The Tales of Zestiria official Japanese website has finally been officially opened today with info on the game's story and characters, as well as a few new screenshots.
We already had most of this info up from the Famitsu magazine post, but here they are again in case you want to read through it.
The World of Tales of Zestiria - World Background
- Within the continent of Greenwood lies two powerful nations that are fighting for supremacy: the Kingdom of Highland and the Empire of Lowlance. Despite the countless of wars and battles brought about by this, the people of the continent ceaselessly inherit their life's work such as hunting, agriculture, trade and the arts. Within their lives, they all hold various religious beliefs that hold a big impact in their lives.
- ??? It is supreme to inherit the legends of long ago
The scriptures that hold the word of God are revered
The pride of the people is their religion??? - Civilization flourished despite the people's different religious beliefs, but all those beliefs surprisingly have one thing in common: their belief in those that are called the ?? (tenzoku, The Divine People). Though The Divine are never seen or can not be touched, their strong powers affect the world in many ways, making some honor them, some fear them, some avoid them while some even worship them.
- Though The Divine are unseen, there are those who appear that can communicate with The Divine. These people form contracts with The Divine, offering The Divine to dwell within their "pure minds and bodies" and use their bodies as a vessel, and in turn, they are able to manipulate the powers of The Divine. Because of this display of power, some people have referred to these beings as Gods, while some consider them as the Devil.
- Before long, the people have started to call these beings with the power to communicate with The Divine as ?? (doushi, literally Priests, Monks, Sages, Gurus, etc.). Eventually, the legends of the Priests had become a common thing in religions as much as The Divine were, sometimes even referring to them as "The Savior granted with God's power," and the people started to look to them for aid and prayers.
The World of Tales of Zestiria - The Continent of Greenwood
- The Continent of Greenwood is a vast continent with abundant climate changes and rich in a variety of nature. One part of it is a large, rich grassland, while some have volcanoes and harsh environments. Thought its current civilization has at least a thousand years worth of history, in various points in the continent lie ruins from a civilization from way before the current one. Within them lie a mysterious force that the current civilization cannot explain, as they are only many fragments from the legends that have been passed down.
The World of Tales of Zestiria - The Kingdom of Highland
- Highland is a beautiful country abundant in greenery and water, with a large part of it being made up of mountains and plateaus. Initially, its culture was influenced by old-fashioned and traditional beliefs from long ago, but currently, the people in this land have their own various beliefs, and the traditional ones have started to fade away. Currently, its political power is not with the royalty or the nobles, but within the hands of the bureaucracy under the name of the king. Alicia is from this country.
The World of Tales of Zestiria - The Empire of Lowlance
- A great empire that rules over the most area of land in Greenwood. Majority of its land are of fertile plains, with its great military force that works as its foundation. Its capital is a metropolitan city that boasts the largest civilization within the continent, but development for the farther, border areas are delayed, thereby having a big difference in the civilization within the main city and those outside of it. Before, it was mainly the Emperor that held all of the political power, but currently, it is the Lowlance Church which boasts of its traditional values, has also been influencing politics aside from spiritual matters.
The Prologue
- A long time has 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.
- 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. That girl is Alicia.
Tales of Zestiria Characters - Thray/Slay
- "I want to explore all the ruins in the world. I believe in the knowledge that sleeps about how humans and The Divine lived together in happiness."
- Height: 175 cm
- Weapon: One-handed Ceremonial Sword
- Voiced by: Ryouhei Kimura
- Designed by: Kosuke Fujishima
- Slay had started to become interested in ancient ruins when he came upon The Divine Records by chance when he was just a child. Ever since then, he had held onto the things about the ancient culture to the point of romanticism and even making it part of his big dream. He has a kind heart and he always looks at things positively and wears an honest expression. Though he appears as an overly sweet guy on the surface, that pure and positive personality of his is actually his charm that attracts those around him.
Tales of Zestiria Characters - Alicia
- "Knights exist to be strong for those they protect, to be kind to the people."
- Height: 161 cm
- Weapon: Long spear
- Voiced by: Ai Kayano
- Designed by: Daigo Okumura
- A princess of the Highland Kingdom who is farthest from inheriting the throne. She was originally a lady with a bright and cheerful personality, but she has chosen to serve her country as a mere knight and not as a princess, and took on a strict and masculine way of speaking. Since her mother is of low social status, she was treated badly by the royalty, to the point that she feels uneasy around the ministers in the Kingdom that hold the power.
Note that none of the names for the characters and nouns are official so far. Up until now, they still haven't released official names for both of Slay and Alicia. The website page uses "Sray" and "Arisha" for its page URLs, but those are kind of... yeah. Perhaps they'll actually rely on the localization team for this one? And also check out the site itself for voice samples of the two.
