Tales of Berseria Remastered Review

The Tales of series has always been a mainstay of the JRPG genre, often characterized by its awesome combat system and themes that circle around friendship conquering all. However, in 2017, Tales of Berseria introduced us to Velvet Crowe, a protagonist fueled by revenge, offering a darker take to the series.

Now, in 2026, Velvet takes a trip to modern consoles with Tales of Berseria Remastered. This installment is quite questionable because it is remastering a game that is already playable on current hardware, but nevertheless, it offers meaningful quality-of-life improvements that make it the definitive way to experience the game. Whether that makes it worth it is up in the air, and really depends on what you’re looking for.

A Different Tale

Tales of Berseria is an installment in the long-running series that could be considered as having one of the best storylines compared to other titles. It deals with themes of trauma and free will, more mature and risky, as Velvet is consumed by anger and vengeance after a traumatic event, pitting her against the ideas of order and morality. If anything, this is one part of Tales of Berseria Remastered you’ll want to look forward to.

Velvet is a fantastically layered character, joined by a group of individuals that shy away from the usual tropes. Together, their stories and dynamics are great to witness through familiar skits, and it is a high point in the game. Visually, though, due to its “recent” release, the game doesn’t really get a significant facelift compared to something like Graces f.

As with the others, the combat system in Tales of Berseria Remastered utilizes the Linear Motion Battle System but focuses heavily on the Soul Gauge. This gauge determines how many Artes (skills) you can chain together. Players can be rewarded for their aggression, but some abilities also carry consequences that create a risk/reward dynamic.

The combat system here is very combo-centric, relying on directional-based attacks and chaining combos and Artes you can do. As with other installments, you’ll control one character while your other teammates can move independently based on preset commands. Timing and coordination are required for the flashier combos, which look and feel good to pull off.

Much like the rest of the series, combat in Tales of Berseria Remastered can be deep if players choose to engage with its mechanics. Things can quickly spiral into button mashing, and the enemy AI is mostly the same from before, but there’s no denying that the combat system is fun and flashy, and rewards players who take time to learn and customize their preferred playstyle.

Combat in Tales of Berseria Remastered could be a tricky thing to consider because, while player expression is definitely up there, Velvet is an extremely powerful character, even on her own. Some of her skills can be considered broken to some extent, which in turn leaves other party members less desirable to use or integrate into combat.

Tales of Berseria Remastered Features

The 2026 “Remastered” tag more than just a simple resolution bump, as Bandai Namco has implemented several quality-of-life tweaks designed to respect the player’s time. Some of these include a 20% increase in default movement speed, which helps alleviate the frustration of backtracking and exploration. if you’ve played the other Remastered titles, these additions should be very familiar.

Tales of Berseria Remastered also offers the Grade Shop from the get go, typically a reward reserved for New Game Plus. This allows players to toggle XP boosts and other modifiers, or carry over items right away to customize their difficulty. Other modifiers include expanding the item capacity, increase in resources gained, triple experience to ease the grind, and much more.

That said, the Grade Shop is ideally aimed for players who have already experienced the story and just want to repeat the game again. This won’t stop new players from using it, though, but just keep in mind that ther overall experience may be altered.

Additionally, new navigation tools such as a star destination marker that displays the exact distance to the next objective, has also been added for convenience.

Finally, while the game runs at a crisp 4K 60 FPS on PS5, the visuals are mostly just smoothed out from its original art. They still look good, all things considered, but Tales of Berseria Remastered basically shows its age as a title from the previous generation. This is not a remake, after all, but simply a polished offering for players wanting the series playable on the most modern hardware.

Verdict: Buy it!

Tales of Berseria Remastered is puzzling. For those who have never played it, it is a great JRPG experience with arguably one of the best stories in the series, featuring a great protagonist. The improvements and additions to the game are very welcome and add value that make it the definitive edition to play.

That said, if you’ve already played the PS4 or PC version, Tales of Berseria Remastered might feel unessential, adding stock to the questionable choice to remaster this title over the other ones that are locked behind older hardware. You can even just play the PS4 version on your PS5 already and get it over with, especially since the visual improvements are negligible unless you place both versions side by side.

Still, it’s a great overall experience, especially for players who have not tried this out yet.

*Tales of Berseria Remastered was reviewed on a PS5 with a review code provided by the publisher.