The Tales of Remastered Project launched by Bandai Namco to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of its action JRPG series welcomes another distinguished entry in the saga, previously available only on Sony PlayStation consoles and PC. Tales of Berseria Remastered is the latest installment in the franchise to arrive on modern platforms, marking the first time the game launches on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S.
For those who missed the game at launch, it is worth noting that Tales of Berseria was a crucial project intended to restore the reputation of the Tales of series after the troubled reception of Tales of Zestiria. The previous entry, developed under the supervision of long-time producer Hideo Baba, was heavily criticized by Japanese audiences for its narrative inconsistencies and widely discussed gameplay issues. The backlash was so strong that Bandai Namco eventually revisited the story through the anime adaptation Tales of Zestiria the X, produced by Ufotable, which reworked the plot in a more cohesive way.
Tales of Berseria Remastered still represents the debut of producer Yasuhiro Fukaya at the helm of the series, bringing his unusual cast of anti-heroes into a narrative defined by moral ambiguity. Observant players will quickly notice that the promotional material shows little difference compared to the original Western release on PlayStation 4 and PC. That is, in fact, the elephant in the room. Rather than a true remaster, this release often feels closer to a straightforward port designed primarily to introduce Berseria to the modern audiences of Microsoft and Nintendo platforms. As seen with Tales of Graces f Remastered and Tales of Xillia Remastered, however, the package does include a number of useful quality-of-life features. These include autosave after scene transitions, clearer exploration markers, faster animations, and the full set of previously paid DLC.
