While it wasn’t the Tales series game I was most hyped about upon its initial announcement, Tales of Berseria is the instalment in the franchise that I consider to be the peak of the still ongoing modern era. Even though it may not be as dark and gritty as early promotional material implied ahead of its original PS4 and PC debut in 2017, it marked the beginning of Bandai Namco taking the series on narratives that were more direct, serious, and with less fluff to soften the blow when the protagonist or their complicated retinue found themselves in a situation where violence is the only answer. But with Tales of Berseria being available on platforms that are still active (PC) or otherwise feature backwards compatibility with new-gen hardware (PS4)… is there enough to justify Tales of Berseria Remastered existing with a plethora of earlier entries in the series being inaccessible on current platforms? Read on to find out!
What continues to make Tales of Berseria so easy to celebrate and champion a decade after its original release is the confidence of its storytelling. Rather than asking players to once again rally behind another bright-eyed, idealistic saviour to set the world right, it builds itself around a character who, for all intents and purposes, may have fallen into that common trope – only to, in the opening hour, turn it on its head. After the attention-grabbing opening, you are left with Velvet Crowe, a heroine defined by grief, bitterness, and a desire for revenge for the death of her brother, which often places her at odds with the very idea of heroism (and the organisations which may otherwise be seen as typical RPG allies and vice versa). That edge gives the game a striking identity within the series, but it would not amount to much if Velvet were merely cold for the sake of appearances.
What makes her work is that Tales of Berseria doesn’t just meander into making the protagonist angsty for the sake of being different; her hostility feels like the product of her trauma and develops in different ways over time. Her relationship with Laphicet is where that humanity comes through most clearly. In a game so preoccupied with loss, manipulation, and the emotional cost of survival, the bond that develops between the two becomes the anchor that stops the plot from disappearing into pure misery. Velvet’s instinct to protect him gradually reshapes the way she relates to the world around her, and it gives a revenge narrative more layers than it otherwise would have. What also helps is that the other key members of the cast are strong, arguably the strongest and most diverse cast of allies of a Tales game in recent memory. Whether through skits or story scenes, Berseria gives its party enough friction, humour, and vulnerability to make them feel like more than a collection of archetypes travelling in the same direction.
What felt like strengths in the narrative didn’t carry over into Tales of Berseria’s design language. While the game is cleaner and looks better in its Remastered outing, even some touch-ups didn’t do much to meaningfully disguise how uneven the presentation is. Character models retain their expressive anime charm and remain the visual centrepiece, yet the environments around them often feel flat, sparse, and unimaginative. While it could come down to technology a decade ago, it was relatively sparse and bland even compared to earlier instalments in the series. Towns, fields, and dungeon spaces rarely carry the same essence as the people who inhabit them, leaving locals feeling functional rather than transportive. Dungeons are little more than drab corridors stretched far past their welcome, with limited puzzle design and an overreliance on backtracking, and they feel more like a trek from Point A to B. While the new visual touch-ups and interface refinements smooth over some rough edges, they do not fundamentally alter the fact that Berseria remains far stronger in concept than it is in environmental craft.
The audio side of Tales of Berseria leaves a better impression. Voice acting does the heavy lifting throughout the campaign, especially in conveying the emotional credibility of Velvet, voiced by Cristina Valenzuela. A protagonist like this needs to sound wounded, furious, guarded, and gradually more open as the story unfolds, and Berseria’s performances give those shifts real weight. The same is true of the wider party, whose chemistry depends as much on delivery as it does on the script. It should be said that the Remaster did little in this territory, which is for the best, favouring the voice acting from the original release, which was a good choice since it worked well. However, it is surprising how many stellar voice actors they brought in for minor roles, such as Mona Marshall, Cherami Leigh, and Monica Rial, who often make the impression that the characters they voice are pivotal to the game as a whole. The soundtrack is slightly more mixed by comparison. It suits the game well enough and consistently supports the bleak tone, but it does falter a bit in the memorability department. A perk, however, is that there is an optional DLC music pack that lets you select your favourite Tales series battle themes and play them in order or at random.
While the drab dungeon design does hamper the experience, the moment-to-moment combat system of Tales of Berseria still does a solid job of keeping the time battling enemies engaging and immersive. Battles are fast, flashy, and built around a style of aggression that rewards players for maintaining momentum rather than hanging back and waiting for opportunities to appear. The Soul Gauge system gives combat its central rhythm, asking you to think not just about what attacks to use, but how far to extend a combo before you risk losing control of the exchange. And it also temporarily makes it easy for your foes to deflect all future attacks should you drop down to 0 souls – a risk vs reward scenario. Break Souls adds another layer to that tempo, giving each character a distinct tool that can swing the flow of battle when used well.
That said, the battle system is not without its own frustrations, and this is where opinions on Tales of Berseria have always been somewhat more divided. For as much as the combat encourages experimentation, there are long stretches where it can be played in a far less thoughtful way than the mechanics might initially suggest. Standard encounters quickly become repetitive with even the most minuscule amount of grinding, and victory in some of the tougher mobs typically comes more from relentless pressure than from any especially careful strategy. This is particularly true regarding a certain system, which I will mention shortly… which has been prominent in all of the Remastered re-releases. The deeper systems, such as equipment enhancement and bonuses, and party building, are there for those who want to engage with them, but the game does not always do enough to make that investment feel necessary. That can leave parts of Berseria feeling awkwardly balanced between depth and simplicity, where there is clearly more under the surface, but it falls into optionality due to just how easy it is to pummel your foes.
Where Tales of Berseria Remastered improves the gameplay experience most noticeably is through convenience rather than reinvention. The increased movement speed is one of those changes that sounds minor on paper but proves immediately useful in practice…. although it can feel more than a little awkward when the old movement system hasn’t been rejigged as much for faster movements. More helpful destination markers, clearer minimap information, encounter toggles, and early access to the Grade Shop make it easier to tailor the game to your preferences, whether you want to streamline the journey for a replay or focus on the narrative. But as those who have read my reviews of the likes of Tales of Xillia Remastered or Tales of Graces f Remastered will know, the conveniences offered by an initially available Grade Shop – previously a New Game + feature, can quickly make an already imbalanced game (in your favour) even more so, rendering any challenge moot even with a doubling of the EXP gain. With preexisting difficulty settings available, I wish Bandai Namco Entertainment wouldn’t need to consider simplifying the experience more than they had to. Or, at the very least, adopt the approach exemplified by gaming in the sixth generation and earlier, by locking it behind some sort of obscure code of button inputs on the title screen.
Tales of Berseria Remastered never quite escapes the question I posed at the outset: why this game, and why now, when so many earlier entries remain stranded on older hardware? Sure, it is being offered on Xbox and Nintendo platforms for the first time, but with a PC release surely Tales of Xillia 2 (Which is locked to the PS3), Tales of the Abyss (Currently locked to the PS2 and Nintendo 3DS), or one of the other platforms would be the logical choice – especially since both those modern options have key modern conveniences such as voice acting already recorded. But ultimately, Bandai Namco Entertainment has repackaged a genuinely excellent narrative-driven RPG whose greatest assets, namely its character writing, emotional weight, and energetic combat, were already strong enough to survive with only minimal touch-ups. For first-time players, this is still an easy recommendation and one of the better Tales games to experience on current platforms, but for returning fans, it is harder to shake the feeling that convenience has been prioritised over necessity. Tales of Berseria Remastered may not fully justify its own existence, but it does reaffirm why Tales of Berseria itself remains worth revisiting.
Final Score for Tales of Berseria Remastered
This review was conducted on a digital PlayStation 5 copy of Tales of Berseria Remeastered, with a code provided by Bandai Namco Entertainment Australia to facilitate this review.
Tales of Berseria Remastered is now available to purchase on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch.
