Originally started in 1995 with Tales of Phantasia, the Tales of series has been going strong for just over 30 years now. With many main entries, numerous spin-offs, anime, and manga adaptations, Tales of is a cultural juggernaut—well, mostly in Japan. Even if the franchise’s influence isn’t as prominent here in the States, Tales of still has a healthy following with RPG fans. Despite my knowing about it for years, Tales of has been quite the blind spot for me. It’s something I’ve always been curious to try out, and I had the chance to dive right in for the first time in Tales of Berseria Remastered.
As its title suggests, Tales of Berseria Remastered is a remaster of the original action RPG, which was released in Japan for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 back in 2016, then worldwide in 2017. The game has made the jump to modern consoles and PC, including ones it never released for, like the Xbox family of systems and Nintendo Switch. It’s part of the Tales of remaster project for the franchise’s 30th anniversary. The project aims to make previous titles easily accessible on modern consoles and to remaster games more frequently. Tales of Berseria Remastered is the third game in this project, and while the core game is still solid, it brings up one question: what makes this a remaster?
Tales of Berseria Remastered is Quite the Tale
Tales of Berseria takes place in the kingdom of Midgand, an empire that rules over a world consisting of various islands. The world is inhabited by humans and a race of supernatural spirits called Malakhim (malak for short), which humans use for their magic. Humans are succumbing to a disease called Daemonblight, which turns them into monsters called daemons, posing a threat to the world. We play as Velvet Crowe, a young girl living in a small village with her brother, Laphicet. Seven years earlier, their sister died during a Scarlet Night, a night when the moon turns red, and humans are more likely to become demons.
Velvet and Laphicet were saved by their brother-in-law Artorius. Since then, they have lived together and take care of Laphicet, who is sick. One day, the Scarlet Night returns, causing the entire village to become demons. Velvet goes looking for her family, but when she finds Artorius, he is sacrificing Laphicet for a ritual known as the Advent. He attempts to sacrifice her, but Daemonblight possesses her arm. She becomes a Therion, a daemon that feeds off other daemons. Enraged, she starts killing all daemons around her and gets thrown into a prison where she spends the next three years.
After three years, she breaks out with the assistance of a samurai, Rokurou Rangetsu, and the witch Magilou. Not long after, they encounter pirates and gain the assistance of Eizen, a malak who travels with them. They also gain the assistance of a malak who looks like Velvet’s brother, Laphicet, so she starts calling him that. In the three years she was imprisoned. Artorius formed the Abbey to bring peace and has slowly gained the influence needed to carry out his true plan. A plan to deal with Daemonblight permanently, but one that will change their world completely. This causes one of his members, Eleanor, to leave them. She then joins Velvet as they all work together to stop him.
This is a strong premise, and it’s one that interested me from the very start. While the introduction takes a while to fully play out, I always wanted to see where it was going. Unfortunately, I have serious issues with the story’s pacing; some moments are a complete slog, while others are full of genuine emotion. The characters are all great, and they are part of the reason I would put up with the slower parts. They are all fully fleshed out, and I genuinely love all their arcs. It all pays off to a satisfying end, which may have taken a bit too long to get to.
The Arte of War
Combat in Tales of Berseria has your team going up against different enemies in the linear motion battle system that all Tales of games use, for the most part. It’s a real-time battle system with attacks similar to a brawler or action game, with those attacks also dictating what direction you’ll continue to move in. The special attacks you can perform are called Artes, and they can be mapped to any of the face buttons on your controller. Not only can you map any Arte to any button, but the game also lets you map the next attack you’ll do up to four. This leads to many customization options for combat, and it’s fun to experiment with what works best.
Each character has a Soul Gauge that decides how much you can attack. You can have a max of 5, and each attack will consume 1. When you have none, your attacks will be weaker and easier to block. Soul will regenerate to the level you currently are at, though. While the max is five, you will normally start battles with three and can gain or lose souls as the battle goes on. Defeating and stunning enemies will increase your Soul, but if you get stunned, it will decrease. It will also decrease if you do certain attacks.
When you have three or more Souls, you can use Break Souls. A powerful attack that requires you to have at least three Souls. These attacks ignore combo limits and can be a great help in extending them, or just dealing a lot of damage. They also make you lose a Soul, and the target gains one in return. Mystic Arte is another massive attack good for extending combos, but it requires the use of the Blast Gauge, which is another meter you can fill by being proficient in different Artes and using Break Souls.
Your full party has six members, but only four will fight at a time. The other two can be swapped in at any time. You can switch between which character you control while the others are attacking on auto. All the systems I mentioned earlier will be on at the same time, and it can be overwhelming at the start, but it eventually clicks. It took a while, but by the second half of the game, I started actively enjoying the combat and even experimenting with it. Sadly, boss fights start to feel like a chore not long after, which really drags out the last act.
What is a Remaster in this Case?
In the case of Tales of Graces f Remastered and Tales of Xillia Remastered, I understood why Bandai Namco went ahead with these releases, especially when the original games are more than a decade old and stuck on the PlayStation 3. Bringing these games to modern consoles seemed like an easy choice, especially to hold over fans while they wait for more. What I don’t understand is why they decided to remaster Tales of Berseria next, since it’s readily available on PlayStation 4 and PC.
This remaster feels closer to a port with extra bells and whistles. The original release still holds up visually, even if the new version is sharper overall with 4K support and 60 FPS. This release also has the DLC from the original game, but that was just a collection of costumes. It does include some quality-of-life updates, but nothing that would require remastering the game, in my opinion. The only point I can make is that the game is now available on Xbox and Nintendo Switch. Greater availability never hurts the game, but it definitely raises questions for those on PlayStation and PC.
End of Tale
Tales of Berseria Remastered is a really solid action RPG at the end of the day. The core game is still there to enjoy, even if I still question what qualifies it as a remaster. While it took me a while to get into the story, once it got me, it wouldn’t let go. I genuinely loved all the characters and was satisfied with how their personal arcs played out. The combat was daunting at first, but it’s pretty fun, even if later boss fights are a chore. While the release confuses me, Tales of Berseria Remastered is still a solid way to play this game, especially on Xbox and Switch. Just know you can stick with the original if you have access to it.
Disclaimer: Bandai Namco provided a Steam copy of Tales of Berseria Remastered for review purposes.
