But if you want to give it a try first, you’re in luck. Steam is holding a free Tales of Symphonia weekend, which means you can download Tales of Symphonia from Steam and play it for free from now until Sunday at 1 PM Pacific Time / 4 PM Eastern Time.
It is also discounted, so if you enjoy playing it and want to buy the game, you can get it for $6.79.
When Tales of Symphonia first launched on Steam, it was riddled with issues, from major technical problems to bizarre mistakes. Since then, most of those problems have been cleared up. If you care about 60 FPS, it still isn’t on par with the Gamecube version, but it’s as good as if not better than the PS3 version.
Give Tales of Symphonia a try this weekend!
(On a different note, I planned to discuss Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice today. Expect that post next week. Meanwhile, Color Splash is out–officially, not accidentally–today. I’m still on the fence about it.)
It also raises questions about how Tales of Berseria will fit with Zestiria’s world.
Daemons and Daemonblight, featured in Berseria, seem as though they could be early incarnations of malevolence and hellions. However, while Zestiria portrays hellions as always bad, Berseria doesn’t do the same for daemons.
Likewise, Artorius feels like an early Shepherd, but is presented as an antagonist rather than a protagonist.
The newest Tales of Berseria trailer introduces Artorius himself for the first time and shows why Velvet wants revenge. It has been subtitled by a fan here.
Warning: this trailer contains story content and potential spoilers.
I already like Artorius. Me and my villains, you know.
Tales of Berseria looks like it has the potential for an interesting story. I’m a little wary after how Zestiria turned out, but I want to believe Berseria will not only have a solid story of its own, but repair Zestiria’s worldbuilding.
In fact, the discrepancies I mentioned above could already be a sign of that. Adding depth to hellions and showing an antagonistic Shepherd could be a way to work the twisted (and bizarre) morality of Zestiria into something that makes sense.
Let me know in the comments your thoughts on the new trailer, Artorius, and Tales of Berseria in general.
Tales of Berseria will be out on August 18 in Japan, and its cover has been revealed.
Personally, I love how this looks and hope the English box art is similar. The close-up reminds me of Tales of Destiny, which I still need to play.
Berseria will have three pre-order bonuses, at least for its Japanese release. One is a behind-the-scenes look at the game involving the voice actors, and we don’t know the other two yet. (Maybe it will have tiered bonuses like Zestiria did on PC?)
First print copies will also come with a code to download “Special Dramatic Chat: Melon Gumi Chapter,” which sounds like it’s a special bonus skit.
Limited and special editions of Berseria were also announced for Japan.
To go with all this information, we’ve got a new trailer to watch, too! It shares many elements of the previous trailer, but is much longer. That one made me hope Berseria will patch up the problems with Zestiria’s lore, and now I have more reason than ever to believe that.
Let’s take a look.
It might also interest some fans to know that Hideo Baba is not the producer of Tales of Berseria, although he’s still credited as the IP General Producer and the IP Supervisor.
I don’t know if Baba is really to blame for why many fans feel the series has lost something, but it’ll be interesting to see if Berseria feels different without him.
Anyway, there are a few new faces in this trailer, including one who was recently revealed as a party member.
He’s a 1000-year-old Malak, a pirate who serves as deputy to Aifread, and he’s known as the “God of Death.” Oh, and his name is Eizen.
Yes. That Eizen.
If you’ve played Tales of Zestiria, you already know a bit about Eizen and probably have suspicions about what will happen. This should be interesting… and it’s another sign Berseria may repair Zestiria’s holes.
See, most of my issues with Zestiria involved the story feeling rushed: character motivations, plot points, and backstory details left unexplained.
Between Artorius and Eizen, we should at least get a few answers. It seems like Zaveid will put in an appearance, perhaps to resolve his loose ends, as well.
And if Eizen is a Malak known as the “God of Death,” could we even get expanded lore on the “angel of death” concept Zestiria never bothered to detail?
It makes me wonder if the writers cannibalized Zestiria’s story to save bits for Berseria… but either way, I’m feeling hopeful Berseria will fix Zestiria’s mistakes. We’ll have a better idea in August, once it’s out in Japan.
Tales of Symphonia is easily one of the best games I’ve ever played. I recommend it to any JRPG fan, whether you play the Steam port, Tales of Symphonia Chronicles on the PS3, or the original Gamecube version.
