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[Zedark]

To be honest, I was the same way when I came to Tales for the first time. But I stuck with it for an hour or two (this was back in the Tales of Vesperia days) and it "clicked" and was great from that point on.

I don't want to apologize for a game that I have no responsibility for but I will say that the systems at work in most Tales games are deep enough that they require some practice and immersion before the fun kicks in. For me, it's a worthwhile time investment but I can totally understand why someone else would feel differently.

I will also close with the fact that Tales of Vesperia and Tales of Graces are two of my favorite action J-RPG's and I enjoyed them both greatly once I got in to the groove of the combat.

Ah yeah, Vesperia and Graces both were amazing. Fun thing is, the two games have very different combat systems, yet both are incredibly deep and simply fun to play. I get definite Graces vibes from Berseria after this demo, so I hope it lives up to the promise better than Zestiria did.

Spoiler

We need a remaster of Tales of Vesperia, dammit Bandai Namco!

 

[Durante]

Crisis Averted

Despite the statements to the contrary, the game is happy to render at native 5k, as shown above. That's around 7 times as many pixels as 1080p!
(Also easily does so stably at 60 FPS on a 1080, with only around 80% utilization out of 120 available)

The draw distance on NPCs and objects seems to be visible improved over Zestiria too. As is the shadow resolution out of the box (though I think that should still go higher).

Nice all around.

 

[Zedark]

Crisis Averted

Despite the statements to the contrary, the game is happy to render at native 5k, as shown above. That's around 7 times as many pixels as 1080p!
(Also easily does so stably at 60 FPS on a 1080, with only around 80% utilization out of 120 available)

The draw distance on NPCs and object seems to be visible improved over Zestiria too. As is the shadow resolution out of the box (though I think that should still go higher).

Nice all around.

The same is true for the PS4 version, the noticeable pop in of Zestiria is basically eliminated.

 

[Cornbread78]

Crisis Averted

Despite the statements to the contrary, the game is happy to render at native 5k, as shown above. That's around 7 times as many pixels as 1080p!
(Also easily does so stably at 60 FPS on a 1080, with only around 80% utilization out of 120 available)

The draw distance on NPCs and object seems to be visible improved over Zestiria too. As is the shadow resolution out of the box (though I think that should still go higher).

Nice all around.

And nobody has to wait for a 60 fps patch this time around.

 

[Relaxed Muscle]

Nice, now we need to suggest Namco a engine change.

Damn, that looks rough.

 

[Brandon F]

Crisis Averted

Despite the statements to the contrary, the game is happy to render at native 5k, as shown above. That's around 7 times as many pixels as 1080p!
(Also easily does so stably at 60 FPS on a 1080, with only around 80% utilization out of 120 available)

The draw distance on NPCs and object seems to be visible improved over Zestiria too. As is the shadow resolution out of the box (though I think that should still go higher).

Nice all around.

Now give me 21:9 and I will be happy.

 

[MegaPanda]

Tried downsampling with gedosato
Ignore the steam screenshot thing in the corner, I printscreened & saved the images in photoshop.

3840x2160 @ 1440p

7680x4320 @ 1440p

 

[ricen-beans]

Never played a tales game. Are they interconnected in any way? Can I just jump in now?

 

[Bladenic]

Velvet is pure waifu material. Just wow. This is waifu material right here.

Disgusting.

Downloading the demo now, played the JP one but eager to play in a language I understand.

 

[Durante]

Nice, now we need to suggest Namco a engine change.

Damn, that looks rough.

To be honest, the engine seems to do well enough at what they need it to do.
An engine change won't suddenly give them the budget to create a large game with significantly higher quality assets than what they do now.

 

[Kouriozan]

Wow this game is really spammy compared to past Tales of, it was really confusing at first.

 

[Lnds500]

Yes bitch! Japan showing the world how it's done.

More demo content please!!

 

[Gigglepop]

PC version is having inconsistent framerates for me causing noticeable slowdown.

Frametimes are passing 18ms when they should be 16.66.It never leaves 60 fps. also the game is only using 1 core.

2500k@5 GHZ and 980TI.

GPU is also only running at 671 mhz in game.

 

[Copper]

Now they just need to do something with those textures. They seem very low res. How does the UI/ HUD scale at 4k?

 

[Dark_castle]

The art style is so bland. The art direction of the series since Graces f has been really weak...

At this point, I would rather they go back to sprites and prerendered background with tight level design than whatever they;re doing now.

 

[Byvar]

Played this last night on PS4, and I thought it was OK, but the control scheme is just terrible. Zestiria's was way better IMO. And it's more than just a case of "Damn you, muscle memory".

Compare Zestiria's controls (left) to Berseria's (right):

• Who decided to put the quick menu on the touch pad button? I mean, surely we'll use it more than a button to display the map or skits, so it should be moved to triangle (or square) instead, as that's easier to reach. Or even one of the empty shoulder buttons. The only function this has on the field currently is "View skits", which could easily be put somewhere else instead. I mean, sure, I get that they wanted to free up triangle so we could have one more action button in battle, but even in battle I still much prefer having the menu on triangle so I can use my gels without reaching for that touch pad button. I didn't mind it at all in FFXV, which also had its main menu on the touch pad, but still had an actual quick menu on a shoulder button.
• It's frustrating that the button that IIRC did a field attack in Zestiria now opens up the map. I felt I was punished for trying to attack enemies in the field because I always had to quit the map menu after doing so :/

I hope you can change these controls in the final version. Even with PS4's custom button mapping, you can't change the shoulder button, so I guess I'll have to adapt. Not that it'll be that hard, but it's just a really bad change.

 

[Ascheroth]

Just played through the scenario mode.

- Animated skits are neat
- Game looks good and runs smooth, downsampling works perfectly fine
- The new skill-learning system sounds right up my alley, removing essentially the only thing I loathed about Zestiria <3
- Combat is hard to gauge since those tutorial blurbs are pretty useless, but it seemed fun
- Claw-mode changing your combos somewhat is pretty cool

 

[Gothos]

It's my first Tales of game and the battle system is really confusing and seems a bit too spammy for my taste. I wish they gave us slice of the begginnig of the game where combat is less robust.

 

[Durante]

GPU is also only running at 671 mhz in game.

Did you try rebooting? Maybe your GPU driver is in some error state.

Frametimes were extremely consistent for me (and that was at 5k!).

 

[Gigglepop]

Did you try rebooting? Maybe your GPU driver is in some error state.

Frametimes were extremely consistent for me (and that was at 5k!).

I fired up doom and have zero issues. I'm gonna install my new ram and give it a whirl.

 

[The Praiseworthy]

I'm so hyped for this... like seriously I need this after the disappointment that TOB was.

 

[Cornbread78]

Never played a tales game. Are they interconnected in any way? Can I just jump in now?

You can jump right into it as they are almost always stand-alone stories.

There are some references to Tales of Zestiria in this game, but they are on completely different time lines and the stories are completely separate.

 

[Zedark]

I'm so hyped for this... like seriously I need this after the disappointment that TOB was.

Localisation to the rescue?

 

[SlaughterX]

Ohhh, first time playing a Tales game on PC.

 

[Copper]

The art style is so bland. The art direction of the series since Graces f has been really weak...

At this point, I would rather they go back to sprites and prerendered background with tight level design than whatever they;re doing now.

It's pretty sad when the ground textures look worse than minecraft.

 

[Gigglepop]

Did you try rebooting? Maybe your GPU driver is in some error state.

Frametimes were extremely consistent for me (and that was at 5k!).

Putting it in fullscreen not border less window increased the GPU core from 670 to 1100, but the card boosts to 1450 in all other games.

Gonna install precision x and try k boost.

 

[MaLDo]

Putting it in fullscreen not border less window increased the GPU core from 670 to 1100, but the card boosts to 1450 in all other games.

Gonna install precision x and try k boost.

Nvidia? Check your power configuration, "Max performance" is best for games. Maybe you have "adaptative performance" in the global profile and no profile for this game. Any other option will try to reduce consumption changing gpu frequency dinamically and it will produce frametime spikes, specially in less demanding games.

 

[Ascheroth]

Well, after doing some more battleing (and reading a few of the topics under Menu -> Library -> Help -> Battle ) I think I've gotten a hang of it (the basics, haven't bothered looking into Artes customization etc) and I'm having a lot of fun.
The Geobord is a cool idea as well.

 

[Bowlie]

Just finished the Scenario Mode.

- Good to see new types of random enemies in a Tales game, though the cockatrice is already there;
- I liked the new skits, well animated and with more visual effects. Some of the character art for them looks cheap (see Eizen's);
- I miss directional artes;
- Game runs super smooth at 1080p/60, the camera control is better walking and in combat;
- A little bummed that we'll get another annoying mascot, but at this point I'm almost desensitized;
- Couldn't grasp the equipment mechanic, hopefully it's not as grindy as in Zestiria

All in all, looks like a great game. I still want to know if the story is good or not.

 

[ED Cantu]

I really liked the demo, a real improvement from Zestiria in my opinion.

Nice, now we need to suggest Namco a engine change.

Damn, that looks rough.

Well it's a PS3 game after all, so yeah it looks rough.
The next game supposedly will be developed for PS4 (and PC most likely) exclusively so maybe then we'll get better graphics, and I'm really hoping they decide to return to cel-shaded graphics, oh and having just one main character designer per game again would be great too.

 

[Gigglepop]

Nvidia? Check your power configuration, "Max performance" is best for games. Maybe you have "adaptative performance" in the global profile and no profile for this game. Any other option will try to reduce consumption changing gpu frequency dinamically and it will produce frametime spikes, specially in less demanding games.

My shit works perfectly in every other game, and i'm not the only ones noticing the frametimes.

Changed from adaptive to max performance and nothing changed.

 

[MaLDo]

My shit works perfectly in every other game, and i'm not the only ones noticing the frametimes.

Changed it top optimal power and checking again.

Optimal power is not good enough for some games. This option is confusing because maybe 1000 games works fine but a few of them have frametime problems.

 

[Novum_Veritas]

Just tested it, works smooth, looking forward to the release.
Tested it with a 1080 GTX G1 Gaming by Gigabyte on 4K.

 

[Kthulhu]

Never played a tales game before. Looking forward to trying it.

 

[Chylo]

Steam doesn't allow remote demo downloads, huh. That's a shame.

That said, I hope Berseria delivers. I haven't touched a Tales game since Xillia after hearing about Xillia 2 and Zestiria.

 

[bizzarewars]

So this is supposed to be one of the better new Tales games, right? I haven't really played one since Symphonia.

 

[Gigglepop]

K boost on game running at max boost and still having issues. This little graph is me skipping all the mobs and running to the first green line in combat mode.

I turned off my OC to make sure that wasn't the issue and it didn't change a thing.

 

[MSScaeva]

Does anyone know when the demo goes live on Steam in Europe? I'm wondering if my laptop can run this. I also want to see how much they've improved from Zestiria (sounds like it's a lot better from the people in this thread), though I'm not expecting them to top the gameplay in Graces.

 

[Cornbread78]

Steam doesn't allow remote demo downloads, huh. That's a shame.

That said, I hope Berseria delivers. I haven't touched a Tales game since Xillia after hearing about Xillia 2 and Zestiria.

Xillia 2 was better than 1 though, lol.

So this is supposed to be one of the better new Tales games, right? I haven't really played one since Symphonia.

Yes, lots of impressions in the import thread, but almost everyone has said it the best in many many years.

 

[dimmer]

This was my first taste of a Tales game. Deleted the demo after 20 minutes. Unfortunately this wasn't for me.Very confusing combat system, didn't like the art style and in general it didn't click at me at all.

 

[JayEH]

Man they just throw you into that battle system huh. Not a great way to introduce you to the game, will put some more time in because it seems like there could be some potential but not a good first look. Tutorials didn't help at all.

 

[V1ctIm]

Been waiting for this. Thanks OP for the heads-up!! I'll have to dl it after work!!

 

[Seronei]

The battle system is confusing because you get thrown into the middle of the game, I'm assuming it'll be much easier to understand when you don't get everything at once.

Game is making me feel sick though, frame pacing(?) seems really off. Stable 60fps but feels like I'm about to puke.

 

[Gigglepop]

Gonna buy the PS4 version I guess.

 

[Alucrid]

combat system seems better than zestiria.
free run being the default seems to have helped a lot
not sure what the deal is with the hoverboard

 

[Ascheroth]

Does anyone know when the demo goes live on Steam in Europe? I'm wondering if my laptop can run this. I also want to see how much they've improved from Zestiria (sounds like it's a lot better from the people in this thread), though I'm not expecting them to top the gameplay in Graces.

It already is.

 

[tuxfool]

Unfortunately I can't change any of the graphics settings. The game crashes as soon as I try to save the settings. Anybody else getting this?

 

[Gigglepop]

I turned off fast sync and it was tearing like crazy so I turned on vsync in game and it seems to feel smoother. But frametimes still hit almost 19 ms.

 

[jonno394]

Running 4k 60fps on my 1060/4670K

Man they just throw you into that battle system huh. Not a great way to introduce you to the game, will put some more time in because it seems like there could be some potential but not a good first look. Tutorials didn't help at all.

Yeah my thoughts too, kept trying to play it like I did Zestiria! Will likely prefer it when I start from scratch and learn it how you're supposed to learn it!

 

[Bowlie]

not sure what the deal is with the hoverboard

Yeah, feels unneeded. Did they take off fast travel in this game?

The camera while riding the board is also too sensitive.