When exploring a nearby ruin Sorey and his brother, Mikleo, discover an injured female human. They return her to their village much to the anger of Sorey’s grandfather. Mikleo and Sorey’s grandfather are seraphim, a race of ethereal beings who oversee the Glenwood, the setting for the game, whereas Sorey is a human child raised by them...

Tales of Zestiria is an open map fantasy game. You get to play Sorey. The finding of the girl propels Sorey into leaving the quite seclusion of his village and return once more to the land of the humans. Here he finds that the land has been tainted and conquered by the Malevolence. I guess you can work out the rest of the plot from there as although the game provides an enjoyable experience it is lacking in originality.

The game also employs micro transactions through the Playstation Store, where various items can be purchased, including costumes, items and more useful, if a little worrying, increases to your levelling up, for the really lazy player.

Like most games there is an element of customisation. You can, at the beginning of a new game change the Battle Difficulty level, four options to choose from. You can also change your attack input time, whether you want subtitles, menu shortcuts and navigation map display, which can either be fixed or rotating. The rest of the options change camera rotation speed and auto adjust and you can remap your x and y-axis.

There are the options to change the volume on four elements as well as changing the sound output between surround and stereo. You get the usual option to turn the controller vibration either off or on. More importantly you can configure your controller’s battle system for up to four players. The game has option for either the original Japanese vocal track or an English dub.

There is much that is familiar. Your overall playing time will be spent in talking to people, exploring towns, dungeons and countryside. The fighting system is pretty straightforward and if you’ve played any Japanese role playing games you’ll be in very familiar territory.

It’s the same with much of the battle preparations. Many fights can easily be won with the appropriate weapons and armour, which is another drive for you to explore and fight. This is aided by your Seraph companions who can actively empower Sorey during fights. Being an open world system, battle is triggered by approaching an enemy.

Ultimately, what you’re getting is another in the series of Tales games, where the studio is counting on familiarity to pull in the punters. That is not to say that the game is bad, the characters are likable, the battle system fairly intuitive and the story of Sorey becoming the mythical shepherd will retain your attention.

So, it’s not an original game but one which will entertain fans of Japanese RPG’s.

7

Charles Packer