Tales of Berseria Review

The verdict

Berseria is among my favourite Tales games because it is willing to put a furious, morally compromised protagonist at the centre of the story and surround her with people who are hardly conventional heroes themselves. Velvet Crowe's journey has anger, guilt, humour and genuine affection in surprising proportions. Almost a decade on, the six-person party feels more memorable than the vast majority of supposedly nobler JRPG casts.

It has significant weaknesses: too many dungeons are bland corridors, equipment management becomes cluttered, and the battle system explains itself badly. Yet those problems rarely touch the chemistry and emotional identity that make Berseria exceptional.

A cast worth travelling with

Velvet, Rokurou, Magilou, Eizen, Eleanor and Laphicet are not simply six interchangeable followers. Their conflicting outlooks produce some of the series' best conversations. Magilou can interrupt tragedy with ridiculous comedy; Eleanor's beliefs genuinely challenge Velvet; and Laphicet provides an essential emotional counterweight. The relationships develop because these people disagree, not because they become instantly harmonious.

The story begins as revenge and grows into a conflict about emotion, reason and what society is willing to sacrifice for order. Velvet remains difficult even as she changes, which is exactly why her arc works. The skits sometimes swing hard between drama and anime jokes, but I generally find the party charming enough to carry those shifts.

Combat with momentum

The Soul system makes Berseria more tactical than button-mashing initially suggests. Souls determine combo length; stuns and ailments let you steal them, while Break Souls spend that resource to extend attacks and enable character-specific abilities. Building your own arte strings around enemy weaknesses can make the combat feel wonderfully expressive.

I particularly enjoy discovering how differently characters other than Velvet play. She can be extraordinarily powerful, and leaning on her alone can flatten normal encounters. Learning the others and understanding Soul management is where the system really opens up, although its terminology and early tutorials are needlessly intimidating.

World and rough edges

Travelling through Midgand's islands, ports and settlements gives the journey a sense of place, with character themes and heavier battle music reinforcing the atmosphere. Unfortunately, individual dungeons often boil down to repetitive rooms and extended corridors. Equipment mastery is another mixed blessing: it allows lasting character growth, but the flood of new gear turns optimisation into busywork.

The remastered release improves convenience without reinventing the underlying graphics or dungeon layouts. That is acceptable when the material worth preserving is the storytelling, cast and combat rather than technical spectacle.

Final thoughts

Berseria's heart is its antihero ensemble. The combat lets you build your own rhythm, and its questions about revenge and imposed order give the journey more substance than its premise first promises. Repetitive dungeons and fussy equipment stop it short of perfection, but they do not stop it from being an S-tier favourite.