On the PlayStation 5, Tales of Berseria feels less like a traditional remaster and more like a simple port. While it remains an excellent game in its own right (and perhaps one of the best in the Tales series), the struggle is real in recommending it to those who can simply play the PS4 version and not feel like they’re missing out on anything novel. Good news for other platforms, though: You’re now able to play Berseria on the Switch and XBOX for the first time.
Within an hour of playing Tales of Berseria Remastered, I found myself asking a very important question: What about this game is remastered? It looks just like I remember when I played it back in early 2017. It plays just like I remembered, too. It doesn’t bode well when someone asks that aforementioned question when playing a remastered game. A remaster implies meaningful and noticeable changes on an older title.
What makes a good remaster, then? From personal experience, remasters have lacked a standard set of features that elevate it beyond a traditional platform port without being full blown remakes with novel engines and redesigned gameplay. Some remasters have updated audio and graphics, such as the case of Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster with its modern sprites and reorchestrated music (both of which are toggleable for those who wish to preserve history). Some remasters take advantage of newer hardware and incorporate modern features such as how Marvel’s Spider Man Remastered on the PS5 utilized instant loading and the DualSense controller’s haptic feedback. Some remasters lean on quality-of-life updates to smooth out the crunchiness and archaic gameplay mechanics ala Persona 3 Portable on the PS5.
Tales of Berseria Remastered doesn’t really have any of these additions. I guess it has destination markers, alternate costumes, and the Grade Shop (the original post-game options menu that grants bonus XP and other bonuses), but…Tales of Berseria Remastered lacks just about everything else. It lacks meaningful improvements that tell me, a player who is familiar with the 2016 original, that it’s time to revisit Berseria with fresh eyes. It feels like a port because it technically is one. To its credit, the original Tales of Berseria plays well enough on the PS4 when I put the disc into my PS5. It’s not like this is a major miss on Bandai Namco in overlooking a hypothetical major issue with the original release.
The biggest, and perhaps only, benefit of Tales of Berseria Remastered is its first-time release on the XBOX and Nintendo Switch platforms. If you haven’t yet played Berseria and/or a console owner who has avoided modern PlayStation consoles, this is your chance to play one of the better Tales games of the series.
Tales of Berseria is the 25th Tales game in Bandai Namco’s illustrious series, taking place nearly 1000 years prior to 2013’s Tales of Zestiria. It follows the story of Velvet who undergoes a path of vengeance after demonic events turn her into a daemon-eating monster. It’s an incredible tale that never lets up in showcasing the consequences of revenge. Velvet is the perfect anti-heroine in a tale that explores the darker side of human nature and an excellent foil for other JRPGs that lean too heavily on storytelling tropes. Somehow, it succeeds in blending sadness, humor, and darkness in one complete package.
Like its recent Tales counterparts, Berseria employs an active-combat system called “Linear Motion Battle” or LMB. When in real-time combat, Velvet and her party can move around a miniature battlefield and chain together custom attack combinations that are tied to individual buttons. The “Artes” are fully customizable and naturally flow together regardless of which Arte is assigned to which button. There are some Artes that feel stronger when paired with others along with enemies being weak to specific attacks/effects, but the flexibility of this combat system maximizes the potential for immense creativity and action that doesn’t let up until a battle’s conclusion.
On the flip side, Berseria’s first few hours can feel relatively overwhelming in attempting to figure out which Arte to use and how to best utilize them. The game trains the player early on into avoiding spamming the same set of attacks over and over. For instance, using X > X > X > X (the full combination) repetitively becomes less effective than X > O > O > X and following up with X > X > X > X. When new Artes become available, combat evolves from being button mashy into impactful tests of skill. When customization becomes too overwhelming, Berseria’s “You Decide” option can be assigned to a slot (or several) to randomly select Artes.
It’s not a best-in-class showing of JRPG combat, sure, but it’s a good blend of flexibility, cohesion, and action that is good for all kinds of players, not just diehard JRPG fans.
Beyond its cohesive battles, Berseria features a small amount of exploration that turns too quickly into backtracking bonanza. Occasional puzzles and storytelling skits break up the monotony, but it’s disappointing for such great combat and emotional storytelling to exist in generic environments. Berseria’s best moments occur on the battlefield and in cutscenes; you won’t miss much if you choose to rush through familiar landscapes just to get to the next battle or cutscene.
I’ll admit that this review is relatively light on details. This is so because Berseria is best enjoyed knowing as little as possible of its story beats and overarching combat. Even when things feel overwhelming in those first 5-or-so hours, Berseria gives the player enough tools to learn just enough without being punished for skimming through an encyclopedia of tutorials. It doesn’t prevent the player from getting to its best bits because of arbitrarily difficult combat, either.
Since this is a PlayStation 5 review of Tales of Berseria Remastered, I am hard-pressed to recommend it when the PlayStation 4 digital version of Tales of Berseria exists on the PS store as for $20, perhaps even less in disc-form if you own a PS5 with a disc drive. The major thing you’ll get from Remastered is the Grade Shop right from the start so you can speedrun the game without needing to grind much. Those who have played Berseria on the PS4 aren’t missing out on Remaster, either. If you’re an XBOX or Switch owner, though, Tales of Berseria is one of the better JRPGs of recent memory and I’m thrilled that y’all can experience it for the first time.
On the PlayStation 5, Tales of Berseria feels less like a traditional remaster and more like a simple port. While it remains an excellent game in its own right (and perhaps one of the best in the Tales series), the struggle is real in recommending it to those who can simply play the PS4 version and not feel like they’re missing out on anything novel. Good news for other platforms, though: You’re now able to play Berseria on the Switch and XBOX for the first time.
