Amateur Recommendation Hour: Tales Of Berseria

Today's recommendation is from the long running JRPG (Japanese role-playing game) series that I am so extremely glad I decided to dive into. I had always been interested in it, but I suppose the stars never aligned properly until recently. It is the first, but certainly not the last I will be more than happy to experience.

Tales Of Berseria, developed by Bandai Namco, is the story of Velvet Crowe, a young woman hell-bent on revenge against those who have taken everything away from her she ever cared about, a tragic lead whose bitter resentment towards the world is contrasted nicely with moments of levity, is joined by a diverse cast of fellow anti-hero characters, each with their own motivations for taking down The Abbey, a council of exorcists tasked with purging the world of malevolence caused by the daemonblight, a mysterious plague causing humans to turn into flesh-feeding daemons.

Both tragic and optimistic it tells a heartfelt and ultimately hopeful story that is equal parts emotionally and philosophically moving. With major themes of will vs. reason, the importance of self-driven motivations, and how the things we look down upon about ourselves as a species makes us what we are. Without the balance we would not be human.

The most underappreciated artistic medium delivers yet again. It is definitely a hefty time investment. It took me around 60 hours to finish and I would be lying if I said that the combat encounters and at times bland dungeon design didn't grate on me a little bit, but the engaging and thought-provoking narrative told through a cast of well-written and layered characters more than makes up for it's gameplay shortcomings. The JRPG genre is responsible for some of the greatest games of all time (Persona 5, Final Fantasy VII) and while this may not quite be on that kind of level, it is still a thoroughly solid experience well worth the price of admission.