Tales of Berseria Review and Gameplay

Tales of Berseria is another in a long line of Tales Of games from Bandai Namco.  Tales of Berseria continues the Tales series focused on Action-oriented combat, character interaction and development, RPG advancement, cooking, and collections.  In the game, you play as Velvet, a daemon bent on revenge.  As with any Tales game, you pick up unlikely allies in your quest to take down the establishment – The Abbey.

Where Tales of Berseria really shines is in the combat.  This feels like some of the most in-depth combat to date.  In previous games, you’d be able to combo as much as you want, but in Tales of Berseria, you are limited by the number of stars you have that limit the number of combo hits you may deliver.  You can increase the number of stars you have by defeating enemies or causing status effects upon them.  As Velvet, this becomes more important as you have a special move to theronize the creature by using your arm.  This may cause you to give one of your stars to your enemy, but the trade-off is more power.  With most Tales games, you are limited to martial arts or magic arts, with the occasional mystic art – a very powerful attack.  In Tales of Berseria, Bandai Namco aimed for more control with the introduction of these combo limits and the addition of hidden arts.  This variety gives the player more control and thus, more enjoyment out of the combat – a situation that occurs quite often in the game.

Tales of Berseria takes its lumps in the presentation department.  Tales of Berseria may be the prettiest non-remastered PlayStation 3 game I’ve ever played.  That is not to say the game is ugly, but it is clear that this engine is not pushing the envelope on rendering or graphics.  This is understandable as the game was also released on PS3 in Japan.  Unfortunately, this demonstrates the engine’s age.  The hope for Tales Of games in 2018 and beyond is the development of a brand-new engine that can utilize the powers of current-gen hardware while also providing an outlet for those looking to leverage HDR or 4K.

Final thoughts on Tales of Berseria:

Overall, Tales of Berseria is an excellent addition to the Tales franchise.  Those players that love Japanese Role Playing Games or this series would be well-served to pick this up.  Even those who have never ventured into the realm of Tales RPGs could easily pick this up and play.  You don’t need to know the history or the games themselves, you only need a desire to put together a rag-tag bunch of misfits to take down the establishment and get your revenge.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5T42od1hms