Tales of Berseria - PS4 and Steam

[Opinionated Ham Scarecrow]

 

Out on Friday! 

 

I've gone off Tales games a little. Everything has gone down hill since the excellent Vesperia on 360 in my opinion, but this is reviewing really well!

 

IGN: 8.8/10
http://uk.ign.com/articles/2017/01/23/tales-of-berseria-review

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Tales of Berseria is a surprisingly strong showing for this long-running series. Its tragic story of broken people fighting on the wrong side of history makes it utterly compelling, and its well-tuned combat more than makes up for its lack of interesting environments. Simply put, this is a tale too heartbreaking to miss, or to forget.

 

God is a Geek:(9/10)

http://www.godisageek.com/reviews/tales-of-berseria-review/

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2017 is off to a strong start with some great games already out in just the first month. Bandai Namco Entertainment really impressed me with Berseria. With a couple of tweaks and fixes, they can really achieve great things with this franchise. I’m glad fan feedback was taken into account for this release. If you are in the mood for nice action RPG with great characters and addictive combat, Tales of Berseria is for you.

 

Gamespot: (7/10)

http://www.gamespot.com/reviews/tales-of-berseria-review/1900-6416604/

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Tales of Berseria’s weak presentation and dull world design may not excite, but they only account for a piece of an otherwise enjoyable tale. The refined combat, and the darker tone, paired with the sinister characters, makes for a more engaging experience overall . In these ways, Tales of Berseria actually takes the series in an intriguing new direction.

 

Tempted....

[gospvg]

17 games in the tales series & I have only played the first two on the SNES (Phantasia) & PS1 (Destiny).

 

Reviews are looking good, I'm loving all these JRPGs being released on the PS4.

 

Spoiler

 

[David Kenny]

Here's a weird thing. I own maybe 5 or 6 Tales games going back to Symphonia on the Gamecube, and have only ever played a few minutes of whichever one was released on the DS. All the others, I've never even loaded them up. Why do I keep buying them? It doesn't make sense.

 

I'll buy this though it looks good.

[gingerling]

23 minutes ago, David Kenny said:

Here's a weird thing. I own maybe 5 or 6 Tales games going back to Symphonia on the Gamecube, and have only ever played a few minutes of whichever one was released on the DS. All the others, I've never even loaded them up. Why do I keep buying them? It doesn't make sense.

 

I'll buy this though it looks good.

I'm the same. I re-bought Symphonia on PS3 but I've still yet to play it.

 

But like you I will end up buying Berseria.

[Opinionated Ham Scarecrow]

Yep, I've got the Symphonia collection unplayed on PS3, Tales of Xillia 2 dropped cos of a poor opening, Zestiria dropped cos I stopped playing it and can't remember wtf I'm doing, yet I'm still looking at this....

 

I did manage to finish Graces f and Xillia 1 though!

[Adrock]

Symphonia and Vesperia are easily the best of the modern iterations. I'd strongly suggest anyone who likes JRPGs to buy those two, Berseria looks interesting so I'll be buying it on Steam.

[SharkyOB]

Quote

Tales of Berseria is a surprisingly strong showing for this long-running series. Its tragic story of broken people fighting on the wrong side of history makes it utterly compelling, and its well-tuned combat more than makes up for its lack of interesting environments. Simply put, this is a tale too heartbreaking to miss, or to forget

 

Sounds depressingly familiar and I'm not sure I could take this with the current political situation!  

[gossi the dog]

I can't believe there have been 17 entries in the series! I played Tales of Eternia (was known as Tales of Destiny II in the US) back in the early 2000's and thought it was ok but not as good as Star Ocean 2 which had a similar battle system and got about 15 hours into Tales of Symphonia before giving up and never returning to the series.

[Version2.0]

I've played a few Tales games, Symphonia 1&2, Xilla and picked up Abyss and really enjoyed them. The skits between the characters had some really quite funny moments which made up for the sometimes RPG by-the-numbers stories.

 

I bought Zestiria in the PSN sale but gave up on it about 8 hours in, just wasn't clicking and the open world kind of design they were trying out didn't really work. 

 

Glad Berseria is sounding a lot better, really want to get into another Tales again.

[JohnnyRyall]

I had given up on the Tales series some time ago, but Berseria sounds like it might be worth a look. Not many reviews out there, but they're mostly all positive. IGN review is glowing.

 

Reception for Zestiria was pretty negative from the outset from what I remember, so they've obviously done something right with this entry.

 

18 minutes ago, gossi the dog said:

I can't believe there have been 17 entries in the series! I played Tales of Eternia (was known as Tales of Destiny II in the US) back in the early 2000's and thought it was ok but not as good as Star Ocean 2 which had a similar battle system and got about 15 hours into Tales of Symphonia before giving up and never returning to the series.

 

Even more if you count all the spin-offs. They've been releasing one to two Tales games every year for the past twenty years in Japan, with probably about half of those making it overseas. It's crazy that they keep selling.

[Chocky]

I've played (and finished) Symphonia, Xillia 1 & 2 and Zestiria.  Symphonia and the Xillia pair I really enjoyed, Zestiria was good but I wasn't a fan of the combining characters gimmick.

 

I've finished FFXV last week and have had my fill of post game stuff already so this is coming out at a great time, can't wait to get stuck into it

[Captain Kelsten]

I bought Zestiria last week in the PSN sale. Now, admittedly I have a rough history with JRPGs (it took me almost twenty years to finish FFVII...and it's the only JRPG I've finished), but I'm not really feeling it at all.

[Trumpets]

16 minutes ago, Doctor Shark said:

I bought Zestiria last week in the PSN sale. Now, admittedly I have a rough history with JRPGs (it took me almost twenty years to finish FFVII...and it's the only JRPG I've finished), but I'm not really feeling it at all.

 

Probably because it's not very good. As Adrock said, Symphonia and (expecially) Vesperia are the good ones, and everything since has been kind of poor.

 

That said, Berseria sounds alright going by those reviews.

[Sane]

Tales of Phantasia is still my favourite entry in the series. So full of charm, just look at it .

 

 

[dreamylittledream]

11 hours ago, gospvg said:

17 games in the tales series & I have only played the first two on the SNES (Phantasia) & PS1 (Destiny).

 

Reviews are looking good, I'm loving all these JRPGs being released on the PS4.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

Damn it go and find and play Symphonia

 

Remains my favourite JRPG ever, it's really that good

[gospvg]

There is a demo of Berseria on the PS4 store will test it out later.

[Opinionated Ham Scarecrow]

The strength of this game appears to be the story, so I doubt the demo will really sell it.

 

FWIW I tried it on Steam, and it's a decent enough way to spend 30 minutes, but it feels and looks just like the last 3 or 4 games.

[Talk Show Host]

I am looking forward to it, especially after the FFXV disappointment (although I am waiting for the story patches for that one :p). Everyone says the story in this one is good, and it really sounds promising. Zestiria was far from bad, story was just ok but the character progression was good.

[ryodi]

This is a lot darker than I was expecting. All of the Tales games I've played since Symphonia have always had a light start and then get darker as they go along but this is unforgiving from the start. 

[Talk Show Host]

I have been playing this since release day and it is one of the best Tales games and quite better than the pretentious mess of FFXV. Characters are good, story is interesting and the game just rolls effortlessly. Big improvement from Zestiria with some very welcome changes to the camera also.

 

The general action and gameplay are not something new but everything feels tighter. Again, the story is very interesting (in an anime way) and it is, indeed, quite dark. The PC version runs amazingly well, I am playing it on 4K through DSR with maximum everything and runs like butter on 60fps. Granted it is not a very demanding game graphically, but the art is generally very nice. From my first ten hours looks like a really good JRPG and it is very difficult to put down as the story gets more and more interesting. 

 

Whoever designed that costume for Velvet though, and whoever gave the 'ok' to use it, should be fired and never work in the industry again.

[Soulstar]

I picked up and finished both Tales of Xillia 1 & 2 last year on my PS3 and really quite enjoyed both of those. The stories were great, comedy on point at the right times especially the after battle skits which occasionally had me burst out laughing, a strong battle system and did look pretty good too visually. Aside from this, I've only played and finished Tales of Destiny and briefly played a few hours into Tales of Abyss on the PS2 while at a mates house a few years ago. Don't think I'm quite ready for another one though just yet as I spent about 200 hours split between the Xillia games before putting them down.

[Retroguy]

Glad the gameplay seems tighter- for me, coming out of Xillia 1 and 2, Zestiria had this slightly floaty feel in combat and what felt like a delay between button push and attack.

[Takizawa]

cdkeys have the PC version in stock for £29.99 (£28.49 with the 5% discount), if anyone is interested.

 

http://www.cdkeys.com/pc/games/tales-of-berseria-pc-steam-cd-key 

[Takizawa]

Played the first few hours last night and it seems really decent, Zesteria wore me down after about the same amount of time so fingers crossed it keeps the quality up.

 

I'm quite concerned I have no idea what i'm doing with the battle system already, it does explain things with tutorials but it feels geared toward those who have played a Tales game before. Can anyone offer some basic tips for getting started with it? At the moment i'm just hitting combinations of the face buttons and throwing in the occasional side-step.

 

 

[Flub]

I started playing this the other day on PS4 and I'm really digging it. I've never played a tales game before this. Not sold on the area maps but the plot is starting to grow on me. I've just done the bit where you add what I presume is your final party member

Eleanor

. I was up until 1am this morning playing.

 

When I finally get done which other ones should I play?

 

One thing I don't like is the devs have totally blocked screenshots and when I try to stream you just get the output that you'd normally get if the stream was paused. Who in their right mind builds in those restrictions for something that isn't a visual novel?

[Adrock]

I'd say you want to try Vesperia and Symphonia but not Symphonia 2, that's crap.

[Opinionated Ham Scarecrow]

Yep, Vesperia and Symphonia are the highlights.

 

I picked this up too but only managed a few hours. The opening packs a punch though!

[Talk Show Host]

Twenty hours in and this just gets better and better. It is more streamlined than Zestiria but that makes sense because the tale is much more interesting and personal. The gameplay feels great but it has been sometime since Zestiria and I am having trouble getting to grips with its various systems (even though they are introduced slowly the explanations leave a lot to be desired.)

 

The story is great. There is excellent build up and introduction of villains, the world is presented clearly and the lore comes slowly. Main character Velvet (apart from the atrocious costume which, evidently, was create by a female artist, Mutsumi Inomata) is a force to be reckoned with and her dark thirst for revenge gives the game a refreshing spin. She doesn't look very complex but she is passionate and willing to sacrifice everything: that makes her the driving force of the game.

 

But she is not alone. The cast complementing her is also great and each have their own reasons and stories that are really interesting. The plot twists and turns and scenes change quite organically. I am still not in mid game yet and I hope they do not run out of ideas.

 

Dungeons are boring until now but they are not very big and exploration seems limited for those interested. There is also cooking and a mini game with a ship you send for exploration, but they are fairly straightforward and do not really take up much of your time.

 

That's it for now. Really positive things from a classic Tales game with a dark twist.

[Wiper]

If I wasn't already snowed under with new games I'd be giving this a shot. I'll definitely have to remember to try it in a month or two; I've not played any of the Tales games, so this seems a good place to start!

[dug]

Hmm, I think I'll give the demo of this a go. I haven't played a tales game since Vesperia, as I was feeling a bit burned out on them. Symphonia was the first one I played, and I absolutely loved it. But then Legendia, Abyss and Vesperia I found to be alright, but I didn't really get into the stories. Legendia has fantastic music though.

 

The good reports about this are encouraging me to try it, so I'll download the demo tonight.