Tales of Zestiria - PS3 / PS4 / PC - 2015

PS4 & PC wrote:

Namco Bandai Asia accidentally updated their Zesteria listing a bit too early, and added dates for the PS4 and PC versions.

They've since pulled it down, but safe to say that we'll be hearing about this at E3.

Hello again everyone. My name is Hideo Baba from Namco Bandai Studios Inc. and I am the producer for the Tales Of series from Namco Bandai Games Inc. As some of you know from previous posts, I like to step in from time to time and deliver great news to our fans on the PlayStation Blog. Today is one of those special days!
I am very proud to announce that Tales of Zestiria, the newest installment and 20th Japanese anniversary commemorative title for the Tales Of franchise, will be released throughout North America, South America, and Europe for the PlayStation 3 system! This is a huge moment for Namco Bandai Games and the Tales Of team in particular as it is the first time we have simultaneously announced the game for both Japan and Western countries.

There’s not much else to say about Tales of Zestiria right now, so please stay tuned for more information in the future.
In the meantime, we do have two other great Tales Of games coming out in North America and Europe to keep fans excited throughout next year. Tales of Symphonia Chronicles will be available on 28th February 2014 for PlayStation 3, and features both Tales of Symphonia and Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World with new HD graphics and new content for European fans, including new outfits, Mystic Arte cut-ins, titles, unison attacks and techniques. It will also be the first time that a Tales Of game features both an English and Japanese audio track.
Tales of Xillia 2 will also be out across Western territories next year for the PlayStation 3 system as well. It is the sequel to this year’s Tales of Xillia and focuses on two brand new characters; Ludger Kresnik and Elle Marta.

One of the defining themes of the game is “choice” and players will be able to speak through Ludger by the choices that they make throughout the game. And since this title takes place in the same world as Tales of Xillia, expect to see plenty of your favorite characters returning to help Ludger and Elle on their journey. We’ll have plenty more to talk about for this title in the coming months.
The Tales Of team has been working hard to strengthen our relationship with overseas fans over the past few years and have seen the fruits of our labour with the success of Tales of Xillia which has sold over a million copies worldwide. The Tales Of team would like to thank all of the fans around the world for their continued support and extend a warm welcome to new fans to the series as well.

http://blog.eu.playstation.com/2013/12/12/tales-of-zestiria-is-coming-to-ps3/

By the look of the footage this morning, it looks as though the game is open world, more Xenoblade if you will. The combat is not separated either so the combat happens in the field. Two new protagonists, male character is called Slay and the female is Alicia. The game's story is meant to revolve around dragons.

I'm assuming Tales of Symphonia Chronicles would be a good jumping on point for someone new to the series?

Jolly Old Saint NiKillers wrote:I'm assuming Tales of Symphonia Chronicles would be a good jumping on point for someone new to the series?

I am also wondering this. Only half played Vesperia but always really fancy these games.

I'd start with Symphonia and then play Vesperia as Vesperia builds upon Symponia's combat, notably through the addition of free run and final strikes. I'm currently playing Graces f and I love the new combat system, but I think it's better to experience the 'traditional' combat systems before trying Graces f as it's quite different.

As for Zestiria...combat in the field...a story revolving around dragons...

The first Symphonia game is still pretty good albeit a bit heavily laden with cheese. Combat's probably not the best of the series but it's still probably a good jumping in point. Symphonia 2 is a bit ehhh.

Hoping the writing for Zesteria is a bit better than Graces and Xillia.

I actually own Vesperia, Graces f and Xillia but haven't got around to playing them I keep saving the Tales games as that rainy day project to start. The games aren't connected in any way are they? I.e. there's no real order you have to play them in? annoying that Vesperia wasn't released on PS3 I'd have liked to have completed them all on PS3.

The writing in Graces is great! Pascal :wub:

Vesperia was released on the PS3 with extra content but it was a Japan only deal since they felt the cost to re-localise it + do the new translations wasn't going to be worth the effort.

Out of those three you've got, I'd say Vesperia is probably the more bearable out of the three. It still has the worst character in existence but it's offset by having a more coherent storyline and characters that occasionally think rather than

"Character X has betrayed you a number of times but asks you to trust them this time because they 'really means it'. What do you do?"

[x] Trust
[ ] Don't trust

"Character X betrays you!"

Mr.Jeff wrote:Vesperia was released on the PS3 with extra content but it was a Japan only deal since they felt the cost to re-localise it + do the new translations wasn't going to be worth the effort.

Out of those three you've got, I'd say Vesperia is probably the more bearable out of the three. It still has the worst character in existence but it's offset by having a more coherent storyline and characters that occasionally think rather than

"Character X has betrayed you a number of times but asks you to trust them this time because they 'really means it'. What do you do?"

[x] Trust
[ ] Don't trust

"Character X betrays you!"

Does the Japanese version come with an English subtitle track? The problem I have with JRPG's which prevents me from investing a lot of time into them is I actually find them incredibly easy the battles tend to be more about repetition than tactics and skill this was certainly the case with Ni No Kuni. I've got the following games waiting to be played Vesperia, Graces f, Xillia, FF XIII and FF XIII-2 how do they fare in terms game play?

Cool by the time this is out I might have actually bought a PS3, there are so many tales games on the system now that I have more and more reason to buy one (still wish they had released the PS3 versions of vesperia here).

PostTaaaaaaaaaaaales by **Mr.Jeff** » Thu Dec 12, 2013 10:06 pm

PurplePenguin wrote:Does the Japanese version come with an English subtitle track? The problem I have with JRPG's which prevents me from investing a lot of time into them is I actually find them incredibly easy the battles tend to be more about repetition than tactics and skill this was certainly the case with Ni No Kuni. I've got the following games waiting to be played Vesperia, Graces f, Xillia, FF XIII and FF XIII-2 how do they fare in terms game play?

Alas no. The game's script is available in places like Gamefaqs and such but it's purely a Japanese text and voiced game which is a shame.

In terms of gameplay, the Tales games are a bit more involved than Ni No Kuni. It flows a bit faster and with the main character you tend to aim to string together numerous skills to create long combos. Vesperia tends to use a gauge to control your skills using SP, Graces changes this slightly so you have combo points and each skill costs a number of them which are restored in various ways and Xillia changes it yet again to something I can't remember.

All of them emphasize quick action combat though. Gameplay videos will show it better than I describe it.

Off subject, XIII and XIII-2 use a bastardised mix of turn based and action gameplay. You have a number of roles such as a defense type role, healing type role, attack type role etc, and typically you use the game's Auto type move which then uses an optimum spread of skills for your turn. The key is balancing the switching of roles on the fly for as you need them. An unusual but rather enjoyable system.

The combat in Graces f is terrible until right up until the end of the game.
Xillia vastly improves on it by going with more a combination of Vesperia and Graces combat systems.

Sleighamorph wrote:The combat in Graces f is terrible until right up until the end of the game.
Xillia vastly improves on it by going with more a combination of Vesperia and Graces combat systems.

It sounds like you couldn't get the hang of balancing restoring CC and attacking until you nearly finished.

PostRe: Tales of Zestiria - PS3 - 2014 by **BAKA** » Thu Dec 12, 2013 11:58 pm

It's been trending a fair bit today on Twitter, which I found really surprising. It's nice that they've announced a UK release already, it saves a lot of the usual dread and speculation. Can't wait. With Persona, and this, there's still a lot of life left in the PS3, particularly from Japanese devs it seems.

Dark Dragon 64 wrote:
Sleighamorph wrote:The combat in Graces f is terrible until right up until the end of the game.
Xillia vastly improves on it by going with more a combination of Vesperia and Graces combat systems.

It sounds like you couldn't get the hang of balancing restoring CC and attacking until you nearly finished.

I could, but I just found that your maximum CC was far too limited until you got near to the end of the game. For most of it, the low CC just spoiled the flow of combat. It wasn't until towards the end where your CC was around 8+ that it started to feel like a decent battle system.

Were you maximising the number of title skills your characters learned and dualizing at every opportunity? Once I was accustomed to the new system I had no problem with battles. In fact I actually looked forward to them and enjoyed visiting the meadow with Sophie and Richard in the child arc as it felt like the first chance to freely engage in battles.

I was dualizing everything at every given opportunity and swapping out skills the second they were maxed out, but I still found the CC was just far too restrictive until about 3/4 of the way through the game when compared to a more traditional HP/TP system.
The system in Xillia pretty much nails a perfect combination of the two though. Best combat system in any Tales game to date.

The game itself advises you to level up titles to three stars while you're starting out so that you get a good range of skills early on in the game. I'd also like to point out that I've been playing the game on moderate (i.e. between normal and hard) since the first journey to Barona as a child.

PostRe: Tales of Zestiria - PS3 - 2014 by **Rubix** » Sat Dec 14, 2013 8:04 pm

Another PS3 tales game :wub:

New screens:

Tales of Zestiria - PS3 / PS4 / PC - 2015

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