I finished sidequesting around the world (for now) and am now in what I presume to be the final dungeon. We'll see if a bunch more sidequests pop at the very end of the final dungeon as Tales games are wont to do, but a bunch of trophies popped during the batch of sidequests I just did so maybe not, feels like you'd hold the trophies back until the end.
Sidequest Stuff: Turtlez still the absolute best. lmao that guy. The Xillia 2 references are still goddamn hilarious, although the Zestiria pre-fight cutscene was still the best one. Turtlez absolutey best NPC hands-down. Phoenix also a great sidequest just for Eizen cutting him off in his monologue with "What the hell is wrong with you?" and later the super-serious "I don't have to take this from you!"
Otherwise, let's see what I remember. Velvet's sidequest where she explains the quiche recipe to Niko's dogs telling them they have to pass it on to her because she won't be going where Niko was was pretty touching. Eleanor's was great too, especially when she nearly went nuts against the troll that killed her mom. Laphicet, Eizen, Rokurou, and Magilou also had pretty good ones. Zaveid's quest was one of the better ones too, especially with the slow/sad part of his theme being the battle theme against the dragon. Return to the Earthpulse and seeing more of Seres's past, especially the last scene where she spoke with the still emotionless Laphicet was excellent.
As for the combat side of things. Phoenix was kinda BS given my self-imposed restrictions, so I dialed it down to Hard for that one fight. In retrospect I feel like if I had used an All-Divide I could have done it on Chaos with my other rules. Put that idea into practice against Turtlez since I assumed based on Zestiria he'd be nuts again and was proven right. With an All-Divide the fight was easy even on Chaos. I ate a Mystic Arte for my trouble doing that though. he also stole all my gels (that i'm not using lol). Still the best NPC, lmao.
Final (probably) Dungeon looks really cool so far and I like how the theme also carries into the battles. Didn't get very far into it though. Just advanced a room or so to get to the save point. I was hoping that the Zestiria Final Dungeon theme would make a comeback at the Empyrean's Throne, but alas.
I feel like I enjoyed Zestiria way more than I should have thanks to all the Berseria stuff. - Biggest gripe in Zestiria would have been Siegfried being super convenient, but Berseria kinda addresses it, but it's still a huge mystery that no one really knows how it works. - I was pleasantly surprised to find out Zaveid's quest in Berseria actually had a huge impact on him and he now believed in killing to save Hellions. All thanks to Eizen. - When I first met Edna, I immediately noticed Phoenix on her umbrella and I was always looking forward to when he would finally wake up or react. - Wondering whether Rose would at all be related to Rangetsu Style. She does shout Rangetsu Ryu when she does her Mystic Arte in Japanese. - Made me curious whether Magilou was also a Storyteller considering all the books she was carrying. - Final dungeon in Zestiria actually name dropping both Artorius and Innominat. I was definitely not expecting that. . Sadly couldn't find anything relevant for Eleanor, unless she was the inspiration for the Valkyries. ---
