Tales of Zestiria Details On New Character Laila, And The Battle System

Bandai Namco recently revealed another Tales of Zestiria character, Laila, who forms a contract with the protagonist Slay and becomes his instructor. Famitsu gives us a better look at the new character, alongside further details on the game.

So far, we know that Tales of Zestiria will involve humans, those of the “Heavenly Tribe,” and dragons as part of the story. Following the angel-like character Miclio and Edna, who is also from the Heavenly Tribe, here’s a look at Laila:

According to this week’s issue of Famitsu magazine, Laila is part of a fire-element Heavenly Tribe that holds onto a legendary sword. They say that whoever pulls out the sword will become a Monk (Doshi)—those who’ve signed contracts with a member of the Heavenly Tribe.

Ever since a certain incident, Laila had been waiting for someone with the qualities of a Monk to show up, but she was able to find just that in Slay after she met him at a festival. After Slay becomes a vessel to a member of the Heavenly Tribe, he gains a special power that allows him to suppress the “Hyoma”.

Following their meeting, Laila forms some sort of marriage contract with Slay. She is described a mature woman who gives advices like an instructor, but she occasionally lets strange thoughts get the best of her.

Characters from the Heavenly Tribe will also be fighting alongside humans in Tales of Zestiria, but both races will have their own distinct fighting styles as part of the game’s system.

Human characters excel at close-ranged combat, and using special abilities that involve movement and attacks. When they’re surrounded by enemies, they can pull off some powerful Artes to take them out.

While playing as a human, they’ll have two main commands. One that activates swift abilities, and another that involves powerful Artes that breaks through enemy defenses. Having human characters around as melee or tanks can help give space to Heavenly Tribe characters so they can pull off their Heaven Echo Artes.

On the other hand, the Heavenly Tribe characters have one command that lets them pull off mid-ranged aimed attacks, and another that lets them do powerful Heaven Echo Artes that have quite the range to them.

Most of their play style will start out with mid-ranged attacks at first, then powerful long-ranged Heavy Echo Artes once they can gain some distance, to minimize the risk.

Tales of Zestiria is currently in development for PlayStation 3.