Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age (PS4) - Respecting One's Roots

The last game in this series that I reviewed actually wasn't a proper installment of the series. I reminisced a bit about my favorite one of the franchise which was the last proper one I really played. Sure, I played its remake on the DS, but I never really got around to playing a newer installment of these. Blue Dragon maybe, but it's not exactly a game in this series. 

But for those who know this game's history, you know that when a new one comes out it is pretty much a holiday. So much so that the game actually releases on a Friday in Japan so people don't skip work to play it. This game hasn't had an actual non-handheld console release since the PS2 era, so the fact that it got a shiny new PS4 edition meant this might not be one I want to miss. I speak, of course, of....

DRAGON QUEST XI:
ECHOES OF AN ELUSIVE AGE(PS4)

The tale begins in the Kingdom of Dundrasil. The King and Queen have had a child, and all the kings from the around the world of Erdrea have to come give their blessings and see the prince. But more so, the kings meet for a summit to discuss the mark that appears on the child's hand. This child is the Luminary, destined to fight the coming darkness that will threaten the world.

But this does not ease everyone who is present, the king of Heliodor has some concerns that the birth of the child will bring back the darkness that will destroy the world. During a heated discussion about the child, a horde of monsters descends on kingdom and begins to lay waste to it. The queen and the Princess of Heliodor escape with the child, fearing for his life. Monsters give pursuit, but the Queen literally sends the child downriver in a basket in the hopes that he will be spared.

He is found by a kindly old man from a simple village of Cobblestone. When we next see the child his has grown to maturity and is about to complete his ritual to adulthood by climbing a mountain oversee with his childhood friend Gemma. After defending her along the way up and reaching the summit, the sign on his hand glows with light. His adoptive mother tells him it's time to learn who he really is.  So with one final home cooked meal and the blessing of the village, the child leaves to see the King of Helidor, who might have some answers about who he is.

via Gfycat

I could really complain about the story a little bit here, but if I am going to be totally honest this is completely in step with Dragon Quest's usual wheelhouse. I don't think I can actually think of an example that I played in this franchise that didn't have some variant of the Hero of Light vs the Lord of Darkness. They did it in Dragon Quest 1-4, and in DQ Warriors. It's kinda samey and cliche, but that's what they do so it didn't bother me as much as it would if it came from another franchise.

And this is a long ass game, let me tell you. So even if I thought I knew how the story was going to unfold (and was sometimes right) there is no way I could possibly get all of the points right because there is just too much content to cover for it to be totally 100% cliche. You are in for quite the tale, so saddle up because we are going to be here for a minute.

So one of the first things that I noticed when I really started to sink my teeth into this game is the developers as Square Enix really did go to great lengths to show appreciation to the source material of its lineage. Right from the moment you start the game, as the cinematic starts to run you hear the first few notes of a boisterous trumpeted theme and you know EXACTLY what song is about to hit, and I can't lie from that moment I had started smirking.

As the beginning unfolded everything fit into the classic fantasy setting that I knew, none of this Final Fantasy bullshit where "oooh, we're a fantasy game, but were also totally cyber punk and we swords that are guns, and computers, but people still ride giant birds".  Nope. We are straight up fantasy classic JRPG and I love it.

Everything down the menus goes to recreate everything you remember about the series in an updated style. Same quest select song, same arbitrary save mechanic. Simple text box system with simple white font. Character design, familiar monster design, pretty much every little nuance the game should have that can reference the old entries of the series, it does.

via Gfycat

Likewise, when I say classic JRPG that too is a hard truth. Traditional turn based combat. Fight, Magic, Item, Defend. They do spice it up in a couple of different ways though. First is what I have been calling a "diorama mode" where you can move characters around the field on their turn and spin the camera around to change the perspective of the battle. Outside of looks, this does literally nothing to outcome of the combat. It is 100% completely vestigial.

The other, more practical way, is with a "pep-up" system. As you take turns, do actions, and take damage your character essentially charges pep. When they Pep-Up they glow with blue energy (thankfully without going super saiyan). While pepped you get an increase to all of your stats, as well as being able to expend your pep to do a powerful attack or skill. If multiple characters are also pepped you can do combo attacks in pairs, trios, or the whole party.

A good deal of inspiration from Dragon Quest IV is in this one too, because when your party wipes, they are immediately swapped out with your reserve party, and you can switch between them on the fly if necessary. It also borrows from the strategic auto-fight system so for going through the regular rank and file baddies you will tear through in the bulk of your journey so you can limit MP use, have someone stick to heal, or just mow through people without much input required.

via Gfycat

Although, compared to the old ones (and I don't know if this was the case in newer ones) Dragon Quest XI has a pretty vast and forgiving skill tree. Some characters have a couple of different branches they can follow, and you can replace sections of your skill slots for a nominal charge so you have some freedom to play around with it. A lot of them are somewhat based on what weapon focus you want, some trees will let you complete multiple while others will focus you down one. Like it said, it's not expensive to clear a block of it and re-allocate. So talk to people, research, and play around with it.

There is also a modest crafting mechanic which will allow you to get some rare equipment, and a lot of the character costumes if you get the right things. But more importantly than that you can use the crafting to improve on your equipment to boost them to +1, +2 , or +3. But you have to be careful you have the available points and skill to do it. Any reasonably finished equipment can be redone, but if you botch the job you keep the item, but don't get attempt any more improvements on it. If you do this on something you would only get one of, and that's it. You've blown your chance to fix it. The auto save is smart enough to not let you get away with closing to the game before you totally cock it up.

via Gfycat

Like I said at the top of the review and will probably continue to reference throughout it is Dragon Quest XI's appreciate to its source material. This is most primarily noted in its visual design. One of the first things you will notice is that despite the 3D world and rendered models the game uses, when a fight starts in the monsters introduction animations, their resting stands are crafted and positioned to be identical to how they looked back on the original NES.

Similarly, there are lots of little nuances to character designs of the NPCs and characters that you will be able to pick out through the Dragon Quest lineage that will ring familiar. Little wings on soldiers helmets, iconic tiara's on some characters, priests having similar color schemes and hats from the save points of old. Even the text and menus are designed in such a way that they resemble the old NES versions of the game. They did this in Dragon Quest Heroes as well.  The game is literally tripping over itself with self reference. And for the most part, this is a great thing. It's giving what people who play Dragon Quest want without just retreading old.

via Gfycat

Similarly, its sound design is also cultured to hearken back to the old ones. While the game's vast score features a multitude of new songs, there is a significant amount of old music that comes back as well, remastered in such a way that they sound new, without escaping the feeling of how they did before. For example, the opening save slot song when you first fire up the game is done with short string plucks, which modernize but emulate the chiptune sound it used to have. Playing through the game, in some iconic moments some of the famous battle and overworld themes from Dragon Quest III and IV would kick in, and hit me with nostalgia waves. It's expertly done.

Another audio thing that they did that I really liked, and again something they did in Dragon Quest Heroes is that when you travel around the world map to other countries, when you visits that area's towns, the people inside of them will have their text written in a slang or dialect for that region. There is a town that is very Japanese culture, and another that is frozen Nordic. When these characters have actual speaking lines, they speak in the accent indicative to that area. It makes the world feel more realistic, as opposed to the entire planet speaking common English. It's a little attention to detail that I really loved.

via Gfycat

There are a handful of things that I didn't like though. Some of them are backhands to things I gushed about. First and foremost is the character design. Yes, I know. I literally just gushed about it. But Akira Toriyama? I get it, you made Dragon Ball, I fucking get it. But Jesus Christ not everything you do has to callback to that, you friggen hack. The character models are beautifully designed and animated but every time I catch a whiff of DBZ I cringe.

There is one specific point late game where you meet a new race of people, and son of a bitch these things are literally Buu character meshed with Mr. Popo from Dragon Ball. It took me so out of things I almost stopped playing I was so mad. Thankfully, someone must have reeled him in a bit with the pep-ups, because thankfully there is no Super Saiyan hair to be seen in the game, although I'm sure he wanted to.

As mentioned before, the free moving battle camera is stupid. It does nothing to contribute to the combat. When I play long RPGs, I want to be able to dispatch baddies as quick as possible. So adding extra vestigial steps that don't really do anything don't help me with that. I couldn't turn that feature off fast enough.

But the other problem, and this is a big one, is with the auto commands. This worked in Dragon Quest IV very well because you had such a large cast and you still controlled your hero. It still works here, but now you can also set auto commands to your hero as well. And admittedly, this is pretty much what I did for the entirety of the game. I only really turned it off for boss fights, and 90% of the time I just let the auto fight run itself. This isn't like Final Fantasy XII where I still have control over the gambits and can make changes, the game is just auto playing. So I a lot of instances between auto walk and auto fight, I didn't even need to actually play long stretches of the game.

And really, the front half of the game feels almost insultingly easy. Using the auto battle I really hadn't hit very many significant snags in my progress, and to a point I didn't even waste my time getting new equipment either because it didn't appear to be slowing down my progress in any way. It wasn't until late into the first act or so where I started to come up on some boss fights that forced me to play a little more strategically.

via Gfycat

It's a pretty long game too. It's a JRPG so that makes sense, but apparently if you have played Dragon Quest VIII then you know that the game is not going to end when you think it does, and there is a significant amount of post game content to do as well as a multitude of side quests for you to do along the adventure as well. You are certainly going to get your money's worth of time out of this one.

Many of these complaints are nitpicks really. I could have easily turned off the auto battle, and length of the game is rarely a complaint as you'll want to stretch your dollar. Complaining about an artists  literally iconic and definitive style is really just of a quirk of mine. I didn't use the diorama camera so it basically was a non-issue. Take all that away and I basically was left with a long and satisfying JRPG that was built with the fans of the series in mind.

I played this during 2018 and while it certainly wasn't going to win my game of the year, it IS certainly an excellent addition of the series. Was it better than my favorite entry Dragon Quest IV? Probably not, but it is up there. It's certainly one of the better JRPGs I've played in recent memory because it knows exactly what it is and who it is catering to. If you come in expecting Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age to change up the genre's formula you might be left underwhelmed. But of the rest of you (and probably more accurately MOST of you) this one is going to scratch all the right itches. Highly recommended.

Ok, yes, fine. I didn't upgrade my armor so I could keep Jade in her bunny suit.
Shut up. Don't judge me.

Valkyria Chronicles 4 (PS4): Treading back to familiar ground.

So. Remember when I was all excited for Valkyria Revolution? Man, I do. Thought literally nothing of putting that one on preorder without a second thought and eagerly dove right in. Although I had seen a gameplay trailer and knew it wasn't the game I was hoping for, I was still going to give it a chance to live up to the lineage of the game I loved.

I shouldn't have. It was total dogshit and it got rightly panned by myself and every other reviewer who played it. Well, apparently the team at Sega must have seen this coming because not long after the release of Valkyria Revolution they released another trailer as if to say "uh hey, we are working on this too?" This one had design more like Valkyria I remember. Had tanks, similar art design. Looks like it played like it was supposed to. I was skeptical now, but still willing. So after waiting for what felt like forever, I finally sat down with.....

VALKRYIA CHRONICLES 4:(PS4)

Valkyria Chronicles 4 takes place within the same timeline as the original Valkyria timeline, but further south of the original nation of Gallia. The Empire of the east has been pushing westward against Federation territory in an attempt to claim more land and in doing so more Ragnite, the material that is used as a power source for the nations and their military equipment. 

We assume control Claude Wallace, a wet behind the ears but competent star military recruit who joined up with the federation army with his childhood friends Raz and Kai. After some initial friction as a unit, the team eventual gels and passes their training to join the Ranger Corps, which is an elite squad within the federation army, and Claude is awarded the rank of Captain of Squad E.

After some initial strong showings as a team, the Squad learns that the empire is taking ground from the federation, and that they are marching towards Gallia and their small hometown of Hafen. The federation makes the decision to put all their effort into Operation Northern Cross: a massive offensive push to the capital city of the empire, Schwartzgard. Squad E is to take part of this offensive as one of the federations stronger weapons.

I can thankfully say that this time around Sega has learned from their mistakes because this iteration of Valkyria Chronicles is once again built on the same gameplay framework as the original. The wonderfully unique combination of tactical RPG, JRPG, third person shooter, and first person shooter. There are a handful of little differences put into this version, but it otherwise is a stone for stone rebuild of what made the first one great.

As you did before, you start off by selecting your squad for a given mission. Then each turn you have a set number of actions to use. Once selecting a character, you zoom into a 3rd person mode and then get a limited amount to move them across the battlefield to your desired location. During your move opposing forces are able to take pot shots at you so move quick and use cover. Once there, you can zoom again to a first person angle to line up and take a shot of your own, if it doesn't kill your foe they get to counter attack. Once you have used all your actions you end the turn and then enemy gets their phase to do the same.

How the game differs this time is in addition to the order system that was in place, the special commands for stat buffs you could spend action points to use, you now also have series of support commands from the main forces you can use to open the map locations, bring in artillery fire, and other support actions. These are story based so you don't always have them, but there a nice bit of options to have.

There are handful of new squad mechanics too. In addition to having some tanks to control, you also have an APC unit to control. I foolishly ignored this for the first part of the game, but this little guy is incredibly useful in getting some initial moves on the map done safely. On his turn, he can pick up a number of troops and essentially move across the map without taking much in the way of damage from anything that isn't a tank or anti-tank artillery. Once in position you can dispatch units at the cost of their normal move. This is fantastic for troops like Shocktroopers or snipers who do not get a lot of initial movement. 

There are two big new aspects to the squad too.  One of them is the new troop class, the grenadier. Their job, as you might expect, is a slow moving portable artillery. They take a minute set up so they are risky to bring right into the lines of enemy fire, and they can be somewhat inaccurate. But they can provide big damage to turrets, tanks, heavy soldiers, as well as provide smoke cover. When used properly, they can be a very effective force. And one of them is a major character, which will provide you an additional action.

The other is now each turn, you get a single command point. By spending this point, some characters can basically take command of two other troops in a single move. This is incredibly useful for a number of reasons. For one, like the APC, it can be used to move two troops a significantly longer distance. But while they can take damage as if they were on a normal move, they aren't the targeted enemy. They also are just in range for to possibly join in for a joint attack. So for example: if I use a scout to use the CP command to pull two shock troopers, those troops basically get to move double the distance they could have by themselves without expending their own move yet, and if I take a shot at a nearby enemy, I essentially get a 3 man attack to mow down whoever I was aiming at. It is incredibly useful.

In that initial game summary I provided more of the overarching narrative for Valkyria 4 because while it does coincide with the original Valkyria Chronicles it really could be its own game if they had changed the names of the territories. I will say that the original Valkyria was more cut and dry because it was one army vs another army with a focus of smaller characters having a smaller side stories within them.

Valkyria 4 however feels more like the main story is there only to provide the framework for all the characters stories which are the much bigger focus of the plotline. Through out the game you the military is basically part of two major operations and if that ended up being the focus it would be very one note. By making the focus more about the characters in the squad themselves, I feel that the narrative is actually stronger for it because it allows for more faces to take the stage.

While the primary characters are the source of the main narrative, this story focus is best displayed on the brighter spotlight on the lesser members of the squad. As you might remember from the first game, they released some DLC packs where you got take control of Edy and a number of other squad members. It was a fun little aside and got to give you more depth to the rank and file troops you have been using. Before, you only got to read a little blurb about their history and that was all you got.

Now between chapters, you also get "squad stories" where a small number of the squad has some interaction with the main cast. These little asides give you some backstory to these character and completing them allows you to turn some of their negative quirks into positive bonuses, so it is more than worthwhile to do them. I feel that the story as a whole in this game is pretty good, but it does have a few anime cringe moments that feel are in there for the sake of being there.

The visual design for the original has come back as well and thankfully for it it this time around. It's a well proportioned anime style done in that washed out yet colorful watercolor look that the first one had that made me feel like I was watching a well produced anime (which was sorely missed after the video gamey look of Valkyria Revolution). Sound effects are accentuated by animated onomatopoeia such as the "ratta ratta" of guns. Even has some cool weather effects for some missions.  They have added some better transitions for when troops trigger their quirks and flaws. Generally better cleaned up this time around.

It has a pretty exceptional classical soundtrack. Much like before it feels very fitting of a military story that give a lot of the missions and scenes a feeling of "epicness" but they also fit in a number of rearrangements of tracks from the original game that sneakily felt iconic to it. I couldn't hum a few bars of the main theme right on command for you if you asked me too, but I'll be damned if I didn't notice that song immediately when it crept in on a major scene.

Unfortunately for Valkyria 4 by being a stone for stone build of the first game, a lot of the bad aspects of the series also make a return as well. First off, this game like its predecessors is notoriously talky.  Because of how the natural flow of the actual "game" element is, it doesn't allow for a lot of narrative to actually take place during missions, so much of it is crammed in between the missions of the game. Like you can with most modern games, you can always skip them but this is a narrative based game so I don't know why you would want to.  

But this does bring us back to the biggest complaint of the Valkyria games and it's something they should have fixed. But in between every single story segment, the game brings you back to the book menu. The book menu is what you can use to flip through all your various options of the game like skirmish missions, R&D to make new weapons, proceed with the story, adjust your squad, etc.  As a base framework, it's fine. But for some reason after every single story transition it brings you right back to the book and asks you if you are sure you want to proceed with this chapter.

Literally every time you want to advance the game, you have to select this.

I appreciate the need to confirm that I am making the decision, it's fine for almost any of these functions so I don't accidentally go into a menu I don't want to. But in the context of following the story it's an absolutely pace killing nightmare. If I start going through the story segments, what SHOULD have happened is it would play through all of the necessary story bits until I tell it to stop. Let me pause and either skip and go back to the book menu at MY whim so I can pick up were the story left off. Then after it completes the story it then would go back to the book on its own so I can prepare for the coming mission.

This is how it SHOULD have worked. This is how it should have been implemented from the second game onward. But it's not. So now after every couple minutes of cutscene (and sometimes even less than that) it just yanks me to a loading screen and then back to the book so it can ask me if I want to see the next part of it, and then wait for the loading to finish to continue the story I didn't ask to stop in the first place. It's arduous, completely unnecessary, and it makes a game that doesn't exactly move at a break neck pace go even slower.

The additional unit types do allow for more strategy, but at its heart this iteration of Valkyria can be won in the same fashion as the first game. That means with the right defensive buffs, and the right moves, almost every single mission can be won on your first turn. Yes, a handful of them do require some very specific strategies to survive, but there was a lot of times where I would use my raise all defense buff, command a pair of shocks with a scout to dash towards my goal, and then finish off to take base with my two troopers. Inside of a few missions I was "A" ranking all of the story missions and skirmishes.

That being said, Valkyria 4 did a better job of making all the ranks way more useful. In my last review I said that you shouldn't waste your time with medics, lancers, or snipers. Now the missions have a lot more different nuances to them so it is to your benefit to play around with it all and bring at least one of everything to the table. You have no idea when you might need a snipers long range accuracy or a lancer to bring out a frustratingly placed tank. The only class I ended using the least was actually new grenadiers. They had use but not as much as the other classes did, at least when I played it.

R&D can be a grind to do sometimes. Up to three tanks in the game and 3 branching trees of weapon means a lot of upgrades to do if you want everything. This too is muddled by the support character reacting every time you build a new weapon with one or two lines. This also should have been changed to only react as you were leaving R&D, so I could speed through my upgrades without having to stop to cancel this reaction. Instead, like the book, the progress is slowed for unnecessary pause

And like the first Valkyria a significant number of the upgrades are worthless. More damage is nice and all and so is clip size. But this is a game that rewards head shots so it doesn't make sense to use anything but the starting weapons because they have the best accuracy and that ultimately is the strongest stat in the game. They thankfully now show on our squad screens how accurate each solider is so now you can change things accordingly, and admittedly some of the weapons you find are indeed better than the base weapon. But so long as you keep upgrading center of the tree, you will have little issue progressing.

The last thing I want to bitch about is one enemy in particular, Klaus Walz. As a character, he is fine. He's a foil to Claude as being their big enemy tank captain. But he he specifically is bullshit because outside of having a fast and maneuverable tank that is next to impossible to bring down, he is one of two units that break one of the rules of the game. His tank is able to just have generic machine gun fire that triggers WHILE he moves. So if for some reason he is making a turn around where one of your guys are standing, he just completely obliterates their health bar without even taking his turn.

And one of the missions you fight him, he gets the first turn! So after you carefully set your troops up to start the level, he just blows through 1 to 3 of them before you even get to take an action. It's one of the few missions where you might have to restart it just because you got fucked before even take a turn. Even the final boss lets you get a goddamn move in first.

Ultimately the question is, is this good or better than the first Valkyria Chronicles? Well, that's a tough call because it's working against nostalgia. If I take them from a mechanics standpoint I do have to say that Valkyria 4 is better due to the additions to the games and minor improvements. I do love this cast and this story, and it had some great moments in it. But it does feel like there is a bunch of wasted potential because they had 3 previous games to fix some quality of life annoyances that could have made this game superb.

Instead, I have to lave with the somewhat unimpressive rating of "If you liked Valkyria Chronicles then you will like Valkyria Chronicles 4."  Which is true and by no means a mark against it. I frick'n loved this game and would certainly recommend it for its uniqueness. But it feels like it could have been so much more polished after all this time. But I am not looking a gift horse in the mouth. They messed up a series and I liked and then fixed it with a proper installment. If I get an Valkyria Chronicles 5 then I am more than happy to see it.

I will say that this one kind of messes up its own
lore about the Valkyria, but it was a nitpick at best.

Nights of Azure 2: Bride of the New Moon (PS4): Baby Steps Forward

I wanna say at some point in 2016, I saw a trailer for a game that was being produced by Gust. If you don't know who Gust is, that would me you probably don't play the Atelier franchise with almost the heroine like addiction that I seem to. While they are known for item creation RPGs, the trailer depicted a much more faster paced action game with hack n' slash combat, over the top super movies, and what seemed to be good soundtrack. Gust is a competent studio, so I gave this a purchase with little thought.

It was not a very good game.

So I didn't immediately rush to pick up the sequel when it came out, but during the summer months I had a relative dead spell where I didn't have any immediate new releases to get to, and I saw that gamestop of all places had it ridiculously marked down (not a good sign). But as poor as the previous was, I was able to see it through to the end, and felt with nothing else to do and only 20 to spend, why not give the sequel a try....

NIGHTS OF AZURE 2:
BRIDE OF THE NEW MOON(PS4)

Nights of Azure 2 picks up in the distant future from the previous iteration of the game. After the last battle with the Nightlord banished away eternal night, the world was not as saved as people hoped as during the night monsters called fiends surface and terrorize humans, leaving the sun as their only defense and forcing the world to never truly know restful sleep.

A holy order known as the Curia task of their best agents, a woman named Aluche, to take her friend and now-priestess Liliana to be a sacrifice to one called the Moon Queen and to become the fated Bride of Time. An upset and distraught Aluche proceeds with her mission to accompany Liliana where the ceremony is supposed to take place, but they carriage never makes it. They are attacked by fiends and in Aluche's efforts to protect her friend, she is slain in battle.

Sometime after, Aluche awakens to find herself under the care of a Curia researcher called Camilla Alucard (yeah, that's not fucking on the nose). Using sciences shunned by religious practices, Aluche now lives again as an artificial half demon with purple blood, like the last holy knight to fight the Nightlord. Leliana is missing and leads point to a nearby ruined city and with no other course of action, Aluche pursues to try to find and save her friend. 

Okay before I even get started with the actual review: Carmilla Alucard? Really? You named a fucking character Carmilla Alucard? Come the fuck on. I mean she's not a vampire so it's kind of misdirection I guess, but she does deal with blood transfusions for the half demon character. You could have named her Elvyria D. Edgelord and that would have been about as a subtle. Sheesh. 

So Nights of Azure 2 plays pretty similarly to the previous iteration of the game with some subtle differences, so while I never gave the first version of the game a proper review, there is going to be some significant carry over here so you could see this somewhat as a double review.

At its core, Nights of Azure 2 is a mission based hack and slash spectacle fighter with some RPG elements and splash of Pokemon monster collecting to go with it.  Functionally how it works is you start by accepting missions at your base of operations (the same hotel from the first game) and then go out into the surrounding map to try to complete your objective, be it slay a certain monster, number of them, find specific items, etc.

The rub is that even though Aluche's new half demon status grants her significantly more strength, it does require regular blood transfusion and digestion to maintain, essentially forcing her into a state of vampirism to stay alive. So when you leave the hotel, you only get a short amount of time to complete your goal. So with a clock constantly ticking, you have to quickly navigate the map as efficiently as possible, while simultaneously battling monsters to increase your experience and gain blood so you can level your character and thus allow you to fight for longer stretches. 

If the time expires during the mission, you only get the experience for the monsters that you defeated none of the rewards for completing the quest. This forces you to try it again the next time you go out, the problem is with each chapter you only have a limited number of nights to get your main story quests done, while side questing along the way. If you fail to get everything done by the time the moon goes dark, you get a game over.  I've heard people complain about the time mechanic in this one but honestly outside of the first chapter or 2, I never really felt pressured by it. I've completed story missions with plenty of moon phases to spare, and then ultimately those carry over. You could do more side questing later.

Like the last game, on top of using a combat system with light, heavy, and special attacks to combo and chain, you can still summon demons that you collect called Servan to fight alongside you. Some of these can be used for support and some of them have attack properties. But a handful of them also have some situational map purposes such as burning down an impeded path or using one's flight to jump to a higher level and open a new route. So while it is good get some some strong one's leveled up, you will need to occasionally rotate some out from mission to mission.

How it differs from the first Nights of Azure game is now this time you have a number of support characters who can fight with you as well. It wouldn't be a Gust game if it literally wasn't barfing cute anime girls at you with every given opportunity but it did add an interesting new ripple to the game. If you are going to give me all these characters, at least they are letting me get some use out of them.

Because of the breadth of characters to choose from, the game now also features an affinity mechanic that plays a factor on character specific side quests, cut scenes, and possible ending outcomes. So if you want to unlock more of the content, you are going to want to jump around from character to character. To its credit, some of them have some pretty unique moves that make them all pretty interest to use. But as it is with games like this, you will find one or two characters you will want to stick with be it for their moves or story.

Once you are back at your hotel base, you can speak to your supporting party members to finish up any specific side quests you did for them to watch new interaction scenes with them, and then head to the lab to level up. In the lab you basically have two forms of experience. Your regular XP you use to level up your skill tree for stats, weapon abilities, and other passives. You also have a blood XP that is used to level up your Servans. Once they level up to a point your "evolve" them which basically makes a stronger version of the one before, and sends it back to one.

Now before I get into the complaints with the game, I would like to stress that I do generally enjoy games that Gust puts out  (most of them are Atelier, but shut up). So the real crux of the review is did they learn from their mistakes from the previous title to make Nights of Azure 2 a better than the first one? Nights of Azure was functional and did had some bits that I liked, but there was a lot of room for improvement.

Well, there are some story bits that are still pretty cringe worthy. First of all leveling your character. Much like the last Nights of Azure,  Azure 2 had to contrive a reason for when you are leveling your character, the process requires Aluche to be clad in a scantily white set of bridal lingerie. They did this in the first Azure as well. Whenever she successfully raises a leave she has this pleasured moan animation that she does to complete it. It's super awkward.

There are some useful skills on each tree, but stick to one weapon or the game becomes a grind.

Then you have a number of "pool" scenes. Since they highlight that this hotel has a pool, they basically have a significant number of character interactions take place at the pool to justify the characters getting into swimwear. And holy crap, if the level up bridal lingerie was racy, then the swimsuits are a step over that. I don't think even girls with perfect bodies would have the courage to wear some of the suits the characters in this wear. I love me some fan service as much as the next guy does, but these are so over the top it borders on comical.

They do this, I feel, to really hammer the point that Aluche is gay. The first Azure game also had gay protagonists. That's fine, I get that it's a consistent theme since the first game and as I played through I started to piece together that the affections between the main characters were clearly more than friendship. But at least to that sense, it felt more natural as the story progressed on. Azure 2 would have been about as subtle if they just said: "Aluche got a massive girl boner because Carmilla wore her bathing suit". It feels like it had to be crammed in because the last story did.

Speaking of cramming things in, this game expects you to do an awful lot with very little time. I did a fairly significant number of side quests and used a decent amount of my allotted time to explore the maps to try to find better paths or where certain monsters or treasures were. And when I would get back to the base, I would be awarded with affinity from the character I used. Each character has about 6 hearts to fill, but after playing through the entire story, I don't know if it's even possible to to max out every character's possible affinity rank. I feel you must be able to to get the good ending, but I don't see how.

This is something I bring up a lot of games of this nature, but the combat still kind of has that weightless floaty feeling the first one did. It is better this time around but the recoil from enemies taking damage still jerky and unnatural, and it ruins the entire feel of the combat. It also really doesn't motivate me to learn how to properly combo since stun locking enemies into the longest slew of attacks I can muster basically traps them into place. It also negatively impacted my Servan usage since I basically didn't need them. I would wait for my special counter to finish and then mow groups down with it. It just didn't have that visceral recoil that I get when I play Bayonetta.

The skill tree branches on a few different paths, and it's mainly to beef up the various weapon types as you play through the game, but honestly I just stuck to the route of the base sword and it really didn't seem to affect my experience in any tangible way. The first Azure title was not very difficult to get through, and this one really isn't either. So long as you occasionally remember to spend your points at base, you should pretty easily clear the game.

It's visual design is.... fine. I guess. It's an anime game so I don't know how much I can say about it. It's pretty consistent with the games they tend to put out, but it looks like it would be just as at home on the PS3 than a PS4. But I have to figure if they aren't going full bore on the details of the characters or environments (which admittedly can feel samey), you would figure to get a must smoother and consistent frame rate.  Perhaps I am remembering wrong but Azure 1 had a pretty solid 60fps all game. I don't think Azure 2 is that smooth at any point.

I generally like the soundtrack in Gust games, and Azure 2 is no exception. Much like the boss battles of the Atelier series, this series is known for blending synthesized fantasy classical blended with contemporary rock and metal. For lack of a better expression, it very much is "video game music" but it's not bad. It didn't shake me like Persona, Doom, or Undertale did, but it's definitely a credit to the games favor. And for certain story moments, you might recognize updated arrangements from the previous Azure title, and I appreciate consistency like that.

But the sound design overall in this one is not great. There are inconsistencies throughout the game. There will be points where the voices will just cut out during scene (Japanese language). During combat voice lines will sometimes surge up and sound effects of attacks will mute during special moves. Some song volume levels are much higher than others. It's strange and feels very unpolished, which honestly wouldn't surprise me with how fast this company pumps games out.

It's story is still somewhat nonsensical. They do not have a lot of build up to who exactly the final boss can be. I think in both games they make an early appearance and then never again until the actual last boss battle. It makes it a little hard to get motivated when I don't really know what it is I am fighting. I actually finished the first game not realizing that was the final boss. It adds characters and gives you new locations, and it does constantly warn you of the impending doom, but yet as I play it it never feels like the stakes are getting raised. The tension level remains consistent from the first to last stage.

But Gust does do some story things right. They are very consistent in their lore. In Atelier games, in sequels major characters in one title will be minor characters in another, showing a change in the timeline and growth. Azure 2 does this as well as one familiar support character references and tells of the events of the previous game, which culminates with a major character returning to join the party. I won't lie, despite my lukewarm feelings to the first one I got happy to see them again, and was even more happy when I got to use them too. So the story must have done enough to leave some kind of lasting impression.

I find myself somewhat mixed on Nights of Azure 2. I affectionately refer to it as "anime trash" because that is absolutely what it is. But for a game that I didn't think was that good to get a sequel, and for that sequel to be good enough to see the story through does say something. I definitely can say that they did make improvements so it certainly is a better game. But at the same time it just so decidedly average.

Azure 2 is an ultimately unoffensive title. It pushes no boundaries and doesn't really shake up any established game mechanics. It's visual design is pretty anime and it has a relatively decent soundtrack. It's not a horrible game, but depending on what it is you are looking for you can find so many better options in that same vein. It's vanilla ice cream. It's perfectly fine as it is but it feels like it's begging for so much more. Tighter story, more weight to the combat, better implementation of its mechanics, better sound design.

I want to say that I paid close to 20 or 30 bucks for this game. That's probably a fair price because despite showing improvement, there is still quite a bit wrong with this game. That said, the ARE showing signs of improving, so I am not totally ready to write this one off. I wouldn't tell anyone to take a chance on this one, and it is a game that can be very easily forgotten after you've played it. Roll the dice on it if something about it speaks to you, but otherwise I wouldn't give a recommendation.

Carmilla Alucard.
I'm still mad about that.

Bravely Second: End Layer (3DS): Grinding down.

When this first one came out, I quite literally dove into buying a new handheld to try it because I knew I had some long flights and a convention to spend time with it. In my review I had more than my share of nitpicks but ultimately I left it saying that I hoped that this would be come a franchise and hoped that this would have a nice linage behind it.

Well sure enough this series did get a sequel in April of 2016. And while I was enjoying it, I eventually set it down and moved on to other games. But after working through my pile I did go back to grind out and finish. So while the game has been out for a while, I got my thoughts on it now. 

BRAVELY SECOND: END LAYER (3DS)

Bravely Second picks up two and half years after the events of the first game. Agnes for her work as a crystal vestal has become a Pope in the crystal orthodoxy and is currently brokering a peace treaty with Braev Lee, the duke of Eternia. Just as they are about to sign the accords, they are interrupted by Kaiser Oblivion.

The attack is devastating and Agnes is taken hostage and brought to the Kaiser's floating sky fortress. Yew Geneolgia is the leader of Agnes personal security detail, the Crystalgard (and our primary protagonist for this game), and looks to rally his allies and the remaining orthodoxy forces to try to take the fight to the skyhold and bring Agnes back.

The game starts pretty much in battle, which is a great way to get JRPGs going

Obviously, the story of Bravely Second is more complex than that but after we pass where I've mentioned we get into spoiler territory very quickly. I will say that this time around the story is a bit more involved and fleshed out and the previous iteration. Bravely Default was by no means a simple story line but its basis was you need to restore the 4 crystals, and if you played the previous title then you know you did that a lot.

Bravely Second follows a more traditional damsel in distress trope where Yew rallies heroes to give pursuit to a new threat. And along that path there are twists and turns, old faces and new appear along the way. It does make you replay certain segments like the last one did which is something I still found annoying, but not the same amount of times so I won't ding it too hard for that.

This is probably going to end up being a shorter review than my usual shtick because this game is a pretty stone for stone copy of the original Bravely Default, so I would basically be repeating a lot of what I said in my previous review. Much like I said before, the Bravely series is basically a classic Final Fantasy JRPG in all but name: A 60+ hour fantasy adventure with turn based combat, random encounters and exceptional music. Since this is a direct sequel, many of the characters, enemies, and bosses return to reprise their roles.

Agnes is not a primary party member this time, but she is a relevant part of the story.

But it wouldn't be a sequel if they didn't add something new to switch up the palette, so with a new set of characters naturally we get a new set of bosses. And with new bosses we get a new set of job classes to use (called Asterisks in game). Twelve new jobs in all which gives you a pretty mind bending amount of variety to what your party can do. Some of them are pretty straight forward which just allow you to plow with damaging abilities, some of them are a bit more bizarre like the Patissier which requires using items to use the special abilities. Then you get some that make old ones irrelevant like the Bishop, which basically can do everything the White Mage does but to the whole party making it vastly superior.

What I always loved about how they implement the job system in this one is you have the ability to really play around with what skills you have to min/max your characters abilities. In the late game I was basically combo the right sets of jobs and abilities to make a very damaging spell attack all the enemies up to 4 times in a row and sometimes cast twice in a single turn, basically allowing me to just rain down offense in the returning Brave/Default system. Or you could go the classic route like I did in the first game and equip a ninja with as many weapons as they can hold and charge 4 attacks in a row. There are lots of viable ways to play.

Generally the combat system hasn't changed from the previous game, but the Brave Points from the old game are now Sleep Points which are used to trigger the Bravely Second ability. What this does is expends one of these point to allow one of your characters to have a free turn to use up to 4 abilities. You have to have the available turns to spend to do them still, but the benefit is that the damage limiters are removed, so if properly set up, you can unload with an attack that can reach the millions in damage. SP however can only be charged up when you 3DS is in sleep mode, so use them sparingly or you have to spend real money to buy SP drinks. Honestly I almost never needed to use this sans one story moment.

Outside of that, really there isn't a lot of change between the two games on a mechanical level. It uses the same world map, a lot of the same dungeons that appeared in the previous game, you fight a lot of the same bosses and monsters. The "build a town" with street pass mechanic returns more or less the same way (although you can fight optional bosses from other players this time around). You could say that this game basically is more of an extension or an epilogue to Bravely Default than it is a true sequel.

Bravely Second's soundtrack is pretty good as well on top of being fully voice acted. There are lots of little cutscenes and character interactions that help flesh out the story and almost all of them were fun to listen to. The only downfall to the music is that my favorite tracks that played in this one were just songs from the first game.

While all of the characters from the previous game make a return in some fashion in Bravely Second, many of them take a back seat to new protagonists Yew and Magnolia arch. The two major plots basically revolve around these two characters: Yew's mission to rescue Agnes, and Magnolia's mission to save the Moon and defeat the massive monsters (Baals) currently attacking the planet. Basically Ringabel is the only character we kinda lose between games and good riddance. I hate the amnesiac trope.

But whats nice is that even though the old characters return, it focuses on the new characters story with the returning characters as more of a supplement. I like this better because this is what allows the universe to expand and become more interesting. The Atelier games are excellent at this because when an old character drops in, They feel like a welcome Easter egg, and doesn't affect how I feel about them from the previous game.

I think there was another controversy about censoring the girls costumes again,
Honesty guys, if a little cleavage on 3DS pixels being taken away ruins your
experience of the game? You might be picking the wrong hill to die on.

What I didn't like is the flippin' tedium that the Bravely series has now become known for. If you are truly going to play this game in its full capacity, you are expected to grind all your characters up to the max level, and go through and max out all of their job classes if you want to have the right set of abilities to really go up against the tougher bosses in the game. And sorry, even with the fast forwarding mechanics grinding is still grinding. And grinding is boring. It's the problem I always have in the Disgaea games. If you are making a boss so overpowered that its going to take me 100+ hours of grind to stand a chance, I will sooner just not do it.

Which ultimately brings me to the biggest problem that I had in Bravely Second: the game was just too easy to put down and stop playing. As you can see from the date I listed in the intro, I basically played through this game over the course of two years. I would reach a point where I didn't want to waste time grinding so I could fight and had other games to play, so I would set the DS down and literally forget about the game for months on end. That says to me the story wasn't compelling enough to keep me bolted down with the game.

When raining down with 4 meteors on one turn rips baddies a sunder. But you really
need to use the right skills, or Magic can be some of the weakest attacks in the game.

I will say that the grinding aid features such as fast-forwarding the battles and being able to turn off all the random encounters makes a welcome return and honestly I don't know why every JRPG doesn't do this. I suppose it does make final dungeons that much easier, but it also takes out the path of attrition its supposed to be for the climatic final battle. Honestly, if I am grinded out to max level, I turn off random battles and never look back.

The other thing I could talk about is how the ending of the game played out. There really is no way to explain it without spoiling it to a degree, but it does the same kinda thing Undertale did when it played around with the medium and actually addresses the player and not the characters. Technically, if you go by release dates Bravely Second did it first, but only by a few months so they were in the same dev cycle, but I will say Undertale did it better. Both great though, I love how games are starting to mess with the medium to tell their story.

Edea Lee is still best girl. Love her to death.

I did ultimately like Bravely Second but the problem between the two iterations is that Bravely Default was a fresh breath of a new IP done to homage the classic style JRPG. Bravely Second is just more of Default. As said above, it's essentially a long epilogue. They are not going be caught in the Final Fantasy catch 22: Do you change things to try to make it feel new? Or do you stick with the formula and put out a samey release? They honestly can't win either way they go with it.

That being said. I'm not unhappy with my purchase of Bravely Second. It is what it is, more of this franchise. If they make a third one I'll be getting it. But I wouldn't be surprised to see the series end here. Who knows, maybe they'll make a fancy new one for the Switch?

Lol, Baal Buster. Best job class ever.

Tales of Berseria (PS4): Being bad never felt so good.

So of course, after stupidly making the proclamation that I felt this series had become better than Final Fantasy I ended up not finishing the last two of them that came out. Perhaps to learn a lesson in hubris.  But one I didn't finish just because it felt like it was too much too soon, the one that came after that I really liked, but it stuck me with a slow paced frustrating water temple, so I quickly fizzled out there.

But the reviews of this one before it came stateside were hot. Pre-release reviews of this one were saying this has potential to be one of the best. They changed up some things on the protagonist and the overall theme of the story. Even when one of these games isn't great I still greatly look forward to the next one. This one came out earlier this year, so sorry the delayed review.

TALES OF BERSERIA(PS4)

In the distant past in the universe of Tales of Zestiria, our story begins with a young Velvet Crowe fleeing from demonblight with her younger brother Laphicet. They are saved by Velvet's brother-in-law Artorius who has the ability to fight demons, but her sister Celica does not survive the Scarlet Night catastrophe. A few years pass and the three of them are trying to maintain a normal life. Velvet cares for Laphicet who is a sickly child, and Artorius trains Velvet to fight, hunt and protect instilling in her the various maxims and teachings of his.

But the Scarlet Night returns, infecting the entire village and turning them to demons. In the chaos Velvet tries to find her family, only to find Artorius sacrificing Laphicet the same way her sister perished years ago. Resisting his ritual and trying to save her brother she too becomes possessed with demonblight and becomes a Therion, sprouting a demonic claw that allows her to devour other demons for strength. Angelic presences called Malakim are summoned into the world, and with Artorius the subdue and restrain Velvet and she is thrown into a prison for demons.

Velvet is locked in their lowest cell deep underground for three years, feeding on other demons and hatred for Artorius, waiting and planning for her opportunity to escape and murder him. She eventually gets her chance when Seres, Artorius' personal malakim releases her from her cell to help her get her revenge. In the escape Seres is mortally wounded and instead of letting her die, Velvet devours her for her power. After pairing up with another demon named Rokurou and a perplexing self proclaimed witch named Magilou, the trio succeed in their escape. Now free, Velvet starts her pursuit of Artorious.

As you might expect, seeing your two blood relatives die the same way in a
span of three years might bet a little taxing on Velvet's psyche.

For those of you who have played Tales games before probably already can see the major tonal shift this series has taken here. Never before in my memory has there been a Tales that focused on such a dark theme. Even Tales of Graces angst ridden whinefest wasn't so outwardly malicious. Outside of the initial animatic, you would think that this might be Tales as normal for the first hour or so. Velvet is cheerful, content in her life with her assembled family and village, and seemingly happy. It starts as most tales games usually do, but man oh man does it get dark in a hurry.

But the time we actually take control again, Velvet is a completely different person. She literally feeds on her own hate and rage, and spits pure venom to everyone. And why not? She's a demon, and she only has one goal set for herself and that is vengeance. No heroes here, no chosen ones, no legend or prophecy to fulfill. You basically are controlling a team of self centered misfits, and I have to say that I love the shift. It really shakes up the plot which is great because the Tales of series does have a tendency to feel samey in some ways.

Combat in this game shifted similarly to how it did in Tales of Zestiria where instead of the side view of the big rounded arena map, they basically just put the area down in that actual map you are traversing. Most of the time it doesn't change anything but in dungeons it can provide some obstacles. The camera in battle can be rotated but it generally remains behind the back 3rd person like Zestiria did. It's disorienting if you've played other games in the series but won't take you long to get used to.

The combat in this game is incredibly simplified, and it is definitely friendly to the button masher. Instead of having a basic attack button and techs that correspond to each button. Much of the time as you learn new abilities and techniques it auto upgrades and places them for you. But once you've learned the ability you are free to customize your own combos, which I used to make element specific moves.

Combat is pretty easy, there is no line system so can free move around and mash buttons to string together the combos you've built. You have a soul gauge that starts at 3 stars, and this can functionally be thought as your stamina. Its what allows you to chain your moves together. If you are doing well in the fight you can take a star from an opponent and extend your own, thus allowing you to do longer combos. You can have as many as 5 and as low as 1 so if you are taking a beating hang back and pick your shots to build the gauge back up.

The combat system is Tales is always its best draw in my opinion. It's just fun to play.

You can also "spend" these to use character specific abilities. For example if you burn one you can use it to attack with Velvet's demon claw and become "Therionized". Complete your combo with your claw out and you finish off with a big special attack based on the type of enemy you initially struck with your claw. Time them right and you can kill shot with that move to get your star back at no loss.

Like Velvet's claw, everyone has their own character specific ability which changes how they fight so you are free to play around with what character you are using to try them all. And as usual you will eventually unlock mystic artes which are the big animated attacks for huge damage. As is with all Tales games, there are a lot of little elements to the combat to make it more complex and precise, but ultimately its not necessary to learn all of it to enjoy the game. You also can set your teams behaviors to be more aggressive or defensive as you need to suit your play style.

I have always been kind of hard on the composer for the Tales series, Motoi Sakuraba, for managing to produce soundtrack after soundtrack of original music for this series yet somehow it all sounds completely unmemorable and the same. It's weird because his a very prolific game composer with such titles like Dark souls, Valkyrie Profile, Star Ocean, and even contributed to Bravely Default which are all fantastic soundtracks. So it never made sense to me why the Tales soundtracks were so... Bland.

Thankfully this is a trend that seems to be changing. It started to improve with the last game and and even more so with this one. Many of the songs seem to have some noticeable hooks that will get you to hum along after a few battles and moments and some older familiar tracks appear for certain optional boss missions which caused me to smirk. But more than anything the Song of Velvet gets special mention for being some excellent scoring to really drive home some emotional moments of the game. To give it a very Kill La Kill term, it gives certain "Don't lose your waaaaaay!" feeling when it happens that can't help cause a grin and maybe a few tears. Vast improvement on the soundtrack front.

I like this cast of characters a lot. They tend to fall into a lot of the same anime tropes you might expect but its a Tales game so that is pretty much to be expected at this point. But it feels like all these characters have a lot more depth to them than in prior titles. Velvet is clearly the protagonist and she's not sharing the main stage like Milla had to in Tales of Xillia, but that doesn't mean that the rest of the cast or their motivations are pushed to the wayside. Eizen is searching for his kidnapped mentor, Rokurou is on a blood feud with his brother. Laphicet is learning how to actually live. The characters feel like they have more depth this time.

Even with characters like Magilou (who I love) who seem to be in the party just to be silly, she ended up having a much deeper backstory than I expected. All of them are well interweaved in the story so they can all take place in the main narrative without having to feel like I'm abandoning the main quest to see the rest of the content. I appreciated this since I had so many other games to get to.

I have to say this is one of the series better stories as well. Because of the shift of character moral compass, it shakes up a lot of the hero tropes you come to expect from JRPGs. I will say that it does fall into a handful of predictable pitfalls, but it also does a pretty good job of surprising you as well with almost every one of the characters. Although I will say that the characters do start to soften up at points, setting fire to a village to make your escape is certainly not something I would expect heroes to do. Thankfully, they aren't heroes at all and the story is much better for it.

Velvet and Eleanor actually make a great team, but they are constantly at odds.

Eleanor is technically the only "Good Guy" on the team. She finds herself in a tough
spot going against the beliefs she knows by the beliefs she feels, even if it means aiding a demon.

There are also a lot of little nods that reminded me that this game is actually a very distant prequel to Tales of Zestiria.  You don't have to have played the previous game in order to enjoy this one, but there are lots of little moments and storyline realizations that make you go "Ohhhh! thats why thats a thing!". There is also one very brief cameo of one Zestiria's better characters, which got me to realize something about the last game as well. I might have to go back and actually finish it now.

Graphically? Well, again, it's a Tales game. The characters are designed in that same familiar style that you have seen in this franchise, so its not going to blow you away on that front. It's very anime. I will say however that unlike the last game, Berseria seems to take full advantage of the ps4's hardware potential and runs any 60fps for any moment that isn't a cinematic which makes all the gameplay feel fast and smooth, yet movie-esque for the scenes where you just need to watch and pay attention run at 30.  It does use the best of what it has on that front though specifically when it comes to emotion through eye reaction. It also has some very pretty environments as well. Overall the game looks good.

I'd also like to thank the Tales team for making the whole waypoint marker thing clearer this time around. In previous games they give you an objective but sometimes not really give a clear direction on how to get there. So you can find yourself accidentally wandering off the wrong direction for like an hour and then needing to backtrack. While this doesn't hold your hand it does help more keep pointed in the correct direction without sacrificing my ability to explore.

So what don't I like? Well, lets get this out of way right now. Tales? You need to fucking knock it off with the mascot character. Please stop. It's never anyone's favorite character. Mieu, Teepo, Normin, and now the ever fucking annoying Beinfu. This has got to be one of the worst ones because A.) its basically just a Normin with a top hat on. B.) It has probably the most obnxious character voice I've ever heard (and I got through Star Ocean: Last hope and Infinte Undiscovery), and C.) he has like 1000 lines! I've never so much wanted to skip character building dialog as much as when Bienfu is talking.

Kamoana also deserves special mention for her two purposes: Crying, and Crying more.
Tack that onto the 2nd most obnoxious voice in the game and you will be scrambling for the mute button.

While I enjoyed this combat system immensely, it does have the tendency (as does most of this series) of throwing a fuckton of information at you at the end of every battle to when you start the game, so a large portion of the mechanics are going to be completely lost on you until you go back into the the tutorial to read it. The other problem is as said above it can be button mashy. For a guy like me who enjoys combos, I spend a lot of time figuring out the proper sets so I could string together long 17 hit combos, but to anyone who doesn't have the patience for that will end up just mashing any old button. And the problem with that is it can get boring (see Dragon Quest: Heroes easy controls).

Berseria uses a learned skill system similar to Final Fantasy 9's system where you use equipped gear for X number of points and it lets you use a new ability. My problem with it is getting some of these abilities take fucking forever, and for some reason a lot of the ones that require the most points are pieces of gear that get obsolete very quickly. And equipment is practically falling out of enemies so you can find yourself struggling to keep up with it. I couldn't put on the tag that gave me improved skill learning fast enough.

As always, with the right timing and moves the combo chains can get pretty high.

Then we have Velvet's outfit. Look, I don't mind a little TnA in my video games but the reasoning behind it is just stupid. Velvet is locked away and her clothes begin to tatter after being the only thing she has for 3 years, ok that makes sense. Then when breaking from jail she find a new outfit, which honestly couldn't even be called a lateral move if we are being generous. The armor covers her right shin and arm, and the rest is just tattered belts and strings. Sexy yes, but so unbelievably impractical I couldn't believe they went with it. The argument was because she's a demon she doesn't feel cold anymore, so it doesn't bother her.

It's fine, I guess. I enjoy fan service as much as the next guy does. But I couldn't help but keep thinking it was just stupid, the pursuit of murder takes away one's sense of modesty? Uh, ok. It's basically the factor that got me to cave on paying for DLC. Which is the consistent annoying trend in the Tales series of just gutting you up the ass for extra money. But the fairy tale outfits and ninja clothes were just too cool this time. And honestly a lot of the other costume packs that they put out have been much better too. So yeah, I caved this time and bought one. You win Tales, you finally got me. Fuck you.

In addition to the DLC there are lots of little extra accessories to find to customize your look.
Nice Hubert cosplay, Eizen. You eff'n dounk.

Tales of Berseria is a fantastic game. I really enjoyed this one a lot, almost to the point when I first played it I felt it had game of the year potential. Now that I've had time to stew on it and compare it to other releases that's probably not true. But I will say when I play games in this series, I am always holding it up to the standard bearer of Tales of Symphonia which was the first Tales game I played and the one that I considered the best. Some of them came close to besting, but never supplanted.

But there is one very emotional story moment about midway through the game that moved me to actual tears as I played (yes, I know I've said this before. I'm a sensitive guy{ladies}). No other Tales game has done that before. Taking this game from its combat system, music, world setting, characters, and storytelling as whole I have to say it: Berseria is better than Symphonia. Not only did it shake up the franchise enough to make me love it again, but I honestly think this one might be the best in the series and I don't say that lightly. I still go back and watch that moment on youtube to remind me of how much I loved it.

Can I even call this blog Rage Quitter anymore? Jesus christ just looking at the games I have yet to play and have yet to review I already know how these are going to go. And this one is another one to add to the good pile. Even if you are a newcomer or an old hand at the series, if you are looking for a solid action-rpg with a fun combat system, good music, compelling story and interesting characters (Beinfu aside) you can't go wrong with Tales of Berseria. Highly recommended.

Yes, I bought the DLC for the Alice in Wonderland dress.
Shut up.