Archives from the Past: Tales of Berseria

TALES OF BERSERIA                         (  8.6/10)

(RPG of discovering Your Own Reason to Live) 

(THIS REVIEW IS AN ARCHIVE FROM ANOTHER TIME. IT IS SIMPLY MEANT AS A RECORD AND AS A TIME CAPSULE TO REMIND THE AUTHOR OF FIRST IMPRESSIONS AND FEELINGS ABOUT THIS WORK AT THE TIME OF RELEASE. THIS IS WHY IT WILL VERY LIKELY NOT FOLLOW THE USUAL STANDARDS AND FORMULA SET IN THE METHADOLOGY OF THIS SERVER OR ACCURATELY REFLECT CURRENT CRITICAL APPROACH & OPINIONS OF THE AUTHOR) 

To live with reason or to give in to emotion, what is the right choice? Take away the free will of mankind, the will and weakness to commit sin and what will you find left behind.? 

Through each of its immensely broken characters, from the self righteous religious fanatics out to save the world to the humans who gave in to their melevolant emotions, Berseria turned out to be the tale of Lord of Calamity that managed to not only tell a deeply engrossing, eye tearing and an emotionally heart rending tale but a tale that made the sequel that came before it immensely better. Knowledge of Zestiria was hardly needed to play this game and yet having that knowledge indeed improved on the emotional outcome of this tale.

Gameplay & Exploration ...  7.5/10

Berseria brought the classic action Tales gameplay back with a slight twist that made spamming combos and making your own unique combos a very engrossing and fun process. The whole game ran at 60fps and there were marked improvement in the gameplay from Zestiria.

Namely now while the shift to battle screen was instantaneous, there was however no problem of getting stuck in tight corridors as the game shifted to the open area for the battle right before a tight corridor which thank God was an improvement that could not go unnoticed because this time around spamming the magical arts made it that much difficult to see the action at times when huge fire explosions and lightning effects ran onscreen at the same time blinding your character behind a curtain. What one wonders the situation have been without any imorovenent? 

Yet this is hardly a problem worth high consideration since it has existed in the series by nature of the battle system from the series's beginning. Yet to alleviate even this issue, Namco even has made this time the battle camera free to roatate which was an immense help and a boon to the enjoyment of the battles. 

The best thing about the battle system was perhaps how fluid it was. Spamming 50-60 hits was never a problem if u knew what u were doing and not just button mashing. It only became harder to extend this number once the hit points reached in 70s or 80s which I am still sad about since i couldn't reach the desired 100 hits for the ultra rare trophy.

The saddest thing about the combat was that Berseria was on the easy side. Infact the normal mode was so easy that i hardly bothered to restock my items before the final boss fight and this was the same throughout the whole journey.

Nevertheless  hard and very hard options are there for anyone desiring a greater challenge to switch to anytime.

The gameplay lacks when it comes to exploration. Berseria while choosing to let go of the large swaths of unused maps for open world of Zestiria went  for a more small confined corridor like area approach which were divided into zones which was again in comparison not much of an improvement and the exploration for most part felt dull compared to the charm and joy of exploring an overworld map as in the past Tales games. Even then the developers have tried to cull down the burden of backtracking through the same areas again and again by introducing a   magic skate which unlocks later in the game. Nevertheless the corridor like approach isn't working for Tales since Xillia and it's only a wonder why Namco hasn't abandoned it so far.

Story, Plot and Characters  9.5/10

This is where Berseria elevates itself among the Tales since it probably has the best character development along with characterization since Abyss. The plot is indeed much better than any of the past Tales and again on par with Abyss's plot. It's an emotionally charged story that on surface appears a revenge plot but is infact a deeper, more philosophical discussion of what is one's identity.

It aptly describes how without will to rise or fall, to sin, to do good, to aim for a goal, a human cannot be human. One is only a human in truest sense once they embrace their short comings, weaknesses, their strengths and their will of achievement.

Each character in this tale from the self righteous shepherds to our Anti Hero Velvet Crowe and her band of most ill fitting and crazy party members,  broken from inside, fall in the grey area. All have their sins and their aims and virtues and they make for a compelling and memorable cast that won't be forgotten anytime soon.

Berseria was very well paced in its storytelling and to my joy delivered emotionally taxing shocker after shocker during the ending half of the game.

Music      7.5/10

Compared to Zestiria, this was a huge step back in quality and variety yet what was produced by the long time Series composer Motoi Sakuraba fit the tone of the game well leaving me with some very memorable tracks. It was a serviceable soundtrack as a whole.

Graphics:         7/10

Graphics were fine in Berseria, the art style worked but it won't stand the test of time like the beautifully cell shaded past games of the series. Furthermore some environments were completely generic and seemed still like just large hallways filled with enemies. The lack of over world and the older styled dungeon design where puzzles were dominant are a sore requirement for the Tales that they have failed to fulfill since the last few games. Still Berseria did better than many predecessors by incorporating some light puzzles throughout its dungeons.

What disappointed me even more was how bland the final dungeon felt compared to the awe stricking Final area of Zestiria which was a joy to traverse. 

Replayability, other RPG features  8/10

Berseria does carry a good replay value since the story beats have always something new to offer with each watch. It's a long 50 hour adventure that will keep u engrossed until the end and at times keep u wondering what might happen next.

The Japanese Voice Acting was magnificent while the English Voice acting was serviceable with one or two exceptional performances yet no way do they manage to touch the heart or the dialogue beats of the scene as their japanese counterparts.

The equipment management system was much better than the confusing clutter of Zestiria and it is Deep enough to please the hard core Tales fans. (though it definitely does not.😬 ) 

The skits return with a greater emphasis this time in story delivery compared to Zestiria and were all amazingly done. Yet they tended to have that abyss syndrome where 3 or 4 would appear one after the other and at times became tedious since u didn't want to miss any of them. Otherwise skits were perfectly done this time (compared to how they were limited to rest area mostly last time & were missable), Thank God. 

All in all Berseria was an amazing experience and a tragic tale that will stay with me for a long while.

Total aggregate= 39.5/50

Out of 10= 7.9

My preffered rating= 9.3

Total score = 7.9+ 9. 3/20     =       8.6