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Tales of Berseria Import Thread

Aeana

Member
I would really appreciate it if people who are not playing the game but only reading discussions or watching streams would not post spoilers unprompted. There's really no reason for that, and it interferes with those members who are playing the game.
 
Looks like Amazon.jp reviewers didn't find a reason to shitstorm this time ! And reading your impressions here is satisfying. Damn I'm gonna love that crazy Q1 2017 *.*

aiStq8J.jpg
 

Inuhanyou

Believes Dragon Quest is a franchise managed by Sony
So far, this is seemingly the best tales in a while, which is great.

Hopefully the anime of Zestiria makes up for the game by making the plot different so as to not suck.
 

Cornbread78

Member
This is turning into a serious spoiler thread.

I would really appreciate it if people who are not playing the game but only reading discussions or watching streams would not post spoilers unprompted. There's really no reason for that, and it interferes with those members who are playing the game.


Ouch, time to bail outta here for the next few months then...


Looks like Amazon.jp reviewers didn't find a reason to shitstorm this time ! And reading your impressions here is satisfying. Damn I'm gonna love that crazy Q1 2017 *.*

aiStq8J.jpg


This is great to see though....
 

Zedark

Member
Looks like Amazon.jp reviewers didn't find a reason to shitstorm this time ! And reading your impressions here is satisfying. Damn I'm gonna love that crazy Q1 2017 *.*

aiStq8J.jpg

Good to see, the reviews are still few in number, though, so we should wait a little longer for a better general impression. Still, it bodes well at least!

I wonder if Berseria will outsell Zestiria in the first week, though. Zestiria's shitstorm started after a few days, so its day one sales were good (340,000 copies or so), and drop off a skyscraper after that (more than 90% decrease in the second week, I believe). I believe Zestiria had some positive buzz before release, just like Berseria has, but Berseria has PS3 and PS4 as platforms, so my guess is Berseria will sell better (400,000 copies or so?).

Edit: Oops, not day one sales but first week sales, of course!
 

Voror

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.

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

Oof that's an interesting twist to see with the former and one I must imagine is a tough one for Velvet. Is he one of those aligned with Artorius, perhaps from the beginning, or a more recent arrival and one with his own agenda?

Does Seres have the same fate from the anime at the start of the game and this reveal comes later?

That does sound a bit worrying if that's all they really did since just going darker and edgier isn't going to guarantee a good story. I suppose it's an interesting direction at the very least, but after Zesitiria I wonder if it could end up another example of experimentation that doesn't quite work. Though the skill system here has sounded a lot more satisfying at the very least.

This might have been covered and I missed it, but has the camera been alright? Any issues like how screwy Zestiria could get?

Ah alright. Is there any logic that determines how one turns into one?
 

3Kaze

Member
Good to see, the reviews are still few in number, though, so we should wait a little longer for a better general impression. Still, it bodes well at least!

I wonder if Berseria will outsell Zestiria in the first week, though. Zestiria's shitstorm started after a few days, so its day one sales were good (340,000 copies or so), and drop off a skyscraper after that (more than 90% decrease in the second week, I believe). I believe Zestiria had some positive buzz before release, just like Berseria has, but Berseria has PS3 and PS4 as platforms, so my guess is Berseria will sell better (400,000 copies or so?).

340k was for Zestiria's first week. With both PS3 and PS4 being dead in Japan, and players being cautious, Berseria will sell worse. The prediction was an average of 220k first week in the media create thread. It will probably have better legs but not enough to outsell Zestiria imo.
 

Kanann

Member
How can Famitsu give this lower score than Zestiria? LOL

Joke post, I know Famitsu's standard well.

20 hours in (seem I'm on the middle game now), gonna quit marathon-ing because I'm satisfied.
 

Sandfox

Member
Well these impressions are interesting so far and make me want to play Vesperia again lol.

340k was for Zestiria's first week. With both PS3 and PS4 being dead in Japan, and players being cautious, Berseria will sell worse. The prediction was an average of 220k first week in the media create thread. It will probably have better legs but not enough to outsell Zestiria imo.
This game more than likely won't have any legs even if it turns out to be an amazing Tales game start to finish.
 

Taruranto

Member
Zestiria regardless made the money back with all the merchandises the (female) fans bought, It will be interesting to see how this one fares.
 

Toth

Member
I hope we get to see the traditional Tales spirits in this in some shape of form. Their absence in ToZ really disconnected it from the series, among other things.
 

Shouta

Member
Just gonna put my foot down and DO NOT POST SPOILERS IF YOU ARE NOT PLAYING THE GAME YOURSELF. If you are, you'll be getting a timeout.
 

Bowlie

Banned
How grindy is upgrading equipment to get those "refinement skills" compared to what we had in Zestiria? And are such skills useful?
 
Saw some footage of the first two hours... Oh my god looks really really really good!!

I had this feelings from the start that this will turn out to be a good Tales game... And I think I wasn't mistaken :) !
 

mugwhump

Member
- 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.

:O

I hope we get to see the traditional Tales spirits in this in some shape of form. Their absence in ToZ really disconnected it from the series, among other things.

Eh, I couldn't care less about undine and the lot. I don't think they've ever contributed to the story in a meaningful way beyond being mcguffins.
 
Played for 9 hours straight yesterday...whew

How grindy is upgrading equipment to get those "refinement skills" compared to what we had in Zestiria? And are such skills useful?

I've been getting lots of drops without grinding, so I've had plenty of materials for upgrades.

The skills themselves while not dramatic are fairly useful.
 
Any impressions so far? My girl surprised me with a ps4 and we accumalted some points to buy one or two games. I'm thinking this or star ocean. Persona 5 in September.
 

Hasemo

(;・∀・)ハッ?
I'm really curious how long the game is. If I remember correctly ToZ took me ~35 hours to clear and it felt like the right length for the amount of content. Maybe even a bit too long, since backtracking through big areas was a part of that length.
 

Hasemo

(;・∀・)ハッ?
Not a good starting impression for the game.

The first press pre-order serial code I got doesn't work at the http://tales-ch.jp/camp/serial/tob/index.php page. The code is broken I guess.

:\

So dumb and annoying Bandai has their own page for this instead of just giving a PSN code for the pre-order goods.
I was confused by that - both of the codes in the box are to be redeemed on the above site and don't actually unlock anything in the game itself, right?
 

Aters

Member
With FFXV pushed back, suddenly I have plenty of time for this game. Impression seems positive. I'm not expecting anything ground-breaking. Day 1 when it hits HK PSN.
 

Hasemo

(;・∀・)ハッ?
Pretty sure you can't jump in most (all?) of the 3D games outside of some special moves/arts. I miss the 2D games too.
I think you can still jump in this one during special moves/arts, since I got a crystal allowing me to dodge/block (would have to check again) while in the air.
 

Soriku

Junior Member
Pretty sure you can't jump in most (all?) of the 3D games outside of some special moves/arts. I miss the 2D games too.

You can jump in all the 3D games with a sideview. Symphonia, Abyss, Vesperia, the Xillias. The 3D ones with a non sideview like Graces, Zestiria, Berseria you can't.

I'm hoping the next Tales goes back to a sideview.
 

Bebpo

Banned
This game suuuuuucks so far :\

I swear every Tales game is getting worse than the last one. At least Zesteria opened in gorgeous skyland with a cool dude Sorey and his buddy going to explore a real dungeon and then ending up in boring world land. I guess it doesn't help that while I didn't like Zesteria overall, I did really enjoy its cast and the first 15 hours or so, so it was going to be hard to live up to the start of Z.

But this has to be the most dull Tales opening ever. Generic fetching berries and boring town being boring until event happens yawwn.

Also I hate that there's a PS3 version and how stuff is held back by it. For instance the text fonts all seem 720p so they're slightly blurry. The pop-up in the fields is really noticeable and annoying since the graphics are just a bit above Gust games at this point because Tales budget has fallen so far, and don't get me started on the still PS2 texture ground textures :| PS3 plz die already and take Vita with you.

Music is pretty meh, and combat system is really gimped at the start. There's a real lack of polish feel and it comes across as low budget, closer to stuff like Gust games or almost indie titles than modern generation gaming. The skits are nice but they also feel very representative of the budget in how they're used to tell the story.

On the plus side the colors and art direction are great, and the character models and shading are nice. I wish you could use a closer camera like an FP view because the cell-shaded NPC models are actually quite decent looking. 60fps is very nice to have again coming from Zesteria's PS3 30fps.

Anyhow, hopefully this is just a really bad start and after a few hours when the party comes together and the battle system opens up it'll get good. At this point with how far Tales' budget has fallen, I wish they'd just go back to 2d games or at least fixed camera 3d. Tales doesn't need full 3d and obviously they can't really afford it at the level of grandiose that other full 3d rpgs are.
 

Hasemo

(;・∀・)ハッ?
I swear every Tales game is getting worse than the last one. At least Zesteria opened in gorgeous skyland with a cool dude Sorey and his buddy going to explore a real dungeon and then ending up in boring world land. I guess it doesn't help that while I didn't like Zesteria overall, I did really enjoy its cast and the first 15 hours or so, so it was going to be hard to live up to the start of Z.
I agree that the beginning of the game isn't great (it's bad), but once things get rolling it becomes much better. The battle system opens up, story gets interesting etc. Sadly, 5 hours in, fields still look like take from a PS3 game.
 

Bebpo

Banned
Yeah, now that I'm a couple of hours in it's starting to pick up, which is good. The intro/flashback really should've just been a 5-10 minute cutscene at the start instead of 80 mins of boring as heck intro. Hopefully it keeps getting better as the party members join up. The skit system definitely has potential when/if there's a group of good characters using it later.

My main complaint stylistically (since it's too early to really comment on gameplay systems or story) is really the music, since the art itself is good and only held back by tech budgets, the music is something that can really help bring everything to life, but outside the Go Shiina titles, Tales reallly needs a major music shakeup at this point. They need to get some fresh blood new composers that bring a new style to a Tales game. For instance Berseria's kinda "darker" tone they're going for would be neat with someone similar to like Kikuta from Shadow Hearts. Or go Crisis Core Ishimoto style with rock guitar in a Tales game. Sticking with really bland soundtracks is just a real bummer and takes a lot of emotion away from areas and events.
 

awdrifter

Member
Got the Japanese PS3 version, in terms of graphics is about the same as Zestiria. But it seems like they have a blur or post process AA filter on this game.

Question about the battle system. I only played past the tutorials, I still don't fully get how the SG system works. Can someone explain it in more detail (or link to a more detailed explanation or video). Thanks.
 

Zhao_Yun

Member
My main complaint stylistically (since it's too early to really comment on gameplay systems or story) is really the music, since the art itself is good and only held back by tech budgets, the music is something that can really help bring everything to life, but outside the Go Shiina titles, Tales reallly needs a major music shakeup at this point. They need to get some fresh blood new composers that bring a new style to a Tales game. For instance Berseria's kinda "darker" tone they're going for would be neat with someone similar to like Kikuta from Shadow Hearts. Or go Crisis Core Ishimoto style with rock guitar in a Tales game. Sticking with really bland soundtracks is just a real bummer and takes a lot of emotion away from areas and events.

Yes, it's a bummer that Shiina is once again not involved with the Soundtrack. Despite all its faults, Zestiria probably had the best Tales OST since Legendia.
 
Watched video of all second Hi-Ougi!
Exactly the same problem as I had with Zestiria. These should've been the only ones, and unlocked sooner. Sometimes, less is more, having to spend most of the time using Hi-Ougi so bad they barely good enough to qualify as regular Artes soured the entire experience more than if I didn't have those first Hi-Ougis at all, and instead everyone just had their second ones.
 
Yeah, now that I'm a couple of hours in it's starting to pick up, which is good. The intro/flashback really should've just been a 5-10 minute cutscene at the start instead of 80 mins of boring as heck intro. Hopefully it keeps getting better as the party members join up. The skit system definitely has potential when/if there's a group of good characters using it later.

My main complaint stylistically (since it's too early to really comment on gameplay systems or story) is really the music, since the art itself is good and only held back by tech budgets, the music is something that can really help bring everything to life, but outside the Go Shiina titles, Tales reallly needs a major music shakeup at this point. They need to get some fresh blood new composers that bring a new style to a Tales game. For instance Berseria's kinda "darker" tone they're going for would be neat with someone similar to like Kikuta from Shadow Hearts. Or go Crisis Core Ishimoto style with rock guitar in a Tales game. Sticking with really bland soundtracks is just a real bummer and takes a lot of emotion away from areas and events.

Don't take away Sakuraba, take away those chains that bind him so.
 

Heyt

Banned
The problem with most of Sakuraba Tales of work is that the sounds and synths used in his songs sound very old... and just bad.

Listening to ToB songs after what he did in ToZ that had much better sounding stuff is just jarring and makes the game feel cheaper.
 

Datschge

Member
Listening to ToB songs after what he did in ToZ that had much better sounding stuff is just jarring and makes the game feel cheaper.
Maybe that's because it is cheaper? There must be a reason an in-house(!) composer didn't want to work on this, maybe he wouldn't have gotten to use his usual orchestra again and knew that.

Anyway transcribing the staff roll at the moment, there is some stability now, less changes to the previous Tales game. Though that means plenty outsourcing again and the BNS staff is even shorter this time. WIP
 

Heyt

Banned
Maybe that's because it is cheaper? There must be a reason an in-house(!) composer didn't want to work on this, maybe he wouldn't have gotten to use his usual orchestra again and knew that.

I agree. But I think that how Tales soundtracks are made. Sakuraba usually writes thousands of songs for game... most of them are filler. I think they should invest in quality and have much fewer songs with much better performance, mastering, arrangement. It is jarring to hear Sakuraba's stuff on what seems to be rwo old casio keyboards.

Anyway transcribing the staff roll at the moment, there is some stability now, less changes to the previous Tales game. Though that means plenty outsourcing again and the BNS staff is even shorter this time. WIP

Surprised to see Udo and Iwamoto again. With how band the areas I've seen so far look and how comparatively uninteresting the combat seemed to me in the demo I though they would be working on planning the next entry in the series.

Nice to see them having some continuity.
 
Damn. Just looked and saw an early 2017 release for this in the US. I guess that will give me time to finish more Legend of Heroes games on Steam and maybe play Grandia II/Tales of Symphonia.
 

Datschge

Member
Surprised to see Udo and Iwamoto again. With how band the areas I've seen so far look and how comparatively uninteresting the combat seemed to me in the demo I though they would be working on planning the next entry in the series.

Nice to see them having some continuity.
Yeah, at this rate it doesn't look like we get a second team again.

Just deciphered the missing scenario writer (Masaki Hiramatsu from Rebirth and Symphonia 2, was apparently also responsible for the new skits, got a rare double credit) and battle programmer (Osamu Hisano from Symphonia and Abyss, likely also influenced battle design). Very surprised to see them again as they worked elsewhere in the mean time.
 
Well well , Nice impressions here . i wish i could be part of the players this time ( i was in the zestria import thread , the xilia & xilia 2 ones too) but this time ..i don't have enough free time !
Damn you work-related problems , damn you end of vacation !

Anyway , seems that like the demo , it's still very smooth and the 60 fps does make a nice difference. It's great on the technical side. The focus on a darker Tale in a tales of actually pleases me. Hopefully , it'll be just the right kind of dark tale.

There aren't many impressions on the customisation/equipement system .... is it that average or maybe it's too early to ask ??
 

Bebpo

Banned
Yeah, at this rate it doesn't look like we get a second team again.

Just deciphered the missing scenario writer (Masaki Hiramatsu from Rebirth and Symphonia 2, was apparently also responsible for the new skits, got a rare double credit) and battle programmer (Osamu Hisano from Symphonia and Abyss, likely also influenced battle design). Very surprised to see them again as they worked elsewhere in the mean time.

Oh boy, the scenario writer of the worst two scenarios in Tales history. Maybe third time is a charm and he does something better this time? You'd think after Symphonia 2 they'd have just fired him.
 
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