So since it was on sale and I had a little extra, I decided to pick up Tales of Zestiria today. About to start it now.
I don’t really know much about this game. Actually, I don’t know anything about it at all…other than the fact that it seems like a free roaming/live action RPG (as opposed to turn based) sort of like how Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom of Amalur is (which are both games that I liked). Also looks like it might have a bit of hack and slash element to it.
In any case, I know I’ll probably like it,…but I’ve never played a “Tales of” game before. Which is considered the best? Any ones I should play, for sure, barring I like this one? Which is the best to start out with? Which is the first?
So the Tales series is basically a long line of JRPGs that are popular due to their battle mechanics. It is a nice action-oriented system where you control the main dude and beat down guys while your NPC party member support you. You setup their AI and in the later games there is a combo system to elevate it above button-mashing. They also use a lot of really nice colourful art.
On PC, Berseria is probably the best title, Zestiria is probably the worst, and Symphonia is pretty good but 15 years old. Zestiria isn’t a bad game; it just is bland… and there is only three of them on PC.
Berseria has a demo that will give you the gist of the mechanics pretty well, if you want to keep a steam refund window open.
If the gameplay sounds interesting, but you’re not sure about the anime-styling, check out Dragon’s Dogma. It’s similar-ish, but stylistically closer to something like Dark Souls.
Palooka mostly has the right of it; It’s a longrunning series of almost entirely not connected in any meaningful sort of way JRPGs. (Has about as much series coherence and even fewer direct sequels than Final Fantasy.)
The action combat is definitely a good selling point, doubly so with the fact that if you have another member of your household who enjoys these sorts of games, you can play two-player couch co-op in battle (Though Zestiria more or less broke this functionality because the two player battle camera is so impossibly bad that it frequently ends up focusing on a random enemy with NEITHER player character on the screen.).
The other major selling point of series is the degree of character interaction - characters see a lot of development and interaction, both in more or less “traditional” cutscene style events but also “skits” - small popup conversations where the party will comment on recent events - and even win poses. The characters can be a little bit hammy, but are usually at least interesting. Though Zestiria once again falls down on this last count, with most of the cast being, honestly, kinda painfully bland.
If there’s a downside to this series (aside from some people complaining that it’s “too anime, lolz” which I believe is an overly shallow view of the situation) it’s the fact that the quality of the games is not very consistent. It’s had some absolutely glowing entries (Tales of the Abyss was phenomenal) and some… really, really mediocre ones. Sad to say, I feel Zestiria is the worst of the lot from the ones I’ve played. Most reports say that Berseria is much, much better, but I haven’t played it so I can’t speak to that personally. Zestiria does have the honor of being the first Tales Of game that I played and gave up on.
I’ve played several, only stuck with a few. Most were mediocre to bad, but a couple are stellar and some of the best JRPGs I’ve played. Their stand outs are the action-based combat which can be very tactically fun, and the character plots and dialogues.
The good:
Symphonia (GameCube)
Vesperia (X360)
The recent Zesteria wasn’t good, poorly paced and bland. Berseria is a big improvement, but I’m about 10 hours or so in to it and it’s losing my interest. I may just be burned out on the whole format of the series though after so many years.