Games Database
PC
Adventure: Role Playing
| Also for: | PS4 | ||
| Viewed: | 3D Third-person, over the shoulder | Genre: | Adventure: Role Playing |
| Media: | Download | Arcade origin: | No |
| Developer: | BANDAI NAMCO Studios Inc. | ||
| Publishers: | BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment UK
(GB) |
Released: | Oct 2016
(GB) |
Summary
There are a few things the words 'tales' and 'of' lead you to expect when they appear in the title of a video game. A big meaty story, real-time combat and a touch of melodrama are three of them.
What's surprising about Tales of Berseria compared to earlier games in the series is the maturity of the characters and story. We follow the brilliantly-named Velvet Crowe, an innocent young woman looking after her younger brother in a world plagued by demons and a presence known as Malevolence. It all goes wrong when the brother is sacrificed in order to end the evil in the world and Velvet is turned into a demon before being promptly locked up for years. Things really kick into gear when we rejoin Velvet after her incarceration. She's seriously angry, and what follows is a dark tale of revenge with a protagonist who's not afraid to make highly questionable decisions to get what she wants.
Accompanying Velvet are a (mostly) similarly morally ambiguous bunch - Eizen is a pirate in search of his captain, Magilou is a witch on the hunt for trouble and Rokurou is a demon determined to kill his brother while Eleanor breaks the mold and actually tries to do what's right.
Real-time combat returns, meaning you can move freely to dole out blows and spell artes as you see fit. There's one small but significant change to the series formula, however - the Technical Points bar is replaced by the Soul Gauge. It still dictates how long you can keep chaining moves for, but now you can absorb souls from enemies by knocking them out.
Tales of Berseria sticks to the basic Tales series, but shifts it in a darker direction.
What's surprising about Tales of Berseria compared to earlier games in the series is the maturity of the characters and story. We follow the brilliantly-named Velvet Crowe, an innocent young woman looking after her younger brother in a world plagued by demons and a presence known as Malevolence. It all goes wrong when the brother is sacrificed in order to end the evil in the world and Velvet is turned into a demon before being promptly locked up for years. Things really kick into gear when we rejoin Velvet after her incarceration. She's seriously angry, and what follows is a dark tale of revenge with a protagonist who's not afraid to make highly questionable decisions to get what she wants.
Accompanying Velvet are a (mostly) similarly morally ambiguous bunch - Eizen is a pirate in search of his captain, Magilou is a witch on the hunt for trouble and Rokurou is a demon determined to kill his brother while Eleanor breaks the mold and actually tries to do what's right.
Real-time combat returns, meaning you can move freely to dole out blows and spell artes as you see fit. There's one small but significant change to the series formula, however - the Technical Points bar is replaced by the Soul Gauge. It still dictates how long you can keep chaining moves for, but now you can absorb souls from enemies by knocking them out.
Tales of Berseria sticks to the basic Tales series, but shifts it in a darker direction.
