carbon copy of.

also, does that mean the game is anti-grind?

Edited October 8, 2016 by Rapier

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

also, does that mean the game is anti-grind?

Pretty much.

In my run I used holy bottles (buffed in this game) through all the dungeons because the generic battles give ridiculous experience for some reason (except for the final dungeon).

But I highly recommend you to do all optional dungeons to get the exp. by the elite monsters.

Edited October 8, 2016 by Ayama Wirdo

[Rapier]

I kinda prefer it to grinding 5 levels per dungeon, actually, even though I like seeing my characters grow and become stronger.

Ok, I guess it's looking good. Now, to decide if it is worth 30 bucks (I'm brazilian) or not...

Edited October 8, 2016 by Rapier

[eclipse]

Abyss is still my favorite Tales game. The battle system is pretty straightforward, the story's excellent, and most of the characters are great (don't expect Trails-level characterization, though). If you can get that, do so!

Zestiria has my favorite battle/armor system, though it's quite complex. The story's decent, and the characters range from likeable to "worse than Fates". Gotta say, though. . .

I liked Zestiria's ending far more than Abyss. . .about the only thing Zestiria wins, plot-wise.

[Magical CC]

The next on my list is Tales of the Abyss, which I've already got on my 3DS and I plan on starting soon. The others that I want are for consoles that I lack (PS3/PS4, Xbox 360/One), so I can't play them, or Tales of Symphonia, which looks cool but I heard the PC version is a mediocre port.

The Tales of Symphonia on PC is good after the patch.

[DodgeDusk]

As someone who's playing the game right now (first Tales game, I do want to add), I'd say it's worth about £25 (no idea what that equates to in your currency. About half of the RRP), since the game isn't exactly the best thing I've played. I'll give a brief summery of my thoughts as of now. Note: I'm about 20 hours into the game and I'm

[spoiler=Location spoiler]About to head to Pendrago.

Cast: Mediocre overall, although they do bounce off each other pretty well, I think. Sorey's your typical naive, special-snowflake JRPG protagonist, which I'm not really liking. Mikleo, his best friend, is a nice foil to him, and the writer(s) have done a good job at portraying a genuine friendship there. For where I am right now, Mikleo I think is the character who's written best. I won't go into the other characters since I don't want to spoil you on anything, but the rest of cast I've experienced (including Sorey and Mikleo, there's seven I've met) range from okay at best to annoying and contrived at worst. There's one exception here, and that character I genuinely do like.

Story: Now I can't really go into this all too much without hitting plot spoilers. so all I'll say is that it feels disjointed. There's certainly a lack of focus here. Barely any urgency and Sorey's duties as a Shepherd seem to be all over the place, and it sort of puts me off a little bit.

Presentation: This game certainly isn't any Vesperia in regards to visual aesthetic; the world looks cheap and empty, the dungeons are boring (I'll be coming back to this), and the art direction is serviceable, but I personally think it's a bit bland. The OST, however, is good, I think. Nothing truly outstanding yet, apart from that amazing game intro (careful if you are planning on watching this, since it does spoil a few things), but the music and sound effects that do play are all appropriate.

Gameplay: As my first Tales game, I wasn't really sure what to expect. Real-time, action based battle combat is done all right here. None of the characters I've got are that enjoyable to play, outside of Sorey, which is a shame. But Sorey feels good to play with, since he's a melee character who specialises in exploiting enemy weaknesses and hammering down on them mercilessly, which goes with the combo mechanic the game has. The skill system the game has is completely awful, and I'm so glad Berseria has seemingly got rid of it. Going back to the dungeons, when you enter a fight, the game will use the area you're in as the battle arena, so in order not to have any annoying partitions or protrusions in battle, the dungeons were made wide and simple.

So, despite my many nitpicks, I do think the game is worth it. For a cheap price, that is. The PC version has a mod that runs the game at 60 FPS, which I imagine improves the combat significantly.

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

As for the characters I found everyone enjoyable to play with. It just requires practice to manage them.

Sorey is probably the easiest to use because he's the typical Tales of protagonist, a sword user.

My favorite was Edna because her slowness made it easy for me to control her. Of course dodging is a bit problematic with her "speed".

Also a Tales of opening without vocals isn't a good Tales of opening. Abyss is excluded because it's so rocking that it doesn't need any vocals.

Edited October 9, 2016 by Ayama Wirdo

[Rapier]

@DodgeDusk

It's 31 bucks right now, but normally it costs 91 bucks. Yes, I love my country (Trails in the Sky cost roughly the same, and that's the common price of non-indie games around here, wee). From what I've read so far (gathered from everyone's opinion), the game seems between mediocre and good (enjoyable, at least).

I decided to skip Tales of Zestiria until the autumn/winter sale since I already have my hands on Tales of the Abyss and I thought it was better to spend on another game, but I'll keep my eyes open and get Zestiria when I have the chance.

[eclipse]

Also a Tales of opening without vocals isn't a good Tales of opening. Abyss is excluded because it's so rocking that it doesn't need any vocals.

I'll argue that Zestiria's opening is amazing, vocals or no.

Zestiria's soundtrack doesn't really pick up until the end. I could link the best song I've heard in the game. . .but without context, it's just "good". With context, it's one of my favorite video game moments.

[Rapier]

I prefer [melodious] songs without vocals so I'm ok with that (with only a few exceptions, like Popo from Stella Glow's song, which is amazing). Also, song sharing is welcome.

Edited October 9, 2016 by Rapier

[Water Mage]

I prefer [melodious] songs without vocals so I'm ok with that (with only a few exceptions, like Popo from Stella Glow's song, which is amazing). Also, song sharing is welcome.

A bit off-topic, but personally Stella Glow's best song is Sakuya's first song.

[eclipse]

Hikari no Metamorphosis (vocal version) or get banned.

Ahem. . .this is the full version of the opening song used in Zestiria:

The beauty of this song is that it works as both a vocal rock song and an instrumental opening song.

[Rapier]

A bit off-topic, but personally Stella Glow's best song is Sakuya's first song.

Popo* is the only singer who doesn't have a nasal voice (Sakuya) or an overly childish voice (Mordimort), her song is very catchy and it's been a game breaker for around 10 chapters (I stopped right after I recruited Mordimort).

Hilda sounds younger than any girl on her songs, what.

Lisette's song is also cool. It sounds like an ending theme.

Edited October 10, 2016 by Rapier

[Water Mage]

Popo* is the only singer who doesn't have a nasal voice (Sakuya) or an overly childish voice (Mordimort), her song is very catchy and it's been a game breaker for around 10 chapters (I stopped right after I recruited Mordimort).

Hilda sounds younger than any girl on her songs, what.

Lisette's song is also cool. It sounds like an ending theme.

I agree with you, Lisette's song really sounds like an ending theme.

Which is ironic considering the effect of the song.

[Magical CC]

White Light instrumental version has great guitar piece. White Light vocal version has powerful singing. Both are awesome.