Tales of Berseria - Review @ Niche Gamer

Niche Gamer has reviewed Tales of Berseria:

Tales of Berseria Review – Sometimes It’s Good To Be Bad

[…]

Which brings us to Tales of Berseria, a prequel to Zestiria that, other than creating a badass female lead, was meant to build upon and improve the changes set forth in its predecessor. Initially – even as a fan – I was highly skeptical that much would change, especially for the better. I loved the first Tales of Xillia, but like its own quickly pumped-out sequel, it lacked the original’s impact.

Systems were unnecessarily dragged out, the new character roleplayed a coma victim through over half the game, and 90% of the world was just copy-pasted from the previous title. Call me pessimistic if you wish, but I was confident the same fate would befall Tales of Berseria. Thankfully, I’m starting to get used to being wrong about a lot of things.

Before I get into the most impressive changes in Berseria, let’s talk about its most shocking: The story.

[…]

With such an outstanding story, great characters, a blistering fast (And addictively fun to exploit) combat system, a “less messy” weapon upgrade mechanic and the best visuals in the entire series, I feel comfortable calling this my new favorite “Tales of” game…or at the very least, tied with Graces f.

What’s great about Berseria is that unlike most Tales of games, it acts as a wonderful jumping-in point for new players. Combine this with its ease-of-use and flashy combat designed to accommodate more tactical, veteran players and you have one of the most complete JRPGs you’re likely to find on the current generation’s systems. Tales of Berseria is a must play for any and all JRPG fans.

The Verdict 9.5

The Good

• Great visuals/framerate (even on console)
• Easy to learn systems & combat
• Engrossing story & characters
• Lots of new environments, very little copied over from Zestiria
• Feels like a true “next-gen” Tales game
• Battles are highly exploitable if you know what you’re doing

The Bad

• Some mild backtracking, which can get tiring
• Battles are highly exploitable…which may be a turn off to some

More information.

9.5?

So… It's better than TW3 which is 9.2:
http://www.metacritic.com/game/plays…er-3-wild-hunt

I'm off to buy this masterpiece.
Not.

I'm really enjoying playing through it on the PS4 :0)

What a ridiculous genre.

Originally Posted by joxer
9.5?

So… It's better than TW3 which is 9.2:
http://www.metacritic.com/game/plays…er-3-wild-hunt

I'm off to buy this masterpiece.
Not.

I haven't played TW3, but loving Tales of Berseria a lot. I usually don't play twitch RPGs, but the combat system in ToB is such that I can play it just fine. The story is awesome, the characters fully developed and interesting. Plenty of gameplay (I'm at about 45 hours and don't think it's ending any time soon).

Metacritic for this game is at 80. Steam reviews are 95% positive.

News page indicate they have an AI and sound bug right now.

Originally Posted by joxer
9.5?

So… It's better than TW3 which is 9.2:
http://www.metacritic.com/game/plays…er-3-wild-hunt

I'm off to buy this masterpiece.
Not.

Well congrats for getting through a post without derisively saying "MMO" for once, at least.

I've played and completed both. Yes, TW3 is better. Of course. But Berseria, while not ground breakingly original, is one of the better JRPGs of the past couple of years thanks to things like its characters and I don't think it's unreasonable when it gets an 80 to low 90 score.

Originally Posted by Avantre
Well congrats for getting through a post without derisively saying "MMO" for once, at least.

He didn't say "phone game" either, so this is progress, I guess.

Originally Posted by Avantre
But Berseria, while not ground breakingly original, is one of the better JRPGs of the past couple of years thanks to things like its characters and I don't think it's unreasonable when it gets an 80 to low 90 score.

Legit question(tm): How does Berseria size up with other classic Tales (Symphonia, Vesperia)? Is it of any good?
I'm genuinely interested in the darker storyline, and Motoi Sakuraba's music is always a sweet spot for me -- but so many great games, so little time…

Get real, why would I say it's MMO or phonegame when it's obviously not. I only say that for games that are.

Because you usually do. It seems like those are your favorites insults for anything game you dislike. Btw KOTR is a phone game; so hopefully you never played it and never will.

Originally Posted by joxer
Get real, why would I say it's MMO or phonegame when it's obviously not. I only say that for games that are.

Originally Posted by Avantre
Well congrats for getting through a post without derisively saying "MMO" for once, at least.

Originally Posted by duerer
He didn't say "phone game" either, so this is progress, I guess.

Originally Posted by duerer
Legit question(tm): How does Berseria size up with other classic Tales (Symphonia, Vesperia)? Is it of any good?
I'm genuinely interested in the darker storyline, and Motoi Sakuraba's music is always a sweet spot for me -- but so many great games, so little time…

Yes, I think it's up there with Vesperia thanks to the interesting party characters and pretty engaging combat. Combat system's good (with only one drawback that can get annoying - it's built around expoloiting weaknesses to build a larger combo buffer, but it works on you too - which means that you can find your combo buffer getting very short if you get stunned a couple of times). Storyline's good without being mind-blowingly original. I sunk around 102 hours into it according to the steam clock (some of that was dead time while I was doing other things, though, so let's say 95 hours)

I probably liked the story only in two Tales games: Abyss and Vesperia (last one winning by far).

Will probably try this one because those three episodes that were put into the Tales of Zestiria anime series. Funny thing: those three episodes were better than all the Zestiria episodes by miles.