It’s finally time to review Tales of Zestiria.

My screenshot Let’s Play stands as a testament to the way my feelings toward Zestiria changed. It went from being a game I loved to one I can’t honestly recommend. By the end, it left me with many questions, the most important of which is simple:

What went wrong?

See, Tales of Zestiria isn’t a bad game. It’s not like Sticker Star, where I can rant about how awful it was, or even Final Fantasy XIII.

For about 40 hours of Tales of Zestiria, it was fantastic. I thought it might be better than even Tales of Xillia, which I loved.

While Zestiria still doesn’t have a world map, it has much larger areas to explore than Xillia, which made it feel more like I was on an epic journey. The awesome soundtrack helped, too.

You gain certain field actions you can perform, such as casting flames ahead of you. This reminded me a bit of the Sorcerer’s Ring in Symphonia, and I enjoyed using new powers to pass obstacles I couldn’t cross before. This comes into play for puzzles in dungeons, especially the trial shrines. Characters also have support abilities, which allow you to do many things, such as detect discovery points, make recovery items, and (my favorite) increase your movement speed after a battle or overheard NPC chatter.

The combat system is controversial, but I didn’t mind having the two human party members locked into my battle party. Since each seraph was tied to an element and could be switched out instantly, the restriction never bothered me.

And Tales of Zestiria is funny.

I praised Xillia for its humor, but parts of Zestiria felt like outright comedy, such as Sorey’s poor acting attempt where he described himself as the “son of a provincial lard.”

The character interactions are fantastic and led to some of the funniest skits I’ve seen. Whether it’s Edna’s sarcasm or Lailah’s vow causing her to go into random mode, they were thoroughly entertaining.

The story had plenty of potential, with Sorey as the messianic Shepherd up against the Lord of Calamity, and a convoluted “malevolence” system that could have been really cool if they explored the depths of its shaky morality.

And then it all falls apart.

This isn’t like Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright, where I can still enjoy and recommend it despite an awful plot twist at the end. I loved Zestiria’s early story, but that love was founded on the belief, the assumption, that it would come together in a satisfactory way… and it doesn’t.

Tales of Zestiria can’t keep track of how malevolence works. Foreshadowing and even plot points come to nothing. Its villains barely get character development (for a full, spoiler-filled rant on how Zestiria fails its villains, go here), loose ends are often wrapped up by characters speculating on what they think might be the case, and a critical plot item is left unexplained because the character involved “forgot.”

Instead of deep, its morality system becomes downright bizarre as it tries to put forth an extreme anti-war message while one of the heroes is an assassin who never feels guilt. The protagonist slowly accepts killing is necessary, while lamenting his lack of alternatives despite never going out of his way to look for an alternative.

The plot slowly falls to pieces, and all the awesome buildup beforehand feels like the scattered remains of a different, better story.

I believe Tales of Zestiria’s story was radically altered during development and the writers had to scramble to finish it. It’s the only explanation I can think of for the sloppy way it handles certain plot points. And don’t expect the DLC to fix anything. Alisha’s Story is one of the most pointless bonus chapters I’ve ever seen.

What happened, Zestiria? What went wrong?

If you asked me when I started the game, I would have recommended Tales of Zestiria in a heartbeat and said its critics just nitpicked minor issues. Now, however, I can’t honestly recommend it. All I can do is look back on those early hours and dream of the game Tales of Zestiria could have been…