Shamelog #013 - Bittersweet Berseria

Well folks, here we are. 69 hours down, Tales of Berseria officially complete. Nice.

I always get this weird feeling at the end of a JRPG. Thanks to the long playtime and the extended characterisation that comes with it, saying the final goodbyes as the story comes to an end is often bittersweet. Great characters breed great attachment - and Berseria, I’m happy to say, has a superb cast of misfits.

Through this heartbreaking story, from beginning to end, it’s been the party of 6 that have driven me forward. I’m comfortable in saying that Magilou, Rokurou and Eizen stand as equals with Bioware characters for me. They may be a bit anime trope-y, but they were bloody fantastic companions. It definitely helps that the voice acting was excellent.

A major plus for me was the writing. I’m happy to report that the aforementioned skit containing the sexist remarks was a once off, with the rest of the dialogue being quite great, and in same cases, much more progressive. The humour got me plenty as well, with one item description giving my inner astronomer a good chuckle: “Pluto Satchel - A bag unfairly cast out of bag society, causing it to be slowly forgotten.”

To wrap things up, Tales of Berseria is a great game. I imagine anyone who’s played a game in the series before would find the systems greatly improved, while I found it to be just the right jumping on point for curious folk. It did take me the whole game, but I finally come to grips with the combat by the final fight - enough so that I ended up diverting from the main track just before the end to continue fighting, getting loot, and experiencing side quests. I’m happy with my time spent with Berseria - this may even be a game I come back to in the future for NG+.

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Statistics
Games left to play: 116
Current game: ?