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Tales of Berseria |OT| The Band of the Crowe
- Thread starter Cornbread78
- Start date
Dandy Crocodile
Member
Not split screen but yes. One person controls the story and roaming and everybody then fights in each battle.
Sooooo, I can couch co-op with this?
Dandy Crocodile
Member
Yep!
Xillia does manage to have one of my favorite battle themes, but I think Xillia's music is generally speaking, still more memorable than Berseria's. Especially with towns/dungeons.
Berseria has character themes and a couple of standout tracks, but the only reason I remember most of it is just from the amount of time I've played the game. I missed Sakuraba's older stuff, that faster, 90s/early 00s synth sound was a lot of fun and provided me with some of my favorite game OST stuff despite its simplicity.
It's alright but it doesnt do anything against the best song in a battle.
I actually love Xillia battle themes. There are tracks that are on par with Baten Kaitos and other non Tales of Games there than the other games he has done in the series. Kinda wish the team would let him try something else with the OST cause he sounds uninspired tbh.
Paltheos
Member
Don't sell the man, short. Sakuraba's Zestiria output is well above his average, enough so that some of my favorite tracks from that game aren't just Go Shiina's. I like most of the field tunes and the 1st battle theme but if I had to pick one favorite of his... it might be the set of music related to Pendrago - The rainy city, the cathedral, and the city again once the curse is lifted.
My favorite moment in the entire game might be right after exiting the cathedral
after killing the bishop
Yeah I liked Milla's battle tracks in Xillia. I don't remember caring much for Judes, which is a shame since my Jude playthrough was significantly longer (as it was my first playthrough).
I dunno, there is always some decent tracks dotted here and there, but overall they just don't seem as memorable.
Mind you even when I think back to Vesperia, Symphonia and Abyss, I'm pretty sure Sakuraba didn't work on most of the songs I liked from those three soundtracks.
It's just a shame, he clearly does have talent, but can't really put it to use with Tales of.
I dunno, there is always some decent tracks dotted here and there, but overall they just don't seem as memorable.
Mind you even when I think back to Vesperia, Symphonia and Abyss, I'm pretty sure Sakuraba didn't work on most of the songs I liked from those three soundtracks.
It's just a shame, he clearly does have talent, but can't really put it to use with Tales of.
MasterMenace
Member
I spend a lot of time tinkering with my arte trees for every new area with monsters. I configure every party member's arte trees that can take advantage of all of a monsters' weaknesses' so I can do weak-chain combos with them. I'm guessing that has added quite a bit to my playtime. Just trying to get really good with the combat system and utilizing every character. I don't like playing through games w/o somewhat mastering the systems in place. There is quite a lot that goes into the mechanics and systems in ToB. Trying to get good with switch blasts, etc. Eizen is very a good reserve character to switch blast into when you stun people. You can go to town on enemies with his soul break and chain it into his second sould break.
I also spend a lot of time with enhancing/dismantling aspect in the shop. (My shop rank is 9 already!). Constantly switching out mastered equipment with unused.
I also do all the code red deamon fights. I also just unlocked a potentite that increases grade bonus after consectutive battles which gives me evne more incentive to fight every enemy in an area so I can stack grade bonuses. This in turn makes me level up my equipment faster. (I once got 80 grade in a fight vs a dire foe enemy with 2.0x grade bonus lol)
The gameplay loop is so addictive. I also watch every skit (but I read fast,so I'm skipping through most of the skit so I'm reading faster than they talk). I also engage with every green bubble on the map to talk with NPCs.
A lot of people don't play like me in this game it seems. I'm not just playing Velvet and button mashing. I'm actively trying to understand every character's strength and weakness. There is so much depth to this game that's it's a shame when I read when people are saying "Velvet is so OP, just mash buttons,"...
Every character is unique.
Magilou destroys in heavy caster encounters.
Eizen is a beast when he gets his second soul break that allows him to continue combo'ing after his first.
Roko is a 1v1 beast.
Velvet, although she is OP, has a lot of nuanace with her soul breaks and ability to abuse most weaknesses.
Still messing with Laphi, tho truly don't get him yet.
Eleanor is quite hard to understand, haven't played much of her yet.
I do pretty much all this too, except configuring artes on allies. They don't have nearly as many weaknesses to hit in one combo.
That's more of a failure on the developers than the player. They decided it was okay to mash buttons in any combinations with whatever artes you choose. If they think that's okay, then why should the player care for that depth? They're treating players like their inept.
Nah. I specifically namedropped Sakuraba for that reason.
Uh well duh, nothing compares to Fatalize aka best battle track ever.
As for Xillia, the actual best battle theme was sadly relegated to DLC
There's no depth. You can have one button for every single enemy type in an area. Most of the time you're fine with one or two plus an extra if you run into a Dire foe. Plenty of artes inflict stun too, so it's not like you're limited in SG ever.
You can't even die while therionized, because Velvet vill always finish with a Break arte at 1 hp, which can be followed up by another Break soul almost infinitely if you're lucky with stuns.
This battle system is a pretty big step down from what the managed with Xillia 2's weapon switching and Graces/Zestiria's fixed martial artes tree + bindable artes.
I've yet to die on a boss fight on Intense. In Graces/Xillia/Zestiria I died for hours on certain bosses.
You're correct even if I admittedly always use either Milla's Stahn costume or Jude's Leon costume for the Destiny battle themes. But I do that in any game where I have that option because I am weak and I know what I'm about and where my battle theme biases lie.
I did the same for Berseria (but also because Velvet's Rutee costume is great) and got surprised with a second battle theme track that was pretty unconventional for certain encounters.
Despite liking some of Sakuraba's output for Zestiria (3rd battle theme, Sorey's theme, Journey's End), I would still say that the best music in the game was by Go Shiina. Yeah, Sakuraba's output was better in Zestiria compared to the stuff in Xillia and Graces (I think his few memorable tracks in Xillia 2 beat his Zestiria stuff), but overall was still overshadowed by all of the Go Shiina songs being way more memorable. Alisha's theme, Zaveid battle theme, a 4 trial themes, and Rising Up just to name a few.
cpp_is_king
Member
How do I set the difficulty to Intense? I just bumped it to Hard the other day, but Intense does not seem to be an option?
Also, how do SG work? I see that some of my artes require SG, but I don't see a number anywhere during battle that says how much SG I have.
Also, how do SG work? I see that some of my artes require SG, but I don't see a number anywhere during battle that says how much SG I have.
Intense is unlocked by beating the third code red daemon.
One diamond (soul) equals 30 SG. You can find info on most of the game mechanics under library in the menu.
Journey's End is Go Shiina I believe. I don't think Sakuraba has vocals in his tracks, like ever?
One thing Sakuraba almost always nails is the final boss theme. Hoping not to be proved wrong.
Everyone mentions Rising Up but honestly the vocals annoy me. The true star in my eyes and the best theme in the game and among the entire series is New Power Awakens.
I think this battle theme is pretty underrated from Zestiria.
https://youtu.be/JjPsFkY6Tt4
Also anyone else like Rokurou's theme?
https://youtu.be/JjPsFkY6Tt4
Also anyone else like Rokurou's theme?
You get Intense difficulty by beating this one red demon thingy in an area early on. I think it was a butterfly or something. I'd be more descriptive, but it's hard to remember exactly where I fought this thing since all the locations look the same :v
(but yeah, just make sure to do all the optional bosses as you come across them)
The SG thing seems confusing at first since you assume that one diamond is one move, but what the diamonds actually are is the number of actions you can do in a given string.
If you have 3 diamonds, you can push 3 buttons and the game will count it as one chain.
(this is important because if you put magic or something in your combo, being in the same chain is necessary for the reduced spell casting times)
But this doesn't necessarily mean that you can't just go into another chain right away. As long as there's still blue in your diamonds, you can continue to push buttons. Once it's all red though, the enemies will parry your attacks and that's your signal to start blocking until you recharge.
The cost of an arte is essentially how much blue will be drained from your diamonds every time you perform the move.
You are my sunshine
Dandy Crocodile
Member
I'm sure you say that to all the boys. 💅
GoldenDarkness
Banned
End game grade farming is so slow even using the dire monster method I read about =\ I can only beat him without anyone dying on hard mode, my characters are only level 60 since I played on normal and never died through the story, it was very easy infact. 3k more grade to go before I can start my new game + ;( Only getting 100-300 grade max from him when he finally appears.
I think I read someone call the ending abrupt? What nonsense, that was a great ending. Almost got misty-eyed there for a second, even.
So yeah, finished the game. Gameplay-wise it unfortunately never got any better, and as much as I was hoping I wouldn't have to say this, it's one of my least favorite Tales games in that area, like just above Zesteria maybe. Combat was a lot of fun for the first 10 hours, but it's the mashiest Tales has ever been and it never changed or evolved, it was the same spam-fest from beginning to end. Equipment and skill systems were some of the worst, most boring and unimaginative crap in the series history. Leveling up was kind of whatever too, since getting new artes was super uninteresting. Other systems weren't much better - potentites had potential, but 99% of them seemed to relate to the horseshit skill system, cooking was just the most worthless thing ever as practically none of the dishes had any interesting or even good effects and the sailing thing only awarded you with cooking-related stuff, so again, who cares. None of it was terrible or bad per se, just bland and boring.
None of that really matters that much, cause it had one of the best JRPG stories of recent years (despite it meandering a bit around the halfway point) and an AMAZING cast, like holy shit. Even the characters I wasn't sure of at first (Magilou, Biefu and Kamoana mainly) I came to really love over the course of the game. Many of them are great characters on their own too, but the CHEMISTRY, IT'S SO GODDAMN GOOD.
By far the best Tales game overall since Vesperia and one of my all-time favorite casts across video games, not just in Tales or JRPGs. I still like Abyss' story the best, but I'd say Berseria is probably at a shared second place with Abyss, just after Vesperia.
e: I kind of feel like playing Zesteria lmao. But maybe I should rather play Symphonia since I seem to have it on Steam, never finished that game.
So yeah, finished the game. Gameplay-wise it unfortunately never got any better, and as much as I was hoping I wouldn't have to say this, it's one of my least favorite Tales games in that area, like just above Zesteria maybe. Combat was a lot of fun for the first 10 hours, but it's the mashiest Tales has ever been and it never changed or evolved, it was the same spam-fest from beginning to end. Equipment and skill systems were some of the worst, most boring and unimaginative crap in the series history. Leveling up was kind of whatever too, since getting new artes was super uninteresting. Other systems weren't much better - potentites had potential, but 99% of them seemed to relate to the horseshit skill system, cooking was just the most worthless thing ever as practically none of the dishes had any interesting or even good effects and the sailing thing only awarded you with cooking-related stuff, so again, who cares. None of it was terrible or bad per se, just bland and boring.
None of that really matters that much, cause it had one of the best JRPG stories of recent years (despite it meandering a bit around the halfway point) and an AMAZING cast, like holy shit. Even the characters I wasn't sure of at first (Magilou, Biefu and Kamoana mainly) I came to really love over the course of the game. Many of them are great characters on their own too, but the CHEMISTRY, IT'S SO GODDAMN GOOD.
By far the best Tales game overall since Vesperia and one of my all-time favorite casts across video games, not just in Tales or JRPGs. I still like Abyss' story the best, but I'd say Berseria is probably at a shared second place with Abyss, just after Vesperia.
e: I kind of feel like playing Zesteria lmao. But maybe I should rather play Symphonia since I seem to have it on Steam, never finished that game.
Brawly Likes to Brawl
Member
Solid Sora
Member
I'm certainly starting the Zesteria anime. I think most of my dislike of the ending was due to me never finishing Zesteria, and I want to see if they tie up some of the loose ends.
Distresssss
Member
Just finished the game. Berseria is a great entry to the Tales series and is the game for the series that FF XV should have been.
I think I was way too low of a level for the last fight but that's my own doing. Never got wiped once but got close a few times throughout the game.
I think I was way too low of a level for the last fight but that's my own doing. Never got wiped once but got close a few times throughout the game.
The last boss was pretty tough specifically
the first fight against two of them. I had to turn it to moderate because on Hard and above Innominat would use that spell Laphicet also has with huge range and pretty much one hit KO and the AI couldn't dodge it.
Loved Armatized Artorius looking like Yggdrasil though!
Loved Armatized Artorius looking like Yggdrasil though!
Edit:
Also dual mystic artes are dope. I think i'd rank them in the order you get them:
Velvet/Laphicet
Rokurou/Eizen
Magi/Eleanor
Magi and Eleanor's was slightly disappointing but the other two rock.
Shouta
Member
Being able to choose your own tree and customize it as you play is depth. I mean, yeah you can press one button per enemy type for each area but the fact you can assign your skills to be able to do that is huge. It's not player input depth but strategy/planning depth.
If there's any one area that Berseria fails in respect to combat is that it doesn't provide enough variety of enemies in each area to force players to consider how to configure their chains best and force trade-offs in optimal vs coverage.
Imp the Dimp
Member
Are the trophies motivating?
I just hit the 10h mark and this really feels like the entry the series needed. The minigames, amount of costumes, side things to do and good presentations makes up for the last entries. Still, the equipment system (seriously, stop coming up with over complicated systems for equipement, just serve the traditional stat based equipment) and the bad dungeon design are my main gripes with the game so far.
I'm actually liking Laphicet even though I expected to hate him based on his stereotype. The dinamic between Eizen and Rokuro or whatever is actually refreshing. But I still don't like Velvet.
I'm actually liking Laphicet even though I expected to hate him based on his stereotype. The dinamic between Eizen and Rokuro or whatever is actually refreshing. But I still don't like Velvet.
I really liked the scene at the Tavern with Eizen and Rokuro. It felt like a genuine conversation between drinking buddies about the mess they are now involved in. It really feels refreshing to have a bit of maturity in Tales of. I like that the tone is similar to Vesperia. The party are no angels and will kill if they have to. Item system is still dumb even if it's a step up from Zestiria's nonsense. Every time I find a new piece it seems on par of worse than what I already have.
I just got to the mid game plot twist. I have a question about
malevolence. Alright, we know that it results from negative emotion that stems in the hearts of humans. Daemon's have always existed and up till the Opening they just weren't perceived physically. However, wouldn't Therion's needed to have exist all over to stop the over production of malevolence? I get it on a human by human basis where someone may turn, but it doesn't make sense for an entire village to turn at once if there weren't Therion's all over consuming malevolence. The entire world would be fucked if Therion's weren't always around.
It's the best track in the game imo. Sad that it's from Zestiria though so it doesn't even really count. xD
Solid Sora
Member
I think in this case it was because of the village being forced to abandon its religion and worship a new god, they were all creating malevolence because of that. In normal situations, that wouldn't happen.
wanst it because the 4 emps werent prayed to anymore so it built up. like how in zestiria seraphs become lord of the lands to protect the area against malevolence
VanillaCakeIsBurning
Member
Anyone else let the opening play every time on startup?
I haven't done that since Ring a Bell.
Man this game gives you way more trophies than most Tales for doing sidequests. Damn, I might get suckered into going for Platinum
Like I said in an earlier post, I feel like a lot of the game's execution actually comes from the meter management. You sort of have to pay attention to your resources before you consider pushing more buttons (even with Velvet because there are times where you mash too hard and your whiffing a bunch of attacks and you don't get the stun, so you have to switch out and switch back in to get diamonds), but the game gives adequate feedback in the audio that tells you what to do.
(this aspect is sort of lost in the multiplayer because of the lack of screen freeze and how the audio seems to be tied to the first player)
That said, this doesn't hide the fact that I'm gonna make Magilou's combo like 4 meteor drops lol
(and you can do this early on too, which I found kind of funny... maybe it's because I was too lazy to think about cancelling animations, but all her other moves seem to suck since they have this large startup I kept getting hit out of)
I honestly haven't bothered tinkering with any character's combos once I programmed in something that seem to work... even during the encounters where I probably should have programmed in a different combo because the enemy was resisting everything, I defaulted to Magilou meteor spam since I was too lazy.
The game has a lot of busted things based on what effort I bothered to exert towards finding it, but it's fun, so I don't really care about the balance lol
(though, I am at a point where dangerous encounters are taking like 6.5 minutes of me mashing combos, so I'll probably chill out on those since the reward doesn't make sense since I can do like 3 single encounters in succession for more reward and less time and pain in my hands)