I do not know if my opinion matters, but I just wanted to share my thoughts and enthusiasm on the game that I finished two months ago, which was the Tales of Berseria.

Well, some of you may ask, (if someone happens to read this, tho), that "Biggs, is it the same creators of other 'Tales' series?" To answer that: Yes, it is. 

Tales of Berseria is another role-playing game by Bandai Namco Entertainment that is playable in Sony Playstation 3, Playstation 4 and MS Windows. As I've mentioned, it is another part of the Tales franchise. A few years back, my husband bought me Tales of Xillia but did not managed to play so. As a fan of RPG, I personally loved it, most especially because the protagonist is a feisty woman who seeks revenge.

The story mainly revolves about how to bring a solution in a fictional world, as an occurrence where demons are present, wrecks and create havoc to peace and order. In ths world, humans and spiritual beings but no freedom of reasoning called malakhim coexist, as the malakhim were being used as tools or slaves to follow direct orders from humans. A powerful order known as the "Abbey", sent their soldiers called "exorcists" as Daemonblight, a disease with an unknown cause spreads throught the land, transforming humans into demons and eventually would mean to eradicate peace. Exorcists were tasked to find a way to end such suffering by trying to keep up with a goal of having a peaceful world where no one feels pain.

The story flipped as the protagonist, Velvet Crowe vows to bring justice to her little brother's death, as the latter was used to be sacrificed in a ritual called the "Advent" by his brother-in-law exorcist, Artorius Collbrande. Artorius also was the reason why she became a "therion", a character who can absorb demons, (or rather, eat them), as the Daemonblight possessed her left arm when she fought back so not to be offered at the same ritual. She was then exiled to an Island Prison for years until Seres, an emotionless malak and Artorius' aid and confidant betrayed the latter when she regained her memory and sense of feel and realizes that Artorius had been brewing something really nasty and unjust, and seeked Velvet's help to end his plans that somehow coerced with her sense of avenging her little brother, Laphicet.

During the course of the story, she sailed out in the vast seas, bringing along a few of her prisonmates, Rokurou Rangetsu, a samurai who has been possessed a portion of his body by a demon, and Magilou, a younger looking witch but has dark secrets. Joining the group was a young malak whom they abducted from their first heist whom Velvet named him after his deceased brother, Laphicet. Laphicet, the malak later on gained his sense of freedom and surprisingly became one of the strongest character in the series. 

Also joining the group was Eizen, a thousand-year old pirate malak who became the second-in-command to the Aifread Pirates, and Eleanor Hume, a rookie exorcist who at first became their teammate as the story progresses.

Tales of Berseria characters (L-R: Velvet, Laphicet, Rokurou, Eleanor, Magilou and Eizen)

 (a screenshot from Famitsu)

I would not go further into detail since I would sound just like the ones you see on any other search sites or in the good, old wikipedia. So, I'd leave you to do that part of researching instead.

Basically, the gameplay ables you to fight enemies with free will by doing freestyle movements, as you go and basically combine your preferred combos. The player traverses the game world, with few searches on sidequests and cutscenes or the trademark "Tales" skits that is related to the storyline. The cutscenes were interesting in a way that if the scene is very vital to the storyline, they would briefly shift that part into a 2D animation movie instead of 3D. As most of "Tales" games, Tales of Berseria only has one directive ending. Should you wish to know the other character's extra skit, you have to do their sidequests. Some of the skits conversations were serious ones, but surely there were comedic ones at the most.

WHY I LOVE THIS GAME

screengrab from Abyssal Chronicles.

Even though the main objective of the main character is revenge, there were parts of the story that touches me the most. Before even becoming a demon, Velvet lived a simple, normal life. She was a simple, loving girl and elder sister who just wishes a simple life. Her anguish on finding ways to cure his little brother with some rare sickness troubled me in a way that it might turned out worse than I could ever think of. True enough, it did. The rapport of her and her brother kind of warmed my heart, as the two of them only wishes the happiness of the other. Velvet's relationship to the malak Laphicet as well were also one of the things that you would consider a little twitch in your heart, as the former somehow being reminded by the latter of her younger brother.

Sometimes, it is nice to play the anti-hero type than being the actual heroic vibe.

The rest of the characters had a nice backstory to them too. Overall, their quest to fight and end evil were done in awesome teamwork and trust with one another. Each of their side stories correlates a little bit to the main storyline.

Furthermore, it so happened that Tales of Besteria is a distant prequel to another Tales series called Tales of Zestiria. Funny though, that the game features some recurring characters and some cameo apperances from the other Tales series. The Tales of Zestiria game came in earlier than the Berseria, but so to promote the latest game, an anime series with already two seasons were released, called Tales of Zestiria the X. There were some episodes that paid tribute to the distant past story, where you'll see Velvet, and also the relation of some Zestiria characters to the Berseria's:

Magilou became a scribe, a.k.a. the storyteller of the series, and her bloodline continued on to be the storytellers carrying over the vital story in Zestiria. She has a descendant whom they call Mayvin.

Eizen has a little malak (now called seraph in the Zestiria series) named Edna, who made a cameo apprearance in the game, so is her 

Zaveid, a recurring character from Zestiria appeared in the Berseria game.

Velvet Crowe, who eventually branded as the "Lord of Calamity" was being mentioned. The title of the demon also eventually used in the Zestiria timeline's demon.

So... that's it. I hope that whoever reads this may be able to try this game. It has a deep, somehow emotional lift of the story. It is interesting enough, you would want to finish it without rushing. :)