Tales of Zestiria: Second impressions

I have now given this game 4 hours of my time. I had mentioned before that it is extremely story-driven and maybe that really appeals to some Japanese folks out there but for me, the constant stopping of the action in order for yet another long and drawn out dialogue section is irksome.

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I wish at this point that I could tell you a thing or two about the combat but try as I may it seems to be a continual mashing of the buttons. I have attempted to enter battles with a strategy and do something coordinated and have a combo or something, but in the end I just end up spamming the hit buttons. Perhaps as you get more skills this becomes more interesting but honestly, I see no point in even having a strategy at this point

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You enter these battles, some of which are optional thank god and you just hit the attack button in rapid succession. I've been through 1 boss fight and the strategy there was roughly the same. I did notice something in this fight that was also disappointing and that is that it appears as though the bosses are very one-track-minded. The boss appears to fixate on one character and relentlessly pursue that particular character regardless of what the other characters in the battle do. If the one it has chosen to fixate on is you there is a fantastic way to ensure no one dies: Just run away from it the entire time.

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I got excited when we entered a museum because it was a dungeon of sorts but all that happened here was that every door you opened had 1 or 2 easily won battles and perhaps a chest with something you almost certainly do not want or need inside of it. There were no exciting finds such as an upgraded helmet or sword.

When you fight the boss a character or two will die unless you have tweaked their AI (I hadn't because I don't think I will continue to play this game) but also you have found so many items that bring them back to life that their deaths are rather irrelevant.

By the time I got past the boss in this place - which was easily won by the way - there was a crapload of dialogue (of course) and I didn't really care about any of it.

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Some of the choices of words in the translation are a bit funny I guess but the problem remains that there is entirely too much of it.

So I said that I would give it a few more hours before I gave up and after those 2 hours I just wanted to get it off of my screen. I don't know who this game is for but I really don't think it is me. I think this is going to fall into the "Persona" category of games whose allure I just don't understand.

I'm gonna head over to my PS Plus games and play them for now since I have already determined that I am not going to renew my subscription once it comes time to pay for it again.