Played and reviewed July 2021
Tales of ZestiriaTales of Zestiria was very disappointing. I went into it back in 2017 not knowing its reputation. It was one of the first PS4 games I bought and I put it off; now I finally sat down (laid down mostly, my back went out), and just played through to the final boss, Heldalf. Worth it? Only if you want to play Tales of Berseria and get a lot of cool references. The story is kinda boring, the characters are very shallow and only barely have chemistry in handful of skits, the combat is frustrating, the skills and mechanics are pointlessly convoluted and changed for the sake of change, the music is bland and almost bad in some places, the graphics are mediocre and there's lots of slowdown in battles especially. This is rough. It's not a terrible game but it is just about what I consider bad.
Tales of BerseriaTales of Berseria was a real improvement on Zestiria. Was it a good Tales game? Only barely. I'm still not fond of the non-Team Symphonia games (think they're Team Destiny), so they are automatically lower. That being said, the characters are what make this a fun game. It's a bit creepy in terms of bluntly, shall we say, "Luciferian" elements, with a do what thou wilt message, but so many JRPGs are full of occult crap that it's hard to say if this is really brainwashing or just standard stuff. It's hard to justify playing Zestiria, ever, for any reason, so even though there are loads of references, considering this is a "prequel", I'd recommend JUST playing Berseria.
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