heard she was another victim to over-work in some form. the 2020's is not going to be kind to our legends, considering practices long since notorious in the industry
21:13, Oof that scene of Velvet balling up. For such a strong character with very edgy design, hard to imagine how she can still invoke childish fragility just as effectively. And then there's still that mommy side of hers. Anime characters at it's finest.
Forever my favorite Tales. Best story and cast in RPGs for me too. For the battle system, i get gripes from folks used to older games, im not knowledgeable enough to give comparisons. But it's still fun to actually learn for me ignoring how much Velvet steamrolls lol. The other characters are fun too plus those Mystic Arte chains are cathartic as hell. And thanks for highlighting Berseria's love for older titles.
I love the story and characters of berseria(no, i didnt play the game, i only know about it from the many reviews and retrospectives i seen of it, and the 1 lets play i saw of ti)
Somewhere in bandai namco Mika from tales of Breaker is crying over being Forgotten as the ACTUAL 1st female Tales protagonist Breaker is a mobile game, Mobile Tales games never end well
I wish I could like Berseria as much as many others but.. Velvet alone is really REALLY hard to like, and I am on the side of identifying ALOT with Milla Maxwell from the better Tales of Xillia titles (that is Xillia 1, before fanfic heaven Xillia 2 tried to fix/complete what was left on the development floor, also giving way too many "what if" scenarios/timeline shenanigans). It's not like her design is.. not that appropriate for her, but also for the lack of lore reason iirc for why she runs around like that still, but also her basically being 24/7 grumpy, basically being Jack Garland from that FF1 reimagining, just weirdly enough not as much memed on as Jack is (maybe due to the different fanbase?). Also because.. Velvet suffers from the happy moments inbetween, or rather allowing herself to smile inbetween all of what is "left of her". And that is sadly also invoked by one of the plot moments really being.. forced, I cannot put it in other words, because logic really takes a deepdive for it into muddy waters here. What I mean is the whole Laphicet and Arthur incident. Laphicet, Velvets brother, not telling her and asking Arthur ALSO NOT TO TELL HER THAT HE IS DYING FOR FRUITS SAKE is just.. are you PLUMPING me?! HE is HER basically CLOSEST FAMILY RELATED PERSON.. and him being booksmart and somesuch does NOT help the case of the "why do you guys HAVE to HIDE the info to her?! Because you TRUST your brother-in-law MORE then your BLOODRELATED SISTER?!" It's not like this WHOLE DARN conflict would have more or less been EASILY calmed itself mostly when Velvet friggin KNEW that her brother was sick and that Arthur would use him on AGREED TERMS for what he wanted to do. Velvet wouldn't wanna go on a rampage to get Arthur down for this, like at all! (I get that Velvet does have rare happy moments inbetween, but those are too minimal, plus it's really her own choice to portray them, rather then others basically pushing her for it.) And Laphicet, the party and playable one, REALLY REALLY didnt need to have 1:1 the same name as her brother, AS IF IT IS THE THOMAS, the LUCAS, the.. JACK whatever common real life name you want, of that game! If it would have the same MEANING, then I would totally applaud the devs for making this forshadowable and CLEVER execution of a story point.. but no. Have Laphicet be: the same age, look nearly 1:1 the same, and have the same name. Like... how on the nose do you want that plotpoint to be? And of course Velvet has this moment with Laphicet later where they talk about Velvet accepting herself and finding her reason to live and such. Wished someone else had chosen a name for him then Mrs Crowe herself. If this wouldnt feel so amateurishly forced then I'd legit cry WITH Velvet instead of FOR Velvet being written somewhat onedimensionally. Or rather onesidedly because of her unnecessary darkness. If they wanted to do this really dark and moralishly twisted mindful "find yourself before you lose yourself" narrative.. then they should have really watched Oldboy from 2004, the korean original, and took inspiration from there where Oh Dae-Su (clever pun name, just speak it out loud to realize that odyssey is what they were going for) after being abducted and mentally tortured for 15-16 years or so, with the only wish going forward to hunt down the man that took his wife and child, with the option to "get that guy" but him giving Oh Dae-Su the choice of either "ending him" or to find out the why, and the who, because it could lead Oh Dae-Su to ever questioning himself due to all of this done to him as some other form of torture, because ignorance is bliss.. or an eternal pain in itself (which would fit to Velvet's own imprisonment theme). Maybe have the Laphicet survive but doign the ToD2 twist in better execution with Judas or whatever his name was for Leon, where Laphicet has a changed hair colour, different hair cut, and being like 20+ years older or something instead of this timeframe being only a 3 year one so that the plot would have had more options for creative dark twists.. like Velvet accidently romancing Laphicet, with Velvet only knowing that site of the truth in the end and.. maybe cutting of her tongue for example or another very fitting line used in the game (maybe linked to the wings of a bird aka "why do birds fly?" just.. more fitting ultimately instead of "BECAUSE THEY CAN!") or her arms, both of them, where Arthur would still be able to get decked out by Velvet or something (she would still have her legs for that I'd say, or have Laphicet end Arthur rather). If this central conflict was more satisfying, more understandable and Velvet less.. onesidedly and Laphicet less obviously resolved, then I'd agree that this game might be one of the best Tales of games developed so far. Because I like the characters otherwise (Magilou & her pet excluded, cuz she really feels like to exist only to balance out the grimmyness of the party aka being the joke character with a Teepo like cloth design), their designs, the visual presentation, the combat (although I agree that you can easily overpower yourself if oyu know how), Velvet's blue mage like ability, the skits how you mentioned, and even if unfit but still "nice to have" the references to all the past Tales of titles for a basically standalone (Zestiria excluded) game that could have been the finale for it's franchise that way.
Maggie Lou might be my favorite Tales character. I didn't like her at first, but she quickly grew on me. She has some of the best dialogue. In game, I just take her hat off and give her what is basically "deal with it" shades, and she is easily top tier in the cast
I tend not to follow what others say about certain entries in different franchises. Spoils my enjoyment if I’m being honest. My bro and I being big Tales fans don’t know about these takes but we tend to judge them for ourselves and I’d say pretty much all of them are worth checking out. Yeah, some entries have flaws here and there and somebody’s gonna rip it apart but that’s the internet for ya I guess.
A very tiny nit-pick in your summary: Celica is Velvet and Lephicet's older sister, and Artorius is her husband, Artorius isn't Velvet and Laphicet's brother directly.
The fact that Beseria came so close after Zest shows they really doubled down on being one of the best stories in the series. The only small issue I have is how Rokurou 's true motives were revealed to late. For most of the game your given the impression its a Sasuke Itachi thing where the older brother wronged him...then it turns out that his brother was the better person and he was just a petty asshole and hardly any time is even given on that. Oh well, still rather intense and unique, which is why its a damn shame we went from this to Arise being one of the most bland generic games in the series...at least now you can cover the DLC to it as well lol.
@@xenosanctum2531 For me I feel they REALLY wanted the DLC to get the same feel as the Future arc Graces had in Arise but, it just fell flat to me. I suppose we have a TAD more nuance for the enemy in the DLC but like, when the main game's enemies nearly are as fleshed out as 8 bit bad guys that's not really that much to be proud of...doh.
I just bought tales of arise, but what really annoyed is that the dialogue is too much forced, its not natural, the characters are not natural. Every time they start doing the smart dialogue I eventually start skipping. Now, Berseria was the better game, everything was too me much more natural. But the ending of Berseria was well lame, i am not saying that it should be a good ending but that ending we got was really lame.
I really look forward to you ripping Arise appart. I don't consider it a Tales of game really. About Berseria... I don't agree with you on the combat and I consider it one of the better ones although Velvet was indeed too easy and no Line in the LMBS was very disappointing.
Yeah, people really underestimate Berseria's combat system. It's got the usual Tales staples like knock-up, juggling, knockdown, pick-up, and combo extenders, on top of things like making status ailments useful, great spellcasting mechanics, and Switch Blasts to change characters while seamlessly continuing your combo. Even stuff like loading everything onto one button isn't actually that effective - once you get a power combo going there is no benefit to spamming the same artes since everything counts as hitting a weakness, so you're better off switching to higher damage artes (even ones the enemy would normally resist). Berseria is the only Tales game where I actively use dark bottles just to have more enemies added to fights, on top of using link encounters to level enemies up.
"I will drag myself back to this game in an attempt to see if I can find out why so many people love it." Because they like the game's combat, characters and story. Not looking forward to your next video since it's obvious that it's going to be overall negative due to your own dislike of the game.
@@xenosanctum2531 Because you don't want to listen to the details that they do give. You'd just prefer to dismiss them and stick to your "Tales of Arise is a bad Tales game and I don't get why a lot of people like it" viewpoint.
RIP to Mutsumi Inomata.
She helped design Velvet Crowe and did art for alot of other tales games.
She'll be missed.
heard she was another victim to over-work in some form. the 2020's is not going to be kind to our legends, considering practices long since notorious in the industry
21:13, Oof that scene of Velvet balling up. For such a strong character with very edgy design, hard to imagine how she can still invoke childish fragility just as effectively. And then there's still that mommy side of hers. Anime characters at it's finest.
Great review dude. Love the history analysis of this game's development you did. I love this game!
Berseria has my favorite cast of characters for a JRPG! 😄
Abyss is also very close
Forever my favorite Tales. Best story and cast in RPGs for me too. For the battle system, i get gripes from folks used to older games, im not knowledgeable enough to give comparisons. But it's still fun to actually learn for me ignoring how much Velvet steamrolls lol. The other characters are fun too plus those Mystic Arte chains are cathartic as hell. And thanks for highlighting Berseria's love for older titles.
This is easily my top fave Tales game.
Tales of Berseria LET'S GOO
I love the story and characters of berseria(no, i didnt play the game, i only know about it from the many reviews and retrospectives i seen of it, and the 1 lets play i saw of ti)
Somewhere in bandai namco
Mika from tales of Breaker is crying over being Forgotten as the ACTUAL 1st female Tales protagonist
Breaker is a mobile game, Mobile Tales games never end well
Why can't we get one 😭
I wish I could like Berseria as much as many others but.. Velvet alone is really REALLY hard to like, and I am on the side of identifying ALOT with Milla Maxwell from the better Tales of Xillia titles (that is Xillia 1, before fanfic heaven Xillia 2 tried to fix/complete what was left on the development floor, also giving way too many "what if" scenarios/timeline shenanigans). It's not like her design is.. not that appropriate for her, but also for the lack of lore reason iirc for why she runs around like that still, but also her basically being 24/7 grumpy, basically being Jack Garland from that FF1 reimagining, just weirdly enough not as much memed on as Jack is (maybe due to the different fanbase?). Also because.. Velvet suffers from the happy moments inbetween, or rather allowing herself to smile inbetween all of what is "left of her". And that is sadly also invoked by one of the plot moments really being.. forced, I cannot put it in other words, because logic really takes a deepdive for it into muddy waters here. What I mean is the whole Laphicet and Arthur incident. Laphicet, Velvets brother, not telling her and asking Arthur ALSO NOT TO TELL HER THAT HE IS DYING FOR FRUITS SAKE is just.. are you PLUMPING me?! HE is HER basically CLOSEST FAMILY RELATED PERSON.. and him being booksmart and somesuch does NOT help the case of the "why do you guys HAVE to HIDE the info to her?! Because you TRUST your brother-in-law MORE then your BLOODRELATED SISTER?!" It's not like this WHOLE DARN conflict would have more or less been EASILY calmed itself mostly when Velvet friggin KNEW that her brother was sick and that Arthur would use him on AGREED TERMS for what he wanted to do. Velvet wouldn't wanna go on a rampage to get Arthur down for this, like at all! (I get that Velvet does have rare happy moments inbetween, but those are too minimal, plus it's really her own choice to portray them, rather then others basically pushing her for it.)
And Laphicet, the party and playable one, REALLY REALLY didnt need to have 1:1 the same name as her brother, AS IF IT IS THE THOMAS, the LUCAS, the.. JACK whatever common real life name you want, of that game! If it would have the same MEANING, then I would totally applaud the devs for making this forshadowable and CLEVER execution of a story point.. but no. Have Laphicet be: the same age, look nearly 1:1 the same, and have the same name. Like... how on the nose do you want that plotpoint to be? And of course Velvet has this moment with Laphicet later where they talk about Velvet accepting herself and finding her reason to live and such. Wished someone else had chosen a name for him then Mrs Crowe herself.
If this wouldnt feel so amateurishly forced then I'd legit cry WITH Velvet instead of FOR Velvet being written somewhat onedimensionally. Or rather onesidedly because of her unnecessary darkness.
If they wanted to do this really dark and moralishly twisted mindful "find yourself before you lose yourself" narrative.. then they should have really watched Oldboy from 2004, the korean original, and took inspiration from there where Oh Dae-Su (clever pun name, just speak it out loud to realize that odyssey is what they were going for) after being abducted and mentally tortured for 15-16 years or so, with the only wish going forward to hunt down the man that took his wife and child, with the option to "get that guy" but him giving Oh Dae-Su the choice of either "ending him" or to find out the why, and the who, because it could lead Oh Dae-Su to ever questioning himself due to all of this done to him as some other form of torture, because ignorance is bliss.. or an eternal pain in itself (which would fit to Velvet's own imprisonment theme). Maybe have the Laphicet survive but doign the ToD2 twist in better execution with Judas or whatever his name was for Leon, where Laphicet has a changed hair colour, different hair cut, and being like 20+ years older or something instead of this timeframe being only a 3 year one so that the plot would have had more options for creative dark twists.. like Velvet accidently romancing Laphicet, with Velvet only knowing that site of the truth in the end and.. maybe cutting of her tongue for example or another very fitting line used in the game (maybe linked to the wings of a bird aka "why do birds fly?" just.. more fitting ultimately instead of "BECAUSE THEY CAN!") or her arms, both of them, where Arthur would still be able to get decked out by Velvet or something (she would still have her legs for that I'd say, or have Laphicet end Arthur rather).
If this central conflict was more satisfying, more understandable and Velvet less.. onesidedly and Laphicet less obviously resolved, then I'd agree that this game might be one of the best Tales of games developed so far. Because I like the characters otherwise (Magilou & her pet excluded, cuz she really feels like to exist only to balance out the grimmyness of the party aka being the joke character with a Teepo like cloth design), their designs, the visual presentation, the combat (although I agree that you can easily overpower yourself if oyu know how), Velvet's blue mage like ability, the skits how you mentioned, and even if unfit but still "nice to have" the references to all the past Tales of titles for a basically standalone (Zestiria excluded) game that could have been the finale for it's franchise that way.
Maggie Lou might be my favorite Tales character. I didn't like her at first, but she quickly grew on me. She has some of the best dialogue. In game, I just take her hat off and give her what is basically "deal with it" shades, and she is easily top tier in the cast
I tend not to follow what others say about certain entries in different franchises. Spoils my enjoyment if I’m being honest. My bro and I being big Tales fans don’t know about these takes but we tend to judge them for ourselves and I’d say pretty much all of them are worth checking out. Yeah, some entries have flaws here and there and somebody’s gonna rip it apart but that’s the internet for ya I guess.
A very tiny nit-pick in your summary: Celica is Velvet and Lephicet's older sister, and Artorius is her husband, Artorius isn't Velvet and Laphicet's brother directly.
I said older brother in-law. Thats what you call someone who is married to your sister.
@@xenosanctum2531 I guess I just didn't hear the "in-law" my bad.
The fact that Beseria came so close after Zest shows they really doubled down on being one of the best stories in the series. The only small issue I have is how Rokurou 's true motives were revealed to late. For most of the game your given the impression its a Sasuke Itachi thing where the older brother wronged him...then it turns out that his brother was the better person and he was just a petty asshole and hardly any time is even given on that. Oh well, still rather intense and unique, which is why its a damn shame we went from this to Arise being one of the most bland generic games in the series...at least now you can cover the DLC to it as well lol.
Yes the DLC... hmm... more Arise... yaaaay.
@@xenosanctum2531 For me I feel they REALLY wanted the DLC to get the same feel as the Future arc Graces had in Arise but, it just fell flat to me. I suppose we have a TAD more nuance for the enemy in the DLC but like, when the main game's enemies nearly are as fleshed out as 8 bit bad guys that's not really that much to be proud of...doh.
I'm giddy with anticipation
I just bought tales of arise, but what really annoyed is that the dialogue is too much forced, its not natural, the characters are not natural. Every time they start doing the smart dialogue I eventually start skipping. Now, Berseria was the better game, everything was too me much more natural. But the ending of Berseria was well lame, i am not saying that it should be a good ending but that ending we got was really lame.
Agreed with everything you said here.
I really look forward to you ripping Arise appart. I don't consider it a Tales of game really. About Berseria... I don't agree with you on the combat and I consider it one of the better ones although Velvet was indeed too easy and no Line in the LMBS was very disappointing.
Yeah, people really underestimate Berseria's combat system. It's got the usual Tales staples like knock-up, juggling, knockdown, pick-up, and combo extenders, on top of things like making status ailments useful, great spellcasting mechanics, and Switch Blasts to change characters while seamlessly continuing your combo. Even stuff like loading everything onto one button isn't actually that effective - once you get a power combo going there is no benefit to spamming the same artes since everything counts as hitting a weakness, so you're better off switching to higher damage artes (even ones the enemy would normally resist). Berseria is the only Tales game where I actively use dark bottles just to have more enemies added to fights, on top of using link encounters to level enemies up.
"I will drag myself back to this game in an attempt to see if I can find out why so many people love it."
Because they like the game's combat, characters and story.
Not looking forward to your next video since it's obvious that it's going to be overall negative due to your own dislike of the game.
They say that yet never seem to give details to back those comments up. BTW I do have quite a bit of positives to say about Tales of Arise.
@@xenosanctum2531 Because you don't want to listen to the details that they do give. You'd just prefer to dismiss them and stick to your "Tales of Arise is a bad Tales game and I don't get why a lot of people like it" viewpoint.
I love berseria. This is a unpopular opinion but i hate laphicet. Screw him.
so you dont care about the story i would guess?