Tales of Berseria: Sneak Peek Now! Company: BANDAI NAMCO Games America, Inc. I have been a huge fan of the Tales series ever since I started playing them, which I think was with Tales of Symphonia. There was a huge gap between Tales of Xillia 2 and Tales of Zesteria, so I was ecstatic to find out that the new Tales of Berseria would be coming out soon. I was even more excited to find out that the demo is now available so that you don’t have to wait on the new game to get a taste of it. Fair warning, you will be even more impatient for the January 24th release date! When you launch the Tales of Berseria demo, it will tell you that these scenes may be different in the final game. Then you will be prompted to choose Scenario Mode or Battle Mode. They’ll both put you somewhere in the game with no real context about the characters when you start. As is normal for the Tales series, you will be able to press (Triangle) at times to view skits. The pieces of the game they have chosen to demo really leave me curious about these characters! The men (Rokuro and Eizen) seem to really not like women and the women (Velvet, Eleanor, and Magilou), obviously don’t trust each other. You’ve also got a cute little character, Beinfu, that reminds me of Teepo from Tales of Xillia, and a young boy, Laphicet, who is not a normal kid as far as I can tell. They’ve definitely come up with an intriguing cast of characters. As far as I can tell from the skits, the story is going to be good as well. You’ll also notice that the graphics are amazing! They still haven’t gone to an ultra-realistic look, which I think is excellent. I love that these games look like you are controlling a beautifully drawn cartoon. In the Scenario Mode, you are on the beach so you get to see the amazing clarity of the water. You can also climb the cliffs and get a good look all around. The colors are so vivid and vibrant that it’s incredible. You can sit and watch the grass blow in the breeze if you want to; just watch out for monsters! There are a wide variety of monsters you will face in the demo. The combat is pretty much the same as in the other Tales games, at least it is as much as you play in the demo. You can still turn on a second controller and have two people playing during the battles and it works better than it has in the previous games. When you have a second controller turned on, you’ll still have to go switch their character to manual or semi-auto for them to play. Once you do that, the camera pans out so you can see them both on-screen easier than you could in previous games. The second person will only be able to do things in battle, though. Also, if you do leave their character on auto, the second player can still pause the battle and choose which items for the characters to use. This can be handy if you need someone to watch your health. Final thoughts are that I really cannot wait until I can play the full Tales of Berseria game. I want to know what is going on with these characters and their stories. I have a feeling that it is going to be a complex tale that will keep me guessing what’s going to happen next, exactly how I like it. I recommend you download the demo (free) today and check it out for yourself! -Cyn, GameVortex Communications AKA Sara Earl Related Links: Our Coverage of the Tales of Series Pre-Order Tales of Berseria on Amazon