Cornbread78
Member
I really need to try that coop mode at some point!
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Tales of Berseria |OT| The Band of the Crowe
- Thread starter Cornbread78
- Start date
Do you guys consider putting all characters on Auto playing the game? I'm usually really tired during the week and if it's not a visual novel, I lose focus and mess up or take too long during battles.
Also, do you guys walk around picking everything up or is that just a smart way of padding the game and increasing the playtime?
Also, do you guys walk around picking everything up or is that just a smart way of padding the game and increasing the playtime?
Cornbread78
Member
Never bother with auto play because sonetimes the AI methods take even longer for battles!
In regards to the field items, many of them are used for item creation, so they came in very handy much of the time.
Toying with the AI settings for the optimal all auto battles can be a fun game on its own. The AI in Berseria is quite capable.
I'm at 83 hours and just about at the final dungeon. I think I'm just going to stop playing though. I had fun but I just do the same thing over and over again. Every time I get a new difficulty I use it and it really slows the game down. I don't even feel like the game got harder just annoying. I played around with 4/6 of the characters and Eleanor was my favorite to control. But I thought her break souls were pretty crappy since if stunned an enemy wouldn't go in the air making the second one useless unless it is a large enemy.
I would highly recommend the game still.
I would highly recommend the game still.
Chaos2Frozen
Member
Finally gotten my hands on the game- So how do I do big combos?
To be exact, I've just gotten my 3 playable party member but I've been playing with Velvet and Rokurou.
My understanding with Velvet is to use that Break Soul to extend your combo for as many Souls (blue diamond thingy) as you have above 2, at the end of a full string she'll automatically do a big super move. But for Rokurou his Break Soul ability is only use as a counter attack, so I'm not sure how to use it for a combo, plus he only does that one move after using it.
Also, how else do you gain Souls? The only way I know is through killing enemies, but that might be a problem for boss fights....
To be exact, I've just gotten my 3 playable party member but I've been playing with Velvet and Rokurou.
My understanding with Velvet is to use that Break Soul to extend your combo for as many Souls (blue diamond thingy) as you have above 2, at the end of a full string she'll automatically do a big super move. But for Rokurou his Break Soul ability is only use as a counter attack, so I'm not sure how to use it for a combo, plus he only does that one move after using it.
Also, how else do you gain Souls? The only way I know is through killing enemies, but that might be a problem for boss fights....
Extending combos is a bit conditional yeah. As long as you keeping getting more Souls, you can keep Breaking them to extend your combo to infinity. The trick is to find ways to keep getting souls.
You can get souls from 1) Killing enemies 2) Having enemies use their Break Souls on you (doing so transfers a soul to your target, and if you Break Souls you will also transfer souls to the enemy) 3) Stunning an enemy 4) Doing a perfect dodge will spawn a soul somewhere on the field 5) If an ally dies they will spawn 2 souls on the field.
For Velvet, it is very easy to keep combos going. Which she enters Therion state, she generally has super armour on all her moves, and her chance to stun becomes very high. If you wade into 3-5 enemies just attacking at random there's a good chance you can keep going forever.
For Rokurou, his combo potential is extremely limited compared to other characters. I might be remembering wrong, but his combo can only continue if you perform a successful counter (enemy hits you when you Break Soul). Which is useless when fighting 1v1 because the enemy will still be in hitstun when your combo finishes. You could use it to cancel out of attacks but eh.
Also something to keep in mind, the more Souls you have held, the easier it is for you to be inflicted with status effects and harder to deal them out, including getting stunned. Conversely the less souls, the harder it is to be inflicted with status effects and the easier it is to deal them. Combining that with Stun Snipe (guard for 1.5 seconds?), if you land the first hit against multiple enemies and stun them all, you will get multiple souls back (especially useful when using Eizen's fourth neutral Martial Arte Coercion which has extra stun chance and very long range). You want to avoid getting stunned at ALL COSTS. Stunned enemies/characters take double damage from all sources, and is usually a death sentence against bosses.
You can get souls from 1) Killing enemies 2) Having enemies use their Break Souls on you (doing so transfers a soul to your target, and if you Break Souls you will also transfer souls to the enemy) 3) Stunning an enemy 4) Doing a perfect dodge will spawn a soul somewhere on the field 5) If an ally dies they will spawn 2 souls on the field.
For Velvet, it is very easy to keep combos going. Which she enters Therion state, she generally has super armour on all her moves, and her chance to stun becomes very high. If you wade into 3-5 enemies just attacking at random there's a good chance you can keep going forever.
For Rokurou, his combo potential is extremely limited compared to other characters. I might be remembering wrong, but his combo can only continue if you perform a successful counter (enemy hits you when you Break Soul). Which is useless when fighting 1v1 because the enemy will still be in hitstun when your combo finishes. You could use it to cancel out of attacks but eh.
Also something to keep in mind, the more Souls you have held, the easier it is for you to be inflicted with status effects and harder to deal them out, including getting stunned. Conversely the less souls, the harder it is to be inflicted with status effects and the easier it is to deal them. Combining that with Stun Snipe (guard for 1.5 seconds?), if you land the first hit against multiple enemies and stun them all, you will get multiple souls back (especially useful when using Eizen's fourth neutral Martial Arte Coercion which has extra stun chance and very long range). You want to avoid getting stunned at ALL COSTS. Stunned enemies/characters take double damage from all sources, and is usually a death sentence against bosses.
Chaos2Frozen
Member
Big major thanks!
OH! So that's what those things are!
Yup that's what I've noticed as well.
How do you control the super move she does at the end of the Therion state?
Urgh that's what I'm worried about- I don't like to play the wait-and-counter game especially when the enemies aren't aggressive enough to keep up the momentum. Play the attack animation imo is too fast to read.
Rokurou has some kind of unique artes, the first form/second form thingy? What's that?
Thanks, I'm also a bit uncertain about the best way to mix up martial and hidden arts. The only condition i know is that you'll have to put like 2 martial in front of a hidden to reduce the SG cost?
OH! So that's what those things are!
Yup that's what I've noticed as well.
How do you control the super move she does at the end of the Therion state?
Urgh that's what I'm worried about- I don't like to play the wait-and-counter game especially when the enemies aren't aggressive enough to keep up the momentum. Play the attack animation imo is too fast to read.
Rokurou has some kind of unique artes, the first form/second form thingy? What's that?
Thanks, I'm also a bit uncertain about the best way to mix up martial and hidden arts. The only condition i know is that you'll have to put like 2 martial in front of a hidden to reduce the SG cost?
Therion's finishing move depends on what type of enemy (Human, Beast, Amorphous, Undead, Winged/Bird, etc.) you hit first when you enter Therion state.
Rokurou's Hidden Artes is just like everyone else's Hidden Artes, just named like that. Hidden Artes are different from Martial Artes in that they generally cost more SC to use and are more flashy. If you hold R1/RB to bring up the enemy stats panel it will say if they are weak/strong to Martial/Hidden/Arcane Artes. Each character only can do attacks from two of those three categories. Velvet and Rokurou use Martial/Hidden, Eizen uses Martial/Arcane and Laphicet uses Hidden/Arcane. Arcane of course being just regular spellcasting.
I wouldn't try and optimize mixing between different categories of Artes until you're further in the game. It's just a bit of optimization and I think you still need 10 more hours to better familiarize yourself with the combat system.
Also learn to play all the characters, they are all fun in their own ways (probably except for Rokurou who I find to be the weakest character).
Rokurou's Hidden Artes is just like everyone else's Hidden Artes, just named like that. Hidden Artes are different from Martial Artes in that they generally cost more SC to use and are more flashy. If you hold R1/RB to bring up the enemy stats panel it will say if they are weak/strong to Martial/Hidden/Arcane Artes. Each character only can do attacks from two of those three categories. Velvet and Rokurou use Martial/Hidden, Eizen uses Martial/Arcane and Laphicet uses Hidden/Arcane. Arcane of course being just regular spellcasting.
I wouldn't try and optimize mixing between different categories of Artes until you're further in the game. It's just a bit of optimization and I think you still need 10 more hours to better familiarize yourself with the combat system.
Also learn to play all the characters, they are all fun in their own ways (probably except for Rokurou who I find to be the weakest character).
Chaos2Frozen
Member
Lol thanks, I just got Laphicet so I guess I'll try him next.
Shame about Rokurou, he's my current favorite character atm.
Brawly Likes to Brawl
Member
Rokurou is pretty good, but he's one of the hardest characters to learn due to his emphasis on evasion.
Chaos2Frozen
Member
Haha this is the edgiest Tales party.
Not in the "CRAWLING IN MY SKINNNN" way but in a "Captain Price just shot that prisoner and we're okay with it" kinda way.
Not in the "CRAWLING IN MY SKINNNN" way but in a "Captain Price just shot that prisoner and we're okay with it" kinda way.
Playing the higher difficulties definitely requires that you k now what you are getting into. This not being my first rodeo, I pretty much prepared myself for a campaign 10 - 20 hours longer than on normal mode.
Higher difficulties are usually great if you intend to master every character.
Chaos2Frozen
Member
Item question.
1) Is enhance as simple as it seems? Just a matter of choosing to switch to a new weapon or upgrade an old one?
2) Do I dissemble all the spare equipment?
3) Does rarity mean anything?
1) Is enhance as simple as it seems? Just a matter of choosing to switch to a new weapon or upgrade an old one?
2) Do I dissemble all the spare equipment?
3) Does rarity mean anything?
Chaos2Frozen
Member
So I'm blazed through the game and I'm pretty sure I'm just two steps away from the final dungeon... And I still haven't been upgrading my equipment more than +3 =_=
Like, does anyone bother doing it on your first playthrough? I guess it's important to get the addition starting/max Souls bonus from the potentite, but there never seems to be a right time for it.
Like, does anyone bother doing it on your first playthrough? I guess it's important to get the addition starting/max Souls bonus from the potentite, but there never seems to be a right time for it.
Cornbread78
Member
I went to +9 just for the bonuses, but you don't have to. I did feel a difference with the extra attributes though.
I'm about 5 hours in, and I have some questions about combos. If it changes anything, the last Tales game I played was Legendia.
I can't tell what makes one arte better than another. Outside of specifically targeting weaknesses, is there any point in modifying my combos? Moves take different SG amounts, but I can't really tell what's good or bad about one move or another. I feel like I'll end up just making one bread and butter X -> X -> X -> X combo for regular enemies and then make an "optimal" combo for each boss monster as I come across it... but that seems unsatisfying.
So far my hidden arts seem pretty crappy and slow for how much SG they cost. I can put them in as combo finishers but so far it feels like for regular battles I'm better off just spamming martial artes since the hidden ones each my meter.
When optimizing my arte loadout, what should I even be looking for?
I can't tell what makes one arte better than another. Outside of specifically targeting weaknesses, is there any point in modifying my combos? Moves take different SG amounts, but I can't really tell what's good or bad about one move or another. I feel like I'll end up just making one bread and butter X -> X -> X -> X combo for regular enemies and then make an "optimal" combo for each boss monster as I come across it... but that seems unsatisfying.
So far my hidden arts seem pretty crappy and slow for how much SG they cost. I can put them in as combo finishers but so far it feels like for regular battles I'm better off just spamming martial artes since the hidden ones each my meter.
When optimizing my arte loadout, what should I even be looking for?
Giolon
Member
Artes also have secondary effects like Stun, Poison, Health Drain, etc (not instantly, but they build up an invisible meter on the target). Different Artes also have different attack arcs, fields of effect, or move the character and target around in different ways. You can definitely get away with doing what you propose.
Also, the further into a combo you do a move, the faster it will execute. Further, each time you use an Arte type in a combo, it buffs other types of Artes. Martial Artes make all others cheaper, Hidden Artes increase the status effect chance on all others, Malak Artes increase stagger time on all others, and Break Souls increase all others' damage.
Lastly, the more you use an Arte, the more it improves - lower SG cost, longer stagger, higher chance of secondary effects, etc.
I suggest if you are finding the game too easy, turn up the difficulty. I ended up mostly on Hard and Intense by the end. It made the regular encounters keep me on my toes, but sometimes I had to turn it down for bosses because they become bullshit. Higher difficulties also yield better loot.
Chaos2Frozen
Member
All the male npcs are thirsty as fuck for Eleanor lol.
Every farmer, fisherman and restaurant start-ups.
Every farmer, fisherman and restaurant start-ups.
PhilipDoesMatter
Member
Am I wrong or this is the worst battle system in the series? 10 hours in and it's pretty much button smashing all time along.
Does it improve?
Story is dope though. Velvet might be my favorite protagonist in any Tales.
Does it improve?
Story is dope though. Velvet might be my favorite protagonist in any Tales.
ShadowSoldier89
Member
that was a running joke I was surprisingly repeatedly entertained by
Sinh_Magnus
Member
I sort of get where you're coming with the combat system. I needed around 20 hours to get the hand of the combat. I think after reading a lot of opinions that you either like or hate the combat system in this game. I tried really hard to sort of master it. Steam says I put 132 hours in the game and a lot of that came from playing with all characters and trying combinations and the like.
Thankfully I really liked the characters and story and that made me interested in trying my best with the combat, unlike with other games of the series, where I mostly only played with the lead. I also tried hard for Zestiria but at some point I gave up and started losing interest in it along with the story.
Cornbread78
Member
well, she was pretty damn good, but she was only popular because of her "position"
Magilou is still better overall!
Can you blame them? Eleanor is perfect
PhilipDoesMatter
Member
I get it. I'm getting the hang of it but I still complain about the button mashing. Combining L would be better.
But my main problem with the combat is the difficulty. I really want to play on Hard or higher, but the battles only seem to be endless as the enemies gain so much unnecessary hp. With the already bad enemies placement, playing on hard is just a chore.
Cornbread78
Member
Cornbread78
Member
Stupid cellphone
Chaos2Frozen
Member
Magilou would probably show you up on your first date though...
...And the wedding....
But Bienfu reported that Velvet is good wife material back to you-know-who!
But yeah Eleanor kinda is.... By default.
Did you find the conversation between Kurogane and a pirate about designing traps in the hideout XD?
Uhh I don't think so? Is that available at the same time?
Chaos2Frozen
Member
No, I think it's a bit later.
One of those "Players would never think to look back here when the main story is elsewhere!" secrets.
Cornbread78
Member
The skits in this game are the best yet by far. It helps a lot that there was a tone of character growth throughout the game and all of the characters were great as well.
Seeing Laphicet trying to act all tough like his role models (mainly Eizen and Rokurou) never stops being amusing to me.
The new style is really great. The fact that it's one of the best casts in the series helps. I think it was a good idea using skits for unimportant scenes so they could craft better those that needed some spectacle.
Can anyone tell me if I'm close to the end of the game? I have created the secret base at
, and just got back from the battle on the
. I'm starting to run out of steam and I'm not as interested in the story as I was in the beginning when we were
.
Titania
ship near the earthpulse
heading for the capital to kill Artorius
Sinh_Magnus
Member
Depends if you are interested in doing sidequest, but I will say around
65% of the game, maybe a bit more
Just wrapped up the main story tonight. This was my first Tales game and I feel there was a lot to like in Berseria. I really enjoyed the active battle system with all 4 party members doing their thing at the same time, and felt it was a good change of pace from Persona 5 which I previously played. It's a system that can get a bit button mashy to pull off combos, but I didn't really mind that as I felt there was enough strategy with tailoring artes to enemy weaknesses that I still felt engaged in most battles (especially on higher difficulty).
In terms of the story, I really liked the initial 4-5 hours of the game (despite it having the typical trappings of a slow start, I felt it succeeded in setting up Velvet's backstory that propels the revenge plot for the rest of the game). I also feel the last 10-15 hours of the story are pretty good as it delivers most of the payoff from the beginning. I suppose my biggest issue with the game is the pacing of those 40 or so hours in between the prologue and the final couple acts. I wouldn't say it ever got boring to me (and having a good combat system certainly helps the game a lot here), but when you have a revenge story and a main character in Velvet who is so single mindedly focused on getting said revenge, it's very easy for some of the smaller directions of the plot to start feeling like busy work to pad out the game's length. There are certain things I appreciate with with a longer game and story, as it makes the development of characters more believable as it happens more gradually rather than abruptly
, but I am glad the plot finally hit a good stride in the end, and I was pretty satisfied with the conclusion.
Speaking of character development, I also really liked the skits for the most part, and thought they did a good job of not just fleshing out main characters, but also their interactions and relationships.
In terms of characters, I wasn't sure if I was going to get annoyed by Magilou at the start of the game, but I wound up really liking her a lot. I actually liked the entire main cast for the most part, but Magilou was a really good foil for humor, and a good contrast to Velvet.
Overall really enjoyed my time with Berseria. Fun combat system and while I did feel there were some pacing issues in the middle of the game, I did like the story and felt the game finished strong. Looking forward to perhaps checking out some more Tales games in the future.
In terms of the story, I really liked the initial 4-5 hours of the game (despite it having the typical trappings of a slow start, I felt it succeeded in setting up Velvet's backstory that propels the revenge plot for the rest of the game). I also feel the last 10-15 hours of the story are pretty good as it delivers most of the payoff from the beginning. I suppose my biggest issue with the game is the pacing of those 40 or so hours in between the prologue and the final couple acts. I wouldn't say it ever got boring to me (and having a good combat system certainly helps the game a lot here), but when you have a revenge story and a main character in Velvet who is so single mindedly focused on getting said revenge, it's very easy for some of the smaller directions of the plot to start feeling like busy work to pad out the game's length. There are certain things I appreciate with with a longer game and story, as it makes the development of characters more believable as it happens more gradually rather than abruptly
like Eleanor's shifting views on the Abby and Artorius
Speaking of character development, I also really liked the skits for the most part, and thought they did a good job of not just fleshing out main characters, but also their interactions and relationships.
In terms of characters, I wasn't sure if I was going to get annoyed by Magilou at the start of the game, but I wound up really liking her a lot. I actually liked the entire main cast for the most part, but Magilou was a really good foil for humor, and a good contrast to Velvet.
Overall really enjoyed my time with Berseria. Fun combat system and while I did feel there were some pacing issues in the middle of the game, I did like the story and felt the game finished strong. Looking forward to perhaps checking out some more Tales games in the future.
I also just finished the game. This was my first Tales game since Legendia (I briefly played Abyss and Vesperia but quickly stopped due to not liking the casts/stories). It took me about 24 hours, which I understand is pretty fast. I'm a fast reader and didn't pursue side quests, but I did get most of the chests on maps I visited and did all the hunts I encountered except for 2.
I largely agree with SlickVic about the pacing problems in the middle and their overall appreciation of the story despite that. The best part was the beginning, all the way up to Loegres, but the ending post-
was great as well. What I liked most about the story was that it reminded me I could like certain anime tropes, when done well. There's a lot of power of friendship type stuff here but it mostly works!
I liked the whole cast to varying degrees, with Magilou being the clear favourite. Like Slick, I worried she was going to be annoying at first but she really stole the show by the end.
The battle system didn't do it for me. Changing my abilities to match elemental weaknesses is something I generally don't find strategic in games so much as paint-by-numbers. Furthermore, I found the battles really prone to swing wildly in one direction or another. If you get hit by a move and bounced into another, it's very possible to get stunned and inflicted by another status ailment and left with 1 soul right at the beginning of a fight. Having one soul makes it more difficult and more risky to recover - you can't really inflict status ailments at that point, so you're basically trying to time perfect dodges. On the other end, if you group up a couple enemies with similar weaknesses, you have infinite souls and can just keep popping Break Soul (I think it's called) to chain until they are all dead.
The dungeons were also pretty lame. Most maps in the whole game are linear with various points to press "A" to activate something. Only the last dungeon felt worth exploring, and by that point I was racing to finish, so I wasn't very thorough.
It probably sounds like I didn't like the game, but I actually really did. It has a lot of flaws but I thought it was more than the sum of it's parts. It got me interested enough that I'm going to watch the Tales of Zestiria anime, and I'll an eye out for the next Tales game.
I largely agree with SlickVic about the pacing problems in the middle and their overall appreciation of the story despite that. The best part was the beginning, all the way up to Loegres, but the ending post-
Therion-hunt
I liked the whole cast to varying degrees, with Magilou being the clear favourite. Like Slick, I worried she was going to be annoying at first but she really stole the show by the end.
The battle system didn't do it for me. Changing my abilities to match elemental weaknesses is something I generally don't find strategic in games so much as paint-by-numbers. Furthermore, I found the battles really prone to swing wildly in one direction or another. If you get hit by a move and bounced into another, it's very possible to get stunned and inflicted by another status ailment and left with 1 soul right at the beginning of a fight. Having one soul makes it more difficult and more risky to recover - you can't really inflict status ailments at that point, so you're basically trying to time perfect dodges. On the other end, if you group up a couple enemies with similar weaknesses, you have infinite souls and can just keep popping Break Soul (I think it's called) to chain until they are all dead.
The dungeons were also pretty lame. Most maps in the whole game are linear with various points to press "A" to activate something. Only the last dungeon felt worth exploring, and by that point I was racing to finish, so I wasn't very thorough.
It probably sounds like I didn't like the game, but I actually really did. It has a lot of flaws but I thought it was more than the sum of it's parts. It got me interested enough that I'm going to watch the Tales of Zestiria anime, and I'll an eye out for the next Tales game.
DJ_Lae
Member
I went back to my playthrough a few weeks ago and I think I'm pretty close to the end. I love the cast - I wasn't sold on them at first but they've grown on me.
However, there's a minor NPC that grates on me every time her mouth opens -
.
The battle system is interesting in comparison to past Tales games, but I've never felt the urge to bump the difficulty as it seems like it would get more frustrating than fun. And I'm hoping the next game ups the ante as far as environment graphics, as the stuff in Berseria is as ugly as Xillia's fields/dungeons and that game was no looker there.
Skits are great, though. I'm happy there are plenty of those and that they're slightly animated in a visual novel style.
However, there's a minor NPC that grates on me every time her mouth opens -
Kamoana
The battle system is interesting in comparison to past Tales games, but I've never felt the urge to bump the difficulty as it seems like it would get more frustrating than fun. And I'm hoping the next game ups the ante as far as environment graphics, as the stuff in Berseria is as ugly as Xillia's fields/dungeons and that game was no looker there.
Skits are great, though. I'm happy there are plenty of those and that they're slightly animated in a visual novel style.
Yeah, Kamaona is easily the blight on a great dub.
Chaos2Frozen
Member
Mommmmmiieeeeeeeee (T_T) !!!!!
This game is a really really really great JRPG overall. Awesome cast and storyline. Coming from someone who liked the Xillias too.
Cornbread78
Member
Buy it. The game is really, really good!
Cornbread78
Member
Not even a question...
Sinh_Magnus
Member
It's debateable, I have seen people liking Zesteria's combat over Berseria. I thought it was better and is one of the few combat systems in the series I actually tried to master.
Overall and just to echo some sentiments above, I also loved the cast of characters (probably one of the best in jrpgs in my opinion) and the story was good. It has pacing issues though, and the game has definitely flaws like the dungeon/overworld desing that could severely impact your enjoyment of the game, it depends on the person. I will always recommend it anyway, specially if you like jrpgs/tales and such.