LogFAQs > #895914428

To add on to that - Velvet makes being in the world of Tales of Berseria interesting, no matter where you are or what you're doing. An extremely common building block of plot structure in fiction is that villains act, while heroes react. Velvet is considered to be the hero of the story by absolutely no one (least of all herself), so have I got good news for you! The first major thing Velvet does in Berseria is start a prison riot to use as a distraction for escaping. The second major thing she does is set fire to a town's main economic resource to use as a distraction for stealing a boat. She drives the plot instead of taking part in it, and it is oh so fun to take part in. Later on in the game when it's finally time to have a showdown with some of the main antagonists, Velvet is the one to threaten them to come fight her where she is, not the other way around. At some point even just walking around as Velvet becomes fun, simply because the notion of a pariah feared by the entire world heading into town to buy Apple Gels is a novelty in and of itself. Berseria makes full use of Velvet's status as the game's 'villain' to strong dramatic (and sometimes comedic) effect.

In keeping with her personality and role in the world, Velvet's fighting style does a great job at reinforcing her characterization through gameplay. Having been 'gifted' a big scary red demon arm through the power of plot, Velvet uses her new body to its full effect by beating the crap out of things with it. Activating the arm makes Velvet belt on an impressive scream and hulk out on the enemies, with the screams being increasingly pain-filled when she fights people directly related to her main mission of revenge. You also have a lot of slashing and kicking moves courtesy of some Assassin's Creed hidden-blade esque weapons, but they resemble less of a fighting style and more Velvet slamming into things until they break. She also has a mechanic where she can fall to 1 HP and stay there as long as you keep a combo going, and on tougher difficulties you'll...be spending most of the game at 1 HP. All of this makes playing as Velvet feel desperate, reckless, destructive, and showcasing a supreme lack of self-care. It ties in perfectly with her character and it's pretty fuckin' fun too. Velvet is the easiest character in the game to play and is pretty spammy but it's hard to care when I had a smile on my face almost the entire time.

Velvet is a character I was extremely invested in from start to finish. Her character, despite evolving greatly throughout the course of Berseria, never loses the main driving focus that makes it so compelling. Her relationships with Laphicet and Eleanor (especially Laphicet) are captivating to watch. Her journey summoned legitimate emotion out of me, which is not nearly as easy to do as it was when I was young and playing these kinds of games for the first time. Velvet does what any truly great protagonist does - she takes the experience and elevates it.

Not bad, Tales Of. You've earned the right to disappoint me with your next game.
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Black Turtle did a pretty good job.