Fridge / Tales of Berseria

Fridge Brilliance

• The battle themes of the four major Exorcists you fight in the game (sans Eleanor and Artorius) are all sped-up versions of the main Leitmotif of the Abbey. A nice musical nod, but what makes the pieces more brilliant are how they are arranged to fit with the character they are associated with.
  • Teresa's theme, The Line Between Persistence and Affection, takes the One-Woman Wail heard occasionally in the Abbey's main theme and turns it up to eleven to signify her role in the Abbey as one of its main women. However, the piece is also very frantic and chaotic, with the instruments constantly twisting out of control, symbolizing Teresa's current mental state during this fight.
  • Oscar's theme, Justice of the Knight, also prominently features the One-Woman Wail heard in the Abbey's main theme in combination with Ominous Latin Chanting to cement his staunch beliefs in the Abbey and his connection to the person who possesses the theme above. However, compared to his sister's battle theme above, this theme is much more orderly but no less intense, as the pounding orchestra makes it clear that Oscar won't take his sister's defeat lying down and will resort to using armatization to finish the job.
  • Shigure's theme, Beat of Rangetsu is unique, prominently featuring a guitar and a Japanese flute and koto which is heard nowhere in the Abbey's main theme. The guitar and the Japanese instruments naturally reflect Shigure's position as head of the Rangetsu clan and his connection to Rokurou (whose Leitmotif also features a guitar and a Japanese flute), but the differences in instruments also symbolize how Shigure himself is not interested in the plans of Artorius or the Abbey and thus doesn't play by their rules.
  • Melchior's theme, Unwavering Reason is Power is slightly slower than the above themes but is more menacing to compensate, symbolizing Melchior's overwhelming power and the important role he holds in performing Abbey's dirty work in the shadows.
• Throughout the entire game, Eizen, Zaveid, and the crew talk about how powerful Aifread is, yet once you actually fight him he's weak to void damage and is actually somewhat of an Anti-Climax Boss. Informed Ability? Yes - but it's actually justified in that you're clearly not fighting Aifread at his best and you are performing a Mercy Kill.
• The same can be said about Shenlong to a lesser extent. When the player first tries to fight Shenlong, it's a Hopeless Boss Fight. But when you finally confront Shenlong for real, even despite the fact that your party is now at least in the mid 50s, it's still much much easier to strafe around and stagger. Just like with Aifread, it's a Mercy Kill - you've chased Shenlong all around the world, its tired and Malaks turned into dragons can't commit suicide.
• Velvet's big sidequest is all about cooking - exactly how does she get better at cooking if she can't even taste her own cooking? Easy - the others can. Velvet goes entirely off of feedback from others, and when the feedback turns more positive, becomes more and more confident with her cooking. At the very start, she says "Food's ready. Nothing special" in a deadpan voice... but later on she becomes much more enthusiastic about it.
• One action Velvet and company do during the course of the story is basically cause an entire town to turn into werewolves due to the malevolence. Think about how someone who didn't know about Kamoana and the Abbey might interpret this: The Lord of Calamity brings about malevolence that brings ill effects to the people caught in her path. Velvet did just what Heldalf would do later.
• In the ending, one bit that becomes somewhat Narmtastic is when Maotelus speaks to the party... but he still has the voice of a ten-year-old boy despite being a massive dragon. Why the Vocal Dissonance? He's speaking to them telepathically - in a voice that they are comfortable hearing - the voice of the ten year old boy who has been with them all along.
• So... if Velvet becomes the Lord of Calamity, why's she still able to walk around towns without causing a riot? Talk to the NPCs - they get her description entirely wrong! Of course people aren't going to look at some random girl in a Stripperific uniform and think she's the lord of Calamity! Many of them actually believe the Lord of Calamity to be male, and the ones who are correct and assume the Lord of Calamity is female have Velvet and Magilou's descriptions merged together. (It becomes somewhat of a Running Gag)
• Velvet being Weak, but Skilled despite famed as Lord of Calamity and the Greater-Scope Villain of the verse is noted on her character page; she doesn't come across like a Final Boss like an actual Tales villain would. Unless you look at game mechanics: Berseria uses combos instead of Overlimit to unleash Mystic Artes and it's not uncommon for That One Boss bad guy to abuse the hell of the ability to unleash their Mystic Arte without need for an Overlimit. On top of it, the closest to the Overlimit mode is the Break Soul ability; and Velvet's makes her have something similar to Yuri Lowell's Infinite Combo Game-Breaker. Fighting Velvet would be like fighting the main hero of a Tales Series game with the ability to throw Mystic Artes around like candy. The kind of hero that punches out gods.
• There's a Call-Forward style brilliance in the description of the Reaper's Curse. It's actually the result of Eizen's domain, which grants a "blessing" in a dark form. In his case, it's born from his desire to protect his sister. Come Tales of Zestiria and Symonne calls Dezel a "Reaper/Death God" during the reveal it was his own domain/blessing that resulted in the end of the Windriders and the death of his mentor/friend. All because of his wish to not end the happy travels with them.
  • Another bit of brilliance around the Reaper's Curse. Eizen mentions how many companions he's lost because of the Reaper's Curse, but few of the party take it seriously. In fact, they treat it as something of a Running Gag, and Velvet even considers it to work in their favor at times, treating it as more of a curiosity than a curse. Along the way though, it continues to show its prominence: He loses Aifread during the main plot and Velvet and Laphicet during the ending and after it's all over Benwick and the crew can't see him anymore either.
• One thing you'll notice quickly is that nobody in the party uses a traditional sword. Sure Rokurou has a sword, but he opts to use twin daggers during combat and only the sword under special circumstances. But then you realize that many of the exorcists, Artorious, Shigure, and Oskar in particular all use swords since, in the public's eyes, they are supposed to be the Heroes.
  • It should be noted too that the five members of the Abbey would actually fill out a traditional RPG party rather nicely. Artorious is the chosen one who has guidance from a holy power, Shigure is the quick master swordsman who is rather easygoing, and Oskar would be the naive youth who learns what it truly means to be a hero. Adding in the two spellcasters, Teresa would be the beautiful supportive mage who is loyal to the one she loves and Mechior would be the wise older mentor whose experience and knowledge gives him access to incredible magic. The fact that all of these characters are deconstructions of their intended archetype helps fill in their roles even better.
• Something of a fridge tear-jerker, but Velvet has a tendency to sleep on the floor leaning against a wall even when there is a bed available. Why? Because she's so used to it after three years in her cell she probably can't sleep normally anymore.
• The matchings for the dual mystic artes make a degree of sense. Velvet and Laphicet makes sense from a character perspective they also both have power that originates from Innominat. Eleanor and Magilou both draw their power from pacts with Malaks (Laphicet and Bienfu respectively). Finally Eizen and Rokurou both have fighting styles focused on attacking with both hands (bare fists and twin blades respectively).
• As mentioned under Villain Ball, why does Melchior get suckered into the obvious trap at Mount Killaraus when, by not going, he could easily doom Velvet's plan and hand the Abbey a win? We all know how smart and wily this person is and doing this seems extremely out of character for them. But it's not - He knows full well no force in that world is going to stop Shigure from going, which gives them three souls. But they need four. True, but he also knows the fourth soul is already there - Eleanor is pure enough to be a sacrifice and would sacrifice herself in a heartbeat if it meant stopping Innominat, and further he knows that no amount of growth or fondness would stop Velvet from doing it if it were the only way. He can't stop the plan by ignoring the challenge and he knows that. By going he hopes to be able to exploit their hesitance to kill Eleanor to run out the clock, kill them in a fight, or blow up the volcano to kill them before they can succeed. Only Magilou's last-second creativity stops him from doing the latter. Thus, what appears to be a Villain Ball is actually a coldly calculated move.
• DLC brilliance, at first one would think Eleanors swimsuit and japon costumes covering a lot and being modest compared to Velvet and Magilou is due to her personality and Abbey background, but she grew up in the tropical Midgand area, doubtful she would always feel obligated to cover as much as possible for modesty, she's covering her large scar she got back when her mother was killed by the troll demon.
• In two battles that involve Innominat, Velvet and Phi manage to get the drop on him by distracting him with the two items that held significance for them due to their connections with Innominat's previous life as Laphicet: a comb that Laphicet gave to Velvet as a present, and Phi's compass which is similar to the compass that Laphicet wished for. They both ended up getting destroyed by Innominat's attacks but also distracted him long enough for both characters to land a direct blow on him. In Phi's case, it represented his growth of character beyond being Velvet's Replacement Goldfish of her younger brother into his own person, and in Velvet's case, it's her letting go of her guilt for failing to protect her brother and using it as a justification to pursue her vengeance.
• In a meta example, the Main Character Designers appears to be cast based on their previous work.
  • Mutusmi Inomata designed Velvet, who is the opposite to Millia from 'Xillia'. Velvet is vengeful and selfish as opposed to Millia's benevolent and otherworldly.
  • Minoru Iwamoto, designed the two malaks; Laphicet and Eizen. Iwamoto has also designed the seraphs Edna (Eizen's sister) and Zaveid from 'Zestiria'.
  • Daigo Okumura, designed the two oddballs of the group; Rokurou and Magilou. Previously in Zestiria, he designed the temporary party members; Alisha and Dezel.
  • Kosuke Fujishima, designed the heroic Eleanor. In Zestiria, he designed Sorey who is the Shepard.