What's your go-to game when you are suffering from Burnout?

[RyuDragnier]

Wait what? People don't like Zestiria? O_o I thought it was amazing. I just redownloaded it recently so I could replay it at some point. I thought the story was excellent. Same for Graces F, in my opinion. I haven't played the older games, but the worst entries out of the modern ones I played was Xillia and Symphonia 2. I played from Jude's perspective in Xillia and he was insufferable. I'm sure I don't need to explain why Simp-phonia 2 was bad. xD

Problems with Zestiria include:

- You're forced to always use 2 specific people in the party at all times
- how stupid the AI could constantly get (even by Tales standards its bad)
- the overly complicated equipment leveling system (Berseria made this way easier)
- battles at the location you're currently at in the dungeon (could cause issues with reaching or hitting enemies)
- the camera itself (while bad in other Tales games, the previous complaint makes this problem worse)
- the entire Alisha debacle (Alisha leaves and never comes back despite have been shown as the first female party member in interviews, her equipment still drops despite this)
- Rose basically being shoved into your party (keep in mind the director REALLY loved her VA and this may be in part the reason why it happened)
- rushed story towards the end

That's just off the top of my head.

[MagicPeanut]

Problems with Zestiria include:

- You're forced to always use 2 specific people in the party at all times
- how stupid the AI could constantly get (even by Tales standards its bad)
- the overly complicated equipment leveling system (Berseria made this way easier)
- battles at the location you're currently at in the dungeon (could cause issues with reaching or hitting enemies)
- the camera itself (while bad in other Tales games, the previous complaint makes this problem worse)
- the entire Alisha debacle (Alisha leaves and never comes back despite have been shown as the first female party member in interviews, her equipment still drops despite this)
- Rose basically being shoved into your party (keep in mind the director REALLY loved her VA and this may be in part the reason why it happened)
- rushed story towards the end

That's just off the top of my head.

I don't know, a majority of that just sounds like nitpicks. I read about JP players getting mad about the whole Alisha/Rose thing, but I thought they were being a little dramatic. I actually liked that there were two female leads at different times. It was pretty unique to me. And I don't recall the ending feeling rushed. If anything, the anime adaption's ending needed to bake longer in the oven, not the game's.

I don't know, agree to disagree lol.

[RyuDragnier]

Playing through Star Ocean The Divine Force right now. I had been waiting for a decent Star Ocean since PS2.

It's so good, definitely one of the best games in the franchise IMO.

I've been enjoying most of this Star Ocean, just wish there was a quest journal of sorts so that you can track any of the sidequests that you started without having to take a screenshot/write it down/find a list of all of them online. Pretty sure there is a sidequest somewhere I started that I haven't finished because, well, I have no idea what ones I've actually started and I'm already pretty decently far into it.

If you're on PS4/PS5, open the map and then press Triangle. It'll bring up the quest journal there. I believe there's a tab for completed quests.

I don't know, a majority of that just sounds like nitpicks. I read about JP players getting mad about the whole Alisha/Rose thing, but I thought they were being a little dramatic. I actually liked that there were two female leads at different times. It was pretty unique to me. And I don't recall the ending feeling rushed. If anything, the anime adaption's ending needed to bake longer in the oven, not the game's.

I don't know, agree to disagree lol.

I tend to play on the hardest difficulty in Tales for the bonus exp/fol/grade, so the battle issues I saw pretty quickly as I continued through the game, and wasn't a fan of being forced to use certain characters when other Tales games let you use any party makeup you want for the most part. The Alisha/Rose thing I had issues with because they made it feel like Alisha would return at one point, but never did. Rose was just...added into the party on a whim, I feel? No real buildup to getting her to come along, and it felt odd as a result. Also, I meant rushed because after the desert area, when it felt like there was going to be more, suddenly it rushes us from there towards the final areas and ending. It was a pacing issue that felt really jarring.

Also, I found the anime a lot better in terms of pacing, characterization, and story, but the episodes with Velvet and the Berseria crew felt shoehorned in (and only left me wanting an anime for Berseria).

[MagicPeanut]

I tend to play on the hardest difficulty in Tales for the bonus exp/fol/grade, so the battle issues I saw pretty quickly as I continued through the game, and wasn't a fan of being forced to use certain characters when other Tales games let you use any party makeup you want for the most part. The Alisha/Rose thing I had issues with because they made it feel like Alisha would return at one point, but never did. Rose was just...added into the party on a whim, I feel? No real buildup to getting her to come along, and it felt odd as a result. Also, I meant rushed because after the desert area, when it felt like there was going to be more, suddenly it rushes us from there towards the final areas and ending. It was a pacing issue that felt really jarring.

Also, I found the anime a lot better in terms of pacing, characterization, and story, but the episodes with Velvet and the Berseria crew felt shoehorned in (and only left me wanting an anime for Berseria).

Oh, ok I see. I only play games on Normal so I wouldn't have noticed issues about the gameplay piling up like that, I think. I guess I see where you're coming from about Alisha and Rose, but I felt like they were taking on a more "realistic" approach to it. Alisha had a lot to worry about outside of Sorey's journey, and I felt like Rose was just curious about this "weirdo" but was ultimately thrown into this situation and accepted it. In my opinion, the story is written in a way that makes it seem as if it was her destiny to join him, thanks to that wind Seraphim always following her around. (Forgot his name, it's been a few years lmao.) And about the rushed final areas, like I said, I don't recall feeling that way about it, but it's been a hot minute. I'll be on the look-out for the story's pacing issues when I replay it soon, tho!

I actually can't decide if I like the anime's rewritten parts or not. I guess I like it as a "what if" timeline instead, because it was just a little too rewritten xD. Although, I strongly agree that it made me want an anime for Berseria instead. That would have been a much better idea, for sure.

EDIT: Actually, now that I think about it, I preferred how the anime addressed Eizen, Zaveid, and Edna. It handled the emotional impact of the situation a lot better. (Although, I'm not sure what the conclusion was in Zestiria, as I couldn't figure out how to accomplish it lol.) However, that was really only possible because Berseria existed by then of course. Still, that part of the anime I enjoyed a lot more than in the game.

[RyuDragnier]

EDIT: Actually, now that I think about it, I preferred how the anime addressed Eizen, Zaveid, and Edna. It handled the emotional impact of the situation a lot better. (Although, I'm not sure what the conclusion was in Zestiria, as I couldn't figure out how to accomplish it lol.) However, that was really only possible because Berseria existed by then of course. Still, that part of the anime I enjoyed a lot more than in the game.

The conclusion in Zestiria is literally you killing Eizen on the mountain (you have to go back to Edna's mountain and go to the top to fight him). That's it, there's no saving him, just doing a boss fight with him that ends in his death.