In Tales of Berseria you will go on a journey in search of yourself. Become Velvet - in the past, a loving and good woman, in whose heart hatred is now burning.
Everything changed when a terrible catastrophe happened to her, which occurred 3 years before the start of the video game Tales of Berseria. Velvet joins a crew of pirates and roams the sea and countless islands of the holy kingdom of Midgand.
This is the latest adventure brought to you by the eminent development team of the TALES series. Mutsumi Inomata, TALES character designer, personally created Velvet's style, while popular Japanese company ufotable is back to animating the superb cutscenes. This means that an exciting chronicle of adventures and exploits awaits you in their unique manner.
It entered the world commodity market only a couple of days ago, however, it has been played in the Land of the Rising Sun for 1.5 years. Well, what did you want, a project of such a scale is not localized on the knee. All the same, for us, as well as for a huge part of the world, this innovation is the most burning. It’s not for nothing that the advertisement hangs on the main page of the Steam market, and the “very positive reviews” force you to pay attention. She is expected to be the latest rise to the pedestal of the widespread Tales RPG franchise, which already has 16 parts, not counting small offshoots that came out only in the Land of the Rising Sun. It would seem that the part with that number in the series is doomed to be conveyor. But no. Not this time. It has a large amount of the latest and unusual for the franchise itself, and for the RPG genre in its entirety. However, to grab the dominant protagonist - the girl ... But, probably, first things first.
Actions open in the same setting that was in Tales of Zestiria, but a large number of years earlier. This is a chronicle about a girl named Velvet. In the past, she is an ordinary carefree resident of an inconspicuous village in the Empire, living with her younger brother and guardian. But this guardian is the exorcist Artorius, who, with his own magical practices, is trying to rid the world of that plague that turns local inhabitants into werewolf demons. At one fine moment, he enters very far and there is a conflict with the darkness breaking out, as a result of which Velvet loses her brother and becomes a half-demon herself. Her left hand no longer resembles a human and possesses devilish power.
For 3 years, Velvet goes into deepest seclusion with the study of her own superpowers, after which, driven by revenge, she decides to find and punish those who are guilty of what happened at any cost. She joins the sea pirates and together with them on the ship plows the islands of Midgard. Evenly, she assembles a friendly team of the same half-demons as she is playable heroes with their own abilities, advantages and disadvantages in battles with enemies. They will become Velvet's faithful assistants in her wanderings. She would encounter both the order of the Abbey's exorcists and the dark demons more than once. A large number of wanderings, trials and opponents await her. If all this anime was a television series, with this approach it would be called “ongoing”.
The story is definitely a powerful side of a video game. At the time of the review of the Japanese PS4 version, all critics from recognizable game publications gave him the highest score for irony, but in some places good humor, well-written main and secondary characters, unexpected twists. So, for example, Dengeki PlayStation reviewer rated it 92.5/100, which is quite high for a critical assessment. But the plot would not have been so catchy if it weren’t for this fabulous anime setting made by lovely music and catchy beautiful graphics
Like earlier in the series, the Tales of Berseria video game is made to look like an anime. But this time it is less clumsy, and you can even announce it very well. High resolution textures and good detail of heroes with territories as appropriate for such a large world look great. All this is even more correct than in the last video game - Tales of Zestiria. And if, when watching the main episodes, there is a memory, well, practically, that you are inside the anime. These scenes, by the way, are made one hundred percent on the video game engine, which is why they practically add up, and are not filmed as a separate anime film, or as rendered pieces.
Under other circumstances, this would be a huge minus. The creator immediately recalls the old domestic RPGs such as “Dungeon Orderlies”, in which this was carried out in full, it scared and made me laugh right away. But it’s not 2006 in the yard, but 2017 and this is Japan, so everything is cool here and this, on the contrary, is a fat plus. As a result, the connection with the game action does not completely disappear during viewing, and the scenes smoothly run into the action. With a second passage, you can dress the heroes for all sorts of bad combinations of clothes in very dramatic fragments for the sake of laughter. Of course, in the scenes on the video game engine, they will be saved.
A little about the atmosphere and manner. By the way, the following small paragraph is intentionally for anime people, so ordinary readers, excuse me for the digression, and anime people, too, sorry for the rudeness of comparisons and superficiality. It seems to be One Piece, but without the cartoonishness. Associations with Sword Online, but without getting into a computer video game. Re:Zero without groundhog day and real world protagonist. It is permissible in the motives and causes of the characters, something from the Full Metal Alchemist. Some such images pop up in the head of the creator, however, he is not even starting the attack, so he asks for forgiveness again.
Well, in full, the video game has the same atmosphere of its own franchise, but brought to the latest graphic heights and extraordinary plot solutions. The main protagonist is a woman - this is definitely the first time here. Comparisons with Final Fantasy 15 will not, do not ask. The music track in the video game is wonderful and unforgettable. By the way, the opening introductory video already lies separately on almost all YouTube channels. And gaining 10 thousand views so far. It's even worth revisiting, I guess.
There is nothing extraordinary in the gameplay. Fights in real time with switching between heroes in an open 3D space. A large number of gathering and separate configurations for everyone. The combat mechanics, the character leveling system and the video game process are completely simplified and lower the threshold for entering a video game, which is very good for beginners. Everything is simple, but not simply in the sense there is room for deepening and fiction. By pumping different abilities, you can combine them into special combo attacks. And there are a large number of such alternatives, enough for any passage with the least 40 hours of gameplay, not counting the auxiliary quests. In general, Tales of Berseria can drag on for a very long time.
Well, we have before us the usual JRPG Japanese role-playing video game, with absolutely all the plot and gameplay implications. Like any other style, this one does not stand still. Precisely, technically, the video game surpasses its own predecessors from the franchise, however, in terms of graphics, it complements noteworthy linear moves. Looking at the picture in full, it does not bring something innovative for the series, and even more so for the RPG industry. Simply excellent, not a passing part of its own series, which can be advised to newcomers. Severe minuses and problems can not be traced. Adherents of role-playing video games not only Japanese can be advised.
