is this BERSERK? or am i just retarded

[super santiago]

and are there any jojo references?

[Allexan]

Don't know about jojo, but "Berseria" is indeed derived from "berserk". Just look at Velvet.

[Simon]

Ignoring the character and also the plot, the world setting is heavily influenced by Arthurian Legends. (it makes sense cuz it takes place in the same world as Tales of Zestiria, which that game was heavily influenced by Arhurian Legends too)
In Tales of Badass Breast Berserk Beast, the main antagonsist is referred as "Arthur" by Velvet when she was younger. Another example is a NPC mentioning the name of the Prince of the Midgand Empire, he is called "Percival". Prince Percival worked together with Arthur (Artorius) and also gave Arthur the authority over military forces and so on even though he is not a nobility, because he is a savior to the world.

[medhathobo]

I watched some videos and the scarlet night where all the bad ♥♥♥♥ happens (trying to avoid spoilers here) is basically the eclipse from Berserk. Velvets appearance, her Guts berserk face at the end of the bad stuff during the scarlet night, the guy who does all the bad stuff has the same pretty boy that seems good thing going on that Griffith had, Velvets arm, all she really needs is her right eye missing and she is r63 Guts.

[Fel]

There is definitely influence from various other things, berserk definitely doesn't seem that improbable, but I think that if you pick your bits and pieces properly you could come up with as many different references as you wanted, from sadly very real witch hunts and manipulation of the masses, to vampires, werewolves, novels, mangas or animes that are fairly different from each others (the opening, ship travels, vaguely the characters and a bit of the lore definitely can remind you of one piece for example).

[Goilveig]

There could be a small JoJo reference in that Melchior's aversion to stepping on flowers is basically exactly the same as that of Kars from Battle Tendency - although whether this is coincidence or a deliberate homage is just speculation.

[Sofia]

Originally posted by Fel:

There is definitely influence from various other things, berserk definitely doesn't seem that improbable, but I think that if you pick your bits and pieces properly you could come up with as many different references as you wanted, from sadly very real witch hunts and manipulation of the masses, to vampires, werewolves, novels, mangas or animes that are fairly different from each others (the opening, ship travels, vaguely the characters and a bit of the lore definitely can remind you of one piece for example).

* Witch hunts are a thing in Berserk, and they are brutal as hell.

* The masses are also being manipulated in Berserk when Griffith reincarnates and poses as their savior and hero, in the exact same fashion as Artorius.

* Vampires, werewolves and other supernatural creatures are all real in Berserk.

* There is a boat in Berserk. It's a great source of PTSD for some fans.

The author of this thread is honestly more right than most people realize. The parallels between Tales of Berseria and Berserk are omnipresent in almost every last piece of the setting, with only one exception: Berserk is intended for mature audiences, whereas Berseria is more teenager friendly.

This isn't just a case of 'oh these two settings are kind of similar I guess', the settings are so close together than you could make a very poignant argument that Tales of Berseria is just Berserk with the equivalent of a photoshop filter slapped on to make it less grimdark and gritty and brutal. It's "Anime Berserk" so to speak, not in the sense it's Berserk as an anime (there are multiple already) but in the sense it's Berserk complying with anime tropes, looks and feels.