''I'll eat you!''....

Following the recent announcement that this is indeed coming to the West (as predictable as the announcement was given how every other modern Tales game has been localised) is an official trailer. It frankly just looks like 'another modern Tales game', with the art style looking to hew pretty closely to Zestiria's before it. Though given that they're said to exist within the same universe, I guess it's somewhat fitting. That no recent Tales game even comes closer to matching the beauty of Vesperia is still perplexing, however.

What's most eye catching is all the weird beastly imagery that's going on, which as already mentioned immediately brings Bloodborne to mind. Not that Bloodborne control the monopoly on werewolves and all that, but with the expansion just being released it's still very fresh in my mind for one, hence the comparison. We also get a, er, rather revealing look at the game's protagonist, Velvet.

She looks to have been infected by the beast plague thing that's sweeping the world (again, sound familiar?) but can evidently control its powers rather than lose herself to them. Though I'm sure there'll be many a plot point where she does in fact have to wrestle with her new, more primal instincts. Now, you could thusly justify all of her tattered clothing as a means to reflect her beastial nature, even though sex appeal was also a clear inspiration. Her character design looks kinda cool at certain angles and is certainly evocative anywhoo - which is more than can be said for Zestiria's leading fella. Though the array of belts wrapped around her right leg borders on being cliche to the point of unintentional parody... All in all she basically looks like a Bloodborne Hunter put through a Disgaea filter.

Writing seems melodramatic, music sounds generic, combat looks like it's probably fun - it's a Tales games, ya'll!

@yummylee said:

Alright, I've been seeing people say this a BUNCH since this announcement and I really need an explanation as to what this means. I've been playing these games since Symphonia and have literally no idea what people are talking about with the "beauty" of Vesperia (a game which I admittedly only made it like half way through before being exhausted by the combat/everybody that wasn't Yuri).

It means that Vesperia artistically looks above and beyond every other Tales games that's followed it? A large part of that is down to how the game uses camera angles as well, which allows them to more meticulously craft the environments to a sheen, whereas in the latter games with their free camera most of what you see is just a bunch of barren nothingness.

EDIT: Then again Graces F also utilised camera angles and that didn't look too great, either. Least not when exploring the world.

Alright, that makes more sense. It sounded like most people meant from like, an art/character design perspective and that just seemed weird to me when most of them are pretty same-y in that regard.

I guess that's just one of those things that, due to not liking much else about the game I didn't really notice/also isn't that important to me. My make-or-break with these game is large the characters and the combat, hell not even the overall "story" matters much to me I've realized. And even in those 2 areas I recognize I'm kind of in the minority. I find Zestiria & Graces to have better combat than literally any other Tales I've played, found Zestiria's whole cast at least somewhat likable (with Rose being a standout), and even found a couple of characters (Hubert and Pascal) to like in Graces. Abyss is probably still my favorite, but past that it seems I've gotten an opposite opinion of things.

On the topic of this though, between not being crazy about her character design and something about the tone seeming kind of... angst-y I dunno about this one. It'll probably largely depend on the combat system (is there MP?) for me.

I really hope they ditched Zestiria-style giant empty maps that serve no purpose other than "look at how big these areas are!". I wish they'd just bring back the overworld maps (and let me fly a dragon around again, dammit!).

Man... you're certainly of the opposite opinion to me at the very least because I loathed Pascal! She actively threatened to cut short my Graces F playthrough every time she opened her mouth. I did like Hubert however (my favourite character to play as, too), but he was the only one of Graces' cast I liked. As for Berseria, it does seem that Velvet's a fisticuffs sort of lead, and I do like getting to use my dukes in these games. Even though I gave up on seeing Xillia to the end due to sheer boredom, I did really enjoy playing as Jude.

That outfit is... um... yeah. I hope there are alternates. Just once, I'd like to see some random NPC look at an RPG protagonist and say something along the lines of "Hey you look fucking crazy!"

Any news of this coming to PC? They put Zestiria on there and I think they're putting Symphonia on there.

EDIT: Nevermind! It says PS4 and Steam. This is what I get for not paying attention.

@believer258: It's coming to PC.

Yep! Sorry about that. I rewatched the trailer and then saw PS4 and Steam on it. I didn't pay any attention.

Tales games have been consistently good(at least the ones I've played). I'll gladly play another.

I hated most of Zestiria and I haven't liked a Tales game genuinely in...uh...ever, I think.

But I'll still probably play this and hate it too because that's my relationship with Tales games and my need for JRPGs.

@believer258: heh I thought she looked friggin rad

That sounds pretty weird I gotta say.

As an outsider, every single Tales game might as well be the most anime.

I've been meaning to play something in the series, as resigned as its fanbase seems to be to its "comfort food" nature of doing the same thing over and over again.

@arbitrarywater: I would personally recommend Tales of Symphonia on the Nintendo Wii, just because it seemed hellbent on subverting as many tropes as possible.

Also her clothing. I was initially going to vent about who wears clothes that are that mangled, but three belts?! WHY?

I just thought of how funny it is that The World Ends with You, a game literally set in modern-day fashion-obsessed Shibuya, seems to have the most reasonable clothing of any modern JRPG.

@mikelemmer: I own the HD versions of Symphonia and its much-maligned sequel for PS3, though I've never really gotten a consistent answer if I should settle for those or play a more modern game in the series. The only games that Tales fans are united on as being "good" are Symphonia and Vesperia.

@arbitrarywater: If you already got it, might as well play it before you plunk more money on another game in the series.

Haven't enjoyed a Tales game before or since Vesperia, I'm beginning to think that game was just the outlier in the series...

That being said, this game looks really nice! I just hope the characters and story can hold up. That lame little kid following the MC around looks annoying already.

No game ever featured humans being altered into beasts before Bloodborne.

Ah, so the Berseria name is supposed to bring berserking to mind, 'cause werewolves n' stuff.

I finished Symphonia back in the day and liked it, and have even touched a few earlier Tales games. Nothing about them really appeals to me these days though.

it makes me think of that crappy castlevania fighting game on wii i was expecting some sort of bloodborney gameplay style but seeing s is just another game in a series i never cared for i'll take my leave good day

My only two experiences with the Tales series were Vesperia and Zestiria. I loved the former and really didn't like the later.

From the trailer, it looks like the combat might be more Vesperia (at least it didn't look like quite the button mash fest of Zestiria), which is good. On the other hand, I'm getting a distinct "darkness possesses people" vibe from the story, which is more like Zestiria. That's not good. The story in that game was really, really stupid.

I wouldn't mind it so much if everybody looked like that, but it looks ridiculous and stands out in the wrong way. Granted, we don't see many other characters or NPC's in this, but, I dunno, it looks like someone asked the head artist of the Disgaea games to draw someone who could pass for an (almost) adult and stuck that in a Tales of game.

I've never played a Tales of game, at least not much more than a few hours of Symphonia, but I think this looks pretty cool in that hammy melodramatic anime sort of way that can be endearing if done right and endlessly annoying if done in any way wrong.

I always get excited when I see a new Tales game being released and always am underwhelmed when I play them as they are never as good as Vesperia was. Maybe it's the Troy Baker effect.

Man, I tried Symphonia and Graces and liked neither, so I probably shouldn't be getting my hopes up, but... that looked kinda interesting. Maybe I should keep an eye on this? If the combat has changed it might just be the game in the series that make it click for me. During my time with Graces I felt like all I did was hit enemies with an elemental weakness over and over yet won every fight handily, just lightning blading or whatever it was called over and over again.

Cannot agree with this enough. It's actually a big part of why one day I just quit the game cold turkey after sinking over 60 hours in. Got through the huge and empty desert area, only to be told by an NPC that there was a huge and empty marsh ahead, while at the same time having a collection quest that spanned literally the whole rest of the world dumped on me. Faced with having to backtrack once again through every huge empty expanse I'd been through before (and even wasting all your money on save point travel doesn't totally help, there is always a ton of walking no matter where you teleport to), I just said, no game, I cannot and will not do this anymore.

I see they've taken the Nomura approach of zippers but with belts and buckles.

Nomura is way into belts and buckles too, man.

Some people have short attention spans, I get that. But comon now chum, you only had to make it to the second paragraph.

I think the character design looks okay (aside from the whole belt situation), it‘s very Tales-y (and kinda looks like something out of Vampire Knight) and I'm fine with that. I do get the Bloodborne comparison too and that's also not a bad thing.

I can already tell that the kid with the yellow eyes is just going to be the worst.