If the internet has told me anything about Zestiria, it's that it sucks balls aaaaaand SorMik. I focused only at the SorMik part and waited to get a PS4 anyway. I have the game, I didn't have the console, so everytime I read a SorMik fanfic... you can probably guess my reaction (silent screaming at midnight).
As always, the characteristic genre of this game is Passion that Illuminates the World RPG. It makes sense in context.
This game of 'guess that character' is going to be fairly easy because everyone is colour-coded for your convenience. Our main man Sorey is the one with the most fancy outfit. Done. Our main girl Rose is a redhead with a Cheshire cat smile. Our other main girl is Alisha, the princess-knight with a really unusual side cowlick. Our 'heroine', who is basically the heroine in all but name only - Mikleo, the water seraph; Lailah, the fire seraph who puns a lot; loli earth seraph Edna; classy grumpy wind seraph Dezel; and finally, my favorite - MR. FANSERVICE 'SHIRTS ARE FOR WEENIES' ZAVEID!!!!
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| Look at this baby... |
Sorey's like 'yah' and Mikleo was 'u sure', but believes in Sorey's choices anyway, so main man pulls out the sword and purifies the sanctuary. Alisha be like 'wah???' and so... a shepherd is born!!!
People are skeptic about the whole shepherd thing (since peeps not be seeing a savior in 100+ years) and many people can't see seraphim, so they always assume Sorey is cuckoo in the head. Thankfully Alisha believes him and by shutting all his senses, Lailah can communicate with Alisha through Sorey. Alisha, having ideals for the good of her country and people, becomes a squire to the shepherd, granting her purifying powers too. So they explore some ruins, trying to figure out how to restore the blessing to the land, Sorey gets into a fight with Mikleo. They make up later and Mikleo becomes a sub-lord to Lailah (meaning he works under her to grant the shepherd similar powers).
Sorey's main mission as a shepherd is to defeat the Lord of Calamity and purify hellions - beings overcome by malevolence, be it human or seraph. Alisha is an idealistic princess who is too far in line to succeed the throne, therefore she poses no threat to ministers and has little influence over the royal court. The ministers decide it's wise to shoo her away to a plagued town nearby, in hopes that she'll die. Sadly that isn't the case because Sorey thinks the plague has something to do with malevolence, and the towns people are trying to get medication for their illnesses... except the bridge is down and the water is too intense to build a new one over it. Sorey quells the 'river spirit' which turns out to be a seraph hellion and the seraph promises to be the Lord of the Land and grants his blessing over at Ladylake area. The waters have calmed down... but there is still no way to fix the bridge immediately, and the sick are in desperate need of their meds. Who to ask assistance? An earth seraph.
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| Very definitely NOT P3... |
Edna utterly despises humans, and refuses to help Sorey. But she agrees to become a sub-lord moments later to find a way to turn her brother back (there's no way to turn a dragon back into a seraph, stop hoping). And so begins the journey of a new shepherd to defeat the LoC... Sorey decides to raise some rocks from the river bed to make the bridge fixing process quicker. He does it at night, because humans cannot see seraphim and would be freaked out by Sorey's 'supernatrual' abilities. They meet Rose again and a mercenary named Lucas in the plague town. The plague is finally cured, but war looms by the horizon. Before Sorey and co. can leave, ministers from Ladylake threaten to kill Alisha if the shepherd does not show up in the battlefield and bring them victory.
Reluctantly, Sorey agrees. He defeats many soldiers with no incident and everyone treats him like a monster (because no one can see seraphim), even Lucas, who was a little shaken up by Sorey saving his ass. Malevolence gathers easily in the battlefield, so it's not surprising that the LoC, Heldalf appears to kick Sorey's level 25 ass. Sorey is saved by a mysterious assassin as she takes him away and jumps off a cliff. They land in a forest, with the assassin unconscious. Sorey looks to see who the she is and - it's ROSE! He carries Rose to safety and he meets some of Rose's assassin companions while they lead him to their current hideout.
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| Disturbing without context |
After Sorey awakens from his beating, he decides to explore the ruins-hideout for a bit. Rose decides to follow, but she just stares holes at Sorey. Rose accidentally traps Sorey and co. in a room, and while she goes to find a switch, the shepherd gets hoarded with enemies, traps, and a lot of other shit. Finally when they get out, they find Rose in a pinch, attacked by an unseen force, with another unseen force protecting her. To Sorey, it's a hellion and a seraph. Sorey tries to fight off the hellion, but he is missing a wind seraph, so they couldn't beat the hellion.
The wind seraph - Dezel is eager for the power armatization gives, so without any invitation he forms a pact with Lailah as her sub lord. Mikleo approaches Rose (who still couldn't see them) and crams 'why you should join the shepherd as his squire' essay into two sentences, and she agrees! They beat the hellion, and Rose collapses due to exhaustion after Edna dearmatizes. She informs Sorey, Mikleo and Lailah that she could control Rose's body even when she's unconscious, hinting at the fact that Dezel has groomed Rose into the condition she is now.
After Rose wakes up, they continue into the ruins, where they find a map of the continent, with symbols of the four elements on parts of the map. Lailah informs them that those are the trial shrines of the shepherd. Visiting the places can grant the shepherd and their seraph amazing powers. If the one-sided fight with LoC has told Sorey anything, it's that he's not strong enough. If they wanna find the trial shrines, they better start by getting information in town. They head for the nearest one, but due to the recent tussle, border patrol has increased. They meet the head knight Sergei. Rose has a fake permit, so they pass easily... unfortunately not so for Sorey. Sergei notices his fine shepherd robes and ornamental sword. Sorey is shitty at lying and Rose couldn't do it for him, so the seraphim take it to themselves to get him out of the situation... by moving his limbs like a puppet! The act is very unbelievable, but Sergei EATS IT UP. Sorey passes.
Unfortunately, their cover didn't last long. As they visit the church, Sergei shows up and says there's no such establishment that Rose mentioned, then challenges Sorey to a duel, all the while deflecting attacks from the seraphim, which he CANNOT SEE! HE IS THAT GOOD. It's a human feud, so Sorey faces Sergei alone, and after all's said and done, the knight reveals his trust towards Sorey as the shepherd, and hopes he can solve the unrelenting rain in the capital Pendrago. The pope is missing too, so there's that.
Sorey and co. think its the work of hellions, so they agree to investigate. The rain situation is really bad in Pendrago and with the Pope's disappearance, things have been unsettling. A priestess is filling in for the pope, but Sergei has reason to suspect she's the one causing the never ending rain, and hopes Sorey can find the pope and bring him back. Sorey and co. also need the pope to decipher ancient texts on the trial shrines, so they agree to help Sergei. They find the pope settled in a small village in the outskirts, producing fake elixir to sell to the rich in Pendrago in order sustain their measly income. The pope is tired of his job which drove away his family and is repaying the villagers for treating him like their own. He hopes Sorey and co. don't out him to the knights because he wants to stay.
In other news, the small village also holds a secret: the fire trial shrine is just at the back! Cue epic music and battle montage! Sorey and co. complete the trial shrines with little to no incident, except that they find out that Alisha's mentor Maltran is a hellion working for LoC in the water trial, and MR. FANSERVICE 'SHIRTS ARE FOR WEENIES' ZAVEID came to play again before the wind trial. It's all well and good... until a bitch shows up.
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| BITCH |
Sadly I have no fucking idea what came next because I basically swept through the story in a month so now I have no memory of anything up until Sorey's stand with a dragon. I know they went to look for Mayvin, dueled with him, then something else happened...
So after Sorey's stand with the dragon, Sergei and Alisha (the only two peacekeepers) were like 'see soldiers the shepherd's still helping us even though we're so shitty and at war so let's work together and help him', so tensions were kinna dissolved at the time. They also manage to make sense of LoC's motivations and his backstory, and wouldn't you know it, Heldalf didn't become LoC because he wanted to (even though he kinna deserved it), it's the previous shepherd who cursed him! Using an infant human Mikleo as a sacrifice no less! Gramps found baby Sorey and gave Mikleo a second chance in life, and raised them to be the future shepherd and his seraph.
Now that they know LoC's backstory, Sorey and co. go to Artorius' Throne (more on that later) to beat him once and for all. Before that they had to mercy kill Gramps, so there's that... Sorey uses his seraphim to defeat LoC's 4 forms, push his squire to safety, kills Heldalf and releases Maotelus, then goes into a few hundred years' slumber with him.
The first epilogue has the seraphim and a new shepherd with two familiar but old twins by a grave.
The second epilogue is full of SorMik.
Phew! This was one long ass journey! I wasn't planning on spoiling Zestiria, but I did it anyway and regretted it a little. Apparently Bamco is out of meaningful names and characteristic genres to assign to their main titles, but this isn't as bad as Berseria (I think).
Gameplay: is a 7. It's not as bad as they say imo. I enjoyed the battle system, it's different and I had fun thinking of strategies to defeat some of the harder bosses. Armatization is also VERY COOL. The offensive spells are just ~awesome~~~ especially Maelstrom OMG. Maybe it's just me. I use a lotta water armatus lol. Fans can hate on the battle system or the lack of cooking or any other thing they like to bash on, but they cannot, CANNOT I SAY, deny that the scenery is just...! A+++++!!! SPOT ON! I'm not giving it an 8 because I cannot change my leader on the field. Like I know it's just Sorey and Rose/Alisha, but sometimes I wanna control the girls too! Speaking of girls, the heroine switch is a real downer. Poorly executed. I was so happy to have a dragoon/spear heroine then Bamco goes haha! fooled you! I'm not that mad about it but still...
Story: It's shaky, so 5 will do. The score would be higher if they expanded more on the lore. Then we wouldn't need Berseria to make things even more complicated (or clear, no one's really sure). The premise is interesting and makes for good story, IF ONLY they expanded on the correct places! Lailah's past with the shepherds? NO. Zaveid and his bullets? NOPE. Alisha's departure? NUH-UH. And the worst offender: Rose's motivations in joining Sorey as his squire. I complained about this no less than 3 times on different websites. More on character analysis. Despite the obvious flawed storytelling, Tales being Tales, they still have ways to make me cry like a baby. Way to go. Also helped by OTP goodness.
Soundtrack: Ohohoho! This is a good one! The best out all the categories - 8! My bias has always been Go Shiina and he was the one who raised the score on this one. 3 discs worth of basic Motoi Sakuraba tracks and a disc full of Go Shiina goodness! I can rest in peace... All the tracks are wonderful, but of course my favourites are the trial shrine themes oooooooooo those were the best shit I've heard since Sea of Rage from Legendia. And then Rsising Up??? RISING UP???!!!! TOO GOOD.
Overall rating: The storytelling really killed it. Only a 6. Sorey's ass and thighs cannot save you. Zaveid's abs and sexy voice cannot help you. Lailah's puns cannot wipe your mistakes. Go Shiina's amazing pieces cannot raise your score. Even shipping, which I go to for bonus points, cannot help me ignore the fact that the heroine switch is just...bad. Do better next time Bamco.
Enough of the sad things! Let's analyse the name of the game!
Zestiria is named after the word 'zest': 1. great enthusiasm and energy; 2. the outer coloured part of the peel of citrus fruit, used as flavouring. Initially, everyone thought it was the zest of citrus fruit, which btw is just lol. 'Great enthusiasm and energy' is one way of explaining Sorey's attitude towards the world (and his personality in general), thus segue to the characteristic genre - Passion that Illuminates the World.
While it's easy to assume the characteristic genre refers to Sorey also, I think it's not that simple. The world in Zestiria is plagued by so much shit because the god-like beings - seraphim - has lost their 'passion' for humans. Well, most of them anyway. Throughout the game you restore and help the seraphim restore their faith in humanity, and in return they give their blessing to a land. A blessed land with a seraphim ensures the area continues to prosper and most malevolence is eliminated. Malevolence is the shroud that causes shit, the seraphim's faith in humanity is the the 'passion', and their blessing is the light that 'illuminates' the land, curing it from malevolence. However this is only a small scale purification, as the true source is never tackled. It is Sorey's passion for the world and life that finally purifies the god-of-all-gods seraph Maotelus and Heldalf is freed from his suffering as LoC. It is also the passion of peacekeepers like Sergei and Alisha that strive to end the war at all costs that bring a glimmer of hope to the people.
Character analysis:
For some reason, Tales protagonists have been pretty competent these past few installments. Yuri was the first one, then Jude was semi-competent, Milla is invulnerable to this discussion, and now Sorey... He's not the hot-blooded idiot hero we used to have back then, but also he's not as collected as Yuri? Sorey's not brash or stupid because he has a lot to think about and he threads carefully on his decisions. He's not used to the harsh world either because again, he thinks a lot during the course of the game. I'd say he's semi-competent like Jude. Personality wise, he starts out like any generic JRPG protagonist - idealistic, with a pinch of nerdiness and cuteness. The improved graphics of new gen consoles meant that Sorey has a really nice ass. It doesn't help that his pants show off his nice thighs from every angle, like, dayum son! Sadly it is impossible to fully appreciate his ass with the shepherd robes blocking my view. :(
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| "Honey don't go!" Source |
Then again, Sorey and Mikleo's development happens side-by-side 90% of the time, so it's really hard to tell them apart. Also if anyone wants more SorMik moments, please refer to the anime. I should actually watch the anime some day...
Alisha is... great main girl material. She is the other main girl, but is also 1st main girl. Alisha can be a really good heroine, if only the writers bothered to let her stay longer. Sadly this isn't the case and we are left with a really badly executed heroine switch. She could potentially be a great JRPG protagonist too, with her idealist views and naivete as well as her subsequent heroic BSOD upon finding out Maltran works for LoC. Too bad she's only there in the story as a peacekeeper and plot twist reasons. They said the Alisha DLC helped cover some of her side of the story, but nobody actually truly appreciated the extra content.
Rose is an even worse case! Like Alisha she has some really good character points, but the writers have no idea how to use 'em, resulting in the aforementioned heroine switch failure. A lot of fans complained about the switch, and I can see why. She just kinna... nods and joins. She is the boss of an assassins/merchant guild, so her ability to run around squire-ing is bizarre to me. Granted the assassins have to move a lot and their front as merchants also require them to travel everywhere, it still doesn't explain how Rose can juggle being a squire (later shepherd) and the boss of TWO sustaining businesses. She has capable assistants like the twins, but most of the heavy decisions lie on her, and she's away from her business 80% of the time! If the game featured a small character arc about Rose's reasons for joining, even if it's just cutscenes, I would be ok with it. She went from being scared of unseen seraphim to a believer in 3 seconds. I don't buy it.
Lailah, Lailah... she has issues. How she became the prime lord? Why did she take the oath? How do seraphs gain power with their oaths? There's so much to explore, and yet...
Edna's design is cool, she's got the world's coolest elder brother, and a very cool demeanor. She irritable lolita Jade. Edna doesn't have much going for her tbh. She's quite the boring character in terms of backstory. Her personality doesn't change much either. Still the deadpan sarcastic earth seraph from the beginning. If anything, her character arc involving Eizen was the one that interests people the most.
Dezel is quite the interesting character, knowing that he is a seraph whose blessing is a curse. Again with the lacking plot, Zestiria could do with a sidequest or two involving these 'cursed' seraphs, and how they came to be. Dezel's relationship with Rose is a unique stalker-with-a-crush type with various amounts of creepy. He groomed Rose into a seraph vessel puppet for his own revenge plan against Symonne, if that doesn't spell creep I dunno what does. Do I ship them? To some extent. Do I think it's healthy? Not really.
MR FANSERVICE SHIRTS ARE FOR WEENIES Zaveid is the most interesting character by far, just by pure mysteriousness of his past with Edna's brother Eizen. And the gun and bullets. Who made them? How did he get them? Why was he hunting for hellions? What actually happened before Zestiria??? Stay tuned, we'll be right back after 20 months! And we won't even answer all of the questions! Zaveid is one of the eye candy in the party... cause damn! Have you seen those pecs? Those ABS??? And those thighs??? And that boisterous personality of his? His inappropriate flirting? I wouldn't want to meet him irl but is he a funny guy!
*sigh* This game is really good in terms of graphics and the character designs. Sadly Bamco has a tendency to rush their anniversary titles and this may just be the worst of three. Abyss is incredibly good as an anniversary title, and to this day remains as a favourite of mine, even though I've read that there was cut content due to time constraints. I have mixed feelings about Xillia, as do most fans. It's beautiful and the story had good pacing, albeit a bit awkward. It was refreshing with the dual viewpoints of Jude and Milla, but most complaints come from the lack of development in the other world of Elympios. Again, cut content from time constraints. They fixed it with Xillia 2, but fans paid double for an anniversary title that was promised to be great. Then Zestiria... got the most shit. The pacing was bad, important plot points were ignored, the lore was so-so... at least the music is good I guess. In less than 2 years Bamco churned out Berseria, which supposedly clears some doubts about the lore, but nobody can ever be sure if they understand anything.
Knowing this, fans are excited to hear about a new title, however with a TalesFes gone and no announcement, they're getting anxious about the lack of news. I think it's for the best. They have a little over 2 years until Tales 25th anniversary in 2020, and I wouldn't even mind if they released the anniversary title a little later. Just take time to develop a decent game that could be as good as Abyss, or even better. However I doubt anything can top it as best anniversary title for me, cuz it was there before micro-transactions, DLCs and pre-order bonus shit, so everyone had access to all additional content, but now? Not a chance. Legacy costumes are all DLC and pre-order now. I'm sad.
In this instance, I would like to say, FUCK CAPITALISM.
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