With nearly 400,000 copies sold since its launch late last month, there is no question that Tales of Zestiria is a hit in Japan right now. So join me and let’s see what all the fuss is about.
Tales of Zestiria was released in Japan on January 22, 2015. It is scheduled for a Western release sometime later this year.
Comments
9 responses to “The Up All Night Stream Plays Tales Of Zestiria”
Copies sold does not mean it is a hit with the fans. In fact according to amazon.co.jp over 1300 reviews give it 1 star and so many people are trading their copies in that stores are giving around a dollar aus trade in value. Apparently it is the worst Tales game in memory.
Are there reasons listed with the one star reviews or is it review bombing for an external reason?
Taken from the Whirlpool thread.
Reasons cited: weak battle system, weak story after opening, poor pacing, horrible camera during combat, incoherent character motives (Roze), strong world setting but its potential not realized, shitty AI, main female character leaves party in the beginning of the game and never rejoins (Alisha), the ending, pointless open-world, uninspired scenery artwork and copy and paste dungeons.
A $14 DLC to see the After Story announced right after the game came out (in the form of a 100kb download), but now made free for a limited time because of the angry feedback.
The president Baba was supposed to make an appearance on NicoNico but the event cancelled last minute in fear of fallout.
A lot of Japanese people feel cheated by Namco Bandai because the anime (which was excellent) that aired to promote the game advertise Alisha as the main heroine. But actually she’s just a minor character that’s not even playable for 9/10ths of the game! And she has a ton of DLC costumes.
Dayuummmm…
That’s like the full laundry list of things they’ve individually screwed up in past games, all rolled into one game!
Hey @negativezero, hate to be the bearer of bad news, but have you heard this?
Yes. I mentioned it in TAY as well.
I think the thing that’s rankling with people is not that Alisha leaves the group, but that she’s apparently effectively forced out.
Rose, one of the other characters, joins and then everyone basically turns on her and is constantly banging on about how Rose is better at everything and stuff. A lot of players really liked Alisha and she was supposed to be the co-lead, so sudden character assassination then removing her as playable entirely really didn’t go down well.Then having a paid DLC to see the rest of her character story when it’s obviously in the game already and you’re just paying for an unlock was the straw that broke the camel’s back.That said, I wouldn’t base everything on Amazon reviews either. JP players are notorious for bombing the reviews on Amazon when they do something that pisses off a minority, even if the actual game is generally fine.
All of the other issues mentioned are issues you could probably find in any Tales game. Pointless open world, uninspired scenery etc. sounds exactly like Xillia as well. But yeah, it doesn’t look like Zestiria’s going to knock Vesperia off its perch as the peak of the series.
But… Battle system complaints. Normally even if the rest is shit, the battle system is still decent (graces f)
Everyone finds something to complain about with the battle system in every Tales game. “Oh, it’s TC-based”. “Oh, it’s not TC-based”. “The bosses are too hard to stagger”. “It’s too easy”. “It’s too hard”. “Why the fuck does it have both TC and SP”. “Why is it random battles like a PS1 game, all the others have enemies on map”. “Why is it open world?”
I’d suggest just playing it to see. Graces still has the peak combat to my mind, but there are people out there that hated it. I wasn’t a huge fan of that linking stuff in Xillia and a lot of people liked it. I think Hearts R combat is fine, but a lot of people felt like it’s a horrible mish-mash of two systems or were annoyed because they thought that the original DS one (which was TC-based like Graces) was a better system.
As long as I can mash X and then hit circle sometimes to do rad attacks and they don’t completely mess up the incantation for the Indignation spell like they did in Graces, I don’t care. Zestiria will probably be the last PS3 game I buy anyway.
EDIT: Or to put it in another way, “Fans are clingy, complaining dipshits who will never ever be grateful for any concession you make. The moment you shut out their shrill, tremulous voices, the happier you’ll be for it.”
The benefit of a later release I guess, assuming they bundle it at some point down the line.
Damn, I was really looking forward to this. That said, I enjoyed Graces f (Malik is hilarious) and Xillia 1&2, so I’ll likely still enjoy this. It can’t possibly be another FFXIII, right? RIGHT?
Old-school for me, Destiny > Vesperia > Abyss > Rebirth for combat. What can I say, I love my Ougi moves 🙂
Honourable mention for Destiny 2, Roni and Judas Hi-Ougi were the bomb!