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[Durante]

Played today for about 9 hours in coop. Thoughts so far:

• I actually like the equipment system. Between the fusion, skill selection, tradeoffs on bonus skills and so on and so forth there seems to be enough depth there to make equipment selection a lot more interesting than in your average JRPG.
• The cast (or the characters I know of it so far) is less annoying than in most Tales games I've played. There's also less of the typical Tales "let's not communicate important information to our party companions" story crutch -- at this point at least.
• The battle system is great fun, I don't know when in the series they introduced this type of active resource management even for combos/normal attacks but it is a huge improvement.
• The coop battle camera in dungeons is pretty broken. Though you can usually mostly rectify it by retargeting.

 

[Stuart444]

The coop battle camera in dungeons is pretty broken. Though you can usually mostly rectify it by retargeting.

Yeah, for some reason, they decided to make MP camera focus on the enemy than the player so it can get annoying. :/ so lots of target switching may be needed, at least in narrow/smaller areas.

 

[Datschge]

Considering how divisive the systems are I found these comments by series producer Baba funny:

Besides the story, we developed the gameplay system while keeping our player’s interests and preferences in mind, and took a new approach regarding our developmental environment. Compared to other titles in the series, we wanted Tales of Zestiria to have more flexibility and freedom regarding its RPG elements, so that players could develop their very own, highly unique characters. We hope that our efforts and innovations allow you to have an even deeper gameplay experience as you build your character up.

ocd am cry
http://blog.eu.playstation.com/2015/10/19/tales-of-zestiria-is-out-now-on-ps4-and-ps3/


And as someone who hates free run I dislike to admit it, but turning Zestiria into Star Ocean (change battle camera to far and use "free and free" to enable free run by default) makes the camera behave more sensibly. I bet someone did that to spite me. =(

 

[demidar]

I wish I could turn off the "flick stick to quick dodge", it's screwed me plenty of times.

 

[Freezasaurus]

Is there a particular reason that the CPU keeps switching my Seraphim back to what IT wants after every single cutscene?

 

[Alucrid]

how long before you can equip the dlc costumes?

 

[FSLink]

how long before you can equip the dlc costumes?

As soon as you can open the menu. The DLC items are in the last tab of your items, then after you use them, actually wear them in the Fashion menu.

 

[Alucrid]

As soon as you can open the menu. The DLC items are in the last tab of your items, then after you use them, actually wear them in the Fashion menu.

ahh thanks, totally forgot about having to use them in the dlc tab

 

[irfaanator]

so who should I be giving the flowers/spices to, or is it not that big of a deal. Currently ive just been fusing w/e but im only 3 hours in so idk if thats the right way to go about it.

also fought

Spoiler

the medusa boss, and she like two shotted lailah and I had no idea how.

Still unsure how to fully grasp controlling the AI in battle

 

[Anteater]

wow Sorey is really badass, I'm really liking the dude

 

[Pancakes]

so who should I be giving the flowers/spices to, or is it not that big of a deal. Currently ive just been fusing w/e but im only 3 hours in so idk if thats the right way to go about it.

also fought

Spoiler

the medusa boss, and she like two shotted lailah and I had no idea how.

Still unsure how to fully grasp controlling the AI in battle

Honestly, the AI is about as useful as wet newspaper against the more difficult bosses. At best they'll heal you and distract the bosses for you to regain SC but they won't contribute much even with advanced strats and using the right stick for commands. I set all the AI to fight at range and spread out, yet they still charge in and get one shot by bosses. Just focus on surviving yourself and your AI buddies will slowly res themselves so you that you can heal and regain SC, then they die again and repeat.

 

[flatearthpandas]

Man, I've been digging the game but the war scenes are almost unbearably bad.

 

[yami4ct]

9 hours in and I'm having a ton of fun with the battle system. Love the balance of armatizing to gain back health and take advantage of big opportunities with keeping un-fused to have the advantage and safety of separate characters. Adds quite a bit of battle strategy. The equip system is still quite confusing, but I like where it's going. I also think the localization has been super charming, which is a major plus.

Managed to get a 92 grade on the

Spoiler

Male Assassin

fight. I honestly didn't know it was possible to go that high. I guess playing on Hard helps. That was a real surprise on the results screen.

Is there a legitimate reason Bamco won't allow Screenshots/Video on PS4? I was really disappointed when I couldn't screenshot my results screen there. Seems a bit short sighted.

 

[Nose Master]

Hol-ee shit the co-op camera in this game is unplayable. I saw the videos, but you really need to feel it in action to truly realize how garbage it is. If you don't manually correct it constantly, it's like a five year old with a cell phone camera. Doesn't attempt to focus on either character, just sort of zooms in and out on whatever the fuck. Grass, trees, this random wall, one of the characters back legs, tree again, empty hallway, etc. I didn't think a camera this bad was even possible.

Game is aight. As one of the Vesperia/Symphonia people that plays a Tales once every 5 games or so. Known quantity, nothing special in either the mechanics or the story. Still enjoying it, but I knew what it was.

 

[Vex_]

Played for about 3 hours straight and I have the same opinions as those above.

EXCEPT FOR ONE THING: The story is a clusterfuck. What the fuck IS this shit?! Within the first 30 minutes or so of the game, you are basically told the entire story. Nothing left to the imagination.

It's like:

"you know you are the hero of the game right? This book says so."

"Yea, I know. Oh, and I guess you're my rival."

"Hmph. I guess so"

Then it seems like the game has an identity crisis where it moves to something a little darker with hidden enemies and factions working behind the scenes. But then it's like...they forget about it and "yaaay loong journey coming up". Wtf? You almost died?!!

I don't know why, it just seems all over the place--- ah! The word I am looking for is "pacing". The game has terrible pacing. The direction is just bad.

For the first time, I don't know who I am playing as. It is obvious the main character is Sorey, but who is Sorey? I am not asking for deep characterization or anything. I honestly don't feel like his motive is enough of a driving force worthy to be a main character. (Exploration)


Good news is that the voice acting isn't unbearable (graces nearly killed me), and the dialouge makes me smile -- especially when a certain lady tries to ignore you when you ask questions. It's cute. Especially her trademark hand clap haha!

Tldr; It seems like different people wrote different parts of the story and tried to blend it together.

 

[R0ckman]

For Tales vets, was Lion's Howl suppose to be Beast and they got sloppy with localization consistency? Or is this a kanji spin on ShiShi Senkou in the japanese version and not really the actual move?

 

[aitakute]

For Tales vets, was Lion's Howl suppose to be Beast and they got sloppy with localization consistency? Or is this a kanji spin on ShiShi Senkou in the japanese version and not really the actual move?

No. They have to change its name this time because there's a huge story spoiler behind it. This isn't just a normal artes this game but a super important artes. If they named it Beast then it won't make any sense later in one epic scene in the game

 

[Ashilyn]

Finally got around to starting this today. I'm certainly enjoying the game well enough so far, but why the hell are we back to instrumental OP songs? I thought we were past this T_T

 

[Falk]

Finally got around to starting this today. I'm certainly enjoying the game well enough so far, but why the hell are we back to instrumental OP songs? I thought we were past this T_T

It has vocals in the Japanese version.

 

[Persona7]

Finally got around to starting this today. I'm certainly enjoying the game well enough so far, but why the hell are we back to instrumental OP songs? I thought we were past this T_T

Licensing issues with the singer/owner of the music I am guessing.

 

[kewlmyc]

Rose just joined the team. She already has more personality than Alisha ever did. Why did people get mad again?

 

[Why would you do that?]

I'm playing on Hard, and, well it's actually really easy until you get to bosses for some reason. They can literally use an attack and get rid of over half your health.

That said, I've found strategies that work for me. For one boss, I made my team go full defensive while I was the sole attacker. For another boss, I manually switched to other characters and physically moved them away. (My characters for some strange reason love to walk right up next to the boss, where it can attack it...)

However, I'm currently stuck at a plant boss that's spewing malevolence sort of near the beginning of the game. This plant thing is crazy. It does this really annoying spinning attack that decimates my party's health. Plus, even if I spread my characters out, it very, very annoyingly walks away from me and goes straight to another character, and it's too fast for me to catch with my sword, so it just walks away from me, finds another character, and takes away half their health.

I grinded up two levels (now level 16) and I still can't beat it on Hard...


I should probably just play on Moderate anyway. If it's true that Hard sacrifices EXP for extra gald, then I would definitely prefer the EXP.

 

[phoenix296]

How do you get the Alisha DLC on PS4? Links in OP don't work.

 

[Vex_]

Rose just joined the team. She already has more personality than Alisha ever did. Why did people get mad again?

You were prepared for it, they weren't. Different mindset going into it. I would've been furious had I found out the way they did.

 

[Dice//]

You were prepared for it, they weren't. Different mindset going into it. I would've been furious had I found out the way they did.

Why exactly? Can't you re-asses your position? Like "oh shit, she's gone? ...well she wasn't that interesting anyways". Like nothing was terribly lost in the first place... unless for some reason you like Alisha's pretty predictable personality... I thought Sophie in Graces seemed annoying but now she's one of my favourite's in the series.

Anyways, beat Salamander boss. Probably the hardest so far. Probably doesn't help I know very little about the 'meat' of fusing equipment.

 

[yami4ct]

I'm playing on Hard, and, well it's actually really easy until you get to bosses for some reason. They can literally use an attack and get rid of over half your health.

That said, I've found strategies that work for me. For one boss, I made my team go full defensive while I was the sole attacker. For another boss, I manually switched to other characters and physically moved them away. (My characters for some strange reason love to walk right up next to the boss, where it can attack it...)

However, I'm currently stuck at a plant boss that's spewing malevolence sort of near the beginning of the game. This plant thing is crazy. It does this really annoying spinning attack that decimates my party's health. Plus, even if I spread my characters out, it very, very annoyingly walks away from me and goes straight to another character, and it's too fast for me to catch with my sword, so it just walks away from me, finds another character, and takes away half their health.

I grinded up two levels (now level 16) and I still can't beat it on Hard...


I should probably just play on Moderate anyway. If it's true that Hard sacrifices EXP for extra gald, then I would definitely prefer the EXP.

Hard gives you better chances to drop good items, so that's a good enough reason for me since so much of the leveling is equip skill based and regular levels don't mean much.

For the plant boss I used Earth armor and beat up all the little guys first, as they really took out me and the rest of my party. I then sort of learned the bosses attack pattern. When he was ready to attack, I backed up. When vulnerable, I pummeled him. Also make sure Alisha stays alive as he's weak to physical. Once I got the little mobs down, he died pretty quickly chaining attacks off of Alisha's power hits.

EDIT: Actually, it might've been Fire armor. Try both and see what does the most damage from chaining off of power hits. I remember he died really quick for me. It only took like 2-3 good combos max.

 

[Sandfox]

Rose just joined the team. She already has more personality than Alisha ever did. Why did people get mad again?

I don't think personality or Rose had anything to do with the issue people had.

 

[yami4ct]

I don't think personality or Rose had anything to do with the issue people had.

I'll never understand people getting so hyped about a character pre-release based solely on their design. Alisha's design is good and all, but there's not much else there. I don't like the whole guest character thing in general (especially since you can waste money on equipment that'll be pretty useless once she loves) and I think the way she's written out is dumb, but it's kind of whatever overall. Not affecting my interest in the slightest.

 

[Sandfox]

From my understanding the issue was how it was all handled in addition to certain other issues.

 

[texhnolyze]

I'm kinda stuck at Biroclef Ridge.

Spoiler

I've gone through the cave and went straight to the nearest SW exit, and fought the garuda-like boss shortly after that. However, there's a vine blocking my way from here to the main path, how do I get rid of it? Am I supposed to find another way into the Ridge?

 

[Taruranto]

Considering how divisive the systems are I found these comments by series producer Baba funny:

ocd am cry
http://blog.eu.playstation.com/2015/10/19/tales-of-zestiria-is-out-now-on-ps4-and-ps3/

I can't take anything Baba says seriously, he's so full of bull lol.

 

[Chilikar]

However, I'm currently stuck at a plant boss that's spewing malevolence sort of near the beginning of the game. This plant thing is crazy. It does this really annoying spinning attack that decimates my party's health. Plus, even if I spread my characters out, it very, very annoyingly walks away from me and goes straight to another character, and it's too fast for me to catch with my sword, so it just walks away from me, finds another character, and takes away half their health.

I grinded up two levels (now level 16) and I still can't beat it on Hard....

The worse part about this boss is that he heals everytime he does the spin attack. So if your party doesnt gang up on him you probably won't be able to finish him. That being said I beat him around level 10 so you should be able to beat him now!

 

[PKrockin]

I'm finding myself armitizing with Mikleo much more than the others just because of Elixir Vitae. It almost feels like cheating to have that much nearly instant healing on tap, plus the status cure. Being single target isn't really an issue since the other pair is often armatized anyway.

Even though the AI isn't as good as Hearts R or Xillia, I'm not having to babysit the AI much more because if they die the seraphs will eventually revive by themselves and humans will revive with armatization. It's nice not to have to pause the action and select life bottles so often when I'm getting my ass kicked. Plus coming back to life with armatization is just cool.

 

[R0ckman]

I can't take anything Baba says seriously, he's so full of bull lol.

Tales of Destiny Director's Cut?

 

[flatearthpandas]

Enjoying the humor in the descriptions. Wish there was more if it in the script.

I'm finding myself armitizing with Mikleo much more than the others just because of Elixir Vitae. It almost feels like cheating to have that much nearly instant healing on tap, plus the status cure. Being single target isn't really an issue since the other pair is often armatized anyway.

Yeah, that skill is a life saver for me. I have to say I don't like not having a real healer character though. I beasted with Elise in Xillia and still kept everyone topped off. Doesn't seem to be an equivalent here.

 

[Rhapsody]

Rose just joined the team. She already has more personality than Alisha ever did. Why did people get mad again?

Because it'd be nice to not lose characters, imo. I like her character design more than her personality, but I don't think her character's that far off from the usual Tales.

Rose really is fun though. I'd say she's more fun to play as than Alisha.

Tales of Destiny Director's Cut?

And we still never got Blue Earth in the DC :/

 

[flatearthpandas]

Without spoiling, can anyone let me know when you're supposed to get the ability to lift rocks on the field? Think i might have missed it since i can dash already.

 

[Anteater]

it's that time again, gearing up my characters before setting off

 

[niahbvgpq]

I'm kinda stuck at Biroclef Ridge.

Spoiler

I've gone through the cave and went straight to the nearest SW exit, and fought the garuda-like boss shortly after that. However, there's a vine blocking my way from here to the main path, how do I get rid of it? Am I supposed to find another way into the Ridge?

press square to cut it with your sword

 

[Jisgsaw]

Anyone knows what the "10K Bonus" battle action does exactly?
The description isn't really clear...

 

[texhnolyze]

press square to cut it with your sword

Yeah, I've figured that out after I posted it earlier. I'm so dumb lol.

 

[Fuu]

How do you get the Alisha DLC on PS4? Links in OP don't work.

Here:

PS4, NA:
https://store.playstation.com/#!/en...tion/cid=UP0700-CUSA02510_00-AE000ZZ000000008

PS4 / PS3, everywhere else:
https://www.bandainamcoent.eu/vipco...ria-alisha-s-story-additional-chapter-ps4-ps3

 

[Vex_]

How do you play as other characters IN world?...or can you not?

 

[tauke]

Just completed the sewer dungeon and getting the hang of the combat... maybe not. Feels like the combat tutorial is mainly through text info dump which is my main gripe with it.

Also I haven't played any Tales release in between Vesperia and Zestiria but is the environment design is that bland after Vesperia?

Feels like Zestiria world is like made out of repetitive assets/texture tiling and super duper huge space for unknown reasons. Witcher 3 really spoils me on how CDProjekt RED can create this organic world building to scale and no loading screen when entering indoor and outdoor area.

Other than that, I'm liking the voice acting and interaction between the main characters. Typical JRPG tropes that I love a lot lol.

 

[PKrockin]

Without spoiling, can anyone let me know when you're supposed to get the ability to lift rocks on the field? Think i might have missed it since i can dash already.

You have the wind dash d-pad action? You should get the earth d-pad action within two hours or so. I was wondering the same thing, but you can't miss it.

 

[Dark_castle]

Tales of Destiny Director's Cut?

Wasn't even localized.

 

[Why would you do that?]

Hard gives you better chances to drop good items, so that's a good enough reason for me since so much of the leveling is equip skill based and regular levels don't mean much.

For the plant boss I used Earth armor and beat up all the little guys first, as they really took out me and the rest of my party. I then sort of learned the bosses attack pattern. When he was ready to attack, I backed up. When vulnerable, I pummeled him. Also make sure Alisha stays alive as he's weak to physical. Once I got the little mobs down, he died pretty quickly chaining attacks off of Alisha's power hits.

EDIT: Actually, it might've been Fire armor. Try both and see what does the most damage from chaining off of power hits. I remember he died really quick for me. It only took like 2-3 good combos max.

I figured out a good strategy, partially thanks to you, so thanks! I had Alysha attack close quarters with me which greatly minimized the boss running away to attack my casting and healing team mates.

The words "Whew, I think it's time to take a breather somewhere!" have never been more true, thanks Sorey.

The worse part about this boss is that he heals everytime he does the spin attack. So if your party doesnt gang up on him you probably won't be able to finish him. That being said I beat him around level 10 so you should be able to beat him now!

Wow, well maybe I just suck, lol. But then again, and this hurts to admit, I do play on semi-auto, haha.

Though I think that part of it is that I try extra hard to not have any of my party members to not get KO'd at all, because that's a really giant grade penalty.

 

[Shepard]

Does everyone get the same amount of xp in battle even if they don't participate? I know everyone gets at least some Xp.

 

[flatearthpandas]

You have the wind dash d-pad action? You should get the earth d-pad action within two hours or so. I was wondering the same thing, but you can't miss it.

Well I fought that

Spoiler

knight

motherfucker for about two hours before I finally won (trying to get gud playing on high difficulty) but sounds like I should be close. Good to know, thanks!

 

[Fuu]

I got the

Spoiler

Fusion Talent

for Lailah while eating a cheap dish at Shaorune Inn in Ladylake. I didn't know you could get those from dishes, I'm glad I've been having them eat on the regular whenever I stop by.

And lol @ Lailah in the skit where Alisha explains about the transparent parts of her armor. It's hilarious how much fun she has with their relationships.