I wouldn't call myself a veteran either, though, haha. Along with Zestiria, I've played Abyss, both Xillias, and I'm currently playing Symphonia. I for the life of me could not figure out what I was doing in Zestiria as far as battles go. Like I honestly can't even explain it, but I have talked to others that felt the same way so I know I'm not alone. But I seriously never got used to what it was trying to do. I could do armatization pretty well and I thought that was fine, but normal combat, idk it was just weird for me.
If it's your first Tales, then switching to something more traditional will likely throw you off like what Zestiria felt like to me when coming off the Xillias. But again, I'm not really a veteran either. With as many Tales games as there are, only 4 1/2 under my belt doesn't exactly give me enough of an idea of what I'm even trying to say here, lol. If you popped in another game like Abyss or Xillia though, you'd probably feel the difference between that and Zestiria.