Tales of Berseria / YMMV

Alternative Character Interpretation | And The Fandom Rejoiced | Awesome Bosses | Broken Base | Complete Monster | Die For Our Ship | Game Breaker | Moral Event Horizon | Narm | Player Punch | Rescued From The Scrappy Heap | Scrappy Mechanic | That One Achievement | That One Attack | That One Boss | That One Level | That One Sidequest | The Scrappy | The Woobie

Abandon Shipping: Velvet and Laphicet were shipped by a few people before the game's release. However, once it was shown that Laphicet bared a striking resemblance to Velvet's dead little brother, along with him being her reincarnated nephew, most jumped ship at the implications of it.
Accidental Innuendo: What Eleanor says to Velvet in regards to mending her clothes. It doesn't help that the skit portraits position them in a way that makes it look like Eleanor is staring at Velvet's chest.
Eleanor: I'm told I come across as awkward sometimes, but if nothing else, I'm good with my hands.
Adorkable:
- When Velvet's not being a badass, she can also be seen enthusiastically cleaning, getting stage fright, blushing in embarrassment when told to act like a dove, and other such adorable acts of dorkiness.
- Eizen's enthusiasm about history and art (and cool hideouts) is so wide-eyed and focused, and is such a contrast to his usual rough and stoic demeanor, that it comes across as this. Even moreso in that he tries to disguise it by saying it's for practical purposes, even when it very obviously isn't.
Alternative Character Interpretation: Thanks to all of the Grey-and-Gray Morality around this game, this trope now has its own page.
Anti-Climax Boss:
- Therion Teresa. Given that this is a Therion boss, you might think you're either in for a tough fight or at least a Damage-Sponge Boss - especially since this one has a mystic arte. However, the boss is surprisingly low in terms of defence, and they're weak to void damage - Rokurou himself can run circles around them. This however turns out to be a trap... see That One Boss.
- Aifread. The entire game is spent hyping this up as someone who should legitimately be really challenging, but if you are playing on anything below hard, it's pretty easy to push him into a corner with a party of attackers (very easily since the game has four melees and two casters, opposite of Zestiria) since he's weak to void. Justified though - This isn't Aifread at full strength, and it's essentially a Mercy Kill.
- The second phase of the final fight with Artorious is a bit of a pushover compared to the first phase. First, you're fighting a single opponent as opposed to the Dual Boss right before. Meaning your party will gang up on him and stunlock him easily. Second, he lacks any Malak Artes, meaning your spellcaster can pelt him with Malak Artes from afar. Third, his attacks are not all that dangerous; most of your characters can decently tank his attacks without much trouble. Lastly, he lacks any means to inflict a Total Party Wipe on your party unlike Innominat's Insubstantiality from the previous fight aside from his Mystic Arte. (While it can potentially kill your party members, it lacks any significant range, meaning he'll probably only kill one party member when he gets it off, if he kills any party members at all). That being said, his attacks do a lot of AOE damage, so if your team is mostly melee fighters, he can do a lot of damage to them quickly.
Anvilicious:
- When Artorius asks various people why birds fly, they seem to go out of their way to overcomplicate the query until we see Laphicet Crowe give the obvious answer—they have to fly because they've got wings.
- To deliver the message about the importance of flexibility, Kurogane has an epiphany about how making a blade too hard will render it brittle. This is fine, but a decent smith would have learned that during apprenticeship—let alone a master who was so dedicated to his craft that he refused to die until he'd perfected it.
Awesome Music: The series has its own page.
Base-Breaking Character: Kamoana is either a Creepy Cute Woobie that you just want to hug, or an annoying brat who won't stop crying.
Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: The skit where Magilou flashes Laphicet. It qualifies as unlike most skits, it haa nothing to do with what the party is doing at the current time. It's completely out of character for Magilou, even taking in her status as The Gadfly. And it has no relation to the plot whatsoever, and it's never brought up ever again, even in another skit.
Breather Boss: Therion Orthrus is this in comparison to the other Therion bosses before and after him. He doesn't have a lot of high-damaging spells to look out for like Kamoana and Medissa, and his other attacks can be easily avoided. It will still take some time to take him down though.
Demonic Spiders: Fittingly, most of the mobs in The Very Definitely Final Dungeon seem to fit this, but the "Bearer of Salvation" insect enemies are the worst of the lot. They fly and are hard to hit; they gang up on you, never seeming to come in anything less than squadrons of six; they do tons of Cherry Tapping even if you're blocking, meaning that three of them can chip off half of your HP without actually landing a hit, technically speaking; they have something like twice your movespeed, making it incredibly difficult to land a massive Consuming Claw for crowd control; and of course they have Hit Points for days. They are also incredibly fast on the field, to the point where they can easily catch up to a Geoboard-using player. Basically every enemy in the final dungeon has a combination of these things, but Bearers of Salvation have all of them.
Difficulty Spike: West Laban Tunnel has the first one, the Morgana Woods the second. The boss fights against Therion Theresa and Armatized Oscar are another one of a different variety- the enemies themselves don't get particularly harder, but they have more skills that can stun your party, which wears down their soul gauges.
Ensemble Dark Horse: Similar to Tales of Vesperia, this appears to be averted since Velvet is the most popular character from the cast. However, just like any other Tales games, there are many well-liked secondary characters.
- Shi gu re is probably the best example in the game. He's the Token Good Teammate on the Exorcists' side, has a cat malak he treats well, and is incredibly badass, to the point where people wished he was a protagonist or a party member. And then he reveals that he had his malak restrain his abilities rather than enhance them, making him the most powerful human character in the game. The fact he asks the group to spare Morgrim while not crying for his death makes him further endearing.
- Grimoirh won over fans from her first appearance between not being frightened by Velvet attempting to scare her into helping them and acting as Laphicet's mentor.
- Benwick proved to be endearing due to being a Nice Guy and being genuinely useful to the party.
- Fans were happy to see Zaveid again in this game, this time as a reoccurring character with more screentime to flesh out his character and backstory, as many considered him one of the best aspects of Tales of Zestiria. Also, he finally puts on a shirt.
Goddamned Bats:
- The Skunks in the Fens of Nog and Warg Forest are very annoying and irritating to fight because of their stink attack, which has a high chance of paralyzing you almost instantly. Being paralyzed means that your attacks and combos will be constantly interrupted, leaving you and your party members vulnerable to other enemy threats. Make sure you have some anti-paralysis equipment and plenty of Panacea Bottles on hand, or else, these enemies will give you a hard time.
- The Freezillos in the Gaiburk Ice Field are annoying Stone Walls with high defense and a stubborn tendency to guard frequently, making combos very difficult to pull off and dragging out the fights because of low damage output. Plus, they're very agile, and often come in large groups.
Goddamned Boss:
- The Code Red Daemon in the Gaiburk Ice Field called the Spectral Crystal, while not overly hard, is a real pain to fight because of its absurdly-high defense stats and being resistant to all damage types, making it totally Nigh-Invulnerable. The real challenge comes from how to even damage it in the first place, since any attack on it will be stopped dead and reflected back at the user. Figuring out its "weakness" that doesn't involve the Easy Level Trick will require looking up a guide.
- The Reaper's Slanderer optional boss is a nightmare. Let's start with its basic physical attack, which is a guaranteed Stun and Soul loss. If you try attacking it from behind, it can fart "Bubble Shot" at you; this attack does not have a very readable wind-up and can hit-locks you for eight hits spread out over four seconds. One of its favorite spells is "Void Mire," which has a gravitic effect — if it snags you, all its remaining hits will land — and the only way to prevent it is to a) stagger the boss (harder than it sounds) or b) have really good timing on your sideways dodge. And lastly, once its HP is low, it can attack with Insubstantiality, a spell with such a huge range and damage output that it can easily inflict a Total Party Kill. Its one saving grace is that it's an optional boss... but one of the best Infinity +1 Sword upgrades in the game is gated behind it, so you'll probably want ("want") to fight it.
Harsher in Hindsight:
- The armatization mechanic in Tales of Zestiria becomes this when this game reveals that it was originally an experimental arte created by the Abbey to gain control over the malakhim.
- Zaveid's interactions with the cast in Zestiria fall into this after we see his situation in this game.
  - Namely, his creed of not killing anyone in the hopes that they can be saved in Berseria is eerily similar to Sorey's goal of purifying everyone in Zestiria, and both of them are challenged by someone who believes that sometimes death is the only form of salvation for some people (Eizen for Zaveid, Zaveid himself for Sorey). One could say his early antagonism towards Sorey is to prevent him from making the same mistakes he did.
  - Furthermore, his flirting with the female party members in Zestiria can take on a new meaning when it is revealed that he knew a female malak named Theodora who eventually became the Shenlong dragon and was subsequently put down by Eizen. It makes it seem like he's trying to cope with the loss and move on.
- Zenrus was very strict with Sorey about the fact that he brought Alisha, a human, to Elysia. This takes on a different meaning when in Berseria, the Malak were treated as tools for the Exorcists.
  - Similar to this, the scenes of the Abbey using the Malakhim as tools becomes extremely harsh when Dezel uses Rose as a vessel and even forces her to armatize with him to get revenge on Symmone. Dezel more or less did the same thing the Abbey did, just instead of a Human using a Malak, it was a Seraph using a human.
  - Another noteworthy moment in this vein is Edna's first appearance, where she bitterly remarks that the Shepherd can just make the Seraphim do whatever he wants. Edna was around during Berseria, when the Abbey, led by the Shepherd, were enslaving Malakhim.
- The scene of Laphicet, by accident mind you, forcing Eleanor to attack other Exorcists due to his pact with her becomes much harsher to see when one remembers Dezel doing a similar thing to Rose in Zestiria, a moment that leads to his death and nearly Rose's.
- In the bad ending of Zestiria, beating Heldalf too early causes Maotelus to go on a rampage, though the party never gets to fight Maotelus when he's like this. Berseria reveals that even if they somehow managed to kill him, doing so would ruin the balance of the five Empyreans, thus dooming the world anyways.
He Really Can Act: Everyone in the English dub is solid, but Cristina Valenzuela has gotten a lot of praise for her portrayal as Velvet, many citing that Valenzuela captured Velvet's Broken Bird personality perfectly. Especially since it's such a far cry from Valenzuela's usual roles.
Hilarious in Hindsight:
- The jokes that compared Velvet to Milla but with Jude's hair color are now this when it was revealed that Milla and Jude appear as the obligatory Previous Player-Character Cameo boss fight.
- One that involves some seiyuu joke: Shigure, voiced by Kazuya Nakai, who is famous for voicing a guy who uses three swords, is killed by his brother using a three sword style.
- During a skit, Eizen explains that Malakhim don't simply reveal their True Name to anyone outside of their pact keeper. Between comrades, it means that they trust them with their lives. Magilou then chimes in saying that in other cases, it might as well be a confession of love. Fast forward to Tales of Zestiria where Lailah asks for Mikleo to reveal his True Name to Sorey, but reveals that Sorey already knows it.
- The "Zaveid, put on a shirt" meme from Zestiria becomes more amusing when he shows up in this game wearing clothes that cover his upper body.
- A DLC skit has Velvet, Magilou, and Eleanor talk with Laphicet about idols. In the English version, Velvet, Magilou, and Eleanor's voice actresses had the honor of voicing Kotori, Eli, and Nico, respectively. And in the Tales of Asteria collaboration with The Idolmaster Million Live!, Velvet herself becomes an idol.
- The sub-plot regarding Siegfried becomes this when one remembers that Eizen is voiced by Taliesin Jaffe, who is well known for playing Percy de Rolo on Critical Role, a character who wields a magic gun himself.
  - Along those same lines, Eizen is known to be notoriously unlucky due to his curse. Taliesin Jaffe on Critical Role has been known to roll the most natural 20's on the show which in turn makes Percy very lucky thus making the Reaper's Curse hilariously ironic.
- Velvet is revealed to be allergic to cats upon entering Katz Korner. Fast forward many centuries later to the time of Zestiria and the Lord of Calamity of that game takes the form of a giant humanoid lion and is nicknamed "Kittybeard" by Sorey and the party.
Jerkass Woobie:
- Velvet Crowe, between the prologue and the start of her Character Development (after which she becomes less of a Jerkass, but no less of a Woobie). She is portrayed as aggressive, cold, amoral and uncaring, but is too much of a Broken Bird to not elicit sympathy.
- Magilou. A relentless and sadistic Troll whose antics earn her the scorn of the entire party and who is later revealed to be an empty and self-loathing Sad Clown who was abandoned by her parents, adopted and exploited by a troupe of circus performers, and adopted again by her Evil Mentor, Melchior, who eventually abandoned her again after she failed to pass his final test (an illusion tempting her with a happy life with her parents). It's implied that what broke her for good was not the illusion but being abandoned by the closest thing to family she still had. Then, during the game's storyline, she endures borderline Mind Rape from Melchior to protect the party, despite her status as The Friend Nobody Likes.
- Artorius Colbrande. The first tragedy to befall him was the death of his master, which hit him even harder because said master violated his oath to never kill again in order to save him and died for it. He tries to continue on his master's will but had little success as years of peace and not many people had high resonance to see malakhim and daemons made people not listen to him, driving him further into despair and causing him to give up on his mission. Celica Crowe ended up being the person to pull him out of that hole and he was in the process of building a new life with her and her siblings, until the events of the prologue cause him to lose her AND their unborn child. Melchior shows up just in time to kick him back down the hole further by claiming that the villagers of Aball sold his family out to save themselves. As a result, he becomes The Stoic and ruins what remains of his and Velvet's life because he believed suppressing humanity's will would protect the world from malevolence. At the final battle, it's revealed that his despair was always on the brink of turning him into a Daemon and that stoic personality he developed was the last thing holding him together. And when Velvet finally kills him, he confesses as he's dying that he secretly wished it had been Velvet and Laphicet who died that day. But both Artorius and Velvet acknowledge that he would have gone down the same path because deep down, Artorius wanted to save everybody.
Karmic Overkill: Velvet's ultimate fate at the end of the game is part of the reason why Berseria has such a Bittersweet Ending, as what happens to her is cited by fans as a little harsh. Yes, Velvet was an Anti-Hero of the first order, and she did a lot of terrible things. But, she was still a hero who saved the world, and her fate of being trapped forever in what is essentially a Lotus-Eater Machine with her brother seems excessively cruel for a final fate. On top of that, her deeds of valor are not remembered but by a scant few, and she goes down in history as the first Lord of Calamity, with the majority of the world knowing her only as a monster. Velvet might have been Doomed by Canon because of the status of Berseria as a prequel, but it's still seen as over the line.
Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Velvet, who has been paired with all the members of her party, Seres, Oscar, Teresa, and even Artorius.
Les Yay: There are more than a few moments that have caused fans to believe Velvet is Ambiguously Bi as seen on the page.
Magnificent Bastard:
- Velvet Crowe is the Lord of Calamity whose journey of revenge has made her both the world's most dreaded figure and greatest hero. Formerly a cheerful village girl, after witnessing her brother's death and being imprisoned as a Therion by her brother-in-law Artorius for years, Velvet swore revenge against him and everything he stood for. With her wits and tenacity, she formed a close team of outcasts to dethrone his Abbey in a path of destruction. Learning the Abbey's goal of removing free will to stave off malevolence, Velvet enacts a perfect gambit to stop him, using trickery and improvisation to eliminate his allies and reawaken the four Empyreans to prevent the Ceremony of Suppression. When faced Artorius's armatization with Innominat, she undoes their fusion by devouring the malevolence used to fuel it. In order to seal away Innominat, Velvet sacrifices herself by putting them both in an eternal cycle of devouring each other. In the end, she entrusts the future to Laphicet, all while knowing she'll be remembered as an evil destroyer.
- Artorius Collbrande is the leader of the Abbey and the main obstacle for Magilou's Menagerie. After losing his beloved mentor and pregnant wife, Artorius swore to end the world's sadness by ridding the world of malevolence. To do this, he became the Shepherd of the Abbey and acquired eight therions, who would devour the malevolence of people from different points to awaken the 5th Empyrean Innominat. Using Innominat's power, Artorius attempted to rid the world of free will, believing it to be the cause of all of the world's suffering. Despite having so much reason to loathe humanity, Artorius suppresses his hatred until the final battle where it's needed to fuel his Armatization with Innominat. Refusing to drop his guard even for a moment, Artorius was genuinely convinced of the righteousness of his deeds, down to the bitter end.
- Melchior Mayvin is the most exceptional tactician in the Abbey. With his mastery over spirit artes, he placed a spell on Bienfu to have him relay information about the party's base of operations. Through this, the Abbey nearly defeats the group for good, only failing due to their growth and willpower. Melchior is revealed to have captured the infamous pirate captain Van Aifread and turned him into his daemon henchman. When confronted on Mount Killaraus, he gives everything he has to triumph over the heroes, requiring a last second trick to be distracted long enough for Velvet to devour him. A brilliant Master of Illusion and follower of reason, Melchior vows to uphold order for the sake of what his late teacher fought for.
- Shigure Rangetsu is far more intelligent than his playful demeanor lets on. Desperately craving someone who can give him the fight of his life, he spares the lives of his enemies so that they can get stronger in the future. Despite his immense strength, Shigure demonstrates how skilled he can be to compliment his power in a fight. When given the Malak Morgrim to use Armatization with, he instead restores her free will and has her handicap his whole body in order to get even stronger than ever. The result is someone who requires the full force and cunning of Magilou's Menagerie to bring down. After being defeated, Shigure only asks that they spare Morgrim's life, valuing her safety and dying with no regrets.
- Eizen is the First Mate of the Aifread Pirates who joins Velvet's group due to sharing a common enemy in the Abbey. With his experience and long years, Eizen helps the group understand how to seize their desired fate and makes sure they don't make any careless mistakes. Despite being afflicted with a curse that spreads bad luck everywhere he goes, Eizen is able to adapt to its countless trials, avoiding death with contributing to the group's journey. Upon realizing that he is doomed to become a dragon one day, Eizen convinces the Malak Zaveid to kill him if that ever happened. Living his life to the fullest no matter what happens, Eizen stands as an individual who represents wisdom and maturity.
- Magilou Mayvin is a self-proclaimed "evil witch" who aides Velvet in her struggle against the Abbey. Able to adapt to almost any situation, Magilou effortlessly fools security into letting the party pass through Loegres by posing as traveling performers. This ability to improvise is also shown when she creates an illusion to distract the Legate Melchior during a pivotal moment. Throughout the story, Magilou is shown to be perceptive enough to realize that Melchior has placed a spell on her Malak Bienfu to send information to the Abbey. Her perceptiveness is further highlighted when she senses that the party has entered one of his illusions, proving that she's smarter than she lets on. Despite her cynical interior, Magilou proves to be essential to the party's success.
Memetic Mutation:
- Rokuro is Koujaku.
- "AAAAAARRRRTHHHUUUUUUURRRR!", or shouting Artorius.
- "So who's the heroine of this game? Velvet? Laphicet?"^Explanation
- "Coo coo." ^Explanation
- "Why do birds fly?"^Explanation
- Eizen will build a damn island if he wants to.^Explanation
- Velvet the Bloodedge/Velvet the Black Swordswoman^Explanation
Moral Event Horizon: Go here.
Most Wonderful Sound: The Katz' meows after you free them from the Katz chest. Becomes even better when you're rewarded with an accessory item.
Narm Charm:
- Invoked with Magilou's costume. It's pretty hard to take her seriously when she is literally dressed like a jester with books on her skirt. In fact, the characters don't take her seriously either!
- Velvet's own outfit is an obvious Rummage Sale Reject complete with Too Many Belts. After awhile, it becomes somewhat charming to see how so many people don't comment on her Stripperific appearance.
- The scene wherein Innominat is revealed is pure Nightmare Fuel... aside from one moment wherein Velvet stabs him and he just says "Ow" in a Creepy Monotone. It's funny, but then jumps back to being scary.
- Right before the Final Boss, Velvet gives an answer to Artorius' Secret Test of Character ("Why Do Birds Fly?"); Because they want to. The line itself is really funny at face-value and seems unintentionally funny, but Velvet's follow up explanation makes it endearing and ties well into the game's theme too.
OTP: Velvet/Eleanor/Rokurou have this due to Eleanor's relationships with Velvet and Rokurou changing the most out of any of the other party members throughout the game due to her Character Development along with all three of them having Ship Tease moments with each other. Additionally, both Velvet and Rokurou help talk Eleanor down from giving into malevolence following Eleanor getting revenge on the Unrepentant Recidivist Brute while the other party members panicked or were unable to do anything.
Preemptive Shipping: Velvet Crowe, being the franchise's first solo female viewpoint character, was immediately shipped with Laphicet, the story's male Deuteragonist. The ship took a hit when it was revealed that Laphicet is a Replacement Goldfish for Velvet's younger brother, but what really killed the pairing was the reveal that Laphicet is Velvet's nephew via her older sister.
Questionable Casting: Bonnie Gordon as Kamoana. Bonnie Gordon is a fine voice actress, but she has a rather rough and deep voice that fits for an older character, or someone who acts mature for their age, but when put into the role of the young Kamoana, her performance is the most notably poor example in a game filled with Superlative Dubbing, to the point that Kamoana has a decent amount of haters in the West, specifically because her voice isn't suited to the character.
Sequel Difficulty Drop: Compared to Tales of Zestiria, the game removes the armatization mechanic, simplifies itemization, and makes it much easier to game the level mechanic.
Sidetracked by the Gold Saucer: Tales of Berseria offers a wide variety of fun minigames to play, ranging from the classic serving minigame, Geoboard time trials, a slot machine-based minigame with facial expressions, and even a Hanafuda card game with Tales characters. Playing them earns you Tales coins, which can be exchanged for special prizes. Expect to spend hours playing these minigames just to win prizes and farm Tales coins.
Signature Scene:
- For better, or for worse, the scene where Artorius sacrifices Laphicet Crowe (whether it be by stabbing with a sword, or stabbing with a spell) is the most well known scene in the game.
- Laphicet's heartwarming speech to snap Velvet out of her Heroic BSoD in the Earthpulse has become an iconic moment in the game.
Spiritual Adaptation: Because of the many similarities, mostly regarding the main protagonists, this is a pretty good Berserk game or BlazBlue RPG.
Stoic Woobie: Velvet practically lost everything during the Scarlet Night; her brother, her home, her friends, everything. And that's not even getting into how her older sister died during their first encounter with the Scarlet Night when Velvet was a child. She also was infected by the daemonblight and then seen as a monster before being captured and thrown into prison where she was forced to kill other Daemons to survive. By the time she was freed by Seres, she has become jaded, cynical and the only emotion she mostly shows is rage.
Squick:
- Very early in the game, Rokurou gets close to hug a yak because he thinks it's cute. Velvet proceeds to warn him to get away... and the yak belches in his face. His response is exactly what anyone else's would be.
- Bienfu talking about Magilou's brew for Strawberry Jam as including soy sauce and liquor, Durian Jellies, and candied fish. The party members talk about how disgusting that must sound.
Surprisingly Improved Sequel: Tales of Zestiria is a divisive game in the Tales series; some fans thought it was too much of a Cliché Storm without the Deconstructor Fleet elements the series is known for, while others say it's still a good game with a few great characters and mechanics, like the ability to swap party members mid-battle. Berseria, by contrast, is praised much more evenly across the board. It has more of a Deconstructor Fleet feel than Zestiria did, the characters are praised as more complex and memorable, and the battle system is seen as a marked improvement because of more streamlined mechanics and a faster overall pace.
Unfortunate Character Design: Some see Kamoana as this - she looks naked. (And when you're next to Velvet, that's saying something.)
Unintentionally Unsympathetic:
- After the group removes some of the Therions, they find out some of the villages are being attacked by daemons due to the out of control malevolence. Velvet says if the people didn't have darkness in their hearts, they wouldn't be attacked. Except that Velvet's village was attacked by daemons and people she cared about did transform. It's really easy for the terror of daemon attacks to cause chain transformations which quickly overwhelm otherwise innocent people, so what Velvet says just comes off as a callous denying of her responsibility in ruining lives.
- Oscar and Teresa refuse to assuage any of Velvet's conflicted feelings over using their consumed souls to revive the elemental Empyreans. Although it's understandable that Velvet's personal Trauma Button got mashed by antagonizing a brother-sister duo, it can be difficult for the player to feel any empathy when they say they would do it all again and have no regrets. Not when Teresa physically abused Laphicet and Number Two, and Oscar is implied to have been the one to trick Kamoana into becoming a Therion (and even if it wasn't him, he was fully aware that the Abbey had theronized a child and fought very hard to keep the party from freeing her).
Win Back the Crowd: After Zestiria's mixed reception, this game has been met with praise from both critics and the Tales fandom. Many fans are even calling it the best Tales game since Tales of Vesperia.
- The game runs at 60 FPS after Zestiria's 30 FPS cap, and they finally got rid of the "linking" system that was prevalent since Tales of Xillia. Instead, characters are unique and fight on their own.
- Skits appear at regular intervals during the game, instead of at save points or inns like in Zestiria. This makes skits appearing feel a lot more natural.
- Cooking has returned back to the way it was in Tales games prior to Xillia. The party can freely cook without issue, and the game also allows you to automatically queue it up for when the required conditions are available. Furthermore, each character can cook without issue, but provide unique bonuses, meaning it's an overall good mechanic.
- The main antagonist, Artorius, is much more involved in the story then previous Big Bad Heldalf, who was criticized for being inactive in the story. Similarly Artorius is a Villain with Good Publicity, meaning that he's an Anti-Villain like the more famous main villains over Heldalf's poorly written and self-contradictory goal that made him so disliked. The game also provides a group of recurring villains that the heroes encounter, rather than only one or two minor villains like the previous game.
- The combat system brings back Xillia's feature that allowed any party member to jump in and out of fights. This was well-received by fans since the mechanic was a well liked one but was removed from its sequel for no reason and was changed in Zestiria since Sorey and Alisha/Rose were always required in battle.
- Eleanor, perhaps in response to the controversy surrounding Alisha and Rose in the previous game, combines aspects from both characters by being a permanent party member who uses Alisha's weapon and visually resembles Rose. She outright shows trouble with the order she follows but develops into a better person through the game, which was one of the biggest things people felt Rose lacked as a character, especially in regard to Eleanor's world views being directly challenged compared to Rose.
- After Zestiria was criticized for being too cliché for a Tales game, Berseria comes across as an extended deconstruction of Zestiria's setting and characters. In particular, Velvet seems to be purposely addressing complaints about Sorey being a generic protagonist by having her be a flawed Anti-Hero who develops over the course of the game while Oscar Dragonia and Artorius Colebrand come off as Sorey's character Gone Horribly Wrong, and Melchior Mayven has the Pure Is Not Good characterization many felt Rose should have had.
- While far from the first game to do this, many praised the fact that the game definitively has a female main character, as opposed to a so-called "heroine" or a dual protagonist (like it was with Jude and Milla in Xillia). Even those who do acknowledge that Tales of Xillia and some of the spinoffs did it first praise this game for the fact that Velvet is the main character without a doubt. Also, its No Hugging, No Kissing was also praised by some for not reducing Velvet to someone's Love Interest or adding a Romantic Plot Tumor for her. While there is plenty of Ship Tease with Velvet and other characters (male and female characters, at that), there's no romance arc or sidequest. The closest it gets is with Laphicet learning to love Velvet like an older sister, which is different than romantic love. All of this serves to make Velvet a well-rounded character, and the writing was praised as an example of a female protagonist who doesn't undergo Chickification.
Woobie Family: The Crowe family has it rough. Velvet, Laphicet, and Celica's parents died in the distant backstory, leaving Celica to raise her younger siblings. Celica herself and the child she was pregnant with both die in The Opening, Laphicet is killed by Artorious in The Advent, Velvet endures physical and emotional hell, and ultimately is forced to seal herself away alongside Innominat for eternity.
Woolseyism:
- The name of the Fifth Empyrean was originally Kanonushi, which roughly means "the lord whose name shall not be spoken". The localization changed it to Innominat, which means Nameless in latin. This fits the naming scheme of the other Empyrean's better and sounds more divine.
- The name of the special Daemons like Velvet was simply kuuma, roughly meaning consuming demon. The localization changed it to Therion, which is a Latin word meaning either wild animal or savage beast, which better represents the nature of what said Daemons are, and helps distinguish them from the normal Daemons.
WTH, Costuming Department?:
- Velvet's costume looks like it fell into a giant shredder and is barely held together by the threads. This is justified, as her outfit is the remains of the clothes she was wearing when she was tossed in prison, now, years later, filthy and tattered, mixed with whatever actually fit from a pile of stuff confiscated from other prisoners, and it supposedly gives her extra mobility, but it can still be a bit distracting. Fortunately, you can have her wear her villager clothes instead.
- Magilou wears a skirt made out of books, which looks weird, although it fits her personality.
- Kamoana wears a dress that is the exact same color as her skin, with black markings over breasts and crotch. It gives off the impression that she's naked and the markings are the only thing covering her up, which is disturbing considering she's an extremely young child.

YMMV / Tales of Berseria

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