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Tales of Berseria - How Did I Miss This Game?

jshackles

Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
So - I've started in on Tales of Berseria (PC, with the "fix"). Holy cow, this game is pretty awesome.

I'm a fairweather fan of the Tales series. I played Phantasia's English hack way back in the day, and picked up a few games here and there that I've enjoyed. I played Tales of Destiny on the PS1, and Tales of the Abyss on the 3DS. I even played Vesperia when it was a 360 exclusive. I started Tales of Zesteria on PC shortly after it released, and didn't care for it's battle system. In 2019, I finally actually finished my first Tales game (Vesperia, on the Switch) because in the past I'd always get bored with these games for one reason or another. Now I'm playing Berseria, and having a grand time with it.

The combat seems pretty good (although understandably limited as I'm only in the first few hours of the game). I really like the equipment / mastery system a lot. The somewhat frequent (maybe it's just because it's the beginning of the game?) anime cutscenes are really well done. Voice work is very good. The characters are a bit cliche but fun. So far, it feels like a proper adventure - which is exactly why I enjoy RPG games like this.

Anyone else played this recently?
 

VALCON 82

Member
I have only played Tales of Xillia and Vesperia.. but have had my eye on Berseria for a year at least... kind of hoping it gets added to PsNow sometime. I have heard pretty much nothing but positive news about Berseria
 

kiphalfton

Member
They had been churning out games on like a yearly basis, up until that game. Maybe that's how?

Not complaining, but if you're like me and you're several games behind it's gonna be hard to catch up. I think I have all the games on PS3, but have only played Tales of Symphonia and Tales of the Abyss all the way through. So yeah, I'm probably behind half a dozen games or more...
 
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Sleepwalker

Gold Member
They had been churning out games on like a yearly basis, up until that game. Maybe that's how?

Not complaining, but if you're like me and you're several games behind it's gonna be hard to catch up. I think I have all the games on PS3, but have only played Tales of Symphonia and Tales of the Abyss all the way through. So yeah, I'm probably behind half a dozen games or more...
As far as I know these games are not sequels nor share the same world with each other unless explicitly said so (like tales of symphonia and tales of symphonia 2).

So you don't need to play them all for an overarching plot or anything.

I loved symphonia and thats the only one ive really beaten. I started berseria and thought it was decent but never finished it. Ended watching a story recap on youtube lol
 

Werewolf Jones

Gold Member
I got to the end game and just stopped. Better than Zestiria but that's not saying much. Don't like how Inomata and Fujishima are side lined these days.
 

Guilty_AI

Member
460E093CBC1E5ED527580D4FA3C1F18F159AA225
 

SantaC

Member
It is still a low budget Tales came that they rushed to release one year after zestiria.

I dont get those who says berseria is so much better than zestiria. They are set in the same universe and Berseria shares a lot of similarities with zestiria and uses basically the same garbage equipment system (you get a million different euipment loot with 95% useless stats on them) and terrible shop system. Oh the dungeons are simply awful.

Berseria was released 5 years ago and Bamco realized that they had to raise the bar for the Tales games (thus Arise is in the longest production the franchise ever seen)


I agree that Berseria is a better game, but bar isnt very high
 
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Crystalkoen

Member
I've not played a lot of Tales games, but have my fair share under my belt (Symphonia, Vesperia, Graces f, Berseria). I loved Vesperia, and thought the idea of Velvet in Berseria was great, but she eventually gets the "Tales Protagonist" treatment and gains a conscience sometime near the end of Act 2. Disappointing, because I thought the idea of her mindset of "everything is a tool to my goal" in the first half was kinda inspired for Tales.
It DOES have one of the better combat systems in the series, at least.
 

Mikey Jr.

Member
That ice dungeon was a miserable experience. I bounced off that game quick.

Then this stupid ass main protagonist and how she dresses. Ughhhh.
 
I'm with you OP, I thought it was really good. Actually has decent dialog, even if the game does tread into stupid anime trope crap fairly often - at least it does it in a well written way.

Tried playing Zestiria afterwards and quit after like an hour.
 

Ailike

Member
I played this last summer, and it really hit the spot. I had done Symphonia and Vesperia way back in the day, and in comparison to those I liked Berserias story, characters, VO a whole lot. I just hate hate hate the combat system this go around. I could not get a grasp on the combos and what I was supposed to be doing. That being said, it was worth muddling through that for the Magilou performance.
 

Dynomite

Member
I got to the water temple and stopped playing. I enjoyed everything until that dungeon. I wanna go back but that dungeon turns me off completely.
 

FStubbs

Member
I thought this cast of edgelords (and Eleanor) was funny. It was basically an improved Zestiria gameplay wise. I liked it, but glad they're clearly revamping the series with Arise.
 

jshackles

Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
It's been a few weeks now of me playing this about 5 hours a week. So I'm about 20 hours into the game, but I'm taking my time with stuff. Exploring all the areas, mastering all the equipment I can find, etc.

Still loving the game, and still think it's a lot of fun and a great modern JRPG. Here's hoping the rest of the game is as good as the first 20 hours!
 

Sentenza

Member
I started it just two days ago!
Not gonna lie, so far, three or four hours in, I think it's utter crap.

And holy shit, that slow introductory part went on for-fucking-ever.

Also, I have nothing against gratuitous fanservice so I won't complain about the outfit (even if it DOES look stupid) but holy shit if the protagonist isn't almost unbearably edgy.
 
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I got 10 hours into this and just couldn't anymore. I don't have any more Tales games in me anymore. I just don't like the gameplay.

The combat is both too complicated and too simple. There are tutorial hints after most battles for over 10 hours into the game and I'm not keeping track of half of it. But, at the same time, it doesn't matter much because almost any button mashing results in wins. I don’t feel like upping the difficulty since I barely understand half of what I'm doing.
 

Sentenza

Member
The combat is both too complicated and too simple. There are tutorial hints after most battles for over 10 hours into the game and I'm not keeping track of half of it. But, at the same time, it doesn't matter much because almost any button mashing results in wins. I don’t feel like upping the difficulty since I barely understand half of what I'm doing.
I was just joking on Discord with friends about this shit.
"I'm just mashing random buttons and winning, I don't think I grasped a single subsystem about the combat so far".
 

JayK47

Member
Glad you are enjoying the game.

It has been so long since I played a Tales game. I really enjoyed Tales of Xillia 1 and 2 and it is depressing to think that those came out 10 years ago. I enjoyed Zestiria and Berseria, but not as much. Berseria seemed a little better than Zesteria since the protagonist was much cooler. I have been playing Trails games in the meantime and I do not enjoy them nearly as much as Tales games.
 

Sentenza

Member
Glad you are enjoying the game.

It has been so long since I played a Tales game. I really enjoyed Tales of Xillia 1 and 2 and it is depressing to think that those came out 10 years ago. I enjoyed Zestiria and Berseria, but not as much. Berseria seemed a little better than Zesteria since the protagonist was much cooler. I have been playing Trails games in the meantime and I do not enjoy them nearly as much as Tales games.
Conversely I tried Berseria right after completing Ys VIII (and while waiting Ys IX on PC this summer) and the comparison wasn't really charitable toward the first.
 

Quasicat

Member
I went on a buying spree on PSN, due to the impending shutdown, and bought the rest of the Tales games I was missing. I’m about 20 hours into Graces f, and it’s really good. Next one will be Xillia.
 

OrionNebula

Member
Just started it because I’m getting bored by Control, and have never played any Tales game before

Currently 24 mins in! 😆 Any tips?
 

Valonquar

Member
I had a lot of fun with Berseria. I would have probably been disapointed at full launch entry price, but at major discount during a drought of decent games helped it a lot.
 

Mabdia

Member
Well... I'm not in action/rpg games. Berseria was my first Tales of and I really loved it. Amazing game, fun gameplay and usualy I just hate this kind of gameplay with a party that I don't direct control every action and I really enjoyed the history told in the game.
 

TheContact

Member
i love the tales series. tales of destiny 2 (called tales of fantasia i think in EU) is one of my favorite psx jrpgs, and vesperia is one of my favorite games of all time. i'm not too far in beseria right now, but i love the art style and the battle system. the problem is i have a million games i need to play so this got put on the back burner. i might come back to it once i finish dq11
 

Irobot82

Member
So this is $7.50 on steam right now. Worth it? A few Tales games are on deep discount right now. Recommend any others?
 
OK

Let's say I like jrpgs, but always thought tales looked LAF

Maybe I saw like symphonia on the gamecube and the VA from the cutscene I watched was so fatally cringe I never gave the series the slightest chance and I'm prejudiced against it

What is the absolute best tales game for me to try to win me over? This one? Not like a good starting place to build up to other games, like if you only play one tales game in your whole life, this is the one
 

Paltheos

Member
Yeah, Berseria's one of my favorite games in the series. It suffers a fair bit from inheriting some of the weaker design elements of Zestiria - the bombardment of boring, labyrinthine caves with the same, droll visual design ranking in at #1, I think - but the whole package is really great. Creating a group dynamic of mostly terrible people bouncing awful ideas off each other could very easily have failed but balancing it out with an innocent kid (an inclusion which also could have failed very easily) and a lawful goody two-shoes who's blackmailed by terrible protagonist works out great. Not something I'd want every game, but it's all very refreshing vs. the usual Tales' teams which are usually populated by the altruistic and good-intentioned.

What, don't like curves?

d9726mv-a46d6ecc-b027-4602-a3ff-f6a2dca42b6e.png

It really is so bad though! :( Like, Velvet's too smart to be walking around like that. Maybe a crappy argument could be mounted that it's inline with how laser-focused her sights are on getting revenge that she wouldn't even think about what she's wearing, but it's inconsistent with how crafty she (usually) is in making progress toward her objective. Like, yeah she goes all red-eyed when her target's right in front of her but otherwise she's mostly cool-headed.

One of the few occasions I felt compelled to change an outfit into something else.

PS: Don't know if you were memeing or not, I just wanted to vent.
 

FStubbs

Member
As far as I know these games are not sequels nor share the same world with each other unless explicitly said so (like tales of symphonia and tales of symphonia 2).

So you don't need to play them all for an overarching plot or anything.

I loved symphonia and thats the only one ive really beaten. I started berseria and thought it was decent but never finished it. Ended watching a story recap on youtube lol
Berseria is a prequel of Zestiria.
I started it just two days ago!
Not gonna lie, so far, three or four hours in, I think it's utter crap.

And holy shit, that slow introductory part went on for-fucking-ever.

Also, I have nothing against gratuitous fanservice so I won't complain about the outfit (even if it DOES look stupid) but holy shit if the protagonist isn't almost unbearably edgy.
The party is basically a bunch of edgelords and Eleanor.
 
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Paltheos

Member
So this is $7.50 on steam right now. Worth it? A few Tales games are on deep discount right now. Recommend any others?

Vesperia's a standout and fan favorite and having replayed the game - this time the Definitive Edition! - last year I agree. It's still really good.
Symphonia's on Steam and sale and was a favorite but I think opinion's cooled on it over time. I was never a huge fan of it either.
I like Zestiria allot but that's a super unpopular opinion and many of the criticisms against the game are valid.
If you're only getting one other game, make it Vesperia.
 

Guilty_AI

Member
It really is so bad though! :( Like, Velvet's too smart to be walking around like that. Maybe a crappy argument could be mounted that it's inline with how laser-focused her sights are on getting revenge that she wouldn't even think about what she's wearing, but it's inconsistent with how crafty she (usually) is in making progress toward her objective. Like, yeah she goes all red-eyed when her target's right in front of her but otherwise she's mostly cool-headed.

One of the few occasions I felt compelled to change an outfit into something else.

PS: Don't know if you were memeing or not, I just wanted to vent.
Heres a secret about JRPGs or japanese media in general.
Creators are far more worried about how cool stuff looks than they are about whats grounded or not
And thats why we love them
 
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Paltheos

Member
Heres a secret about JRPGs or japanese media in general.
Creators are far more worried about how cool stuff looks than they are about whats grounded or not
And thats why we love them

I've been around the block. But rule of cool (or hot) is pushing its limits when you the writer call attention to your character's outfit for being ridiculous. It can still fly, of course, but not when your characters' goals run counter to concerns that you yourself wrote into the game.

Berseria takes the revenge plot very seriously so seeing Velvet acknowledge that prison garbs are a bit too ridiculous to travel around in only to change into something only marginally better and then never again bring it up when she has ample opportunity to do so stretches plausibility a bit too far.
 

Guilty_AI

Member
I've been around the block. But rule of cool (or hot) is pushing its limits when you the writer call attention to your character's outfit for being ridiculous. It can still fly, of course, but not when your characters' goals run counter to concerns that you yourself wrote into the game.

Berseria takes the revenge plot very seriously so seeing Velvet acknowledge that prison garbs are a bit too ridiculous to travel around in only to change into something only marginally better and then never again bring it up when she has ample opportunity to do so stretches plausibility a bit too far.
I should also point out that the people who write the story and design outfits often aren't the same and don't have the same priorities.

For example, making the character wear the same outfit all the time helps in ingraining an certain image in the audience's mind.
Sure a person changing clothes makes more sense as they travel around the world, but making an impression is often more important in entertainment products like this one than making sense, especially if its regarding a detail that doesn't directly affect the narrative or the rest of the game at all.
 
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TGO

Hype Train conductor. Works harder than it steams.
I have this game....no clue where it is though
Completely missing out my collection
 

Irobot82

Member
Seems fun so far. I don't really understand the combos and how items and such but I wasn't fully awake last night when I was playing.
 

jshackles

Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
I finally finished this game, 79 hours on the clock. In short, I felt like it was an absolute masterpiece.
 

DonkeyPunchJr

World’s Biggest Weeb
Magilou annoyed the shit out of me. Is there a name for this trope where a character tries really, really hard to be funny and witty? She was almost as unfunny as Borderlands 3
 
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