Tales of Berseria is one of my favourite games and a prime example of how story structure and character development should be. If you've played Tales of Zestiria, Berseria fixes a lot wrong with Zestiria's story and let's you understand the recurring characters and their backstories.


As I mentioned above, the story fills in a lot of gaps and does a better explanation of how the world works. Berseria takes place 1000 years before Zestiria does. The story kind of starts off a little slow, there is a known curse that happens, protagonist loses someone close they care about and that causes events to unfold. The story after that is mostly about the main character - Velvet - coming to terms with herself, getting her emotions back and caring about others again instead of being purely hate and rage filled on a blind suicide mission. Character development in this game is very strong and actually gets rather depressing at times, but it is done very well and has become one of my favourite games and stories. The game also takes a different spin as you're not playing as the hero, you're playing as the villains, who become the heros briefly due to a bigger threat, but in doing so, you singlehandedly keep the curse upon the world and further delve it into chaos. Everything that happens after this game (all the way to Zestiria) is simply because of Velvet and her party.

- Artorius starts out as someone just trying to keep his family and village safe from the Hellions, albeit through some rather extreme measures, who eventually turns into someone who wants to rid the world of emotion so no more Hellions can spawn and gets a god complex in thinking he's the only one that can be the people's hope and even attempts to control a god.

- Velvet starts out as a laid back girl just looking out for her sick brother, after his death who she blames Artorius for, she becomes consumed by hate and revenge and will willingly sacrifice herself if it means Artorius's death. As time goes on she begins to get her emotions back and begins to care about others again, coming to terms with what happened and coming to terms with herself, while still keeping the goal she made.

- Eizen starts as just the sarcastic know it all, who pretty much retains that, but also begins showing more character as someone that wants to protect and help others. He's looking for his pirate crew's captain even after suspicion of his death, just so there is closure. Mentions multiple times he's trying to stay away from his sister because he knows he'll turn into a dragon and will cause harm to her, which he goes out of his way to enlist help from others to keep her safe and even helps another character, Zaveid come to terms with his denial over a loved one.

- Zavied starts as a very cocky and plays a lot with the more carefree personality and not taking much serious. Zavied is very against killing, which eventually comes to light because his lover had turned into a dragon from malevolence corruption and he's in denial that she can't be reverted, thinking that everyone can be saved. Eizen is the one that shows him this is false and he needs to accept the fact that sometimes saving someone is killing them. They fight against Zavied's lover and Zavied comes to her defense multiple times, where he finally sees that she's gone and never coming back. Eizen has the chance to kill her and take her heart to reverse his own curse, but instead doesn't, in order to set her free in death, which Zavied makes a promise that he'll return the favour once Eizen turns and that he'll protect Eizen's sister. This is extreme foreshadowing and actually changes Zavied's outlook in Zestiria.

There is much more character development from others, but I don't want to spoil everything.


The graphics for the most part are pretty good. There is some slight AA issues on higher resolutions sometimes and some background environments may look a little plain, but the effects of moves, cutscenes be it the animated style or the actual game cutscenes are very nice. There are some gorgeous overworld areas as well with enough life given to them, just some dungeons and caves look a little too plain.


This is one where I'll say Zestiria beats out Berseria. Berseria by no means has a bad soundtrack, it has a great soundtrack, but it didn't match the feel I got from Zestiria's OST. With that said, music for Berseria that is done by the Tales of Orchestra is very strong and eclipses past Zestiria in my opinion.


Gameplay is very fast paced in combat, which I like. The fast paced, combo/button spam free fight fits this game's narrative and pacing way better than turn based. Movement within the overworld is a little slow at first, but as you beat bosses and mini bosses, you'll get passive items that increase your speed. You'll be reading a lot of dialouge at times, through skits, chatter whilst moving around and cutscenes, which may get annoying for some, but something I personally didn't mind. Grinding levels in this game isn't that bad, most characters have some sort of "spammy" attack that should get you through if you pay attention to enemy weaknesses. Post game is an okay size, you have the Zavied and Dragon arch, an EX Dungeon and I think a few little side quests here and there.


There isn't really much I can think of, as they're really going to be based on a person's preference. I'll name a few and the bolded one is an actual con.

- Combos are very easy and honestly, there is plenty of moves that you can just spam over and over again no problem to just speed through enemies.

- Long story that some might be turned away from. You will probably sink about 40 hours into the main game and maybe close to 60 if you do post game. This is "exacerbated" by a lot of dialog and skits that pop up.

- PlayStation controller is not supported under normal circumstances. A few of my friends who played this with a PS controller, had issues. They had to use an external program to get it to work, which it did, however; it kept the button layout on screen as an Xbox controller instead of reflecting the PS layout.


- Fantastic story that that has amazing character development and gets depressing by putting moral questions within yourself trying to determine if Artorius is correct or if Velvet is correct.

- Sound track that for the most part is very good and has plenty of memorable scores, but does fall a little short to Zestiria.

- Fast combat gameplay that fits the pace of the game and keeps things moving.

- Plenty of dialog if you're interested learning about the characters and the world.

- A very good amount of gameplay to be had through enemies, exploration, bosses and post game.

- Velvet is best character, like ever.


Tales of Berseria is seriously a game people need to try out. I won't make the argument that it's the best Tales game, as others have their own preferences, but it's my favourite Tales and one of my favourite games in general. The story is the main driving force for this game and everything else with it is just an added bonus to me. Legit, they could have turned this into an anime or even a movie and I would have been more than happy, but getting to play alongside it was fantastic. As I mentioned at the top, if you played Zestiria and was underwhelmed or felt like it was an uphill battle or had too many inconsistencies and/or poor explication, give Berseria a try. It seriously fixes so much that Zestiria did wrong and really puts the story for this universe together. It also sets up the plot for a third story, which I hope they go back to explore eventually since Tales of Arise is confirmed not to be apart of this universe. If this is your first Tales game or consideration, I can not recommend this game more than I already have.

10/10 game!