Tales of Berseria - Release Day

The J-RPG Tales of Beseria will be released today:

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In Tales of Berseria, players embark on a journey of self-discovery as they assume the role of Velvet, a young woman whose once kind demeanor has been replaced and overcome with a festering anger and hatred after a traumatic experience three years prior to the events within Tales of Berseria. Velvet will join a crew of pirates as they sail across the sea and visit the many islands that make up the sacred kingdom of Midgand in an all-new adventure developed by the celebrated team behind the Tales of series. Veteran Tales of character designer Mutsumi Inomata has personally designed Velvet and famous Japanese animation studio, ufotable, returns to animate the game’s breathtaking cutscenes; delivering truly epic and emotional storytelling in their unique style.

More information.

A launch trailer with no actual gameplay shown? The Steam page shows some battle screenshots but there's really no way to know what you're buying here!

Originally Posted by Zloth
A launch trailer with no actual gameplay shown? The Steam page shows some battle screenshots but there's really no way to know what you're buying here!

There's a demo on Steam (right side, download demo button), it's been there for a few weeks.

Who played the demo? I have some questions…

- checkpoints or saves
- endlessly respawning trashmobs or no repetitiveness
- good or horrible UI

I played the demo. I didn't notice any respawning, and the UI seemed ok. I never saved my game, but I assume it's probably like all the other Tales games where there are save points scattered around the map.

It's not for me, but I didn't really expect it would be. The dialogue is very light-hearted and silly for the most part, and the visual style is completely Anime. You definitely need to be a strong fan of JRPGs for this one.

Recent Tales games on console have had save-point saves backed up by a "save anywhere" one-slot quick-save feature.

Trash mobs are visible on the game screen, so can be avoided (usually), but there's usually some incentive to battle them (quest items etc). They tend to respawn when you re-visit an area, but will stay defeated whilst you're there.

I'm just playing Xillia 2 (two games earlier) with my wife, and we do a fair bit of re-visiting due to the wide range of side quests and side stories. Mob respawning is rarely an issue as I usually bypass most of them, except for a few which act as a nice "warm-up" for whatever boss the quest/story throws at us.

These are usually big games, so expect a certain amount of repetitiveness if you want to see all the content. If you just follow the story there shouldn't be much grind.

The UIs are usually quite respectable, but understand this is a console series, so controller will be the "first choice" input device. I never really understand why people get upset by this - if you're playing a console game, is it so unreasonable for it to be best enjoyed on a controller?

Originally Posted by Irien
The UIs are usually quite respectable, but understand this is a console series, so controller will be the "first choice" input device. I never really understand why people get upset by this - if you're playing a console game, is it so unreasonable for it to be best enjoyed on a controller?

Tales of Berseria demo worked quite nicely with a keyboard/mouse, I had to remap some stuff to have controls work with my G13 though because there is no arrows.

Originally Posted by Irien
The UIs are usually quite respectable, but understand this is a console series, so controller will be the "first choice" input device. I never really understand why people get upset by this - if you're playing a console game, is it so unreasonable for it to be best enjoyed on a controller?

Its not unreasonable, but as someone who does not own a controller, it factors into whether I buy a game or not.
Why not just buy a controller? Well shelling out 25 euros could buy me a good rpg that works without a controller and I already have a sizable backlog. So for me it really does make a difference whether I am willing to invest in a game or not.
I have no problem with a company that doesn't want to invest in implementing decent keyboard & mouse controls, but I haven't wanted to play a game so badly
up until now to actually invest in a controller, and so companies have to take into consideration that people like me won't buy their games. And I actually, from various forums, believe that there are a good number of players like me who say "No good m/kb? Then I'll buy a different game instead."

Originally Posted by azarhal
There's a demo on Steam (right side, download demo button), it's been there for a few weeks.

Oh, that's WAY better! I really wish more games would do that.

My udnerstand is the two biggest complaint about the game is the horrible drm and censored content making the story confusing.

DRM paranoia? bah.
What's censored? Any modder working on it?

Originally Posted by joxer
DRM paranoia? bah.

It has Denuvo…apparently.

Originally Posted by joxer
What's censored? Any modder working on it?

They censored a scene where a kids gets impaled on screen to him getting killed via a magical ritual instead. Although, that shouldn't make the story confusing because the end result is the same, the kid was killed.

Saying that, you can watch Tales of Zesteria X anime and see that scene uncensored…

Originally Posted by forgottenlor
Its not unreasonable, but as someone who does not own a controller, it factors into whether I buy a game or not.
Why not just buy a controller? Well shelling out 25 euros could buy me a good rpg that works without a controller and I already have a sizable backlog. So for me it really does make a difference whether I am willing to invest in a game or not.
I have no problem with a company that doesn't want to invest in implementing decent keyboard & mouse controls, but I haven't wanted to play a game so badly
up until now to actually invest in a controller, and so companies have to take into consideration that people like me won't buy their games. And I actually, from various forums, believe that there are a good number of players like me who say "No good m/kb? Then I'll buy a different game instead."

Or just buy a controller. Versatility. I would never play a sports game with kb/m, and while I usually play everything on PC with kb/m, it never hurts to have a controller for your PC for certain games (emulators, retro games, etc.).

I also have a USB Wii sensor bar and Wiimote, but I'm just crazy enough to do that.

The DRM prevents mods.

Originally Posted by joxer
DRM paranoia? bah.
What's censored? Any modder working on it?