MILD SPOILERS

After rewatching the Venture Bros, I was in the mood for something with a different perspective, but also wanted to play a nice engrossing JRPG. So I searched for JRPGs where you play as the antagonist (relatively speaking) and I saw a LOT of recommendations for Tales of Berseria. This is basically my first ever Tales game, so everything I say is from the perspective of someone new to the franchise and who doesn’t play a lot of JRPGs generally.

First off, I was incredibly confused by the combat system for the first… 10-15 hours. It’s been a long while since I've felt this baffled by a combat system. I got the gist of it, but the tutorials weren’t great, and I just wasn’t sure if i was playing it well or not, beyond just using my “special” to burst enemies. It’s real time, fairly mashy and combo-based, where you can create combos by slotting in different moves you unlock as you progress. There’s a push and pull of trying to manage your “mana gauge” (not sure if that’s the actual name) which you use for special abilities and is tied to how long your combo can be, how susceptible you are to ailments and stuff like that. After reading a bit and watching a tutorial, I did sorta come to grips with it, but it’s really not my preferred style of combat. Having so much freedom to create combos from scratch without a lot of guidance is just more management than i’m used to, without a clear indication as to whether what i’m doing is working. So I spent most of the game playing as Velvet, the protagonist and just mashing my way through combat, doing the bare minimum while trying to check off all the sidequests and such.

Where Berseria does indeed shine is in it’s story and more-so in it’s characters. You play as Velvet, a nice girl from a small village who just wants to protect her younger brother. Shit happens, Velvet gets betrayed by her dead-sisters’ husband, he kills her brother, she becomes a d(a)emon, gets imprisoned and then becomes obsessed with revenge. Along the way she meets various morally dubious characters and they band together to take down the big bad (or the big good, since you’re the bad guys, technically speaking).

I was pleasantly surprised and impressed by how few punches they pulled in making your characters the villains and in general with the main cast. They go really dark in a few spots in order to justify your role as villains (or descent into villainy) and severity of some of the actions taken. I mean, poor Velvet sure gets put through the ringer and it’s hard not to side with her, in light of all of the awful shit that she’s suffered.

Now when making a game like this with a story like this, you can’t make your characters fully mustache-twirling villains, so of course your band of brothers and sisters aren’t actually evil, they’re just going against “the main authority”, which people see as good. You could very easily switch a few things and make the main authority evil (which, shockingly, they are, cause evil is a point of view yada yada) and have you go up against it. And it sorta does become that by the end, but i was ok with it since the journey was enjoyable most of the way through. There’s a lot of charm in the writing and acting, especially between the main cast and I liked all of them to some extent. Also helps that there is a LOOOOT of (mostly optional) interactions that flesh everyone out and they can get goofy. Despite being a fairly somber story, I’d characterize a lot of the atmosphere (up until a point) as quite cozy. And it’s refreshing to play a game like this (party of adventurers save the world) that avoids many of the tropes you’d see especially in JRPGs. The cast is not all about friendship and wanting to save the world, they’re in if for selfish reasons, they’re not that concerned with the fate of the world, and they don’t shy away from being “bad” when the situation calls for it (they also do a lot of “good”).

I will say that the actual ending wasn’t that great in my book. I get what they were going for, but it felt a bit hamfisted and predictable with a pinch of “deus ex machina” as well. Not to mention that i felt that the game had peaked emotionally at the previous “big turning point”.

So ultimately, Berseria doesn’t 100% deliver on the idea that you’re playing as the “villains”, more like some sort of vigilante (squad) that are going up against popular consensus, but for selfish reasons. The combat was something I… tolerated, and was at least engaged with it from a “what the fuck is going on” perspective, trying to figure it out. It was occasionally enjoyable, but never something I’d engage with if i didn’t have to. But I was very impressed with the characters, the voice acting (dub) and very much enjoyed my time in the presence of these very flawed but still very “human” characters. If you crave a game with a strong cast of engaging “villains”, Berseria is a pretty damn good time, despite a lot of flaws and rough edges (bland world design, slow traversal, somewhat bloated/unnecessary sub-systems). Spent around 49 hours with the game, doing most of the relevant side-stuff.

Okay okay okay I loved this game.

This is second 'Tales of' game I've played, my first being Arise. Honestly, it's just standard comfort jrpg through and through. But honestly that's my bread and butter and I eat that shit up. Group of misfits, killing God by the end.. I will never tire of it.

Tales of Beseria is pretty much 100% character driven. The plot outside of the characters is pretty straight forward. The dungeons are pretty much linear and quite bland. There's not really any sidequests. Combat is enjoyable and if you fight around half the enemies you see on the maps you will be pretty much evenly levelled with the bosses the whole way through.

It's a good thing all the characters, imo, were really well written and fleshed out. I felt every one of our main crew bought something and each of their individual storylines were enjoyable to see play out and watch to their conclusion.

The reason why I'm giving Beseria 4 stars whilst Arise got 4 and a 1/2 is that Beseria, didn't really get me feeling too super bothered by the stakes of the story until about 2 thirds in, whereas in Arise I was pretty much hooked from the start.

I would argue that this game is a must-play for anyone who enjoys the general jrpg tropes.

Prior to playing this I heard about how great character Velvet was, I was quite sceptical going in on if she was as great as everyone was making out, but by the last half of the game and certainly by the end I very much understand it.

"With an entrance like this, it's almost like we're--"
"A bunch of heroes!"

I tried Tales Of titles in the past, and unfortunately none of them really stuck with me, for different reasons.

Berseria is a massive exception. This title took me by surprise and turned into one of my favorite JRPGs.
It is able to present a story about revenge that does feels overdone, and full of emotions and depth, with a protagonist that makes for a great anti-hero without feeling like a complete edgelord like her design may make you think.

It has one of the best party members in any RPGs, with banters that alone are able to sell you on the title (Magilou, you absolute beast)

I feel the combat can become quickly repetitive, and the fact there is not a lot of options for fast travels makes for a kinda sluggish exploration. But the charm of the writing and the characters makes you go forward and makes you witness a fantastic adventure.

A big surprise for me. I highly recommend it!

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.

My thoughts on this game are very strange. Firstly, the protagonist is one of my favorites ever, but she's in a game that I think is otherwise mediocre to bad. A lot of things in the plot happen more because the script needs them to happen, as opposed to it making sense for these things to happen. The villains are lame and nonsensical. The theme feels ill-presented, and the combat is... Not exactly fun. It's not BAD, but it's an ocean wide and a puddle deep.

Honestly, our protagonist Velvet carries this game on her back like Atlas holding the world - though two members of the other 5 are also pretty good. The first 3 stars in my review are simply for Velvet Crowe. The other half star are those other characters. But this game is severely held back by its other elements.

Tales of Berseria, 70 hours played, although it's 90 hours on Steam due to occasional interruptions such as meetings and sometimes falling asleep when I planned to finish it over the weekend.

I distinctly remember playing Tales of Zestiria during my college days, and it's the only JRPG I intentionally dropped midway through. I despised the cast, the story, and its execution, finding it so cringe-worthy and boring that I often found myself banging my head on the table. However, a few months ago, I decided to purchase Berseria on a whim since it was on sale. To my surprise, I got hooked on the story immediately, playing for 20 hours straight without switching games, and I couldn't believe it was crafted by the same team and writer.

Tales of Berseria boasts a strong story and cast, possibly one of the best in the Tales series based on my experience. It's refreshing to play as a protagonist who isn't purely good from the start, with significant character development potential. The pacing and execution are spot-on, making it thoroughly enjoyable. The game is also incredibly emotional, taking us on a rollercoaster of emotions, from tearful moments to mind-bending twists and hilarious scenes, all perfectly balanced in tempo. Velvet's character is psychologically and morally complex, especially as her revenge motive is questioned, making her fascinating to play. Even the antagonists are portrayed sympathetically towards the end.

Unfortunately, the game's strengths lie primarily in its story and characters. The gameplay is decent, with AI that's an improvement over Zestiria but not particularly engaging to delve into further. Playing as Velvet on hard difficulty feels effortless, so there's little incentive to learn the intricacies of other characters' gameplay. Equipment management and modification are simpler than Zestiria but still cumbersome and tiring to deal with. The most disappointing aspect is the weak setting and environment. It's even worse than Zestiria; I didn't feel like the world of Berseria truly came alive, felt real, or was believable. The world-building is lacking, and the blandness of each dungeon, major city, etc., fails to evoke any sense of wonder. Despite the need for constant backtracking to familiar locations, there's no "wow" factor while playing. The music is also forgettable, a significant downside compared to Zestiria.

Overall, I'm more of a story-driven person who prefers reading visual novels for hours rather than playing games with minimal or poor storytelling. Berseria, however, satisfied me in terms of its narrative, although I must admit I wasn't too fond of the ending.

My score: 4/5.

P.S. Learn the Mystic Chain art (spam R2 and d-pad during Mystic Art) that the game never tells you about; it makes boss fights a breeze.