Your choice of character outfits is… interesting.

Fans having drama about two female leads feels weird when most popular ship seems to be with Mikleo anyway

Fantastic video. I don't like Zestiria as a game or as a tales game but I won't deny it has its charms. I beat it twice fully so here are my thoughts: * Edna is by far the best party member in terms of personality but its kind of dampened when you realise she's basically just Toph * The All-Divide is useful for things like building up massive combos either for the achievement or other things like bonus EXP or grade on a boss. It's not meant to be used as a crutch. * That menu with the extra skills is lethal. If you're not paying attention, you can accidentally activate some really nasty nerfs thinking they are buffs. There is an all divide skill that you can set and forget that makes the final boss (bullet armitization bit) literally impossible. This got a lot of players including me the first time round. * I don't like how the world's got bigger and barren since Xillia. The sense of scale you got in Symphonia, Vesperia and Graces was great, as well as the environmental design. I can often tell which cave of many someone is in from a screenshot just due to how the world looks. The rest of the games now just look sort of samey. * Same with titles. Graces had the best title system hands down. * Ram you can't make a point of using someone else's save file to have an easy easy story only run and then not editing it to have more grade. You may as well just start a fresh save if you only ended with 390. * You can actually kill Eizen far earlier than the bit where Edna agrees it's for the best. And she refuses to join your party for the fight if you do it before she's ready. This was really fucking cool and I'd like to see more games do this. * The water temple was the worst tales dungeon I ever played and that includes the one in Graces where you have to run across the entire thing 4x to swap out and replace dead batteries in Telos Astue. * Berseria makes a lot of the world building in Zestiria make sense to the point where it's obvious the two were co-developed, but the tone of Zesty always feels off compared to Berseria. Like it was bad fanfiction of what came after that released before the OG story. It feels like it was make by someone who hated Berseria at times since the story just falls apart and the lore can't carry it. * I always thought Sorey looked like Zac Efron and it was really distracting during certain parts of the game. I also thought Rose was a massive nothing burger and spent all game waiting for her to get character development. I don't even remember what Lilahs backstory was, I must have zoned out by that cutscene or skipped it. Can't wait for the video on Berseria.

Alisha? Rose? We all know mikleo's best girl

I FOUND THE RAMZIES LONG VIDEO CHANNEL

The enemy design at 6:35 is so satisfying to look at. Great analysis btw

You make really great and funny reviews dude I hope you blow up and can't wait for your next ones

I love Zestiria's characters and character dynamics, but the story and worldbuilding feels like a rough draft. There's good stuff there and I do like the story's overall themes, but it really, really needed more time in the oven to iron things out. All the controversy over Alisha is ridiculous though, Zestiria is hardly the first RPG to have party members that permanently leave part way through the game (Aerith most famously). It boggles the mind that even now, like a decade later, that it still hangs like a shadow over the whole game.

it feels refreshing to see someone so openly admit to their mistakes (like the Gald Style button) but still be so committed to replay the game several times and getting footage by using another persons save file

First video I've seen of yours. Solid work

Zestiria was my first tales game. Probably not the best place to start, but I’m glad it was my start. It actually came into my life during a very difficult time and was a great distraction when I needed it. Zestiria is far from my favorite, but I’m grateful that this game exists

The bird is indeed the word I also think this is the only tales game where yiu can do a challenge run by accident. Cool by the way reaching that victory

Subbing just for that Mason joke at the end, that's commitment to the bit. I mean MASOOOOOON.

What are your thoughts on both Tales of Berseria and Tales of Arise?

If I could like a video more than once, this would certainly be the one! I freakin' love your channel! (also, I too am a big LittleKuriboh fan and was ecstatic to hear Martin's voice acting in the game!)

Random note but during the war scene the dragon isn't actually summoned. There are two seraphim sibling NPCs near where you can initiate the bad ending. They slowly begin to get more and more affected by the Malevolence as you go through the game, and obviously once Heldalf is there they get fully contaminated and eventually fuse together to become the dragon during the war. It's pretty sad, but also needlessly confusing to the average person that doesn't talk to every NPC.

this was the first tales of game i played in 2017, ive played so many others over the years and zest still holds a special place in my heart

A++ commentary, watching this made me want to play this cursed game again lmao. i only played it because i love berseria so much (got into tales like 3 years ago) and it was an experience...

Pretty underrated game imo. Way better than people say. The amount of hate it gets is absurd. It’s still a competent tales game. Nowhere near the top, but still enjoyable.

Accidental challenge run IS hilarious yeah

Well atleast you can say you fought most of Zesteria with basically LV1 stats through most of it thanks to thats gold title lol.

I feel like Armatization is the main mechanic holding this game back, you could almost say it’s a crutch because everything that’s kinda eh about the game mechanics-skill and armor systems, the low stat totals (gald style not withstanding), individual character artes vs armatized artes and forced team set-ups with 2 humans and 2 serephim- all comes back to the Armatization feature that practically needs to be exploited in every regard to have any fun with this game, or at least on the more challenging parts.

I know your voice from somewhere by chance did you one talked about xenoblade and one talk about cheese with persona character?

Also...as for the reason why they decided to drop Alisha for Rose I feel it was less due to story reasons or Baba liked Rose over Alisha (well...maybe that was part of it as they easily could've altered the 3rd act so you could choose to finish the game with either Rose or Alisha with both being able to Armitize) and more so due to the fact that the battle system was made with 2 humans and 2 seraphs in mind and on the world map they had Sorey and either Rose or Alisha follow him while the Seraphs are inside Sorey and they didn't want to add a 3rd or 4th human to create a human centipede walking around the map, possibly getting stuck on things...it feels more the map issue may have been why they went this way as they easily could've had you swap Sorey and Alisha or Rose with other humans in the party (Alisha and a 4th human member) and then the Seraphs with each other (which they already do)...Hell they easily could've used Sergei and given Rolance a playable character as Hyland had Alisha and Sorey and Rose don't really align with either country in any major way if I'm right and are more neutral parties...at most they may have needed to change Sergei's weapon from a 1 handed sword to something different to give him a more unique playstyle from Sorey (say an 1 handed axe, a 2 handed axe, or mace and shield or something similar to have 2 tanky humans (Sergei and Alisha) and 2 fast dps focused humans (Sorey and Rose) while the Seraphs all fit the magic knight role for their respective element). I am not a game designer but even I thought this out within minutes after beating the game so why they didn't think to change to story a bit to make the playable characters like this is beyond me. Hell if they didn't make him a Seraph and he wasn't in Berseria making Zavied a human that used the gun would've been a better idea tbh and they could've kept Dezel alive and played as is...or I guess they could've made Dezel a human instead and used whips/the pendulum whereas Zavied was a seraph that shot wind bullets from the gun if they wanted to keep him for Berseria (since he'd need to be a Seraph to be in both games). Of course the main story also needed a lot more work as I mentioned in my other comment so combine the above with my other comment and Zesty could've been a good game rather than the mediocre game it is now.

Sorry but your voice sounds a lot like Ram Revie to me lol

I like Zestiria and am aware of the flaws, its unfortunate how much of a mess it turned into. The whole Alisha debouche was a knife to the gut, I play the Tales of Titles with friends (its a defining feature for us) so the situation with her removal was dreadful, especially seeing how she was intended to be in the game til the end; seeing her gear in shop throughout the playthrough. Zestiria is among the titles that could use a remake, just unlike with most cases it would be to rewrite the story. I appreciate the attempt zestX made with some things. All that said, the death threats were never warranted.

Yeah for a instant I thought this was a ramzaes videos

I just want a tales game similar to Abyss, since Zestiria they feel so different.

You sound a lot like Ramzies?

Actually Rose was my favorite character in this game, while Alysha was probably the most boring one out of all the "Tales of" games I've played...

Ramzies ?

The equipment system is so bad in this game it’s so confusing 😂. But I will say everyone has horrible experience with the AI but I guess I was lucky and never had a problem really 😂. The rose thing tho is explained but once again locked in skits people don’t generate malevolence if they truely believe in what they are doing

I still don't understand why so many people dislike Rose just for replacing Alisha. It's like, what's the character's fault? Instead of appreciating her for who she is, you guys do exactly what she says and try to make her fill the same role as the princess. You may not like her as a character, but 99% of the time you just take out your frustration of losing the princess on her

Next to berseria pls

I don't know what you're talking about with Arise not feeling like a Tales game... It feels more like a Tales game to me than Zestiria ever did... Then again, I love Arise (my third favorite after Symphonia and Vesperia) and I absolutely hated Zestiria... Truth be told, Zestiria is the only Tales title I actually do hate and I HAVE played Hearts and Innocence...

i have played many tales game but this game have one of the worst progress system through weapon and combine with the dps check final boss make it so miserable and on the other side if you understand the weapon system this game is a joke because the multiply x4 on element make even starting weapon can kill the final boss

Preferred rose, I hated alisha tbh

This was the first Tales of game that I dropped. I was loving it at the beginning despite how much it had changed in general since Vesperia, but then I just couldn't continue playing the game. It was nice to see how it ended.

I actually enjoyed this one. Pretty standard Tales game.

Rose alone makes this a pretty mid Tales of but I appreciate that they brought these concepts and world back in Berseria.

I hate that they advertised that Alisha being Heroine for the series before get sideline and replace by much inferior Rose who is Mary Sue in every way, the DLC is by far the worst as Rose being total jerk towards Alisha for no reason at all.

One of those games that was super forgettable for me. I think I finished it.... 🤔

I havent even made it 5 mins into the video and im sorry for your loss those 2 tales games being your first.

You have no Idea how bad it is. It's possible to fight the final boss hours early. And it's really hard. But if you win you get the bad ending. Yeah. Being good at the game makes the game worse. If that's not meta-commentary on the game I don't know what else is.

The biggest issue with this game wasn't event he Alisha controversy but the story itself is directionless for 90% of the game...it's literally you (Sorey) can see Seraphs and become the Shepard due to that and are told about the Lord of Calamity briefly and then told by Lailah to travel and get to know the world without any real direction on what to do after that until you get to 90% fo the way through the game and the Lord of Calamity (Heldaf/Kittybeard) finally does something that causes Sorey to go take him on at the final 10% mark of the game (something any other jrpg and all other Tales games would've done within the first 10% point of the story of their games...I don't know what the writers were doing). And as for the antagonists there were 4 main ones and only 2 play a role in the main story while the other 2 aren't even connected ot the other 2 and have little to no real motivation for what they do (1's insane, the other just turns up as evil for some random reason) and the 2 main enemies (Kittybeard and Symonne) don't really even have any motivation besides wanting to get himself killed for Kittybeard so he does something late game to piss of Sorey (the main character) and then following the Lord of Calamity for Symonne. It was just half assed in the end with only maybe FFXV being as bad. Oh and then the orbs that were said to be part of a side quest and show's Kittybeard's past...ya they became mandatory at the 11th hour of the story and the story won't progress until you get all of them. How they handled Alisha was stupid as well but the main story itself was just nonexistent...hell the game's side quests were all far better/more interesting than the main story tbh. And the other main issues were the skill system was trash (you more or less were on point with how annoying it was and explained), the camera was complete ass in combat (the entire earth temple fight I got a face full of minotaur crotch as it pinned me against a wall and the camera prioritizes showing the enemy over the player), battle maps could glitch in corridors and the field may separate you from the enemy, Armatus ruined 4 player multiplayer (at best you could do 2 player fine if one player plays Sorey and the other Rose/Alsiha as the seraph partner for Sorey/Rose fuses with them thus making player 3 and 4 bystanders when they use Armatus/DBZ style fusion, and a few other minor issues that also compound to be annoying as fuck. Throw in I don't liek the arte tree style of combat that Zestiria (as well as Graces and Berseria use) much in comparison to Tales classic combat system where you used artes via the directional stick plus artes button input (Smash Bros inputs to put it simply as that's an example most people probably played at one point). Best thing about Zesty was the sub quests as I mentioned before and half the cast was a lot of fun but that's about it. Thankfully Tales wound up releasing a much better game right after with Berseria where outside of the fact I just don't like arte trees much (well more so I prefer the old combat system far more as you could use whatever arte you wanted whenever you wanted without needing to go through other artes/actions to get to it that the arte tree combat forces you to go through) the game did everything much better than Zesty and most games in the series (is my 2nd favorite game after Symphonia when considering all aspects of the game, but the story in particular is the 2nd best after Symphonia imo and it has the best characters in the series imo mainly due to Rokuro and Eizen carrying the party quite a bit...only ther game that can compare in the series would be Tales of the Abyss imo) and even Arise is much better (granted it was a bit disappointing after how good Berseria was though in terms of story and sub quest quality...art and graphics are the best in the series though and I like the combat system more than Zesty/Bersy/Graces due to it not having any arte trees...the story was also very good until the second half and the twist which imo hurt the game...should've just played the story and the villains straight without the twist and Arise would have been a far better story than what we got even if it would've been predictable/generic. Ally AI and AI management of Arise was also trash (Zesty was abit better even in this regard) but enemy AI was drastically improved to be far more aggressive on each difficulty in comparision to the same difficulty in other games and it fixed 1 issue I've had with the series for a long while: the game was much more of a challenge than the past 5 or so games even on their hardest difficulties...too many games have been piss easy before Arise and it made the series a bit boring even though it is my favorite series (mainly cause I like the Smash Bros/fighting game like combat from the older games). On another note now that I got to the dlc section of the video...man you are unfortunate indeed with this game. As for why due to how much backlash the Alisha dlc got in Japan Namco actually gave the dlc away for free for a limited time (think the first 3 months or so) or if you pre ordered the game so since you bought it only after beating the game much later after release you got stuck shoving out about $12 or so for what many of us got for free on release.

Awww man this game annoyed me so much, coming off the heels of Xillia I was expecting so much but got serve with mediocre lukewarm cliche tap water. Also I don't get all the hate for Rose she was ok, all the characters in this game are just so ok... Damn is this game so bland.

I wanted to like Zestaria.... I tried to like Zestaria.... I could not like Zestaria. Sorey is dope though. Alicia being kicked from the party really does sour the rest of the game from that point as Sorey and her actually had chemistry.

Finally someone making a good video for that god forsaken game. One of the rare I've rage quit because it was that boring. Thanks.

Damn, I was not expecting to listen to the Ram guy in this video saying my exact same feelings towards this game in the first like 3 minutes.

My absolute favourite Tales of-game! Loved the transformation system in game, although cheeseable. Relationship between Sorey and Mikelo is 👌 But Rose can absolutely eat a turd, dunno why she was there. Also, descriptions are stupid and wonderful. English dub is trash. Twins are the best. Arte-system is the most complicated but also the most flexible and fun one! Edit: 26 minutes in and I remember why I absolutely love this game. It's so stupid and the characters are so loveable!

Even without the drama you couldn't save this game the combat is bad,the story is bad, the only good part is the world design that's it.

how the fuck do you play through that heap of shit three times just get vesperia DE and call it a day, never think of zestiria ever again