Current Events > Playing Tales of Berseria, any thing to keep in mind?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Can I also just say... the voice acting is pretty on point.

I like Velvet's voice actress, if not that stupid post-dungeon wardrobe design, and the characters so far come off a lot more likable in their insanity and zaniness (eg in the case of Maggie Lou) than I was expecting after the previous title.
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Especially since Vesperia has some of the more disappointingly lame characters (the first 30-40% of the game having like, 2-3 kid characters for some reason in the party with Yuri being a surrogate nanny)
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MadDewg posted...

It was first added in tales of xillia actually. Still though, it is mad convenient.

Oh wow the ps3 era Tales games do seem to have some nifty features, never would have thought it
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Ok now I realized what it is about combat that's so weird. It's the way moves are done. There's no more TP.

I can't use First Aid outside of battle. All artes, spells and moves are done in-battle only
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saspa posted...

Can I also just say... the voice acting is pretty on point.

I like Velvet's voice actress, if not that stupid post-dungeon wardrobe design, and the characters so far come off a lot more likable in their insanity and zaniness (eg in the case of Maggie Lou) than I was expecting after the previous title.

Yeah, the voice cast is all outstanding (except for 1 side character later on; you'll know which one I mean immediately).

I dunno if I'm in the minority or not in regards to actually liking Velvet's outfit, but I think it's an amazing JRPG protagonist design. Also yeah, Magilou is great.

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Wait Aifried? That name sounds familiar. Wasn't there an Aiefried in Tales of Vesperia? Is this what people mean when they say it's a prequel?
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I also just heard references to other stuff. Derris Kharlan? And I know I've heard the name Martel before but can't remember where. Maybe Tales of Phantasia
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If youre playing on any of the highest difficulties, the trick is to confirm stuns to keep your Break Souls high and essentially just infinite loop with Velvet. What can help with this is utilizing your charge guard to sharply increase Stun procs (Using a stun dominant rate also helps).

Once you get to your second play through and have some Grade bonuses you will have more freedom with other characters.
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Also if you are on higher difficulties turn Healing Artes off as they are not effective (Unless they cure status ailments). Keep stocked up on gels, and learn to play 1-2 other character semi-proficiently. By doing characters swaps you get and extra soul in your gauge to help keep opponents locked down with Velvet (I chose Eleanor and Rokurou because both kind of suck as AI, and Eleanor is fun to play.)
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saspa posted...

Wait Aifried? That name sounds familiar. Wasn't there an Aiefried in Tales of Vesperia? Is this what people mean when they say it's a prequel?

Aifread/Ifreed is like the Cid (FF) of the Tales series. There's one in almost all the games.

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saspa posted...

I can't use First Aid outside of battle

No need! You full heal after every single battle you win.

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saspa posted...

Wait Aifried? That name sounds familiar. Wasn't there an Aiefried in Tales of Vesperia? Is this what people mean when they say it's a prequel?

Its a prequel to Zesteria not Vesperia lol.

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Rharyx211 posted...

Aifread/Ifreed is like the Cid (FF) of the Tales series. There's one in almost all the games.

Ah. And is he separate from Ifrit? Or one and the same?
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Did she... just name the little boy malakhim after her dead brother? That's creepy right, if not a little weird
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saspa posted...

Ah. And is he separate from Ifrit? Or one and the same?

Aifread and Ifreed are just two translations of the same name.

Ifrit is a fire deity from Final Fantasy.

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Ah okay, it's cuz I remember a fire type summon in tales of phantasia or eternia, one who complements undine, the water type summon
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Ah, yeah, looks like there is a recurring fire-based enemy named Efreet in a bunch of Tales games. Based off the same creature FF uses for Ifrit.

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That's the one yeah.
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Will they explain what they mean by malakhim are tethered to exorcist? I assumed it was like Genie in Aladdin where he has to be near the lamp/in the lamp (in this case exorcists) and can't stray farther than that

But Velvet literally just grabbed that kid malakhim from the priest lady with the staff and escaped on a ship, effectively kidnapping him so... I guess not?
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After many enjoyable skits I've figured it out, the reason the party is so much better than Vesperia this time around is because they mainly consist of adults, instead of just 1 purple haired adult. And the one kid character, the malakhim, is actually pretty endearing, and not at all annoying like that one squirrely boy in vesperia.
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Yeah, everything about the Malakhim should be explained as the story progresses.

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Surprised by how entertaining the cast can be, I can see why people call this one of the good Tales games, I'm definitely leaning that way so far.

It feels good to like a game instantly rather than waiting for it to click
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Rharyx211 posted...

Yeah, everything about the Malakhim should be explained as the story progresses.

This, not sure why you expected it to all be explained straight away lol.

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Just got my ass kicked by my first dire foe. Almost ragequit but just grit my teeth and redid the area again. It's my fault for not saving often, I really should take advantage of quick save more, it's actually quite a nifty feature because you can reload quick saves as a separate file from the regular save. That basically means that essentially, there's a save anywhere feature just like Ys. Another quality of life improvement.
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So... does anyone feel the battle space is too big in this new Tales combat?

How do I close the gap with enemies? I find myself chasing enemies who are chasing Laphicet wtf.
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Rharyx211 posted...

Yeah, the voice cast is all outstanding (except for 1 side character later on; you'll know which one I mean immediately).

I dunno if I'm in the minority or not in regards to actually liking Velvet's outfit, but I think it's an amazing JRPG protagonist design. Also yeah, Magilou is great.

... Bienfue?
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No, Bienfu is just annoying but their voice acting is alright. lol

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Huh then I'm stumped, haven't gotten far though I'm heading to Eizen/Aifried's ship.

I thought for sure it was him because he's either hilarious when its skits with Maggilou etc or annoying, there's no in-between. Almost reminds me of Gilbert Gotfried, also the whole goofy creature in a party of serious business types reminds me of the Nopon/Heropon Riki in Xenoblade 1 who added some levity to the group and imo weirdly worked well in doing so.
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When I enter a new area, the name is displayed, but there's also tiny words in tiny fonts that I can't read at the bottom of the area name, what do they say? Same thing when I bring up the map, there's tiny words at the bottom
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So... do skills stack? If a skill reduces item wait time by 12%, does having 2 or 3 of those skills on different pieces of equipment reduce wait time by 24%? 36%?
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Is there a way to make it so that the AI is constantly spamming mystic artes? Really annoying that I'm the only one doing it while they have full unused BG every battle, even against hunt requests and bosses and dire foes

And what are the best tactics/strategy to set for the AI of all the party members? I like to use Velvet, Laphicet, Magilou and Eizen. Used to be Rokuro before Magilou stepped in but thought I'd try 2 spell casters instead of just 1. I just really want to make efficient use of the AI as best as possible, and have them always spamming attack after attack and just be completely relentless.
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iirc the AI will never use mystic artes. Any party composition works fine.

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Garioshi posted...

iirc the AI will never use mystic artes. Any party composition works fine.

The AI definitely uses mystic artes and will spam them if you let it. There is a BG use setting for each character.

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Just a small question. When you enter a new area for the first time, the area's name appears, and there's this tiny font at the bottom of the name that's too illegible to read. What does it say?

It also appears when you open the map and see the area name at the top. I'm kinda curious what those words are
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Hm I think I figured out how it's related to Zestiria. So apparently malakhim are "tethered" to an exorcist and thus they share a body, the exorcists body. While I didn't play it, in the opening to Zestiria I saw a person coming out of another person, so that must be the basis for what they're talking about.
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Kinda, yeah. Zestiria takes place way in the future, so it works kinda different by then, but what you saw in its opening was basically the same thing as a malakhim emerging from its exorcist.

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So Eleanor has joined the party and can I just say, I really do love this particular Tales game's party. The dynamic relationships between all 6 of them (and Bienfu) is fantastic, hilarious, and really well scripted. I am loving all the skits.
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Ok I'm in Southgand and might possibly finally learn what a therion is, can't wait. Slowly getting a rough understanding of what empyreans are too.
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So... which 4 party members to use, which do you like? I'm so conflicted, so far it's always Velvet of course, and Laphicet too. Magilou for more area of attack spells, and 4th being... Eizen? Eleanor has some high attack for some odd reason, more than even Velvet somehow, so not sure if to put her or Eizen. Rokuro, much as I like him, just doesn't seem as strong as the other 2 so he's benched/backup party.
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saspa posted...

So... which 4 party members to use, which do you like? I'm so conflicted, so far it's always Velvet of course, and Laphicet too. Magilou for more area of attack spells, and 4th being... Eizen? Eleanor has some high attack for some odd reason, more than even Velvet somehow, so not sure if to put her or Eizen. Rokuro, much as I like him, just doesn't seem as strong as the other 2 so he's benched/backup party.

You don't use four party members in this game, really. You have three for the player and three for the AI. I generally keep Magilou accessible for the player because on higher difficulties the game becomes completely, totally impossible to survive without liberally using her soul break to prevent spells that will wipe the party from being cast in certain areas, plus Look a Shooting Star (Spirit Drop) is very abusable for gaining souls. I generally had Eizen and Velvet available as my other two, but there are some fights where Rokurou does really well, and I gave everyone some playtime.

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^ ^ I do like using switch blasts to get party members out of trouble. I hate that I have to do it manually though and the AI is so dumb they'd rather die than use their Full BG to tag in another party member in the reserve. Even though I have the strategy set to "use the bg always when it's full, be it mystic arte or switch blast"
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Lol true to Tales form, items like apple and lemon gels only go up to 15. It's such a weird arbitrary number for supposed difficulty management, considering there's already an easy mode option...

Does anyone have a preferred set of artes for Velvet? I like to use harsh rebuttal a lot, I've almost mastered it. I want to level up the others but they're just not as good as that one, although gouging spin has proven to be good too. But the others... which ones should I blend in with harsh rebuttal? I also use heaven claw and hell claw a lot, so which artes tie in well with hell claw would be good too so that I can master those.
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Theres better games out there.....

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Lairen posted...

Theres better games out there.....

So?

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Was the consensus pretty similar regarding the quality of the characters? They're so great. Laphicet has gone from endearing to straight up adorable, I love those skits with Magilou and when he's with Rokuro, who's giving off an older brother vibe with him.

And the others have some great dynamic too
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From what I've read, yeah, most people like the main cast. Everyone has a great dynamic.

It's some of the side cast like Oscar that people thought weren't developed as much, but even then I had no problem with anyone from a writing perspective, really.

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Rharyx211 posted...

Yeah, the voice cast is all outstanding (except for 1 side character later on; you'll know which one I mean immediately).

I dunno if I'm in the minority or not in regards to actually liking Velvet's outfit, but I think it's an amazing JRPG protagonist design. Also yeah, Magilou is great.

So... Kamoana?
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Also I don't have a problem with Oscar either, although... this game really likes the brother sister angle doesn't it, with Oscar and Teresa and Vel and Laphi
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saspa posted...

So... Kamoana?

Yeah.

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I have a copy signed by all the voice actors of the main party that Im proud of

Even for a JRPG that beginning was fucking DARK

Are you interested in Arise, TC? Magilous VA voices the main heroine for that game, go figure

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