Tales of Zestiria Preview

I’d be lying if I said I was a big fan of the Tales of franchise, despite liking JRPGs on the whole. If I had to narrow it down, it would be the small changes they make, that make no sense. Apple gels instead of potions - fine, I can understand that. Gald instead of gold, though? Just go whole-hog and change the name of your currency completely, rather than by a single letter!

Regardless, I tried to stay positive as I sat down to play Tales of Zestiria for two hours. The JRPG series is coming to PS4, PS3 and PC, bringing the Tales of series to new-gen -- and 4k resolution on PC. Sadly I only got to experience the PS4 version, but it still looked great.

There were a few anime sequences scattered about, most noticeably the opening credits (which happen just over an hour into the game, I might add). The music and style were fantastic, and really drew me in, which was a relief after the fairly generic opening sequence.

You don't get the awesome cloak until later...

You play as Sorey (pronounced the same way Canadians say ‘sorry’), a human brought into the village of Seraphim at a young age. Mystical in nature, the Seraphim are invisible to humans, unless they are gifted with the ability to see them. Since at least two members of your future party are Seraphim, I’m looking forward to playing much more just so I can laugh at the sitcom-like misunderstandings that will ensue as Sorey appears to talk to himself.

When a mysterious woman appears near to the Seraphim village, Sorey returns home with her much to the village elder -- Gramps’ -- dislike. The woman doesn’t give her name until she’s ready to return home, so I won’t spoil anything about her ‘true’ identity. Suffice to say, she leaves and shortly thereafter so too does Sorey with his best friend Mikleo, trying to find the woman, and fulfil his desire to become a Shepherd.

A Shepherd is a great hero who appears in times of strife, which the mysterious woman explained the world is currently experiencing. As this is a JRPG, it should surprise nobody that Sorey does indeed become “The Shepherd” in due course. However, the way they describe it in voiceover, is that the Shepherd appears to lead people out of their troubles -- and it just felt a little awkward. People say that Robocop is supposed to be a take on Jesus Christ, but at least he was a cyborg…

However, the gameplay is fun, taking place in large, open areas which allow you to see the enemies before you fight them. The fights themselves are pretty easy, which I hope was down to it being the beginning of the game. The two boss fights amounted to pinning them against the side of the ‘arena’ and constantly attacking. The rest of the fights take place in the open areas themselves though, which means there are no silly loading screens before or after battles. Or, it should, except for the fact it gives you a silly summary screen after each battle…

Another gripe, though it’s minor, is the way Sorey’s shadow behaves. It doesn’t look right as he runs about (even worse when he “walks”, waddling like a penguin), and is somehow unaffected by any larger shadows he passes beneath. The starting village is literally up above the clouds, and yet as clouds inexplicably pass in front of the sun above him, his shadow is unaffected, less still when he runs through the shadow of stone columns...

The one thing I was very happy about, were the cutscenes, funnily enough. The last couple of JRPGs I’ve played have had some cutscenes with voices, most without -- Zestiria subverted my expectations by having every little aside voiced. The game is very story-driven, and all of the cutscenes are dubbed in English with some talented voice actors. At certain points you can have little optional conversations with Mikleo, which are styled like visual novels (minimal animation), yet still fully voiced.

There was also one decision early on that requires you hand over something of value. With four options, I chose the one I thought fit best, though I knew another one would certainly have worked. I expected it to bounce back if it wasn’t the choice I was supposed to make, but the scene carried on, making me think, and hope, that there are going to be several points where you have to make a decision, and stick by it.

On the whole, Tales of Zestiria is looking to be a fun game. Yes, I was a little disappointed by the amount of tropes present in the first hour, but after that it improved. And it was fun enough to keep me playing right until my time ran out. I’m looking forward to when this is released.