Yeah, I am not finishing this game before reviewing it... :/
And I've been playing for nearly 40 hours on Moderate, I don't know why it's taking so long...
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Tales of Berseria |OT| The Band of the Crowe
- Thread starter Cornbread78
- Start date
Yeah, I am not finishing this game before reviewing it... :/
And I've been playing for nearly 40 hours on Moderate, I don't know why it's taking so long...
I just got to the part where you
Will the game still open up more or is this about it? This is my first Tales game and I like the story but I'm kinda ehhh towards the combat and equipment system.
Some examples. I noticed you can master equipment skills. Does that mean these skills become permanent even if you don't wear said equipment part or if you sell it? I am asking since I had a skill mastered that gave me +30HP but if it's permanent why would it still be equipment bound when compared to other equipment? As in: I'd lose 30HP when wearing a different piece.
Regarding combat. I'm a bit confused about arts and the use of L2. I'm not sure how to tell what's a good arts setup. And why does only Velvet have a control option? Also, the ultimate move you activate with L2... does it have to be triggered in break mode? Some things are just a bit confusing and it makes the entire experience feel a bit buttonmashy to me.
I love the characters and story but equipment/combat feels a bit more janky to me.
open the sea gate and reach some sort of port town.
Will the game still open up more or is this about it? This is my first Tales game and I like the story but I'm kinda ehhh towards the combat and equipment system.
Some examples. I noticed you can master equipment skills. Does that mean these skills become permanent even if you don't wear said equipment part or if you sell it? I am asking since I had a skill mastered that gave me +30HP but if it's permanent why would it still be equipment bound when compared to other equipment? As in: I'd lose 30HP when wearing a different piece.
Regarding combat. I'm a bit confused about arts and the use of L2. I'm not sure how to tell what's a good arts setup. And why does only Velvet have a control option? Also, the ultimate move you activate with L2... does it have to be triggered in break mode? Some things are just a bit confusing and it makes the entire experience feel a bit buttonmashy to me.
I love the characters and story but equipment/combat feels a bit more janky to me.
VanillaCakeIsBurning
Member
I like how long it's taking to beat this.
I don't really want it to end yet.
I don't really want it to end yet.
I'm at the same spot as you and if it's like other Tales it'll open up more but they always start off pretty guided. Mastery stuff is permanent, though the additional skills equipment have are different.
Artes are basically very varying in power based off what you're fighting. Exploiting weaknesses you find out via targeting mainly, though you can generally just use whatever unless you're on a super hard difficulty. Mystic Artes don't need to be in break mode, just within a combo (so you can do one hit and then L2, you just can't initiate with it).
It only shows a control option for the character you're actively using. She defaults to semi-auto, you can make her manual which means she won't auto-move into position to attack. But you can change control and pick anyone in the group if you want.
NoctisCaelum
Member
Getting this game later. It was a tough choice between this and Yakuza for me. Ended up getting this one since I loved Vesperia and a lot of people saying that this might be better is exciting for me.
Copper
Member
For me I think it's the most I've enjoyed a Tales game since Vesperia.
SolVanderlyn
Thanos acquires the fully powered Infinity Gauntlet in The Avengers: Infinity War, but loses when all the superheroes team up together to stop him.
This game has an old school Tales feel to it. Reminds me more of Phantasia or Destiny than anything else.
To be completely honest, the game uses auto combo and you can just program each character to have the optimal combo macroed to X. A lot of the execution comes from meter management, which isn't hard since the game makes a ping sound every time you get another diamond that allows you to continue R2 spam with your character of choice.
But I wouldn't call the actual combat janky because, unlike FF XV or whatever, you actually are in control of what you're doing at all times (for the most part... it's possible that inputs get dropped here and there because of the amount of stuff going on, but it's a rare occasion). Sure, I wish that dashing from block was based on the direction I pushed, but I could stop being lazy and use the double tap to dash in the direction of my choice.
I've been playing on Intense difficulty and the encounters are so autopilot (like, my average grade in a regular encounter is 3-5... it seems like the strongest grade modifier comes from Mystic Arts, which can you spam like 2-3 times in an encounter) that I now have to lure two enemies into an encounter to make things vaguely more difficult.
Yeah, you can get by with just spamming Velvet's R2, but the question then become how hard you can bully various encounters.
I did a boss fight solo with Magilou by just using the meteor drop, magic counter and mystic arts. It was pretty amazing.
The game is a lot of fun and, while not as mechanically dense as Graces (at least from what I remember about Graces, which is the only other Tales I enjoyed playing from a gameplay perspective), there is still stuff to learn that's interesting to do.
As for equipment, all I do is equip stuff that hasn't been mastered yet. Even though I get sub optimal characters, it doesn't seem to really matter because the only actual interesting thing I've gotten from equipment is the enhancement concerning the increase in BG (which went up to seven and was awesome). I tried messing around with the equipment once to get the best skills and whatever, but it was kinda lame and I just wanted to go back to fighting things.
You need to use grade to carry over various stuff.
oh i know, i got all the items in the grade shop. i just didn't see one that carries over equipment but on ng+ it started me with some high end gear for some reason. they're not the same ones i had before ng+ either
OniBarubary
Banned
So...healing artes are kinda useless? Healing Circle healed my dudes for like...50 life total
There are better artes but yeah they feel nerfed.
Brawly Likes to Brawl
Member
Healing efficacy gets reduced on higher difficulty levels. The game wants you to use passive effects as your main method of recovery. It kind of reminds me of Rebirth in that regard.
It took a while to realize this, but healing also seems to scale based on the difficulty of the encounter. Me and my friends were playing multiplayer and we decided to only do dangerous encounters, but we realized that healing artes were made pretty useless during these specific encounters.
It seems like the game is structured in a way where it's really on the player to get life back, which you can do by pushing R2, as opposed to relying on the AI to heal you... which I do like since it means I have to be more active in my play by getting those diamonds back whenever I go below 3.
But yeah, healing is pretty useless in this game and you might as well use a gel instead of relying on a character to heal you.
Aaronrules380
Member
That's why you need to get out of that mode as quickly as possible by finishing the combo immediately or pushing R2 again. You actually get back more health than what you lose.
I just checked and yeah you can't carry over equipment, just equipment skills.
Aaronrules380
Member
It's really dumb tbh given how much effort it takes to upgrade equipment. Good luck ever actually being able to use the best armory acetate ability which requires an average of +9 on all 5 pieces of equipment on a single character
Regarding the battle system, I got to a point where either I am overrun with enemies or I abuse Velvet R2 to create infinite combos. It's somewhat fun in the sense that the battle system feels open, but this strategy also gets too efficient and repetitive.
I haven't played or abused that much with the other characters.
I haven't played or abused that much with the other characters.
Never beat it.
Probably because your Break Souls tend to heal for a lot, and they're super spammable.
Aaronrules380
Member
I mean, that plotline was first introduced in Zesteria pretty early on when Edna first joins the party
This is actually the reason why I believe the difficulty is so toned down. Healing artes aren't very good and are pretty useless on harder modes.
Yeah, they copied half of Vesperia, but not the part where skills were cool and something to look forward to.
TheSuperSakura
Member
I've read people comparing her to Lightning from FF13. Is she more on the lines of that edgy, or something different?
GoldenDarkness
Banned
R2 gives her a healing burst when used, it only drains more than it heals if you fail and stay in the mode too long. Its a good way to heal her actually.
True but having not played the game in over a year that's a detail I forgot.
Velvet actually has more reasons to be the way she is for most of the part and later on the game she shows some progression unlike Lighting
Different.
Lighting had less personality than a door. Velvet is focused on her revenge so she tends to act in any way that will benefit her, consequences be damned. It helps that they build up her reasons quite well.
I am not that far into the story either, I think.
SolVanderlyn
Thanos acquires the fully powered Infinity Gauntlet in The Avengers: Infinity War, but loses when all the superheroes team up together to stop him.
Oscar and Teresa remind me of Cless and Mint. I wonder if that's intentional.
Oscar definitely has the stereotypical Tales hero thing going on, right down to his moveset.
Oscar definitely has the stereotypical Tales hero thing going on, right down to his moveset.
texhnolyze
Banned
I've just realized it after playing for around 20 hours.. there's no side quest in sight, which is actually a good thing. Well, yes there are 'hunts', but I don't have to take it first then report it after I'm done with it. Everything is streamlined with the main story as the focus. It's been all about story, story, and story thus far, and that's what make it a fantastic game.
TharpDaddy
Member
Well that's some bad luck. Finally buy the game, sit down to play it after getting out of classes early and it seems a patch went out on PC which completely broke the audio for me. Certain attacks and effects cause an incredibly loud audio loop to occur, had to pull my headphones off the first time it happened. Guess I need to wait for a fix before I dig in.
OniBarubary
Banned
Yeah, thanks guys, I figured they wanted people to focus on faster paced combat and use the breaks to heal. Seems odd to still have the healing tho. May as well turn them off.
"Physically Escalating With Cuties" fucking lol
"Physically Escalating With Cuties" fucking lol
redfox088
Banned
Best plot and party since Vesperia
texhnolyze
Banned
My favorite book is "Hands Speak Louder than Words".
I think I was around 65-70, my first run of the import was about 90 hours but at least 20 of that was messing around with minigames. I also don't usually fight everything in my path, just whatever groups of enemies I could get for dangerous encounters, and played on whatever the highest difficulty was available to me at the time, so less base exp than playing on normal/moderate/etc
TheSuperSakura
Member
Gotcha, thanks to both of you! I didn't mind Lightning all that much (just felt she was a little bland), but it sounds like I'll enjoy Velvet.
Giolon
Member
Velvet's definitely not bland. She's just burning with rage (justifiably) to a degree that's like "yo, could you lighten up for like 2 minutes?"
She would probably say
she lightened up when Artorius was burning her legs and arms while he sacrificed her brother
OniBarubary
Banned
I dunno, it's pretty refreshing to have an MC who when you encounter some like, person from another party member's past or a monster they want to fight is all "I don't care"
BakedTanooki
Member
I really love the game, but what's going on with the loot (Weapons, Armor)?
20 hours in, and it still looks like 99% of the new stuff is the same or even worse than my current equipment. Very unsatisfying.
And how can i upgrade my weapons and armor further than level 3?
20 hours in, and it still looks like 99% of the new stuff is the same or even worse than my current equipment. Very unsatisfying.
And how can i upgrade my weapons and armor further than level 3?
Alright I gotta talk about some shit about the localization job. I've been doing sidequests before the final dungeon and have noticed more and more mistakes in the writing not matching what's being sad. I'm doing Eleanor's sidequest and during a skit I just saw, literally every line was botched beyond belief and completely wrong from what the characters were actually saying. This is the worst I've seen but it's not an isolated incident. That combined with some inconsistencies like Magilou having a weapon named Lulu Doll that looks like Rollo. Lulu is his JP name, but in another shoutout they actually called him Rollo.
It's sad that this seems to be the worst translation/localization/whatever in forever when it's the strongest title in a while. Don't know if they ran out of time or stopped giving a fuck, but it's sad to see.
On a positive note, I got Magilou's recolor and it's amazing because it makes her look like Harley Quinn.
It's sad that this seems to be the worst translation/localization/whatever in forever when it's the strongest title in a while. Don't know if they ran out of time or stopped giving a fuck, but it's sad to see.
On a positive note, I got Magilou's recolor and it's amazing because it makes her look like Harley Quinn.
Bummer, I have definitely noticed some inconsistencies myself in the 10 hour range(mostly tooltip related), but hoped it was just a fluke.