Tales of Zestiria

I do recommend this game, but be aware that it is very flawed. It boasts an excellent core cast of characters (with some top notch voice acting as well) who have some delightfully wacky chemistry. That doesn't make up for the plot, which is particularly weak and doesn't feel entirely finished. The early game seems to make a lot of promises the late game cannot fulfill. The late game also misuses its characters a lot. By the end of the game, the protagonist feels like an afterthought in his own story, one of the core characters has been entirely and very unceremoniously discarded from the cast, and only one of our leads gets a satisfying arc. Even when the remaining characters are given the spotlight momentarily, they are rushed through their important moments like the game can't get done with their stories fast enough, and then they never get brought up again. Your mileage may also vary on the ending itself.
TLDR; the early game was really strong, the main cast feels like they are in fact bros. It's cute! And then I entirely lost interest in the late game when it turned into a series of 'fetch the mcguffin' quests with no emotional payoff. Still beat the game, but by the end it was a chore.
Gameplay is very different from other Tales games, but quite accessible to any skill level. This game will, however, make you craft your own gear and build your characters somewhat. You will have to spend actual time on this. If this thought makes you cry, this may not be the game for you. But if you put in that effort, combat is enjoyable!
The world is pleasant to explore and the game goes to some effort to keep you engaged in it, but it can't entirely disguise how empty it feels as you start to retread areas with more frequency. That said, I genuinely enjoyed all dungeons except for one (the water dungeon can die in a fire), and gathering treasure might have been my favorite part of the game.
All and all, a solid game, and if the first half hadn't been so strong, I'd probably have thought the latter half of the game was just fine. That said, if the latter half had delivered on what the first half set up, this would be my favorite Tales game period. I stick by my recommendation, but I'll be sulking about this one for a while.

Tales of Zestiria isn't the best when it comes to Tales games, it starts off extremely slow, doesn't explain much about Seraphs, story lacks complexity, but by the end, it does leave a memorable experience throughout the game. The main cast were great except for Rose, her character just felt shallow.
The maps in the game is surprisingly very big. Battle system is awesome and I just love the auto battles in these Tales games. One thing that Zestiria does different is that, battles takes place in the exact same place you encounter enemies, I haven't seen something like this in other games. Although this is an interesting take on how battles are encountered, the camera sometimes zooms in too much whihch makes everything hard to see. Like in other Tales game, there's lots of skits that were fun to watch. The soundtracks are also pretty good.
Equipment system is so needlessly complex in this game. 30 FPS lock feels so awful. There's a 60 FPS patch but I wouldn't recommend it, it causes too much random crashing. Game also looks kinda bad due to low quality mipmaps. I briefly experienced a few huge graphical glitch that made the game go completely haywire. The final boss has a terrible design making it very hard to beat.

a guy with his imaginary friends go on a quest to beat imaginary monsters.

Love this game. The battle system is fun, the art design is colorful, and the characters have surprising depths.
So many people write this off as one of the lesser Trails games, but I've played nearly all of them and this is probably in my top five.

Tales of Zestiria is one of those gems that you don't realize is a gem until you finish playing through it and you get the post playthrough depression.
The story was probably the best part of the game, and it kept me intrigued at every corner. I really liked the characters. and I actually felt like I bonded with the characters while going through the adventure with them. Having played Tales of Berseria first (even though it came out after), gave parts of the story even deeper meaning - especially with Eizen, Edna, and Zaveid. Parts of the game made me shed a few tears, and I felt bittersweet when the story ended... especially with the way it ended.
Combat wise, the game stays relatively refreshing with many different combat styles you can play with, different enemies, and lots of different bosses. The wealth of regions also added depth to exploration and battles. I thought the combat was more interesting than with Berseria, because of the ability to armetize. It created some really interesting battle tactics and styles managing around health and swapping in and out.
Overall, I'd highly recommend Tales of Zestiria. It runs perfectly fine on Steam Deck (I played it 100% on Steam Deck), so if you want to try it there it works too.

Started with Arise, then Vesperia, and played through and completed Zestiria. Now I am currently in Berseria.
I am a solidified Tales of fan now. And Zestiria had me invested from the get-go with Mikleo and Sorey. I think Sorey is a pretty weak protagonist though. Lots of scenes where he goes "What?" Or "Huh?" Without giving much of his own opinion. Hes basically the walking "Hero" type without any real character development until later in the game which admittedly felt weak. He is supposed to be the chosen hero and never really questions that role. But I still liked him and the other characters (besides Dezel, what a bizarre direction they take with that guy). Zavied and Edna and Mikleo are great. Combat is fantastic. I had fun chaining elemental attacks with Sorey and blasting into a new combo with the Armatization mechanic. I wish they kept that for Berseria. I love it. Skills and equipment are bad. And the world while huge, has nothing but enemies to fight. Still a great game and the story and world building I also really enjoyed.

If you are a hardcore/serious gamer who wants to experience a game for its gameplay AND story, this game is NOT for you.
If you are a casual gamer or a fan of the Tales Of Series (like me), then by all means, I recommend this game.
Pros:
- amazing selection of combos and playstyles among different characters
- unique and colorful customization of equipment
- combat is enhanced by armatization
- nice sound track
- the skits are entertaining and a nice change of pace
- cutscenes can be paused and skipped
- a wide range of enemy design and strategy
Cons:
- the story is ALL OVER THE PLACE (some characters' background story is unprecedented or uncalled for), and the plot material is just so unpredictable in a way that you will never guess what/how this became that
- the overworld and dungeons' designs feel dead, dull, and boring (its just hallways over and over)
- travelling without constantly activating windstepping is a chore
- support talents like treasure detection, point of interest detection, normin detection are basically useless since its range of detecting objects is when the character is 1 meter from the object, despite being advertised by the game as something you can level up to increase its range
- the character you think will be the lead female MC is demoted to a seasonal playable character
- the overworld is humongous BUT EMPTY
- there a lot of moments where the game doesnt really give any hints on where to go next cue finding Maltran with Alisha