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| Scott Clay |
So many scans! And guess who from Tales of Abyss is putting in an appearance!
01.17.15 - 4:00 PM
Thanks to a large amount of magazine scans from Famitsu, Jump, and Dengeki PlayStation, a plethora of new information for Tales of Zestiria has been revealed. There is a large amount of game information to get though so lets get into it.
Starting out, we have our first look at the field screen. As you would expect from most Tales of games, you can check your map, your current objective, food effect, and interact with NPCs and party members. NPCs with gold stars will trigger a main event, and those with a purple star will trigger a sub event. You may also check out stone monuments to give yourself AP for Battle Acts, find treasure chests, find discovery points, and of course save your game at save points. "Map Actions" can also be performed in the field and will allow you to progress though the game by getting past certain obstacles. An example is using Lailah's fire to burn something in your path. It is essentially Zestiria's version of the sorcerer's ring from previous Tales of games.
Next up is some info about the towns. Shops obviously sell equipment, but this time around can level up as you use them. Equipment also has various skills attached to them, and at shops you can fuse two items together to make them stronger. Inns, as usual, refill your HP and SC (Spirits Chain), but they are also now the only place you can eat food. Eating the same food will increase it's effects and make it stronger. Staying at inns and eating food can trigger new skits or a new "Support Talent".
Support Talents are technical skills unique to a specific character. You may equip one per character but your free to change it at any time. Talents can also be leveled up to increase their proficiency. Some examples of these talents include "Treasure Sense", where you will be told of any nearby treasure chests. You also have "Design Sense", which is like the former but for Discovery Points and Stone Monuments. Talents like "Peace Keeper" can help regenerate HP while walking in dungeons or fields or even tell you if a character's HP is low.
Skills, as previously said, are attached from your equipment, with a maximum of 4. Some skills when paired together can give you a bonus skill, while some skills might need a specific number of use of the equipment before it can be used. Using the Skill Sheet on the menu screen you can view which bonus you are working toward. There are three ways to obtain a bonus by Union, Elm, and Same. A union bonus activates when 5 skill marks are completed vertically. An Elm bonus activates when 2 or more skills join horizontally. And finally Same bonus activates when there are multiple of the same skill activated.
The scans also go into detail about the the Land Chiefs (Seraphim Protection) system. Scattered around the world are places that have Land Chiefs that need to have Seraphim's protection. It's within the players best interest to revive the said protection as Land Chiefs provide useful services such as the ability to warp between save points. You may also increase the protection for a certain area with Grade earned from battle in that area. Increasing protection can lead to cheaper save point warp fees, increase in treasure chest respawn rate, or even increase the drop rate of specif equipment. There are multiple ways that the Land Chief system can help you out.
Next up we have new information on the battle system. Tales of Zestiria will feature "Real Map Battles", which basically allows seamless transitions in between the field screen and battle. You must be careful with your party selection before engaging in combat as there can only be two humans and two Seraphim in battle at any given time. If for example their are three Seraphim and one human in the party, only 2 Seraphim will participate in battle. When finally in combat you have 3 parts to watch out for on each of your characters. The red bar is your characters HP, the blue bar is their SC (Spirits Chain), and the number is their BG (Blast Gauge). A character's SC is important to monitor. When it's high the character recovers faster and damage received is lessened, while on the other hand when it's low the character does more damage but recovers slower. SC is used up by the "Around Step" system which allows characters to side step, front step and back step. BG is used up by Battle Acts or fusing and it fills by certain actions like taking damage. You can do two consecutive combos by pressing and holding R2 in what is called a "Chain Blast" and uses up 1 BG each. BG can also be used in a "Partner Blast" which make sure your partner's attacks will always hit.
Battle Acts, by the way, are bonuses set outside of battle that affect all party members. New Battle Acts are learned at the end of battles by fulfilling specific requirements, and the AP needed for Battle Acts are received from discovery points and stone monuments. An example of a Battle Act would be "Free and Free" which enables Free Run and Reviver an ability used in Armatization mode.
And finally for new game info we have Armatization mode which is fusion of Sorey or Rose with a Seraph. It uses 1 BG and is activated by hitting L1. While in this mode stats are increased dramatically, and hitting R2 will activate a special Restoration Arte that heals party members for 1 BG. Holding R2 will activate a Banish Blast attack, a slow powerful attack that uses up 1 BG. While in this mode there are 4 Mystic Artes named after Mystic Arte Summons for Tales of Destiny 2. These are the Aqua Rimms(Water), Earth Trapper(Earth), Flam Brave(Fire), and Sylphis Tear(Wind).
The scans also have revealed a new character which appears to be an antagonist to Sorey's group. The character, voiced by Takayuki Sugou, has one purpose he must fulfill, which is to destroy the current world as it is. His name or race have not be given but he certainly looks menacing.
And last but certainly not least the scans from Famitsu show that fan favorite sarcastic colonel Jade Curtiss, from Tales of Abyss, will be appearing in Tales of Zestiria. How or why he is in the game is still unknown but we do know you will be fighting him at same point.
The DLC schedule and pricing for the game has been finalized as well. Evangelion costumes will be available on the 22nd for 500 Yen each. iDOLM@STER costumes are also on the 22nd for 300 Yen each. School and swimsuit costumes are 300 Yen each on the 29th. Ao no Exorcist costumes are also on the 29th for 500 Yen. Sengoku Basara attachments and Tales Series costumes are 200 Yen each but have no release date yet.
Tales of Zestiria will be released on the Playstation 3 in Japan on January 22nd with no release date for the western markets as of yet.
