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zest
i beat zestiria (and alisha's dlc) the other day and i'm finally ready to get into it! thoughts under the cut and spoilers, obviously. also, this is very very long. and this is p much just for myself because Feelings.
1. i'll get the cons out of the way first. i really, really did not like the... exaggerated open world. don't get me wrong, i think it's great they that decided to make things less linear than other games, and i think i was a bit spoiled by xillia. xillia didn't have dungeons so much as... paths with monsters. that being said, the expanse of dungeons and especially fields was ridiculous. there's so, so much walking and... not that much to explore. it took me hours and hours with all the walking back and forth i did because 1. i was too cheap to use fast travel until the end and 2. fast travel was blocked off for the majority of the time in the beginning. it was extremely frustrating, and having to fork over gald just to fast travel (and the more gald the richer you are, i got up to 36k per trip) is ridiculous.
2. the skit system is my biggest gripe. when i went to katz village and saw just how many skits i missed, i was discouraged because i tried so hard to be careful. "did i miss any skits?" definitely invokes unnecessary paranoia. i got MOST story ones, but the sub event list was almost empty, and i even got the chatterbox trophy, so... i dunno. it's ridic. just going through other people's caps it seems like there's a lot of good stuff i missed. i didn't mind the skit system in graces with save points and discoveries, because they weren't so easy to miss, but having to sleep at inns (and repeatedly at that) was a really strange decision on the game designers' part.
3. the equipment system/stacking system is beyond confusing for me. i stuck to hard for almost everything besides certain boss fights, so i guess i did okay, but i know i didn't use it to its potential. no matter how much it was explained to me, i just... did not get it. i didn't like the leveling system in particular, although unlimited herbs were a HUGE bonus.
4. i haven't done every sidequest, so i can't comment much, but i'm disappointed that a lot of important backstory (edna and zaveid in particular) was shafted into a sidequest. then again.. xillia did the same thing (alvin's mom, the julius logs, etc) so this is not a New tales thing, every game has done it to an extent, so.
5. a lot of plot threads were very rushed. i got the sense that toward the end of the game they were like "oh shit we never went anywhere with this, better resolve it!" like maltran. not a big deal but by that point i had almost FORGOTTEN the whole maltran thing, so it was a little silly.
6. english voices, bad. dub, bad. i am not a dub elitist, but i am SO grateful i was able to switch to jp before dezel's big thing because.... it just, in jp it's a different experience altogether. before switching, i thought mikleo was genuinely annoyed with sorey all the time (and felt like an emotionless twelve yr old when he is a very emotional person), i thought dezel constantly wanted to punch everyone except rose (he doesn't), etc. i liked rose, alisha, sorey and zaveid's en voices (and dezel's was't BAD just gave me the wrong impression) but i love how regal alisha sounds in japanese. chels and i were talking abut how it's like.... they couldn't reuse voice actors so they used voice actors that sounded like others? sorey sounded a lot like asbel, alisha sounded EXACTLY like cheria, etc etc. i really hope they keep up dual audio w/ other games in the future because playing it in japanese made it a much better experience for me.
moving on to the pros, which are a lot more important to me:
1. i have never seen a cast of characters like this. i have never seen a character like lailah, who is the oldest next to zaveid and has so much baggage but is still able to have optimism after centuries of existence and after living through so, so much. i don't blame edna for being more cynical-- she's lived so long, and with her brother in that situation on top of that, her personality is understandable, but she was not a robot, she conveyed emotion during emotional situations, she picked on everyone a little bit (okay, meebo a lot) an apologized when she went too far. she was defensive of the people close to her, too, especially lailah i noticed. i was terrified she'd be the common loli trope but she... wasn't, not at all. then there's zaveid, and i thought he'd be the womanizer trope with nothing much more to him but wow, i was so wrong. he hits on mikleo (and sorey) just as much, tbh, i couldn't even believe some of those lines. but all that aside, i really loved him. there was not one character in this game i disliked.
i cannot wrap my head around the rose hate that exists. it breaks my heart. she is SUCH a good character. i have never, ever seen a character like rose, ever. she's absolutely amazing. like... i don't even have words. i'm torn between lailah, rose and mikleo being my favorite but i've more or less given up on ranking everyone, and i know that all three are seriously up there as far as favorite tales characters go. rose and lailah are up there as all time favorite characters period.
2. sorey and mikleo. it still absolutely blows my mind that we have a canon gay pairing and no het in a tales game. vesperia had no het too and there was ristelle and fluri, but this was... this was outright canon? sometimes i still couldn't believe it, like "maybe i'm just reading into it too much" but then something else would happen and i'd realize no, this is Actually Real. they are the definition of equals, of stability, of a healthy and mutual relationship where they can communicate without words. their Looks, their little shoulder bumps, the fact that rose pointed out that mikleo only seems to get angry when sorey is involved (i.e. other people giving sorey a hard time), just... so, so much. sorey is gay, end of discussion, mikleo is in love with sorey, end of discussion. by the epilogue i was convinced that sorey and mikleo's story was straight up a love story. you don't promise to wait centuries and keep your shared dream alive for your Pal, you don't share his dream ("your dream? no, this is our dream"), you don't get relentlessly teased by everyone unless something is up. it's so obvious to everyone (except alisha tbh, bless her heart) and i loved all the skits where they picked on mikleo especially. he's so much more dere than tsun. the smile he gave sorey in the epilogue was like..... so beautiful and so fond i do not have words for it.
the classic tales Final Night™ scenes were so good. not just sorey and mikleo but rose and lailah and edna and zaveid, too. i thought sorey and mikleo were going to kiss like..... 20 times during that scene... soremiku has definitely climbed way, way up there on the otp list, i think they're the holy trinity next to aruju and fluri tbh. rose/alisha (and rose/lailah prior to that) was sooooo so so good too. alisha's dlc dungeon was insane but it was worth it. mikleo staring back at the light in the credits murdered me, though. only 700 more years, buddy!
3. there were a lot of scenes that stood out to me as just... amazing?? i loved the war scene when everyone was calling sorey a monster and he kept a straight face and mikleo was by his back the entire time, because i know it hurt him and he just didn't let that stop him. i really loved rose's introduction, i loved how scared she was and how mikleo was the one to talk some sense into her and reassure her. i loved when rose killed medusa before sorey could because she said he should be saving lives, not taking them, that's her job. dezel's death was not something i expected and it killed me, and that and the aftermath were so well done-- mikleo telling sorey that he thought he could just give up whenever, that this'd be over, but that he realized it can't end up like that and he's going to support him all the way. lailah and edna's scenes were so good, too, lailah's... definitely made me get a lil teary. i loved when symonne captured rose and rose managed to escape and sneak up on her. i loved the whole thing with tiamat and rising up, i really really got into it, god i just THERE WAS SOOO MUCH GOOD SHIT. the ending was great, i just cannot even list it all, it's... way too much. i loved symonne's last scene where lailah was making an attempt at talking sense into her, and she was too destroyed to listen, and edna told her lailah was doing her a favor but ultimately it couldn't change things. it was really well done, especially having to walk away from symonne while she was wailing like that. any game that manages to physically make my heart ache is a Good game. zestiria invoked a lot of powerful emotions, for me.
4. sorey and rose are the literal definition of gay besties.
5.
side note: mikleo kept one of sorey's feathers clipped to his waist in the epilogue and...... god... mikleo is so in love with him...
1. i'll get the cons out of the way first. i really, really did not like the... exaggerated open world. don't get me wrong, i think it's great they that decided to make things less linear than other games, and i think i was a bit spoiled by xillia. xillia didn't have dungeons so much as... paths with monsters. that being said, the expanse of dungeons and especially fields was ridiculous. there's so, so much walking and... not that much to explore. it took me hours and hours with all the walking back and forth i did because 1. i was too cheap to use fast travel until the end and 2. fast travel was blocked off for the majority of the time in the beginning. it was extremely frustrating, and having to fork over gald just to fast travel (and the more gald the richer you are, i got up to 36k per trip) is ridiculous.
2. the skit system is my biggest gripe. when i went to katz village and saw just how many skits i missed, i was discouraged because i tried so hard to be careful. "did i miss any skits?" definitely invokes unnecessary paranoia. i got MOST story ones, but the sub event list was almost empty, and i even got the chatterbox trophy, so... i dunno. it's ridic. just going through other people's caps it seems like there's a lot of good stuff i missed. i didn't mind the skit system in graces with save points and discoveries, because they weren't so easy to miss, but having to sleep at inns (and repeatedly at that) was a really strange decision on the game designers' part.
3. the equipment system/stacking system is beyond confusing for me. i stuck to hard for almost everything besides certain boss fights, so i guess i did okay, but i know i didn't use it to its potential. no matter how much it was explained to me, i just... did not get it. i didn't like the leveling system in particular, although unlimited herbs were a HUGE bonus.
4. i haven't done every sidequest, so i can't comment much, but i'm disappointed that a lot of important backstory (edna and zaveid in particular) was shafted into a sidequest. then again.. xillia did the same thing (alvin's mom, the julius logs, etc) so this is not a New tales thing, every game has done it to an extent, so.
5. a lot of plot threads were very rushed. i got the sense that toward the end of the game they were like "oh shit we never went anywhere with this, better resolve it!" like maltran. not a big deal but by that point i had almost FORGOTTEN the whole maltran thing, so it was a little silly.
6. english voices, bad. dub, bad. i am not a dub elitist, but i am SO grateful i was able to switch to jp before dezel's big thing because.... it just, in jp it's a different experience altogether. before switching, i thought mikleo was genuinely annoyed with sorey all the time (and felt like an emotionless twelve yr old when he is a very emotional person), i thought dezel constantly wanted to punch everyone except rose (he doesn't), etc. i liked rose, alisha, sorey and zaveid's en voices (and dezel's was't BAD just gave me the wrong impression) but i love how regal alisha sounds in japanese. chels and i were talking abut how it's like.... they couldn't reuse voice actors so they used voice actors that sounded like others? sorey sounded a lot like asbel, alisha sounded EXACTLY like cheria, etc etc. i really hope they keep up dual audio w/ other games in the future because playing it in japanese made it a much better experience for me.
moving on to the pros, which are a lot more important to me:
1. i have never seen a cast of characters like this. i have never seen a character like lailah, who is the oldest next to zaveid and has so much baggage but is still able to have optimism after centuries of existence and after living through so, so much. i don't blame edna for being more cynical-- she's lived so long, and with her brother in that situation on top of that, her personality is understandable, but she was not a robot, she conveyed emotion during emotional situations, she picked on everyone a little bit (okay, meebo a lot) an apologized when she went too far. she was defensive of the people close to her, too, especially lailah i noticed. i was terrified she'd be the common loli trope but she... wasn't, not at all. then there's zaveid, and i thought he'd be the womanizer trope with nothing much more to him but wow, i was so wrong. he hits on mikleo (and sorey) just as much, tbh, i couldn't even believe some of those lines. but all that aside, i really loved him. there was not one character in this game i disliked.
i cannot wrap my head around the rose hate that exists. it breaks my heart. she is SUCH a good character. i have never, ever seen a character like rose, ever. she's absolutely amazing. like... i don't even have words. i'm torn between lailah, rose and mikleo being my favorite but i've more or less given up on ranking everyone, and i know that all three are seriously up there as far as favorite tales characters go. rose and lailah are up there as all time favorite characters period.
2. sorey and mikleo. it still absolutely blows my mind that we have a canon gay pairing and no het in a tales game. vesperia had no het too and there was ristelle and fluri, but this was... this was outright canon? sometimes i still couldn't believe it, like "maybe i'm just reading into it too much" but then something else would happen and i'd realize no, this is Actually Real. they are the definition of equals, of stability, of a healthy and mutual relationship where they can communicate without words. their Looks, their little shoulder bumps, the fact that rose pointed out that mikleo only seems to get angry when sorey is involved (i.e. other people giving sorey a hard time), just... so, so much. sorey is gay, end of discussion, mikleo is in love with sorey, end of discussion. by the epilogue i was convinced that sorey and mikleo's story was straight up a love story. you don't promise to wait centuries and keep your shared dream alive for your Pal, you don't share his dream ("your dream? no, this is our dream"), you don't get relentlessly teased by everyone unless something is up. it's so obvious to everyone (except alisha tbh, bless her heart) and i loved all the skits where they picked on mikleo especially. he's so much more dere than tsun. the smile he gave sorey in the epilogue was like..... so beautiful and so fond i do not have words for it.
the classic tales Final Night™ scenes were so good. not just sorey and mikleo but rose and lailah and edna and zaveid, too. i thought sorey and mikleo were going to kiss like..... 20 times during that scene... soremiku has definitely climbed way, way up there on the otp list, i think they're the holy trinity next to aruju and fluri tbh. rose/alisha (and rose/lailah prior to that) was sooooo so so good too. alisha's dlc dungeon was insane but it was worth it. mikleo staring back at the light in the credits murdered me, though. only 700 more years, buddy!
3. there were a lot of scenes that stood out to me as just... amazing?? i loved the war scene when everyone was calling sorey a monster and he kept a straight face and mikleo was by his back the entire time, because i know it hurt him and he just didn't let that stop him. i really loved rose's introduction, i loved how scared she was and how mikleo was the one to talk some sense into her and reassure her. i loved when rose killed medusa before sorey could because she said he should be saving lives, not taking them, that's her job. dezel's death was not something i expected and it killed me, and that and the aftermath were so well done-- mikleo telling sorey that he thought he could just give up whenever, that this'd be over, but that he realized it can't end up like that and he's going to support him all the way. lailah and edna's scenes were so good, too, lailah's... definitely made me get a lil teary. i loved when symonne captured rose and rose managed to escape and sneak up on her. i loved the whole thing with tiamat and rising up, i really really got into it, god i just THERE WAS SOOO MUCH GOOD SHIT. the ending was great, i just cannot even list it all, it's... way too much. i loved symonne's last scene where lailah was making an attempt at talking sense into her, and she was too destroyed to listen, and edna told her lailah was doing her a favor but ultimately it couldn't change things. it was really well done, especially having to walk away from symonne while she was wailing like that. any game that manages to physically make my heart ache is a Good game. zestiria invoked a lot of powerful emotions, for me.
4. sorey and rose are the literal definition of gay besties.
5.
side note: mikleo kept one of sorey's feathers clipped to his waist in the epilogue and...... god... mikleo is so in love with him...