Shouta
Member
There is the item that lets you warp to towns you visited. Not perfect but should do the job for most things.
-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Tales of Berseria Import Thread
- Thread starter Rpgmonkey
- Start date
There is the item that lets you warp to towns you visited. Not perfect but should do the job for most things.
I mentioned warping to towns. It's not good enough when the field you need to go to for 2 minutes of questing is 4 separate areas away from a town. There's no reason why the town warp item shouldn't have provided fast travel for each unique location.
Shouta
Member
Oh yeah, you did. I read your post too quick.
Quick travel being towns only is pretty standard. They've always put quests in the most far off places like at the end of old dungeons you did before. So it's not really that odd this game does it. I only remember quests being like 2-3 screens max from a town after you factor in mid-area warps. Then when you combine faster movement options, it was pretty quick. The areas just look huge is all.
There was only one area where I found it annoying and that was in the area where you first meet
the demon blacksmith
He's the writer of the newly designed skits. He's also credited for scenario, but only last among three, and seeing the importance skits have in Berseria I'd expect him to be listed in the latter for all those obligatory story skits the game got.
So yesterday night I pretty much marathoned all night and did like 8 hours of sidequests and going about halfway through the final dungeon. I think I did all of them except the couple that required. A little lame that Velvet's character quest/trophy requires grinding cooking to lvl.20. Got all the other characters, but even at almost 50 hours in Velvet's cooking is lvl.10 and I'm always cooking in battles, not gonna grind that no way. Also missing the Neko island that requires grinding the sailing mini-game to lvl.17 or 22, I'm still lv.14 after sailing the whole game every 30 mins, and missing the Kamen island since I'm only at 28 boxes and I'm not going to grind the collect drops to open another 10 at 200-300+ drops required each. Also gonna youtube rather than fight the final
fight since IIRC they're like lvl.130 and at lvl.65 I think I'll be doing like 1 damage. The Pheonix fight at lvl.82 or something was already cutting it close, but squeezed through.
Anyhow, some great stuff in there. The Magilou side-quest skits were pretty funny. The best gag in the entire game was
, The
Going back through all the areas in the game again doing the sidequests it really strikes me how gorgeous and varied the locations are. The towns are all boring as fuck and every damn cave looks identical, but the fields and their usage of color looks incredibly nice.
Also the cast at this point after the last 10-15 hours of story and another 6-8 hours of sidequesting has grown on me a lot. It's not an A-game cast, but it's at least an acceptable B level cast. I think if I replayed the first 40 hours of the game again now I'd probably enjoy it more outside all the field running since the cast has grown on me. Going back doing sidequests and encountering skits that were supposed to have taken place 30 hours ago in the plotline, I'm less bothered by the angst because I like the cast now. It just took me a loooooong time to warm up on them because of all the angst.
The battle system has also grown on me a lot. There's some great innovative ideas here, my favorite being how character change is handled mid-battle. I love how instead of pausing the game and going to my artes setup and changing the artes around to match up to a particular enemy type, I just fight and use the d-pad to switch to the character that I now is strong against that enemy type/element. So I setup my characters where like Rokurou & Velvet are my fire & wind and beast characters, Elenor earth, neutral & flying, etc.. and then I change around without stopping the flow of fights and take out the enemies. Also the characters get a TON of artes which makes me happy, and the last half of them bring the flashy effects stuff that I was annoyed was missing and making battles look too plain in the first half. I also like that most of the characters play well. I mean that's been a staple in Tales for a while, making multiple fun playable characters beyond just the MC, but here almost everyone is a blast to play. I also like how based on equipment, magic casters can be physical combat users or vice-versa outside of like Velvet/Rokurou who are only physical. Everyone else has a good mix of physical and magic.
On the downside of battle, free run is stupidly broken as always which is how I beat enemies 20+ levels higher, the system is pretty mash friendly, I don't like how hi-ougis are handled and one downside of the battle system is the occassional big boss that constantly dizzies the entire party and while the battle system is very fun Heart-ish, when everyone is down to 1 SG and can't do anything at all and there's really no way to getting back the battle system suddenly does't work and becomes very unfun. Also bosses block waaaay to much for a Tales game, which is why I mainly use Elenor and her break soul to guard break and start combos.
I think outside of not having seen the ending, I'd say Berseria has an A- battle system, a B cast with a very angsty cold unfriendly lead so ymmv, a B story, D fields/dungeons/towns, D+ equipment/loot/skill system, C pacing mainly due to fields and skit interruptions, A art/animation, and F music. It's very polished and in a lot of ways it feels like the opposite side of Zestiria where unlike Zestiria which was a mess of a good game, Berseria is a polished game with some very bad design decisions. In end I think both are pretty much C games overall and a wash, maybe Berseria is a little better.
The problem is imo Zestiria/Berseria is very striking that Tales Studio has many talented great individuals and still maintains a very strong budget (Berseria feels distinctly higher budget than any jrpg that's not FF; it's like generational budget difference to Falcom's games and I wouldn't be surprised if Berseria had more buget than Persona 5 even), however some of the higher up decision makers are bad and need to go and are sinking the ship. Since Xillia, the push toward unfun giant scale sized areas that you boringly run forward through for hours, the getting rid of traditional location shops for leveling a single shop, to make loot/equipment less distinct and useful and have tons of loot with random stats that are barely different, to have bizarre skill systems, to purposely push lots of tedious backtracking as if that is still acceptable in 2016, all of these are decisions someone is thinking are a good idea or at least a "don't rock the boat, let's keep doing this because hey that's how Tales has always been" and that is a huge problem. The studio needs a major shakeup and needs to re-examine how to make fun games again. A game with a battle system like Berseria that actually has a fun world to explore like Xenoblade or something and fantastic music like Go Shiina titles would be extremely enjoyable and bring the A game that Tales has been missing.
I'm hopeful, but not optimistic as NamcoxBandai's been running their various franchises to the ground Capcom style over the last 3-6 years. But maybe they can get their shit together at some point.
Jude + Millia
Anyhow, some great stuff in there. The Magilou side-quest skits were pretty funny. The best gag in the entire game was
Magilou+Velvet skit being so terrible that the NPC response to "how was it?" was.... "Please don't ever come back again" loooool; Magilou+Rokurou was great too. But all of them were pretty enjoyable.
Zapheed sidequests were really good too. Since I actually like Zestiria, for a lot of the game I thought Zapheed was better than all of these characters and wished he was playable (plus he has the best song in the OST), but now that the Berseria cast has grown on me I really enjoyed the Aizen/Zapheed questline. Some nice cutscenes in there (especially since they have GOOD music which goes a long way towards increasing the emotion of the scenes).
Rokurou's questline was alright, Aizen/Edna's questline was cute but again as a Zestiria cast fan, I wish Edna was actually in the game at least in the end of his questline, Rapheed's was fine, Elenor's fine although kids in Tales are the worst aka. Monoa. The extra development stuff for Arthur was nice. And the Jude sidequest was hilarious since I was not expecting it at all and then all the sudden this talking penguin is Jude haha. I probably would've got a little more fanservice out of that if I hadn't dropped Xillia like 10 hours in (Xillia 1&2 are really the only Tales games I've never played through), so I don't know Judge/Millia much.
Rokurou's questline was alright, Aizen/Edna's questline was cute but again as a Zestiria cast fan, I wish Edna was actually in the game at least in the end of his questline, Rapheed's was fine, Elenor's fine although kids in Tales are the worst aka. Monoa. The extra development stuff for Arthur was nice. And the Jude sidequest was hilarious since I was not expecting it at all and then all the sudden this talking penguin is Jude haha. I probably would've got a little more fanservice out of that if I hadn't dropped Xillia like 10 hours in (Xillia 1&2 are really the only Tales games I've never played through), so I don't know Judge/Millia much.
Going back through all the areas in the game again doing the sidequests it really strikes me how gorgeous and varied the locations are. The towns are all boring as fuck and every damn cave looks identical, but the fields and their usage of color looks incredibly nice.
Also the cast at this point after the last 10-15 hours of story and another 6-8 hours of sidequesting has grown on me a lot. It's not an A-game cast, but it's at least an acceptable B level cast. I think if I replayed the first 40 hours of the game again now I'd probably enjoy it more outside all the field running since the cast has grown on me. Going back doing sidequests and encountering skits that were supposed to have taken place 30 hours ago in the plotline, I'm less bothered by the angst because I like the cast now. It just took me a loooooong time to warm up on them because of all the angst.
The battle system has also grown on me a lot. There's some great innovative ideas here, my favorite being how character change is handled mid-battle. I love how instead of pausing the game and going to my artes setup and changing the artes around to match up to a particular enemy type, I just fight and use the d-pad to switch to the character that I now is strong against that enemy type/element. So I setup my characters where like Rokurou & Velvet are my fire & wind and beast characters, Elenor earth, neutral & flying, etc.. and then I change around without stopping the flow of fights and take out the enemies. Also the characters get a TON of artes which makes me happy, and the last half of them bring the flashy effects stuff that I was annoyed was missing and making battles look too plain in the first half. I also like that most of the characters play well. I mean that's been a staple in Tales for a while, making multiple fun playable characters beyond just the MC, but here almost everyone is a blast to play. I also like how based on equipment, magic casters can be physical combat users or vice-versa outside of like Velvet/Rokurou who are only physical. Everyone else has a good mix of physical and magic.
On the downside of battle, free run is stupidly broken as always which is how I beat enemies 20+ levels higher, the system is pretty mash friendly, I don't like how hi-ougis are handled and one downside of the battle system is the occassional big boss that constantly dizzies the entire party and while the battle system is very fun Heart-ish, when everyone is down to 1 SG and can't do anything at all and there's really no way to getting back the battle system suddenly does't work and becomes very unfun. Also bosses block waaaay to much for a Tales game, which is why I mainly use Elenor and her break soul to guard break and start combos.
I think outside of not having seen the ending, I'd say Berseria has an A- battle system, a B cast with a very angsty cold unfriendly lead so ymmv, a B story, D fields/dungeons/towns, D+ equipment/loot/skill system, C pacing mainly due to fields and skit interruptions, A art/animation, and F music. It's very polished and in a lot of ways it feels like the opposite side of Zestiria where unlike Zestiria which was a mess of a good game, Berseria is a polished game with some very bad design decisions. In end I think both are pretty much C games overall and a wash, maybe Berseria is a little better.
The problem is imo Zestiria/Berseria is very striking that Tales Studio has many talented great individuals and still maintains a very strong budget (Berseria feels distinctly higher budget than any jrpg that's not FF; it's like generational budget difference to Falcom's games and I wouldn't be surprised if Berseria had more buget than Persona 5 even), however some of the higher up decision makers are bad and need to go and are sinking the ship. Since Xillia, the push toward unfun giant scale sized areas that you boringly run forward through for hours, the getting rid of traditional location shops for leveling a single shop, to make loot/equipment less distinct and useful and have tons of loot with random stats that are barely different, to have bizarre skill systems, to purposely push lots of tedious backtracking as if that is still acceptable in 2016, all of these are decisions someone is thinking are a good idea or at least a "don't rock the boat, let's keep doing this because hey that's how Tales has always been" and that is a huge problem. The studio needs a major shakeup and needs to re-examine how to make fun games again. A game with a battle system like Berseria that actually has a fun world to explore like Xenoblade or something and fantastic music like Go Shiina titles would be extremely enjoyable and bring the A game that Tales has been missing.
I'm hopeful, but not optimistic as NamcoxBandai's been running their various franchises to the ground Capcom style over the last 3-6 years. But maybe they can get their shit together at some point.
Alright, finished the dungeon/game. The cutscene pre-final fight had some nice fight choreography. Ending was solid. I feel like Zestiria makes a hell of a lot more sense after Berseria. It feels like they wrote the two together so Zestiria purposeless had mysteries and subplots that went nowhere or weren't developed and Berseria fills that in. Didn't really work well for Zestiria if that was the plan :|
It is an interesting world though, it's not the best, and doesn't always make the most sense but to a degree I'm glad the writers tried something creative with the world lore design. I actually wouldn't mind another game in the same world in a different time, but it'd have to be a much better game than both Z & B.
Thinking back, another thing that kept me from really enjoying Berseria along the way, even though I mildly like it in the end, is that the entire game is extremely linear in a way I haven't really seen outside of FFXIII until just about the final dungeon 40-60 hours in when you can then go back anywhere. The game constantly locks out traveling to any other location for story reasons the whole game because the group is on the run. It really killed the momentum and fun in XIII since you just felt like you were running forward through long dungeons and watching cutscenes and it does the same here even if the fields are more wide and dungeons have branches (since everything is so big and slow to get around). Also, for a game about sailing a pirate ship, you'd think you should be able to sail around freely and explore the world, especially since it's built in giant MMO scale, but instead the majority of the ship experience is selecting the single next location from a menu because every other location is greyed out ;_; I wonder what it would be like if you could actually sail? Probably slow and tedious going by everything else
I'm still kind of amazed that the hoverboard moves like molasses and there isn't a mechanism where you unlock faster progression for it until it's zooming around in the endgame. Tales sure likes it's slow movement.
It is an interesting world though, it's not the best, and doesn't always make the most sense but to a degree I'm glad the writers tried something creative with the world lore design. I actually wouldn't mind another game in the same world in a different time, but it'd have to be a much better game than both Z & B.
Thinking back, another thing that kept me from really enjoying Berseria along the way, even though I mildly like it in the end, is that the entire game is extremely linear in a way I haven't really seen outside of FFXIII until just about the final dungeon 40-60 hours in when you can then go back anywhere. The game constantly locks out traveling to any other location for story reasons the whole game because the group is on the run. It really killed the momentum and fun in XIII since you just felt like you were running forward through long dungeons and watching cutscenes and it does the same here even if the fields are more wide and dungeons have branches (since everything is so big and slow to get around). Also, for a game about sailing a pirate ship, you'd think you should be able to sail around freely and explore the world, especially since it's built in giant MMO scale, but instead the majority of the ship experience is selecting the single next location from a menu because every other location is greyed out ;_; I wonder what it would be like if you could actually sail? Probably slow and tedious going by everything else
I'm still kind of amazed that the hoverboard moves like molasses and there isn't a mechanism where you unlock faster progression for it until it's zooming around in the endgame. Tales sure likes it's slow movement.plasmawave
Banned
Played it for couple of hours and I'm getting Berserk vibes from it.
Cornbread78
Member
BlueDogAnchorite
Member
To people who have played this: How is this game compared to the other Tales games? Is it better than the previous ones?
Great. I just posted about my frustration with FFXV's sidequests. Hopefully it's at least less frustrating than that.
I probably won't be getting this game at launch anyway. Symphonia is the only Tales game I've ever played and this comes out too close to DQVIII.
Cornbread78
Member
Going through several pages of impressions here, it sounds like the best Tales game in a long time now..
BlueDogAnchorite
Member
That great to hear. My favorite Tale games are Abyss and Vesperia ^^
I not able to buy it right away, but looking to buy the game on steam next month.
MasterMenace
Member
I've only played Vesperia on 360 and have been itching for a really good Tales jrpg on PS4. I skipped Zestiria and avidly awaiting Berseria. I've read all the impressions on the web I could find. The pro's definitely outweigh the cons for this game so I'm happy. Super hyped and already pre-ordered. I hope Bamco can give bigger budget and make a dedicated Tales exclusive for PS4.
The next Tales has already been said to be PS4 exclusive (at least in Japan). In the west, it'll most likely be PS4/PC.
Imp the Dimp
Member
Is the game any good? I liked the demo well enough, but I thought Zestiria was pretty bad so I'm a little cautious. Also, the PS4 version runs at 1080p@60 fps? Might even go for that version to get some trophies actually.
Yes to all
Imp the Dimp
Member
Damn, guess I'll bite at launch. How long is the game roughly? Is there NG+ so I can get all the missables on a 2nd playthrough? Also, is there good optional and post or end game content?
How has the gameplay improved over Zestiria?
I mean the way equipment and earning money work.
Trying to money was a pain. To get decent amounts you needed to play on higher difficulty level and everything was expensive.
The equipment system for me was the worst. It was difficult to manage and trying to get the abilities you want was far too time consuming.
I mean the way equipment and earning money work.
Trying to money was a pain. To get decent amounts you needed to play on higher difficulty level and everything was expensive.
The equipment system for me was the worst. It was difficult to manage and trying to get the abilities you want was far too time consuming.
The combat flows better now and doesn't have the fusion gimmick. All the face buttons are artes and you can basically set your combos to your liking. The equipment system is more like Vesperia from what I read in here as for the money making I got no idea.
Thanks,
I didn't play Vesperia so I am not sure how it works. From the demo it looks like FFIX, equip an item, earn experience and permanently learn that ability but I could be wrong.
LambdaTeos
Member
It is like that
That's correct.
First time reading this thread, fascinating viewing Bebpo's detailed tug-of-war reactions on the game in the last couple pages. I have been playing Zestiria over the last couple weeks myself and my reaction to the game at different stages of progress is not too indifferent to his own measured and moody thoughts on Berseria over time.
Effectively, Zestiria's largest issues are well documented at this point(equipment skills, combat quirks with fusing and chain limits, dull environment design) but I have been able to enjoy the experience regardless thanks to its strong characters and willingness to attempt some unique breakthroughs for the franchise even if it didn't coalesce very well. Doubtful that I would rank it high in the franchise(it isnt) but I can't seem to put it down either regardless of its faults. Yes, min/maxing equipment sucks arse, but ultimately kind of unecessary to slave over given the passive bonus traits rarely feel largely different from the opportunity loss from pure stat gains. Not to mention the combat balance by design is far too chaotic and buggered with its stiff rules(why can't I just put up a shield that blocks all damage at opportune tiny breaks in chain combos like some enemies?! Rage inducing...does the hours poured into skill fusing my armor not account for that BS??). I get why so many gave up on Zestiria so early with its sluggish pacing, dull empty zones, and mechanic inconveniences, I nearly did as well. Yet the little touches kept me coming back and still playing for nearly 40 hours now, or maybe I just miss the franchise after skipping so many releases this last decade.
But this is a topic on Berseria, I suppose many in this thread do find it a large improvement which is nice to read as the game is a week away. Flaws sound just as regrettable even if taking a very different form, but I should have Zestiria wrapped just in time for it next week. Actually intrigued by how the two games are linked as well.
Effectively, Zestiria's largest issues are well documented at this point(equipment skills, combat quirks with fusing and chain limits, dull environment design) but I have been able to enjoy the experience regardless thanks to its strong characters and willingness to attempt some unique breakthroughs for the franchise even if it didn't coalesce very well. Doubtful that I would rank it high in the franchise(it isnt) but I can't seem to put it down either regardless of its faults. Yes, min/maxing equipment sucks arse, but ultimately kind of unecessary to slave over given the passive bonus traits rarely feel largely different from the opportunity loss from pure stat gains. Not to mention the combat balance by design is far too chaotic and buggered with its stiff rules(why can't I just put up a shield that blocks all damage at opportune tiny breaks in chain combos like some enemies?! Rage inducing...does the hours poured into skill fusing my armor not account for that BS??). I get why so many gave up on Zestiria so early with its sluggish pacing, dull empty zones, and mechanic inconveniences, I nearly did as well. Yet the little touches kept me coming back and still playing for nearly 40 hours now, or maybe I just miss the franchise after skipping so many releases this last decade.
But this is a topic on Berseria, I suppose many in this thread do find it a large improvement which is nice to read as the game is a week away. Flaws sound just as regrettable even if taking a very different form, but I should have Zestiria wrapped just in time for it next week. Actually intrigued by how the two games are linked as well.
Cornbread78
Member
Anyone have a good |OT| name for this game?
Tales of Berseria - Revenge on Baba
Cornbread78
Member
Lol, That is exactly the same title I did come up with, but there's got to be better, right? Or maybe not?
Smells Like Laphicet Spirit.
First LMBS without Linear Motion!
Customize your Combos
Mash Action Buttons to Win
Holundrian
Unconfirmed Member
Press A for Arts.
Break Baba's Soul
The Band of the Crowe
It's a Berserk reference (the game borrows a lot from Berserk) and Velvet's last name is Crowe so it applies to her party as well.
Cornbread78
Member
Some good ones here.
PackAPunchedMick
Member
Is Zestiria a good starting point in the series?
It's £11.99 on the store and want to wet my appetite before purchasing Berseria.
It's £11.99 on the store and want to wet my appetite before purchasing Berseria.
Cornbread78
Member
They are all independent stories and self contained. Zestiria and Berseria take place in the same word 1,000 years apart with only a couple references between the two.
I just finished Zestiria this month myself and didn't think it turned out all that great. There are some deep flaws in several areas including combat, world design, equipment progression, and even the story.
I'd recommend going for Berseria instead, or maybe give one of the PS3 Tales games on PS3 or PS Now(PS4) a try instead, such as Xillia, if unwilling to pay full price.