The Tales of series has been running for over 30 years (feel old yet?), with its first instalment released on Famicom in 1995. For the most part, each instalment is standalone, with the odd sequel here and there. Over the years, Tales games could be found across multiple systems, including Nintendo platforms, PlayStation, and Xbox. A continuation of the series speaks for the success of the individual entries.
Developed by Bandai Namco, fans can not only consume the main series, but also spin-off titles, anime and manga series. It is fair to say that this fantasy action role-playing series can look back onto a long and successful history. Tales of Berseria, first released in 2016, is said to be a bit darker in its story than other titles. Perhaps that is why it stood out enough to warrant a remaster, which is precisely what happened in 2026. Tales of Berseria Remastered released for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S|X, PC and, of course, Nintendo Switch.
Having never played a Tales game before and coming in completely blind may have both been a blessing and a curse. Berseria runs with no issue on Nintendo Switch; both gameplay and cutscenes work fine. While the story is quite dark, it also feels very predictable as well as confusing. The issue is that a lot of new terms are introduced very quickly, without proper explanation of what’s what. It’s simply annoying, as concentrating on dialogue and figuring what the new terms mean can cause further dialogue to be missed. At the same time, the overall premise of the story – a heroine tragically losing family through a betrayal by a loved one – is incredibly predictable. So is the following arch of revenge that our heroine, Velvet, embarks on.
In terms of the characters, both playable and NPCs, while there seems to have been made an effort to include characters with different personalities, they all feel just a touch too cliché in their motives and actions. This again adds to the predictability of the story. When the party encounters an issue, it’s immediately clear who’ll argue what and how they’ll reach a resolution. It creates an urge to simply skip through the cutscenes to finally get to the next boss fight.
The problem is that RPGs often rely on their story to keep players interested. It is a good formula: travel to your next destination, fight to level up, beat the boss and get rewarded with the next tidbit of story. If the story, however, is very predictable, the final reward is anticlimactic. This could, under certain circumstances, be subsidised by the battle system; if the fighting is fun, this can be rewarding in itself. Unfortunately, battles aren’t particularly enjoyable, either.
Complicated battle systems are not an issue in and of themselves. The important part is the tutorial. It needs to hit that sweet spot between being neither too fast paced nor too slow, and unfortunately Tales of Berseria fails to hit that spot. One tutorial follows the next with no break in between to get used to the new mechanics, and on top of that, the explanations are often convoluted and hard to follow. Perhaps this is easier for seasoned players who are familiar with the terms used in Tales games, but for a complete newcomer, it was impossible to follow. It is not like it’s all unplayable, but there is a nagging feeling that one was missing out on using special attacks or abilities simply because they didn’t understand the tutorial five fights ago. Of course, the tutorial descriptions are always available, but again, they are so confusing that they are not much help at all. On top of that, the shouts of the characters during combat become repetitive really fast.
It is fair to say that both the issues with the story and combat may simply be user preference. In other aspects, Tales of Berseria Remastered is a very solid title, and both story and combat may appeal to other players. It runs flawlessly on Nintendo Switch, and almost all dialogue is voiced, keeping the experience alive. The soundtrack is not particularly memorable, though, but fitting for the different environments. The only other issue was that some character costumes may be a bit too revealing… but that again is up to player preference.
