Review – Tales of Berseria Remastered

Tales of Berseria Remastered marks the return of the title in 2026 as one of the most symbolic stages of the celebrations for the , restyled in an updated version that basically seeks to captivate the long-time audience while betting on yet another attempt to win over new players who have not yet ventured into Midgand.

Developed DAG and published by Bandai Namco Studios, the game remains faithful to the real-time action RPG proposal that was successful in 2016, but now with a package of visual and quality of life updates designed to make the experience more fluid and accessible, without taking away the dark and emotional content that has always been the trademark of this chapter.

Velvet’s fury in high definition

continues to be the chronicle of a woman marked by a betrayal that turned into trauma, in one of the most impactful stories in the franchise due to its quality and intensity. In the role of Velvet Crowe, we follow a character who goes on a dark crusade driven by revenge against Artorius Collbrande, an Exorcist from the Holy Empire of Midgand, for the murder of Laphicet, his brother.

After a period of time when she was trapped in Titania, having transformed into a demon, Velvet brings together a cast of eccentric companions, each carrying their own pains and motivations that contribute to an excellent narrative construction that has aged very well. Rokurou is a former soldier who questions the logic of the Order and chooses to follow his own path, often unfair in the eyes of others, but consistent with his own principles. Magilou is a mysterious demon, with an acidic humor and a past linked to the protagonist herself, who becomes a central part of the conflicts between humans and creatures considered cursed. Eleanor, in turn, is an idealistic ex-soldier, who begins to question whether the system she defended is really capable of protecting the weakest.

Over the course of dozens of hours, the story proposes a constant philosophical clash confronting emotion and reason, making the player witness the eternal clash between the brain and the heart while Velvet needs to cling to her convictions. The world around her suffers and suffocates due to the oppressive system of the Religious Order that superimposes human emotion itself, imposing a rigid logic that suffocates doubts, feelings and even those who are considered impure. She finds herself torn between the kind person she used to be and the dark path her fury paved as a path to a painful future, leaving her wondering whether revenge will consume all that’s left of her essence.

For those looking for a completely new game, Tales of Berseria Remastered does not deliver a revolution, but Bandai Namco was concerned with bringing some innovations. The exploration of the world received special care with the increase in the characters’ movement speed and fast travel was also anticipated in the main campaign, in which the magical infinite transport bottles can be obtained in the first hours of the game. To facilitate orientation, the location map started to display icons of treasure chests, magic boxes, Gatz and medicinal herbs from the beginning of the adventure.

Real-time freedom and customization

Star-shaped marker appears in the field of vision to indicate the main story destination, with the exact distance to the objective, and non-playable characters that activate additional missions have gained an exclamation icon over their heads, eliminating the need to guess who has extra tasks. The internal menus have become much more agile and an indicative seal highlights new skills, recently acquired items or new products in local stores.

Tales of Berseria Remastered, as it is the third version of the game and knowing that many players already know everything practically by heart, brought the possibility of completely turning off battle encounters in the settings menu, allowing players to freely walk through dungeons touching monsters without starting fights, leaving only the mandatory combats of the main narrative.

This option of avoiding encounters does not impact your progression, as To make things even easier, before starting the game you have the option of the famous Degree Shop being fully accessible from the first time the game is started, granting players a very high initial balance of eleven thousand and two hundred points to spend on exclusive advantages for the campaign, such as receiving triple experience. This same store received a wonderful option to reduce all item prices by half, adding these advantages to existing discounts based on the commercial level of the stalls.

If you are still defeated in a fight, the new immediate retry function appears on the screen, saving you from loading old save files. Not to mention that you also have the security of progress due to the addition of automatic saving that records the game after scenario transitions and important scenes in the story. These transitions became even more fluid during the narrative with automatic options to skip already watched scenes and speed up moments of rest in the inns.

System settings and audiovisual resources complete the update package with many configuration, calibration and customization options, from visual details to brightness to language. Not to mention the possibility of defining specific soundtracks for battles, using exclusive music.

Tales of Berseria Remastered did not bring any innovations to the combat, maintaining the fluid system it already had with its central structure having art combinations that define the rhythm of the fights. The player controls the main character while the other companions react automatically, but can be changed in real time to adjust tactics, with the possibility of creating specific combos or taking advantage of unique abilities of each member of the group. The mechanics of releasing souls, Ars combos and Mystical Ars remain pleasurable achievements during combat, rewarding quick reflexes, combo planning and intelligent use of each character’s abilities.

One is little, two is good, three could be interesting

In terms of visuals, Tales of Berseria Remastered favors a more subtle refinement than a complete graphical revolution, leaving the original aesthetics practically intact, but with a cleaner and more stable finish, especially in field scenes and cutscenes. The art direction, which has always stood out for mixing a fantastic medieval aesthetic with touches of technology and religious elements, benefits from the new generation and is closer to the most recent games in the series, maintaining the contrast between dark environments, such as prisons and temples, and colorful and vibrant island landscapes.

The soundtrack, written by Motoi Sakuraba, continues to be one of the greatest assets of Tales of Berseria Remastered, with compositions that alternate between melancholic melodies, intense combat themes and exploration tracks that reinforce the climate of opposition between emotion and reason. This edition maintains the original music package and adds the ability to choose battle tracks in audio settings, allowing the player to create a more personalized sound experience.

In short, Tales of Berseria Remastered serves as an element of celebration of the Tales of franchise, however it may displease fans as it does not bring any really significant new features when compared to the PS4 version. Don’t wait for new features, but rather a new opportunity to relive an experience with a set of few, but valid, quality of life improvements, without losing the dark and introspective identity that made Tales of Berseria a distinct world within the series. Prepare to embark on a journey of self-discovery not just for Velvet, but for anyone who plays, forcing the player to reflect on what is acceptable in the name of justice, faith, and the fight against a system that promises order but doles out pain.

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