Fill up enough of your gauge and you can also unleash the powerful and visually impressive Break Soul state that allows for unique and considerably more effective elemental attacks. The new Soul Gauge also adds an additional element of tactical nous by ensuring that Artes cannot be spammed while delivering a meta game within the battle system itself in which you are constantly keeping an eye on your soul gauge which can be refilled by taking a brief breather or by picking up (stealing) the dropped souls of your enemies.
It’s not the most complex system in the world, but there is plenty of depth due to the range of Artes and the distinctly unique abilities of each playable character. The core combat is still a combination of physical and magical attacks via basic combos combined with character swapping and Artes. While similar to recent games in the series thanks to the use of the underlying Linear Motion Battle System that utilises real-time battle mechanics within a fixed area, the upgrade to the catchily named, Liberation Linear Motion Battle System (or “Liberation-LMBS” for short) does come with a number of unique perks and nuances that elevate this above its immediate predecessors (albeit only slightly). Regardless of what you might think of its story or world, one thing that remains largely undisputable is the quality of its combat. The narrative and art design is a bit of a mixed bag, but with its compelling cast and links to previous games in the series, there is plenty here to like for newcomers and hardcore fans alike. Still, despite its problems, Tales of Berseria will almost certainly please long-standing fans of the series, and despite its systems and somewhat suspect tutorial likely to leave newcomers initially bemused by the complicated battle system and reams of Tales-related lore, once acclimatised, Berseria’s unique twists on the long running, real-time battle system prove largely successful. This is already the 16 th game in the consistently inconsistent Tales series, and while this is undoubtedly a strong entry, the relative lack of innovation and forward momentum is beginning to take its toll. Of course, being old-fashioned isn’t necessarily a bad thing (especially in a genre as steeped in the past as the JRPG), but here, it comes hand in hand with a plethora of forgettable locations and a structure that will be all too familiar to fans of the series.
Despite its enjoyable battle system, decent story, technical reliability and its odd but likeable cast of characters, Tales of Berseria feels like a decidedly safe JRPG, and in a post Final Fantasy XV world, more than a little old-fashioned Tales of Berseria isn’t a bad game, in fact, it’s one of the best Tales games released for quite some time – it just lacks ambition.
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