Name: Tales of Berseria
Item: Tales of Berseria
Rating: 9
Author: André Villanueva Escarela

Characters and story in this world is top-notch. I have played a number of Tales of games, and Berseria stands out among the others. It has created an ever engaging quest for revenge, reason, and life. ( I got this game on Steam due to a huge sale)

Though tales of Berseria is one of the most engaging jrpg based on story, it falls short on the combat system and world exploration. To note some few sections where they can provide some adjustments:

-   Battles system is a bit clanky, sometimes slower due to restrictions. The start was specailly harder to get used to, fortunately, it gets more enjoyable the longer you play due to exanding roster of artes and battle mechanics.
-   There are no over world (world maps) where players can freely travese similar to previous games in the series, limiting exploration and world connectivity.
-   Paths tend to be linear, except to dungeons with simple puzzles.
-   Geoboards, a vehicle for travel, is quite difficult to utilize and does no add much fuction aside for defeating weaker enemies and unlocking ways to reach another area.

Despite the drawbacks, may be minor or a deal breaker depending on your type, tales of Berseria is a very engaging game, some of my positive take aways are:

-   The story will absorb you right from the start to the end.
-   You will want to explore the uniqueness of the playable characters as they have distinguished playstyles and great character development.
-   Superb and true voice acting, I sometimes interchange English and Japanese voices when available, but I stick to English in this one as it is full of life.
-   Indulging and refreshing Minigames, skits, and sidequests. What I like about Tales of games is how they do amusing minigames, and Tales of Berseria did not disappoint. Skits are entertaining, and there are few to no dull conversations; you may even giggle (or tear) a few times.

It has been a while since I played a jprg so absorbing beacuse of the narrative supported by the series true and unique values. If the other challenges are addressed, this may easily be one of the top jrpgs. (Already one of the best in the series. ). I simply can't emphasize enough how I liked the story and characters (developments).

Characters and story in this world is top-notch. I have played a number of Tales of games, and Berseria makes everyone stand out. It has created an ever engaging quest for revenge, reason, and life. ( I got this game on Steam due to a huge sale)Though tales of Berseria is one of the most enagging jrpg based on story, it falls short on the comabt system and world exploration. To note some few sections where they can provide some adjustments:<ul><li>Battles system is a bit clanky, sometimes slower due to restrictions. The start was specailly harder to get used to, fortunately, it gets more enjoyable the longer you play due to exanding roster of artes and battle mechanics.</li><li>There are no over world (world maps) where players can freely travese similar to previous games in the series, limiting exploration and world connectivity.</li><li>Paths tend to be linear, except to dungeons with simple puzzles.</li><li>Geoboards, a vehicle for travel, is quite difficult to utilize and does no add much fuction aside for defeating weaker enemies and unlocking ways to reach another area.</li></ul>Despite the drawbacks, may be minor or a deal breaker depending on your type, tales of Berseria is a very engaging game, some of my positive take aways are:<ul><li>The story will absorb you right from the start to the end.</li><li>You will want to explore the uniqueness of the payable characters as they have distinguished playstyles and great character development.</li><li>Superb and true voice acting, I sometimes interchange English and Japanese voices when available, but I stick to English in this one as it is full of life.</li><li>Indulging and refreshing Minigames, skits, and sidequests. What I like about Tales of games is how they do amusing minigames, and Tales of Berseria did not disappoint. Skits are entertaining, and there are few to no dull conversations; you may even giggle (or tear) a few times.</li></ul>It has been a while since I played a jprg so absorbing beacuse of the narrative supported by the series true and unique values. If the other challenges are addressed, this may easily be one of the top jrpgs. (Already one of the best in the series. ). I simply can't emphasize enough how I liked the story and characters (developments).

Incredible Journey of life

I wanted to enjoy this game as it is my first tales game but there's too many problems with this game and it hasn't aged well at all. Huge disconnected empty locations with no definite map, lots of backtracking going back and forth with a poor fast travel system, ugly dungeons, a combat system which is ridiculously complicated and has too much button mashing, and finally a protagonist who is a broken record. It starts off slowly and gets really painful in the middle that I had to drop it. There is also limited keyboard remapping that can get bugged. Please only play this if you have nothing else. 3 points solely for good character skits and voice acting.

I wanted to enjoy this game as it is my first tales game but there's too many problems with this game and it hasn't aged well at all. Huge disconnected empty locations with no definite map, lots of backtracking going back and forth with a poor fast travel system, ugly dungeons, a combat system which is ridiculously complicated and has too much button mashing, and finally a protagonist who is a broken record. It starts off slowly and gets really painful in the middle that I had to drop it. There is also limited keyboard remapping that can get bugged. Please only play this if you have nothing else. 3 points solely for good character skits and voice acting.

Tales of Berseria excels at everything but one thing: the combat. If this game had the combat from Vesperia, it would easily be an 8. This game has decent characters, the storytelling is amazing because of the dialogue and banter between the characters, the weapon skill system is typical tales, which isn’t bad. The tales formula works here. It’s everything you expect, until you get to the combat...dang. The combat pretends to be complex by having enemies with weaknesses and you, the player, are to exploit them via combos. It comes off as one of the laziest ways to make combat interesting because you’re just gonna be switching moves in and out and in and out and it becomes tedious. It’s also too easy and you have to unlock the hardest difficulty to even care about weaknesses but since the weaknesses are not even interesting, who cares?! The combat is just not satisfying. It’s cool when Velvet gets her arm out to do some rad combos but she herself is a bland character. She’s supposed to be a badass but she doesn’t bring much to the table and the other characters carry her essentially. I would rather read the manga than stomach this battle system further. It’s so good too, tales formula-wise, but I can’t get behind the core gameplay and It’s frustrating. Bottom line: everything outside the combat is good. Battles don’t feel fluid or natural. They feel forced, awkward, and tiring. At the worst, the combat is just plain boring. Vesperia had attack canceling and combo chaining. What happened? Sorry Tales, I will not be returning to the series unless Arise does something different.

Tales of Berseria excels at everything but one thing: the combat. If this game had the combat from Vesperia, it would easily be an 8. This game has decent characters, the storytelling is amazing because of the dialogue and banter between the characters, the weapon skill system is typical tales, which isn’t bad. The tales formula works here. It’s everything you expect, until you get to the combat...dang. The combat pretends to be complex by having enemies with weaknesses and you, the player, are to exploit them via combos. It comes off as one of the laziest ways to make combat interesting because you’re just gonna be switching moves in and out and in and out and it becomes tedious. It’s also too easy and you have to unlock the hardest difficulty to even care about weaknesses but since the weaknesses are not even interesting, who cares?! The combat is just not satisfying. It’s cool when Velvet gets her arm out to do some rad combos but she herself is a bland character. She’s supposed to be a badass but she doesn’t bring much to the table and the other characters carry her essentially. I would rather read the manga than stomach this battle system further. It’s so good too, tales formula-wise, but I can’t get behind the core gameplay and It’s frustrating. Bottom line: everything outside the combat is good. Battles don’t feel fluid or natural. They feel forced, awkward, and tiring. At the worst, the combat is just plain boring. Vesperia had attack canceling and combo chaining. What happened? Sorry Tales, I will not be returning to the series unless Arise does something different.

What a game. I don't play JRPGs often because they're too generic, but this is great. Although the graphics, physics and exploration mechanics are outdated (it looks and plays like a PS2/PS3 game), the story, the narrative and the combat are impressive. Every single main character has a great development. The main quest has a predictable yet really good plot twist, and the ending... Jesus, this is one if not the best ending I've seen in a videogame. Absolutely amazing.

Can't wait to play Tales of Arise.

What a game. I don't play JRPGs often because they're too generic, but this is great. Although the graphics, physics and exploration mechanics are outdated (it looks and plays like a PS2/PS3 game), the story, the narrative and the combat are impressive. Every single main character has a great development. The main quest has a predictable yet really good plot twist, and the ending... Jesus, this is one if not the best ending I've seen in a videogame. Absolutely amazing.Can't wait to play Tales of Arise.

Tales of Berseria Review by André Villanueva Escarela

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