I've been thinking about why I find Zestiria disappointing for a long time now, and I think that at this point I can narrow it down to two major factors.
A) The game doesn't take nearly as much time as it should developing its plot and characters. As a result I felt myself asking "Why should I care?" a lot while I was playing. The beginning was really promising, opening very grandiosely and immersing the player in a nicely-paced prologue, before beginning the main game by throwing Sorey and Mikleo into the world that they've never had the chance to explore all their lives. But then so much of the subsequent game failed to deliver on the same level as it did at the start. Most of the party members do not evolve as people as the story goes on, the antagonists feel like they lack even basic character traits sometimes, and there are some glaring plot holes. A lot of the attempts at drama fell flat for me as a result. Sorey, though I like him as a person, I feel is a pretty weak protagonist because we don't really get to see much conflict within him. Also, the lack of character development really makes it hard to get attached to anyone, I feel.
B) The story is taken way too seriously for what it is. There are lots of plot points, both major and minor, that revolve around something really heavy and depressing. There's the question of whether it's necessary to mercy kill people to save them, there's a lot of people dying horribly, more violence and less idealism than previous entries in the Tales series, etc. But like... this is a game about an ancient prophecy, a conflict between good and evil, and a determined happy-go-lucky protagonist accepting his destiny without any real internal conflict about it. To me, this juxtaposition did not work. It can work if you're trying to do a Deconstruction, but this felt more like the writers started out aiming to write something cliche and typical then changing their mind halfway through and trying to transform what they already had into something dark and morally-grey, with clumsy results. I would have liked it way more if they had stuck with the typical-JRPG approach all the way instead, because then at least it would have a Narm Charm quality to it instead of coming off as a desperate attempt to take a cliche story seriously.
This is without going into the gameplay, which I found irritating on many levels. It feels a lot like they rushed the playtesting process.
I need to give this game credit, though. The character designs are fantastic, the opening is kickass, the inter-party banter is really fun for the most part, the shrine temple music tracks are A+ and the voice acting is superb. The game really fails to deliver where it counts though, which is unfortunate.
Could have been great
I've been thinking about why I find Zestiria disappointing for a long time now, and I think that at this point I can narrow it down to two major factors.
A) The game doesn't take nearly as much time as it should developing its plot and characters. As a result I felt myself asking "Why should I care?" a lot while I was playing. The beginning was really promising, opening very grandiosely and immersing the player in a nicely-paced prologue, before beginning the main game by throwing Sorey and Mikleo into the world that they've never had the chance to explore all their lives. But then so much of the subsequent game failed to deliver on the same level as it did at the start. Most of the party members do not evolve as people as the story goes on, the antagonists feel like they lack even basic character traits sometimes, and there are some glaring plot holes. A lot of the attempts at drama fell flat for me as a result. Sorey, though I like him as a person, I feel is a pretty weak protagonist because we don't really get to see much conflict within him. Also, the lack of character development really makes it hard to get attached to anyone, I feel.
B) The story is taken way too seriously for what it is. There are lots of plot points, both major and minor, that revolve around something really heavy and depressing. There's the question of whether it's necessary to mercy kill people to save them, there's a lot of people dying horribly, more violence and less idealism than previous entries in the Tales series, etc. But like... this is a game about an ancient prophecy, a conflict between good and evil, and a determined happy-go-lucky protagonist accepting his destiny without any real internal conflict about it. To me, this juxtaposition did not work. It can work if you're trying to do a Deconstruction, but this felt more like the writers started out aiming to write something cliche and typical then changing their mind halfway through and trying to transform what they already had into something dark and morally-grey, with clumsy results. I would have liked it way more if they had stuck with the typical-JRPG approach all the way instead, because then at least it would have a Narm Charm quality to it instead of coming off as a desperate attempt to take a cliche story seriously.
This is without going into the gameplay, which I found irritating on many levels. It feels a lot like they rushed the playtesting process.
I need to give this game credit, though. The character designs are fantastic, the opening is kickass, the inter-party banter is really fun for the most part, the shrine temple music tracks are A+ and the voice acting is superb. The game really fails to deliver where it counts though, which is unfortunate.