So what is your character ranking in this game?
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Tales of Berseria Import Thread
- Thread starter Rpgmonkey
- Start date
So what is your character ranking in this game?
Shouta
Member
Magilou > Eizen = Eleanor > Velvet = Lapchicet > Rokuro
They'd all go pretty high on the overall Tales character list for me.
SolVanderlyn
Thanos acquires the fully powered Infinity Gauntlet in The Avengers: Infinity War, but loses when all the superheroes team up together to stop him.
I am really hyped for Eizen. I've wanted to see
his Seraphim form and how he turned into a dragon, as well as his history with Zaveid, since Zestiria. And now he's a Human, not a Seraphim. Even more interesting!
Shouta
Member
Can Magilou top Edna in terms of best character?
Magilou is a helluva character, easily Edna's equal or higher in magnitude. I find her pretty awesome but whether or not they translate her into English well will make or break her.
I'm kinda stuck in an early quest.
I'm at Helwizard (ヘルヴィーサ and need to go to Figaru Setsugen (フィガル雪原to find Dail (ダイル, but the door to Figaru is locked. What else do I need to do in order to unlock the door? Thanks.
and need to go to Figaru Setsugen (フィガル雪原to find Dail (ダイル, but the door to Figaru is locked. What else do I need to do in order to unlock the door? Thanks.InternHertz
Member
I'm kinda stuck in an early quest.
I'm at Helwizard (ヘルヴィーサ
There shouldn't be anything preventing you
to get out...did you try going back through the stock room you went through to actually get into the city? It's the only way out of there for now.
On another note, I'm now looking through wikis for information concerning the grind I need to do and what I still need to do to 100%.
I saw that the
Witness to the Mystic
seeing all your party's hiougis...you also have to see all Mystic Artes from enemies too, so if for some reason a boss didn't show you his, you'll have to see them in another playthrough, and some bosses have a variant that you also have to see.
It's even worse than that,
As at least one fight has a special MA that only happens if you use Kokouru to counter the enemy's MA
This is how the skill system works: Each weapon can have three sets of skills. Master Skill, Bonus Skills and Random Skills. You can learn the Master Skill permanently, the Bonus Skills are unlocked via upgrades and the Random Skill is... random because they still have the random loot drops for equipment like in Zestiria.
Thanks for the info. I found a walkthrough and that's what it told me to do. I thought I was missing something (like a disguise) when Velvet said we can't go through the front door.
This got to be one of the hardest Tales game. I'm playing on Hard and fighting a giganto who instant-casts Slow in the whole arena, then just proceed to spam (almost instant cast as well) AOE like Flare Tornado when the party can't run away fast enough / can't side step / can't be healed. It's dumb to not be able to use appel gels when being hit with any debuffs. There's just no time to use panacea bottles then gels.
Shouta
Member
Yeah, the chain casts on Hard is rough. It's pretty important to play Velvet because when you enter her R2 mode, you can't get hit by status debuffs. You can then truck to the enemy and stop them from casting by applying some pressure.
Valkyri von Thanatos
Member
Wow! Really promising impressions/review! I have to wonder why Bebpo had such a negative reaction. Does the game take a while to heat up and get really good?
Can you elaborate on what in particular makes Magilou stand out so much as a great character? I have to admit that her design seems a little bit off (books skirt), and didn't seem to be that exceptional from the trailers and previews I've seen until now, but your praise for her has definitely piqued my interest. Maybe it's just that I haven't seen much of her besides her design, so her actual personality and character is really still a mystery to me.
You said that the "tunes sound good", but do you mean that they sounded good but didn't really stand out, or did you mean that they sounded very good, like above other Tales Of soundtracks on the same level that you think Berseria stands above most of them in general. Are there any excellent tracks like Standing the Pain, Fighting of the Spirits, Fatalize, Beat the Angel, etc. from Symphonia? It is probably clear that I think Symphonia has the strongest OST in the series, but it was my first, so I'm probably a little bit biased
.(BTW, does anyone know why it seems like Symphonia's soundtrack sounds very different from the later games, maybe it's the instrumentation used on the synthesis?)
One last thing is, did you learn Japanese as a second language, and if so, how long did it take to reach the level where you could play one of these games without issues? I've had 2 years of college level Japanese and did very well in those classes, + had 2 years of High School before that, but I still have a lot of issues when trying to play these games, the Kanji in particular is really tough to have to stop and decipher all of the time. Just wondering, since I really want to play the games Namco Bandai never released in English, like Destiny R, which is always so heavily praised, along with Rebirth, which I think is usually held in high regard as well.
I have Tales of Vesperia PS3 and tried playing it a while ago, but barely got anywhere because I was trying to look up and get a basic idea of almost every Kanji that came up. It was just too time consuming, and I have a prettt busy class schedule so I don't have a lot of time to immerse myself completely in it. I worry that if I just play it without trying to actively learn Kanji, that I won't really pick up much aside from some dialogue here and there. The activity is also obviously much more mentally taxing than gaming usually is, which is also hard for a student like me to balance with classwork.
Unfortunately, more Japanese classes are not an option until I transfer to a different college in a year, and I haven't been able to take a class since last year, X(.
Wow! Really promising impressions/review! I have to wonder why Bebpo had such a negative reaction. Does the game take a while to heat up and get really good?
Can you elaborate on what in particular makes Magilou stand out so much as a great character? I have to admit that her design seems a little bit off (books skirt), and didn't seem to be that exceptional from the trailers and previews I've seen until now, but your praise for her has definitely piqued my interest. Maybe it's just that I haven't seen much of her besides her design, so her actual personality and character is really still a mystery to me.
You said that the "tunes sound good", but do you mean that they sounded good but didn't really stand out, or did you mean that they sounded very good, like above other Tales Of soundtracks on the same level that you think Berseria stands above most of them in general. Are there any excellent tracks like Standing the Pain, Fighting of the Spirits, Fatalize, Beat the Angel, etc. from Symphonia? It is probably clear that I think Symphonia has the strongest OST in the series, but it was my first, so I'm probably a little bit biased
(BTW, does anyone know why it seems like Symphonia's soundtrack sounds very different from the later games, maybe it's the instrumentation used on the synthesis?)
One last thing is, did you learn Japanese as a second language, and if so, how long did it take to reach the level where you could play one of these games without issues? I've had 2 years of college level Japanese and did very well in those classes, + had 2 years of High School before that, but I still have a lot of issues when trying to play these games, the Kanji in particular is really tough to have to stop and decipher all of the time. Just wondering, since I really want to play the games Namco Bandai never released in English, like Destiny R, which is always so heavily praised, along with Rebirth, which I think is usually held in high regard as well.
I have Tales of Vesperia PS3 and tried playing it a while ago, but barely got anywhere because I was trying to look up and get a basic idea of almost every Kanji that came up. It was just too time consuming, and I have a prettt busy class schedule so I don't have a lot of time to immerse myself completely in it. I worry that if I just play it without trying to actively learn Kanji, that I won't really pick up much aside from some dialogue here and there. The activity is also obviously much more mentally taxing than gaming usually is, which is also hard for a student like me to balance with classwork.
Unfortunately, more Japanese classes are not an option until I transfer to a different college in a year, and I haven't been able to take a class since last year, X(.
Different people have different opinions. I went to many sites both English and Japanese but Bebpo is the only one with such negative opinion lol.
Not the one you're asking but about Japanese, to be able to play and read all dialogues without problem probably takes years of learning. I've been living in Japan for 2 years, been learning Japanese 2 years before that. Currently studying in Japanese University but still have problem reading some kanji.
Basically entered this thread to see if anyone who plays Tales did a review. Sounds awesome and will be grabbing this Day 1 on Steam. Thanks!
Shouta
Member
Magilou is the mood maker of the group. She brings a lot of energy to the dynamic of the team. In many ways, she's basically a Japanese comedian you'd see on variety shows there with the way she talks and interacts with the cast. She's really enjoyable in a the same way that Edna was really enjoyable though Magilou switches between the straight-man and the fool where Edna was always the straight-man.
I don't pay as much attention to the soundtrack as others. Voice-acting and sound effects are more my bag. I'd only really notice the OST if there were bad tracks.
I've been studying Japanese since middle school and I'm in my 30s now. So almost 20 years. I was started JP playing games in high school but didn't start fully understanding them until, a few years into college. First games I remember playing and actually understanding everything was Dragon Quest VIII (JA) and Growlanser IV. It's all engagement with the language. The most you're practicing, the faster and easier it sticks.
The guy said a broken code he got in the box wasn't a good starting impression for the game, which sounds to me like he went in expecting to hate it. His second post was like 2 hours later, saying the game sucks so far.
It's one person's opinion, I can't and won't take it away from him, negative opinions are obviously fine too. If you've found his opinions to be trustworthy, that's also fine. But since I have no idea who he is, his posts in this thread are all I can go by, and I can't personally take someone who's opinion is so radically different from virtually everyone else in the thread and who also never seemed to even give the game a chance very seriously.
I'm sure there's some confirmation bias in the play too. I really want Berseria to be good lol.
4 hours in,
Music sucks compared to Zesteria
Combat is great, all titles level together too and don't require you to have them equipped.
Magiru is hard to follow with my Japanese knowledge (speaks weird) but has her moments. The mimicking pigeon scene was hilarious.
Item upgrade system is a lot more straightforward and materials can be farmed in mini games.
I'm a sucker for tales dlc, especially MC costumes.
Can't wait to get home and play more.
Music sucks compared to Zesteria
Combat is great, all titles level together too and don't require you to have them equipped.
Magiru is hard to follow with my Japanese knowledge (speaks weird) but has her moments. The mimicking pigeon scene was hilarious.
Item upgrade system is a lot more straightforward and materials can be farmed in mini games.
I'm a sucker for tales dlc, especially MC costumes.
Can't wait to get home and play more.
InternHertz
Member
I have all the Grade I need to get everything in the shop apart from Half Experience (why would I) and Retain Growth from plants (never used one, I'm hoarding them).
So that's done.
Now I'm doing the hidden dungeon, get all important items from it, and hopefully then beat the
boss.
After that I'm going to farm the rest of the Nekospi(rits) to open the remaining boxes I have left.
Then farm enemies to complete the drops in the enemy book.
Then get all rewards from all mini-games.
When that's done I'll begin the enhanced second playthrough and leave the XP/title/gald/TL coins farming for after that.
So that's done.
Now I'm doing the hidden dungeon, get all important items from it, and hopefully then beat the
true final
After that I'm going to farm the rest of the Nekospi(rits) to open the remaining boxes I have left.
Then farm enemies to complete the drops in the enemy book.
Then get all rewards from all mini-games.
When that's done I'll begin the enhanced second playthrough and leave the XP/title/gald/TL coins farming for after that.
I just beat the
Treant
She
About the DLC. None ever appears in the store (in the game's start menu). I use my NA account to play the game. There was a sheet of paper that came with the game.
Of course. The game isn't out yet in the west so there isn't a webpage for it on the US PSN store. You'd have to create a JP account and use the code there.
Not entirely sure where I'm at now (maybe less than half way or a little over?), but the characters are very, very likable. Haven't actually liked an entire cast this much since Vesperia. I was pretty sold on Eizen initially, but seeing what he's actually like in-game really made him my favorite. Magilou is pretty high up there, too. I think it helps that the character count being low the main party since I'm finding the character chemistry to be really good (and good character chemistry is my drug in any JRPG). This is how a Tales game should be or any JRPG for that matter.
Story's definitely the least cringeworthy and most enjoyable of all the Tales so far. Bravo. And so far for combat, I've been finding myself using a combination of Magilou, Eizen, and Rokurou. Velvet for when I feel like cheesing everything with her spammable Break Soul. They did a good job making the other characters fun to play beside the main one; not to say she isn't fun, though.
On another note, episode 8 of the anime was kind of painful to watch, what with the Eizen flashbacks with Edna. Kills me inside.
Also, I don't think I'll ever get sick of hearing the opening song.
Story's definitely the least cringeworthy and most enjoyable of all the Tales so far. Bravo. And so far for combat, I've been finding myself using a combination of Magilou, Eizen, and Rokurou. Velvet for when I feel like cheesing everything with her spammable Break Soul. They did a good job making the other characters fun to play beside the main one; not to say she isn't fun, though.
On another note, episode 8 of the anime was kind of painful to watch, what with the Eizen flashbacks with Edna. Kills me inside.
Also, I don't think I'll ever get sick of hearing the opening song.
Does anyone have any experience playing through this game in coop yet? I usually only play through Tales games with friends, and am wondering whether I should plan on playing through this in a full 4 person group or just 2. The reason I ask is that recent games have not been as kind to a having a full party. In Xillia 1&2 linking with other players caused them to lose control of their character and in Zestiria the fusion mechanic did the same. Is there something similar in Berseria or should I try and get the whole gang together?
Safe to say you can play with all four. It's definitely going to be chaos with all the Break Soul going on especially since they're all useful in different situations, though. I would recommend doing purely dangerous encounters with a group of friends since that sounds like it could be a blast.
Good to hear, thanks.
thestopsign
Member
I enjoyed Zesteria, sounds like this is better in every way.
There are different possible reasons: Sound direction (liner notes indicate Symphonia went for a pop sound, while Rebirth and onward are more orchestral), staff (sound programmer Takeshi Arai also contributed compositions and arrangements, this was his only Tales game aside the Phantasia GBA port), technical (Symphonia was essentially MIDI, and on GC there was room for 10MB of instrument data while there was only 2MB on PS2 and 512 kB on PS1, then after Rebirth Tales games used streaming/prerecorded music).
Bet they'll call the battle system the same Tales as always, even though this is the first Tales game to do away with the linear motion concept that all games used so far.
Correct me if I'm wrong but for example Motooi Sakuraba didn't do Fatalize for instance which is a pretty good track and very different from the others track of the OST.
Irony of Fate also was made by Tamura, Meaning of Birth Fujiwara etc. (props for Fury Sparks, unless that's Aoyama ?)
Oddly enough whenever there's another composer with him I tend to remember the tracks from said other composer mostly.
It's kinda sad that Sakuraba wasn't able to match his work on the Baten Kaitos series for example, there's nothing like Ali Del principio made by him in the Tales series and even the regular battle theme (True Mirror, Valedictory Elegy) which are really typical of Sakuraba's style manage to top almost everything he has made for the Tales series.
That's what I thought. No big loss for me.
Not sure how you turned this into a Sakuraba discussion? The majority of Symphonia tracks are by Sakuraba, Tamura at the time of Symphonia's release even posted an apology on his blog that he did fewer than his usual amount of pieces. I wrote the remaining other possible factors for Symphonia's differing sound in the post you answered to.
Fatalize is indeed by Shinji Tamura, in the style of his A Resolution for Destiny 2. Irony of Fate (not in Symphonia) however is classic Sakuraba, he did plenty arrangements of it over the time. Fury Sparks (not in Symphonia) is actually by "Aoyama" which was just an alias for Shinji Tamura (classic loud Tamura drums, just like Oath of Union, not sure how people think those could be by Sakuraba).
As Sakuraba said himself in the regularly linked interview he's told to keep the Tales sound in mind, so expecting him to match his other non-Tales works is setting oneself up for disappointment. Especially if those other games feature live instruments, something Sakuraba still didn't get for Tales unless he's playing himself, and even though Shiina has no issue doing several recoding sessions for his own music on the very same project. He also said himself in that interview that with collaborations he composes with the balance in mind, so the other contributors' music naturally sticks out more. It's not even a problem between Sakuraba and Bandai Namco considering both Baten Kaitos games as well as Eternal Sonata all were published by Bandai Namco.
Fact is Tales is a low budget series, and Sakuraba is told to produce a certain amount of music (numbers of tracks usually higher than any of his other works, track lengths and complexity much smaller though) with series specific limitations on a limited budget. That's all there is to it really.
Why not !
I was aware of the constraint and low budget for its work, however, asides from Go Shiina where the difference is just ludicrous, correct me if I'm wrong again, Aoyama/Tamura and Fujiwara didn't have a bigger budget either which didn't stop them from composing stand-out tracks.
Mind they're stand out because they're different than Sakuraba's style and there are fewer of them, like the one I mentionned (bar Irony of Fate, I was pretty sure one of those was Sakuraba's) so in a way you could say that he's doing the grunt work while the others reap the fruits of its labor just by being there.
Also lower budget doesn't necessary equal lower quality/memorable music, even if after dozens, even hundreds, of tracks it's likely that Sakuraba must struggle to find the inspiration, my point was rather either Bamco should let him compose more freely or at least find other(s) composer to help him the same way they did before if they really don't want to give him an orchestra or something (but as illustrated by Zestiria, they could, but to add insult to the injury they give it to Shiina rather than him which is, imo, partially our fault for always telling Baba how Shiina was awesome why largely ignoring Sakuraba)
At this point I'm honestly wondering if even him is not bored to work on the Tales series and what he gains from a creative point of view to keep composing,
Note that I have yet to listen to what he did for Berseria, but I honestly don't expect much and what was told in the topic so far (or rather the fact it was barely discussed) don't set very high expectations once again, which is sad since there's room for it as previous works on the Tales series showed us.
In many ways I just find the state of music works just sad, sad for Sakuraba which can't do much at this point, sad that Bamco are just letting the thing stagnate while the series just keep evolving on the game design side, sad that they just keep asking for a crazy amount of track with a low budget from a single person, sad that Zestiria which was a step in the right direction seems to be a one off (while for example they kept Ufotable after Xillia despite saying at first it was something special for the 15th anniversary) etc.
Because it's kinda off topic to both the thread and the post you responded to. =P
Sakuraba's "problem" is that he doesn't get to contribute cherry picked pieces but is asked to fill all the remaining gaps. And that appears to happen on very short notice (the liner notes for Rebirth for instance mention he only had a couple days working overnight to do all the FMV music, and those imo are regularly above average compared to his other Tales pieces). The very fact he mentions keeping the balance whenever the soundtrack is a collaboration indicates that he gets to work off others' contributions once it obvious that those others won't be able to fill more of the soundtrack.
Unlike many people I honestly don't see Tales music as of inherently lower quality and being less memorable, just lower budget and as such worse polish and production value. Also I don't think Tales music (or Sakuraba music in general) is samey, actually I feel the opposite, with the amount of games, tracks and limitations I think the variety is actually outstanding. But that all is a matter of taste.
Not going to happen. I think at this point it's clear Sakuraba is doing a kind of work that other composers are not willing to do time and budget restriction wise.
I don't think Sakuraba is the kind of composers looking for gains from a creative pov, like at all. In the past he mentioned that composing take him around two hours a piece, though he lately stresses that arranging and mixing takes manifold of that. It's clear the latter is one part his Tales music lacks.
I liken Sakuraba to Bach in his apparent work ethics, at the time of his life Back was seen as an outstanding organ player known for his improvising talents, but his resulting compositions only gained recognition much later. Likewise Sakuraba is an good keyboard players who imo excels at improvising and uses that as a tool to create new compositions as quick as he does.
As for why he continues doing Tales music, who knows. My impression is Sakuraba just likes playing music, and he was initially lucky to have found a job where he can keep doing that while even getting money for it. Unlike most freelance composers in Japan he's still like a lone wolf doing everything himself music wise from start to finish, only relying on a small circle of partners if the music is to contain live instruments. Virtual all work he did to date was through longstanding business contacts (which makes him rather easy to follow as a fan like me). The work on the Tales series is a direct continuation of his first job in the industry back in 1989, so I can imagine even though staff and companies changed since he does feel an obligation for it whenever he's asked to contribute again. He's been with the series for 22 years now without breaks after all, that's arguably longer than Uematsu did on FF for instance.
Personally I'm positively surprised about Berseria so far (listening to a rip and filtering out all the reused pieces for DLC etc.). The production quality got worse compared to Zestiria (even excluding Shiina's pieces) but I personally enjoy the bigger variety of compositions, tones and instruments this game got. Still fast food, but I happen to like it for what it is.
Thanks for the reply and details, we agree on almost every detail, Sakuraba is likely a very devoted hard worker and it seems like Bamco, and well everyone, doesn't give him enough credit for that
After checking your latest credits for Berseria I also can't see Eriko Sakurai, well too bad, even with all you've said before I think having another person work with him would be better.
Btw his daughter never got to sing for another of his tracks ever since ?
After checking your latest credits for Berseria I also can't see Eriko Sakurai, well too bad, even with all you've said before I think having another person work with him would be better.
Btw his daughter never got to sing for another of his tracks ever since ?
According to Japanese sites since Graces Sakurai is responsible for some of the DLC music actually (the school themes are specifically mentioned), not sure of the sources but I've never seen any DLC specific credits outside the Zestiria story DLC so it may well be true (and would well explain that composer name slip up in your interview).
Not that I'm aware of.
Digressing somewhat, Eternal Sonata (the last soundtrack to have family involvement) was also the last time Sakuraba did music directly for tri-Crescendo, who are now part of the Tales development team since the Symphonia Chronicles port. Would be very nice if they were given the sound direction job...
And more on topic the Berseria soundtrack (out on 28th this month) finally got listed with more info like a tracklist, some 96 new tracks this time...
Dear god....
As for the quality of the soundtrack, I've not listened to much, but Magilou's theme is pretty catchy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5JNqS2eiJo
RPGCrazied
Member
This is coming for PC too right?
Now that I have a better computer, I can run this no problem with maxed graphics.
Now that I have a better computer, I can run this no problem with maxed graphics.
Zestiria wasn't demanding in the slightest, so you should have been fine regardless.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQ5DdO3Sx8A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKDbpjeQWjg
I love the skits!
Oh and one thing I've never seen anyone talking about. How is the mascot?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKDbpjeQWjg
I love the skits!
Oh and one thing I've never seen anyone talking about. How is the mascot?
18 hours in and I think I'm done with this. It's a solid C+ rpg, but it's just boring (plus long) to the point where I'd rather use the remaining 40+ hours to play a better rpg in the timeframe. I'm too old to stick with 7/10 quality games for 60+ hours.
Things that are good about Berseria:
1. The art direction, 60fps and 1080p are all great. Definitely the best Tales has looked in a while, and probably the best looking of the full 3d games.
2. Mini-games being back.
3. Non-paid DLC required custom items are nice to have again.
4. Being rewarded with additionally gameplay systems from optional bosses is nice.
5. Lack of loading is very nice
Things that are so-so about Berseria:
1. The battle system is ok, probably the worst since Xillia in terms of shallowness + it lacks a lot of flash. For 3d battle systems, I liked Graces/Zestiria much better, and prefer most of the 2d Tales battle systems to this. If it wasn't a Tales game this battle system would be good enough, but for Tales it falls somewhere in the middle and a step back from the last game. On the plus side, there's freedom to do whatever moves you want, and you can combo for a long time easily. On the negatives, It's too easy even on Evil difficulty and there's not a ton of depth, it doesn't feel intense, it's not flashy and so it's just kind of boring.
2. The cast is just ok. They definitely grew on me after the full party showed up about 5-6 hours in, but even when you have the whole cast these are 2nd/3rd-tier Tales characters at best. They're just kind of uninteresting people. Cast reminds me the most of Rebirth's and Graces mostly unmemorable casts. On the other hand they do the best they can with each other and the group dynamic is good.
3. The skill learning system is just ok. It's better than Zesteria's dumb equipment/skill system, but it's still really boring and feels like an archaic system from 20 years ago. Combined with the dumb random stats on equipment, if you want to learn all the skills it forces you to constantly be using equipment with worse stats for most of the game. Same dumb problem as Zesteria.
4. Music isn't good, but it's not terrible. I guess it's ok. It's hilarious when a Zesteria song starts playing because it's 10x better than any of the other tracks in the game. Go Shiina is very missed.
5. While the tons of skits are nice to have, the skits are way too long and most are boring. It's especially bad because they'll follow up a long boring cutscene in-game and you're finally glad to have control over your character and that's when they'll give you 1 or 2 long boring skits to go through. Prefer skits showing up mid-dungeon to break up the exploring/combat.
6. So far 18 hours in the story is ok. Just past
. Around the 14 hour mark I thought I'd reached the climax of the intro and was hoping the next part of the game would be the fun Tales adventure of now exploring the world and learning the mysteries of it, but then you go into a cave for hours -_- It's not a bad story, seems ok, but I keep hoping it picks up and at 18 hours I'm kind of tired of hoping it picks up and becomes interesting. Maybe it still does at 30-40 hours in, but that's a long time and there's better rpgs to play.
Things that are bad about Berseria:
6. Everything's boring. This is problem Zesteria had at parts, but it's much worse here. Everything in the game is mostly fine and playable, but it's just so uninteresting for 90% of the time and easy it feels like going through the motions. Spread that out with a slower paced 60 hour+ story (which is really a 30 hour story paced slowly) and it's just barely enjoyable and runs a consistent half entertaining/half bored out of your mind game. The story is mostly boring, the cast is fairly uninteresting, the dungeons and towns are boring, the equipment system tinkering is boring, even the skits are boring and too long. I'd say it's the most boring/uninteresting Tales game in the series in my opinion. Which is unfortunate because unlike some of the BAD games in Tales, there's not a lot that's really bad about Berseria, it's all decent stuff but just put together in a dull uninspired 7/10 game.
7. The fields/towns/everything not a cutscene or battle SUCK. I just spent like 1-2 hours going through a huge ass cave of NOTHING. Which followed a giant field of NOTHING, and then I got to a small port town of NOTHING. There's absolutely jack and shit to do in this game. It's FFXIII but worse with giant fields that take a while to go through. From my memories of the first 8 hours of so of Xillia before I dropped it, Xillia had the exact same problem.
The big problem is that they make these giant fields with lots of nooks and crannies, but there is no encouragement or reason to explore the fields out. There's a couple of treasures, but since the equipment/loot system is junk, you'll almost never find anything good. There's collect items that don't really do anything. And there's no sense of Majesty or fun in exploration like something similar to Xenoblade where you walk into a giant jungle with a waterfall and go "woah" and just take in the scenery and music, or discover some interesting ancient ruins. Part of that is that if you played Zestiria all the way through, 90% of this game is just running through the same areas with new colors. It's not interesting, I've seen all these places. Even the towns are lifeless with a few NPCs to chat and a tiny Inn or one other building with one room to enter. Towns, dungeons, fields, they're all big and empty.
8. I'm going to make this a separate point but the dungeons have fallen so far from the old 2d Tales games. Hell even the fixed camera 3d ones like Symphonia and stuff had puzzles with sorcerer's rings, Graces had pushing ice blocks, even Zesteria had a couple of dungeons with puzzles, and all of these games had shorter dungeons (not counting final dungeons) than Berseria so far. Berseria dungeons have nothing in them at all, just a bunch of boring empty fields that are fairly big and you run through screen after screen, dead end after dead end and all you do is fight the same couple of enemies again and again and grab some collect items. Even when there is a locked door, the switch is like you go around the one corner you haven't been to and it's right there. That's not a puzzle. Why even bother putting in switches like that. Dungeons are just terrible here and the towns are depressing.
9. The equipment/loot is crap. Random stats done wrong, skill system that requires using bad equipment to get a decent skill, it's like they looked at western loot games and were inspired but fucked it up big time. Shops are still terrible as well, which they've been since like Xillia. Tales need to reboot the entire equipment/shop system and just go back to traditional jrpg where you find good loot in chests (which gives encouragement to explore dungeons), or buy good equipment at each new town. After so many games of fucked up equipment/shops I'm really sick of Tales being so bad at this.
Overall:
That's pretty much it. There's not much "bad" about Berseria. It definitely does some things right, and its problems mainly stem from the fields/dungeons/towns/loot. The problem is that those being 50-75% of the gameplay time combined with a slower drawn out story over 60 hours+ with just an ok Tales cast and a dumbed down battle system ends up creating a almost puts-you-to-sleep game. It's a solid effort, and I can see how a lot of people will like it more than Zestiria for the consistency, as it feels more like FFXIII polished dull versus Zestiria's fun, broken, but ends up being a total mess.
As a fan of the series since the old school days, with like 14 or 15 games cleared in the franchise, some which I hold very dearly as fantastic jrpg expereinces, whose been trying to give each entry a fair shot despite plummeting quality for over a decade, I think this is the last straw and I'm done with Tales. Judging by the drastically falling sales in the series I think I'm not the only one.
In my opinion, since budget and falling sales are a concern, they really should go back to either 2d or 3d fixed camera. All full 3d has brought to the series is giant boring fields. 2d Tales games were mostly fun, hell I had a lot more fun with Narikiri Dungeon X on PSP than Berseria; that battle system was a blast. If they go away from full 3d I'll jump in, so maybe if they do another handheld entry, but otherwise this is my last console Tales game. You can only hang on to a sinking ship so long before you end up drowning with it.
Things that are good about Berseria:
1. The art direction, 60fps and 1080p are all great. Definitely the best Tales has looked in a while, and probably the best looking of the full 3d games.
2. Mini-games being back.
3. Non-paid DLC required custom items are nice to have again.
4. Being rewarded with additionally gameplay systems from optional bosses is nice.
5. Lack of loading is very nice
Things that are so-so about Berseria:
1. The battle system is ok, probably the worst since Xillia in terms of shallowness + it lacks a lot of flash. For 3d battle systems, I liked Graces/Zestiria much better, and prefer most of the 2d Tales battle systems to this. If it wasn't a Tales game this battle system would be good enough, but for Tales it falls somewhere in the middle and a step back from the last game. On the plus side, there's freedom to do whatever moves you want, and you can combo for a long time easily. On the negatives, It's too easy even on Evil difficulty and there's not a ton of depth, it doesn't feel intense, it's not flashy and so it's just kind of boring.
2. The cast is just ok. They definitely grew on me after the full party showed up about 5-6 hours in, but even when you have the whole cast these are 2nd/3rd-tier Tales characters at best. They're just kind of uninteresting people. Cast reminds me the most of Rebirth's and Graces mostly unmemorable casts. On the other hand they do the best they can with each other and the group dynamic is good.
3. The skill learning system is just ok. It's better than Zesteria's dumb equipment/skill system, but it's still really boring and feels like an archaic system from 20 years ago. Combined with the dumb random stats on equipment, if you want to learn all the skills it forces you to constantly be using equipment with worse stats for most of the game. Same dumb problem as Zesteria.
4. Music isn't good, but it's not terrible. I guess it's ok. It's hilarious when a Zesteria song starts playing because it's 10x better than any of the other tracks in the game. Go Shiina is very missed.
5. While the tons of skits are nice to have, the skits are way too long and most are boring. It's especially bad because they'll follow up a long boring cutscene in-game and you're finally glad to have control over your character and that's when they'll give you 1 or 2 long boring skits to go through. Prefer skits showing up mid-dungeon to break up the exploring/combat.
6. So far 18 hours in the story is ok. Just past
Fighting Rokurou's brother at the port and getting the ship back
Things that are bad about Berseria:
6. Everything's boring. This is problem Zesteria had at parts, but it's much worse here. Everything in the game is mostly fine and playable, but it's just so uninteresting for 90% of the time and easy it feels like going through the motions. Spread that out with a slower paced 60 hour+ story (which is really a 30 hour story paced slowly) and it's just barely enjoyable and runs a consistent half entertaining/half bored out of your mind game. The story is mostly boring, the cast is fairly uninteresting, the dungeons and towns are boring, the equipment system tinkering is boring, even the skits are boring and too long. I'd say it's the most boring/uninteresting Tales game in the series in my opinion. Which is unfortunate because unlike some of the BAD games in Tales, there's not a lot that's really bad about Berseria, it's all decent stuff but just put together in a dull uninspired 7/10 game.
7. The fields/towns/everything not a cutscene or battle SUCK. I just spent like 1-2 hours going through a huge ass cave of NOTHING. Which followed a giant field of NOTHING, and then I got to a small port town of NOTHING. There's absolutely jack and shit to do in this game. It's FFXIII but worse with giant fields that take a while to go through. From my memories of the first 8 hours of so of Xillia before I dropped it, Xillia had the exact same problem.
The big problem is that they make these giant fields with lots of nooks and crannies, but there is no encouragement or reason to explore the fields out. There's a couple of treasures, but since the equipment/loot system is junk, you'll almost never find anything good. There's collect items that don't really do anything. And there's no sense of Majesty or fun in exploration like something similar to Xenoblade where you walk into a giant jungle with a waterfall and go "woah" and just take in the scenery and music, or discover some interesting ancient ruins. Part of that is that if you played Zestiria all the way through, 90% of this game is just running through the same areas with new colors. It's not interesting, I've seen all these places. Even the towns are lifeless with a few NPCs to chat and a tiny Inn or one other building with one room to enter. Towns, dungeons, fields, they're all big and empty.
8. I'm going to make this a separate point but the dungeons have fallen so far from the old 2d Tales games. Hell even the fixed camera 3d ones like Symphonia and stuff had puzzles with sorcerer's rings, Graces had pushing ice blocks, even Zesteria had a couple of dungeons with puzzles, and all of these games had shorter dungeons (not counting final dungeons) than Berseria so far. Berseria dungeons have nothing in them at all, just a bunch of boring empty fields that are fairly big and you run through screen after screen, dead end after dead end and all you do is fight the same couple of enemies again and again and grab some collect items. Even when there is a locked door, the switch is like you go around the one corner you haven't been to and it's right there. That's not a puzzle. Why even bother putting in switches like that. Dungeons are just terrible here and the towns are depressing.
9. The equipment/loot is crap. Random stats done wrong, skill system that requires using bad equipment to get a decent skill, it's like they looked at western loot games and were inspired but fucked it up big time. Shops are still terrible as well, which they've been since like Xillia. Tales need to reboot the entire equipment/shop system and just go back to traditional jrpg where you find good loot in chests (which gives encouragement to explore dungeons), or buy good equipment at each new town. After so many games of fucked up equipment/shops I'm really sick of Tales being so bad at this.
Overall:
That's pretty much it. There's not much "bad" about Berseria. It definitely does some things right, and its problems mainly stem from the fields/dungeons/towns/loot. The problem is that those being 50-75% of the gameplay time combined with a slower drawn out story over 60 hours+ with just an ok Tales cast and a dumbed down battle system ends up creating a almost puts-you-to-sleep game. It's a solid effort, and I can see how a lot of people will like it more than Zestiria for the consistency, as it feels more like FFXIII polished dull versus Zestiria's fun, broken, but ends up being a total mess.
As a fan of the series since the old school days, with like 14 or 15 games cleared in the franchise, some which I hold very dearly as fantastic jrpg expereinces, whose been trying to give each entry a fair shot despite plummeting quality for over a decade, I think this is the last straw and I'm done with Tales. Judging by the drastically falling sales in the series I think I'm not the only one.
In my opinion, since budget and falling sales are a concern, they really should go back to either 2d or 3d fixed camera. All full 3d has brought to the series is giant boring fields. 2d Tales games were mostly fun, hell I had a lot more fun with Narikiri Dungeon X on PSP than Berseria; that battle system was a blast. If they go away from full 3d I'll jump in, so maybe if they do another handheld entry, but otherwise this is my last console Tales game. You can only hang on to a sinking ship so long before you end up drowning with it.
Haha, ouch! How do you think it compares with Vesperia? That's one Tales game that played a lot safe (imo boring, but we all know its popularity) but was pretty polished doing so, and Berseria appears to fit into that mold as well.
I wish there'd be a real possibility for a new 2D Tales game. Alas all the 2D staff is gone, NDX was the last of its kind. =(
Most places I have been reading have been pretty positive Bebpo has been the most negative I have seen.