Lotheneil

Lotheneil vs. The Backlog Hydra, Ep. #26

I’ve managed to finish one of the ‘heavy hitters’ sitting in my backlog - and I had a ton of fun doing this. Screw backlog killing, I’d like to have more, way more games of this type, even if that meant never succeeding at the task. Having fun is what it is about after all :).

Which, in fact, is what I’ve got in the form of PS Vita I’ve just bought - Tales of Hearts, here I come! (yup, I really do like the series, I hope other instances will not disappoint).

Tales of Berseria

Tales of Berseria

9/10
63.8 hours
38 of 51 achievements

A second part of the vast 'Tales of' series I've played (after Symphonia) - and it was a great experience once again. This series rose from unknown to personal favourite in no time. I only hope the older parts of the series have something fun to offer too :)

In this instance we get a set of unusual heroes (or rather - anti-heroes): main character, a half-demon driven by revenge (the fact, that its target is the most powerful person in the world, considered its saviour, does not deter her in the slightest), a cursed pirate, that brings misfortune to himself and everyone around, a witch, a bit on the insane side and a demon of battle - whose sole purpose in life is training to become strong enough to kill his own brother. Definitely not your usual band of heroes to save the world.

This title (comparing to Symphonia) excels in character development, battle mechanics (very dynamic and flashy, with full freedom of movement) and visuals - though in this case the quality and level of detail varies between stages - from beautiful and detailed meadows, reefs or cities, to bland caves and ruins. It offers an interesting story, if a bit on the cliche side at times, though I still consider Symphonia's world lore and main plot to be superior.

The only mechanics I was not really fond of is the system of learning passive skills from items - each equipment element offers a bonus (e.g. +8 attack or slightly reduced damage from particular element), that gets unlocked after obtaining a set number of Grade while wearing it. At this time the bonus becomes permanent and stack with any other of the same type. While it looks great on paper, it comes with one large drawback - the necessity of wading through literal tons of items, constantly keeping track of learning bars for all equipment. To me it was tedious and frustrating.

Other than that - Tales of Berseria was a really enjoyable experience to me, devouring quite a large chunk of my time - which I do not regret in the slightest.

Note - the title is a prequel to Tales of Zestiria. While from what I've read it offers some references to its predecessor, it is related loosely enough for me not to feel I'm missing anything not playing that title before (it is on my shopping list though :)).

And now I really feel like watching/reading Berserk...

Status: completed - by my definition of completing, that is: "seeing everything story-wise there is to see" - I do not consider collecting every item in the game or opening every chest for the sake of achievements to be worth my time.

I’ve joined this month’s theme. Thanks to three kind people who had the courage to venture into the vast land of despair and horrors, otherwise known as my “won’t play” category, a “Second chance” list was created.
I’ve even managed to complete two titles of the list:

  1. Woodle Tree Adventures - extremely relaxing and family friendly 3D platformer. Short (completing it took me like a hour) and sweet. While it does suffer from the usual camera issues of every 3D platformer I’ve played (or perhaps my sense of perspective is off?) it was really enjoyable. Might be the reason I’ve tossed it into the red trashcan before, or perhaps I was just in a bad mood :)
  2. Little Inferno - another little game, in which you order some things online, then toss them into the fireplace and watch them burn. It has a logic element, as there are some combos with vague hints (combinations of items with specific themes, that give bonuses when burnt together).
Vito

Tales of Berseria is in the next Humble Monthly, so thank you for your detailed review. Sounds like a good game, albeit completely off my usual taste.

Good on you for giving some games a second chance. It takes some effort to enlarge the backlog again (at least at first :D)

tsupertsundere

You’re a stronger person than I am - once I put something on my ‘won’t play’ list, my heart seems to be closed to it for good. I’m glad you got two off that list!

I’ve heard only spectacular things about Tales of Berseria! I’m excited to play someday. It’s great you’re getting into the Tales of series, and you’re in luck! Tales of Vesperia is going to be rereleased on steam sometime in 2019, with all content available in english for the first time. I really enjoyed playing that game and I was so hype to hear about it! Keep an eye out for it. And let us know how Tales of Hearts is!

Lotheneil

Thanks. Though I’m not entirely sure whether it is strength of character or inability to stick to the plan that made me dive into my red trashcan :) Decided to do something a bit different for a change.

I wouldn’t personally call Berseria spectacular, it does have its flaws (item system I’ve mentioned and a a bit hard to wrap one’s mind around battle system come to mind), but it is still definitely worth playing. I loved the lack of clear division between good and evil in Symphonia, Berseria takes it to extreme - our party is considered the evil side by the general populace, even though their actions seem justified, if cynic at times. Really refreshing experience.

Tales of Hearts for now (like 4h into the game) seems like your typical run-of-the-mill jRPG, with interesting character development system. The plot is nothing to write home about for now, I hope it develops (Symphonia did start slowly as well after all).

And yes, looking forward to Vesperia :)

RikkiUW

I completed Woodle a while back, but I had to force myself to. Granted I don’t play many 3D platformers, but the camera was just atrocious, it made figuring out where you’d land really difficult. I’m glad there’s someone who liked it.

And thanks for your review of Berseria. I’m getting the next HB monthly but haven’t decided whether to keep it. I haven’t played much anime before, and to be honest haven’t had much interest. I do appreciate games with story though. Do you think this game is a reasonable entry point for a non-anime fan?

Lotheneil

I’m not exactly a fan of anime myself and I still really liked the title. If you played (and liked) some jRPGs and are not allergic to them I believe you may like the game. There was quite a lot of conversations between party members, some of them full of that specific Japanese humour I’m not personally fond of, but you can always skip those without losing anything from the plot. If you can get around some jRPG cliches like world saving, going against unbeatable (at first) opponents, running around the whole world to collect some items necessary for final showdown and being all around shaker of the world you’re golden :)

RikkiUW

Okay, thanks. I haven’t really played any jRPGs either. As long as it’s not too grindy it sounds like I’ll like it. I think I’ll give it a try.

Trent

Wow, you completed Woodle Tree in an hour? I’m impressed…getting those 3,000 berries was a real grind for me. And I kinda suck at platformers so it took me a lot longer to finish all the levels, too…falling and dying all over the place. Congrats!

Lotheneil

Well… I have to admit I’ve kind-of-cheated that achievement (using the back button). I would skip that achievement otherwise, but it was the only one left an I’ve read about that method, so… yeah.