Tales of Berseria - MCM Preview

The Tales of series has been a series I enjoy but never got into and really my hands on with the demo at MCM, just proved to be a repeat for me. I vaguely remember the combat from previous games, but then this is a preview of a game that left me feeling lukewarm.

Aesthetically the game looks great, but almost feels like a PS3 game for some reason to me. Of course, that’s not the only good part of the game, the trailers and information given out along with the writing given, gives me hope that the story will be as enjoyable as the previous games I’ve played.

But these only go so far, the game’s mechanics just confused me. The game features an action bar that recharges during the course of a battle. Fighting as a team of four with two other characters acting as backup, you can switch between characters in the whole party in order to defeat monsters. I found myself constantly sitting idly because I used all my energy, which made me a sitting duck in the fight and kept nearly dying because of this.

It’s because of this that it left me confused. What type of gameplay flow is this trying to create? It feels like Final Fantasy 7 with its action bar, which just ruined the first half an hour that I can’t pick it up at all. Although a more apt comparison would be Lightning Returns and its ATB gauge being consumed based on the ability used. If I were to pick apart what worked in that rendition compared to FF7 then it would have to be the responsive nature of the fight.

Final Thoughts

Playing it at the booth, the game had trickles of strategy and formulation. Featuring both a story and battle mode to try, it really honed on what I liked and disliked in the game. The story showed promise, and if I get the chance I’d probably pick it up. However, the combat is what worries me personally. It plays just fine and the overall flow of the combat is probably just right, but something just doesn’t sit right with me. Maybe it was playing it at MCM and there were some people waiting for me to get off, or it was the way the characters played. To be released on 27th of January 2017 for EU on the PS4 and worldwide for PC. I can only recommend the game for pre-order if you love the Tales of series.