I chose Zestiria as my first Tales game, admittedly, because I thought the protagonist was cute. I heard very mixed things about this game, so I decided to try it out. In the end, I could definitely see both the merits and flaws of Tales of Zestiria.
What I did like was the atmosphere, music, and even the characters. Gorgeous landscapes paired with a sweeping orchestra brought a smile to my face and made exploring the large open areas a lot more fun. As for the characters, I can see why someone would love or hate any single one of them. All the main party members have something enjoyable but also something annoying about them. I didn't actually finish the game (I got to the part where Mayvin tells you to go explore and "talk to him when you're ready") so I didn't get to experience the full character development.
What I didn't particularly enjoy was the pacing of the story. I found myself having to push myself to slog through parts of the game, and it made the exploration of the areas feel much more inorganic and forced. I had heard many bad things about the overly-complex battle system, and boy were they right. Every single miniscule attack can make or break the entire battle, and so many factors play into the dynamics between characters and their armatized forms that it gets incredibly convoluted and hard to follow. I ended up just putting the game on easy mode so I didn't have to make precise calculations on when/where I was attacking and exactly which type of arte I was using.
While my experience with Tales of Zestiria was bittersweet and didn't end where I would have liked it to, I felt it was time to put up the game as I wasn't enjoying it anymore. I do hear that the anime, Tales of Zestiria: The X is worth the watch, so I'll definitely check that out to get my Zestiria fix. Nevertheless, this mixed experience didn't sour my interest in the Tales series, in fact it did quite the opposite. I'm super excited to dive into more of the modern titles that I hear much better things about!