having played only symphonia and vesperia beforehand, the combat is a HUGE step down imo, and a really unfortunate and unavoidable downside to the game that instantly weighed it down from the start of it. the story isn't anything spectacular for like, the first whole half of the game, but during the second half and most specifically the last few hours of the game, the story gets GREAT and even my least favorite characters of the party had good moments. for the first half especially, the party is a weaker point as well but not nearly the downside the combat is as there are still some great characters. if velvet was more interesting as a character (she's amazing story-wise but pretty boring for a main character) and we had more traditional tales gameplay, i'd have easily rated it higher.

Velvet's character arc and internal struggle is among one of the best things about this game. A lot of the characters are simply far too lovable, and the world building and setting were really intriguing, with the twist of the Therions and how they worked being an especially poignant twist that drew me in as I played the game more.

The combat is clunky. There isn't any denying that. Having to manually test out and switch attacks isn't ideal, and and some enemies did feel a little tanky towards the end, but it wasn't anything too disastrous. I hear a LOT of complaints on this game regarding the map size and walking speed. I'm in the minority for this, but it wasn't honestly a bit deal. I enjoyed it for what it was. Heck, I've played slower games.

This was honestly my first Tales of entry that I properly finished. I'm very intrigued to see the others now, but I'm glad I started with this one. It was a great game through-and-through, and I definitely regard it as a JRPG Enthusiast's Must-Play!

Berseria foi meu terceiro jogo da serie Tales, e cara que jogo sensacional desde seu gameplay, historia, personagem e ost são maravilhosos.

A interação dos personagem no decorrer da historia são muito boas, gostei muito da Magilou e Laphicet são sem duvidas meus personagem favoritos desse grupo, tirando a parte Velvet como uma personagem boa eu já não acho muito, eu ate a entendo mas tem umas fala que ela chega a ser insuportável. Esse elenco de personagem é fácil meu grupo favorito da serie Tales.

E que final meus amigos...

This game excels in many areas. I'm a big fan of the cast (we don't deserve Magilou) and their chemistry with one another, the game's overarching theme of emotion vs. reason, and the skits are up there with the best the series has to offer (even if they're a bit longer than usual). All of the aforementioned good elements work really well together and make the narrative and dialogue side of the adventure an absolute treat, which makes it all the more frustrating that I can't say the same about the gameplay side. I hesitate to say that it's "bad" but every single battle in the game consists of me pressing random buttons in succession and winning, I don't really care enough to engage with the game's systems on a deeper level because a lot of it feels poorly explained.

It’s really about time I threw in the towel on this game. I’ve been playing this title on and off for a little under a year now, and I’d always go long stretches of time just forgetting about this game then being reminded of it’s existence by seeing it on my “playing” tab.

The thing about this game is that it really doesn’t have anything to engage me. There are a variety of things a game can engage me through and this game really has none of them. The cast is fine, none of the characters stood out to me in any way and I really didn’t enjoy them besides a select few story interactions and those skit segments. The villains are incredibly bland and merely serve as motivations for the protagonists rather than as fleshed out individual characters. The art direction is incredibly generic, the locations and world are incredibly standard for JRPGs, the dungeon puzzles are an insult to the word puzzle, I could really go on and on and on with each and every thing in this game.

It sucks too since I know someone who really seems to enjoy this game, but I just can’t get into it in the 20 hours I’ve given it.

One of my top 5 favorite games ever.

Velvet is an absolutely incredible protagonist, one of the best ever as far as I am concerned and an amazing embodiment of human emotion with so much depth and development.

The story is dark, emotional, tragic and has many unpredictable plot-twists, I can count the amount of video game stories that left as big an impact on me as this one.

I love almost every single main character, they have so much compelling depth, backstory and development. The game also has one of the best written and relatable antagonists ever.

All the side quests are great and add to character's stories or build the world. The OST by Motoi Sakuraba is breathtaking and the combat system is fun, fast and fluid.

I can't say much bad about this game at all and few J-RPGs will be in the same league as it.

At the end of my playthrough, I had a deep sense of melancholy. Not just due to the admittedly wonderfully-executed story and the fact there was no more content for these goofballs, but because of the game itself.

The Tales series has always excelled at "the whole package". If you asked me one single thing any of the good Tales games excelled at, I'd probably come up short--but, these games are significantly greater than the sum of their parts. This is not one of those cases. Tales combat has always been pretty bad, but this is definitely the worst version of the games I've played(I ain't touching Zestiria sorry), and combined with the most asinine useless gear system it makes actually playing the game kind of miserable. You walk around the huge empty maps skipping every enemy encounter because they don't give you anything useful and aren't fun to play. Its the definition of unexciting.

But, you play anyways because Magilou opens her mouth with another stupid but wonderful joke, or Velvet and Eleanor doting over Laphicet, or a "dudes rock" moment with Rokurou and Eizen and its just impossible not to love them and keep playing to spend more time with them. The plot itself also manages to perhaps not defy expectations, but it knows what its doing and knows how to treat these characters with the perfect amount of respect and sensitivity that elevates the material. It sticks with you.

The melancholy of actually playing it helps in a strange way for me, because there is a relief its over, but fulfillment I saw Velvet to the end in spite of it all. Its far from sad though, just...what am I gonna do now?

This is meandering, but Berseria really is something special and quite frankly not something I expected from late-stage Tales, which has mostly spun its wheels and rested on its laurels. Here's hope whatever comes next can capture some of this energy once again.

"Tell me. Why is it that birds fly?"

Tales games have always been treated as RPG comfort food. That isn't necessarily an incorrect way to describe them. A fun, deep combat system, wonderful characters and rich settings have made Tales games so popular. Berseria is no different, yet, it offers characters who are morally ambiguous, but you can't help but love, a story of revenge and trauma that you have to keep going through. And once it was all done for me, I had to let out a breath of relief and resignation. For so long these characters were in my head, and now their story is over, and what a story it was. Play this one. It's fantastic.

Note: Despite being the inferior game, Tales of Zestiria is connected to Berseria, both take place in the same world 1000 years apart. I recommend playing Zestiria first, it's not the greatest, but still pretty good, and then play Berseria. You get to see so many cool implications and connections between the two by playing them in this order. I recommend doing so.

Look, I love this series like crazy, so it’s hard for these games to disappoint, but even I know this whole series is just loaded with exposition. The world-building is arguably, uh, terrible because it is purposefully made so convoluted as most of the mystery and drama of most of these games’ story scenarios comes from characters unfolding and connecting passages from their respective world’s Book of Genesis, until the cast of characters find themselves twisted into their world’s Book of Revelations. Tales of Berseria’s scenario does well, though, in pacing out their discoveries and exposition so it never feels like you’re being given important information so late into the game. There are plenty of moments of characters going “Ah yes, of course, it’s just like the earth synergy.” “Earth synergy? What’s that?” but it’s never to a point where it feels like it’s too overbearing, or lazy, or goofy. I played a lot of this game spaced out over the last seven months and never forgot the important details of how this world works, as it was given to me, and I think that’s a pretty good testament to how this game doesn’t overload you. Even in the last section, where other ‘Tales’ games might dump a lot of last minute stuff on you, this one feels like it’s trying to stay linear.

I also think expositional dialog works here because each of the main cast are of different backgrounds. Demons, priests, witches, pirates! Everyone has lived a different life and, thus, can bring different knowledge to a discussion about the world! This makes what could be heavy-handed expository dialog a little lighter as the cast converses like a bunch of strangers of different strokes coming together to play ancient history detective. Then, of course, we learn more about these characters that we like as we learn about the world and its mystery.

The characters are all great. The party of six are each hits, all of them just endeared themselves to me so fast and easy, and the perfectly consistent writing of their personalities and how they clash and interact just had me giddy during some scenes. Sometimes a family isn’t a nuclear family of parent and children, sometimes it’s a gay samurai and a gay pirate and a mean lesbian and a closeted youth group lesbian and a quirky trans girl and the cute little kid they all see as a little brother! And the mean lesbian herself, Velvet freakin’ Crowe, is such a great, great protagonist. She and this game’s villain are perfect opposite extremes of what this whole game is about: what is the point of hurting?

This isn’t the first text to tackle this subject matter, of course, we all know what the point of hurting is! It means we’re human! It means we’re alive! It is a quintessential part of the human experience to be met with pain, the hard part is processing it. The antagonist of this game (light spoilers) wants to rid the world of pain; it should be something that no one should experience, as it is only borne from faults that mankind are saddled with. Velvet wants revenge for her pain, it drives an all-consuming (pun intended, as the connection is made obvious in subtext) rage that she plans to use to remove anything in her path. Velvet’s costume, at first glance, seems a bit much; a very revealing mess of tattered clothing that someone might wear to a nightclub’s goth-themed event. Though, I think it serves a purpose. Velvet is also a daemon (sic), a blight on the world, seen as ugly and broken by the church that runs the entire world. Her outfit is just a reflection of how the enemy sees her, and any objectification made towards her revealing outfit just helps the metaphor that not only is the church disgusted by her, but they also see her as a tool.

Her arc is spectacular, and, like most JRPGs, the solution is friends. As a writer, though, I’ve grown less sensitive to the same kinda of stories, especially in games, and to me, what’s important is not whether your message is new, or even if the story beats aren’t familiar, it’s how you write characters and how you take them to where they need to be taken to. The path that Velvet goes on to see her friends clearly as they are is so great and so fulfilling, and so clear and beautiful, and in tandem, Laphicet’s arc and growth is so good. Ugh! I cried folks, I really did. This entire story had me in chains the whole time, and the ending was truly something else, and still has me thinking about it with a massive amount of emotion. I don’t think I’ll ever forget about Velvet Crowe. She’s up there with Guts and Maka Albarn as characters I will cherish forever.

“Your despair… how is it gone?”

Now, the video game part of this game was, well, less spectacular than the story, relatively. The combat in this game is maybe my favorite of the ‘Tales’ games I’ve played. It replaces mana points with a stamina meter made up of five points that get spent during your moves. It, for me, led to a much fluid style of play. High-hit combos are pretty easy, but still fun to land, the system was never too convoluted to the point where I found myself struggling to execute something, or was ignoring entire mechanics because I felt there was no need. The thing was, there were moments where I felt like I could just kind of brute-force a lot of situations. While I think this could be chalked up to the game being well-balanced to the point where, without me ever needing to grind, and I was the level I should’ve been throughout the entire game, I did feel like there wasn’t a whole lot of struggle, or strategizing. I just mapped artes to my buttons well, used the mystic artes when I could, and made it through pretty unscathed.

The struggle in this game, really, is dungeon design. When it’s not boring, it’s annoying, and the fucking two-hour-long final dungeon was plenty more enough for me! The dungeon “puzzles” basically come down to you walking from end-to-end hitting the right switches. I feel like, at least in exploration-rewarding JRPGs with encounters like this, the fun of dungeons can just be figuring out where to go. The final dungeon being this big fucking thing that was so annoying to navigate because of how the in-game map presents itself just drove me crazy, I cannot stress this enough. I detest the idea that the final boss needs this kind of carpet laid out for them, that you need to go through one final challenge leading up to the final battle. Buddy, the entire game was the lead up! Having already stayed up a couple of hours extra to finish the job, only to go to the location where I expected to fight the final boss and see a teleporter that took me to this huge complex with orbs and switches and bridges and doors and switches and warps and the most annoying monsters ever!!! It was a long night.

Though, the dungeons were my only gripe, and the very last one was the only one that was long enough to be a drag, to be fair. This is definitely my favorite tale that the ‘Tales’ series has ever told, though the video game itself didn’t exactly stand out next to other installments that I’ve completed.

I really appreciate that Velvet isn't your average naive flower or genki girl who falls in love with the next best male character. The other party members are alright too. The combat is nothing special but not too bad either.

So it's a shame that I really didn't like Velvet's little brother and the fact that he was crucial to the plot and her character arc. Like, I know he is supposed to be cute or something like that, but his character simply didn't click with me. The fact that also some usual "siscon" anime tropes were lightly used was annoying. Which is a shame, because if Velvet weren't so focused on her brother, then she'd probably be one of my favorite characters.

Ending SPOILER:
I just hate endings like Berseria where characters sacrifice themself. You can call me simpleton... but happily ever after leaves me more satisfied.

I’m a big fan of how Tales of Berseria’s story played out. This game’s world building is incredibly deep and convincingly authentic and the main and side characters are colorful and beautifully written. Velvet Crowe became one of my favorite video game protagonists, because of one of her decisions! The villains and their motives are wonderfully portrayed and I really felt a lot of empathy for them. This game’s dark tone was rather refreshing, I loved it.

Unfortunately, the combat system is a no brainer and very tedious, but it has some fun mechanics, nonetheless.

Tales of Berseria is finally, finally, the first Tales game i could properly enjoy. I had played a bit of Tales of Zestiria and liked it but it was too little for me to make a proper call on it (since i only played it at a friend's house). Tales of Phantasia just didn't age well and i don't think i would've liked the PS1 release even if i was around when i played it. Tales of the Abyss is regarded as one of the best in the series but despite liking the anime adaptation, i couldn't really get into the game itself because of LMBS and learning that LMBS is a thing in nearly all the games in the series turned me off from this franchise. So Berseria, on account of not having LMBS, was way more enjoyable to me and as such, was the first Tales game i actually completed.

Easily the best part about the game is the party members. A rag-tag group of misfits with likable personalities with good character interactions (except Bienfu, he sucks). Velvet is one of the better solo female video game protagonists i have seen. She's edgy but in a way that actually works and her development over the course of the story was pretty good. Eizen a.k.a Not Dimitri actually gave me some Zeke Xenoblade vibes. While nowhere near as chuuni, he had plenty of humorus moments while also being a source of mentorship for the younger members of the crew (mainly Laphicet here). Also both have horrible luck. Laphicet got a suprisiging amount of development and who he is at the start and who he is at the end are like night and day. Eleanor had a good role as the straight man of the group, which made for a lot of decent jokes. As for Rokurou and Magilou, i don't have a whole lot to say about them but they were good.

The combat itself was overall good. Being able to move in three-dimensional space without feeling akward was something the series should've done long ago. I know a lot of people disagree with me when it comes to LMBS and Free Run but i just can't help it. Those games feel akward to me, Berseria doesn't. Though i will say that even though i did like the combat here it did feel like a chore at times and i would just set the difficulty to simple whenever that happened. Also i was kinda overwhelmed by how many combo options you have. Being able to set presets would've gone a long way, especially when exploiting weaknesses.

The music is...........honestly, this is the first JRPG i've played in a long while where i found most of the songs to be unmemorable. Magilou's theme is fine, Beat of Rangetsu is a good boss theme, the OP is good, the final dungeon theme is decent and gave me some light Falcom vibes and that's......really it. I was almost tempted to just mod in songs from other games but i ultimaly decided against it since i wanted to be fair for my first playthrough. But i probably will mod for any subsequent playthroughs.

I think the worst part of the game though is the villains. The party members were so good but the villains were so lacking in comparison and it likely has to do with the game being very tell, not show, about the villains. None of the villains were neither compelling or entertaining and it made the personal conflicts between them and the party members fall flat. Even Velvet's final confrontation with Artorius didn't have the impact i thought it should. It may also have to do with the fact that the villains barely appear in the plot though it's not neccisarily the cause.

Overall, i think Tales of Berseria is a good ARPG. It has it's flaws and i do feel like i've played better ARPGs/action games when it comes to the gameplay but it's good enough, with the highlight definitly being the cast of characters.

Tales of Berseria is a JRPG that has the conflict between emotion and reason as its central theme, with the main protagonist, Velvet Crowe, being the human embodiment of emotion for large chunks of the story.

This brave choice allowed Bandai Namco to portray Velvet as one of the most mesmerizing central characters from any piece of media and create some of the most heartwrenching. most cathartic. most enthralling story moments I ever had the pleasure of experiencing.

Arguably the very best game in the series and one of the better RPGs overall to come out after the turn of the millennia.

Man where do i even start

An incredibly riveting tale of revenge, an elaborated interplay of "Do the means justify the ends" and vice versa, what does it truly mean to be alive/living and steering our lives in our own way through our own wills that ultimately decide our fates. All ideas explored and fleshed out extremely well.

Man Tales of berseria has one of my favourite casts in gaming, each character within the group is extremely likeable and interesting to see on screen interacting with others. And their own individual side quests strengthened the bond you as a player share with them, i love them so much. Each living by their own creeds/set of codes that mean so much to them. I had so much fun with them throughout my time with the game.

The gameplay is pretty damn fun and innovative if you know what you're doing for the most part. Had stretches where i would fight hoards and hoards of enemies cause the battle system was that damn fun to me.

Not to mention the ost is immaculate, True will one of the goat Osts in gaming for me ngl.

The game does have some small grievances for me but they are negligible in the grand scheme of things and were not enough to impede my enjoyment of the game.

Not to ramble anymore but yea i love this game with all my soul, certainly worth the time i put into it.

A solid JRPG. I took a huge break to finish this one, as during the first half of the playthrough I was honestly disappointed by the experience. I was led to believe this game was the darkest Tales game, and that it was different from the rest, but that is a straight up lie. This is as basic Tales as you can get, just with an edgelord protag that is more cringe than cool. Of course, by the end, I found Velvet to be a good character, but the journey was rough. Overall, the whole cast took a while to sell me on them. Eleanor and Magilou were great from the get go, but Rokurou, Eizen, and (name is a spoiler) were pretty generic, though still likable.

Fortunately, when I returned to the game after a year-long hiatus, and took it for what it is, another solid Tales game, I liked the game a whole lot more. The combat felt fresh, I didn't mind the structure anymore, and the story was picking up. Berseria is another great Tales game, and while it might go on a little too long, it was still an enjoyable experience that I don't regret spending 60hrs on.

Docked half-a-star for Bienfu, naturally.