I really don't like how the game floods you with side quests that you really aren't prepared for when you pick them up. The Howling Season quest is far more difficult than where you're at when you first pick it up. There's also the quest that wants you to meet a guy on a bridge that you're not allowed to go to at the time. I've had quite a few instances where I've run to a spot on a quest, done a few steps and only found out later that I can't do the rest. It's a minor complaint, but I've felt I've wasted at least an hour so far running to quests I can't do.
Levels are kind of useless in this game, but the quest log could really use some sort of quest rating that gives you an idea of where you should be.
The trolls outside of Gododdin and the Wraiths in the caverns around there are absolute assholes when you first meet them. The Wraiths are easy one on one because you can easily interrupt their casting, but when you get like 5 of them and they keep spreading out they can just chew you up. Ended up just running anytime I saw more than 3.
Can someone tell me where the fuck you are meant to go in the Alisha DLC ruins (the big one). I'm heading between floors 5 - 7 constantly and can find nothing. I've picked up every single treasure due to it and I can't find out how to get to the other side of the area (with the only area that still says ???).
this ruin is too big and frustrating
edit: Never mind,
I missed this one fucking purple thing on the wall.
Can someone tell me where the fuck you are meant to go in the Alisha DLC ruins (the big one). I'm heading between floors 5 - 7 constantly and can find nothing. I've picked up every single treasure due to it and I can't find out how to get to the other side of the area (with the only area that still says ???).
Can someone tell me where the fuck you are meant to go in the Alisha DLC ruins (the big one). I'm heading between floors 5 - 7 constantly and can find nothing. I've picked up every single treasure due to it and I can't find out how to get to the other side of the area (with the only area that still says ???).
this ruin is too big and frustrating
edit: Never mind,
I missed this one fucking purple thing on the wall.
Wrapped up the game this morning. It had some problems, but i enjoyed it. Final boss was a bit easy, but overall the game was good. Now to get some more grade and get some bonuses.
What are some good grade bonuses to get on a second playthrough? I know levels dont matter too much, but would it still be wise for the exp boosts?
beat the game earlier today
gonna do Alisha DLC then finally play Tales of Hearts R
the horrible AI even with those custom strategy menu choices from gamefaqs makes me not want to do a second playthrough
hopefully Beseria's AI isnt this horrible
i wonder if someone could mod the PC versions AI to not suck?
The more I play this game, the more bizarre this Rose/Alisha thing seems to me.
Like, I understand that Alisha has a very specific role in the story as opposed to Rose, but when considering that if you're writing a story, you have the opportunity to work backwards just as easily as forwards in most cases, they easily could have just... written Alisha to be a better character. I know that she couldn't fuse, but the game sets it up as if Alisha is progressing in her spiritual awareness or whatever, and then it's like "nope, sorry, she's gone from the story for several hours. Take this other character instead." It's just so weird how the party just almost completely forgets about Alisha despite the precarious situation she's in and also that we've at least spent 10 hours of real game time with her. I like Rose and everything, but this all just stinks to me. There had to be some rewrite or some behind-the-scene politics on this one.
beat the game earlier today
gonna do Alisha DLC then finally play Tales of Hearts R
the horrible AI even with those custom strategy menu choices from gamefaqs makes me not want to do a second playthrough
hopefully Beseria's AI isnt this horrible
i wonder if someone could mod the PC versions AI to not suck?
Just started the water dungeon. Walking around and stuff, open a door, see two chests, take one step and immediately transported to the beginning. Lmao.
Just started the water dungeon. Walking around and stuff, open a door, see two chests, take one step and immediately transported to the beginning. Lmao.
Easily the most frustrating dungeon in the game if you're not super careful.
Always check the layout of a room on the map before you go in. If it's not a corridor, a square, or a room with a staircase, there's likely eyes around. Time it so that you turn on your bubble just before you walk in front of the eye, because it'll wear off if you do it too soon.
Just started the water dungeon. Walking around and stuff, open a door, see two chests, take one step and immediately transported to the beginning. Lmao.
Just completed that one about a half hour ago. It's not too terrible as long as you stay vigilant for eyes before you run into various rooms. I was expecting it to be a lot worse based on reviews and posts in this thread. It's definitely obnoxious, though.
I really don't like how the game floods you with side quests that you really aren't prepared for when you pick them up. The Howling Season quest is far more difficult than where you're at when you first pick it up. There's also the quest that wants you to meet a guy on a bridge that you're not allowed to go to at the time. I've had quite a few instances where I've run to a spot on a quest, done a few steps and only found out later that I can't do the rest. It's a minor complaint, but I've felt I've wasted at least an hour so far running to quests I can't do.
Levels are kind of useless in this game, but the quest log could really use some sort of quest rating that gives you an idea of where you should be.
I just hit the bridge one. I hadn't really bothered to mess with sidequests because I figured I'd just focus mostly on the main story for my first playthrough. Finally decided to do some and get to the bridge and was like welp. Guess I might as well stick with my original plan.
Ok so now that I've finished Tales of Zestiria and the Alisha DLC, here are my thoughts. Story stuff will be at the bottom in spoiler tags .
I'll start off by saying that the English dub and the localization as a whole feels like one of the strongest in the Tales series. I really enjoyed the localization and all the voices.
The battle system was fun mostly but I HATE the fact that bosses (mostly, some monsters do this too) just suddenly stop being effected by your combo and then attack you. You can do the perfect combo and it just stops working because the boss decides "Enough, time to wreck you". The upside is that when the combo stops working, you're almost certainly going to get hurt so it's a good time to guard and be ready to dodge/sidestep.
I also like the fusion system but at the same time I don't like it. It's fun but it also discourages anything more than 2 player and even then, when you have only one human in the party, you either don't fuse unless you need to or you play SP and ask your MP partner to take a backseat for a bit.
I dislike the equipment fusion system. Also it's very annoying that you can't see your skill panel when fusing equipment.
The equipment system is just annoying in general to me. I didn't upgrade my weapon much throughout the game because some of the stats went down too much and some of the skills weren't great on what may be better weapons. You have to pretty much go grinding on monsters for weapons to fuse until the "Item Ordering" skill unlocks. I didn't grind though, I just didn't upgrade my weapon from the Calcite sword+2 (which I got early on enough) until near the end of the game.
Maybe I didn't understand it well enough but I just didn't like the equipment system. Though I appreciate that they tried something new with it rather than doing the usual "buy the strongest weapon at the next town" like usual.
I loved that they had a system that allowed you to chain one hidden arte to another. I hope they bring that back in some fashion in the next game. You get access to a lot more hidden artes (and seraphic artes) even if they aren't set in your artes menu thanks to that .
Now the camera... oh the camera. What a wonderful cluster fuck you turned out to be.
Now I played mostly in MP but during the times where I had to play it in SP meant I did experience the SP camera at times.
In SP mode, the camera focuses on the player, in MP, it focuses on the enemy. It sucks regardless but it sucks even more in MP mode.
Because of the way MP camera works, you are forced to be on the same enemy mostly because otherwise, anyone that isn't focused on the target that P1 is focused on can easily be pushed off screen. Semi-Auto helps a TON here due to the auto running up to enemy thing.
Of course in both modes, you'll run into the narrow spaces of annoyance meaning that the camera will inevitably end up with you looking at a monsters back or crotch or whatever and you can't even see your character and just end up hitting artes and hoping that you're hitting the boss (Semi-auto helps but if the enemy moves a little but your camera is still stuck at a wall, you may be hitting mid-air).
The funniest instances is when you get hit between a door and are fighting between rooms. The camera trying to deal with that was funny the first few times I saw it happen. Luckily it's rare that I was in that situation.
The fields were beautiful mostly, far better than Xillia's fields (and I didn't mind them as much as others did). The dungeons however felt too damned big at times and some were just boring. I did appreciate dungeons having much more in the way of puzzles than some of the more recent entries.
As a side note before I move onto story stuff. The game ONLY takes place in the Glenwood continent. It feels weird since normally we're traveling all over the world but in this case, we only traveled a small part of it. Feels weird.
Now story stuff: Overall I enjoyed the story. And the characters were all likable.
Everything below here is spoilers for the whole story/Alisha DLC so be warned.
The story is pretty strong for the first half of the game. The last third is where it feels rushed.
Right around when Rose goes off to Pendrago and we're asked to go to 3 different places is where it really feels rushed and it feels like the story is trying to tie up all the loose threads quickly.
The antagonists feel really not memorable. Heldalf is the only one that feels memorable but even then he's probably one of my least favourite Antagonists.
The storyline with Dezel feels odd as well. Very confusing and the whole scene with his death felt very odd/confusing to me. I understood it well enough I think but still. The best part of that was the Rose/Dezel scene as he disappeared. ;_;
Also anything to do with Alisha/Maltron felt disjointed and disconnected. Alisha just suddenly leaves and everyone practically forgets about her for a good portion of the game. (though the game did throw a self aware skit when you get Rose about her being an Alisha replacement).
Then Maltron comes up and says she is working with the Lord of Calamity (who you never see them together at all) and says the princess has outlived her usefulness. And then you go and check and Maltron is just taking a 'wait and see' approach instead.
And then suddenly near the end it's like "Welp, we better go tell Alisha and tie up this loose end"
It all felt very disconnected/disjointed to me.
The ending of the game also felt rushed. Not sure how else to describe it but it felt rushed to me.
Also Edna's brother thing should have totally been a main quest. It was mentioned in the main quest but never brought up again until near the end as a side quest.
Overall I enjoyed the story but these things above does hurt my opinion on it. Still I enjoyed it overall.
Now for the Alisha DLC
The skits were fun, the character interaction was fun, the story itself doesn't feel like it needed to exist and the big dungeon in there sucked.
What the hell was with Lunarre as well? It feels like it's setting up for a sequel that probably won't happen (especially after the reaction in Japan to the game). Hell, take out all the Lunarre scenes in it and I'd say the story in the Alisha DLC was good. But it's just 'alright' to me and that's thanks to the character interaction/skits. (also I loved Alisha's costume she got there )
Also why didn't they question why those two monsters (the final boss of the DLC) were there? Didn't think they it was suspicious that strong Hellions suddenly appeared there.
So yeah, that's my thoughts on the story.
Overall, I'd say it's a strong entry in the Tales of series. A lot of issues but a strong entry none the less.
Just started the water dungeon. Walking around and stuff, open a door, see two chests, take one step and immediately transported to the beginning. Lmao.
Just completed that one about a half hour ago. It's not too terrible as long as you stay vigilant for eyes before you run into various rooms. I was expecting it to be a lot worse based on reviews and posts in this thread. It's definitely obnoxious, though.
Quick step whenever he does his arte, after he says something, remember to not attack until he does both his artes as he does them one after the other.
Besides that, just keep quick stepping and attacking. Maybe use an apple gel or two if you have trouble.
Not much else I can say beyond try to keep him in the middle/wait til he comes to you.
Finally plated the game, but I can't complain enough about that stupid AI, I've seen them running like headless chicken in focus attack mode instead of helping building combos. (never reached that 150 combo requirements for a battle act), running in the wall or stuck on ennemies for like 10 sec.
Well, I'm kinda glad I'm done with this game now, I also don't like how few artes there is compared to Graces (as the battle system is roughly similar), the Mystic Artes don't feel amazing too compared to Blast Calibur, otherwise I liked the story, battle system and the musics.
Learn to quick evade. And start your combo with a hidden arte if he's using Lion's Howl or that spinning, flaming attack or you won't stagger him because hidden artes beat martial artes.
Is it worth it to play on Hard? Do the benefits of item drops outweigh the loss of exp? Gald seems plentiful enough as it is, so that increase doesn't seem as useful...
Who knows? We've not heard anything in a long while and for all we know, plans may have changed after the reaction to Zesty in Japan (since they come first to Bamco's Tales of people). Maybe taking out elements that they were going to reuse from Zesty and putting in others?
Well apparently Zestiria was outsourced (and somewhat low budget) while Berseria is in house? Corrige me if I'm wrong but the next game should be better overall.
Well apparently Zestiria was outsourced (and somewhat low budget) while Berseria is in house? Corrige me if I'm wrong but the next game should be better overall.
Uh, not that I know of? Zesty (the original) was done in-house with some outsourcing which AFAIK is the same for most every game. There is always some level of outsourcing.
And we know very little about how Berseria is developing.
Hey guys im stuck i guess? I'm in Mariland and i just got done with that museum. I left out of there after the boss fight and talking to the little guy but now im not sure what to do. I cant talk to the little guy again and there is no star leading anywhere.
By the way, I'm basing my low budget argument on :
- Low amounts of Artes
- Low amounts of Characters
- Low amount of Locations (I can finish the story from start to finish in 4 hours skipping cutscenes)
- Re-ussed assets (Sorey having some Asbel artes, lol)
- Some plot holes (vilain spoiler
Symonne is the only Dark Seraphin and no mention of Light ones?
)
- Some rushed parts (vilain spoiler
Lord of Calaminty being randomly on field for the sake of advancing the story
/ multiple mention of a castle in Pendrago
but nono, you'll never enter it as it don't exist in-game
The more I play this game, the more bizarre this Rose/Alisha thing seems to me.
Like, I understand that Alisha has a very specific role in the story as opposed to Rose, but when considering that if you're writing a story, you have the opportunity to work backwards just as easily as forwards in most cases, they easily could have just... written Alisha to be a better character. I know that she couldn't fuse, but the game sets it up as if Alisha is progressing in her spiritual awareness or whatever, and then it's like "nope, sorry, she's gone from the story for several hours. Take this other character instead." It's just so weird how the party just almost completely forgets about Alisha despite the precarious situation she's in and also that we've at least spent 10 hours of real game time with her. I like Rose and everything, but this all just stinks to me. There had to be some rewrite or some behind-the-scene politics on this one.
Hey guys im stuck i guess? I'm in Mariland and i just got done with that museum. I left out of there after the boss fight and talking to the little guy but now im not sure what to do. I cant talk to the little guy again and there is no star leading anywhere.
Keep looking around the town for those dark cloudy things to use your flame field skill on. It took me a while to find one section of town I'd apparently missed it in.
Keep looking around the town for those dark cloudy things to use your flame field skill on. It took me a while to find one section of town I'd apparently missed it in.
Well apparently Zestiria was outsourced (and somewhat low budget) while Berseria is in house? Corrige me if I'm wrong but the next game should be better overall.
Well apparently Zestiria was outsourced (and somewhat low budget) while Berseria is in house? Corrige me if I'm wrong but the next game should be better overall.
oh. Now I feel less guilty about not really liking it. The equipment system is straight-up garbage, and will prevent me from buying any future Tales game it's used in.
Well apparently Zestiria was outsourced (and somewhat low budget) while Berseria is in house? Corrige me if I'm wrong but the next game should be better overall.
Zestiria was "in house" as well, it just had the biggest involvement of external companies in a Tales game yet (while the Xillia's had nearly none). We don't know yet if Berseria will change again or if Tales is becoming more of an outsourced series as the previous in house Tales staff may be mostly gone.
hopefully Japan let them know how horrible the AI was and they improve it in Berseria, and never use that skill system ever again
id like for the first Tales game with a female protagonist to not suck thanks
Playing with a DS4 on PC, I can't seem to wrap my head around X (A) being Artes, which I haven't gotten one of yet, and O (B) being regular attacks. The second I get into the battle I start mashing X.
There are rumors that it takes place in the same world as Zestiria, because ToZ is only on Glenwood while ToB takes place on the Midgard "continent" (they don't describe it as a world)
Take them with a grain of salt though, it's just empty speculation at this point
scene is the best scene in the game. Too bad it's fucking shitty when compared to the fact that everything leading up to it narratively is so horrendously done.
Poor Lailah she is getting left behind in levels cause she ends up dead right before the boss dies and doesnt get to level. Hopefully i can catch her up later :/
scene is the best scene in the game. Too bad it's fucking shitty when compared to the fact that everything leading up to it narratively is so horrendously done.
That's probably been my biggest beef with the latest Tales games. Great ideas, but the narrative is absolute garbage. Xillia has a great story marred by bogus elements and bad presentation.
That's probably been my biggest beef with the latest Tales games. Great ideas, but the narrative is absolute garbage. Xillia has a great story marred by bogus elements and bad presentation.
Slightly on topic. Now that I've finished Zestiria (and don't plan on playing it again in the near future) I plan on selling it while the resale value is still high.
I have a copy of Tales of Hearts R to go through at some point. Is it better or worse than Zestiria? And should I play it immediately after, or wait a while?
Slightly on topic. Now that I've finished Zestiria (and don't plan on playing it again in the near future) I plan on selling it while the resale value is still high.
I have a copy of Tales of Hearts R to go through at some point. Is it better or worse than Zestiria? And should I play it immediately after, or wait a while?
Hearts R was far worse of what I played, as a very casual player of the series. I think the only one I dropped faster was Symphonia: Dawn of a New World.
I don't particularly care for Zestiria, but it's still better than the completely bland and flavorless Hearts R. I beat that game earlier this year and barely even remember anything about it.
(I had to check a walkthrough)
