Board 8 > It's 2017 and I have a new Tales game [Berseria playthrough?] [spoilers as I go]

(+) Yeah! (+)

KamikazePotato posted...

I don't like attachments (I think they ruin any semi-serious cutscene) but to each their own.

Xillia 2 was kind of great about this because the serious plot was very cleanly sectioned off in such a way that you could swap your fashion set back to default outfits really easily before anything big happened. Since then I've just saved accessories for post game, except in Zestiria where I just didn't care and made Sorey a cowboy.
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Bump.

This game really doesn't let up does it?

Also I am having way more fun with this Character Card minigame than it probably deserves.
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i like how the ai continues the round 80% of the time in character card after completing a set when it shouldn't

HeroicGammaRay posted...

i like how the ai continues the round 80% of the time in character card after completing a set when it shouldn't

Yeah, this is kind of weird. In an ideal world I think the game should be more rounds such that there's maybe more incentive to go for high point totals. But as it is you pretty much just want to get a lead and then end every round as fast as possible.

Sounds like I need to call up Namco and tell them they need to think more about the Character Card metagame tbh. Yes this is a joke if it wasn't obvious
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Bump in case I don't have time to post today
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Well, I have sort of been neglecting this topic because:

A. Real life shit going on.
B. I've been having trouble figuring out how to talk about this portion of the game. Suffice to say the chapters or whatever after my last update was probably my favorite segment of the game thus far. I don't know how to approach it though other than saying "OMG everything awesome" and coming across as a fanboy, or intentionally going the opposite direction and making it sound super boring. So yeah.

Unfortunately though while I haven't been updating in the meantime, I have been playing the actual game in the meantime, so I'm kind of a bit farther than that now. >.>

To give the abridged version: I am now in Titania (the prison island) again, which we have basically made into our own pirate fort, and are now out on a therion hunt. In the interim we: prevented a Corsair's Scourge epidemic; chased after Eizen and Zaveid into Melchior's trap (who is presumably planning dastardly deeds of some sort with his newfound power); found Grim on the island of Southgand and started translated Laphicet's book; accidentally destroyed a girl's mother in front of her eyes and turned an entire village into demons (woops); learned dark and terrible secrets about the world which might have been helpful to know about 30 minutes prior; and then helped a prince and his therion friend escape from the capital. Obviously there's more I could say but right now I kind of just want to get caught up.

I guess I'll just post some general thoughts also.

--This game good. Eleanor/Velvet the best pretty much throughout that entire stretch. Also I really liked the scene with Zaveid right after leaving whatever the name of the tower was where we found Melchior.

--Unfortunately since claiming Titania the game does appear to have slowed some. I haven't done too much past that point, but that is the impression I have as of now. This may also be intentional, since depending on where exactly the story goes this could end up as a pretty important segment for Velvet's character arc.

--Gameplay-wise I have transitioned into using mostly Eleanor. I still end up going back to Velvet for some boss fights or if Eleanor gets low on health or whatever, but the split is probably like 80/20 in favor of Eleanor. She is pretty fun actually.

--I've sort of touched on this before, but I feel like the most noteworthy thing about this game is that conflict isn't really a good vs. evil conflict. If anything I'd call it the opposite, since I think right now the most villainous characters still feel like Velvet and Eizen to me, but it still manages to get you to to root for the main party. I think maybe the real way to look at this is that the main conflict doesn't even really make sense to talk about in terms of good and evil at all. It's more like the conflict is about emotion vs. logic, or emotion vs. power, or something like that. It's as if the game's asking "are you willing to throw away your humanity to live a life of security", but in a way that avoids taking a moral stance on the subject. Honestly it's one of the most interesting ideas I've seen from a JRPG and way more than I expected from a Tales game considering the series has been relatively un-nuanced in the past. All that said, I'm still guessing Artorius or someone/thing else will be made out to be a big bad by the end of the game since that's just what you do in JRPG's, but this is what the story feels like for this segment anyway.
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Post-Titania is the 'low' portion of the game. It's still good but it slows down a bit. After a very clear point it picks up again in a big way and stays that way for the rest of the game.
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Bump

Unsure how much time I'll have to play this weekend, so we'll see what happens.
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Taliesin best town.
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pyresword posted...

Taliesin best town.

Truth.
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being therion is suffering

(Update probably later tonight)
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"Oh ok. Let me just go back to Titania real quick. I guess maybe something of relatively minor importance will happen, but then I'll be at a clear break point and I can stop."

--pyresword, before he knew.
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Well. Played too much and now I'm tired. Update tomorrow I guess.

By the way fuck Melchior so much. What an irredeemable piece of shit. I know I said Velvet and crew were the villains but this guy just wasn't having any of that.
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pyresword posted...

"Oh ok. Let me just go back to Titania real quick. I guess maybe something of relatively minor importance will happen, but then I'll be at a clear break point and I can stop."

--pyresword, before he knew.

This happened to me too. A lot of stuff comes out of nowhere there!
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Ok so I think you guys know more or less where I am, but just to recap:

After finishing up some of the boring parts of the therion collect-a-thon, we receive word of there being a therion in Eastgand, so we head off there. We're on our way to Velvet's home village, where by some stroke of good fortune it turns out the entire village survived the catastrophe, much to Velvet's shock. It's pretty cool because it's like for a minute she pretty much drops everything and starts resuming her life in the village. Also her voice stopped sounding like Solid Snake and it was really weird. Also by the way Niko is pretty great and I wish she were an actual character. But anyways, to the surprise of no one it turns out the whole thing was an illusion trap by Melchior, and Velvet slaughters her entire village (again) so that she can make it out. She...uh...doesn't take it that well.

Next some stuff happens, and Velvet ends up killing the happy brother/sister duo of Oscar (now armatized) and Theresa (now...therionized?). She doesn't take it that well...again. As I said above this is where I wanted to break for the night, but as it turns out I made the mistake of going back to Titania first. "Just to quickly see what's up before the game hands me the reigns back."

So of course I go back to Titania and by the way it turns out Innominat is there and is actually Velvet's little brother. So uh there went any chance of my stopping at that point in time. Velvet...uh...she...yeah. She's not doing so good. There's some flashback scenes from the past with Artorius/Laphicet/Celica, and we learn Artorius might not have always been a piece of shit. (Melchior was though!) Speaking of Melchior, he's off with Magilou who I guess used to be his apprentice? Magilou is a champion of course because she manages to hold her ground even though I think they said something like Melchior "crushed her heart 110 times" or something? I'm unsure whether this meant right then or in the past, and exactly what it meant, but regardless the main takeaway is that Melchior is just not a very pleasant man.

There's a bit left here that happens but I guess the main thing is that Laphicet is also a champion. He somehow manages to pick up the shattered fragments of Velvet's mind and actually convinces her to keep moving, which is nothing short of a miracle. And then when they're escaping with Zaveid later on he manages to (sort of) 1v1 Innominat. So anyways yeah. A lot of shit happened, and now we're resting in Port Zekson, and the Abbey is sending horned-demon-sho's-obviously-Aifread after us.

--Ok I don't really have a whole lot of extra comments here but damn that segment was great. Laphicet/Velvet so good, and I also liked the flashbacks actually. Also some pretty good segments where Velvet is dreaming and talking to Seres.

--To talk about gameplay a bit...combat has gotten really weird. At the beginning of the game it was pretty much that every fight was really easy. Now it's still that every fight is really easy...unless the boss decides it's time to one-shot me. Most bosses recently have gone something like the fight is super easy until I get them to 1/3 health, then they just randomly pull out some stun or super move or something and either wipe me or I still barely manage to win after Life Bottle spam. Alternatively I've developed the counter strategy of always switching to Velvet when they get to half health and button mashing to win, since I can usually get a string going for about that much damage by using all of her souls and her mystic arte, without suffering the consequences after of having used up everything.
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Yesssssss that stretch of plot is so damn good. Laphicet is a god damn champ, I was almost up out of my chair at "WILL YOU STOP WHINING!"

Like you noted, there are a good few bosses (starting with Teresa/Oscar) that can wipe your party in seconds with one-shot skills. It's a Tales series staple that bosses use new attacks as they lose health, and some of the artes these particular bosses pack are legit terrifying. >_> Fortunately you can just use Velvet's silliness to deal with them or mystic arte chain them to death once they're low. Berseria is fun in that its gameplay is very much broken vs. broken, and moreso if you're playing on higher difficulties.
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Yeah I'm on one difficulty higher than the default, though I'm not sure how much that matters.

Also, am I past the point of no return now, or is the game going to open up again at some point?
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The game doesn't have a point of no return. Every sidequest is doable even if you're right before the final boss. Only stuff missable are some trophies and maybe a few skits (but every single skit is unlockable if you have enough katz spirits anyway)
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pyresword posted...

Yeah I'm on one difficulty higher than the default, though I'm not sure how much that matters.

Differences are charted out here. A particularly big difference is healing becomes completely worthless on higher difficulties so you have to largely get your health back by break souling. (Putting the "berserk" in Berseria, if you will.) Experience gain is also cut by a ton but the much higher last hit bonus more than makes up for it if your combo count is high. (So basically keeping the whole party evenly/high leveled is way harder, but the characters you're playing will level faster if you're good.)

Drop rates for gear spike up by 10% per difficulty above normal and dire foes spawn much more often the higher you go, so gear-wise you're rewarded pretty nicely for the challenge.
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That entire stretch of plot is amazing. The return to Aball is fantastic and it somehow gets better from there.
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Bump

Not that I have much left in the game presumably, but progress may be slow on account of my having a research paper to finish by next week.
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Laphicet best character.

Its funny how he tells Velvet to stop whining. I think everyone in the house clapped.
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Bump

Writing papers is fun.
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