Tales of Zestiria

Don't let me 300+ hours fool you. Most of that is farming achievements. and I finally got bored and stopped.
In total I spent around 30 hours running in a circle (Rubber banded my controller and went to work) so I get the "make all snacks" Achievement. Still dont have it.
Lets go over some good and bad stuff
Good:
It's an open world but the games does a very good job of letting you know when you aren't supposed to be somewhere. the screen gets a purple tint and you're movement is heavily reduced.
Lilah is a PC you get shortly after starting the main quest, she makes VERY bad puns, adds a little bit of humor to the game.
Combat is very straight forward and simple to learn, yet can be challenging to master.
Bad:
The amount of time an enemy hit me while I was behind them is absurd.
The fuse system is just a pain that I didn't figure it out until I looked up a guide.
BY FAR! The worst thing this game does, is make mandatory content seem optional. Through out the game, you will find "Iris gems" they give a little detail on the lore of the game. yet, about the 70% mark of the game, you are told "Hey you know those gems you've found here and there, go find them all! Wait, you don't know where they are? Oh well, try looking around, you're bound to find them" YEP! The game doesn't tell you where they are are how to get them! The closest thing it does, when you use the fast travel option, it puts a purple star next the name so you have a general idea.
One tip:
If you are trying to play a higher difficulties, Play as your favorite human, and merge with Miklio. His bow is so powerful all you have to do is shoot, block to recover SC (Stamina) and BG (special attack points), Dodge (don't get hit) and shoot. Repeat till dead, this will take a while, but it's work VERY well. Oh you get hit and are low on HP? Dodge aware and spend 1 BG point to basically fully heal yourself.
Overall, do I recommend the game? You saw the thumbs up, so you know I do, but be prepared to look up a guide,

Its really good. You'll see a lot of people say berseria is better, and it is, but this has the charm of an old school fantasy rpg thats missing from that game. The cast is pretty dull, with little interesting interplay between them, but all of their generic "goodness" in combination with the setting and generic good vs evil plot reminds me of playing lesser known jrpg's from the psone days, which gives me warm fuzzies. Also, the combat, when playing on higher difficulties, strangely is more to my taste than berseria. In berseria, on normal and lower, you can equip any skills you want, and mash your way through the game. In this game, you HAVE to target weaknesses, and since you cant customize combos, the move that targets the weakness might be later in the combo, which means you need filler actions to get to that point. This creates a synergy with enemy design, where you have to learn their attack patterns and weaknesses, and use evades or animation cancels to dodge their attack, before countering with the move that strikes their weakness. It makes it feel more strategic than berserias "equip all the moves that hit an enemies weakness and mash the button" combat system. Its less fluid as a result, but much more engaging imo. The equipment system is overly complex, but also allows for good build diversity. The music is awesome, the environment feels pretty samey in most places, and the dungeon design is very simplistic. For some reason, i tried the game at 60 fps, and actually preferred playing at 30. So yeah, a lot of the quirks that most people view as negatives, i view as positives or just what i expect from an old school mid budget jrpg. Its just a nice comfort jrpg. All the tropes you expect, deep combat and equipment customization, good music and vibes. But you will likely prefer berseria. As its combat is smoother, environments more varied, and party is way way way better.

The game has a VERY slow start and it's bad at teaching it's unecessary complex systems ( I'm looking at you equipment skills and combining ). Has a low start as you open up your skills and "Artes" but if you can get pass this initial hurdle there's a very good game here

I loved the story. The focus on the characters and their developments were wonderfull. The protagonist has a brother and this has been one of the few times where the writting made me believe they actually grew up together. And they nailed the "Innocent Protagonist". He's innocent but he isn't stupid. Very often thinking about the things that are happening around him, learning and growing from them.

The combat can feel unfair at times, but if you take your time to learn the fights and how to better approach them you'll be able to find a way. Equipment here is VERY important, progression is NOT 100% Vertical so changing gear for a specific fight can help IMMENSILY. I noticed that by the end of the game, don't make the same mistake i did!

The Camera is the game's WORST enemy. In tight areas you'll fight the camera more than the enemies. The "Mannor Dungeon" in the beginning is specially bad with this, but just power through and it gets a lot less frequent.

The game is capped at 30 FPS but there are mods to unlock it to 60. I highly recommend them.

For a game that came out in 2015, it still holds up graphically as well. And that's saying a lot considering the quality of anime games we have in 2025.

Overall i'd say it's a great game. Rough around the edges but you'll have a great time with it if you like JRPGs. The humor is great too, it not only respects but sometimes enhances the emotional beats of the game.

Zestiria has several interesting ideas that set it apart from the rest of the series, along with an entertaining cast (Edna and Lailah are my favorites, but I also grew to like Rose and Alisha later on – and Zaveid is Zaveid). I especially enjoy the division between ordinary humans and Seraphim, with the latter being invisible to most people and also playing a special role in the battle system.
It’s the most grounded Tales game I’ve played. Sorey’s journey is a classic hero’s journey. It’s also one of the darker entries in the series, as there’s always a certain sense of hopelessness lingering in the background. Thanks to the lighthearted party banter and humor, the tone remains mostly positive regardless. Overall, I do like the story, even if it feels fairly traditional (you could say it’s inspired by Star Wars—which itself was already extremely classical g). I particularly enjoy the game’s lore, which Berseria expands on even further. The OST is among the better ones in the series.
When I think back on Zestiria, however, I also remember the long, monotonous dungeons and how boring some sections were. The combat system often feels too samey as well. Though I have only myself to blame for playing both Hexen Isle and Alisha’s DLC, which are by far the worst parts of the game. Visually the game isn’t very impressive. The antagonists are rather bland, and especially with Heldalf there’s a lack of a stronger personal connection—he feels more like a force of nature than a character. The world’s bleakness is also shown more in cutscenes and dialogue than in the actual explorable environments—Ladylake looks the same at the end as it did at the beginning, even though the world’s situation is supposedly much worse.
The core themes are the darker sides of human nature (including war), nihilism, religion/superstition, and “finding one’s own path, and the strength to follow it.”
Zestiria has its flaws, and it isn’t one of the best games in the series. But if Berseria’s gameplay didn’t bother you, you won’t have issues here either. I even find it a notch better in some places.

Kind of a 3/5. Get it on discount, preferably a deep one.
Perfectly fine if you feel like dropping it midway because it will feel kind of a drag at times. Not worth for NG+ imo. I'd say it's a good enough game to get it on sale and maybe finish it once.

Any game that actually makes me want to do all the optional content has done something right, in my book. Yeah, the plot is messy. Yeah, the combat is clunky. Yeah, Dezel actually sucks. But it has a lot of heart where it counts, and that wins me over most of the time including here.

"Tales of ..." fans know what to expect, but for anyone who hasn't played Tales of Berseria, then it is important to know that the game mechanics and fighting styles are very well-rounded and the gameplay and fighting are easy to pick up.
Having said that, the main game can be completed anywhere from 30-50 hours, based on your play style. Although, there are a few things that seem to be a bit over-developed/forced if you are looking to 100% the game. Functions like fusion and unions are well explained in the game, but unlocking the achievements required quite a bit of grinding for me.
*ALSO* If you intent to 100% the game (56/56 achievements), then you will have to buy the DLC for Alisha's story, which currently runs $9.99 USD + tax. I bought this game quite some time back and worked to complete many other "Tales of ..." games and when I picked it up and was nearing completion of my first playthrough, I only had about 30 achievements unlocked. I didn't know that 6 of them are gated by he DLC. Just wanted to give a heads up as your cost to 100% the game will be the game's base cost + Alisha's DLC.
Not my favorite "Tales of ..." game, but not my least favorite, either. Some parts of the game and world are not as intuitive and I ended up spending hours just researching the achievements and some of the potentially missable quests/events during the first run. I also worked my way in difficulty levels as quickly as possible. Your mileage will vary. I still have 9 more achievements to unlock, some are related to equipment/union and the rest are related to the EX dungeon(s). I play fast and don't skip cut scenes/skits, but after reading, I do normally prompt for the next line to speed things up a bit. I anticipate that my full steam runtime will be ~83 hours after completing the remaining achievements.
Update: It took right around 85 hours for me to complete. I had to go through all of the NG+ stuff, even skipping scenes it took longer to reach the black mirror challenge than I had expected.