Learn Your Enemy’s Weaknesses To Succeed In Tales of Zestiria

Recommended Videos

The battle system in Tales of Zestiria feels like one of the biggest changes in Tales games for a while. While Tales of Graces F lent on the more technical side and Tales of Xillia was on the simpler side, they were both fairly fast paced systems. Tales of Zestiria feels slower and requires more thought and planning in battle instead of just spamming your most powerful artes. There’s three types of artes in Zestiria: Martial, Hidden and Seraphic. These artes function in a rock, paper, scissors type system. Hidden artes can interrupt martial artes, martial artes can interrupt seraphic artes and seraphic artes can interrupt hidden artes. If you attack an enemy with the wrong type of arte, you’ll be the one who’s interrupted, leaving you vulnerable to the enemies attacks. As things progress, Sorey can eventually armitize with seraphim party members, fusing with them and becoming much more powerful. This changes Sorey’s appearance and the artes he can perform, such as being able to perform seraphic artes. This also allows him to perform a burst arte using the R2 button.

 

TO12_2015-09-15_15-16-58-51_1442419463

 

In past games, the right stick was used as additional set of shortcuts for your artes but this has now been replaced with orders you can issue to your party. Pushing up tells the party to charge and pushing down tells them to defend. Push right and the party will attack your enemy and pushing left will tell the party to spread out and attack. While I always found the right stick shortcuts very handy in past games, I can understand why the switch was made. From what I played, I feel there’s less emphasis on chaining artes together and instead on building up your combos. As you’re exploring the world Tales of Zestiria has to offer, you’ll notice monoliths dotted around. These monoliths provide a sort of mini tutorial detailing specific aspects of the systems in place in Zestiria. Each one you read gives you additional AP to use in battle actions. Battle Actions are essentially the skill system that is in Xillia. Each battle actions requires a certain amount of AP and the actions themselves include Auto Guard and Auto Backstep (though there is a limit of five uses in one battle on each of these).

 

TO12_2015-09-15_15-22-23-78_1442419468

 

In Xillia, as you were travelling around the map, every time you interacted with something be it a chest or a resource point, it became marked on your map which for those who like to keep track of where they have and haven’t been was a feature I really appreciated. Tales of Zestiria does things a little differently however. Your party has a set of support talents and each character has their own set of what they can and can’t do. Sorey for example, by default, has point of interest detection set. So when wondering around the map, Sorey will point out and mark certain things on the map (usually Monoliths) but other skills include chest detection, recover health and prepare snacks.

 

Tales of Zestiria is part of the Tales Of 20th Anniversary and it certainly feels a title that celebrates what has made the series so popular. The gameplay upgrades such as the seamless cutscenes and battles feel like a good foundation for future games and I do hope Tales of Berseria builds on what Zestiria has to offer. While the gameplay feels much more modern, the setting and lore feel like they’ve come straight from earlier Tales games featuring a more traditional fantasy look.

 

TO12_2015-09-15_15-12-24-78_1442419459 TO12_2015-09-15_15-12-27-38_1442419460 TO12_2015-09-15_15-13-38-83_1442419460 TO12_2015-09-15_15-15-14-58_1442419460 TO12_2015-09-15_15-15-41-39_1442419461 TO12_2015-09-15_15-15-42-12_1442419461 TO12_2015-09-15_15-15-42-75_1442419462 TO12_2015-09-15_15-16-10-22_1442419462TO12_2015-09-15_15-16-46-69_1442419462 TO12_2015-09-15_15-18-04-30_1442419463 TO12_2015-09-15_15-18-06-09_1442419464 TO12_2015-09-15_15-19-08-42_1442419464 TO12_2015-09-15_15-20-27-01_1442419465 TO12_2015-09-15_15-20-43-79_1442419465 TO12_2015-09-15_15-21-37-93_1442419466 TO12_2015-09-15_15-22-19-64_1442419466 TO12_2015-09-15_15-22-22-73_1442419467 TO12_2015-09-15_15-22-23-12_1442419467 TO12_2015-09-15_15-22-24-04_1442419469 TO12_2015-09-15_15-22-25-11_1442419469 TO12_2015-09-15_15-22-27-70_1442419470 TO12_2015-09-15_15-22-29-43_1442419470 TO12_2015-09-15_15-22-36-39_1442419471 TO12_2015-09-15_15-22-48-09_1442419471 TO12_2015-09-15_15-23-44-66_1442419472 TO12_2015-09-15_15-23-45-53_1442419473 TO12_2015-09-15_15-23-47-52_1442419473 TO12_2015-09-15_15-23-50-55_1442419474 TO12_2015-09-15_15-23-51-34_1442419474 TO12_2015-09-15_15-23-53-23_1442419475 TO12_2015-09-15_15-09-57-03_1442419458 TO12_2015-09-15_15-10-24-94_1442419459 TO12_2015-09-15_15-12-21-25_1442419459


Siliconera is supported by our audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn a small affiliate commission. Learn more
related content
Read Article Genshin Impact Neuvillette and Kazuha Rerun Banners Detailed
Genshin Impact Neuvillette and Kazuha Rerun Banners Detailed
Read Article How to Start a New Game in Dragon’s Dogma 2
Read Article How to Get a Metal Smelter in Lego Fortnite
Read Article How to Sign Up for the Marvel Rivals Closed Alpha
Read Article Overwatch 2 Venture Voice Actor and Kit Detailed
Related Content
Read Article Genshin Impact Neuvillette and Kazuha Rerun Banners Detailed
Genshin Impact Neuvillette and Kazuha Rerun Banners Detailed
Read Article How to Start a New Game in Dragon’s Dogma 2
Read Article How to Get a Metal Smelter in Lego Fortnite
Read Article How to Sign Up for the Marvel Rivals Closed Alpha
Read Article Overwatch 2 Venture Voice Actor and Kit Detailed
Author
Alistair Wong
Very avid gamer with writing tendencies. Fan of Rockman and Pokémon and lots more!