Board 8 > What's supposed to be so bad about Tales of Zestiria?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I've starte playing Berseria and really enjoy it, and I've heard that it's a prequel to Zestiria where knowing the plot of that game adds a lot of meaning to the plot of Berseria. But everyone apparently hates Zestiria.

It really bugs me to be playing part of an interconnected story out of order, and Zestiria is pretty cheap right now... so what's wrong with it? Bad story? Bad characters? Bad mechanics? And is it so bad that it's not worth playing through if it will make Berseria even more enjoyable?

(Also, since they're both on sale right now- Vesperia is good, right?)
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I didn't finish either because I think i just don't like Tales games, but I honestly enjoyed my time with Zestiria more than Vespiria.

I was in the same boat as you and basically only played Zestiria because I heard such great things about Berseria. The battle systems are very similar (I liked Zestiria's more) and I would highly recommend playing Zestiria first.

I ended up liking Zestiria more than Berseria so maybe I'm a little biased but the plot references in Berseria benefit a lot from playing Zestiria first. I'm sure people will disagree though

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Zestiria is fine. It's one of the weakest in the Tales series for various reasons, but nothing is outright bad or wrong with the game imo.

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BlackMageJawa posted...

Bad story? Bad characters?

It's pretty much these two for most of the people that hate it, as far as I've seen. It's pretty much the driest storyline with how everything plays out. No one really gets developed and it's super predictable. Plus the game itself just feels slow. But I hit a halfway point and wasn't hating the characters so it's probably not something everyone would have.

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Bad story?

Yes.

Bad characters?

Yes.

Bad mechanics?

Yes.

I'm probably one of the bigger Tales fans on the board and I absolutely hate Zestiria. It's a mess. Its narrative feels like about four different stories and eight different themes haphazardly stitched together like one of those ransom notes made out of magazine clippings with only the barest amount of connective tissue to make it look almost coherent.

Its protagonist is a terrible modern example of a generic "Chosen One" that Tales in particular is usually good at avoiding while also somehow being the main character with by far the least agency of any one in the series. The events of the story just happen to him as he moves from place to place. And the female lead is legitimately one of the biggest Mary Sues ever. She flat-out ignores and rejects all of the rules and lore of the world, everything she does works out in her favor, her actions don't have consequences, and the rest of the party can't go five minutes without talking about how perfect she is. None of the other characters are particularly memorable either.

The battle system is hamstrung by a horrible camera and a half-baked fusion system that limits the options for party makeup. The equipment system is way too complicated for the benefits it brings if you go through the trouble of figuring it out. The "dungeons" are the worst in modern Tales, which is really saying something.

I don't really think any part of it enhances Berseria either - actually, some of the things that connect the two games actually get worse on both ends in my opinion.

It's not worth it. Terrible game.

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The Zestiria anime is a superior adaptation you can check out instead
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The music is the best thing about Zestiria.

The party was ok but the plot is boring as hell and the battle system is garbage.

Iceman hit most of the big stuff. Honestly I could probably forgive how bad the story ends up being if the actual gameplay systems and balance weren't the most poorly constructed in the series past Abyss's "mystic artes do 1 damage lol" scaling on Unknown.

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Is graces better? I just beat graces and was interested in trying zestiria but this thread is def turning me off

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Graces is absolutely a better game than Zesteria.

This is all just personal opinion of course, but I thought the first 1/2 to 2/3 of Zesteria was totally fine, and people were giving it way too much of a hard time...which makes it all the more insane that the last 1/3 is so terrible that I still consider Zesteria to be one of the worst games I've ever played.

It's very obvious that huge portions of the game were redone, rewritten, and rushed because of behind the scenes issues that are way more drama filled than you would think, and it's just shocking how much it falls apart and completely eradicated it's good will.

The anime is pretty good though, and would recommend it over the game without question it also more clearly ties it in to Berseria than the games themselves.

However I would agree that actually tying into Berseria...isnt great. Zesteria reduces Berseria for the most part rather than enhancing it.

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Berseria > Graces >>> Zestiria as far as the "arte games" are concerned IMO

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Like the criticisms of zestiria above are valid

But in my experience none of the other tales games really do much better

Haven't played berseria tho

I started to replay Zestiria and it was pretty okay until I hit a point where I needed all these things that I THOUGHT were a side quest in order to progress, and I just haven't gone back to it since.

For anybody that has played, does it make it clear you should be collecting them and I'm just an idiot, or does it just kinda suggest you should like a side quest and then it's suddenly "btw I hope you have ALL OF THESE?"

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Nope, it doesn't make that clear at all. I only got them because I knew what was coming ahead of time.


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