Tales of Zestiria

Generic Mid JRPG.

I truly wanted to like this game, and in a lot of ways, I do. The combat is a nice refresh for the Tales of series, the equipment system is interesting, though feels imbalanced towards early equipment. Main problem is the story. Its a mess that feels like two different drafts were shoved together. I will avoid spoilers, but the main story is a decent tale, but one that feels a bit railroaded. Nearly all the more interesting character bits are purely optional side stories that you have to hunt down. A lot of rpgs work like this, but the Tales of series is usually really good at interweaving these smaller character moments into the main story, usually only leaving stuff that you have to go out of your way for as optional. Here though, a lot of the side content feels far more interesting and rewarding, yet its just stapled on haphazardly. The cutscenes also feel very, very unnatural and stilted. Its an issue a lot of Tales of games deals with, but this is by far one of the worst. The models and camera work are enough to not have to leave anything to the imagination, yet everyone moves and reacts like dolls, as if only 2 characters are allowed to be living beings at any moment.…

The game still feels the same as I remember playing it before the pandemic, even though I never got to finish it back then. Though I’m a decade late to say this, I’ve finally done it, I finished the story. Released in 2015, and somehow, it’s still one of my favorite Tales of games I’ve played.

Despite it's flaws, Zesteria is still a good game that I think any Tales fan should play at least once. Sorey at first might seem like any other protag but when you learn the themes of Berseria and Zesteria, you come to appreciate how his character grows while still remaining true to himself and showing what a TRUE hero should look like internally. The cast is what makes this game deserve a shot. If they ever remade this with modern Qol features and fixed the gameplay and equipment system, Zesteria could truly be one of the greats.

This one is okay I think

It's a great game in the Tales series ; and fun for a animae type game!:)