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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