Tales of Berseria

 PC
User Score
6.7

Mixed or average reviews- based on 373 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 229 out of 373
  2. Mixed: 40 out of 373
  3. Negative: 104 out of 373

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  1. SomeName
    Mar 1, 2017
    4
    If you love the Tales series and its style, then this game is for you. If you were hoping that they would one day bring the experience to a modern gaming standard, look elsewhere. Apart from the protagonist being /kind of/ a villain, it is pretty much Tales of Zestiria again. Personally, I just got bored of the game because the gameplay is way too flat for the length of the game. They alsoIf you love the Tales series and its style, then this game is for you. If you were hoping that they would one day bring the experience to a modern gaming standard, look elsewhere. Apart from the protagonist being /kind of/ a villain, it is pretty much Tales of Zestiria again. Personally, I just got bored of the game because the gameplay is way too flat for the length of the game. They also needlessly pad out the gameplay with some of the most pointless repetitions of "go to place X. Now go to place Y. Now go back to place X" that it just becomes plain unenjoyable.

    Now the game isn't all bad. I did like the fact that they chose a female heroine who was out for less noble goals (although once again, they had to contrive it so that she inadvertently saves the world in the process). But the gameplay is just... unforgivably bland. Here are some examples:
    -The level design of the game is pretty room-corridor-room-corridor-etc for every dungeon and big empty spaces for fields. Even worse is that these areas typically have at MOST 5 different kinds of mobs that you will have to slaughter endlessly (dropping mostly lots of garbage loot that you then get to clear out of your inventory), which in the later game, are just reskins of previous mobs. Even MMORPGs try harder!
    -The combat is so utterly boring. You can button-mash your way through almost all of it (even on harder difficulties), making every of the (far too many) fights the same experience. Even actually using the skills you should is hardly more efficient or a particularly different experience.
    -The world is largely non-interactive. You can talk, pick up things, fight and (only when the game expressly permits it), do something else. Some people may say this feels "classic", but I would say it's a technological limitation from 3 console generations ago, that at this point just gives me even fewer things to vary up my experience.
    -Overly linear gameplay. There is no decision-making in this game and that includes exploration. Many areas will just arbitrarily be sealed off until the game tells you to go there. Even worse is that this is often abused to make you go through the same area multiple times with no added experience.

    Some other things:
    -The graphics belong onto a PS2/Gamecube and there is really no excuse for that.
    -Your allies and enemies have an AI that is just dumb (they will keep doing the same thing, even if it clearly doesn't work...)

    And with those limitations in place, you're now supposed to spend 50+ hours, going from cut scene to cut scene with the samey fights in areas with the samey designs. I cannot imagine how that is supposed be to be entertaining.    … Expand
  2. ZaPaAl
    Mar 6, 2017
    4
    Nice story and characters. Bad Gameplay.

    I would have really liked to play this for the story, as I liked it's characters, the humor and it seems like quite something is building up. But the combat just doesn't work for me at all. 4 Buttons to chose an attack, with 4 stages each. Which can be combined sideways + some power mode. On top of that you can learn many many more, but you    Nice story and characters. Bad Gameplay.

    I would have really liked to play this for the story, as I liked it's characters, the humor and it seems like quite something is building up.

    But the combat just doesn't work for me at all. 4 Buttons to chose an attack, with 4 stages each. Which can be combined sideways + some power mode. On top of that you can learn many many more, but you can ever only have a set of 4x4 active. Each action addresses certain weakness, and you have to set up the combos in a certain order for maximum efficiency against certain enemies. But you are not told what works well, this is try and error. Maybe if you counted the numbers that popup in the hectic battles.

    This was simply too much. You have to first figure out the weakness of a certain enemy, wade through some menus, click something together that could make sense, and if it works ok, remember it for the next encounters, and this again, after you change map. I gave up memorizing and basically just mashed the buttons randomly. Got the enemies down just as well, only a bit slower. So this was boring.

    Similar are the items you get. Maybe special items come up later, that make more sense, but for as far I got, I couldn't really see any impact in wearing different equipment.

    Besides the pretty characters itself, there are a few nice visuals, but also quite a lot blandness. Reminded me a lot of Xenoblade, with it's text dialogs and shiny balls of light to gather, but with far less fun combat.    … Expand
  3. Rykoupad
    May 10, 2017
    0
    - Worst combat in the entire series, pretty much a lousy button-masher
    - bland music,
    - A terrible cast of characters.
    - It's pretty much a 60 USD update of Zestiria.
  4. Blackbox20
    Feb 21, 2017
    0
    Let me give some pointers.
    Graphics: could have been from a gamecube.
    World: Crafted so empty an simple you could not do worse even if you tried.
    Combat: button mashing because you can preset all the combo's
    Gear and crafting: i have played fo 10 hours now and all the stuff you find have either a few % stat difference and
  5. otakumhgamer
    Apr 11, 2021
    0
    this game is a bad clone of beserk manga and thats why i hate this game and game itself is a mess of grinding
  6. Fardin
    Jan 18, 2020
    4
    Story: ⭐⭐ ✩
    Gameplay: ⭐  ✩  ✩
    Characters: ⭐⭐ ✩ Immersion: ⭐⭐ ✩ Fun: ⭐ ✩   ✩ Enhancement System: ⭐ ✩   ✩ Sound: ⭐⭐ ✩ Graphics: ⭐ ✩   ✩ . . . . . . . ---Grind--- ☐ Nothing ☑ Average grind level ☐ Too much grind  ---PlayTime--- ☐ Short ☐ Average ☑ Long/Infinite ---Bugs--- ☑ None ☐ Minor bugs ☐ Too Much Overall: 4/10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    Story: ⭐⭐ ✩
    Gameplay: ⭐  ✩  ✩
    Characters: ⭐⭐ ✩
    Immersion: ⭐⭐ ✩
    Fun: ⭐ ✩   ✩
    Enhancement System: ⭐ ✩   ✩
    Sound: ⭐⭐ ✩
    Graphics: ⭐ ✩   ✩
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    ---Grind---
    ☐ Nothing
    ☑ Average grind level
    ☐ Too much grind 

    ---PlayTime---
    ☐ Short
    ☐ Average
    ☑ Long/Infinite

    ---Bugs---
    ☑ None
    ☐ Minor bugs
    ☐ Too Much

    Overall: 4/10
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    . . .    … Expand

Awards & Rankings

82
#82 Best PC Game of 2017
47
#47 Most Discussed PC Game of 2017
12
#12 Most Shared PC Game of 2017

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
80

Generally favorable reviews - based on 18 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 15 out of 18
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 18
  3. Negative: 0 out of 18
  1. PC PowerPlay
    Mar 31, 2017
    80
    The 16th game in the Tales series is also the most adult. Who would have thunk it? [Issue#260, p.62]
    Read full review
  2. Riot Pixels
    Mar 17, 2017
    76
    Tales of Berseria is too archaic in its game design and visuals to be a mass-appeal JPRG. Still, if you're looking to play a modern representative of this genre, keep in mind that you can easily find a better-looking game, but you won't have as much fun playing it as this one.
    Read full review
  3. Game World Navigator Magazine
    Mar 1, 2017
    62
    In Tales of Berseria you can find every single thing which caused “traditional” JRPG to fall out of favor: world is almost empty, balance is non-existent and instead of truly intricate story we have a cheap, unbelievable drama. Sure, most of these can be explained away as a JRPG tradition – but that doesn’t mean we didn’t get tired of them. [Issue #217, p.76]
See all critic reviews »