Berseria takes place in a world beset by monsters that were once human. Only spirit creatures called malaks can vanquish them, and exorcists are the trained elite who use malaks as mindless weapons to fight against the scourge. Our main character is Velvet Crowe, a young woman traumatized by betrayal and loss, and sporting a demonic left arm that can consume anything. Imprisoned in solitary and fed monsters for three years, Velvet is released by a malak who serves the man she has sworn revenge against: the Abbey's Shepherd, Artorius, leader of the exorcists and Velvet's brother-in-law. Velvet gathers allies in her all-consuming quest, and together they travel across the oceans--in comically low-tech animation sequences--to achieve their terrible goal.
Story-wise, Tales of Berseria is compelling because it's firmly in the gray area. All the NPCs think Velvet and her group are the bad guys, because they specifically want to destroy humanity's best defense against monsters, for their own selfish reasons. And all the playable characters know it; they just don't care how they're labeled, because a major theme of the game is being true to yourself. Here is a helpful diagram detailing the characters and their motivations:
Velvet is on a roaring rampage of revenge; the demon swordsman Rokurou just wants to kill his older brother, a high-ranking officer in the Abbey; Eizen the pirate malak is looking for his ship's captain, abducted by the Abbey; Laphicet the malak wants to be a person, not a tool; and Eleanor the exorcist is obeying orders to infiltrate the group. And Magilou, dear Magilou, easily the best among the bunch: a powerful, older-than-she-looks witch who frequently points out the group's darkest truths and then immediately ducks behind a facade of laughing indifference. Together, this team leaves a trail of destruction in their wake, led by the implacable Velvet. They're so the bad guys.
The story, with its multiple twists, the deeply sympathetic characters, and the strong voice acting and soundtrack helped me overlook the unimpressive combat system and sad dungeon designs. In terms of combat, fighting with Velvet and co. basically consists of button-mashing. Characters learn Artes, or special moves, that can be assigned to specific buttons, so a keener player would probably excel at executing combos and blocking and whatnot, but impatient players who skip right past densely-worded tutorials must button-mash and hope for the best. Hey, worked for me! On normal mode, victory earns players all sorts of stuff, such as armor and bonus-granting items. I never had to buy anything from stores, and always had materials on hand to enhance my weapons and equipment, so that's a plus.
Meanwhile, the way the story progresses is laughable. Let's just say that the road to revenge has many detours, during which, of course, the characters learn some important background about something or someone that helps them move forward. But perhaps the worst part about all the gallivanting are the dungeons, which are so badly designed that rooms are almost indistinguishable from each other, and cannot be traversed successfully without the mini-map.
Another meh feature in Tales of Berseria are the side quests, which can easily be missed by the inattentive. I ended up doing most of them during the end game, because that's when I noticed that they existed. Yeeks. Players can also send out their ship on brief expeditions to uncover treasures and rare items. And then, naturally, there's cooking and finding recipes. All these little asides are worth it for completionists, of course, but they're...meh.
In conclusion, Berseria's unrelenting grimness is regularly broken by the highly entertaining skits that are a hallmark of the Tales series, so it's not all a howling wilderness of agony and vengeance. As she comes closer to her goal, it becomes clear that Velvet's desire for revenge is so deep because it came from her love, which was endless, especially for her family. And Tales of Berseria ends in a way that honors the pain she endured, the sacrifices she made, the horrors she inflicted, and most of all, the love that was her true strength all along.
TL;DR: Great protagonist, fun characters, and moving story make up for the okay gameplay. Highly recommended!
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