Tales of Berseria Restored My Faith in the Tales Series 

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Ah yes, a fellow man of culture, a southerner/midwesterner jrpg fan

I def agree magilous dub voice is amazing but her japanese voice is next next level

Great review! JRPGs normally take me months to finish due to lack of interest, but Tales of Berseria hooked me in immediately. I had just finished Zestiria and was left disappointed, then figured I'd try Berseria and was blown away. I finished Berseria in under a week, despite working full-time that week as well. It did NOT get very much sleep. =p

What a great review especially the part describing the character arcs and combat

Glad Eleanor got some love. She’s also my favorite character in this game hands down.

southern gentleman into the JRPGs. I love it.

I really dig your sincere and laid back approach to reviewing games. Keep it up. I don't sub to pretty much anything but I'm curious in what else you cover.

I've never agreed with a review more than this one. I just finished Berseria and loved it! I didn't expect it to be that engaging, as I was rather disappointed with some previous Tales games.

Awesome review! Thank you for the insight

I loved how Berseria is a prequel to Zestiria. If you played both games you'll be able to connect certain characters and even the environments before & after.

Note that same guy directed Berseria as Symphonia. He also in charge of the newest Tales release.

i played tales of symphonia when I was a kid with my friends. the 4 player co-op story mode is the highlight of my childhood. after that i never touched another tales game until bersaria. a 17 year gap from my tales games lol. great review. this is literally what i thought of this game. elanor and magilou was super fun to play in battle.

Great video! Huge fan of Symphonia myself :)

I played Berseria a long time ago, song Sound of Silence stayed with me till this day. Criminally underused song. I think they used it only in dungeons for some reason.

This game is what got me to but arise. The story right from the start had me hooked. It was also the first game I've played where you are seen as the villans rather than the good guys like in 90% of game titles. I just wish this game wasn't censored at the start of the game.

Great video, thank you!

My favorite games in order are Berseria,Arise, and Xillia 1

I don't have as much of a history with Tales prior to Berseria. At that point I've only seen playthroughs of Vesperia and Zesteria. I was much younger wth Vesperia and it was the first time i really sat through a lengthy JRPG story, but loved the characters there. Liked Zesteria enough but admittedly wasn't paying the most attention to whatever could be critiqued. But Berseria came my freshman year of college and I adored the story and cast. A couple years later i got it myself on steam and adored the story and cast even more and that gameplay is really fun. To this day, with Tales as my favorite JRPG series and at least experiencing the story of every main title, (including Arise) Berseria simply can't be beat in that regard for me. It's an edgy, grim one on the surface but hides a lot of levity and heart once you get to know it, a lot like Velvet herself. The cast is just perfectly synergized, it's insane. Not only are the individual personalities/archetypes done well but it's like they're built around each other. You have Velvet and Eizen who come across as the no nonsense, morally gray members but both hide a lot of light and goofiness (Eizen especially), then there are Rokuro and Magilou who are very openly goofy and laidback but also morally gray and keep THEIR darker aspects more subdued, while we have Eleanor and Laphicet to serve as more moral compasses for the group but get roped in on the hijinks,Laphicet being a more blank slate trying to find himself while Eleanor is a lot more hesitant but goes along to discover what is right and wrong for herself after realizing the truth of how ghee Abbey operates. And don't even get me started on the antagonists and side characters as well. Coupled with equally amazing voice casts in both languages, amazing narrative themes throughout, a battle system that really rewards getting good and utilizing ALL of it to truly master, favorite game in the series for me easy. Also Magilou number 1 character Also also, i can agree about the dungeons, but I'd say they do pick up after a bit. Puzzles aren't as involved like Symphonia or even the 2d tales puzzles, but they do try and throw some more activity. Like the water puzzle in the Haria dungeon where you find Kamoana or in the forest with the different colored gas. It's more of a "the layout itself is part of the puzzle" kinda dungeon type in Berseria, which i actually enjoy but understandable if someone wants more focused ones. Doesn't help it takes a while for the dungeons to start adding them lol.

The way I remember velvet was that she's doing this balancing act between being kind to the boy and being blind on revenge quite early on. Was the gap between the start and her naming the kid that big that some people only remember her for the revenge part? Or was the mommy velvet bits just side content skits most people miss? Been a while since I played this game.

Man I remember that I loved Vesperia after having purposefully ignored the series before, but didn't like Symphonia and instantly became bored and had to force myself through Xilia after finishing Vesperia. Haven't touched a Tales game since. Now I am feeling to old for these anime games and their teenage characters and the always same archetypes. The recent ones like Arise and Beseria look fun gameplay wise though

symphonia was also my first. i bought or rented a few more and gradually lost faith. i will try this one as i have it on steam

the best tales game i have ever played, made me laugh and cry, 44 hours all worth it

Eleanor 😍

After being very let down by Zestiria, I was hesitant to start this. But I am so glad I decided to give it a try. I love it! I think it starts off slow but a lot of games do. But it’s absolutely beautiful and I honestly don’t want to finish it 😅

Hey, I play Berseria in easy and completely in the automatic mode of the main character. Works great. And the main character can use all the arts, not only the slotted.

7:30 Oh boy you made a terrible mistake there. Rokurou is probably the most OP character in the entire game since he's basically an anti-boss character. Once you master him, the whole enemies in this game are a joke, even on Chaos difficulty. Anyone can't hit you if you know how to use his Break Arte very well. You spent 1 Soul to gain another soul or even filling up you Soul Gauge, he's just too OP to me. Magilou comes second OP, since you can exploit Spell Absorber by cancelling the release to fill the spell gauge, which then guarantee you Lighting Strike (and Tetra Detonator in end game) every time you use Spell Absorber (two of her most powerful release artes.) These two characters basically make you spent a Soul to gain more Souls. Which then you can use it to gain another Soul, and the cycle repeats. It's funny that you love playing with Velvet and Eleanor, since I consider two characters who have mid combat play which is pretty boring to me. You can keep wasting your Soul very often with the two characters because it didn't hit the enemy. Eizen and Laphicet is pretty challenging since you must master how to use Malak Arte very well (which I'm not really good at.) It's best to left Laphicet as an AI controlled character, because AI can use his artes very well than me. Also Eizen as well, since AI can use his teleporting skills better than I do.

Currently playing Vesperia, and wanted to check out if this one was any good. Thanks for giving an overall on the other games to, I played Xillia 1/2 (which I'm in agreement of your opinion) and will be getting Arise for Xmas. Really excited. 😊

Nice review

I’d be curious to see your opinion on Arise.

The best thing in zestiria was Edna, she was pure gold

Mama always said Tales games were like a box of chocolates.

Magilou is Harley Quinn in complete Anime form

What game would you recommend to play first, Tales of Berseria or Arise ?

I played zestiria way back on the ps4 and I agree with what you say about it however I just finished it in 2024 and the game aged really really great amazing combat fantastic story and the characters are all loveable.

Have you played Tales of Arise yet? I don't see it in your videos. I'm playing it now and curious what you think. I'm Thinking about playing Berseria next. Great review!

Like commented and subscribed 👍

Whoa whoa whoa Graces F had a buuunch of side content….technically the whole after story is side content

Have u played trails of cold steel 1 for ps4? I'm considering this game or cold steel. Still deciding

Bought vesperia about a month ago and I love it, my first tales of game. Just bought this 1 and the soundtrack is a big bummer imo. Makes the Game boring even with good story ect... Also bought arise, but wanted to beat berseria first.

The only Tales game I played before was Tales of Phantaisa. I don’t really like post 5th Gen JRPGs; they are too anime and I don’t like anime much. This game though, man. This is a whole new animal. The game feels like a WRPG at times. At no point have I found the characters annoying and the combat is tolerable. I feel like WRPGs get real time action combat well and JRPGs should stick to turn based tactical combat but this game manages to break that mold. It’s a good combat system. Then there is Magilou. I love Magilou. In ANY other JRPG series this character would be annoying as hell and I worried when I saw the artwork “oh no, another moe character.” I expected to hate this girl but oh no this chick is a riot. I just want to follow her all day while she narrates everything she sees. She is a veritable orchestra of sarcasm wrapped in mockery with a dash of narcissism all delivered in an over the top dramatic style. I like this game a lot.

Go play Tales of Arise. Its even better imo

Lol, ironically, Berseria is the point where I just lose faith in the series. It's too edgy, and none of the characters engages me. Even after Arise, I still couldn't love the series like I did before.

I have eight hours in and I desperately want to find reasons to keep playing this game. I cannot believe that there are people out there who could rate this higher than a seven, let alone a full ten. This game does nothing well, everything about it is mediocre at best. The characters are not only silly, but nonsensical as well and it's not because it is a JRPG either. When your characters act like nothing phases them, constantly being cocky and laughing at danger then nothing really matters. You certainly cannot get invested in a plot where there is no danger or threat. Velvet who can only grumble about revenge just barely escapes being another generic character. The rest of the crew you have seen a million times on animes and other games, only much better. The game's characters had a few moments where they made me chuckle, but for the most part I was rolling my eyes. The combat is where this game really hurts the most. I have been mashing buttons randomly for hours. I never bothered reading what the attacks do and I have managed to keep going. No enemy or boss cant stand up to my mashing of the buttons. The attacks themselves all look the same, it's mostly chaos in the battlefield. I have not needed to change characters at all during fights. I haven't bothered upgrading anything, I am just hoarding every item I have. This game is definitely better than that horrendous Zestiria. So I guess I can say that this is a step forward. Everything about this game is mediocre, good thing I got it on a sale.

PSN sale $8 until july 6th 2023