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Tales of Zestiria Import Thread - Turning Legends Into Hope

Peff

Member
Poker was the best way to get everyones dual hi ougis though... Countless hourless would have been wasted if I didn't use the poker trick.

Oh, sure, I meant that more in the sense that the big winnings were in the high/low bidding after the round rather than in the actual mini-game.
 

aravuus

Member
They like to re-release Tales games on new systems but there was nowhere to re-release Xillia 1 & 2.

Oh, didn't realize this was the case. Well, in that case I sure hope it gets ported to PS4, 30fps and the framerate drops are affecting my hype
 

Bebpo

Banned
Oh, didn't realize this was the case. Well, in that case I sure hope it gets ported to PS4, 30fps and the framerate drops are affecting my hype

Frame drops aren't really a big issue and 30fps works for the battles, but 60fps would be nice to have for sure.
 

Bebpo

Banned
I see what you all mean about the Water temple. That was pretty miserable. Good idea, bad execution. Too much backtracking.
 
Any people here wonder if the PC versions being rumored might not come to Japan? Apparently that has happened with some of these recent jRPG PC ports, like Hyper Dimension Neptunia.
 

Rhapsody

Banned
Been listening to the OST. The Go Shiina tracks are a treat to listen to.

Sakuraba's tracks overall are decent. We got a lot of Star Ocean sounding ones which beats the generic Tales stuff he does. Although there are still quite a few of the generic ones sprinkled around.
 

awdrifter

Member
I see what you all mean about the Water temple. That was pretty miserable. Good idea, bad execution. Too much backtracking.

I spammed the crap out of the quick save. For me it was quicker to quit to title and reload
when it teleports you back to the beginning
.
 

Bebpo

Banned
Good idea! I didn't even think of that. Never tried the quick save so far.

Is it just me or does the story kind of fall apart after fire temple? I was really liking the adventure and the cast through that,
then you just sort of wander around and explore (which is fine) and find the earth temple and there's not much plot to it and then go back to starting lands and do water temple and suddenly mentor knight lady is evil trope (first really annoying tropey character in the game so far :/ )then it's back to wandering and the only way the game tells you where to go is by making some areas dark and stormy and then suddenly for no plot reason they are later fine when the game wants you to go there.

It feels like a bunch of plot is missing to connect all of this. It's like they were going strong then said "find the remaining three temples" and gave up :x

I'm heading towards the wind temple now. Haven't been playing much as don't have a lot of free time lately and I'm also playing Zero no Kiseki and that's become the more enjoyable of the two at this point. I still really enjoy the skits because I really like these characters in Zestiria, but I feel like where I'm at the plot's hit a lull and I'm not all that motivated to play long sessions currently.
 

Rpgmonkey

Member
Good idea! I didn't even think of that. Never tried the quick save so far.

Is it just me or does the story kind of fall apart after fire temple? I was really liking the adventure and the cast through that,
then you just sort of wander around and explore (which is fine) and find the earth temple and there's not much plot to it and then go back to starting lands and do water temple and suddenly mentor knight lady is evil trope (first really annoying tropey character in the game so far :/ )then it's back to wandering and the only way the game tells you where to go is by making some areas dark and stormy and then suddenly for no plot reason they are later fine when the game wants you to go there.

It feels like a bunch of plot is missing to connect all of this. It's like they were going strong then said "find the remaining three temples" and gave up :x

I'm heading towards the wind temple now. Haven't been playing much as don't have a lot of free time lately and I'm also playing Zero no Kiseki and that's become the more enjoyable of the two at this point. I still really enjoy the skits because I really like these characters in Zestiria, but I feel like where I'm at the plot's hit a lull and I'm not all that motivated to play long sessions currently.

It starts to gain steam again once you finish them all (I've only made a little progress past the temple arc so I'm not sure how much better it gets, but interesting stuff has happened) but the story really kills its momentum during that arc. There's some world building/foreshadowing but completing a trial doesn't really have any amazing payoffs, and the one crazy thing that happens during all this is kinda weird because you're recommended to not do anything about it yet. It's also the first portion where it becomes kind of non-linear and you can do things in whatever order you want (I think? I went to the water temple first then the earth temple, not sure if the wind temple has to be last), so maybe it's not a coincidence that the storytelling isn't as tight there. It's basically the "dungeon/boss marathon" section I dread going through in many Tales games. :p

Also it's too late at this point, but the mural in those ruins where Rose joins tells you where the temples are, it's kinda annoying though because I don't think the game keeps note of it, so I had to go back to find each temple.
 

Shouta

Member
The dark areas are explained in that one section after
Alisha leaves you and you're fighting in the battlefield. It's the aura of the main villain. When you run into areas with that strong dark aura, it means he's there and can seriously screw you up. It's a really neat way of doing "You can't go here now" that works with the lore. When they become clear, he's left that zone.
 

Bebpo

Banned
Actually it's pretty dumb :p
When you get to the field around Pendragon for instance, there's like 3 fields that are all like that. Slowly as you beat a temple at a time the fields become clear and able to progress. He's not in 3 places at once!

I don't think the whole "here's an open area with a bunch of field connectors but we'll funnel you where we want you to go by making certain areas impassable" was really a good idea. I'd rather they have just blocked areas off with rocks and stuff so as you get the elemental field abilities you'll have access to them. Makes it more fun!
 

awdrifter

Member
Just cleared the Wind Temple, now I have all 4 OG Tenzoku (don't remember their names).
Did they explain how those people who wanted to sacrifice themselves get up there? When Sorey and the party was climbing the tower, didn't they say this is a proving ground for the Doushi and normal people can't get up there or something (though I could've misunderstood the dialog). How the heck did the suicidal girl get up there, more importantly, how does she get down? Wouldn't it make more sense for Dezel to warp her down? It's a minor plothole, but since it's in a cutscene and everything it bothers me.

Edit: Just played a few more hours. Finished the fight with Simon.
It sucks that Dezel have to die. I didn't understand the explanation about Zavied's gun, what exactly does it do? Why can't Sorey purify Rose and that hyouma, but the gun can somehow do it?
 

Finalow

Member
eh, after 1 month I still haven't got the game. I don't blame PA because it's not their fault, I blame this shithole of country I live in, where apparently packages from China need to be stuck in customs for weeks and for no reason whatsoever.
 

kewlmyc

Member
eh, after 1 month I still haven't got the game. I don't blame PA because it's not their fault, I blame this shithole of country I live in, where apparently packages from China need to be stuck in customs for weeks and for no reason whatsoever.

What country are you in?
 

Shouta

Member
Actually it's pretty dumb :p
When you get to the field around Pendragon for instance, there's like 3 fields that are all like that. Slowly as you beat a temple at a time the fields become clear and able to progress. He's not in 3 places at once!

I don't think the whole "here's an open area with a bunch of field connectors but we'll funnel you where we want you to go by making certain areas impassable" was really a good idea. I'd rather they have just blocked areas off with rocks and stuff so as you get the elemental field abilities you'll have access to them. Makes it more fun!

He has powers that allow him to disappear wherever he wants to go. It's not surprising. =P
 

kayos90

Tragic victim of fan death
Heldarf is one of the worst looking villains I've seen in a while. It's pretty sad how terrible the character designs I've seen in Zestiria truly are.
 

Bebpo

Banned
Yeah, like this stuff was so much better:

cover_l.jpg



Character designs in Zestiria are fine.
 

awdrifter

Member
Need some help on one of the Douseki (瞳石) mission.
I talked to Rose and she said something about the Rougurin (ローグリン) is experiencing hyperinflation and we should investigate the surrounding area. But I haven't been able to find any location called that, where is Rougurin? How can I get there from Lady Lake?
Thanks.
 

3Kaze

Member
Edit: Just played a few more hours. Finished the fight with Simon.
It sucks that Dezel have to die. I didn't understand the explanation about Zavied's gun, what exactly does it do? Why can't Sorey purify Rose and that hyouma, but the gun can somehow do it?

It's a bit of a deus ex machina, but the gun is just pretty hax :p. If someone shots oneself with the gun, it increases his power. Dezel somehow put his remaining power in the gun to separate the link (not purify) between Rose and the hyouma.

Need some help on one of the Douseki (瞳石) mission.
I talked to Rose and she said something about the Rougurin (ローグリン) is experiencing hyperinflation and we should investigate the surrounding area. But I haven't been able to find any location called that, where is Rougurin? How can I get there from Lady Lake?
Thanks.

パルバレイ牧耕地 -> キャメロット大陸橋 -> ザフゴット原野 -> 塔の街ローグリン
 

awdrifter

Member
It's a bit of a deus ex machina, but the gun is just pretty hax :p. If someone shots oneself with the gun, it increases his power. Dezel somehow put his remaining power in the gun to separate the link (not purify) between Rose and the hyouma.



パルバレイ牧耕地 -> キャメロット大陸橋 -> ザフゴット原野 -> 塔の街ローグリン

Cool, thanks for the info. I just got past キャメロット大陸橋, so I guess that's why I can't go to Rougurin yet.

Also some exciting rumor (at least for me since I mainly game on PC), Tales of Zestiria appeared on the Steam Database, so there's a chance that ToZ will come to PC.

New article link.
http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/02/19/tales-of-zestiria-could-be-headed-to-pc-according-to-steam-db
 

Fisico

Member
Also some exciting rumor (at least for me since I mainly game on PC), Tales of Zestiria appeared on the Steam Database, so there's a chance that ToZ will come to PC.

New article link.
http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/02/19/tales-of-zestiria-could-be-headed-to-pc-according-to-steam-db

Was posted on Gaf earlier :p

Heldarf is one of the worst looking villains I've seen in a while

Looks like Ganondorf, which is fine, Zestiria wasn't the first the one to it either.
Regarding the party character design, I felt like for once there was a pretty valid reason for everyone having a color scheme unlike previous entries.
 
Mh, the bonus dungeon had quite an uninspired design it felt like.
It was mostly
a single hallway
from beginning to end. It was quite "meh".
However I gotta say that the boss before the last on in that dungeon gave a sweet amount of XP, because I was underleveled.

Got a few things to wrap up before I begin NG+ though. Such as
getting the Ladylake area to LVL22, the 3 areas not yet to LVL13 to that level for the run speed, go through every area/dungeon and open any paths I haven't yet plus open chests, kill every "hard" enemy for their treasures and also do Rose's second hi-ougi quest.

There's one trophy I haven't got before going to NG+ (except for the
sweets making one
based on luck) that I really want to get but I don't get why I haven't gotten it yet. It's the
"Item atsumatter" one, even though I got to a point where I couldn't get anymore loot for example. I don't know if you need to just keep open chests
or what but I hope it isn't glitched or whatever.
 

3Kaze

Member
It's the
"Item atsumatter" one, even though I got to a point where I couldn't get anymore loot for example. I don't know if you need to just keep open chests
or what but I hope it isn't glitched or whatever.

It's the last trophy I got by chance before doing a NG+ lol. I opened every chest and wanted to give up for that playthrough, then started to buy equipments and it randomly popped up. You may want to start Alisha DLC for more chests too.
 
It's the last trophy I got by chance before doing a NG+ lol. I opened every chest and wanted to give up for that playthrough, then started to buy equipments and it randomly popped up. You may want to start Alisha DLC for more chests too.

I found out what I needed in order to get it, I only missed a little more than of dozen equipments. I got it real soon after I posted when I purchased a lot to rank up shops.
Conditions are:
usable items 54+ equipments 281+ (this one is listed as 297 but with 60 usable and 500+ chests, it popped when I had 281 different equipments found) and newly opened chests 460+

Tonight I'll try to beat the
true
final boss on hard since I killed the
dragon zombie in the cursed lands
. I'm only level ~124 so I guess I may be a bit underleveled but I'll try anyway. If I can't do it I'll retry on NG+ once I get awfully close to max level =D

edit:
Got the
sweets making
trophy (
I needed a single marron glacé
), I left the game running for 4 hours while I studied and when I got back to check on it, I saw the trophy pop (it almost seemed like it waited for me to appear)
Also managed to get a Same 4 piece of equipment while fusing things for Mumei gear. So now I need one more thing before starting Alisha DLC, and it's to find 3 same-ish weapons so I don't break that Same 4 structure before I'm able to bless it.
 

Bebpo

Banned
About 34 hours in and mopping up sidequests all around. Guessing I'm at the point of no return-ish
Meivin wants me to finish collecting all the fragments of earth anime clips before moving on with the story.

I like the game, but unless things change I really feel like the narrative completely falls apart in the 2nd half. It's like the game has a World of Ruin event (narrative tale -> scattered events across the world while exploring that don't really feel connected and then final dungeon) except that it's a game with a World of Ruin narrative structure and yet no World of Ruin event that splits the first half and the second half concretely. Instead the plot just sort of loses focus...somewhere...along the way. It's like there's this really tightly woven narrative Tale and then there's...not. So much that when events happen in the 2nd half (big spoiler)
like most forgettable character's death
it just feels like totally random with no build up and no impact.

Then again this isn't something new for the series; kind of reminds me of Vesperia where the first half is very tight, interesting and main character focused, and then the second half completely changes gears and is pretty generic wander around get the 4 elements and final dungeon time.

The best parts of the game are the narrative, and the sense of exploration; running discovering things and exploring ruins and caves and such. The first half has a nice mix of both and lets you stick to the narrative while carving your own path and exploring the fields. The 2nd half relies totally on the 2nd part with a lot of save teleporting and backtracking and it's not really all that engaging. It's moderately so as the exploration is always fun (though nowhere near as fun as games with really good exploration like Xenoblade; I think having the mini-map in Tales show the entire map layout with all field exists right from the start was a big mistake and kills the sense of going in blind and exploring a field not knowing what's out there) and the battle system is enjoyable though it gets repetitive and at this point I kind of miss the old 2d Tales battle systems.

I do like the characters through and through however. From start until where I'm at they've been a good cast, maybe not the best cast, but certainly far from a boring cast. Very likeable characters who play off each other well.

The world is kind of an average world or less than average one. It's fun to explore, yet the world itself that you're exploring is pretty mundane. It's a small world and there's nothing about it that's filled with intrigue or wonder like say the Ship Continent of Legendia or the God's back of Xenoblade. For what they were trying to do with the exploration, they really could've put a little more excitement into the world design.

Starting to feel like Zestiria is a good game, but the masses are right and Tales these days is a B-tier jrpg series. It's good and fulfills a niche, but it's lacking that wow factor that the best rpgs have where you just can't put the game down. That hasn't been around in a Tales game for a while sadly.
 

Mendrox

Member
So what does anyone think about the rumored sequel?

Zaveid talked about the north continent and that Ednas brother went there to finish something. We never got to it... the areas feel quiet lackluster (No snow area e.g.) Ednas Sidequest feels very abrupt and the DLC ending is such a sequel hook lol. Zaveids gun origin is not really explained and more.

Same thing as Xillia 2? :)
 

RangerBAD

Member
So what does anyone think about the rumored sequel?

Zaveid talked about the north continent and that Ednas brother went there to finish something. We never got to it... the areas feel quiet lackluster (No snow area e.g.) Ednas Sidequest feels very abrupt and the DLC ending is such a sequel hook lol. Zaveids gun origin is not really explained and more.

Same thing as Xillia 2? :)

Zestiria f on PS4 and PC.
 

Bebpo

Banned
I think the game requiring you to do most of the sidequests is actually a bit of a bummer because it undervalues the quality of the sidequests themselves.

I used to be super impressed at how much effort the sidequests in Zestiria got, full voice, cutscenes, skits; basically the same quality as the main story. I also like how sidequests are found and how your partner character keeps track of them.


But then when they become forced in the end, they're not really sidequests anymore and it's like "oh, ok they got higher production values because they're actually required for the main quest". I mean I still would've done most of them if they weren't required, but I definitely prefer when there's a choice and fleshing out the side stories is their own reward if you walk down the off beaten path.
 
Well I'm shy of 35 points to get everything I want in the Grade Shop. Of course, I'll get those tonight easily.

Out of 7, I have 3 lords at level 24, 1 at level 22, 2 at level 21 and the last one is only 17 as of now (will be 21 tonight).
This means that on NG+ I won't have to worry about warping all over the place :D

In any case, I'll get that last lord at level 21 then I think I'll FINALLY be set to plow through the Alisha DLC and then NG+. Play time at ~97 hours while I never left the vanilla content yet :p
 
Congrats 3Kaze :D

I have gotten all the lords at a suitable level so I have now begun the DLC :) (~11270 points total)

I got the 10 Elm skills with pure luck so it didn't feel hard to me :p
For Same 16, I have a Mumei set of cards with double Pleasure followed by 3 single Pleasure that I'll be transferring into my NG+ cycle. So my goal is going to get the other 4 pieces with 3 Pleasure skills on them (maybe less if the Grade shop item to count double and triple skills works like I think it does). Shouldn't be that difficult.
 

3Kaze

Member
Congrats 3Kaze :D

I have gotten all the lords at a suitable level so I have now begun the DLC :) (~11270 points total)

I got the 10 Elm skills with pure luck so it didn't feel hard to me :p
For Same 16, I have a Mumei set of cards with double Pleasure followed by 3 single Pleasure that I'll be transferring into my NG+ cycle. So my goal is going to get the other 4 pieces with 3 Pleasure skills on them (maybe less if the Grade shop item to count double and triple skills works like I think it does). Shouldn't be that difficult.

Thanks. Yeah, same skills are quite easy to get. For 10 elm skills, I set 3 Normins at a time, but they messed with the monsters' level too much and they started to drop all kind of equipments :(

So you are doing Symphonia next? =D

Ha! I wish I could. Didn't even manage to beat my 1st playthrough, so 5 playthroughs without skip feature would be quite difficult...
 

Heyt

Banned
When Hase was asked about not making more story DLC he said this.

作っていいなら今すぐ考えますよ(笑)

The problem is that I don't have any idea of what it means. I wonder if he hints at something.
 

Bebpo

Banned
Finished doing the sidequest last night and it made me realize something,
revisiting the starting heavenly world where Sorey was raised...that field still looks gorgeous with all the lush green and birds flying in the sky.

When I first started the game I thought the (2nd world) hook thing that Tales usually does was Tenzoku heavenly world / Human earth world. That we'd fully explore both worlds. But as far as I'm at "about to go to Meivin now and advance the plot" that little but of Sorey's homeland is all you see of the heavens and the rest of the world is on ugly bland human continent.

Seems like a big waste of concept. Not having finished the game yet, if they do a Zestiria 2 I bet it's about exploring all the Tenzoku homelands or something.

When Hase was asked about not making more story DLC he said this.



The problem is that I don't have any idea of what it means. I wonder if he hints at something.

Eh, he's basically saying "I can make some shit up if they tell me to do a sequel or more DLC" lol
 
Well I think that after 102:57:46 it was time to wrap my first playthrough up, so that's what I did.
I have now begun NG+, and am 1:28 in.

I have spent ~20 hours in combat (2109 encounters) and about the same time in menus during NG :p That means ~60 hours in cutscenes and roaming around.
 

Bebpo

Banned
Man, Around 36 hours in now and I think I might shelve the game. Looked at the wiki and there's still a bunch to go. I really, really liked the first half of ToZ (A- rpg), but the story is so uninteresting now and everything is just fucking tedious (like taking away teleports and making you run across the entire game map on foot right when you finally just want the game to end already) and all the areas are repeats and there's just nothing new or interesting going on. 2nd half has been like (D+ rpg).

The game probably should've just ended after it forced you to do all the flashback sidequests and then talk to Meivin. Should've been a final dungeon/fight and just end it at that point. All this war stuff feels so forced in this game. Especially because the plot is over at this point, there's nothing left but to go find the final boss and "save" him. So everything else is just tedium padding in the way.

The 2nd half of this game is so bland. The first half has a good narrative and a world to explore. By the time you start the temple hunting, you've explored pretty much the entire world outside a big empty desert and mushroom swamp and there's just not much left for the game to offer. It's like if they couldn't make this 2nd half more interesting they should have just cut 10 more hours of the game out. Since I'm hitting 36 hours now, so just doing the main plot + sidequests (non-post-game) is probably about 40-43 hours and 30-33 hours with tighter pacing would've been just fine.

When I heard the game was only 30-40 hours while playing the first half, I thought that was fine since it was paced so well and 30-40 hours of that would be like a 50-60 hour padded rpg. But it's more like 20-25 hours like that and then 5 hours of remaining plot/unexplored areas padded to 20 hours so that you're totally burnt out and tired of the game by the very end.

If I keep playing and finish it at this point I'm not even gonna bother with the Alisha DLC. That's just another 3 hours when I want it to be over at this point and I don't really care about Alisha.
 
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