Tales of Berseria - PlayStation 4

I've beaten several Tales games; Symphonia, Symphonia: Dawn of a New World, Graces f, Xillia, Xillia 2, Zestiria and now Berseria. Out of all of these titles, Berseria easily ranks within my top three. It possesses the character development that Zestiria fell short on, utilizes a battle system that is easily accessible to seasoned Tales players as well as new ones, and immerses you in a story that makes for a truly enjoyable JRPG. I am the type of player to look for a cohesive, thought-out plotline, and Berseria fits that bill and more. Plot: Velvet is a very interesting protagonist in the sense that she really is not a heroine, like many other games give (including many of the other Tales games). She and your other party members follow a journey for their own purposes, each one of them with their own goals and motivations that really are not the most moral or heroic. I don't want to post any spoilers or hint to any plot developments, but I'm confident when I say it is a game worth playing. It is not too difficult to maneuver through, and the side quests aren't unbearable to complete. It's definitely got a darker feel than the other Tales titles, and it starts off pretty heavy. Don't expect a happy-go-lucky feeling game. Gameplay: It's solid. You acquire different add ons from wearing different armor/weapons/etc. along the way. I ended up overlapping a lot (I spent some time just training characters), and while I would not consider this process my favorite, it's good. Controls and the battles are smooth, easily accessible for both the experienced player and the novice. You travel the world quite frequently, and I'm happy to say that maneuvering the battlefields is not as tedious as it is in Xillia (where during main and side quests, the maps can get generic) with reasonable monsters. All the while, you do have decent music to make a good soundtrack for a game. The best track to me is Velvet's Theme, but otherwise, nothing particular stands out to me. Should you play Zestiria first? A lot of people don't say it's necessary, especially since Tales of Zestiria the X is around, but I never watched it. You'll enjoy the game without playing Zestiria, but I think it's worth going through Zestiria first. The first game sets up for plotlines, settings and other developments that are introduced, but unfortunately never explained upon, leaving you confused. Berseria takes care of all of those questions, and makes allusions to things you see in Zestiria that are quite interesting. It makes certain details feel more meaningful (Eizen's character, for example) - so, overall, I would recommend playing Zestiria. It's going to leave an emotional impact, meaning that I can't easily replay the game - but the replay value is there, if you're interested in acquiring extra costumes and other things. Overall, if you are invested in playing a game with a good plot, worthwhile characters, and an accessible battle system to boot, this is a good title, and one of the best of the series.

Tales of Berseria pleasantly surprised me after the last few turds that were pushed out as "tales" games. I have been playing the tales series of games since Vespiria, which was excellent in many ways, and that game got me hooked. Unfortunately for me, it has been a steady decline from that peak of enjoyment. As I eagerly awaited the release of the next tales game hoping it was at least as good as Vespiria, I'd quickly discover that it was not. Graces F was a big letdown, but Xillia managed to redeem the series for me by being substantially better than Graces but not quite at the level of Vespiria. The sequel to Xillia followed by Zestiria were both duds in my view. I didn't much care for either of them...but finally, Berseria broke what was a sinking ship of a series. Story ---------------- The story of Berseria borrows heavily from the Holy Bible, specifically Revelations 20, and when you use the good book as your basis it's hard to tell a bad story. You play as Velvet, an edgelord with an axe to grind. The world around you has humans being afflicted with "daemonblight", thus turning into literal demon-like creatures. Velvet's brother-in-law, Arthur (King Arthur reference?), a very skilled swordsman and exorcist decides to make it his life mission to end the daemonblight and save the world...but in the process of doing so, gravely wrongs Velvet. To avoid spoilers, I'm not going to get into details. I believe that the casual heathen will miss most of the theocratic references, for example, the word "malak" is derived from "malakhim" which means angel in hebrew, and in the game there are many characters of the malak type. So it does make the game a lot more fulfilling if you understand it in the biblical context. At some points the game may seem to be bashing God by portraying the church and its agents as evil, but in truth, it's really making an accurate statement about how the catholic church used to pervert scripture while using a facade of righteousness to exploit people for power and profit. Characters ---------------- Characters and Story are equally important to a good RPG, and I would hold Berseria above Xillia and nearly as good as Vespiria with regards to characters. The cast of characters in Berseria were well developed, and none of them were exceptionally boring or annoying. Even the secondary characters that you meet along the way were all made part of the story without feeling like time-wasting sidetracks. Personally, I really thought Magilou was going to be the grating cosplay reject who tags along for no reason other than to irritate everyone with dumb commentary, but she turned out to be quite tolerable though never quite likable. Her commentary, while long winded at times, was usually truthful critiques and observations. Minus the goofy outfit they put her in, Magilou has that sublime sexiness that is very difficult to capture in a fictional character. On that note, all of the characters were aesthetically pleasing, even the bros. As you play the game, you will care about each characters' plight and be amused with their interactions amongst each other. None of them felt out of place, or like afterthoughts, and they all have an actual role to play in the main story. Gameplay ---------------- If this is your first tales game, congratulations, this is the first tales game where combat isn't infuriating at lower levels. For all previous games, the "stagger" mechanic meant that being hit by an enemy would leave you stunned for several seconds and open to attack. It wasn't until 2/3 of the way thru that you'd gain some decent resistance to this annoying 'feature'. Berseria departs from this, and while staggering still exists, it's not nearly as prominent. You never feel "weak" in the game, especially if playing as Velvet, because when you use her demon claw you become immune to most of the annoyances in the game including death. It may sound like this would make the game too easy, but it doesn't. Combat always felt very balanced. While in demon form, your HP delpetes until it reaches 1 and you cannot be healed, so if you use it at the wrong time you will get killed. Berseria uses a points-based resource system called "souls". I believe you start with a maximum of 5 souls, but at the start of a battle, you will only have 3 out of 5. You gain souls by performing weakpoint strikes, stunning enemies, or dodging/parrying attacks at the last second with quickstep. While the overall combat flow is fine when you have a full stack of souls, there are some instaces where you will only have one or two. Velvet requires at least 3 to use demon form, and activating demon form consumes one soul. As the game progressed, I found it increasingly annoying that I'd have to fish for souls by playing defensively before attacking - especially with fast moving enemies or flying enemies that are more difficult to hit. In addition to souls, you get a "blast gauge" which is another resource tied to your special attack. All characters have a special attack. Velvet gets demon form, Rokurou gets a parry/counter/power boost, Magilou gets "spell absorber" (which is quite OP against enemy casters in my opinion, but awesome nonetheless), etc. To use these abilities you need at least one BG point. BG points are also used to activate mystic artes, aka the power attacks that you a little while into the game. Overall, I feel like the game was designed to be played as Velvet. If you play as any of the others and allowed the AI to control velvet, she'd never use her strongest attacks and you'd open yourself up to frustration. I tried playing with all of them, and they all felt clunky compared to Velvet. Playing as a caster is insanely annoying because the enemy AI keeps pecking at you to interrupt your spell casts...and your melee abilities as a caster are a joke. I you need frustration in your life, try playing the game as one of the caster characters. Unfortunately you don't get much of an "iron stance" while casting to prevent this, and it's sorely needed. Lastly, there's a swap-in system that costs 1 BG point, deducted from the character you want to swap out. I do not like this system. If you swap out the char you are playing, you go from one "feel" to another, and as I said before, Velvet is the most refined for the human player while the other ones have a very awkward feel. I never used this feature except in cases where one char died or was better for the fight. Usually I would swap an AI character and not the one I control. I played the entire game on moderate difficulty, with some "hard" thrown into the mix to get some items. My team was around level 72 at the final fight, and I logged over 100 hours of play time - because I did all of the side quests and was in no particular rush. Sound / Music ---------------- The game had a limited soundtrack, but it was good music. They did make new original music for the game and it fit well with the on-screen action. Sound effects were nothing special - not good not bad, but fine. I am pleased to say that "mutton chop" is outlawed at all of the towns. Voice acting deserves special mention as it is top-notch, and I commend bandai for not skimping on hiring talented English voice actors to bring these characters to life. Bravo. Tales Scale ---------------- With 1 being the best, I'd rank the games in the series like this: 1) Vespiria 2) Berseria 3) Xillia 4) Xillia 2 5) Graces F 6) Zestiria That said, the first 3 are all sort of up there in terms of being good, 4 is meh, but 5 & 6 are bleh and distant from 4. Cons ---------------- There was nothing outright broken in this game, but I do not like the gearing system nor did I care for the limited selection of costumes. I did unlock most of the in-game costumes that are not DLC, and I will not pay extra money for costumes. Extra content in the form of episodes? Maybe I'll buy that, but for costumes? No...and I think taht allowing players to get new costumes as they progress will only make the game more fun. As for the gear like armor and weapons - it's all the same with basic stat variations. There's no clear gear progression, it's basically just a matter of equipping whatever drops and leaving it on until you max out the "master" skill. I'd much rather prefer a traditional approach to gearing and leveling, where items are found along the way and some are items of "epic" signifigance, and have some correlation to each stage of the game. One other con is the game world - there is none. You get a map in which you "quick travel" to previously discovered points. Towns are connected by corridors, but there is no world-map per se. It makes the game feel small because it's mostly a series of instances. The towns are also fairly small; there is not much exploring to be done in this game, but the dungeons are decent. Final Thoughts ---------------- If you like any kind of JRPGs with a mature storyline that requires more than a room temperature IQ to appreciate, give this one a try. It's great. I bought Nier Automata along with this and have to say that Berseria is leaps and bounds better than NA in all ways that matter...or it could just be that NA is so incredibly bad. Like all Tales games, they include quite a bit of things you can do AFTER the game's main story is completed as well as a new game+. Personally, I don't really see the point of gearing characters or farming gear after the final battle because...what's the point? It's a story-driven game and the story ends...but it's there if you want it. NG+ is not bad though, let's you play through again while retaining the stuff you acquired through the first play thru.

outstanding jrpg wasnt expecting anything as i never played a tales game before but this seem a great entry point. at first when i saw teh sleepy village and peaceful setting i was like typical jrpg fair again i guess but then suddenly there were daemons werewolves bloodmoons and metal guitar riffs and i was hooked in! wonderful party members and great voice cast give it a look!

Berseria is basically a story about Velvet's (main character) revenge. Velvet's brother in law takes Velvet and her brother in when their older sister dies and they become family for years. All Velvet knows is one night the brother in law murders her brother and has no idea why. Her goal is to find her brother in law and kill him for her brother's murder. You might not notice it at first but Berseria takes place in the same world as Tales of Zestiria, just 1000 years before. Personally I hated Zestiria. The story was really poorly written with lots of plotholes and unresolved story but Berseria is definitely worth playing. The story in Berseria is more developed and has a darker theme to it. It was interesting to see that shepherds/abbey in Zestiria were treated like heros with Seraphim/malakim as companions but it looks like that wasn't the case 1000 years ago in Berseria. The Malakim/seraphim were basically enslaved by shepherds to do whatever work. It's interesting how they could forget this in just 1000 years. While I disliked Zestiria, I'm glad I played through it because I can see all the interesting connections it has with Berseria. Remember how Edna's (Zestiria) brother gave in to the malevolence and became a dragon? Well in Berseria, he's still a Malakim/Seraph and hasn't transformed yet. The gameplay itself between the two games are pretty much the same. It looks the first malakim that you have join your party temporairly before she dies even has the same moveset as Lailah from Zestiria. It is the same battle system so if you're familiar with Zestiria, you'll have no problem with Berseria. Item customization system is also very similar. Like with tales games, there are also plenty of side quests. This one includes collecting and freeing Katz to get to Katzworld. Unlocking them will also unlock costume items for character customization.

While faithful to the typical 'tales of' series, this one contains several welcome changes. Without giving too much away, the story line is also a little surprising, and steps outside the zone of previous renditions. Definitely worth picking up!

ボイスは日本語なので意味が通じます。その他字幕は英語ですが、英語学習をしている私（現在英検準1級）には生きた英語の学習になります。 weblioの単語帳にベルセリアの単語帳を、つくって英語の勉強しています。ストーリーも重厚でゲームとしてとても名作です。まだ途中ですが皆さんにおすすめします！

Neste jogo, além da excelente jogabilidade e enredo, a Bandai Namco acertou em cheio ao lançá-lo com legendas em português.