Tales of Berseria is an action JRPG game about revenge with a focus on storytelling. It was also a reboot of the Tales series. The game has one of the best writing I have seen in video games so far, which is reflected in the story and character development. The story seems to be a simple revenge story, but is surprisingly complex due to the interconnected characters, extensive world building, and lore (especially the concept of malaks and malevolence). With only minor improvements, the Remastered edition is not worth buying if you already own the original.
There are a lot of optional dialogues (all voice acted), some of them less relevant about cooking, history, or ordinary stuff. Sometimes there can be a bit too many dialogues in a row, but on the other hand they often lead to interesting or funny discussions and arguments between the party members. Dialogues range from seemingly irrelevant information to funny or even silly. And dialog topics that seem irrelevant at first will be picked up later.
The game also surprises you every now and then with edgy/quirky/silly moments. Sometimes the game is serious and other times it is hilarious. I think most of the time it works very well and the designers have found a good balance to tell a still mature story with a bittersweet ending. In addition, the English translation is well done and even the puns have been thoroughly translated.
Even though you are playing anti-heroes, all the main characters are very likeable and have substantial development throughout the game. The main protagonist, Velvet, is torn between being a good person at core and being driven by revenge - sometimes one side comes to the fore, sometimes the other. This is further enhanced by Velvet's great English voice acting. Only Vevet's sexy outfit does not fit her character (or she does not care), which was probably chosen as an eye-catching selling point. In addition to the anti-heroes, there are several antagonists that are great as well. They have depth, appear frequently throughout the game, and are memorable as a result.
The voice acting is overall very good, although some voices can be on the eccentric side, but all fit the character. This is accompanied by an intriguing group chemistry with arguments between the characters due to conflicting perspectives and goals. In addition to the main characters, there are many supporting characters, each of whom is also memorable. There are a few optional (all voice-acted) side quests, most of them at the end of the game, which usually involve some of your main characters.
The (linear) story is great, but I am less thrilled with the game mechanics. There are many mechanics that encourage grinding for leveling something up, i.e., the game rewards you for doing something repeatedly. E.g., abilities and items level up in (lots of) combat. Titles provide buffs to characters and level up through achievements in (lots of) combat. You can upgrade gear, which cost resources that you have to collect in (lots of) combat. Upgrading your gear can turn into long work sessions if you get caught in a cycle of dismantling and upgrading numerous gear items. However, each upgrade only improves an item slightly and has little notable effect. There is also a ship that you can send on an expedition every 30 minutes, which collects random items (mainly cooking ingredients) and levels up with each expedition. Cooking gives you different buffs in combat depending on the dish, each of which also levels up.
Moreover, you can collect chests, flowers, materials, and orbs as you travel around the world. Collected materials can be sold to merchants, who also level up globally when you trade with them. The Remastered edition got mostly rid of the annoying pop-up window if you collect materials from the ground. Collected orbs can unlock special chests containing cosmetic accessories for your characters.
The level design is plain and mostly linear. Levels occasionally have branching paths where the dead ends will lead to chests. I wish the game would have better and more interesting level design. Moreover, the last dungeon feels like a maze with long forward and backward passages that make the end drag on. Some dungeons contain minor puzzles where you have to activate something to unlock a door, but these puzzles are very basic.
At the beginning of the game I wish the movement speed would be faster, as there is some backtracking. Later, you can make use of fast travel and the game has very fast loading times. Fortunately, the Remastered edition make it easier to find the nearest fast-travel point to a quest, as quest locations and fast-travel points are now shown in the same menu.
The combat system is reminiscent of a fighting game, including blocking and combos. The game does a very poor job of introducing the combat mechanics. The system is only explained by brief pop-up boxes which overwhelm you right from the beginning – especially if this is your first Tales of game. The main problem here is that the player has to learn a lot of conditional rules and vocabulary in a short time. Furthermore, information in some menus is presented with a sliding text that makes it tedious to read, while some of the info boxes are so small that only two sentences fit in them, forcing you to scroll to read the rest of the sentence.
Combat is based on managing two gauges that automatically fill up and empty as abilities (called "artes") are used. It is a back and forth: you attack until you run out of energy and then retreat briefly until you can attack again. Artes can be freely customized and assigned to the controller buttons. There are different types and rules for how to sequence artes. I wish the game would provide better assistance with this. In addition, each arte can cause elemental damage that can be used effectively against certain enemies. On normal difficulty, it is quite important to exploit the elemental weaknesses, otherwise combat may drag on. So you should adjust your artes regularly for each region, as each region has a different set of monsters.
Alternatively, you can switch to fully automatic combat, which works okay on normal difficulty, although it is not the most efficient. You can also influence your companion's behavior to some extent by assigning AI strategies to each character. Furthermore, you can swap characters in and out during combat and even play them. Overall, the combat system is okay: it has a rather stiff feel and lagginess (e.g., dodging), and it eventually comes down to simple button pressing if you use the right artes.
Some of the post-battle dialogues are fun, even if they get repetitive over time, but they are not as good as in Tales of Zestiria. I only wish they would have toned down the battle cries a bit, as the characters keep yelling the same ability names.
The music is powerful with some really good tracks. However, some tracks can get annoying over time. The music is not the most complex and the melodies repeat quickly. Still, the music is energetic and adds weight to the narrative quite well.
The game looks like a mix of a Playstation 2 and 3 game. The graphics are good in terms of character models, animations, and anime scenes (skits), but the environments, especially the dungeons, look plain dead, with little detail, and often only resemble tube-like corridors. Tales of Berseria uses the same (old) game engine as Tales of Zestiria with some improvements (e.g., lip sync and the PC port is much better).
Tales of Berseria is my favorite Tales of game. I love the characters, the narrative, the script, and the voice acting. I highly recommend it for these qualities. I also recommend playing Tales of Berseria before Tales of Zestiria: both games share the same world, with Berseria taking place 1000 years earlier. In Tales of Zestiria, the player learns a lot about the world, which can spoil some of the experience when you start discovering Berseria.
