The latest installment of Bandai Namco’slong-running Tales series, Tales of Berseria,marks a new direction for the franchise, a shift that’s mostly in responseto criticisms of its predecessor, Tales of Zestiria.

Berseria marks an important turning point,where it must evolve, lest it risk becominganother stagnant Japanese RPG series.

Though Zestiria and Berseriaare linked by sharing the same world, they are vastly different tales.

Berseria is essentiallyabout a group of bad guys setting out to shatter the so-callednormal conventions of the world.

Though there are light-hearted momentsand bouts of comic relief delivered through the visual-novel styleskit sequences, the story is distinctly darkerthan in past games.

The main protagonistsall have their own motivations for forging this uneasy alliance,and all are standout characters.

Velvet is the first solo female leadin the history of the series, although she suffersfrom uneven character development.

Seeing her transformfrom an innocent young girl into a cold, unsympathetic anti-herois a stark but intriguing contrast.

However, she lacks any further developmentuntil far too late into the game, making her rather one-dimensionaland ultimately boring for most of the story.

On the other hand,the rest of her crew are simply fantastic, forming one of the bestsupporting casts in the series.

Magilou especially stands out.

The young witch initially comes off as the annoying fan service characterof the bunch.

Yet not-so-long after her introduction, the game lets on that there’s way morebehind her ridiculous outfit than just a person craving attention.

Her witty dialogue and quick comebacksthat often strike close to home feature some of the best writingin the series.

The other memberslike Eleanor, Phi, and Eizen boast captivating personal stories, and they all come togetherto nail the concept of bad guys trying to do the right thingin a world gone wrong.

One of the biggest complaintsabout Berseria’s predecessor, and in fact many previous installments, is the rather dull nature of the variousenvironments you travel through.

While the usual elements are still present,enemies to encounter, treasure chests to discover,and random items to collect, there’s not only more densityin terms of these elements, but there’s also a bit morethan just traveling from point A to point B.

Many of these environmentsfeature hidden paths and alternate routes that can only be accessed by solving puzzlesor interacting with various objects in the environmentto open new ways forward.

These sometimes simple interactionsadd just enough to keep your travels from getting stale, and they’re a steptowards providing meaningful activities other than fighting enemiesand searching for treasure chests, encouraging you to exploreand spend time in each area.

Whether it’s this newfound densityof the enemies and extra details in each setting, or perhaps the fact that Berseriastarted out as a PS3 game, these large environmentsstill suffer from a major drawback that’s plagued the seriessince it first switched to 3D: the issue of severe pop-in.

And while it’s great that the developersfinally got the game to run at 60 FPS and improved the character animationsso that they aren’t so stiff, it’s clear that Berseria isn’t very taxingon the PS4, let alone the Pro.

It’s a decent looking gameand probably the prettiest since Vesperia, but hopefully we’ll see an improvedgraphics engine for the next outing.

Expect to see a lot of each environment, as Berseriahas an incredible amount of backtracking.

It’s almost exclusivelydue to the nature of the story, and probably the only real downsideto the main plot.

Every so often,en route to your next destination, something unexpected happens, forcing the crew to divert courseand retread old ground.

It feels like padding,which the game really could do without since Berseria runs a bit on the long side, clocking in at least 40 or so hoursto reach the ending.

The combat systemhas also gone through a major overhaul that removessome of its historically complicated nature.

Gone is the old wayof having to use directional inputs and multiple attack buttonswith specialized abilities.

In its place is a more streamlinedand easily customizable system.

Combat feels more fluid than before, and it’s less daunting to newcomersas it focuses less on physical skill and values more strategic thinking,at least in theory.

There is some depth to the systemif you invest the time, but it can get overwhelming.

What’s worse is that it feelslike you can get through most battles with a combination of casual button mashing and constantly activatingVelvet’s special ability.

So unless you’re playingon harder difficulties, there’s little incentive to really masterthe combat’s more nuanced complexities.

Berseria also sees the returnof numerous side attractions, though it feels like there are lessproper side quests than before in favor of keeping the plotin focus at all times.

There are a handful of mini-gamesthat you come across every so often.

Some are winnerslike being a server at restaurant or using your combat skills to pop balloons, while others, like fishing,leave something to be desired.

As a reward for participating in them,you earn a special currency that you can then useto purchase silly alternative outfits or more useful rare items.

Later in the game,you gain access to an exploration system that lets you send a ship out on missionsto hopefully bring back treasures and sometimes unlock new destinations.

Unfortunately, like the fleets and recruitsin the Assassin’s Creed series, it’s a self-contained mini-game that doesn’tactually unlock new areas of the map or additional side contentto explore in person.

Berseria’s soundtrackis also a step up from its predecessor with a few stand out efforts.

Many of the character themes are memorable, and the overworld theme commands a presence.

The English voices are also pretty good,but if you simply can’t bear them, you do have the optionfor Japanese audio with English subtitles.

Hearing the complaints from fans, Berseria’s developers have addressedmany of Zestiria’s shortcomings, though they haven’t quite nailedevery aspect just yet.

The combat system,while refined and improved from before, still struggles to find its identity, and character progressionis bloated with too many layers.

The visuals are also probablythe best we’ll see with this engine, but it’s in dire need of an upgrade.

Yet, there’s still a lot of goodfound in Berseria, specifically with the emotional storyand unique cast of characters.

The extra effort put into revampingexploration and traversing zones to make them more interestingshows promise too.

There’s a solid foundation herefor Bandai Namco to build upon, and for the first time in years, the Tales series shows flashesof a brighter future given the right ingredients.

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