The huge stand out trait of Berseria is it's storyline. As a player, you take control of Velvet, a nineteen year old girl who lost her brother at the hands of her brother in law. She will stop at nothing to claim his life. Even using the mysterious power of her hand to devour demons for strength. A fruitful cast of characters join Velvet on her journey like every other insert in the Tales series. The plot makes our main heroine out to be the villain in the eyes of the people of Midgand. Can't say this is a trait that has ever been placed on any other Tales main protagonist. Her party member also have contrasting ideals when they first come join forces but slowly grow to see the true world through the eyes of the rigid Velvet. Characters such as Laphicet and Eleanor have the most character growth during the game. Magilou is kind of nerve wrecking the first few hours thats she's joins Velvet's party. Some of the things that come out of her mouth just made me go,"what the fuck is she talking about?". She does grows on you after hours into gameplay and a lot of the funny dialogue involves her. Also an FYI, the dialogues that happen between the party and a Priest at the chapel in one of the towns is beyond hilarious. Look for the exclamation marks on the map when you travel to each town for dialogues with the town's people. Everything is literally thrown upside down by Velvet's gang, earning her the name: Lord of Calamity. I enjoyed their interactions with each other like every other Tales game. Tales success greatly depends on it's storyline along with character personalities. Skits bring interactions out more dominantly for those who want a quick laugh or to learn more about the story. Take all this away and Tales loses its charm completely.
Berseria's gameplay brings a new element to the Tales battle system. It solely focuses on a system called souls and break points. As long as your party members have souls, they can use as many skills and Arts(magic spells) as they like. Break points allow you to swap party members and use Mystic Arts( powerful finishing moves that are different for each character.) in battle Break points can be earned by stunning an enemy or stopping an enemy mid attack. Battles defiantly feel like they go by faster while playing Berseria than they did when I played Zestiria. I actually wanted to fight demons on the road just because of how quick the battle system was. Back to the skits that pop up in this game. The player has the option to watch the skit manually by pressing the triangle button or they pop up automatically at certain points in the game. Sometimes this was problematic for me as a player. They original charm of skits was that they were used only when you wanted to see them but Berseria uses skits not just the traditional way but also to progress parts of the main story. Its not a big deal but it did take away from the magic of skits before they were over used.
Midgand is shared with Zestiria and Berseria but Berseria's story takes place in the distant past before the events of Zestiria. The world you get to explore is cut into islands so a lot of your travels have to do with riding on a ship. When your not riding a ship, your walking on foot. Each place has it own layout thats nice to look at and I was never not excited to be visiting a new town. I just have the same problem that I did with Zestiria's world of exploration, it seems small after a certain point in the game. The plot also has you retracing your steps beck through places you've been before just to progress the story. What happened to having an RPG game where you see a town/dungeon once then you're on to the next place without looking back. Guess those classic styles of RPGs are long gone.. I really do feel old sometimes[INSERT ME LAUGHING]. Velvet's return to her village after the events that unfolded is the only retrace that I liked in the game. Other than that, Berseria looks alright. If you want to get technical with graphics, the full capability of the Playstation's HD function could have been used but I have never been one to care about stuff like that. Just don't have the game looking like shapes and stick figures moving around aimlessly.
My negative thoughts have to do with the story feeling too short and the game seeming a little too easy. I got to the final dungeon and went "THIS CAN'T BE THE FINAL ACT!" It felt like more needed to be done. Some characters could have been brought back to life just as a cliffhanger. That didn't happen though. That also leads into my statement about the game seeming too easy to beat. Only one boss in the whole game gave me trouble so that says something. Even the final boss wasn't as much of a headache as Zestiria's boss.(LORD JESUS. THAT BOSS CAN BURN IN DIGITAL HELL.) Final boss was a challenge but still beat both battles on my first try. A part of me was hoping that wasn't the conclusion of the game. Sadly, it surely was…. I do take into account that I did a lot of the side quests along with demon hunting for money. My characters were all on decent levels by the time I got to the final boss. I forgot to mention the other little tedious things to do like send out a ship to get treasures and the cooking option for each character to cook things to support the party in battle. Both these options don't have much to them. Don't forget about them completely though. Do them to raise characters cooking levels and scout ship level. Fans of Tales should know about the cooking option and the option to change party member's fashion. None of this has changed since the last game. I partook in all of this but the game still felt short to me. This is my biggest disappointment in the game.
Tales of Berseria gets an A for its deep emotional storyline and fun supporting cast of characters. This game just felt rushed for me. I still don't feel like it was a full game. Good enough to be an insert in the series based on story and game play alone though. Music for the game was more than fitting for the storyline. Select tracks felt like parts of Velvet herself. Japanese band FLOW did an amazing job performing the opening theme song called BURN too. Great game, short storyline.
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