Tales of Berseria (PS3 / PS4)

[Hi!]

So this was announced I guess. Is it me or does it seem like they're pumping these things out.

Seems like it was revealed at the Tales Festival 2015.

Spoiler:

Supposedly a female protagonist.

What are your thoughts? I played Abyss and Vesperia but that's it of the Tales games. I love the combat system and since this one is coming to PS4 I might just give it a try. Never played Xillia/Zestiria (is that even out yet??) or any of the other PS3 ones. Seems like there are so many and I find the stories and characters to be pretty weak. The artstyles are always pretty though. And that combat system is some good shit. What do you guys think?

 

[Sopheria]

Why am I just now hearing about this o:

I'm so excited to see that one is finally coming out for PS4 ^^

It looks like her Japanese name is "Velvet"? Not a huge fan of the name, but hopefully her English name will be different haha. I love her design though.

 

[Cherrim]

I'm pretty annoyed it's on PS3 as well as PS4. I don't even have a PS4 yet but I really wanted the next game to be a step up. They messed up Zestiria so bad on a technical level--even though by all means it should have been a big improvement over Xillia considering they've been making PS3 games for like 7 years now--and it was so obvious while playing that the game would have played much better on a better system. So now not only is ToB going to be their bumpy first PS4 game, but it's going to be nerfed anyway just so that people with a PS3 will get the same experience. Factor in that it's being announced so soon compared to the release of Zestiria, so it probably has a strangely short development cycle, and I just... have no real expectations for this. That said, I am absolutely looking forward to buying it because I am Tales trash. 8)

I'm glad to hear it's got a female protagonist for once, but they put her in such skimpy clothing that I'm really not feeling it. :/

I guess we'll wait and see, though. I'm kinda hoping this announcement is supposed to act as a bandaid for when they announce Zestiria PS4. If they do that and have that release this year or early next year, and assuming that turns ToZ into the game it should have been from the start, then I will feel more confident in their ability to pull of ToB. Maybe if they show they're working on something new, people won't feel as betrayed when they re-release ToZ within a year, lol.

tl;dr - bamco's been so lazy with their tales titles lately, it's hard to get super excited. I'm still looking forward to this regardless.

 

[Arc]

Ayy? That was quick, Zestiria just came out in January. A lot of my concerns have already been voiced by Cherrim already. I'm curious to actually see gameplay. If it's using anything remotely close to Zestria's battle system, I can write this off as a rushed project. Of course, there better be major improvements or the complete removal of the seamless transitions. The return of 60 FPS battles are must though, please Namco ;__;

ALSO. FEMALE JUDE. CAN'T UNSEE.

Rina Satou though~

It looks like her Japanese name is "Velvet"? Not a huge fan of the name, but hopefully her English name will be different haha. I love her design though.

It's probably not going to differ much from Velvet. It's spelt "ベルベット", in romaji, you roughly get Berubetto. It's a really odd name, and I can only see Namco localizing it as Velvet since I can't see any feasible workaround with the name.

 

[Satoshi Ookami]

I'm so ready for Tales of Unlimited Budget!

It's probably not going to differ much from Velvet. It's spelt "ベルベット", in romaji, you roughly get Berubetto. It's a really odd name, and I can only see Namco localizing it as Velvet since I can't see any feasible workaround with the name.

It's definitely gonna be Velvet. Unless they split it into something like Vel Vet =D

 

[Hi!]

So is Zestiria considered good? This one seems to have been announced really soon. Also I don't even know why Zestiria wasn't PS3 / PS4 and this one isn't just PS4. That seemed like the best way to bridge the generation gap to me. Now it just seems like they're kind of a step behind.

 

[RedJ]

I wonder how they'll manage to butcher Velvet's name if this gets localized. You'd think it would be easy enough, but then again this is the company who gave us Kor and SO-RAY.

Not too excited for this given the fluctuating quality since Graces and the absolute train wreck that was Zestiria, but I'll be keeping an eye on this regardless.

 

[Arc]

So is Zestiria considered good? This one seems to have been announced really soon. Also I don't even know why Zestiria wasn't PS3 / PS4 and this one isn't just PS4. That seemed like the best way to bridge the generation gap to me. Now it just seems like they're kind of a step behind.

I liked Zestiria. It has fun characters, an interesting battle system, and a couple of cool mechanics. But it's marred with technical problem and rather ambitious aspirations. Seamless battle transitions was one of the cool ideas that was presented, in practice there often times when a random tree would obscure your view or a narrow corridor would destroy your camera angle. Battles were only 30 FPS. There are a couple of things you can nitpick, but basically, it didn't seem like the product of a three year project.

Namco isn't actually all that behind, in terms of Japan, where their main audience lies. Yes, to everyone else in the world it seems like starting development for PS4 now seems late, but PS4 isn't selling like hotcakes in Japan. It's why Berseria is still for PS3, they already have an established fanbase on that platform, and as a company they're still looking for a profit.

 

[Satoshi Ookami]

So is Zestiria considered good? This one seems to have been announced really soon. Also I don't even know why Zestiria wasn't PS3 / PS4 and this one isn't just PS4. That seemed like the best way to bridge the generation gap to me. Now it just seems like they're kind of a step behind.

Sales, sales, sales. PS3 is still a thing in Japan. Big one that is.

EDIT: Arara, Arukkun ninja'd me.

 

[Cherrim]

Wow, another one? Jeez. I'm really saddened by the series tbh. Symphonia and Vesperia are some of the better Jrpg's I've ever played, and Abyss stands as probably my favorite RPG of all time(though persona and many Nis games give it a run for it's money), but everything since Vesperia has been so mass produced for quick profit that the series has lost the high quality craftsmenship that put the series on the map to begin with.

If anything, we're actually going at a much slower pace now than we were back when the games you mentioned were released. Abyss released only a few months after Legendia and Vesperia released the same year as Innocence--all of which are mothership titles, so they've always stretched the series pretty thin. It used to be that a game would come out once a year, and that's not even counting the side titles which you would get one or two of. Now it's completely different and even Japan is only getting a game every two or three years. They may have announced Berseria now, but I imagine it'll probably be mid-to-late 2016 before it comes out so that's still a pretty sizeable gap between it and Zestiria.

I think the dip in quality is because they've downsized the Tales devs a lot. They consolidated the different internal teams that used to work on Tales into the Tales studio and... then I think they dissolved that back again? A friend noticed that some of the credits in Zestiria pointed to Bamco outsourcing much of their development to outside companies, even for really integrated things like... I think it was the battle system that was handled by an external company with ToZ??? It's disappointing because I don't feel like the games have been as coherent lately and I can't help but wonder if it's because they're working on them so disjointedly. They still follow the same basic formulas that they always have, so I know they have the potential to make each of their games great... they just aren't following through. :(

I think Abyss is objectively the best Tales game I've played, but even though Xillia was rushed and lacked a lot of content that should have been there, it's my favourite because the mechanics were like a love letter to JRPG enthusiasts. (I say this every time I bring up Xillia and it's so corny but it's true.) Sidequesting, backtracking, keeping up with plot, levelling, equipping, battling--EVERYTHING--they streamlined it so well. It was a joy to play because it was never frustrating like the games following it have been. It's so weird to me that they peaked with their menu/mechanics in that game and then have been going downhill. Shouldn't they be improving every time they make a game, even in small ways? It's weird that they don't.

Nonetheless, I'm always open to the possibility of any game being good, so I'm excited to see what they'll do. I'm not sure how I feel about the female protagonist. Because while there is a lot of great storytelling they can do with one that hasn't been told yet, most "Tales of" females aren't exactly the most 3 dimensional characters ever. Tear from abyss was probably the deepest character of them(of the ones I've played), and at the end of the day her character was really just "shy girl who tries to deny her love of the main character". So I guess we'll see.

My gut reaction to reading this was "well, if she's the main character, they'll have to concentrate on her more than usual so that can only be a good thing!" But then it occurred to me that when it comes to main characters, even the males don't generally get a whole lot of development. :s The only one I can think of who significantly changes over the course of his game is Luke. Everyone else... maybe makes some progress but a lot of them stay pretty static compared to other members in the party. But regardless, I do hope they do something good with her! Even Milla was kind of a breath of fresh air compared to a lot of the 2D stereotype female leads the series has had in the past, so I'm hoping this is going to be a good thing.

 

[Hi!]

As much as Tales is fun to play, I find the majority of the characters from what I've seen to be pretty bad. Not like actually BAD for the most part, but they're just very boring. Like not super meaningful, they're mostly just standard character archetypes. Seems to me like the battle system/visuals are the only super redeeming qualities. And even the artstyle has suffered of late.

 

[thedestinedblade]

Can't wait for Bamco to shift and say "Hey we NEVER said she was the protagonist! You guys are wrong!" {XD}

I'm not complaining though, I did enjoy the last couple of series entries quite a bit. Though it's not my favorite series of JRPGs, they do some things really well. She looks like a Milla/Yuri hybrid honestly.

 

[Satoshi Ookami]

Can't wait for Bamco to shift and say "Hey we NEVER said she was the protagonist! You guys are wrong!" {XD}

They aren't doing that. If they did, this would become even bigger scandal than Alisha. And the boycott would be real.
Unless they introduce better waifu that is.

 

[Hi!]

I hate 'waifu' culture

 

[Satoshi Ookami]

I hate 'waifu' culture

Then you are clearly not playing enough JRPGs :P

 

[Arc]

Pretty. Textures for the ground seem a little lacking, but everything else looks nice.

also I'm like 90% sure that Velvet is going to be cracking people's heads open with her legs, Regal-style.