If you’ve played a Tales game in the past five years, the core gameplay mechanics will feel very similar, as you’ll have free reign over movement and actions on the battlefield, while also pulling Zestiria’s energy meter to set up combos. Moving past the story, the fluid combat of past Tales games make the transition into Berseria rather nicely, but not without a couple of changes to the formula. There are times of selfishness that will end up getting others killed, but she’s more aggressive than she is heartless, coming nowhere near anti-heroes such as God of War’s Kratos or Asura from Asura’s Wrath, two individuals who wouldn’t hesitate to eradicate endless lives. She constantly conveys she won’t hesitate to kill, yet she spares the vast majority of characters she comes across, and even makes friends with quite a few of them. A slight complaint against Velvet’s character is that all talk as she’s more forgiving than her demeanor leads on to be. It’s a little more mature than we’ve come to expect from a Tales game because the premise isn’t your typical save the world plot it’s a revenge tale where Velvet will kill anyone who stands in her way – or at least that’s what she says. Regardless, this is a surprisingly memorable tale with a colorful cast of characters, despite the main antagonist rarely being more than a mention in the background. There are a couple faces, such as Bienfu, you will completely forget is along for the journey as their input, while impactful for character development of specific individuals within the main cast, is minimal at best. Even some of the smaller characters, ones you’d expect to never see again in other RPGs, have their time to shine throughout the campaign. The story is more about family than anything else, not just blood-related but the strong bonds Velvet forms with others. After a turning point, though, things begin to pick up and Tales of Berseria unravels into a rather intriguing plot, almost convincing you that Velvet’s selfish desires are that of an antagonist, despite her attitude slowly evolving from a lone wolf into a more open individual. It’s an incredibly slow rollout, even by Japanese Role Playing standards, where the characters refuse to change from their one sided motivations and the plot is but a glimmer in the distance. The problem with the story is that it takes roughly twenty hours before things begin to pick up. From here, Velvet gains a mysterious dark power that allows her to devour anyone and anything in her path as she swears revenge on the antagonist, Artorius. Unfortunately, things turn dark as someone close to Velvet betrays her and sacrifices Laphicet in some demonic ritual. The plot of Tales of Berseria revolves around Velvet Crowe, a young girl who only wants to protect her younger brother Laphicet who has come down with a serious illness. Considering how the last few games have had less than stellar stories, mainly due to their generic and overly typical anime stereotypes, Tales of Berseria is a breath of fresh air we haven’t seen since Tales of Vesperia. Taking place in the same world as Tales of Zestiria, only a thousand years prior, Tales of Berseria finds a way to stand on its own with a colorful cast of characters and a compelling story. Despite being a couple months late compared to its Japanese counterpart, Tales of Berseria is actually one of the fastest turnarounds in the franchise, hopefully setting a standard for the series moving forward. Among the anime fighting and brawlers, the Tales series has become one of the biggest modern franchises from the Japanese giant, so it’s not surprising they would want to share it with the rest of the world as soon as possible. Heck, 2014 saw three games published in North America and Europe, provided you count a port of a former Wii-exclusive. When games such as Final Fantasy take forever to see the light of day, Bandai Namco is releasing a new Tales game every year. If there’s one franchise that has taken advantage of Square Enix’s lengthy development cycles, it’s the Tales series.
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