Tales of Zestiria is an action role-playing game. It is the fifteenth main entry in the Tales series, developed by Bandai Namco Studios and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment. It was released in January 2015 in Japan on the PlayStation 3. For Western release in October of the same year, it was also ported to PlayStation 4 and Windows via Steam. The PS4 version was released in Japan in July 2016. As with previous entries in the Tales series, the game uses a variation of the action-based Linear Motion Battle System, with additional elements including a navigable open world, and the ability for certain characters to fuse into a single entity in battle to deliver powerful attacks.
The story follows Sorey, a young man blessed with powers by a mystical spirit race known as the Seraphim who act as a stabilizing force in the land, as he travels to free the land of Glenwood from the threat of the Hellion, creatures spawned by negative emotions. The game's characteristic genre name is , with its story focusing on the passion of the characters.
The game began development in 2012 as the 20th anniversary title for the Tales series, returning to the series' thematic roots as established in Tales of Phantasia and featuring revamped gameplay systems. Multiple staff members from previous Tales games returned, including producer Hideo Baba, battle programmer Tatsuro Udo, designers Kōsuke Fujishima and Mutsumi Inomata, and composers Motoi Sakuraba and Go Shiina. It has received positive reviews in Japanese gaming magazines, and shipped over 400,000 units in its first week. It has similarly garnered mixed to positive reviews in the west, with the majority of praise going to the battle system while its story and presentation received a mixed response. Despite the praise, it has received criticism from fans in Japan for its handling of the game's characters.
Gameplay Tales of Zestiria is an action role-playing game set in a fantasy world with three-dimensional characters rendered to scale with the areas around them. The game's main world employs an open world layout, in contrast to previous entries in the series. Skits, extra conversations between characters that can be either dramatic or comical, also return; their full-body representation of characters is carried over from Tales of Graces. As in Graces and Tales of Xillia, they are fully voiced. During exploration of the field area between locations and while a specific Seraph character is assigned, the player can execute special commands; they are slicing through minor obstacles (all characters), smashing large obstacles (Edna), temporarily shielding themselves from enemy view (Mikleo), igniting special lights in dungeons (Lailah), or teleporting across gaps (Dezel). A changeable second character accompanies the lead character, and story-relevant or trivial conversations can be started with them. Characters all have unique Support Talents, which range from locating treasure chests to monitoring a characters health, which can be leveled up along with the characters.
New special abilities for characters are gained by performing side-quests for creatures called Normins scattered through the land. Equipment assigned to characters can be given special skills, with one piece of equipment having four skill slots. Certain combinations add additional effects produced by equipment. Some equipment types can only be obtained by fusing two different accessories. A local four-player multiplayer option is also available. Items such as outfits, weapons and armor and items can be bought and sold at shops across the land. Using a certain shop enough levels it up, unlocking higher-end items. During exploration, players visit various regions under the control of Lords of the Land, which require the protection of the Seraphim. Ensuring this protection gives the player access via the Lords of the Land to abilities such as warping between save points for a fee. Other abilities including various abilities and bonuses unlocked by completing certain objectives in battle and establish further Normin. The player can increase these boons by leveling up the strength of the protection through battles in the area. Players can rest characters at inns, restoring their health and magic meters.
Battle system
As with previous titles in the series, the game uses the series's action-based Linear Motion Battle System (LMBS). The variant used in Zestiria is called the Fusionic Chain LMBS. Unlike previous entries in the series, which featured a separate battle screen, battles in the open field and environments like towns and dungeons take place in the same space as exploration. These encounters are called "Real Map Battles". The player characters' fighting ability during this battle can be affected by the topography and features such as ponds and rocks. Preemptively attacking enemies also grants the player an advantage during the battle. Like previous entries in the series, the LMBS incorporates special skills called artes. There are two types of artes: human characters specialize in close-quarters melee-based artes, while Seraph characters employ mid-to-long range magical artes. These artes are further divided into multiple categories for each character. Artes can interrupt standard attacks. Alongside standard attacks and artes, characters can cast spells for actions such as healing or attacking enemies. The standard attacks, artes and spells are governed by a rock-paper-scissors system. Special attacks called can be performed which deal high damage, with each character having a unique Mystic Arte.
While in battle, characters status is displayed in special windows on the battle screen: their window shows their current health, their Blast gauge (an energy bar linked to special abilities), and Spirit Chain (SC) gauge, which fuels the ability to link characters and perform special attacks. A high level of SC points grants conditional boons to characters, such as dealing higher damage and faster recovery of SC. Characters have the option to side-step (dodge forward, backward or to the side), and precisely timed dodges can allow characters to stagger enemies and fill the SC gauge. The Blast gauge allows characters to trigger a blast of energy which knocks enemies back and heals injuries. The SC gauge allows for a maximum of four linked attacks, and any remaining points in the gauge can be used for later linked attacks. The order of activation for linked attacks cannot be changed. At the end of battles, if certain requirements are fulfilled, characters can learn skills called Battle Acts, abilities that grant the characters advantages in battle, such as being able to run around the field freely.
The characters Sorey and Rose can also perform which fuses either of them with a chosen Seraph partner to produce a powerful hybrid form, which can perform magical attacks indicative of the element the Seraph represents. While in this form, the human character's stats are boosted, and they gain special abilities unique to the fusion: the character can wield a large sword and fire-based magic (Lailah), shoot water arrows using a bow (Mikleo), use stone fists and summon stone pillars (Edna), and gain blade-like wings and summon whirlwinds (Dezel/Zaveid). A character can swap out their Seraph partners while not in this form. Both characters capable of Armatization can be in this form at the same time. If the human character is defeated on the field, activating Armatization will resurrect them if their current Seraph partner is still active. There is a maximum of four party members allowed in battle, with one human being linked to one Seraph.
Plot Setting Tales of Zestiria takes place on a fictional continent named Glenwood. Glenwood is set in the middle of an ocean-dominated world, sharing its setting with Tales of Berseria, the latter being set in the distant past of Zestirias world. Glenwood is divided between two warring countries: the Hyland Kingdom, which is ruled by a constitutional monarchy, and the Rolance Empire. Existing independently are multiple Guilds, who readily profit from the conflict and encompass multiple professions from transportation to goods manufacture to assassination. Throughout the land, an impurity known as "malevolence" generated by the negative emotions of humanity periodically transforms the living, the dead and even inanimate objects into monsters called the who pose a threat to the world. Along with humans, one of the main races of the world is the supernatural humanoids and animals who can only interact with humans with sufficient resonance in them. Though once an abundant people in Glenwood, the Seraphim have become scarce. The people of the world call those who interact with the Seraphim and they are both hailed as saviors and feared because of their power. The Shepherds have frequently appeared during times of crisis, and have entered into common folklore along with the Seraphim. Seraphim can also form contracts between themselves, with one dominant figure called a "Prime Lord" and a number of partners called "Sub Lords" who act as supports for them. The game tells the story of the Shepherds during the "Era of Chaos", when the Hellion are running rampant across Glenwood, attacking both the countryside and cities. Dragons play an important role in both the world lore and main story arc, but do not follow their traditional representation as beings of good and evil or symbolic creatures; rather, they are actually Seraphim who are corrupted by [the aforementioned] malevolence.
Story The game begins with a young human called Sorey and his friend Mikleo, a Seraph of water, exploring some nearby ruins when they rescue a human girl, Alisha, and bring her back home in the village of Elysia. Once Alisha departs back home, Sorey and Mikleo have a short clash with a Hellion called Lunarre. Fearing for Alisha's safety, they decide to leave the village in search of her. While looking for Alisha's whereabouts, Sorey has an encounter with Lailah, a Seraph of fire known as the Lady of the Lake, who makes a pact as his Prime Lord, granting him the power to purify the Hellions and making him a Shepherd. After Sorey reunites with Alisha, who is revealed to be a princess to the Hyland Kingdom, she becomes his "Squire" to fight the Hellions by his side, and the party starts traveling the continent purifying the Hellions and searching for the main source of the malevolence that plagues the land into an Era of Chaos, the individual known as the "Lord of Calamity". During their travels Sorey and the others have a short encounter with Zaveid, a rogue Seraph of wind who hunts down Hellions on his own accord, and befriend Edna, an earth Seraph who also joins the party. However, Alisha's low resonance with the Seraphim takes a toll on Sorey's body and she is forced to leave the group.