does this game get better

[cybercybercybercyber4]

hi there,
im currently in the water temple, the one with the chalices that turns off the water falls.

i played tales of phantasia, hearts R, vespria, zestiria, berseria and like an hour of symphonia
and right now id say berseria is the weakest among those and by a long shot.

my issues are:

-the combat feels stupid, the best strat seems to be to go berserk at any opportunity unless the enemy boss has an AOE attack around himself, so 95% i just went berserk with velvet as she greatly outclasses everybody else and there seems to not be a single reason to not berserk almost right away.

-the protagonist and some of the other chars seem to go out of character far too often to the point they feel like puppets instead of humans one could symphacise with.
Especially velvet is completely off, sure she got tortured, traumatized and demonized, but i still dont think thats a good excuse to make her such a mess of a character.


-the dungeons feel uninspired, i mean its on the same level as zestiria but atleast zestirias overworld areas were interesting, up until the point i played berseria (water temple), there wasnt a single area that had any noteworthy level of atmosphere to them.

-currently i find the story to be rather dull, but thats not neccessarily an issue, i like it if the story is good but can live with a lesser plot.

So yeah thats it, do you think the game improves on any of these things after the water temple? I ask because im currently unsure wether ill ever finish this game.

[Simon]

If you played that far already, I don't think this game's gameplay is what you are looking for since Water Temple is already halfway into the story. I have to agree that the game is a bit too easy. You could try increasing the difficulty for more challenge, but overall Velvet is a bit too broken. Playing as other characters and don't include Velvet in the battle party could makes things less boring. I did that and enjoyed the game more.

But I think better play other Tales games if you want better combat with less mindless button smashing.

I agree the Dungeons are mostly even less interesting than Zestiria. Only the water temple is good, the rest are meh.

However, the story is one of the best in the series, rated by most people. Not long after this, she will undergo a character development. If you still don't like the gameplay, then maybe you can watch the rest of the cutscenes or skits on youtube.

[Giro]

It's been years since I played this game so I don't remember when exactly the water temple happens but:

Combat: This game doesn't shine for its combat imo but there are ways to make it better. The game introduces combat mechanics for a while, but you may be past that point. If you're not already on at least moderate difficulty, get on it as that is "normal" and normal is "easy"in this game. It should force you to have to use strategies like blocking to get stuns etc and more mechanics. You could also try learning to play as the other characters as they all play different.

Dungeons: The dungeons are the worst of any 3D tales game imo but the last one or two is probably more interesting than the ones you've seen so far. Generally, no. They don't get better before then.

Story: I personally really liked the story and characters and felt that the game really stood out because of it. I feel thats it's really the only thing the game excels at. The story does get better but if you're not enjoying the story, characters or zestiria references, I can't think of a good reason for you to continue playing.

tldr; story and characters are the meat of this game and you really tolerate the bad dungeons and okay combat to move the story along, imo. If you don't give a toot about the story or characters (including the villains), play scarlet nexus or tales of arise they have better combat and dungeon design.

[xHans]

If you're by the water temple and you don't like the story then uninstall already and move on. I don't think it'll get any better (for you anyways).

[cybercybercybercyber4]

changing the difficulty is not an option for me as i play every game on whatever comes closest to be named "normal" and always with default settings. even if "normal" is actually quite hard like PE 3rd birthday or very easy. Removing velvet from the party is an option i would consider though. If i pick up the game again ill certainly do that.

that she will undergo a character developement is certainly a good thing, Acting hard boiled for no benefit really started to make me want to skip cutscenes.

Well thank you guys, if you didnt ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ me, it sounds like the game might become better towards the end. i guess ill give it another try at some point, when i feel like it.

[Zach]

i'm new to this series and the first i played was arise and coming to this game i can tell you it's basically the same. it's got the same type of combat system and dungeon layout. honestly this isn't at all an issue seeing as a lot of JRPG type games are like this so if you're not used to the usual JRPG formula then I guess don't play.

[cybercybercybercyber4]

apparently im already halfway through the game.
but thanks anyway as i havent yet played tales of arise .

also i have played star ocean 1-4, so im somewhat used to the genre.

[Giro]

Originally posted by cybercybercybercyber4:

changing the difficulty is not an option for me as i play every game on whatever comes closest to be named "normal" and always with default settings. even if "normal" is actually quite hard like PE 3rd birthday or very easy. Removing velvet from the party is an option i would consider though. If i pick up the game again ill certainly do that.

Are you sure? I also play 99.99% of my games on normal or "regular" difficulty, but I seriously recommend making an exception for Berseria. I don't think I've seen a single person become satisfied with the combat when playing on anything under Moderate difficulty for this game. Iirc you can stand there and your teammates will do all the work.

[cybercybercybercyber4]

youve played atleast 10000 games already? You beast !!

I was sure, but now you made my resolve wiggle.
I just want to play the games as they are intended, but if thats the result i probably should make an exception. i havent yet tried to not use velvet, so i wouldnt know how that feels.

[Simon]

Unlike most other Tales games, playing on Normal for Berseria will be very very boring because the Normal in this game feels more like Easy. So I recommend trying on Moderate, which is equivalent to the Normal difficulty in other Tales.

[jabberwok]

I play almost every other game on normal difficulty. I play Berseria on the highest difficulty that's unlocked. But yeah, I started out by bumping it up to moderate, then gradually turned it up higher throughout my first playthrough.

[Mythily]

Anything beyond hard just ruined the fun in the combat. I don't use velvet except for farming she's great.
Intense and chaos just seem so one sided to me. 1 mistake will usually mean 1 hit KO cuz they almost always stun you when you get hit. Same goes for your teammates, they usually go down first before me (this is late game btw, bonus dungeon). I can't see how that's fun. Hard seems to be the highest I still have fun on, moderate is definitely the sweet spot. Besides anything beyond hard doesn't seem rewarding to me at all.

That said, does anyone know the revive skill limit? Can you reach 100%?

[Zach]

I've only played 2 tales games so far but for me the combat is easy no matter the difficulty. If you get to end game in Arise eventually you'll get a weapon that levels with each enemy you kill and it'll allow your flaming sword to do 500k+ per swing after awhile. Not sure if this game has that level of OP weapons since i'm still doing the story.

[jabberwok]

Originally posted by Mythily:

Anything beyond hard just ruined the fun in the combat. I don't use velvet except for farming she's great.
Intense and chaos just seem so one sided to me. 1 mistake will usually mean 1 hit KO cuz they almost always stun you when you get hit. Same goes for your teammates, they usually go down first before me (this is late game btw, bonus dungeon). I can't see how that's fun. Hard seems to be the highest I still have fun on, moderate is definitely the sweet spot. Besides anything beyond hard doesn't seem rewarding to me at all.

That said, does anyone know the revive skill limit? Can you reach 100%?

The bonus dungeon is insane, I almost always drop the difficulty by one for it. For me, most of the rest of the game plays well on chaos or intense, though the final dungeon can be a slog on chaos, for sure. Chaos is probably best for NG+, with the XP boosts, which makes sense.

[Mariazinha]

There was a point in which I felt bored with Berseria, but I believe it paid off in the end. I also recommend to choose "hard" difficulty. Anyway, you didn't play Tales of the Abyss yet? It's the best Tales of game I've ever played.

[Dethlane]

Originally posted by Mariazinha:

There was a point in which I felt bored with Berseria, but I believe it paid off in the end.

Does it really? So far I've only seen the increase in enemies' "spongebobness" and bigger use of double switches (artificial increase of gameplay length by forcing the player to go back and forth). In the end it annoyed me so much that at some point even my wish to see Velvet's story to the end wasn't enough to keep me playing.