#35
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 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 were the pinnacle of the franchise in my eyes, obviously with the caveat that I haven't played every entry in it. 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 savior by just about everyone else in the world, but destroyed Velvet's life and imprisoned her for years after turning her into a demon. 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 past events start to come to light. As far as I'm concerned, she is one of the very best video game protagonists of all time. 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 a happy accident, 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. 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, and the two games even shared some characters, and the fact you already know their fates if you've played Zestiria also makes certain parts of the story all the more melancholic.
"Why do you think that birds fly?"
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