Velvet Crowe’s revenge saga returns with smoother pacing, broader access, and familiar flaws intact.
Bandai Namco made Tales games many years ago. They were known for having happy themes, bright heroes, and fast-paced Linear Motion Battle Systems. Over the years, the series has grown and changed.
The most recent and important games are Tales of Zestiria and Tales of Arise. Tales of Berseria was a major change for the series when it was released in 2016. There were mixed emotions, not happiness and cheer.
In the past, remasters mostly fixed games that would only work on old systems.
To make Tales of Berseria Remastered, the company goes back to one of its story-heavy periods, fixes some bugs, and adds more devices for it to play on. However, this one feels different since the first game was already out on PC and PlayStation.
You might be curious about whether or not this new form really needs to be there. How important are ease of use, smoother development, and the chance to experience one of the best stories in the series in a better way to you?
Velvet Crowe is a young woman whose life falls apart after a ritual betrayal turns her into a daemon. The story takes place in the Holy Empire of Midgand at that time. A well-known exorcist kills her brother, and she is determined to get revenge.
A lot of the other important characters in the story are driven by justice or fate, but Velvet isn’t. She is angry and sad all the time. It’s clear from the start that she’s not as warm as she used to be. Instead, she’s cold and resolved.
The story doesn’t try to make her more likable by making her seem kinder.
It brings out her antihero side and makes you wonder if payback can ever really make things better. Along the way, you meet the playful demon Rokurou, the cursed pirate Eizen, the dramatic witch Magilou, and the troubled exorcist Eleanor.
Their chats, shown in the show’s signature skits, make what could have been a very sad story more fun and dramatic. You don’t need to know anything about Tales of Zestiria to start reading this story. It takes place a long time before that book.
Connections can make some findings more interesting, but they never turn people who are just starting. This is one of the most interesting character studies in the show because it just shows how people feel. They still use the combo-based system from the first Tales of Berseria game in Tales of Berseria Remastered.
You don’t just assign one art to a fixed button. Instead, you use combo trees and chain attacks that change depending on the time of day and the enemy’s weak spots. In the middle of the grid is the Soul Gauge.
How long a combo lasts is based on how many souls each move costs.
To keep the attack going and steal souls, you can stun enemies or use their flaws against them. Velvet’s signature Break Soul power, Therion Mode, lets her give up a soul to launch devastating attacks and block enemies for a short time.
At least on paper, this design encourages strategic aggression: risk resources to do the most damage while watching for holes in the defense. The other figures might not stand out as much in real life because of Velvet’s power.
When it comes to common problems, her skills can make them look easy. You need to be smarter about how you use her in higher levels, but her changes can often help you beat bosses. This mismatch makes it less likely that party members will take turns running things, as they used to.
But if you want to play with it, the technical detail is still clear. Every character has their own Break Souls, elemental allies, and ways to fight. You can learn more about things that aren’t clear at first by experimenting with different builds and sets of synergies.
Instead of normal linear stat boosts, a character’s progress after a fight relies on how well they know how to use their gear. For a certain amount of time, random traits are built into weapons and gear that let you use permanent skills.
You can get something useful out of even bad gear if you know how to use it right.
Some places can help you improve your gear if you have enough money and materials. You can spend the Grade points you earn in the Grade Shop, which is now open from the start of the updated version. This early entry can help you improve your quality of life, level up faster, or gain twice as much experience.
With these options, you can change how hard the job is and how fast it goes. But if you use them too much, they might make it less fun. You get experience points mostly from battles, but you can turn off all random meetings if you’d rather work on the story.
One of the main ideas behind the remaster is that you should be able to choose how hard or easy the trip is. Exploration doesn’t happen in an open world; it happens in areas split up. There are wide halls that connect towns, dungeons, and story hubs on maps.
There are times when maps split off into optional tracks with things called Katz Spirits that you can collect. You’ll want to tour the whole area after getting these, since they let you earn cosmetic prizes and special treasures.
Moving around is faster with the Geo Board. Since its release, the moving speed has increased by about 20%. Also, fast travel is available earlier, so you don’t have to do as much boring backtracking, which was a big problem in the first version.
But even with these changes, later episodes may still show the same images repeatedly. It’s not common for dungeons to have a lot of complicated layers and puzzles. Instead, easy puzzles are placed in the environment. The pace is kept steady, but the tasks aren’t as hard as they were in earlier games in the series.
If you play Tales of Berseria Remastered, the graphics have been slightly improved instead of being totally redesigned.
The characters and environment look better, and the game runs more smoothly on newer hardware. The game is meant to run at 4K resolution and 60fps on PlayStation 5. This will make gameplay smoother and reduce waiting times.
The art style stays the same. Both portraits and scenery look like they were drawn in an anime style. And you might notice that some background things don’t have the soft depth-of-field look that used to make scenes feel like they were in a movie.
Scaling textures doesn’t always make them look better; sometimes, it makes them look easier. It’s not a fresh start; it’s just a thorough cleanup. Simple enough for beginners, the design is up-to-date. The changes might not seem that big to pros.
It keeps getting better at making sounds. The musical score, with its sad and exciting fight themes, helps Velvet on her emotional journey. When it comes to Japanese, voice acting really stands out because of how small the changes are between being angry and weak.
It’s still strong in English, though the tone might be different.
Skits easily switch between animated images and dialogue, staying true to the series’ style. Before this entry, fully rendered model talks were used, but this way keeps the charming closeness. Even though the sound mixing is better now, some fight sounds may be louder than they should be.
The changes that make life better are a big part of the remaster’s value. It’s easier to pick up items, save your work automatically, and move on faster when there are more skip options. Field things can’t stop you from moving, even if they send you the same text message over and over.
Things run more easily when encounters can be toggled, when you can try again after losing, and when fast travel is easy to get to. You can still play the same way after these changes, but they show that they value your time.
When you’re done with the story, these parts might make you want to read it again without getting tired. If you haven’t seen this before, they remove any bumps that were slowing things down.
People used to be able to play old games again with remasters.
In the end, Tales of Berseria Remastered stands out from the other projects that come out every year in a strange way. This one adds more Xbox and Switch systems that can play the games and improves the performance of the older ones.
It’s possible that you already own the first PC or PS game and aren’t sure if the tiny changes make it worth buying again. The main experience, an exciting revenge story featuring one of the series’ most interesting female stars, remains strong.
People will remember Velvet’s change from a sister in pain to a feared monster for a long time after the movie is over. You have to understand people who mean well and deal with tough moral gray areas on her journey.
Not many movies in this series are brave enough to keep up this level of feeling from start to finish. If this release doesn’t have any interesting new graphics, you might be let down. It has one of the best stories in modern JRPG history, moves faster, and lets more people play.
Most people will be happy with it. If you like mechanical skills, you might not like how unfair the fighting is. However, if you care more about character growth and deep themes, this story has a lot to give. Even though it came out years ago, Velvet Crowe’s Revenge still has an amazing amount of power.
