Tales of Berseria

That surf board is a good idea! (Magilou rides it best.

Finished the game. I would definitely put it in the "meh" category, though.

Story: not bad once it finally gets going (took me about 30 hours to get to that point) but even then the game is incredibly preachy. I think that's why it feels so much like a kids' game to me - at every turn it seems to be trying to give me advice. It's definitely got some good twists to it, though, and there's some fun humor in there.

Graphics: very much "last gen" console graphics but they do a good job with what they have.

Voice acting: I played in English and it seemed mostly OK. A few characters really grated but they were all pretty minor characters anyway.

Music: Meh at best. Even the songs that were good were on a short loop so they got annoying after a time.

Combat: Weird. As I posted before, there's quite a bit of depth but you just don't need it, at least at medium difficulties. You can switch characters mid-battle but Velvet is much easier to play so why do it? You can switch out your battle moves but, as Joxer posted above, you can get by just fine with a stun-heavy line through the whole game so why bother? Still, the combat IS fun even with all its craziness of spells going off and characters constantly shouting out their moves.

Saving: Fine. It's got a save point system but it also lets you quick-save anywhere.

Port: Mostly good. The buttons in the battle system are really strange but I was able to play fine on keyboard/mouse once I figured that out.

Movement: Very linear for a really long time. Eventually you get to actually go where you want but that's only to places you've been before - this is no open world. You also get special potions that let you teleport out of a dungeon (or to the other side if there's another entrance that you've found). And special potions that let you teleport to cities you've been to. And a hover-board to let you surf the landscape and blow through low level enemies. (I had a lot of fun with the latter!)

Value: You're getting a LOT of content for your money! I played for over 90 hours and left some late game side quests and the optional dungeon out. That ain't bad for $50 and I got it on sale for half price. (Definitely ignore the DLC.)

I would give it about a 6 out of 10. Well worth it to JRPG fans. If you're just into story heavy action RPGs then it's worth playing through but don't be in a rush - wait for a sale then play it to kill time between the big releases.

Just tried it, it's fantastic

Zloth said:

Finished the game. I would definitely put it in the "meh" category, though.

Click to expand...

Well, I wouldn't.

Masterpiece:
- trolling (the game has a bonus Katz level that's übertolling, apart from that Magilou trolls everyone including herself, designers, designs, publisher and even the player themself!)

Brilliant:
- the story: this time you're roleplaying a girl who's brother got killed, the murder turns her into a deadly mistress of doom who wants her revenge by any means necessary - you won't be an usual dogooder here (imagine a setup similar to cult classic http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077713/ just not rated M)
- all characters have their stories and agenda, all are different, noone is boring and this is a rare game where I actually cared about each and every one of them
- original (japanese) voiceover is top notch

Okay:
- UI in PC port (could have been better though, but is still acceptable)
- semiopenworld (would be awsome if the world parts weren't closed based on "chapter")
- you can make quicksave anywhere (would be better if was mapped on F5 and not unnatural keycombo with Q on PC)

Bad:
- outdated graphics that look like just a bit better than now ancient Gothic 1
- maps and map system does not fit plenty of backtracking this game has
- combat does look flashy but is easy, repetitive and boring, typical mushroom rubbish
- english dub feels like if was made by a few teenagers joking around

Atrocious / unforgivable sin:
- the game is a grinder in every single bit, anything you want to do, you must grind and by that I don't mean just fighting, but also crafting, collecting "collectibles", cooking, etc
- level design is worse than amateurish
- all minigames suck, all stink and not a single one of them is fun


It's not meh to me. This game is a mustbuy IMO just because of it's story, characters and trolling rarely seen in any game. However, because everything else in it is mediocre or horrible, wishlist it and buy when discounted.
This title is one of games that needs to be remade with nongrinding systems and with PC graphics/UI which would make it 10/10 material. In it's current form I can't put on it more than:
6/10


Additional note: Do not buy Tales of Zestiria which is Berseria's sequel because if I got it right, is even bigger grinder than Berseria with a mediocre story. Watch the anime series instead, it's very good (it does contain a few story changes, but nothing insulting like Tom Bombadil being exiled from movies).