So far, I’ve played three Tales games – Symphonia, Vesperia and Arise –, and I loved all of them. Unfortunately, compared to them, Zestiria, for me, was quite a letdown – but don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying it’s a bad game, just not as strong as the other titles I’ve mentioned.

The scenery is beautiful (even if some locations feel a little empty here and there, I think making them just a bit smaller would have helped), and the character design and animations, and especially the anime cutscenes, are great, as always. I really loved the music, too, I believe the soundtrack is the strongest aspect of this installment. As for the battle system, if you ever played a Tales game before, you’ll get used to it pretty fast, it’s not too difficult at all. However, I, for one, wasn’t a fan of the skills and fusion system, I found them needlessly overcomplicated, but maybe that’s just me.

A much bigger problem I had was how bland and monotonous the story felt at times. For me, the twists were way too easy to figure out very early on (perhaps I watch too much anime…), and so the plot quickly became predictable. I couldn’t relate with any of the characters, either (apologies to all the fans, but I must say I simply hated the protagonist…), and there was only one party member who was fun to have around. Also, it would have been nice to add more variety to the dungeons (some are the same caves or stone corridors, just with different colors…) and maybe more post-game content (there are some collectibles, optional bosses, but only a few sidequests, and don’t expect any minigames, at least I didn’t find any).

So, yeah, all in all, this one’s a fine JRPG. Not great, not excellent, just fine, and as far as I’m concerned, finishing it once was enough.