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I finally beat Tales of Berseria [spoilers hidden]


Ronnie
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It's a fantastic game with an engaging story. The characters are lovable. Seriously, one of my favorite cast of party members in an RPG. The gameplay was fun and technical. I loved getting into fights to keep playing the game's battle system. I used Rokurou most of the time but I swapped here and there. Some of the music was good but it gets drowned out by the sfx so I barely hear much of it. The opening is godlike. My favorite video game opening of all time. I never get tired of watching it before starting the game.

One complaint I had is that the game is too long (it's my first Tales game). I usually play RPGs that I finish around the 20-40 hour mark. To hit 72 and a half hours when completing the game was draining as hell. There was a point in the game around the 40 to 50 hour mark that felt stale and unimportant to the story. Luckily the story picks up again after that and I was back to my normal investment. I just don't understand how people can beat the game in less than 70 hours? Do people not watch the skits? Explore? Skip fights? I was constantly swapping equipment to master them all and doing the ship expeditions.

SPOILERS:

Spoiler

I knew this game would be something special when I got so emotionally invested in Velvet after seeing Artorius sacrifice Laphicet. As well as seeing her reaction to killing the daemons that were her former villager friends. Her hatred and yearning for killing Artorius wanted me to keep playing this game to the very end.

The scene where Laphicet finally speaks out to Velvet about his true feelings had me in tears. It was such a heart wrenching moment that was executed wonderfully. It felt so relieving to hear Laphicet tell Velvet to stop whining and to see Velvet go back to her normal personality. I like Velvet in both her nice and brooding personalities but to see her back on her feet after being so emotionally broken made me happy.

Rokurou vs Shigure was one of my highlights because I spent so long waiting for Rokurou to draw his sword and actually use it in combat for more than 5 seconds.

The ending itself was bittersweet. Artorius finally killed was satisfying, Velvet and Innominat stuck in their cycle makes sense but still sucks to see, Laphicet becoming the 5th Empyrean was a cool moment.

Im gonna need a small break from Tales games because Berseria was exhausting lol. I have Symphonia and Xillia on my backlog and soon Vesperia for PS4.

Edited by Ronnie
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Now go play Zestiria, to truly understand just how much impact Velvet's party had.  The story isn't going to be as amazing, but I think you'll like the setting changes between the two.

Spoiler

Zestiria makes Laphicet look even better.  Somehow.  You'll also run into many familiar faces/names. . .

Long RPGs are what I grew up on.  Berseria's length was nothing to me~!  Anyway, congrats on finishing, and welcome to the fan club~!

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34 minutes ago, eclipse said:

Now go play Zestiria, to truly understand just how much impact Velvet's party had.  The story isn't going to be as amazing, but I think you'll like the setting changes between the two.

  Hide contents

Zestiria makes Laphicet look even better.  Somehow.  You'll also run into many familiar faces/names. . .

Long RPGs are what I grew up on.  Berseria's length was nothing to me~!  Anyway, congrats on finishing, and welcome to the fan club~!

Agreed, agreed, agreed!! Zestiria is a million times better BECAUSE of Berseria. I wish I had played them in the opposite order, because Berseria was so engaging and powerful and replaying Zestiria now gives it so much more depth and meaning than it had before. But ... it's still among my least favorites. I'd hit other ones (Abyss/Xillia) first. 

4 hours ago, Ronnie said:

Im gonna need a small break from Tales games because Berseria was exhausting lol. I have Symphonia and Xillia on my backlog and soon Vesperia for PS4.

Also, Symphonia is really good (not even speaking of nostalgia), and I really personally enjoyed Xillia even though I know others weren't a huge fan. But yeah Berseria was by far the most exhausting of the Tales games (but in my opinion in the best way), because it was so heavy emotionally. I had to fully pause after the 

Spoiler

whole scene about 3/4 of the way through when Velvet sees her friends and hometown and brother again and is happy for a singular moment and then has it all torn away from her again. It murdered me.

But yes, go forth and explore the Tales world (please don't play Graces). I also grew up on long RPGs (Symphonia is going to be hella long for you), and it definitely took me 65 hours to do Berseria (with side quests and all the skits), but I found Berseria to be one of the longest ones since Symphonia imo. But also I didn't learn ALL the weapon skills or ship stuff (because I found the whole weapon system to be so annoying). And definitely skip fights around the mid point when I get tired of constant fighting and leveling. That's my recommendation. Just skip fights around the middle when the story starts dragging and it will pick right back up and then you can go back to fighting and stuff!! 

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ToS happens to be my favorite game of all time. Will definitely be interested to hear your thoughts on it. Perhaps you can make one of those topics and update us every few hours as to where you are, impressions, etc.?

As for Berseria, it was a great game. I've played and beaten 7 of the Tales games. Berseria is practically tied for 2nd for me. So, hopefully the rest aren't a downgrade for you!

The person above me is dissuading you from playing Graces. -shakes head- Graces, admittedly, has a bottom tier story. But, it has amazing skits, a great cast of characters (my avatar happens to be one of them), and a pretty solid gameplay. People tend to either love the combat for Graces, or hate it. It's fairly similar to how Berseria is set up though, so I think you'd be on the side that likes it. It's great, fast, over-the-top action.

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No PC or PS4 means no Berseria for me, not for now at least. But if I ever pick one up for cheap when the system is nearing its lifespan's end, I'll have to get the game.

17 hours ago, Ronnie said:

One complaint I had is that the game is too long (it's my first Tales game). I usually play RPGs that I finish around the 20-40 hour mark. To hit 72 and a half hours when completing the game was draining as hell. There was a point in the game around the 40 to 50 hour mark that felt stale and unimportant to the story. Luckily the story picks up again after that and I was back to my normal investment. I just don't understand how people can beat the game in less than 70 hours? Do people not watch the skits? Explore? Skip fights? I was constantly swapping equipment to master them all and doing the ship expeditions.

Tales games are notoriously long. Some like this, others say it is due to unnecessary padding.

Typically, but not always, a Tales game has 3 "arcs", not sure Berseria does, but others do, Abyss and Symphonia for instance.

 

2 hours ago, Affinity said:

The person above me is dissuading you from playing Graces. -shakes head- Graces, admittedly, has a bottom tier story. But, it has amazing skits, a great cast of characters (my avatar happens to be one of them), and a pretty solid gameplay.

I liked the combat, but the characters? Eh, I thought they were weak. I never finished the game, but I made it as far as the place where you finally learn the truth of Sophie before my original PS3 went beyond the salvation of Life Bottles. Which is prettyyyy late I believe.

Asbel was typical male protag, Sophie was bad outfit and boring cliche. Cheria didn't really have to exist, Malik had to exist even less. Pascal had her utilities with technological knowhow, her serious scientific side had purpose, but her quirks could get a little out of hand with the Sophie groping part. Richard was good, and Hubert I did kind of like, I tried to like everyone, but he, like Malik, Cheria, and Asbel, were pulled down by the lackluster plot. Plots involve characters, and a better plot can enrich its actors.

 

As for Tales of Xillia, I've been listing my progress and comments in the General JRPG thread (in spoilers oftentimes due to me mentioning spoilers). It has had its ups and downs, and whilst I might at times seem to focus on the bad, it is a decent game, if not a Great one, and I've enjoyed it, it hits my Tales fix. Compared to Abyss, Symphonia (and Dawn of the New World), Phantasia, and Graces, the PC cast might be the best of the bunch actually, or second only to Symphonia.

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12 hours ago, eclipse said:

Now go play Zestiria, to truly understand just how much impact Velvet's party had.  The story isn't going to be as amazing, but I think you'll like the setting changes between the two.

  Reveal hidden contents

Zestiria makes Laphicet look even better.  Somehow.  You'll also run into many familiar faces/names. . .

Long RPGs are what I grew up on.  Berseria's length was nothing to me~!  Anyway, congrats on finishing, and welcome to the fan club~!

Y'know I heard a lot of people had their gripes with Zestiria but after watching a video detailing the links between it and Berseria only got my more invested in it. Cool to see how the towns/villages evolved and how Malaks are known as Seraphim.

12 hours ago, Sunsurge said:

Agreed, agreed, agreed!! Zestiria is a million times better BECAUSE of Berseria. I wish I had played them in the opposite order, because Berseria was so engaging and powerful and replaying Zestiria now gives it so much more depth and meaning than it had before. But ... it's still among my least favorites. I'd hit other ones (Abyss/Xillia) first. 

Also, Symphonia is really good (not even speaking of nostalgia), and I really personally enjoyed Xillia even though I know others weren't a huge fan. But yeah Berseria was by far the most exhausting of the Tales games (but in my opinion in the best way), because it was so heavy emotionally. I had to fully pause after the 

  Reveal hidden contents

whole scene about 3/4 of the way through when Velvet sees her friends and hometown and brother again and is happy for a singular moment and then has it all torn away from her again. It murdered me.

But yes, go forth and explore the Tales world (please don't play Graces). I also grew up on long RPGs (Symphonia is going to be hella long for you), and it definitely took me 65 hours to do Berseria (with side quests and all the skits), but I found Berseria to be one of the longest ones since Symphonia imo. But also I didn't learn ALL the weapon skills or ship stuff (because I found the whole weapon system to be so annoying). And definitely skip fights around the mid point when I get tired of constant fighting and leveling. That's my recommendation. Just skip fights around the middle when the story starts dragging and it will pick right back up and then you can go back to fighting and stuff!! 

I'm more likely to get through Xillia because its my friend's favorite Tales game so co-op sessions happen often. I already heard how long Symphonia is so I'm mentally preparing myself lol. I'll keep your skipping fights tip in mind whenever I do a new game+ for Berseria.

Spoiler

Word. Velvet was being emotionally tormented at that point. Poor girl. She did some fucked up shit but still, poor girl lol.

2 hours ago, Affinity said:

ToS happens to be my favorite game of all time. Will definitely be interested to hear your thoughts on it. Perhaps you can make one of those topics and update us every few hours as to where you are, impressions, etc.?

As for Berseria, it was a great game. I've played and beaten 7 of the Tales games. Berseria is practically tied for 2nd for me. So, hopefully the rest aren't a downgrade for you!

The person above me is dissuading you from playing Graces. -shakes head- Graces, admittedly, has a bottom tier story. But, it has amazing skits, a great cast of characters (my avatar happens to be one of them), and a pretty solid gameplay. People tend to either love the combat for Graces, or hate it. It's fairly similar to how Berseria is set up though, so I think you'd be on the side that likes it. It's great, fast, over-the-top action.

Maybe a let's play thread would be more appropriate for that? If not then I'll make something similar to this whenever I beat Symphonia.

The girl in your avatar looks like a moe Rinkah and I'm 100% okay with this. If I can pick it up for cheap it wouldn't hurt to try.

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1 hour ago, Ronnie said:

Y'know I heard a lot of people had their gripes with Zestiria but after watching a video detailing the links between it and Berseria only got my more invested in it. Cool to see how the towns/villages evolved and how Malaks are known as Seraphim.

The big problem was that Zestiria released first.  With Berseria's context, Zestiria is a lot better.  The armor system's a bit wonky, but it's an otherwise enjoyable game.  And I LIKE Sorey.

1 hour ago, Ronnie said:

The girl in your avatar looks like a moe Rinkah and I'm 100% okay with this. If I can pick it up for cheap it wouldn't hurt to try.

That is Pascal, from Tales of Graces.  She's easily the most memorable party member.

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It's funny that Berseria is my favorite and Zestiria my least favorite of all Tales of parts I've completed yet (all PS3 parts except for both Symphonias).

 

Zestiria has an unbalanced battle system and a really uninteresting cast except for one character, maybe two. The plot is ok, but by far less amazing than Berseria's. (Tbf Berseria's darkness is unique in the series). The dungeons only consist of ruins with a total of two differerent music themes for them (no joke!). Though they are more challenging in terms of puzzles than Berseria's. If Berseria had one weakness, then that the dungeons were rather mediocre. Only the Water Temple and final could really appeal in terms of challenge.

 

Also Berseria is the only game I played for 100%. Needed 70 h and a guide because I own the PS3 port which only exists in JP.

Edited by Hecatia Lapislazuli
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15 minutes ago, Hecatia Lapislazuli said:

It's funny that Berseria is my favorite and Zestiria my least favorite of all Tales of parts I've completed yet (all PS3 parts except for both Symphonias).

 

Zestiria has an unbalanced battle system and a really uninteresting cast except for one character, maybe two. The plot is ok, but by far less amazing than Berseria's. (Tbf Berseria's darkness is unique in the series). The dungeons only consist of ruins with a total of two differerent music themes for them (no joke!). Though they are more challenging in terms of puzzles than Berseria's. If Berseria had one weakness, then that the dungeons were rather mediocre. Only the Water Temple and final could really appeal in terms of challenge.

 

Also Berseria is the only game I played for 100%. Needed 70 h and a guide because I own the PS3 port which only exists in JP.

This is also my opinion of Zestiria. I would add that Zestiria also has an incredibly unpleasant, convoluted combat system. It is not much of an exaggeration to say that the game was obsessed with tutorializing new obscure combat mechanics every few minutes, even up to and past the point I quit playing approximately 35 hours in. It was too much, and I was simply overwhelmed by this strange convoluted game in a usually simple series.

Edited by Etheus
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11 hours ago, Etheus said:

If ToS:DotNW didn't exist, I would call Zestiria the weakest link in the series. 

Can't speak about Zestiria, but DotNW isn't even considered Mothership/mainline, it's an Escort/spin off. This doesn't fully excuse the lack of resources put into the game, like the rehashed generic sidequest locations, the lack of talking Centurions beyond Tenebrae and Aqua, the fixed stats of returning characters, and the simple and generic monster system. Nonetheless, at least Namco admits this title shouldn't be taken too seriously. Zestiria has no such excuse from what I'm aware.

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I’m one of those weirdos that actually liked Zestiria but even I admit it had a lot of flaws. If the allowed Sorey to go a little to the darker side, if Alisha played a bigger role and if Rose did not made to be so “special” it would be much better.

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13 hours ago, Water Mage said:

I’m one of those weirdos that actually liked Zestiria but even I admit it had a lot of flaws. If the allowed Sorey to go a little to the darker side, if Alisha played a bigger role and if Rose did not made to be so “special” it would be much better.

Zestiria's overall story more-or-less worked.  Sorey worked, and I like the change from the beginning to the end.  Alisha was a different take on the naive princess, but I didn't like how irrelevant she felt.

Rose, on the other hand, wasn't interesting in the slightest.  The seraphs desperately needed more character development, too.

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1 hour ago, eclipse said:

Zestiria's overall story more-or-less worked.  Sorey worked, and I like the change from the beginning to the end.  Alisha was a different take on the naive princess, but I didn't like how irrelevant she felt.

Rose, on the other hand, wasn't interesting in the slightest.  The seraphs desperately needed more character development, too.

Well, apparently the reason Rose got so much screentime was because of Baba being a really big fan of her japanese VA. And Alisha had much better chemistry with Sorey as his squire than Rose. Alisha genuinely was interested in what Sorey had to say while Rose was like “Haha you silly nerds!” whenever Sorey was talking about something. That attitude of Rose really rubbed me off the wrong way. Sometimes I feel like Zestiria needed a remake, a pretty big one at that, now that Baba isn’t in Namco anymore. But man, Zestiria’s reception was so bad in Japan that I’ve heard the VAs got booed at cons.

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My personal order on the series is Vesperia > Abyss (which very well could have been better than Vesperia if not for its eternal loading times) > Symphonia > Berseria (which could possibly be better than Symphonia) > Xillia > Xillia 2 > Graces > Zestiria

 

Not really counting anything before Abyss. 

Edited by Etheus
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16 hours ago, Water Mage said:

Well, apparently the reason Rose got so much screentime was because of Baba being a really big fan of her japanese VA. And Alisha had much better chemistry with Sorey as his squire than Rose. Alisha genuinely was interested in what Sorey had to say while Rose was like “Haha you silly nerds!” whenever Sorey was talking about something. That attitude of Rose really rubbed me off the wrong way. Sometimes I feel like Zestiria needed a remake, a pretty big one at that, now that Baba isn’t in Namco anymore. But man, Zestiria’s reception was so bad in Japan that I’ve heard the VAs got booed at cons.

I’ve heard that there wasn’t anything really backing that so it’s only a rumor. I’ve heard. That the official data book for Zestiria mentions disagreements among the development team in regards to even having a heroine in the story or not since they didn’t feel it necessary for Sorey’s character to have a love interest. The story was originally written without one and then rewritten with Alicia as a major character, but the story ending up pretty poor with the focus on a character who was pretty far removed from Sorey and his journey so it was scrapped. Since some members of the team still wanted a heroine Rose was created and the story was rewritten again and at that point they didn’t have time to implement certain storylines for the other party members since the game went through two rewrites and added a new character. I’ll try to see if I can find a source for it later, but this claim seems the most plausible to me considering how poorly developed the whole cast of Zestiria is.

Edit - Welp, cant find it. So take what I've said with a grain of salt.

Edited by Modamy
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23 hours ago, Water Mage said:

But man, Zestiria’s reception was so bad in Japan that I’ve heard the VAs got booed at cons.

That's sad, especially since Lailah's VA died.

20 hours ago, Etheus said:

My personal order on the series is Vesperia > Abyss (which very well could have been better than Vesperia if not for its eternal loading times) > Symphonia > Berseria (which could possibly be better than Symphonia) > Xillia > Xillia 2 > Graces > Zestiria

 

Not really counting anything before Abyss. 

May I interest you in Tales of Hearts?  You'll gain a new appreciation for every other Tales game after playing it.

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