Combat is now very fast-paced and characters can now cast devastating magical artes without having to guzzle mana potions. These changes are, for the most part, welcome. Computer-controlled characters can cast whatever artes they are assigned, but players have to assign artes to a limited number of buttons and button combinations. Tales of Berseria combines standard attacks with artes, thus doing away with the need for mana. While gamers could attack enemies with standard attacks as much as they wanted, artes required mana, and were thus limited by a character’s available mana pool. Ideally, games should reward players who search for chests with the ability to immediately open them Tales of Berseria’s chest and orb system is just more complicated than it needs to be.Īnother major change is how Tales of Berseria seems to handle combat. In previous games, players could use either standard attacks or artes. Sadly, several chests require an unreasonable number of orbs, which adds an unwanted level of tedium to the game as players backtrack to find that one necessary orb they missed five maps ago. This forces players to explore maps to find both the chests and the orbs. For example, players must collect floating orbs scattered around the maps before they can open chests. However, Berseria appears so far to be making several important changes to the tried-and-true Tales formula, some of which are better than others. Tales of Berseria retains numerous game mechanics from past Tales entries, such as the equipment system, blue dotted line map transitions, artes, and skits. Furthermore, each mode shows that players can visit locations to either further the story or hunt powerful monsters in what I can only assume are sidequests. Each mode shows off various gameplay features, such as the aforementioned skits in the scenario mode and the glowing tombstone-shaped hoverboard, known as the geoboard, in the battle mode. Both modes allow gamers to wander each location’s maps, collect items, open chests, interact with the environment, and play around with various computer-controlled character tactics. The demo included a third skit, but it is a forgettable lore dump about Malaks all without explaining what Malaks actually are. While the battle mode does not include skits, characters still banter after battles to show that, despite potentially clashing personalities, at least they still respect one another.īandai Namco made a good decision to separate the demo into two modes. In the demo’s two memorable skits, Rukurou and Eizen warn Laphicet how “untrustworthy women are,” and Eleanor teaches Laphicet about birds that live on the beach. The demo decently establishes each character’s traits and personality, thanks to the scenario mode’s skits. Velvet has an inconsistent personality, switching between rage-filled in battle and downright vapid outside of battle. Eizen is serious throughout the demo and shows no emotion other than the stereotypical anime tough-guy scowl, even when he is genuinely being friendly. Eizen is the exact opposite of Laphicet, despite also being a Malak.
Most of the other characters treat Laphicet as if he’s a little child, especially Eleanor. In the demo, Eleanor is portrayed as very compassionate if a little overbearing, especially towards Laphicet, who is as innocent as his appearance. Gameplay is then split into two modes: scenario mode and battle mode, both of which give players access to all the main characters: the half-daemons Velvet and Rukurou, the spirits (i.e., Malak) Laphicet and Eizen, and the humans Magilou and Eleanor. When the demo starts, players are given the option to listen to the original Japanese audio or English dub. Sadly, these changes are less than impressive. Moreover, Tales of Berseria is one of the few Tales games to receive a demo prior to release, giving fans and newcomers a chance to see what the new title is all about and what changes it brings to the Tales franchise. Unlike most main games in the Tales franchise, Tales of Berseria takes place in the same world as, and is the prequel to, Tales of Zestiria. The Tales franchise has presented gamers with a steady stream of games, and the upcoming Tales of Berseria is the 16th and latest in the main series. Bandai Namco’s flagship RPG, colloquially known as the Tales series, started in 1995 with Tales of Phantasia for the Super Famicom.