LogFAQs > #933125663

When I say eventually, I MEAN eventually.

20. Tales of Berseria (2017)
#4 Game of 2017

Because it's been a while since I updated this massive list of only 25 video games, I feel it's time we have a heart-to-heart discussion on what it means to be a "good video game". As I've stated before, some games like Resident Evil 2 and Uncharted 4 are good video games, which is something you, the reader, probably knew. But you probably didn't know that some of the video games I've mentioned, which I won't do again to avoid offending people who enjoy bad video games, were bad video games. I have been playing video games for 26 years of my 26-year long lifespan and I can confirm I think I might know how good video games become good video games. This is mostly a lot of fluff to lead in to my burning ulcer of a question: Is Tales of Berseria a good video game? The answer may surprise you.

Before I lay into the mechanics of Tales of Berseria's gameplay and exploration to determine if it acquires the title of a good video game, I think it's important to discuss another burning ulcer of a question: Can bad video games still be good? It would seem to be a contradictory statement, but we can answer this by asking yet another burning ulcer of a question: Are video games ART? Now that I have asked the appropriate amount of questions to discuss the video game, Tales of Berseria, we can answer these questions in reverse order, much like the film Memento except without the plot holes. Yes, video games are art. If you disagree, you are a stupid person. So, as we have answered the question of whether video games are art, we can judge games based on artistic merit, aka however the hell we want.

I did not like the combat in Tales of Berseria. It trivializes the diversity of one of the franchise's best battle systems, Tales of Zestiria's, and turns it into a lame ass button masher. You do get a lot of options as to where you set attacks to match button inputs, but unless you purposefully sabotage the accessibility of the game, every element will be linked to a single combo of the same input. Worse yet, if you crank the difficulty up to the point where you need to use such concepts as, positioning or item management, the battles actually take a year to finish.

Where Tales of Berseria truly shines is within its story elements. Sure, its super lame when taken at face value, but once you realize Velvet isnt meant to be what the kids call a total badass, and instead a person who has allowed for the idea of vengeance to cause a downward spiral of living. Tales of Berseria isnt the first piece of media to tackle the concept of revenge and why its an ultimately pointless endeavor, but anime seems super into making that shit feel cool, so it was a neat change of pace. I played Tales of Berseria during a bout of depression, and Velvets story truly spoke to me in a way. Velvets hostility towards others and failure to accept responsibility for how her actions would damage others really made me analyze how I viewed myself and my own actions. While I havent made actions which have resulted in numerous deaths and destruction, I did feel guilt about things from my past, and Tales of Berseria, likely unintentionally, made me face this part of myself and accept it so that I may improve in the future. Its a shame it fails to stick the landing by making the antagonist of the game so inexplicably evil that Velvets actions seem justified, but maybe Tales fans arent ready to have a mature response to a video game.

So even though I think Tales of Berseria is bad as a video game, I think it succeeds as something else. From its story to presentation to music to character development to, well, everything we dont initially view as relating directly to video games, Tales of Berseria knocks it out of the park. So now that weve answered the final two questions, its time to return to our primary question of, Is Tales of Berseria a good video game? The answer is sure I guess. Please comment on this write-up either with how you feel about Tales of Berseria, or whether you are a grown man who still becomes embarrassed for enjoying a hobby.

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