Tales of Berseria Review

"Velvet's Pirate Adventure"

Campaign

Tales of Berseria is an epic and massive RPG that follows a young girl named Velvet as she turns into a Daemon as a way to get revenge for the sacrifice of her brother. The game is long lasting with over twenty hours at a speed running pace and filled with great side content if you'd like to further build on that time.

I found the story to be quite gripping having my full engagement through its entirety with many great plot twists and exciting surprises to be had along the way. The story was also wide spread in that it had many supporting characters with their own things going on that perfectly tied into the main course of events while never taking the narrative off course.

This group of characters was also rather wild, wacky and a lot of fun offering a wide range of personalities to create a squad I could have never imagined. The world was also large in scale offering a number of exotic locations to visit while sailing about and generally a great use of space. I did find that there was a bit of backtracking present that seemed to drag at the start, but was definitely used more effectively later on in the game.

The narrative did a great job of keeping the general theme of revenge strong throughout the entire story while never fading in what Velvet's core goals were. It was also nice to have a game that carried a darker plot compared to many other titles while embracing a more adult focused story.

Gameplay

The game is told through a number of ways including regular story, in-game animation cinematics and some interesting moving overlay comics. These all work well together matching each situation and I also liked the addition of carrying out some narration through the PS4 controller. Gameplay was smooth, fluid and exciting offering open areas to explore while still having enough of a linear focus as not to get lost.

At times I wasn't sure where exactly I was going with dungeon adventuring or even general movement though I never struggled to get somewhere. There could have been a bit more direction for what you're doing, yet I was satisfied when just figuring things out. Combat was also great having you go off into a quick mini battle of sorts.

Each character in your squad would come together with substitutes being available in the later areas of the game as your team does get quite large. You generally control Velvet during combat which is solid since her demon claw is strong against almost all enemies.

They have a health wheel and you'll want to string together combo moves with the squad to be more effective. It does somewhat feel like a button mashing experience, especially later on though I enjoyed the battle sequences. You also have the option to run away if you get caught in battle while just moving through the world which is nice as I don't care to do every little battle on the way to progressing the story.

The world itself looked decent though the graphics weren't anything too amazing, but generally a calming experience. I did like how loading between areas was seamless and instant which made travel simple while encouraging exploration.

The Conclusion

Tales of Berseria was an amazing game offering a long story that kept my attention the entire time and brought together a compelling group of anti-heroes. Velvet was a strong lead character that had a great narrative behind her as the theme of revenge was carried well throughout the whole game.

Gameplay was fluid and lively making the world feel more alive while offering a wide range of environments to explore through. The backtracking could have been cut down on a bit, but it wasn't as annoying later on as they were more creative with how it was used. Combat was also great being mostly exciting aside from making my thumb sore after hours of straight gameplay. I definitely enjoyed the story, found the cast interesting and I thoroughly enjoyed Tales of Berseria.

Tales of Berseria for Playstation 4
Review Code Provided by 47

Rating Overall: 9.0