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Tales of Berseria Import Thread

I've been waffling on whether I should get it or wait until a better time. I've bought every Tales game at release for as long as I can remember, but there's so much other stuff going on that I might sit this one out until later. The demo didn't really excite me much, but RPG demos rarely do.

Dammit i love reading your Tales impressions they are so good! :D

but fair play if you've got lots of other things going on
 

Easy_D

never left the stone age
So uh, do monsters exist as actual physcal beings in Berseria? It always weirded me out how every monster in Zestiria were actually just regular people and animals possessed by EVIIIIILLLL, which meant you had to be super special to see that they were monsters.
 

Hasemo

(;・∀・)ハッ?
Hm, can't take screenshots and broadcasting from ps4 doesn't seem to work. Oh well!
 
A bit more than 4 hours played, just got the ability to strengthen and break equipment apart.

Bad guys, I already want to punch them in the face and I still haven't seen all of them. I'm sure they have a reason hidden from us at this point and that they'll reveal later. But still, let me punch them for now, please :p (take this as a positive for now)

I really like some of the quality of life changes so far:
- Warp point at the beginning and end of a cave so you don't have to walk through everything every time...will they do that for every cave and dungeon? If so, very nice.
- Cooking is once again through the main menu, and you can automate it very easily. One meal done on the field recovers all HP regardless of the food, that's nice. A meal only lasts for one battle, no more multi-battle effects, but with auto-create it's not a problem.
- All (it seems so anyway) sub-events are now clearly indicated on the map and you can thus check through the world map if you should need to go to a certain place or not. Only got one sub-event at an inn, but it seems they too are marked so you don't need to save scum in order to check if one such event occurs after resting.

If you get useless equipment, you can break it down into parts at shops to empower another one. At least now there's a use to them and you don't spend your time fusioning them in the hope of making skills worth a damn.

All shops seem to share the same upgrade bar? Maybe it's per region but I haven't gotten to another region yet so I don't know for sure.

Combat is easy to get into, but I've yet to master it of course so I can't really get all the moves I want each time for some reason. That will change with practice.

I had a bit of a scare at the beginning, I almost raged when I couldn't see the DLC in the menu...I thought they had changed to a service-based DLC with the catalog contents, but after the cold sweat I attempted to redownload Catalog 01, and for some reason at that point the DLC appeared.
As I'm writing this, I think I may know why in fact...the DLC was bought before the game launched, and when I tried the demo last week, Catalog 01 installed itself for some reason...so maybe it attached the content to the demo that couldn't access it, and thus was not installed on the full game.
 

Ydelnae

Member
Do you still have to pay to use the warp points this time? That was a completely annoying and unnecessary design decision in Zestiria.
 
A little bit good at first and went to total shit about 10-15 hours after the game launched. This seems better at the moment.

From what I remember people were high on it and then we starting hearing some other things once people reached the end.

Started out positive for me then went to shit. By the end, I thought it was easily one the worst console Tales. It's definitely worse than Xillia 1/2 and Graces to me. Only good spot for me was Edna was amazing.

I picked up Berseria and got the B2 tapestry.

I see, that much is expected.

And now let's see how it goes for Berseria. Maybe we'll get a full impressions in several days.
 

aravuus

Member
would watching the TOZ anime be a good substitute for the game?

I want to know this too. I started watching someone's playthrough of the game a couple of days ago in case you need to know what happens in ToZ when playing Berseria, but it's painfully boring.
 

Ydelnae

Member
would watching the TOZ anime be a good substitute for the game?

I skipped Zestiria and watched the anime to catch up for the story, but ended up deciding playing the game as well. So far, the anime has been adapting events from the game and expanding on others (Alisha, for example). But now it seems like the events told in the anime will differ those from the game.

In my opinion, the storytelling in the anime is much better. But Berseria will consider what happens in the game canon.
 

Heyt

Banned
If you just want to know the story withot having to invest on the game, the anime so far is better than the game in that regard imo.
 
Do you still have to pay to use the warp points this time? That was a completely annoying and unnecessary design decision in Zestiria.

If you meant the ones I talked about just above (on the same map such as dungeon or cave), then no it's free.
I don't know if there is another way of teleportation between continents though, so that one could be paid.
 

Cornbread78

Member
would watching the TOZ anime be a good substitute for the game?

I want to know this too. I started watching someone's playthrough of the game a couple of days ago in case you need to know what happens in ToZ when playing Berseria, but it's painfully boring.

Well, through the first 4 episodes, (the past teo episodes have been Berseria) the anime is doing an excellent job of telling the story and made Alisha a much more focused character, nut we'll have to see where they go with it this week as they jump back into Zestiria...


I still love to play though.
 

Kouriozan

Member
The anime did a good job showing how Alisha ended up there in the game, instead of just throwing her without explications.
Really like it so far.
 

yozac

Neo Member
I'm early in the game, and a large tree (1 of 2 in the area) pops out of existence when I move like 50ft from it.

It was kinda fun forcing the tree in and out of existence by running back and forth.

Zesteria on PS3 had the same issue. How Berseria on PS4 still has this problem is baffling. This game ain't a technical powerhouse, nor do I expect it to be, but if your game isn't going for stunning graphics, there shouldn't be issues like this. Clearly the PS4 could handle that one tree, right?!

Game is pretty fun so far, characters are likeable enough, and the equipment system seems greatly improved, if not still a bit cluttered by duplicates.

So this isn't a huge issue, but how is draw distance still so bad in Tales?
 

Kanann

Member
I didn't compare Berseria to Vesperia because fear to nostalgia bias, Graces too but because I kind of hate that and F a little.

Anyway, marathon day 2.
 

Hasemo

(;・∀・)ハッ?
I'm early in the game, and a large tree (1 of 2 in the area) pops out of existence when I move like 50ft from it.

It was kinda fun forcing the tree in and out of existence by running back and forth.

Zesteria on PS3 had the same issue. How Berseria on PS4 still has this problem is baffling. This game ain't a technical powerhouse, nor do I expect it to be, but if your game isn't going for stunning graphics, there shouldn't be issues like this. Clearly the PS4 could handle that one tree, right?!

Game is pretty fun so far, characters are likeable enough, and the equipment system seems greatly improved, if not still a bit cluttered by duplicates.

So this isn't a huge issue, but how is draw distance still so bad in Tales?
Graphic wise, this might be the weirdest thing about this game. Draw distance feels like in Black Desert Online - so weird to see on the PS4 in a game with such linear design.
 

Fisico

Member
What about the general size of the areas in the game ?

From the demo showed to the press it seemed like the areas were more tighter than the big empty open fields with terrible draw distance of Zestiria, but when asked they were adamant to say that there still were big open fields and some even bigger than Zestiria (!)
 

Zafir

Member
I'm early in the game, and a large tree (1 of 2 in the area) pops out of existence when I move like 50ft from it.

It was kinda fun forcing the tree in and out of existence by running back and forth.

Zesteria on PS3 had the same issue. How Berseria on PS4 still has this problem is baffling. This game ain't a technical powerhouse, nor do I expect it to be, but if your game isn't going for stunning graphics, there shouldn't be issues like this. Clearly the PS4 could handle that one tree, right?!

Game is pretty fun so far, characters are likeable enough, and the equipment system seems greatly improved, if not still a bit cluttered by duplicates.

So this isn't a huge issue, but how is draw distance still so bad in Tales?
It'll be an engine limitation I'd guess.
 

wrowa

Member
Oh, I had no idea that Berseria shares a story connection to Zestiria. Is the connection actually important or more like an easter egg for Tales fans?
 

Zedark

Member
Oh, I had no idea that Berseria shares a story connection to Zestiria. Is the connection actually important or more like an easter egg for Tales fans?

Berseria is a prequel (in the distant past), so you don't need to know Zestiria. As always with these things, Berseria might explain some mysteries in Zestiria, so having played Zestiria might enhance your experience somewhat (nothing spectacular though).
 

wrowa

Member
Berseria is a prequel (in the distant past), so you don't need to know Zestiria. As always with these things, Berseria might explain some mysteries in Zestiria, so having played Zestiria might enhance your experience somewhat (nothing spectacular though).

It's 400 years in the past, Edna's bro is a party member and so on.

That's actually pretty cool and gives me motivation to get back and finishy my Zestiria playthrough one of these days.
 
That's actually pretty cool and gives me motivation to get back and finishy my Zestiria playthrough one of these days.

Might also just want to watch the currently airing anime instead, since it rewrites the story to (so far) be better and more in line with Berseria.
 
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.

Your entire post nails it but this is what bothered me about the game the most. Zestiria hits this really terrible groove of being far too ambitious for the budget/time constraints provided and yet it's set in the most base RPG setting/plot possible.
 

Datschge

Member
would watching the TOZ anime be a good substitute for the game?
We don't know yet. The episodes until the Berseria break significantly add and expand to the game story, but at the end started deviating from what happened originally so it depends on the coming episodes whether the anime turns out being a like for like replacement or totally alternate take on the game story.
 

Hasemo

(;・∀・)ハッ?
Impressions after ~5 hours of playing:

The Good:
- Combat is fast paced and thanks to the battle transition, camera problems from ToZ are gone.
- 60 fps!
- Likable characters.
- Interesting story where (so far) there are no "good guys". Even the "edge" aside, I prefer this way of presenting characters to unbelievable innocent protagonists.
- Master skill system (abilities from FFIX) is so much better than that the trainwreck equipment system from ToZ.
- I like how story elements are presented through skits in situations where the alternative would have been characters standing in a circle and talking.

The Bad:
- Areas are pretty boring. Fields with randomly scattered enemies (the density is a bit too high for my liking too).
- I feel like enemies give less experience than in previous Tales games, even when getting a high grade. After 5 hours I think I went from level 6/7 to 9, despite fighting everything on my way.
- Backtracking, when it happens, it's pretty bad. I think slow running speed, enemy density and the general blandness of fields are too blame. Can't wait until I get more movement speed upgrades.
- While the equipment system is better than in ToZ, you still end up getting a ton of duplicates from battles (as someone else mentioned this is inevitable, but still annoying).

The Ugly:
- Fields barely have any details.
- Draw distance is very short, but I already stopped noticing it.

All in all, so far I'm enjoying it much more than the beginning of Zestiria. I'm also surprised how much I like the characters and the story.
 

Bladenic

Member
How are the fields compared to Zestiria looks wise? I thought Zestiria had some nice looking locales at times. Obviously not talking about the dungeons, but the big fields were generally pleasant visually, far better than Xillia.
 

Zedark

Member
- Combat is fast paced and thanks to the battle transition, camera problems from ToZ are gone.
- 60 fps!
- Likable characters.
- Interesting story where (so far) there are no "good guys". Even the "edge" aside, I prefer this way of presenting characters to unbelievable innocent protagonists.

Praise the Lord for these things! The wacky camera was quite annoying in TOZ, so glad it's been solved now. A better story is also a great boon.

Really, the more I hear about the game, the more it reminds me of Vesperia somehow (story for example), which is awesome to me.
 

Voror

Member
When was the last time there were dungeons like in Symphonia? I think Abyss had some but it's been a long time since I played it.
 

Link1110

Member
How does this tie into Zestiria? Heard it was a prequel (?)

Seems to have vague connections to other Tales games too. A martial arts character named Crowe, the title sounding like (Harold) Berserius. Do these have some bearing on the story or is it just self contained?

And is the battle system Tales like? The always free run thing has been done before, Tales like games with always free run battle systems are called Star Ocean.

Can't play it till I'm back in China with my ps4 Technically I could play the PS3 version but after Zestiria was a mess on PS3 (I think fixed up for ps4.)

I'll just keep playing Xillia 2 till then. Surprisingly interesting with tons of stuff to do. Feels like how I felt about Star Ocean 2 when it first came out without the horrible pacing in the early game.
 
Sounds decent so far. I so so want it to be the Tales that gets me back into the series.

When was the last time there were dungeons like in Symphonia? I think Abyss had some but it's been a long time since I played it.

Abyss did have some interesting dungeons yeah. Not as wacky and interesting as Symphonia's but still pretty good overall. It's been downhill from there.
 

Dice//

Banned
Abyss did have some interesting dungeons yeah. Not as wacky and interesting as Symphonia's but still pretty good overall. It's been downhill from there.

I don't understand how dungeon design almost completely shit the bed since last gen to now. The days of puzzles in dungeons (or something to do besides 'getting from Point A to B' stuff).
 

Ydelnae

Member
Big spoilers about Laphicet and Seres

So it seems she wasn't Lailah after all, she's Velvet's older sister, Celica, who was killed while being pregnant and they just re-used Lailah's model and battle animations for her. They also reused Sorey's for Oscar.

And Laphicet is the fetus that was inside Seres' womb, which was reincarnated as Laphicet when Celica was murdered. Xillia 2 dethroned as darker Tales story?
 
Big spoilers about Laphicet and Seres

And Laphicet is the fetus that was inside Seres' womb, which was reincarnated as Laphicet when Celica was murdered. Xillia 2 dethroned as darker Tales story?

Why would that make it particularly dark?

But I guess I am a weirdo, that finds death of fetuses and babies less gruesome than people that are older.
 

Zolo

Member
Big spoilers about Laphicet and Seres

So it seems she wasn't Lailah after all, she's Velvet's older sister, Celica, who was killed while being pregnant and they just re-used Lailah's model and battle animations for her. They also reused Sorey's for Oscar.

And Laphicet is the fetus that was inside Seres' womb, which was reincarnated as Laphicet when Celica was murdered. Xillia 2 dethroned as darker Tales story?

The former doesn't surprise me. The latter definitely does.
 

3Kaze

Member
I don't understand how dungeon design almost completely shit the bed since last gen to now. The days of puzzles in dungeons (or something to do besides 'getting from Point A to B' stuff).

Vesperia, Hearts, Graces and Zestiria have plenty of puzzles in dungeons though. And they're as awful as Symphonia's because puzzles suck anyway. I saw a player on stream being stuck for an hour in yet another water dungeon yesterday.
 

Voror

Member
Big spoilers about Laphicet and Seres

So it seems she wasn't Lailah after all, she's Velvet's older sister, Celica, who was killed while being pregnant and they just re-used Lailah's model and battle animations for her. They also reused Sorey's for Oscar.

And Laphicet is the fetus that was inside Seres' womb, which was reincarnated as Laphicet when Celica was murdered. Xillia 2 dethroned as darker Tales story?

Interesting. I didn't get far enough in Zestiria to find this out I guess but are Serephim just dead people sort of reincarnated into these new forms with these abilities?
 

Ydelnae

Member
Velvet's little brother was reborn as evil shota Mithos lookalike http://i.imgur.com/zyLhgCf.jpg

Seres revealing herself as Celica: http://i.imgur.com/imIYsPu.jpg

I don't know if the story sounds better than Zestiria or not. My first impressions is that they tried to make everything edgier and darker as if that meant the story would improve, like they did with Xillia 2. At least the presentation seems to be done better in this title, the discussion scenes in which everyone would stand in a circle doing nothing but talking have been replaced by skits.

I'm not sure if I'm a fan of guest party members. I don't mind them for story reasons, but they should let you play as them when you finish the game or something.

Interesting. I didn't get far enough in Zestiria to find this out I guess but are Serephim just dead people sort of reincarnated into these new forms with these abilities?

There are seraphim who were always born as seraphim and there are also people who died and turned into seraphim.
 

Zedark

Member
It's immediately much much darker than Vesperia, just a heads up.

Yeah, I actually meant it more tangentially, like there being no crystal clear good and bad guys (for example
Yuri going vigilante on corrupt council magistrates
). I am not expecting a copy of Vesperia in terms of story and characters by any means; I was just getting some vibes that reminded me in a way of Vesperia.
 
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