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| Scott Clay |
Tales of Zestiria spoilers ahead, you have been warned!
02.02.15 - 6:02 AM
Tales of Zestiria received a lot of negative feedback from its fan-base after its Japanese release two weeks ago. Many issues about the game have surfaced, but the biggest problem lies with one of the game's heroines, Alisha.
Alisha was heavily advertised as the game's heroine during the early stage of its promotion. However, she hardly has any screen time and is not playable for large sections of the game, eventually leaving the party completely. Depending on how fast you progress though the game, Alisha is on screen for about three to six hours. Further fuelling fans' anger, there's Alisha-specific DLC in the works, titled "What's Reflected in Her Eyes", that takes place after the game is over. The Tales fan-base lashed out against the game, giving low reviews on Amazon and even attacking character designer Kosuke Fujishima on Twitter.
In response to all the negativity about Alisha, series producer Hideo Baba answered questions about it during an interview at the Taipei Game Show. He had this to say on the subject:
"Many players have asked us about that and we disagree with this decision. Alisha has two roles - a princess and a knight, and she has her own path to take. She starts off the game with doubts on what she should focus on, but after meeting Sorey, she focuses more on the Kingdom and what she can do for it, explaining why she left. The characters were promoted based on the order they are presented/shown in the game. We have no set heroine. It is up to the player who the heroine is for them. We deeply apologize if this has caused such a misunderstanding."
Baba took the rest of the interview to answer some questions on the future of the Tales series. When asked if Zestiria will be remade for the PlayStation 4, Baba responded saying that there were are no plans to port it, but there is a good chance the next Tales game with be for the system. He was also asked if there will ever be a Tales of Eternia remake or a new Tales of World game, to which he responded that neither are very likely.
The camera issues plaguing Zestiria were touched on by Baba as well. The game is running on a different engine then the one found in Xillia, and a lot of it was built from scratch. Zestiria's seamless battle feature has caused difficulties for the game, especially in narrow corridors. Baba and his team could have used the stable Xillia engine, but they wanted the newer title to be more innovative and movie-like which prompted the need for a new engine. And finally, Baba let us know that the Tales team are currently only in the concept stages for a new game.
Tales of Zestiria was released on the PlayStation 3 in Japan on January 22nd, but there's no release date for the western markets as of yet.
