|
Post by Pássaro on Feb 10, 2015 20:58:20 GMT -5
Hyperbolic sodium levels are off the charts due to perceived slight-handed techniques from Namco, but how exactly IS Tales of Zestiria? I played a good chunk of the game before shelving it, but I have been doing some background knowledge (Just for the sake of being Clip) and surprisingly Zestiria is not that bad of a game. The design choices in the game could be a bit more polished, but speaking from a mechanical view the game does have a little bit of potential. - Zestiria plays like Graces. Outside of a few tweaks to the battle system (More stream-lined weaknesses) and the nerf of sidesteps players familiar with Graces will feel right at home.
- The game does have usage of more technical things like tech downs, hit-stun degradation, and the likes.
- ...Pterobronc
There are some rather muddled systems like the weapon fusion and getting the best out of the system will take some immense hours of grinding and preparation. However, there are potential combinations that will make playing as everyone, actually fun. (Even Alicia ala DLC , ok maybe not Sorey, but...there is the resistance removal skill *shrug*)
The Seraphs are surprisingly fun to play as. With proper understanding of their skills and getting the right skills you can flow between spells and physical artes surprisingly smooth. It's unfortunate that they do have their..whiffing moments against certain enemies, but there are plenty of Pterobronc to slap up.
BG management rings back a nod to the old-school TP conservation of the old days, that many old-heads may enjoy. (I certainly like the defensive aspect)
Until I can actually get the time and files ready to pump out any runs this is all conjecture from the notes I've gathered. Personal bias aside, the game isn't THAT bad, but it doesn't feel too much like Tales anymore I suppose.
Either way, definitely worth picking it up in ENG when it comes stateside (Fusing in Eng should save many-a-headache)
This isn't an in-depth review really, just my initial impressions and where I stand on it now. I will offer more when I actually get proper files and set-ups to tackle Chaos and see if it is still a Kamui-fest. First play-throughs can be...rough on higher difficulties.
6/10 would Kamui again.
|
|
|
Post by Friendly Person :) on Feb 10, 2015 21:37:20 GMT -5
I'm certainly glad to see this. After spending a bit of time watching Omega's stream (an hour or so most days), the impression I got was very negative. Very. Negative. In turn I've toned my expectations way, way down for Zestiria. I'll still pre-order it because I want to support the series' presence in the west. Besides, it still looks like a solid JRPG, which are far too few in number these days.
Is there a way you can elaborate on it not feeling like Tales? Is it something you can articulate, or is it just that un-describable feeling some games give off?
|
|
|
Post by Pássaro on Feb 10, 2015 22:14:59 GMT -5
Well, I suppose the increased focus on micro-managing all aspects of your character's development was somewhat of a departure from how Tales normally is. In most cases, levels determined stats or equips.
Here it's more of...everything. Levels don't matter much, equips do, but it requires a ton of grinding and planning with the spices of "luck" thrown in the pot.
I felt like I was playing the OG version of Ragnarok Online from back in the day.
|
|
|
Post by Friendly Person :) on Feb 10, 2015 22:29:39 GMT -5
Curious. Weapon Fusion sounds like an evolution of Graces' dualizing: a system which always drove me mad. Of course, I haven't researched fusion much, so I could be completely wrong. I'll reserve judgement until I've played the game myself. Thanks.
|
|
|
Post by PanbanRichard on Feb 10, 2015 23:44:48 GMT -5
Yeah, the salt from this game and the streams I've watched dampened my expectations too. All the more intrigue for me to try it out on my own, though. Also wondering, despite the camera issues, if a coop playthrough is still manageable.
I'm more interested to see what'll happen to Tales after this game because from what I've seen, it seems like it's lost a certain charm that the previous Tales games had.
|
|
|
Post by Viktor Forslund on Feb 10, 2015 23:52:41 GMT -5
I really hope the camera isn't too ghastly in a coop scenario, because that's like 50% of the Tales experience for me.
Yeah, not to mention that some fans might not trust Namco anymore, given the state the game is in and the shenanigans surrounding it. Only time will tell, I suppose.
|
|
|
Post by Friendly Person :) on Feb 10, 2015 23:55:46 GMT -5
I'm super curious too. I'm also curious how they are going to handle the merging of the teams. Will they keep bringing Udo back for the battles, or will they go team Symphonia style for the next Tales? Will they switch to the PS4, or keep going on the PS3? How will they react the the negativity around DLC? Of course, as a non-japanese player, I'm nothing more than an observer. Either way, really looking forward to this years Tales festival (if they announce Zesty PS4 I'll die laughing).
|
|
|
Post by Viktor Forslund on Feb 11, 2015 9:46:23 GMT -5
Looked into the camera thing, and it's apparently controllable when playing coop. Miraclechao made a video about it, for those interested. Crisis averted (I hope.)
|
|
|
Post by Pássaro on Feb 11, 2015 13:28:11 GMT -5
I'm super curious too. I'm also curious how they are going to handle the merging of the teams. Will they keep bringing Udo back for the battles, or will they go team Symphonia style for the next Tales? Will they switch to the PS4, or keep going on the PS3? How will they react the the negativity around DLC? Of course, as a non-japanese player, I'm nothing more than an observer. Either way, really looking forward to this years Tales festival (if they announce Zesty PS4 I'll die laughing). Well the teams have been merged for a while since they got absorbed my Bandai a while back. The team is lacking is since most of the talent jumped ship. Tales really should take a nice break or start from the basics.
|
|
|
Post by musaboriman2 on Feb 11, 2015 19:35:33 GMT -5
I wonder why they lost staff? Baba has been mentioning it and it worries me that Namco isn't supporting the Tales team properly.
As for Zestiria, it is a little bit of a mixed bag, but it is overall a very enjoyable game. The combat initially seems kind of dull, but once you start trying things out and understanding the systems, you can do a lot of cool things (which is really the case for every Tales game, anyway). The soundtrack is consistently good throughout, for the first time in a while (past couple of games have only had good battle tracks). The camera is bad, but aside from tight areas it's mostly manageable.
The skill system and equipment fusing is kind of lost on me, unfortunately, even with my decent understanding of Japanese. It seems really complex and troublesome to get the skills and buffs you want. Simply leveling isn't enough to get the stats you want; you've gotta make use of all the systems of the game to get your team up to shape. Hopefully in the English version, I'll have an easier time with it.
The story has a lot of good ideas, and the world building and exploration go hand in hand really well this time. Real dungeons returning is nice. However, there are quite a few plot developments that just kind of made me go "Why did that happen?" There are some key themes in the story that are carried through from beginning to end which is nice, but there are many others that are brought up briefly only to be ignored for the rest of the game, or just brought up randomly to try and make the player feel something, but it serves no purpose in the story. The ending was kind of...strange, or unnecessary as well.
Despite all that complaining, I actually did enjoy going through this world and the story. I just feel character's actions didn't always make sense, and certain themes should have been held onto properly. (Such as Mikleo and Slay claiming their dream is to promote a society where Humans and Tenzoku have a close relationship like in the past, but they barely do anything regarding this goal at all. You can argue that they indirectly take half a baby-step towards this goal, but that's about it, and this "dream" of the main characters is only referenced occasionally as a "It would be nice if..." kinda thing)/
However, I really do feel that late-game and post-game balancing is a little too lopsided in the favor of your enemies. Bosses and enemies get lots of random iron stance whenever they feel like it, and the few times you're faced with a human opponent, you're kind of screwed because no attacks on your arte lists have a Human attribute (while Graces had human attribute). I realize you don't fight a ton of human enemies, but when you do, they won't stagger from most things. I miss the old days where iron stance was less constant. (Still isn't on Xillia 1 boss levels of iron stance though lol)
TL;DR version: I like the game overall, but it has flaws both in its story and design choices.
|
|
|
Post by Friendly Person :) on Feb 11, 2015 20:38:35 GMT -5
I like the impression I'm getting from the world and dungeons. I've heard that the world is empty, but there appears to be more structure to it than Xillia's (the maps always looked like a bunch of loosely connected blobs to me). Complaints I've heard about the dungeons call them samey and tedious, but I'm glad that there at least appears to be some effort to improve from the past game.
|
|
Derman
Oracle Knight
I still don't have a knife tag on my golden birth knife
Posts: 194
|
Post by Derman on Feb 12, 2015 11:10:58 GMT -5
Since i've not played the game personally I can't say for sure, but I don't think it deserves all the crap it's getting. It's mostly just joking, I don't think many people even hate the game that much. From what i've heard it is still better than Tempest.
The graphics (outside of character models and some other stuff like dungeons) look a bit unpolished to me. The trees look like simple sticks sticking out of the ground and the ground textures are awful in some city areas, like made with Unity's default assets. This can be explained with the lack of staff though. The dungeons can't be as bad as in original Innocence. Also the animations are really good, along with the overall conversation flows (people touching each other instead of standing and talking), slightly improved from Xillia (not saying it had bad animations). I think the game's positive sides are just drowning under the Alicia DLC and other poor design choices.
|
|
zack
Half-Elf
Posts: 3
|
Post by zack on Feb 13, 2015 16:55:15 GMT -5
Personally, I think it's a rather decent game. Sure, I have certain problems with how certain things were presented, but it's not a bad game in any way. From what I've seen online, people are hating on the game because of *a certain party member* being permanently made *unavailable* fairly early on in the game. Storywise, it's decent. It's what I'd expect from a Tales of game... I guess? I'm not going into much detail here because I don't want to spoil. The gameplay isn't all that great, to be honest. The game plays very similarly to Graces. The problem is, it's kind of too easy, so you're forced to play on harder difficulties if you want a challenge, but then you level up slower as a result. The camera is an issue when battling in dungeons, due to the small section of the area you're actually given to fight in (and those freaking walls don't make it any better...). I've also had loads of frame drops, especially during cutscenes. Fortunately, battles are, for the most part, locked at 30fps. The menu is fairly easy to navigate, even with little knowledge in Japanese. So goes for reading Battle Acts and some Artes. The descriptions are another story, however. I consider myself to be fairly decent in Japanese comprehension, and still, I am sometimes forced to open up my dictionary. I do consider this game to be import worthy, but only to those who want to enjoy the game without understanding too much about anything. I've just mentioned some of the negative aspects of the game (because they're easier to pick out than the good things lol). Overall, I think Zestiria is a good game. If you want that feel you get when playing a Tales of game, you might be disappointed, though. While Zestiria is great in terms of fun factor, graphics, soundtrack, etc, it didn't really feel like a Tales of game to me. It's a little weird, and I can't explain it all too well. Maybe it's just me. Oh, by the way, these are not my first impressions, but my final impressions. I beat the main story to this game a few days ago TL;DR - Zestiria has many flaws, but is a good game overall. It doesn't beat Vesperia, though.
|
|
|
Post by swillo on Feb 13, 2015 18:54:45 GMT -5
I've been enjoying the game despite the questionable flaws, but I would say more as an RPG fan, and less as a Tales of fan. I'm just gonna mention gameplay related things as I don't know any Japanese to give an opinion on the characters or story.
My problems are not so much the common ones floating around, but rather the pacing of the game mechanics. You will gain access to the full core battle system and learn all your artes super early in the game, which isn't necessarily bad, but the core system is very limited in this game and the only way to really enhance your battle options are left up to very RNG heavy and time consuming equipment and fusion system, which is somewhat difficult to take advantage of until Postgame/NG+.
This is really dissapointing because a lot of the skills and combinations you can come up with add a lot of flavor and substance to the battle system. It doesn't make sense to hide so many fun gameplay elements behind all these hurdles and for the people who just want to play through the game, do some end game stuff and put it away, congrats, you won't even get to see the full potential of this game.
If there was a stronger post game, and if NG+ didn't hide your gear behind a mid/end game level boss fight, this time consuming micromanagement might make more sense, but most people will probably do everything this game offers before really sitting down and fully exploring the potential of the equipment/fusion systems, and also, as far as I know certain abilities are impossible to obtain without certain grade shop options.
On the plus side, people waiting for the localized version will likely have a lot of resources at hand to have a better grasp of enjoying all the elements to the fullest on a first playthrough. Also, if you enjoy grinding against RNG (I personally sort of do) this design won't bother you much, but this is also why I say that I enjoy this more as an RPG rather than as a Tales game. I enjoy micromanagement and tinkering with builds and seeing them in action, like mystic arte spam, concentration build for mass stuns, etc. What I normally enjoy about tales is the execution of the battle system and how the player skill can overcome the statistic side of the game, and just exploring and pushing various mechanics to a high level. Not to say this isn't still present in this game, it just feels more limited and isn't as rewarding to execute, to me at least.
Overall the hate, even if true, has been blown to unreasonable proportions. I'm still playing this game and learning a lot of new little things here and there about how the mechanics work, some that have altered my earlier impressions of this game, but this is my current impression from a gameplay standpoint with nearly 80 hours invested into the game so far.
|
|
|
Post by Pássaro on Feb 14, 2015 17:53:34 GMT -5
Indeed, I feel the NG+ is where the game can get some actual good impressions. It is a shame the design went this direction, but I'm still curious what can be done via optimal set-ups.
|
|