The latest issues of some gaming magazines in Japan cover a bit about the world of Tales of Zestiria.
UPDATE: Scans added:
Famitsu has also put up the protagonist's official art and a few screenshots over at their site.
Note that romanizations of the names are not yet official as of this post.
| The World of Tales of Zestiria
- The main setting, as we mentioned before, is in the Continent of Greenwood, where the Kingdom of Highland and the Empire of Lowlance are fighting for rule and supremacy. In this setting, there are actually multiple religious beliefs, but all those beliefs surprisingly have one thing in common: their belief in those that are called the ?? (tenzoku, The Divine People). The reason that the existence of The Divine is common in all those beliefs, despite no one having actually seen them for themselves, is because from time to time, there are people who appear that can communicate with The Divine. These people, who are able to borrow the powers of The Divine, are called ?? (doushi, literally Priests, Monks, Sages, Gurus, etc.). They are even considered saviors given the power of God to some.
- A long time passed, and deep within a forest called The Forest of The Divine lies something that resembles a utopia where humans and The Divine can live together. There, other humans cannot enter, and the "impurity" that has been spreading throughout the world does not affect that place.
- The story starts there with Thray/Slay, who has been brought up isolated from the world outside, and carries a pure and clean heart.
| The Prologue
- Within the Forest of The Divine lives Slay. He has been forbidden to go outside of his own village because of fear that the impure monsters in the world called the Hyouma ( ?? ) might attack him. Slay, who has a high level of Spirit Powers, is apparently easily targeted by the Hyouma. The residents of the village always tell Slay of the terros that the Hyouma may bring, so he has never tried to break that rule of him not being allowed to leave.
- The Forest of The Divine has been shut out from the world outside. Within that area where Slay is allowed to be in, he always reads this book he has called the The Divine Records (rough translation of ?????, teni kenbun roku) and would explore the ancient ruins near his village. Slay would frequently visit the ruins, and before long, he developed a deep interest in the events of the ancient times. He believes that the tale written in his book that says "Humans used to communicate with The Divine and could even live with them" is not just a legend, but could have been real, so he frequents the ruins expecting to discover something about that. This has become Slay's everyday life.
- One day, the ruins collapse and Slay gets caught up in it, falling to the lowest level of the ruins. While trying to find a way out, he discovers a girl, unconscious. Seeing that the girl also got caught up in the collapse, he immediately tries to help her out. The girl is fine with no serious injuries, and she manages to regain consciousness. However, she lost all of her belongings and does not know of a way back. Slay invites her to go to his village and leads her out of the ruins.
- The two manage to make it out of the ruins and back to the forest proper. At first, the girl was wary of Slay, but upon seeing that he indeed cares, her anxiety gradually melted away. She tells him that the reason she was at the ruins was because in many places throughout the world, various disasters that people cannot understand have been occurring, and she was trying to find answers. She also tells him that her name is Alicia.
| More Information From The Producers Interview
- As the names imply, the Highland Kingdom is in the areas of mountains and plateaus, while the Lowlance Empire is located in the extremely low areas.
- Alicia is actually of low ranking despite being a princess because her mother was of low social rank to begin with. This is why she prefers living as just a mere knight.
- Slay's positive way of looking things personality and Alicia's always serious one definitely clashes, but as the story progresses we'll also get to see an unexpected side of her.
- The games so far have some sort of highway or road to go along with while exploring in the fields, but for Zestiria, it won't be like that anymore.
- Thought the battles pretty much have the standard sword and magic basis, they say the best experience of it will entirely change. Aside from the evolution of the Linear Motion Battle System, there will be a big surprise regarding the battle system. (a745: From the trailer, it seems that there might be seamless battles, i.e. no more intermissions between being in the outside field to the battle field, so this might be it. That's still speculation for now, though.)
- Game development so far: Scenario and character designs all done. System and graphics work still in progress. Voice acting for the main scenario is almost done.
Scans are not yet available, but we'll post them here once they come up.
For more info about Tales of Zestiria, read our post on the game's reveal and a bit on the game's characters.
And again, localization has been confirmed for Tales of Zestiria! Read all about it here!
Also, don't forget to Like the official Tales Series Facebook page!
