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Tales of Berseria Import Thread

Dark Schala

Eloquent Princess
This is gonna be my first time skipping a Tales import at launch out of disinterest and the demo wasn't so hot for me. Looking at Rpgm & FSLink for impressions since you both know what's up with respect to engines.

Also I can't justify paying over $100 for it.
 

Kanann

Member
4 hours, breakfast.

At the time when I nearly ditch Tales series, They give me the most interesting group of villain in Berseria.

Battle, upgrade/skill system are so far so good.

Graphic's same shit as Zestira but 60fps now, many good cut scenes.
 
Could you explain to me what you mean with this statement? I don't get what it means.

I mean that people who are, after all these years, still hoping for a release of Vesperia PS3 in the west would probably end up being disappointed by it in contrast to their lofty expectations.

While probably better than the more recent entries, it's still a Tales game with all pro's and con's that being an entry of this franchise entails.
 

Lucentto

Banned
I'm hoping for some good impressions from this one. Not "It's better than Zestiria at least" but "This is an actual good Tales game" impressions. Don't let me down like I am expecting you to Namco.
 
I mean that people who are, after all these years, still hoping for a release of Vesperia PS3 in the west would probably end up being disappointed by it in contrast to their lofty expectations.

While probably better than the more recent entries, it's still a Tales game with all pro's and con's that being an entry of this franchise entails.

True, but it's a much better Tales game than we've seen in the last almost decade now.
 

Zedark

Member
I mean that people who are, after all these years, still hoping for a release of Vesperia PS3 in the west would probably end up being disappointed by it in contrast to their lofty expectations.

While probably better than the more recent entries, it's still a Tales game with all pro's and con's that being an entry of this franchise entails.

Hmm, personally I'd kill for a PS3 ( or more likely a PS4 port) version of this game. It's my third favourite game ever and I have played it for around 250 hours. I last played it a few months ago and it is still lovely for 2016 standard imo. Getting that awesome game again with some new content would be absolutely wonderful.
 
An hour in and the cutscene direction is leaps and bounds better than the last few titles IMO.

Digging the story so far, but I don't have much to say about the gameplay since it's still early.
 

Zedark

Member
An hour in and the cutscene direction is leaps and bounds better than the last few titles IMO.

Digging the story so far, but I don't have much to say about the gameplay since it's still early.

Are they reasonably fast-paced? My biggest gripe with Xillia and Zestiria was the slow pace of the conversations in the cutscenes.
 

Bebpo

Banned
My copy's in the mail, probably get and start it tomorrow. Expecting the worst, hoping for the best?

*edit* Oh, and nice job OP, the OP post looks really nice!
 

Alastor3

Member
last Tales I played was The Abyss on ps2. Never get the chance to try Vespiria, hated Tales of Graces characters and story and never played it more than a couple hours, hated how xilia and xilia2 was made and Zestiria just didnt appeal to me but Bestiria seems quite good.

I just feel all the story in each Tales are basically all the same except maybe for Tales of Legendia.
 

Aeana

Member
I'm apparently a very weak person.

CqGtKbLW8AEyx24.jpg:large
 

Fou-Lu

Member
Well, it's a plus for me Aeana! I trust your opinions on RPGs, so I look forward to your impressions before I do anything crazy myself.
 

BigEmil

Junior Member
So can we cover up the main character? It's abit too unnecessarily revealing and provocative, I'm guessing I have to buy dlc to do that
 

yami4ct

Member
True, but it's a much better Tales game than we've seen in the last almost decade now.

Depends on what you're looking for. I played Vesperia not too long after playing XIllia, and TBH, I preferred Xillia. Vesperia has a nice art style, some good characters and better dungeons, but I actually liked Xillia's cast more overall and the battle system could not be more improved. Vesperia's slow ass combat was a huge bore for me and since that's a majority of your time with actually playing the game, that's a problem for me. I also think the large world Vespy had hurt more than it helped. Sure the open areas are more interesting, but having that huge world map did nothing all that interesting than add a ton of travel time. I much rather just select a hub off a menu.

I like a lot of aspects of Vespy and it's undoubtedly a well made game, but in terms of pure fun, I'd replay Graces or Xillia over it any day.
 

Parakeetman

No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
Got my game sitting here on the desk, doubt Ill be able to get to it any time soon though...
 

Dark Schala

Eloquent Princess
I'm apparently a very weak person.
Ex and I were debating about the emphasis on free run for the battle engine and I... well, you know how I feel about Free Run.

I dunno... lemme know how you feel about it when you get halfway in. I wasn't feeling the demo and I've been feeling let down by the series for a while. :(
 

kayos90

Tragic victim of fan death
An hour in and the cutscene direction is leaps and bounds better than the last few titles IMO.

Digging the story so far, but I don't have much to say about the gameplay since it's still early.

To be fair cutscene direction sorta lived and died with Xillia and Xillia 2. Was pretty much non-existent prior to those games. Zestiria's plot didn't require good cutscene direction. It was just people standing and talking.

I'm apparently a very weak person.

RIP. I would be legit curious as to what you think about Velvet's characterization more than anything else to be honest.
 

Celcius

°Temp. member
Looking forward to some spoiler free impressions. Though at the moment I'm buying it regardless lol
 

Kanann

Member
I don't know my standard and brain still have damage from Zestiria (+Exist Archive +Setsuna +Star Ocean 5) or not, but whatever!

Tales fan, you have one of the best tales here.
 

Hasemo

(;・∀・)ハッ?
Grabbing my preorder after work today, if nothing goes wrong I should be streaming the first few hours before bed.

I liked Zesty despite its problems, but the demo for ToB already felt like an improvement.
Quite excited to play it.
 

Aeana

Member
Oh man, by default the active voice stuff comes out of the controller and TV simultaneously and it scared the crap out of me.
 
To be fair cutscene direction sorta lived and died with Xillia and Xillia 2. Was pretty much non-existent prior to those games. Zestiria's plot didn't require good cutscene direction. It was just people standing and talking.

I thought the cutscene direction in Abyss was quite good. One of the bigger upgrades over Symphonia.
 

Young Magus

Junior Member
Looking foward to the impressions Aeana.

But yea, the dissatisfaction of Zesteria got me going physical this time around if I do pick up a copy.
 

Kasumin

Member
Weirdly enough, I think ToZ have a lot of new systems that shake things up (regardless of how sucessful they are) to make me think it is "more of the same" gameplay wise.

The plot felt really different from usual Tales of. I think that keeping the medieval fantasy focus all the way through in a landscape of JRPG that thow extange technology in with the fantasy setting or that are straight-up futuristic or based on reality makes it feel bolder and more unique right now. I was a thowback to older times in the genre I appreciate.

I don't really see how "shaking things up" is a positive thing if the results are mediocre. The equipment system sure as hell shook things up by making learning abilities a grindy chore whereas it wasn't one in games prior. Same goes for the battle system. Seamless battles are fine in a game like Xenoblade Chronicles where attacks, artes, and spell effects are relatively simple. But in a series like Tales where you're expected to be dodging attacks and pulling off combos using moves where characters can zip around quickly on the ground or in the air? A seamless battle system does not benefit such a system at all.

I've seen you praising Zestiria's seamless battles as though that moves the series forward, but it really doesn't.

Seamless battles make it so that there isn't a transition between battles. Great. But that's honestly a cosmetic thing, IMO. Because of seamless battles, Zestiria had to make quite a few sacrifices. For one, dungeons had to be designed a certain way to accommodate battles in them. Thus Zestiria's incredibly bland dungeon design with huge rooms and large, empty corridors.

The game also didn't seem to know how to handle elevation that well on a map when you got in a battle in such a location. The frame rate of battles was also lower than in other games. And finally, spell effects had to be dumbed down to accommodate battles on the field. FFXII did this as did Xenoblade. I like my bright and flashy spell effects in my Tales games, thank you very much. Freeze Lancer looks like a joke in ToZ compared to Symphonia or even the 2D Tales of Eternia. That's not progress.

Seamless battles may be a trend in the industry, but that doesn't mean they work for every series. Tales does not need seamless battles. This immersion you speak of? It's gained at the price of a ton of other elements that make Tales' battle system interesting. So yeah, no, I'd rather not sacrifice all that just for some vague idea of 'immersion' that gets thrown around a lot in the industry these days.

The plot also is very different from most Tales, getting rid of fluff and typical elements like like romatic interest subplots, treason among the party, racial undertones, duality of worlds among others. Throws many things that have been a staple in many the serie's plots and delivers something more simple plot that along with the other elemnts reminds me more of Dragon Quest than Tales. Given how few DQ releases tend to be over here I really value that.

I can't help but read this as you not liking elements of a story that add twists or even subversion. What you describe as fluffy I see as 'interesting.' It's like you want a dinner dish with no spices whatsoever. Just the base flavor by itself. Can't say I agree with you on that.

I don't see why Tales games' stories should be handled like DQ's. I think Tales stories benefit from having twists, betrayals, and other worlds to discover if the story necessitates. What you describe is a bland story devoid of what has drawn me to the series in the first place. And those elements are arguably what makes a story worth telling in the first place. Subverting the reader's expectations.

From my point of view I don't think it had to do more. One of the things I like of it as well is that is very ambitious and the people behind hit were clearly very passionate about it. The issue is, as many pointed out -is no secrett- polish and wrapping up. If Namco had given the team 6 more months I'm sure most people's opinion on this game would be very different as it would be the game itself. Namco could have perfectly have done this -the actual anniversary was still quite distant at the time of the japanese release after all- but sadly the pulisher keeps not giving the people in charge of making the games enough resources to complete their vision in all areas.

I got the opposite impression. I felt that Xillia was incredibly ambitious, but the game fell flat due to it not being finished. I can't really say that Xillia is the best game in the series considering how I could only get a sense of what they were trying to do. Even if that was something impressive. Same goes for Zestiria. Yes, they tried to do some impressive things in the game, but they ultimately failed. Honestly, Xillia 2 and Zestiria don't give me the sense of games that a dev team was passionate about. But rather a dev team that was strapped for time and budget and was cutting corners everywhere.

You also mentioned in another post that other Tales games play it too safe. Zestiria is the game that plays it safe with its story and characters. Most of the cast is one-dimensional and their personalities revolve around a handful of traits. Compare Zaveid to someone like Kratos or Alvin. What motivates him? Why does he do what he does? What are his goals? You get no sense whatsoever from him or the story.

Zestiria's story goes on about how Sorey must find is own path, yet
you spend most of the game with others telling Sorey what to do and him just mostly agreeing. Lailah and Rose are especially annoying about this.

Zestiria's cast stands out to me because they felt very detached from the world in which they exist. Like they didn't really care what happened to it. The seraphs seemed to look down on humans more than anything. I don't think that makes a good RPG cast.

I see so many people praise Zestiria's cast. I think this is because the game plays it so safe with them. No one in Zestiria's cast really develops or changes significantly. Not like Luke or Jude (I'm not saying every protagonist needs to be anything like these two). Those two get a lot of hate, but they also go through a fair amount of change throughout their stories. And hey, guess what, when a character goes through change he often makes mistakes and can be annoying. That's what makes a character real for me. Sorey's never seriously challenged throughout the course of the plot
until the very end
and I don't see how that kind of writing is a good thing. It's just very safe.

A straightforward story doesn't mean it's good. IMO, twists are what make a story worth reading or experiencing. Zestiria's story compared to other Tales games to me was like a plate of chicken breast with no spices, not even garlic on it - bland and just not very interesting to taste.

Abyss' story is better than those of recent Tales games.

And yet, if I recall, they stuck the scenario writer for Abyss (I believe it was Abyss) on some mobile game.

Meanwhile, the main scenario writer for Xillia 2 and Zestiria, who is seriously starting to remind me of Zack Snyder, gets to keep his role. Not a fan of this guy's writing at all.

Sorry to go off topic here. Just wanted to address a few things.
 
Meanwhile, the main scenario writer for Xillia 2 and Zestiria, who is seriously starting to remind me of Zack Snyder, gets to keep his role. Not a fan of this guy's writing at all.

I'm just wondering, but what made you think of that with Zestiria? I didn't notice anything like that in Zesty's story (though I could have just read events differently or forgotten some things), but I definitely agree with respect to Xillia 2. Never thought the idea of destroying realities could feel so meaningless and insubstantial. I didn't get around to beating that game because it was 20~ hours of unearned, awfully written melodrama contrasted against Xillia 1 fanservice (that maybe should have been in the original to begin with).

Edit: Anyone have any impressions of the battle system from playing the main game? I'm thinking my negative thoughts on it could just be from how the demo tosses you into it - really felt janky without a proper introduction, and I didn't think that perpetual free-run was a positive at all (plus environment barriers in battle still feels unnecessary to me).
 

Kvik

Member
So can we cover up the main character? It's abit too unnecessarily revealing and provocative, I'm guessing I have to buy dlc to do that

No, she has a less revealing outfit that you can equip on her from the get-go.

This is good to know. I don't generally have a problem with the main heroine wearing... whatever weird contraption that is masquerading as some kind of armor, but since Tales wasn't an ecchi game, my first task would be to equip that alternative outfit.

I remember having this same issue in Atelier Sophie.
 

SolVanderlyn

Thanos acquires the fully powered Infinity Gauntlet in The Avengers: Infinity War, but loses when all the superheroes team up together to stop him.
Someone let me know if
Zaveid shows up. He had way too much unexplained history in Zestiria.
 

Kasumin

Member
I'm just wondering, but what made you think of that with Zestiria? I didn't notice anything like that in Zesty's story (though I could have just read events differently or forgotten some things), but I definitely agree with respect to Xillia 2. Never thought the idea of destroying realities could feel so meaningless and insubstantial. I didn't get around to beating that game because it was 20~ hours of unearned, awfully written melodrama contrasted against Xillia 1 fanservice (that maybe should have been in the original to begin with).

Zestiria wasn't nearly as bad as Xillia 2 on that front. But the sidequests
where kids died for various, contrived reasons
started to seem excessive after a bit.
 

Some Nobody

Junior Member
Looking forward to finding out how this game actually is. It's on my radar because it looks decent but if it secretly sucks I'll probably wait until it's at bargain bin status lol. I want Tales to get back on track and then I want to not see a Tales game again until like 2018. XD
 

Bladenic

Member
Ex and I were debating about the emphasis on free run for the battle engine and I... well, you know how I feel about Free Run.

I dunno... lemme know how you feel about it when you get halfway in. I wasn't feeling the demo and I've been feeling let down by the series for a while. :(

So totally OT, but I haven't seen you post in any RPG thread in a long while. Dunno if I just missed you or you've been away, but good to see you're alive!
 

SephLuis

Member
I will wait for impressions. Usually I would import it asap, but I am currently am without too much money and the last time I did that was Zestiria, which I liked but it could be much better.

Got my game sitting here on the desk, doubt Ill be able to get to it any time soon though...

Give it to me and I'll play it for you =D
 
Zestiria wasn't nearly as bad as Xillia 2 on that front. But the sidequests
where kids died for various, contrived reasons
started to seem excessive after a bit.

I don't feel anything when
any of the characters died
beacuse they are too under developed for me to care. =( The only character that I somewhat care about is Rose but she is surrounded by boring people.
 
Zestiria wasn't nearly as bad as Xillia 2 on that front. But the sidequests
where kids died for various, contrived reasons
started to seem excessive after a bit.

hah shit I forgot about those, which I guess says a lot about the quality of writing in them. Dude's idea of drama is tacky as all get out.
 
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