• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Tales of Zestiria |OT| - Sorey, Modders did what Bamcouldn't!

D

Delio

Member
Bladenic said:
There's no judgment involved. The water veil lasts two eye views. So two squares. All the floor have squares, so it's not hard to judge. You just have to be careful about making sure to know where every eye is. And quick save.
Click to expand...

Yeah I figured that out pretty quickly. Still a pretty wtf dungeon. Boss was cake tho.
 
Y

yami4ct

Member
Fuu said:
Any reason you didn't just fast travel to the bottom? That's what I did after I was done with it since I had gotten all the chests on my way up.
Click to expand...

I assumed Fast Travel was blocked off as it was in the other trials after the fight. I guess I was wrong, haha.
 
K

Kasumin

Member
OniBarubary said:
They sure do kill a lot of kids in this game
Click to expand...

Same main scenario writer of Xillia 2, from what I understand. Dude just loves his cheap appeals to drama and try-hard dark and edgy plot lines.

bobohoro said:
So, uh, those villains in this game, man that's some deep characterization going on there. Close-to-end spoilers:

Maltran was well fleshed out. The only two things I remember about her are that she was Alisha's teacher and that she put a long stick in Asura's Sword to make it look kinda dumb. That whole heel turn of hers, the sword that cleaves worlds amounting to nothing more than ending up as a elonged toothpick and the throwaway character development of Alisha in the process are really...well, whatever.
Same thing with the furball in Rose's guild.
Or the dark seraphim loli.
Heck, even the Lord Of Calamity has a paper-thin backstory, told through some retro filtered standstills and his actions and presence never make much sense.
Best villain is still the fake shepard. Whatever happened to that dude after his antihero-fuckery with the pope?

Zestiria easily ranks among the bottom of the pile of the Tales games in terms of story. And that's saying something.
Click to expand...

Yeeeeeah. It's a huge letdown. I think back on
Van
in Abyss and it just makes me sad. Even Xillia 2 had better villains...
 
F

Fuu

Formerly Alaluef (not Aladuf)
yami4ct said:
I assumed Fast Travel was blocked off as it was in the other trials after the fight. I guess I was wrong, haha.
Click to expand...
Yeah it actually works in all the saves you reach in the Shrines as long as you have the Lord of the Land unlocked in the respective region + the Traveler's Repose boon activated. For the Wind Shrine you need to have
Morgrin blessing Pendrago
. I made sure to do the Lords sidequests as soon as they were available because of that.
 
O

OniBarubary

Banned
Kasumin said:
Same main scenario writer of Xillia 2, from what I understand. Dude just loves his cheap appeals to drama and try-hard dark and edgy plot lines.
Click to expand...

Killing kids isn't edgy or try hard. I don't particularly see how it was handled poorly in either this or Xillia 2.
 
SolVanderlyn

SolVanderlyn

Thanos acquires the fully powered Infinity Gauntlet in The Avengers: Infinity War, but loses when all the superheroes team up together to stop him.
Are there images of all the alt costumes anywhere? At the very end now and deciding if I want to do this side quest for Sorey's alternate colors or not.
 
ULTROS!

ULTROS!

People seem to like me because I am polite and I am rarely late. I like to eat ice cream and I really enjoy a nice pair of slacks.
SolVanderlyn said:
Each third of the game seems like it's trying to do something totally different. I know Tales games frequently have "arcs" where there's two or three parts to the story, but they all feel so thinly connected in Zestiria.

Story spoilers below:

Part 1: Sorey becomes the Shepard. Alisha is squire. You start sheparding and there's some background story about Hyland and its internal corruption. Standard story fare, nothing off about this part except maybe Lunarre and his people eating being dropped entirely and not picked up on again until way later. Same with Edna and Eizen. And Zaveid's intro, now that you mention Eizen... none of these plot threads are even hinted at until almost the very end of the game.

Part 2: Alisha leaves, Rose suddenly becomes a different character entirely and takes her place. Dezel comes with her for ominous reasons. You can tell the story's structure is waning when the game throws about seven sidequests at you at once, all of which tread a thin line between unrelated story vignette and integral to the main plot of the story, the iris gem quests being a good example. Or finding a new hideout for the Scattered Bones - lol woops, nevermind, the hideout is no good and they're going to go, um... back to where they were, I guess? None of the sidequests feel fleshed out enough. There's a lot of lead-ins to things, with the constant hints to Dezel's past and the young Emperor of Rolance, and the pacing of the game changes. The lead-ins are fine here, but fall apart in the last third, so the game is setting you up for disappointment in this regard. The main story is still good here, though. The elemental trials are really nice and the character interaction reaches its height here.

Part 3: Here's where everything falls apart, starting with Dezel's death and flashback scene. This is the game's finale, where we expect to see the resolution to the plot threads hinted at earlier, but they are all - and I mean literally all of them - rushed to the point where they feel inconsequential. Dezel's flashback doesn't really make any sense, who is that other guy, how does he know Zavied, how does Zaveid know Eizen, who even is Zaveid and how did he get that gun and if it's so special why did he waste it fighting Sorey for NO REASON, why is Zaveid wearing Dezel's hat ("let me fill the Dezel shaped hole in your party" - LOL), why is Eizen a random sidequest you get from sleeping at an inn and how come we don't see his seraphim form, who is loli girl and why is she the only dark seraphim, what exactly did Heldalf and her do in between being cursed and becoming an evil lion man, the list goes on. Then there's every villain that didn't get their chance to shine getting thrown at you in a gauntlet of "villains we forgot about" boss fights with very little exposition or resolution. Oh and by the way, did you know Mikleo was a human baby and his uncle was the previous shepard? Because the game does a terrible job of telling you that.

The world, characters and plot are all actually very good in this game, but the story's execution becomes progressively worse until the end of the game.
Click to expand...

I wish Tales of Berseria:

- Will have the same transition system as Zestiria, I kind of like it
- Music will be by Go Shiina
- Battle system exactly like Graces
- Will have a story and world as small as Graces. It may be simple and plain but it's fleshed out and currently the most cohesive Tales story for PS3 onwards.
 
Y

yami4ct

Member
ULTROS! said:
I wish Tales of Berseria:

- Will have the same transition system as Zestiria, I kind of like it
- Music will be by Go Shiina
- Battle system exactly like Graces
- Will have a story and world as small as Graces. It may be simple and plain but it's fleshed out and currently the most cohesive Tales story for PS3 onwards.
Click to expand...

Tales of Graces having a small story? What? It has probably the most stupidly complex story of any Tales game. That's part of the reason the story is so bad.
 
ULTROS!

ULTROS!

People seem to like me because I am polite and I am rarely late. I like to eat ice cream and I really enjoy a nice pair of slacks.
yami4ct said:
Tales of Graces having a small story? What? It has probably the most stupidly complex story of any Tales game. That's part of the reason the story is so bad.
Click to expand...

It's not so ambitious and differently approached as compared to say Xillia and Zestiria but it didn't feel rushed nor did I remember many loose ends towards the end.

How's the story complex compared to Zestiria and Xillia? It was easy to follow.
 
L

lucablight

Member
Tales of Zestiria has the blandest story and cast in a Tales game for some time (especially Sorey). The skits aren't all that funny or clever and the characters feel like they're Saturday morning cartoon level. What the hell happened? The only saving grace is Edna. She is fantastic and the only character who has an interesting personality.
 
G

Gattsu25

Banned
Gonna post some of my recent screens using that stupid as hell ReShade/MasterEffect profile I mentioned before.


22173763684_c8fa1f80e4_o.png

22807709541_95189b2c43_o.png

22608530520_299a912435_o.png

22173764624_abd28253ab_o.png

22378128938_9392c713f8_o.png

22770517026_35662ef0e6_o.png
 
D

devious.one

Member
Beat the main story + Alisha's DLC tonight, was a good ride. Edna, Go Shiina music and the battle system alone allowed me to enjoy this game way more than I enjoyed Xillia.

Once I got going and started taking on a lot of the Mutated Hellions, I started to really appreciate the Human/Seraphim Armitization system. Not to say the AI couldn't have been boatloads better, but giving them strategy commands with the right analog stick worked decent enough on Moderate for 80% of the Mutated Hellions.
 
M

MCD

Junior Member
Vaettir said:
Not sure what's wrong. Here's what mine looks like on 10240. Do you have multiple controller drivers installed? Happen to reinstall the adaptor drivers?

http://puu.sh/l9xjC/9f245b841c.png
http://puu.sh/l9xkR/68afe8c1b2.png
Click to expand...

Avalt said:
Xbox Elite Controller works fine for me with the wireless adapter.

I got latest version of Windows 10 (retail).
The adapter driver version is 20.24.34.491, which installed automatically for me. Everything worked out of the box for me, didn't have to download any drivers or stuff for either the adapter or controller.
Click to expand...

I am very stupid. I just needed to set the Xbox controller via the game menu lol.

As for FF13, I will post my fix in that thread.
 
SolVanderlyn

SolVanderlyn

Thanos acquires the fully powered Infinity Gauntlet in The Avengers: Infinity War, but loses when all the superheroes team up together to stop him.
To quote Edna: "Wow. wow."

When saving your New Game +, BE SURE TO CHOOSE AN EMPTY SAVE FILE. I chose one and then decided I didn't want to overwrite that save, so I backed out - but it didn't give me the option to choose a different file, and brought me back to the title screen without saving.

Ending spoilers:

Adult Mikleo looks awesome as hell
 
Y

ys45

Member
Ok I must be doing something wrong, guys I need some advice because I'm seriously not enjoying the game right now and I need some help understanding how the damn skills system works .
Enemies are 15-20 lvls over me and almost one shot me or my party AI (party currently 29) All the equipment I find is a downgrade like 90% of the time.

I try my best to exploit the weak point system with the elements but there is so much little details that I feel overwhelmed .
I tried to get a full line of the skills with different equipment but so far I only manage to get Sorey and Mikleo a vertical line which give +20 to all stats , I also tried to use fusion but did not get much result .

Leveling seems kind of useless and is slow compared to other tales games .
Any advice or link to a good guide are welcome !
 
K

Kasumin

Member
OniBarubary said:
Killing kids isn't edgy or try hard. I don't particularly see how it was handled poorly in either this or Xillia 2.
Click to expand...

I'm not saying that alone is edgy or try hard. It's the presentation. And in this game and Xillia 2, the party's reactions just didn't feel real to me. The drama feels so cheap and contrived. There's a difference between meaningful sad scenes and trite ones.
 
B

Bladenic

Member
LOVING the desert area, especially playing the Wind Seraph. Speaking of, anyone who got the trophy for playing as all characters, how much time is required? Any way to check?
 
P

Papercuts

fired zero bullets in the orphanage.
I'm finding this late game stuff to be annoying as hell. I need to track stuff down in a bunch of different areas, and the advice from Rose is all over the place. Sometimes it lets you know exactly what area something is, othertimes it's just "yeah, go to the village or horsa!"...which was some random area in the middle of a desert. If you forget the context some of these quests popped up in, trying to figure out where these places are can be a giant pain in the ass.
 
DR2K

DR2K

Banned
Only 15 hours in it, but it really feels like they replaced Alicia for no reason. Her departure was so abrupt. Not that I don't like Rose, but Alicia is definitely the better character of the 2.
 
A

Alucrid

Banned
so need some help with this late game fight...

dueling rose and zaveid..like what the hell, it's impossible to beat them for me. i even knocked down the difficulty and they just keep me stun locked. if only the actual ai was this good.
 
O

OniBarubary

Banned
Kasumin said:
I'm not saying that alone is edgy or try hard. It's the presentation. And in this game and Xillia 2, the party's reactions just didn't feel real to me. The drama feels so cheap and contrived. There's a difference between meaningful sad scenes and trite ones.
Click to expand...

I'll be honest and say I don't remember much of Xillia 2's usage of this unless you mean
the little girl you pack around with you
in which case, I disagree as she was one of the most realistic little girls I've seen in a video game (acts her age, has reactions to things that are accurate for her age, etc) and the casts reaction to what is essentially
willfully killing a child
. I found very little about those scenes trite at all. Then again, while Xillia 2 had some GLARING problems I also think it was one of the more effective Tales games in evoking genuine reactions from me.

As far as this game is concerned, I think I like how they handled it too. Specifically it seems to be "just another shitty thing" that happens. They don't make it melodramatic or focus on it. They pretty much just go "Well this is fucking terrible. Humanity sure does blow" as they do with every shit thing they see. I liked how offhandedly it was handled. It seemed more realistic to me than the gnashing of teeth and wailing about shit and whatnot most games treat it as. No swearing revenge, no crying, just them being like "This is terrible."


As far as the Water Trial goes, I'm pretty sure they made it so repetitive and backtracky because they wanted you to stick around for the best music track in the game. Holy shit.
 
F

Freezasaurus

Member
Alucrid said:
so need some help with this late game fight...

dueling rose and zaveid..like what the hell, it's impossible to beat them for me. i even knocked down the difficulty and they just keep me stun locked. if only the actual ai was this good.
Click to expand...

I was lvl 85 at the time and even I gave up.
 
A

Absol

Member
Alucrid said:
so need some help with this late game fight...

dueling rose and zaveid..like what the hell, it's impossible to beat them for me. i even knocked down the difficulty and they just keep me stun locked. if only the actual ai was this good.
Click to expand...

I just equipped skills that reduced mystic artes usage, went in full BG, then I spammed mystic artes until one of them died.
 
SolVanderlyn

SolVanderlyn

Thanos acquires the fully powered Infinity Gauntlet in The Avengers: Infinity War, but loses when all the superheroes team up together to stop him.
Eidjinn said:
Is this game's ending bad?
Click to expand...
The ending sequence was one of the better parts of the story, IMO.

Speaking of story, I'm going to go ahead and list everything hinted at but not shown or explained. I kind of made this post earlier but let's really pick it apart:

-Dezel's mentor (henceforth referred to as "hat man") and his significance to Dezel, the Scattered Bones, and possibly Zaveid
-The existence of other seraphim (Symonne appears to be a dark seraphim who uses illusions)
-The existence of other lands and continents (Mentions of "the northerners" in the Michael flashback, snowy and volcanic lands to the north)
-Zaveid is a big one, he appears to be even older than Lailah. He mentions he went on a journey with other comrades in the Legendary Wyvern quest, and that the wyvern you just killed was one of them. Eizen was probably another. Lailah has been all over the place with previous shepards and seemed to know nothing about this. Zaveid also knows Dezel somehow and has Siegfried, a very unique gun that allowed Sorey beat Maotelus of all people. His theme song has him referred to as "the exile". He's got a history, and we don't ever learn it.
-Lailah's journey with the previous shepard and the terms of the oath she made
-Edna's brother... it's not necessary, per say, to show what he was like but his story arc is heavily underwritten.
-Everyone knows about The Lord of Calamity, but how? What has he been doing since he got corrupted? Can others see him?
-The previous boss of the Bones. Lunarre's history with the Bones. I'm kind of nitpicking here but this was glossed over.
-The Emperor of Rolance. We really never get to see him? There's a whole succession story going on we get one or two lines about that's never touched upon again.
-Likewise, the internal corruption of Hyland is never really resolved or mentioned again.
-The other four seraphim leaders are never seen, and Maotelus himself never speaks or does anything outside of armatize with Heldalf. You would think he would at least get a speaking role.
-What, precisely, happens to Sorey at the end of the game?

I feel like Zestiria presented us with a very rich world that remains heavily unexplored in terms of its history and characters. We get a very linear glimpse of it. I know it sounds like I'm saying the story is bad, but it's not really bad, there's just a lot of poorly executed plot points and squandered potential in it.
 
B

Bladenic

Member
Surprised I haven't seen more anger directed at the late game fetch quest, which could take a long time or a lot of gald for traveling if you hadn't been obtaining the iris gems as you went along.
 
P

Papercuts

fired zero bullets in the orphanage.
Bladenic said:
Surprised I haven't seen more anger directed at the late game fetch quest, which could take a long time or a lot of gald for traveling if you hadn't been obtaining the iris gems as you went along.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it got to me earlier. Glad i'm done with it now atleast.
 
S

StarSketch

Banned
Bladenic said:
Surprised I haven't seen more anger directed at the late game fetch quest, which could take a long time or a lot of gald for traveling if you hadn't been obtaining the iris gems as you went along.
Click to expand...

I always had money to use the save point warp, so I'm not sure where the complaint about it is from. Then again, I rarely did fusion, and when I did it was usually with Lailah's Support Skill, so....

Definitely going to mess around with fusion more on my next playthrough, whenever that is.
 
Y

yami4ct

Member
Beat Tiamat today. Surprisingly easy fight. Still, I found it to be really fun. I like how it rewarded you for using all the systems. Shifting strategies mid battle to get my allies in position and hitting him when he was vulnerable was a fun back and forth.
 
F

Falk

that puzzling face
It's the same melody as the boy's choir section of Journey's End. The full 13 minute version (with vocals) plays near the end of the game.

In context, a lot of Go Shiina's stuff usually gets rearranged and/or mashed together for the soundtrack. He likes doing OST-specific cuts. Not just Zestiria-specific, either. Probably why you can't find it.

edit: Here, at this timestamp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sXut-uosys#t=5m25s

Possible endgame spoilers from the lyrics, I guess?
 
R

Renmyra

Member
Falk said:
It's the same melody as the boy's choir section of Journey's End. The full 13 minute version (with vocals) plays near the end of the game.

In context, a lot of Go Shiina's stuff usually gets rearranged and/or mashed together for the soundtrack. He likes doing OST-specific cuts. Not just Zestiria-specific, either. Probably why you can't find it.

edit: Here, at this timestamp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sXut-uosys#t=5m25s

Possible endgame spoilers from the lyrics, I guess?
Click to expand...

Aww... It's probably my favorite track in the game. Really sets the mood for some parts.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

  • Poll
Metaphor: ReFantazio |OT| Don’t Worry, It’s All in Your Head!
|OT| 19 20 21 22 23
1K
35K
TwiztidElf replied
LTTP | Valkyrie Profile 2 : Silmeria
LTTP
15
896
DelireMan7 replied
The Legend of Heroes: Kai no Kiseki – Farewell O Zemuria details characters, story, and new battle system elements
News
3
993
graywolf323 replied
Games that allow you to become overpowered(or offer OP equipment and abilities): thumbs up or thumbs down?
41
2K
graywolf323 replied
Dragon Age: Veilguard New Details
News 2 3 4
156
10K
Hudo replied
Top Bottom