One of the best Tales games and JRPGs in general. The story was top notch and the characters were well built. Though the dungeons were terrible and the fields were a slog to go through. I seriously think they need to go back to world maps or something, because this "go through a field" to get to the next destination isn't working.
I think anyone who likes JRPGs should play this game, it's that good. If only Namco can pull out a quality Tales like this all the time.
Why are JRPGs moving away from world maps? I also see the ocassional GAFFER trash talk them. I have never had an issue with them, and they provide a better sense of the world building.
I did hear that the Japanese audience didn't like the original way Tales dungeon were built and were more invested in the characters and story. So dungeons like the aether area in Destiny, some fans just would get worn out from and wouldn't bother finishing the game, and go watch youtube for scenes or something like that. It was something really bizarre.
I don't really understand the obsession with world maps, especially here in a game in a setting composed of islands. Nothing would be gained from a world map in Berseria, it wouldn't fix the dungeon or area design.
Why are JRPGs moving away from world maps? I also see the ocassional GAFFER trash talk them. I have never had an issue with them, and they provide a better sense of the world building.
I did hear that the Japanese audience didn't like the original way Tales dungeon were built and were more invested in the characters and story. So dungeons like the aether area in Destiny, some fans just would get worn out from and wouldn't bother finishing the game, and go watch youtube for scenes or something like that. It was something really bizarre.
Costs I imagine. They already had a lot of world assets from Zestiria and building an actual world map with the correct scale would be a massive undertaking.
Even if they didn't do the correct scale, they would have to increase the area and content on towns and dungeons. I would prefer that too, but it might could easily get out of hand especially on a budget project such as the current Tales of games.
I don't really understand the obsession with world maps, especially here in a game in a setting composed of islands. Nothing would be gained from a world map in Berseria, it wouldn't fix the dungeon or area design.
Also, what's a good level to do the post game dungeon at? Only at 70, jumping between Moderate and Hard, and I'm pretty much vastly outmatched by the cameo battle and
Also, what's a good level to do the post game dungeon at? Only at 70, jumping between Moderate and Hard, and I'm pretty much vastly outmatched by the cameo battle and
He revives twice it's not funny. I just put the battle in moderate (moderate/normal are easier than simple simply because weaknesses work).
If you have issues with the end part of
Zaveid
quest or Cameo battle at level 70 you are doing something wrong gear wise- probably not having enough Focus and not upgrading it?
The end of Eizen's quest is lolwhat difficulty spike.
I dunno, the cameo characters were 68 levels higher than me so I don't think having trouble with that is too unexpected. I'm referring to the fight with both of them, I managed the ones against them solo just fine. I haven't attempted the end of
Zaveid's
at all yet because I was expecting a similar difficulty spike.
I don't really understand the obsession with world maps, especially here in a game in a setting composed of islands. Nothing would be gained from a world map in Berseria, it wouldn't fix the dungeon or area design.
SD world maps are great for the exaggerated sense of scale which make progression more satisfying (with realistic scale traversing samey environments will always feel like a slog after some time). I guess they might return to it whenever an open world can be zoomed out for airship based fast traveling.
I ended up being the game and clocked in 60 hours after doing (what I am assuming were) all of the side quests except the EX Dungeon.
In terms of the ending, all I have to say is
Dyle, you did damn good in scoring that partiuclar lady.
But in all seriousness, the game was pretty good and was probably the best Tales game since Vesperia in my opinion. Of course, that is not really saying too much. However, this is the best overall package since then.
The story was simple, but was actually pretty well-told. Outside of Velvet's antics early game, all the characters were written and developed very well not just through major plot-points, but by how the characters actually interact with each other. I feel like the cast is even better than Vesperia's, because outside of Yuri, Vesperia's cast as pretty dull. Here, Rokurou may be the weakest link, but I would still put his characterization far above 99% of the other characters in the other games. If the future games could have more main casts like this instead of going back to tropey shit like "lol girl with no breasts who wants big breasts, lol look at this sexual tension god damn fuck Asbel and Cheria, etc," that would be one major incentive for me to get back on board with this series.
The dungeons were a bit of a drag, unfortunately. The Tales team has got to do something about this, because these dungeons and large empty world environments just are not working.
The game almost made me go back to retry Zestiria, but... nah. At this point I would have actually preferred that Zestiria never existed.
The shittiest thing about all of this is that I'm probably going to have to deal with 3-5 more mediocre Tales games before we get another one on this game's level, assuming the series is even still around in another decade.
The shittiest thing about all of this is that I'm probably going to have to deal with 3-5 more mediocre Tales games before we get another one on this game's level, assuming the series is even still around in another decade.
Producer actually (Fukaya, who I think is a great pick as he worked in QA before so he should have the correct priorities), the set of directors is essentially the same as Zestiria.
He doesn't know how to do dungeons and fields, that's for sure.
The
temple you are transported after the first Artorius fight
was essentially the same room repeated endlessly. Jesus. And the gimmicks they insert to make the dungeons more "engaging" are pathetic (Break the walls, pull the levers to remove the water).
I honestly don't know if the director's ties to Zestiria is a good thing, but hell, if they can improve on Berseria's strengths and correct its weaknesses, we may very well get Tales to be pretty competitive again in terms of JRPGs. There was so much in Berseria (dungeons, fields, battle system) where I was like "you know, with enough improvement and alteration, we could be on to something grand here. I actually wonder if there is a parallel universe where we never got Xillia 1, 2, Hearts R, or Zestiria after Graces and went straight to Berseria."
If this series wants to stay around, it's definitely going to have to even improve on Berseria.
On the dungeon talk: Out of all of the Tales games, the only ones I can remember at the moment with decent dungeons is... oddly Symphonia and most of Vesperia, oddly enough (although, Vesperia's EX Dungeon was booty butt cheeks).
I never really got that much into Rebirth or a lot of the older games, but I played through 70% of Destiny R and remember that there was a metric fuckton of dungeons with nothing but straight hallways and L-Shaped corridors. In Graces, I never felt like I was really playing a dungeon as opposed to an excuse to get into the next fight. Xillia 1/2 and Zestiria were just "eh."
The series never had Lufia 2's dungeons, but I never felt like they were this bad except ToD and ToI's ones. (Which they fixed in the Vita version, apparently?).
Symphonia had fantastic dungeons, and Abyss/Graces/Vesperia/Phantasia's dungeons were mostly decent. Xillia-Berseria-Zestiria have low budget-Compile Hearts RPG-tier dungeons for me. They are ugly, they have no puzzles and they go on for too long.
I honestly don't know if the director's ties to Zestiria is a good thing, but hell, if they can improve on Berseria's strengths and correct its weaknesses, we may very well get Tales to be pretty competitive again in terms of JRPGs.
All the development staff (i.e. Bandai Namco Studios) is essentially the same between both games, even in the outsourced parts. It's only the publishing side (i.e. Bandai Namco Entertainment) that saw bigger changes with Baba moving into the background, Fukaya handling game production (which he started with the Western localization of Zestiria) and Tanaka handling the series management now.
After Xillia 1 all Tales games had parts that were clearly designed around limitations that come with PS3 being the lead platform. So there is a good chance the improvements that were hinted at in Berseria will be executed more and better in the first PS4 game. E.g. there are Berseria artworks of environments that mostly excel in what seems dynamic lighting, something the series completely lacked so far so that's one low hanging fruit right there.
I really think those who played and like Berseria should watch Zestiria the X anime. They rewrote the plot from the game for more connections between Berseria and Zestiria
I really think those who played and like Berseria should watch Zestiria the X anime. They rewrote the plot from the game for more connections between Berseria and Zestiria
I ended up being the game and clocked in 60 hours after doing (what I am assuming were) all of the side quests except the EX Dungeon.
In terms of the ending, all I have to say is
Dyle, you did damn good in scoring that partiuclar lady.
But in all seriousness, the game was pretty good and was probably the best Tales game since Vesperia in my opinion. Of course, that is not really saying too much. However, this is the best overall package since then.
The story was simple, but was actually pretty well-told. Outside of Velvet's antics early game, all the characters were written and developed very well not just through major plot-points, but by how the characters actually interact with each other. I feel like the cast is even better than Vesperia's, because outside of Yuri, Vesperia's cast as pretty dull. Here, Rokurou may be the weakest link, but I would still put his characterization far above 99% of the other characters in the other games. If the future games could have more main casts like this instead of going back to tropey shit like "lol girl with no breasts who wants big breasts, lol look at this sexual tension god damn fuck Asbel and Cheria, etc," that would be one major incentive for me to get back on board with this series.
The dungeons were a bit of a drag, unfortunately. The Tales team has got to do something about this, because these dungeons and large empty world environments just are not working.
The game almost made me go back to retry Zestiria, but... nah. At this point I would have actually preferred that Zestiria never existed.
The shittiest thing about all of this is that I'm probably going to have to deal with 3-5 more mediocre Tales games before we get another one on this game's level, assuming the series is even still around in another decade.
Dyle was kind of just standing next to her (Medissa), I saw mo implication that they were an item or anything. Nothing was implied while he was a lizard either.
The typos are hilarious. When you do the quest for the Omega elixir the skit you get at the world tree has Magilou saying you will have to squeeze your prayers where the subtitles says private lol
I'm just going straight to the final boss now. It seems like a 20 hours game they stretched out to 40+ by going to the same area again and by having you watch a skit every 3 steps.
She's honestly probably the worst AI character because she's not good at maintaining health while using break soul. If I'm not playing as her I don't even have her in the party.
My party mostly consists of Rokurou(main character I use) Eizen, Eleanor, and Magilou
Healing in this games kinda sucks...though I bough the "hold 30 items" dlc
so I'm usually have 30 apple, peach, and grape gels on hand so it doesn't even matter though. Though it really sucks you can't use healing items when you character has a status ailement..but hardly use them anyway(playing on normal)
The typos are hilarious. When you do the quest for the Omega elixir the skit you get at the world tree has Magilou saying you will have to squeeze your prayers where the subtitles says private lol
Those typos are so odd. Why not just use the texts the VAs got? It's like they lost the text and ran the recording through voice recognition to fill the gaps in a last ditch effort.
End of Act 2 - OMG this game's story is so good, so personal. If it can hold out through to the end, it'll top Abyss as my favorite Tales story. I probably should've seen the twists coming, but I didn't.
Where do I unlock the class 4 beast quarter? I seem to have missed it, but I've gone back to all the previous zones and I can't find any exclamations on the map anywhere. I thought it would be in Southgand / Yseult, but nothing. I'm near the end of the game, about to go to some
Fuck, this game can be emotionally brutal at times. I just want to go back to hijinks about the crew telling Laphicet to beware of older women or other silly shit
He revives twice it's not funny. I just put the battle in moderate (moderate/normal are easier than simple simply because weaknesses work).
If you have issues with the end part of
Zaveid
quest or Cameo battle at level 70 you are doing something wrong gear wise- probably not having enough Focus and not upgrading it?
The end of Eizen's quest is lolwhat difficulty spike.
Just finished it today, done all sidequests, and got all hi ougis in the last dungeon.
EX dungeon only left.
Sometimes this game was a slog though, and I was thinking, when does it end?
I liked Velvet, she was a cool antagonist or heroin, depends how you wanna see it.
Still Stahn is my favorite Tales of char, but she comes 2nd.
Lmao that scene with Teresa, I legit rolled my eyes.
Teresa, the only female villain, is deemed as not strong enough to fight Velvet by her superiors and her powers are taken away. Even though she insists that she will succeed in her mission, all the male characters are just like "sorry sweetheart, you are useless".
And what do you think her brother, Oscar, has to say about all of this?
"When all of this is over, Teresa... I hope to see you back in the kitchen cooking for me"
Lmao that scene with Teresa, I legit rolled my eyes.
Teresa, the only female villain, is deemed as not strong enough to fight Velvet by her superiors and her powers are taken away. Even though she insists that she will succeed in her mission, all the male characters are just like "sorry sweetheart, you are useless".
And what do you think her brother, Oscar, has to say about all of this?
"When all of this is over, Teresa... I hope to see you back in the kitchen cooking for me"
I've found it's very easy to bait enemy Mystic Artes if you purposefully run into their attacks, especially after Souls attacks. Works like a charm, especially after 50%.
So I'm about 12 hours in. Really enjoying it after being let down by Zestiria. It still kind of suffers from the big empty areas and flat textures but the story and character work has been amazing so far.
One thing that bothers me however, is the insignificance of items on the field. They are always junk items but the ocd in me won't let me leave them alone. I really need to stop trying to grab every glowy. But without them, the field maps just feel like a place to fight enemies and...walk. kind of empty?
Also, I'm not sure if these points have been mentioned before as I have avoided this thread as much as possible. So apologies if this is a repeat of what many other people have said.
So I'm about 12 hours in. Really enjoying it after being let down by Zestiria. It still kind of suffers from the big empty areas and flat textures but the story and character work has been amazing so far.
One thing that bothers me however, is the insignificance of items on the field. They are always junk items but the ocd in me won't let me leave them alone. I really need to stop trying to grab every glowy. But without them, the field maps just feel like a place to fight enemies and...walk. kind of empty?
Also, I'm not sure if these points have been mentioned before as I have avoided this thread as much as possible. So apologies if this is a repeat of what many other people have said.
You don't have to grab them, but the yellow items can be supplemental to your equipment enhancement crafting supplies. Occasionally you'll pick up something worth a lot of gald. The Katz spirits are used only to open chests that grant cosmetic items.
Artes you've assigned yourself are in a white font, artes that are default for that slot are in yellow. If you unassign any "white" arte in a slot, you will get a default "yellow" arte in that slot until you assign something else.
Artes you've assigned yourself are in a white font, artes that are default for that slot are in yellow. If you unassign any "white" arte in a slot, you will get a default "yellow" arte in that slot until you assign something else.
I really like this game and characters, but man Velvets costume is so bad. Some of the dlc ones are okay but I seen one where she has a cameo costume I think, is that Japan only? It looks awesome.
Lmao that scene with Teresa, I legit rolled my eyes.
Teresa, the only female villain, is deemed as not strong enough to fight Velvet by her superiors and her powers are taken away. Even though she insists that she will succeed in her mission, all the male characters are just like "sorry sweetheart, you are useless".
And what do you think her brother, Oscar, has to say about all of this?
"When all of this is over, Teresa... I hope to see you back in the kitchen cooking for me"
LMAO your last line really made laugh hard. Not even sure what she did to deserve that kind of disrespect, not like Oscar didn't fail just as if not even harder than Teresa. Actually he failed
I beat it at 48 hours. It was the best Tales of games in a while for me but overall it wasn't a masterpiece either. I liked Magilou and Rokurou a lot since they goes against their usual tropes. Velvet was basically like Luke from Abyss, unlikable on purpose for 4/5 through the game until her character progression. The game has a pretty big pacing issues. The whole game seems purposefully designed as a time sink. The long boring field dungeons followed by the actual boring dungeons where they force you to watch skits while running around kind of make the game drags on. Cooking levels takes forever to increase. I only cooked with Velvet from the beginning of the game and she's cooking level 10 (halfway through 20) while the others are still at 1 and I always use auto-cook and carry ingredients all the time. Same for the ship exploration. I have 12 skills out of 20 after playing for close to 50 hours. You also need to grind the katz souls to be able to open the chests as they start to quickly require ridiculous amount to open. If you want all the potentites or whatever they are called you need to grind dangerous encounters for Dire Foes too. It also reuses some dungeons a lot of time (like Titania) and often it makes little sense why you should go there again. And they even have you collect the waypoint in each map so the geoboard will work in each area, come on now.
Plotwise I enjoyed it for what it is. The beginning of the game is quite dark and there are some darker moments in there too but you find the usual Tales of charm in there through the skits and side characters. As for the motivation of the bad guys, been there done that already in other games before.
Battle system is less fundamentally broken than Zestiria but you can quickly find yourself in a fail state on higher difficulty level if you run out of souls and dodging isn't granting more of them.
Music is fairly forgettable across the game unfortunately. I think I'll only remember Magilou's theme and the final dungeon theme from this one. VA is overall pretty great. All of the main characters have really great actors. Some of the side ones like Bienfu and Kamoana are suspect though.
While Zestiria had awful everything from gameplay, subsystems, story and characters this one is a huge step in the right direction.
