First 16 Hours in Tales of Berseria

Hello fellow readers!

I really haven't had much going in the realm of gaming these past few weeks. Work has been going off the rails so my recreational time has been cut a lot.

But I finally got to dig into the game (and by dig in, I mean play obsessively) this past weekend. And I have to admit, the game has me hooked. You have to understand that I am coming straight from Final Fantasy XV which was exhaustive, repetitive, and didn't make much sense. So most of my praise of the ToB (hehe...Tob..) will be what is does better and different than Final Fantasy.

Tales of Berseria let's you play as Velvet, a girl who lives in a small village with her older brother-in-law, Artorious, and her younger brother, Laphicet. Velvet lost her sister in a tragic incident called "The Opening" where disease called Daemonblight wiped out a ton of the population. Daemonblight turns regular people into horrific monsters that lose all sense of reason. Artorious saved Velvet and her brother on that night and took them to a far off village away from the spread of the disease. But on the seventh anniversary of that night, the same events unfurled. However, this time Velvet was able to catch Artorious in the act of sacrificing her brother to appease the powers that be so that the disease would stop spreading. Velvet tries to save her brother but fails and ends up becoming a Daemon herself. Artorious gets pissed at Velvet for interrupting his ritual and puts her in prison.

After three years of surviving solely on demons to feed her own demon, she is able to break out. And that is where the story of revenge begins...

Many people may disagree, but the refreshing thing about ToB is the linear storytelling. The game has an overworld, but travelling is done by selecting points on a map. The game moves at brisk pace with plot points scattered in easy to digest bites. This makes understanding the story much easier and also makes the task of exploring much more efficient. My only complaint is that I think, that after 16 hours, I'm still in the beginning of the game.

The other thing I'm loving is how dark the game's tone is despite the games colorful palette. The whole story is wrapped around revenge and, not only that, it fittingly involves pirates (it's sort of like the The Count of Monte Cristo). I don't want to get into too much detail, but it really feels like you play as the villains of the story rather than the heroes or anti-heroes. I'm sure that, through character development and plot points, the main character will eventually show the player why they were the "good guy." But it's great to see a hero (or heroine, in this case) embrace their evil side and really kick butt.

My only real complaint is the equipment system. Random drops really mess up the feeling of discovering a new weapon. And when playing on higher difficulty levels, enemies will drop the same weapons you can buy in stores (and you get a lot of those weapons). But the good thing is that you can sell or dismantle your weapons for extra cash or upgrade materials.

I'm thoroughly enjoying ToB and I can't wait to see what else is in store. Even after 16 hours of play, the game is still feeding me new mechanics and battle tutorials. Each area and town is filled with people to talk to and mini-stories that unfold as the main story progresses. There are tons of items to collect, but the items are disposable and can be skipped without feeling like you missed something. I can't wait to continue the story and see what happens to Velvet and her team next. Hopefully I'll be able to do a better review when I finish the game.


A quick note: I took the screenshot below and found the comment oddly relevant for 2017.