You’re probably assuming that since I did Symphonia and then Abyss, the next one would be Vesperia, right? Wrong! I haven’t played Vesperia yet (the game is still sitting on my shelf—I’ve been busy with my personal life to get the opportunity to play it), so I can’t write an article about Vesperia if I haven’t played it.
Will I write about Let’s Plays that are spoken in another language? I haven’t thought about it yet. Will I write about Let’s Plays on games that haven’t been released outside of Japan but still have content on Youtube? That depends. Some of those channels might not be active, so it depends on if I can ask for their permission on writing an article about them.
This Month’s Featured Let’s Play:
This month’s featured Let’s Play is Keith Ballard’s Tales of Zestiria! It ran from October 19, 2015 to February 6, 2016 with 60 episodes in total. He played it on PC.
Click here for the full playlist
Information about Keith Ballard:
Keith Ballard is a gamer that uploads gaming content of a variety of genres on Youtube. He also has a Patreon page where his subscribers can pick games they want to see him play when they meet a certain goal.
He currently has 70, 521 subscribers.
Pros
I do like the fact that this is a blind playthrough, so it’s nice to see someone who isn’t much of a Tales enthusiast delve into a Tales game and learn a lot about the gameplay and the story. Like in the first episode, he assumed Sorey and Mikleo aren’t humans when they saw the unconscious Alisha. I do like how he takes his time with tutorials and seems to enjoy learning about the mechanics the game presents itself. Since he’s familiar with how JRPGs are structured, he gets adjusted to the mechanics and gameplay very quickly.
Also, I love his humor. Especially in episode 5, where he mentioned how Sorey slept in the same clothes for three days and smelled fabulous regardless. I cracked up. He consistently has humorous dialogue, which makes it an enjoyable experience.
Also, he’s not a victim to the aggravating camera angles. Maybe it’s because he’s playing it on PC and not on a PS3? I still have sour memories of the camera angles during the second Lunarre fight in Ladylake (please don't ask--it's a memory that I wish to erase).
Though, I do like how adaptive he is to the battle system. I’m an avid Tales fan that played this on PS3. I sucked at sliding (I’m more of a Free Run person) and the camera would always get the best of me.
Cons
One gripe I have with Ballard’s gameplay is that it lags heavily in the first two or three episodes. The PC version is locked at 30 FPS, which is slower than its console counterpart. Though, it gets a bit faster starting episode 3 (though, by episode 4, he starts playing a friend’s copy because his PC version had issues regarding Paypal/Steam).
Another gripe is that he’s a bit…scatterbrained? (I don’t know how to describe it exactly) Like, during his venture at the aqueducts, he did not know that the puzzle that required you to use Alisha’s knife had tabs on the menu until a bit later. Though, this was posted back during 2015, so I’m not sure if this is a legit gripe I should have.
Would I Recommend This Let’s Play?
If you enjoy Zestiria and want to see a Let’s Play of someone who isn’t familiar with the game but still has an enthusiastic mindset of playing games, I would recommend this.
