Tales of Berseria

Another 2017 title completed. Hoping to generate a decent list of games to bring to the table to help contribute to GameTimeBro's rankings of the best game to come out this year.

I can tell you one thing, Tales of Berseria will not be one of the top games.

My only other experience with the Tales series comes from Tales of Symphonia on Gamecube. I mostly remember playing it in my basement with Sheridan. For whatever reason, I have some rose-colored memories of the experience, but could tell you very little about the game itself. Nevertheless, when the new title was released this year, I though "Why the hell not give it a go?"

Fifty hours later, I sorely regretted my decision.

Now, I wouldn't say that Tales of Berseria is a "bad" game -- though I certainly wouldn't call it a "good" game either -- I just don't think it's what I wanted from a JRPG. Here's the quick breakdown of what didn't work for me.

Gameplay: The combat system was fun and very family to what I remember about Symphonia, but it never once felt challenging. Even with all the tinkering you can do to your attack moves, items, etc., it felt like it made little to no difference in the end. I basically just button-mashed my way to victory. That would have been fine if the game was maybe 10-15 hours long. But at 40+ hours, I need something a little deeper and a little more strategic/challenging.

Story: Man, I don't know what was coming or going here. Sure, JRPGs are generally known for their convoluted stories, but keeping up with all the rules and terms to this fantasy world felt tedious. Eventually I just referred to Wikipedia to keep straight and stopped making a concerted effort to really follow the details of the plot. Is the problem here on me for not trying harder to keep track of all the moving pieces in the story or is it on the game? I'd like the to think if the game was struggling that hard to keep my attention, then it's at fault. But it could also come down to a matter of taste.

In another vein, I think some might argue that this story stands out from the rest in the franchise in that it's rooted in a tale of vengeance. Something really dark and brooding. Seeing that I don't have this experience with the franchise, this argument doesn't elicit any feelings with me. 

Design: Here's something I will speak in favor for the game. While the graphics aren't going to blow anyone away, it was a fun, colorful world to explore. The aesthetics design maintains the course for the rest of the Tales series in that it's got that anime flare to it. However, would have like the game to feel more of an open-world, kind of like Breath of the Wild, but I get that's a pretty high bar for any game to match with.

All-in-all, when this game was over, I was far more pleased that it was done rather than having any sort of satisfaction or emotional connection to the characters' stories. It was enough just to know I don't have to play it anymore.

That said, would I ever return to the Tales series? Maybe... 

I've always heard good things about Tales of Vesperia, but if it doesn't vary enough from my problems with the core of this game, perhaps the series, in general, just isn't going to fair well with me. 

For the sake of curiosity, here's my game rankings for this year, thus far...