#32
Change YoY: -1 My Rating: 9.2 / 10
I've been a huge fan of the Tales series since I first played Tales of Symphonia on the Gamecube with a few of my friends back in the early 2000s. Over the following almost 20 years I've played through six other games in the series, and for quite a long time my two favourites were Symphonia and Xillia. I loved their worlds, characters, and stories the most out of the entire series, and they are still wonderful games in my opinion. For years those two . However, this finally changed when I got around to playing Tales of Berseria.
One of the elements that instantly stood out to me from Tales of Berseria was its main character, Velvet Crowe. Unlike just about every other main character in the series, she was motivated almost entirely by vengeance. She seeks revenge against a person who is seen as a saviour by just about everyone else in the world. In essence, in the eyes of the world, Velvet is the true villain of the story, labeled the Lord of Calamity, a moniker and role she eventually embraces as the truth about various events start to come to light. The story also takes things into some very dark and sad places at times, often because of Velvet and her rather fragile mental state. Now, other games in the series have, of course, taken dark turns in the past, but none of them have gone quite as far as Berseria. As a result, the emotional payoffs in this game are all the more effective and impactful.
The rest of the game, including its supporting cast, the story, battle system, and music are also among the series' best in my opinion. In an unusual twist, Berseria also made the previous game in the series, Tales of Zestiria, which is quite often considered one of the lesser entries in it, better by association, as the two games take place in the same world, Berseria serving as a prequel to Zestiria. The latter's story and characters gained much more weight and importance because they were connected to those in Berseria.
"Why do you think that birds fly?"
