Agree that Christina Vee did great expressing her despair. Also Arise has the same director as Berseria and Symphonia had. So it looks good in that regard.
@@CommRio Never preorder, far too often it has been abused. Unless new policies such as money return if the product ends up defected or something pre order is not a good deal. Did enjoy your video and analysis btw
@@sandro5535 What if you do what I do and preorder a few days before the game comes out just so I can get a copy as quickly as possible? I'm guessing it's still bad since my preorder is still applied to shipments, but I want to make sure I don't have to wait a long time to play it. I've seen games disappear from store shelves all because I didn't snag me a copy in preorder. Being someone who likes physical games doesn't help in that department either.
Velvet was a huge gamble after the ultra goody-goody protagonists that came before (Llyod, Asbel, Sorey and Jude). Too many complain about how quickly her character changes, totally ignoring the fact that a great deal of time happened between the prolouge and her escape from prison. She had plenty of time to become embittered and angry.
Lloyd is far from a goody two shoes, he's a good guy and very nice but he's also prone two end resolve conflict with manslaughter if neccesary. For Xillia, Milla is as much as a protagonist as Jude, and she is ruthless and brutal when needed. And you also skipped Yuri who is probably the biggest asshole in all of the franchise (Besides our lord and savior Jade) and Luke who is probably the best written MC I have ever seen in a videogame Overall Tales of is a franchise with a very diverse and 3 dimensional set of protagonist. This franchise is presicely known for their risky out of the norm writin. In TO the norm is being atypical and trying different things between every installment, which is why Berseria having such a massive contrast with Zesti is less of a "gamble" moment from the developers and more like something you should expect from amazing writers like Takumi Miyajima or Naoki Yamamoto
her prison time had too little representation. this could have been a good way to teach the player about the combat mechanics (basically a tutorial) in which the player is forced to endure imprisonment and mental torture, which would made regaining your freedom much more sweet. the skyrim prologue feels much more like an actual prison than the prison portion of berseria imo.
Berseria is gonna be real hard to follow. I love every single character in this game they are all amazingly well written and that is the sign of incredible character writing. That I could go from abject hatred of Artorius and the Abby to genuinely feeling bad for them and loving their character is an incredible feat. The people that hate Velvet for being "one note" are utterly blind to what she truly is. She is an anti hero, the epitome of the dark hero
@@CommRio Personally, i find it most likely won't. Berseria is my introduction to the series and i literally began playing it a week ago, but i already find it hard for any character to top Velvet. I love her too much T_T
I feel as if Eleanor is a glaring reminder that there is a high chance Velvet would have most likely opposed Artorious eventually anyway. I’ve always liked to believe that even if Laphi hadn’t died and Velvet had stayed how she was there would have been something else that came along to wake her up in some way in a similar way to how Eleanor was.Because it’s shown at the beginning although she repeated Arthur’s lessons while killing the prickleboar it bothered her. Same with Eleanor when she sees that the Abby is neglecting some of the villages. Who knows,maybe there is an alternate timeline where Laphi lives and Velvet stays how she is and joins the Abby but she meets Eizen looking to get at Artorious for the sake of Aifried and she has a similar path to Eleanor.
Velvet is currently my favorite video game character of all, and my second favorite character in fiction (guessing the first should not be difficult). She was so well-written and I felt a deep _melancholy_ when the game ended and any hopes of more Velvet was dashed.
Well said on Velvet's storyline. Christina Vee did an amazing job voice acting Velvet indeed! Definitely enjoyed this game and my investment with the story.
I still remember how much I cried during the whole 'A world without you, Velvet is the one thing I couldn’t bear!' scene. I am overall an emotional and a bit histrionic person. I played this game at a sensitive point of my life when I was myself suffering from emotional trauma, but also discovering my rage and 'dark sides' for the first time ever and it hit so hard. The dynamic of Velvet vs. Eleanor felt like two of my inner selves in a constant fight. I remember I was also trying to answer 'why birds fly' and on one glorious night I was running, filled with euphoria and jumped and said BECAUSE THEY EFFING WANT TO and then when Velvet said it to Artorious in the end I was like 'yep, there you go' and was super amazed by it all (asked people around to answer the same question lol, it was fun :D) Currently, I'm playing Tales of Arise, and I'm half way through, but it's already apparent that the game will never reach the depth Berseria had in terms of character portrayal and development. Games come and go - some blow your mind, others less. But I don't think anyone who played Berseria start to finish could ever forget about Velvet and her journey. It leaves a mark.
Tales of berseria is definitely a good game that can be deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. The character creation, the depth of the plot and the presentation of the overall worldview are all very good. I have played a lot of games, but only TOB has left me deep in my memory until now.
And to think, it follows and is a distant prequel to what is easily the most shallow and cliched game the Tales series has ever had. They REALLY stepped up their game here.
I have to agree it's the only game that made me feel actual emotions and just the soundtrack brings nostalgia for me. I feel like when I did my first playthrough not knowing how the story turns out.
So glad this fandom is still kicking long after the game's release. Been meaning to play this, but I don't have a PS4. Hopefully, a Switch port will be made in the future.
I wish there were more Tales ports and modern console remasters, but Bandai Nancy has been very slow to do that unfortunately so I wouldn’t hold your breath.
Story and characters in this game were surprisingly good . I saw the metascore and it was standing at 79 so i told myself it will be simply another good game and nothing more...oh boy i was so wrong :) Never expected the story to be this good And man those emotions and that bittersweet ending ... can’t even describe it. After finishing the main story i was so emotional that i couldn’t even play the post_game for few days Indeed velvet is one of the best female characters in video game’s history
@@CommRio To me fair a lot of reviews are fake, look at how Disney always gets praised by the critics even when the fans hate it. Like the Last Jedi. If all reviews were real like 80 to 90% of 10/10 scores would poof.
@@sandro5535 Yeah, critics stopped being relevant a long time ago. If you want a more accurate score, look at the Steam Aggregate, the game is sitting on a solid 90, and the best thing is, the score is tallied by *players* only, so it's a score given only by people who actually played the game.
I'm surprised you didn't bring up the ending where we see visions of what Velvet's life would have looked like if Celica hadn't died. I think that is a fantasy world she and her brother envisioned to pass the time in their Inominat prison. And its so sweet and sad
It is, maybe if I redid the video I’d include it but at the time it didn’t do much for Velvet’s character arc that we didn’t already know so I didn’t include it
Tales of Berseria is criminally underrated. I just watched some cutscenes where Velvet goes on about Laphi and it never gets old, not just that but Velvet's VA's performances gets me every time. The voice acting, whether in japanese or english is top notch. All single characters have a sound motivation, even the big bad, who's more of a fool than bad. I mean, it's a solution, but it's a bad one he's got... better than nothing. Velvet's solution is not the best too, there's no magic miraculous ending if you 100% it too. Although, good fu**ing luck 100%ing this beast of a game.
I feel like asside from the overt story of emotion vs reason, Tales of Berseria is also a story about grief. About the grief of betrayal and loss, of actions you can't take back, of being a bad influence on those around you despite your best efforts. Artorius could never swallow his grief so he responded to it by burning down any possibility of it happening again, and damn any good that gets caught in the fire. Velvet in many ways does the same thing, but she had allies with a common purpose through which she could come to her senses and realise what really matters. A bit of a personal crackpot theory is that, despite her being a therion/lord of calamity, Velvet actually STILL performs the role of Artorius' Squire. Because being a squire means taking the shepherd off the path of destruction, no matter what. Rose cemented herself as Sorey's squire not by joining up by him, but by declaring that if he started to do evil she would kill him.
Excellent video, man! Velvet's story really felt riveting. I remembered beating this game 4 years ago and getting back to playing it again. There's so much to appreciate the game. Keep up the good work!
This game is so damn good. I never felt a bond form with the playable members or an rpg party this quickly since Skies of Arcadia. The scene where Velvet basically chews out Eleanor in her old cell is so great. Also it's hilarious seeing the emotional contrast between Velvet in battle mode and Velvet in mom mode.
I played Berseria as my second Tales games (i started with Zestiria which was... Meh). I fell in love with Berseria's plot and characters since it was something else at this time - you being the bad guys who try to have revenge on their respective targets and get them killed, not to mention, female lead character was also uncommon and, sadly, still is but that's not the point this time. Velvet's character arc is probably on of my favorites in fictions, one i would show someone as an example of good writing. At the very beginning, you see her normal life. You already know things will do 180 turnaround but yet, seeing her deep hatred born from equally deep love, in full display for the first time, is something else. When actual plot starts, you see that her hatred grown even stronger. All this rage, hatred, anger - it's easy to label her as typical "Edgy heroine" but whoever does that, shows that he/she didn't cared about her story. This big hatred comes from even greater love and this hardens her as a Blade of Vengeance, the Lord of Calamity. She won't stop and will do everything to obtain her goal. She's hardened by her hatred. Sadly, as its said "Blade can't be only hard. It has to be flexible, or it'll brake" That trap in Aball really makes Velvet start to crack, the "accident" with Oscar and Teresa makes her realize she's not so different from a person she hates and wants to kill. You can notices she's slowly loosing ground under her feet, starting to mumble to herself, trying to "harden" herself up again after these events. Strongest hit comes when reborn Laphicet shows up as Innominat, she just breaks. Person she cared about the most in her life tells her all she did was wrong, that her revenge is pointless, that she brought more pain to the world than she realizes, that she became so lost in her pursuit after vengeance that she became a monster that she saw in Artorius. What's probably more heartbreaking, Person she cared about the most in the world is trying to break her even further. They want her to cry, to regret everything she did, even living, they want to destroy her spirit. It takes effort of Phi and Eizen to shake her off from this despair and accept herself once again. She is Lord of Calamity, harbinger of doom and death. Yet - this Lord of Calamity is just fragile, scared little girl. Girl that lost everything she had and despite meeting all of these amazing people, she knows that she can't be redeemed. She has to fulfill her role for a greater good. This perfectly mirror's with Artorius - both doing what needs to be done , for greater good. Velvet changes as story goes on - these changes are subtle and are easy to miss if you don't pay attention but you can see that under all this paint of rage and hatred, old Velvet still shows up her loving and caring side, even if it's just a little crack here and there, with how she takes care about Phi or by interacting with other party members, remindg them to eat properly, that rest is important and to take care about themselves. Especially, her relationships with Eizen, Phi and Eleanor: -Eizen shares most of his world point of view with Velvet. Both of them are willing to go against the impossible to achieve what they want but Eizen has more reason and experience, making him great counter to sometimes Velvet just going blindly into few situations or when she can't figure out a plan on the get go. You can notice that on many occasions, Velvet asks Eizen about his opinion about their plan or current situation, also making this cursed Malak voice of reason early in the game. He respects her goal and will. -If you went through the story or through this vid, you know why Phi is important. He's not only Velvet's unborn cousin/brother from her dead sister but also her substitute for Laphicet. When she calls him by the name of her late brother, one can quickly notice that it's her traumatized persona trying to fix herself up. Laphicet is dead but for her, this Malak Number Two can be Laphicet too. Eventualy, Phi breaks out saying that he isn't Laphicet and he has enough of being just replacement for her dead brother. Despite them being similar because they share the same blood, they are different. This is probably one of many punches that make Velvet's stoic stance start to crack. Eventually, Phi becomes that beacon of hope for Velvet and warmth she denied herself for so long, making her reopen to people and to sometimes bring her old serf to the surface. -Eleanor, like it's said in Video, is very similar to Velvet: Both trained by Artorius with tragic backstories that are also very similar. Despite sharing one goal, their ideologies clash almost all the time but both can admit when they're defeated and say "Well, maybe you're right in the end", learning from each other and eventually becoming friends. From whole group, Eleanor understand Velvet more than anyone (at least IMO) Velvet is tragic character - she didn't deserved what happened to her. She just wanted a normal life like each of us. To love and be loved back. To take care about people she hold dear to her. But tragedy that occurred drove her down the path of no return. At the end of the story, she fully embraced herself once again and the person she became. As i mentioned earlier - many people give Velvet the label of "Edgy Heroine" but they're wrong. Velvet's story is one about love, grief, anger, emotions and acceptance. And in my eyes - it's tragic but beautiful, and worth knowing.
You know when a game is so good, when they still talk about it to this day, and how memorable the whole game is to you. I still get the shivers and a tear whenever I see the Laphicet scene with Velvet.
You did her a solid with this analysis. Definitely my favorite female lead in any game. She's pretty similar to jade from tales of the abyss, another great character from another great game. Though their origin story is anything but similar, the way they accept their own sins and atrocities and kept going on for a reason was so similar. Jade was also a character that is ultimately spurred by his emotions, albeit this was not the case prior to nebilim's death and "ressurection".
When I look at Velvet Crowe, and the many changes she goes through throughout the course of her journey, I sometimes can't help but compare her somewhat to another soul that had also once been repeatedly consumed by the desire for revenge from an entirely different series altogether: Kratos, the Ghost of Sparta, from God of War. Seeing the similarities and differences between the two of them, makes me wonder what each would ultimately make of the other if, after the events of their respective games, the two of them were to meet each-other in a setting where, instead of almost immediately duking it out in a near mindless battle to the death, they would simply sit on opposite sides of a campfire, and share the stories of their own lives and journeys with one another. Velvet regaling Kratos with the tale of her life and journey, the humble beginnings of her youth, the tragic events of the two scarlet nights that tore her family and innocence apart, the breakout from Titania Prison, the people she meets throughout her quest to slay Artorius, the companions that join her, the enemies she faced throughout her journey, how her interactions with Phi slowly start to heal her broken heart and psyche, how her goal ultimately changes from single-minded revenge, to saving the people of her world from lives devoid of both emotion and desire, and how it all comes to an end, with the death of Artorius, and her choosing to seal herself away alongside Innominat, both devouring the malevolence within the other in an endless cycle, so as to restore the balance between emotion and reason. Then Kratos would impart the lengthy tale of his own life's journey to Velvet, starting from the early days of his life, the deal he made with Ares, the following tragedy of being tricked into murdering his own wife and daughter, and how he was cursed to bear their ashes on his own skin, all the days of his life. Of how he slew the furies, and broke free of his blood-oath to the Ares in Ascension. How he travelled through the underworld, returned the sun god Helios to the skies above his world, killed Persephone to prevent her attempt to destroy the world, and how he resolved himself to the start of his 10 year quest to earn forgiveness for his crimes in Chains of Olympus. His final mission from the gods to slay Ares in God of War 1, the trials to obtain the power within Pandora's box, his duel to the death with Ares, and his being appointed to replace Ares as the god of war. About the dreams that haunted him of his mother Callisto, and brother Deimos, the short-lived and tragic reunions he had with the two of them, how he slew Erinys and Thanatos, and of how Athena seemed to mock his loss, by claiming that with the last ties to his former human life severed, he could at last fully devote himself to being the new god of war in the events of Ghost of Sparta. His growing disillusionment with the gods and their empty promises, the betrayal he suffered at the hands of Zeus, his quest to tear the very threads of Fate from the Moirae sisters to turn back the sands of time, his first, true battle against Zeus, the death of Athena's physical form, and the revelation of his being a son of Zeus in God of War 2. And at long last, his temporary alliance with the Titans, his bloody rampage through Mount Olympus, his search for Pandora, Pandora's tragic sacrifice, how he finally came to forgive himself for his role in the deaths of his wife Lysandra, and his daughter Calliope. His final, bloody confrontation with Zeus, the devastating aftermath of his own Roaring Rampage of Revenge against the gods of Olympus, and how he ultimately thrust the Blade of Olympus through his own body, releasing the power of hope contained within himself since he first opened Pandora's box, to deny Athena that power, giving it to the surviving humans of Greece in God of War 3, complete with all the many battles that take place throughout all of these events, and the resulting consequences that came about, as a result of each god's brutal death at Kratos' own two hands. Would they, like me, see how the two of them can be considered to be so very similar, and yet also, so very different from each-other? Would they try to imagine, just how differently things could have turned out in their respective worlds, had each of them made similar, if not near identical choices, as the other had made on their own life's journey. What do you think?
Since I've never played a God of War game, I can't speak from personal experience, but what you've written here certainly shows the strong parallels. The themes of vengeance and the cost of that drive is strong with both Velvet and Kratos, but they do go about it in very different ways, so a conversation between them could be fascinating. Thank you for your comment!
@@CommRio Thank you for your reply! It makes me glad to know that my thoughts on this subject can fascinate others. Heck, I think I'd greatly enjoy it if people started making videos where they take two characters from completely different franchises, and instead of having them duke it out in a fight to the death, they instead talk about all the ways in which these two characters are both similar and different from one another. Case in point, Kratos and Velvet Crowe.
You could compare Velvet Crowe to Azura from Azura's Wrath. Since he like Kratos from the God of War series has been betrayed by the very same people who he helped
@@jaivonpyatt6905 The same thing also happened to Kratos, starting from God of War 2, when the gods of Olympus turned on him after the events of Ghost of Sparta.
@@zacharycunningham7669 exactly my point here. Velvet Crowe, Azura, Kratos all three of these characters had been through a road of betrayal & a bloodlust for revenge on those who had wronged them very badly & even after that they did in a way saved the entire world if not the entire Universe
What I love about Velvet is it shows how the best kind of person in the world could end up being completely broken and hate the world when everything is taken away from them and they are forced to carry a burden they can never reconcile with. Velvet did nothing wrong, in the beginning, but they took everything she loved away from her until the only thing that keeps her surviving is the thought of revenge. This one purpose is so powerful that she basically became the villain of the story for most of the story. Tales of Berseria is a game where we play as the sympathetic villain. Don't get me wrong, Artorious is also a villain. But like, one very powerful moment for me was when Velvet, in act 3, killed Oscar. Teresa Velvet kill her brother in cold blood right in front of her. The same thing Artorious did to Velvet. The complete mental breakdown Velvet gets when she realized she did the same thing Artorious did to her was so powerful. Those 2 that she killed could've been the protagonists of a different RPG, but they're not. Velvet killed them. Velvet had become the villain that she hated to her core. That's just such a powerful moment for me, and I would like more RPGs to write more stories where we are the villains, but disguised as the good guys until that realization hits. Ultimately, what Velvet does in the end actually did benefit the world as a whole, but that was merely a side effect of what her actual goal was, which was to simply kill Artorious and then herself. I mean, purgatory in stasis is a type of death in itself... So this made me think of the term, anti-villain. The opposite of the anti-hero. An anti-hero is a hero who does good things with bad intentions. So an anti-villain is a villain who does bad things with good intensions. Or maybe a villain who does good things with bad intensions. So that's kinda how I see Velvet in the end. She started as a wholeheartedly good person, who became a sympathetic villain because of the cruelty she experienced, who redeems herself in the end to become the anti-villain by doing something that would ultimately help the world.
Berseria is a good example of how the characters and writing manage to properly convey the themes of the story in a natural way. One of its biggest strengths is how the plot brings strong arguments for both sides of the Emotion vs Reason questions at different points of the story in a convenient way instead of demonizing the antagonists. My favorite part was how expectations are subverted when you are initially made to think that the Abbey is just another greedy and corrupt "take over the world under the guise of a savior" type organization when doing the jobs for Tabitha but the revelation of the Malak Taboo and true nature of Daemons tied to human nature proves otherwise. Made me really question my own place in the game for rooting for Velvet. After finishing the game, I had a very different outlook on human nature as a whole and no longer could see things in a idealistic black and white way like the past. If a story can provoke thoughts like that, then its doing something really great that few stories can. Plus the characters also reflect human nature as well. Velvet embodies the duality, as Phi mentions, "both fierce and kind" with her character through both her flaws and good sides. Meanwhile Phi is the Tabula Rasa or blank slate who comes to the debate of human nature and emotion vs reason neutrally and gains a proper understanding of humanity through is experiences with Velvet and the others during his journey with them.
I've heard people complain that it takes too long for Velvet to really start to develop in the game. I've heard claims that she changes from a happy simply hunter woman into a rude, violent, overly obsessive rage monster (which is as much because of the nature of what she's been turned into as to what's happened to her BTW) and stays like that unchanging until nearly the end of the game. < This is absurd really. Honestly I consider Velvet one of the best developed characters in all of fiction, which is because she changes VERY gradually. Velvet is laser focused on her pain and rage at first to the point of completely dismissing anything and anyone that doesn't have something to do with it, then she meets Laphi and starts considering other people's opinions and problems. As the party grows and she interacts with them more and more her obsession with revenge starts to ebb and she's willing to interact with people if not respectfully at least not rudely, though it never really goes away completely. Velvet also becomes more and more motivated to stop the bad guys because they need to be stopped, rather than because they are in her way or for the sake of revenge. Her gradual development evolves her into a true hero which is just cemented near the end of the game, not leaped.
@@davidtimmer596 Cause she is or rather what Lightning should have been in FFXIII but sadly due to bad writing of FFXIII that didn't happen. Also the director of FFXIII trilogy kept shoving her into sequels and quickly she became less effective protagonist when it started revolving around her. Velvet Crowe FTW
I'm a fan of Berserk so Berseria for me would appear like a watered-down version of it. More like I'm a fan of fantasy- not tragedy- which I feel belongs to novels and other things that you want to get into for the story alone. That said Berseria seems more like the content for a movie, a manga, than a game. Having my sister pass away in 2011 and my dad in 2020, I'm not alien to the feeling of personal loss. But that's how I see Zestiria as a more fun game, more balanced in the sense that it's not the personal circumstances of the protagonist that move it- not the ego or superego of a character hungry for revenge or justice... but the plot that strings the characters along with it, pulling them toward struggles and victories without the heavy drama and the convoluted twists and turns that can make a plot too heavy for a game. The expression, "don't play games with me" means you have to be serious. My take is, games are supposed to be light- they're not replacements or substitutes for real tragedies and losses we must experience in the outside world to understand their impact. People die... we get angry... but we move on. Like Sorey. And that's what I did. It bothers me that tragedies and death have become "games we play." Of course Zestiria has its own tragedy, but it's not the only thing we get out of the game, and the cheerfulness and jokes do not seem "forced" or "disruptive" as in Berseria. With Sorey, I get to ask at the beginning of the game, "How can this inexperienced dork who only loves books and his best friend ever do something so earth-shaking as to save a world he knows nothing about?" What does Zestiria have that Berseria misses? Sorey reminds us, as all Tales heroes do- that heroism is a choice, not an emotional surge of feeling or the dictates of reason. EMOTION vs. REASON is what the entire Tales series is about, if you look into it. But Sorey adds a little more... and he does it without the drama hype. You need conviction... a state where feelings choose the path of reason. Tales heroes like Yuri and Velvet are moved by injustice- a sense that they've been wronged and something must be done to right wrongs. BUT IT's ALWAYS PERSONAL. It's never a decision they make out of conscience- it's never a perfect act of voluntariness, but a compulsion that drags them toward heroism. Unlike Yuri and Velvet, Sorey never had any sense of what it's like to be human. He's coming from a different world ruled by idealism, where there is no cultural, gender and racial prejudice. Zestiria is sadder to me, because it is IRONIC NOT TRAGIC. We know there isn't a human like that... a human who chooses to be involved even when he doesn't have to be involved. In the face of suffering, we all choose not to suffer... and those who suffer like Velvet are played upon by fate or some cruel accident... it's something we know won't happen to a lot of us on a scale like that. We know we'll never have Velvet's experiences so we can appreciate it as an audience. But Zestiria tells us without the drama and the emotional baggage, there is NO SOREY OUT THERE TO SAVE US... because a human like that who's completely untainted by prejudice is our perfect opposite. Yet when you finish Zestiria, you're inspired to be like Sorey... to tell yourself... maybe we need to be involved. We're more human than Sorey after all... ^_^ That said, your commentary on Berseria is worth reading. I've read the same so many times. I feel that people have a common understanding of Berseria because the meaning is obvious enough. You didn't mention Zestiria but I feel like talking about it in relation to Berseria, since Zestiria is the sequel after all. Besides, based on some comments below, I think it's Zestiria that's taken for granted because it's easier to take for granted simplicity and to think it's empty. Both stories supplement each other, so in the end, you get to have a feel of characters that are completely parallel to each other. To some extent, I understand why Berseria was the prequel- because Sorey is different... not smarter or better... but he did something right that smarter and wiser and better people would've easily missed because like Velvet, we're all caught up in our self-righteous conceits. All Sorey had to do was to be different. Maybe just by being different, we can work miracles. ^_^
@@turquoisemoon3654 While I agree that people sleep on Zestiria I can't really agree on some of your criticisms of Berseria. And to me, the type of story isn't bound by medium at all; personal circumstances of the protagonist are a perfectly fine basis for a video game. Also, concepts like betrayal and vengeance were not invented by Berserk. Berserk does not own those concepts, so just because something uses them does not make it a "watered down" version of Berserk. It's its own thing. It's the same crappy logic that I would use if I wanted to call Zestiria a watered down version of Avatar: The Last Airbender. But I don't because it's a shitty argument.
Having played Tales of Zestiria beforehand really hammered in just how much of a tragic story Velvet's is. They really did well with this game and this character.
( message from France so sorry for my english ) Thank you for this video Velvet is probably one of my favorite characher in the Tales Of saga and you help me too understand her more
@@CommRio to be fair I played on the pcsx2 I even uploaded video the with boss fight with Asch here’s a link if you want to see ua-cam.com/video/OMjgIfJ-yag/v-deo.html
9/10. I don't give it a 10/10 because of the devious concept art they sneaked in the credit scenes. nah bro they be toying with my feelings, after that I just stared at the title screen for some good 10 minutes thinking about the "what if" artorius didn't had pulled a Griffith from berserk. for the first solo female MC of a tales of velvet sure has more charisma than 90% of the other tales of MCs.
Melchior is the real unforgivable villain of Berseria. Every bad thing that happens in the game is DIRECTLY his fault, except maybe Celica and Phi dying. But who knows, maybe he orchestrated that too. Wouldn't put it past him.
Seeing how he appears right as Arthur is grieving to try and convince him that humanity is evil and must be supressed, he had to have been keeping an eye on Arthur to know when to appear. It couldn't have been coincidence. Through this scene, the game implies that he may have caused it, but he definitely had to have watched it happen without interfering. Melchior must have seen Celica's death as necessary for the world's savior to be born within Arthur. That being said, Melchior does care about humanity, but has lived for so long and has become so jaded that the necessary loss of life means nothing to him. I don't think I'd call Melchior evil, though, since he was a pure soul that was clean of malevolence. He simply lived life according to cold logic.
I also think that he was behind Celica's death as well, there was simply too many conveniences to not to be the case. Like the fucker only arrive just after Artorious was in a vulnerable mental state due of the death of his wife while be fully aware of the location of the Empyrean, and he was far too collected for someone who just come right at that moment, he definitively planned all of this. He probably thought Artorious was getting too soft and that he was losing focus on the mission, which made him decide to take action, and its not like this its beyond what he could do, not if you consider what he has done with Magilou in the past. This bastard its the Professor Hojo of the Tales of Berseria's storyline.
@@CommRio funny Melchior and Aifread were who drove me to keep playing and loving the game. The two, being mentioned a lot but not really seen, fascinated me
Yuri and velvet are tied as number one to me as the show more humanity than all the rest they suffer great loss and grow and adapt ps velvet threatening to eat here allies was a lie to get them to listen after a bit near half the game
Great presentation. Velvet isn't edgy to the point of making the audience feel like they'll get high blood pressure, she doesn't dress too sexy, doesn't feel like a boast about being a female makes you badass. She feels like a human and the values taught are good; acceptance and forgiveness despite being about revenge at first.
So ima just come out and say this, Velvet is edgy AF... and man have ive been looking for that. I did not know I needed a female edge lord protag this bad until I had gone through this game. Man what a beautifully writen character.
@@defectiveswordofwarning1686 With this video, I'm comparing her to Sasuke and Shinn Asuka, I know Sasuke has this "the edgier he gets, the stronger he is" and Shinn is surprised Kira isn't evil, not like Velvet who gets kinder again as the story goes, much like a heroine after all.
Bersaria is my personal favorite. It hits its mark with every theme and topic it presents to the audience. It has SO much to say about SO many things. I love it. ❤🎉
I just love this game because of the lovely and well thought character design. The dialogs are so natural, you just have the feeling you want to be friends with all of them. Velvet is a character one can relate to if s.o. is having trouble dealing with other people because of trauma and self-hatred.
19:45 as velvet stabbed Arthur, she didn't stab him with hate. It was evident as Arthur wasn't crying, but Velvet's tear fell over his cheeks. That moment. I mean. The storytelling was just beautiful.
I just beat this game yesterday (my first Tales game), and I don't think I've seen a female lead or anti-hero in a game, who was more compelling as a character than Velvet Crowe is.
I think Velvets story rings most to people who know the pain of losing a beloved one or are simply compassionate. I myself am driven by my emotions but now that I am 27 I have more control over them. Velvets whole character resonates with me because there is a slight fear of becoming close with someone and losing them, feeling all that immeasurable pain all over again that you try forcibly becoming cold towards others but you just can't fully oppress your own feelings that it always will shine through. I lost my mother when I was 16 and went totally numb for about 6 years or so and then I started to get myself back up again somewhat. I didn't know what to do with my life at all. I wasn't driven by anything but then I realized that my emotions and compassion make me want to help other people and be a good friend to them. And sorry for this long post just to explain why I love Velvet Crowe so much as a fictional character xD
Tales of Verseria es mi juego favorito, por sus personajes, historia y su final, es fácilmente ignorado por muchos por puntos negativos que realmente no afectan a la calidad de lo que el juego ofrece. Exelente video y exelente análisis de Velvet, ella es con mucha diferencia mi personaje favorito desde que jugué Tales of Verseria, y a día de hoy sigue sin ser superada.
Estoy de acuerdo contigo, el juego y los personajes son marvelloso a pesar de que algos personas dicen no es. Estoy contento te gusta el video, gracias por tu commento.
I have been arguing that Velvet is a well written protagonist and surprisingly the first female "Tales of" main protagonist in the series at least I'm aware off anyways. Despite being edgy she still retains some feminine characteristics like being great at household and sisterly concerns towards Laphi. The VA really makes Velvet as a character shines as her stuggles for sanity for both guilt and hatred consumes her. Unfortunately not many see that even playing the game still say she's way too edgy or too cliche, I kinda blame the market for using cliches so bad that this game was being called "just" cliche to begin with. It's why videos like yours are appreciated because it explores thatVelvet character is quite in depth instead of what others see her on a surface level.
Been playing Berseria again this week. I thought yuri from vesperia was a dark character, then they introduced Velvet. She became my second favorite tales of lead character after Yuri. The voice actress does a phenomenal job as Velvet. It's too bad we probably won't get a Tales of game with a female lead character anytime soon.
The phrase "conflict between emotion and reason" appeared in the beginning of TOB's game promotion video and in the introduction to STEAM. This is a simple and complex sentence that encompasses the entire TOB story. However, many people's views on this story are just the vengeance and villain that stay on the surface.
I LOVED this character. Honestly this character alone made this the best tales game, hell maybe one of the best rpgs ever. I find most main characters boring at best. I was behind her all the way.
I don't really see why we wouldn't get one again eventually? Berseria sold like hot cakes, and the tales dev team clearly has no issue with making female characters have major roles within the stories of their games. I know Milla shared her spotlight with Jude, but in every sense of the word she is the main character and driving force of Xillia as a story, and I would argue that she is the "real" main character of that game. Just because Arise has a male protagonist, doesn't mean that future titles aren't going to have female leads, I think it quite likely that the next title after arise will have a female lead, since the designers clearly have tons of fun designing the outfits for the female cast members and that berseria sold so well.
I love this game and I love Velvet, but the ending upseted me. Even though it made sense for it to end that way, I didn't want that to happen to Velvet
I love this game Magilou is hilarious and velvet is one of my favorite main characters in any game I’ve played a handful of JRPG’s and this is one of my favorites
Same here they both have a lot in common. Both Velvet and Yuri will do what they think is right, even if it means people view them as a villain. I mean Yuri goes and flat out murders people, because they escaped justice, so he decided to take them out so fulfill his idea if justice. Yes they were bad people but the way Yuri dispatches them without remorse. Then of course Velvet doesn't care who she uses to get what she wants. History views her as the villain. In Zestria they mention how in the past the Shepard defeated the lord of Calamity aka Velvet thus saving the world. Well playing Berseria we find out it's the opposite that it was actually Velvet that saved the world and it was the Shepard who was the villain. But because the abbey is so powerful history is rewritten and only a handful of people know the truth.
Velvet Crowe is clearly a female equivalent of Spawn because they were turned into vengeful demons & both were betrayed by The Abbey/CIA. Velvet is a wonderful dark heroine.
Love to see the people commenting days ago, weeks ago, months ago and this game is from way back in 2017. It really shows that this game is a masterpiece. I just started playing the day before yesterday and I got hooked up with everything in the game, characters, plot, gameplay, everything (majorly in velvet though xD, I fell in love haha) I didn't watch this video yet but I will come back later after I finished the game to avoid spoilers. I'm on the Eizen part after they destroyed the battleship and escaped.
It's a great game so I hope you continue to enjoy it. I do think one of the reasons Berseria still has such a hold over people though is because we're still waiting on the next game of the series. Maybe it'll die down more once Arise finally does come out.
@@CantFindNemo It seems unlikely especially since Berseria is a prequel of Tales of Zestiria (albiet over a thousand years before that game). Tales doesn't tend to do more than two games in a particular world.
Beatiful video. Yes I agree. Velvet is the sole female lead in the series (Milla doesnt count) and came out for me as not only the best lead for the Tales series but sharing the numeber 1 spot alongside Haseo from .hack//G.U. as the best JRPG protagonists and the bar in wich I judge everyone else.
Its pretty fucked up that the usual suspects downplay Velvet's character as nothing more than shameless fanservice due to her design, but then again these are the same people that usually preach "dont judge a book by its cover" when it comes to female characters.
I never got around to playing the game yet but i read a lot about her and i would have to say she could very well be one of the most, if not the most developed protag characters in the tales seires. With yuri lowell trailing behind at second
Good analysis. I’ve encountered many in this fandom who have trouble with darkness inside people’s hearts, characters who are trait by isolation. This becomes evident in characters like Velvet and Shion. Velvet was a gentle soul who lost her parents when she was young, then her sister was violently taken from her. Forced into a mom role where she her terminally ill brother became her whole world who was murdered in front of her eyes by the last person she loves. Immediately she slaughters the entire village including her best friend. Has her arm severed, thrown into solitary confinement for 3 years where everyday she had to eat daemons. Then is rescued by her reincarnated sister whom she kills. And people expect her to be IDK just broody? Rage and vengeance isn’t slow. I’ve know many people who had been shat on their entire life, their suffering isn’t remotely close to what Velvet had to go through. Most of them are either very hot or cold. The hot ones are fine until their rage gets triggered and let me tell you, it doesn’t take much, because that rage is living rent free 24/7. Underneath the surface they are always boiling. If you have doubts, look up the story of Saint Olga of Kiev. You’ll see just how not slow rage really is.
I really hope this isn't the last of Velvet, yes it's been 8 years but there is no rule I think that they can't revisite Berseria, the door is wiiiide open to bring her back as the protagonist of a game and the Plot for that game is litterly there too "find a way to save her brother."
Berseria is easily my favorite game just for the cast. Velvet is top tier wife material, magilou is how you write a good comic relief, rokuro is a great revenge tale and Eizen BRO Eizen is just so cool. You actually want to hate artorious and phi is great because of his growth. The only one I’m not big on was Eleanor. But I blame that on how long it took to get her in the main storyline cast.
Imagine putting Velvet, The Punisher, Billy Butcher, and Lelouch in the same room though. Oh, what schemes or conflicts could unfold between these 3...?
Just about finished berseria and out of the 3 ive played this is my favorite one also i want an AU where velvet and the crew go and meet Edna pre zestiria i think that would be neat
It seems like Tales fans have a lot of variety in what they call the best Tales game, not a lot of consensus there, but I do see Berseria from a decent number of people.
Velvet is my favorite female character ever and 2nd favorite period behind Gaara from nardo. Interestingly, both of them follow similar arcs. As well as a few of my other favorite characters. Silver (Pokemon), Zuko, Vegeta (sort of, though he starts evil), Katsuki Bakugou (again, sort of, though he never goes full-on villain, just an arrogant asshole) Also, I found it interesting how despite being a lot darker, Berseria is much more optimistic than Zesteria which comes off far pretty pessimistic.
Velvet and the VA are both incredible. If you are a fan of other JRPG's you've probably heard her in those games. She was in the most recent Fire Emblem game and Tears of the Kingdom.
@@CommRio another reason to get a Switch, problem is I've never played a Fire Emblem so there's that barrier of entry when I already have a big backlog
The honest true villain of this game is honestly Melchior. Bastard is pretty much the reason the entire story got set into motion starting with Arthur, and I wouldn't put it past him either to have orchestrated the events of the first scarlet night just to get Arthur on his side. Also abusing and disowning Magilou like that, wish his death lasted a bit longer in the game, he had it coming.
Melchior is an excellent villain as well. Berseria in general has great villains and I think Melchior helps balance out the more tragic ones like Theresa and Arthur.
@@CommRio Honestly I think Arthur is an antagonist set up right where despite the main character's hatred towards him, you can never really hate him yourself, just feel sorry for him. There's a lot of subtle clues just paying attention to the good writing and animating done to express the minor details of the characters as well as the minor details you can pick up from the world building. Based on Laphicet's reaction to velvet showing up to his sacrifice as well as Phi's quest line going into 12 year sickness, I already managed to piece together that something was up and Laphicet was in on the whole thing with Arthur. I couldn't find blame against Artorius for that more than I truly saw him as a broken man. What threw me off though was the 2d animated cutscene at the start of the game showing Arthur performing the sacrifice with Celica despite later the game showing that she fell down by accident. If anything, that would be my only criticism here cause it leaves you assuming Arthur was heartless enough to kill his own wife and unborn child despite the multiple contradictions to it in the story. By the end I honestly love him as a character and cannot bring myself to call him a villain. I'm also halfway through zestiria and am a bit disappointed to have Sorey as the MC to a sequel game in the timeline. Not that his character is bad but it doesn't resonate with me as much as artorius or velvet did in berseria. Zestiria tries too hard to make a morally gray world out of a black and white story. Shepherd + purification = good. Malevolence + Lord of Calamity = Bad. Perhaps I'm not far enough into the game for the twists but there is no current relation between Sorey and Heldalf that I know of or am hinted at by the game to feel as endorsed in the story where Velvet and Artorius were related from the start and the game's world building led up to satisfying climax.
@@ciphymasterofmedia9104 I understand this sentment for Zestiria and the disappointment people have. In fact it is a simple good vs bad story and Sorey is an immutable good guy. That said, as a person who played Zestiria before Berseria, I enjoyed the game and its theme and then when I finished Berseria and how it connects to the chronological sequel, for me Berseria made Zestiria a better game, at least that's what I feel. Berseria is so good that made Zestiria feels better, of course this is only my dumb opinion, but how the two connects with each other as a whole is satisfying.
I don't really have much to say about her as a character since I never finished Berseria, but I will say I freaking love her name. Velvet Crowe is so awesome. It sounds like the name of a rock band. Plus she has a great design. While I didn't finish the game, I never had an issue with her, she seemed cool to me. Not as fun as Milla from Tales of Xillia (my favorite Tales game), but I still liked Velvet. I don't know, I guess people thought she was too "edgy"? You have your brother murdered by your mentor and then spend years trapped in a hole feeding on monsters and see how edgy you turn out =/
This is a kind of story spoiler, don't press READ MORE if you don't want to get spoiled... I kind of hate and like the ending, so much sacrifice made by velvet (almost everything). That is for the greater good but I think, personally, Velvet deserves a nice ending. Waifu Mommy indeed... On the other hand, I like her character development, well, all of them to be exact! She only smiles a lot in the later part and every time she does it, my love for her is falling deeper hahaha. I declared her as my number 1 favorite waifu of all waifus. Her character design is so beautiful for me (my type of girl, lol). Well, anyways I really love the whole game! I just wish that they would make an Anime Adaptation if possible huhuhu, that would be awesome!
This is how i see Tales of Berseria, this is a long post, and spoilerino of course. Velvet really have a great characterization, A gentle loving older sister betrayed by her trusted brother-in-law who "murdered" her biological brother before her very eyes and subject her into 3 years of living hell in the darkest pit of Titania as a lab rat. when she finally escape from that hell hole, she is now a mentally unstable girl, hell bent on revenge (people who dislike her character take this at face value) but hidden beneath that cold and uncaring facade lies her original personality a kind and loving sister, which is why she act as big-sister figure to the party disguise as (in Magilous words) "cruelty thats also compassion" her original kind personality clashes with her hatred through out the journey and in the end her compassionate side win, she realize the severity of her sins, but still need to push onward but this time not because of nihilism (which i absolutely hate in revenge story) but to atone for her sins, to save humanity, for the party she grown to love, and even for Artorius which she called big brother in the end, and thus the demon lord of calamity that is supposed to bring destruction and chaos to humanity, ended up saving it and in doing so, paid the ultimate price worst than death, it's quite tragic if you look at it in a certain way. Of course one cannot have a great protagonist without a great antagonist so Artorius deserve a shout out too. Troubled by the ideals of his long dead king and mentor, as well as the fact that the Crowe's have been sold to the bandits by the villagers of Aball to save their skins, in which resulted in the death of Celica and their unborn child. Artorius, stricken by grief, have been taken advantaged by a Fanatical Melchoir who twisted the words and ideals of king Claudin, with Artorius unstable mental state due to the death of his beloved wife and his unborn son, ( and this is where i look at him differently to yours) he vowed to punish himself, the villagers of Aball, and humanity as a whole, and cleanse them of fear and all emotions, as a sort of twisted way of atoning for failing to protect Celica and his unborn child, he did it all, and sacrificed all for his beloved wife and his unborn son, this is how i see the symbolism of his sword. To me the tale of Velvet is about learning to love and trust again, balancing both reason and emotion, forgiveness, taking responsibility, and realizing not all are lost in life even if you are deep in despair. Berseria is my 2nd favorite game of all time (1st being Shadow of the colossus), its a revenge story done right, Usually this type of genre ended up being a whole lot of nothing, with no lesson learned and leaves a bad taste of nihilism that i despise in any story. But Berseria is massively different. All of that is what made this game and Velvet resonate with me, it's what made this game great for me. Unlike most Female protagonist in modern mediums, their sole characterization is that they are Whamen and they hate men and therefore must rise from the oppression (cause you know whamen are always oppress lol) and destroy the "patriarchy" in some symbolic way. Velvet? well Velvet "hate" everyone all the same lol, indeed two of my many favorite line of hers are "Men are simple" and "Women are creatures of deceit boy" she doesn't care lol. I feel like we will never have the same Female protagonist with great characterization like Velvet going forward, due to how everything is being politicized and being used as propaganda tool by the Left and Right, well at the very least that's the case here in the western front. how i wish things is the same as the 2000s where games are games and people have nuances on how they perceived things, it's such a miracle for a game like Tales of Berseria to be release in 2016, some of the lines and scenes in this game wouldn't fly in today's "western standards" , but then again its massively underrated so there aren't a lot of fuss about it, guess that''s a blessing in disguise in a way.
I honestly agree, both Velvet and Artorius came from the same place of being broken people hellbent on fighting back against the source of their pain. I honestly kept wondering how they'd do the story as I went through it, they could've easily made Vevlet end up as a heartless tyrant who eventually gave into her despair (would not be a bad idea for an actual "bad" ending to the game) but this revenge story ended on a note that most revenge stories never go through on such a personal level. That note is "consequence". No one in the game got away with any sort of evil acts that they did, even if at heart they had good intentions or were positive and good people. Velvet especially got such a backlash from it that Laphicet's speech to her that snapped her out of it was one of the most satisfying moments I have ever experienced in a story based game where the revenge seeking character essentially gets punished for their actions, then saved from that despaired mindset, and finally coming to terms and acceptance of what happened in their life. I practically never see that in revenge stories.
There's also the fact Berseria is a japanese game, and most japanese people don't give a rat's ass to the West's overexaggerated sensibility to everything. Velvet and her game are strong reasons why i'm almost exclusively playing japanese games lately
I hope that there’ll be a crossover of Tales of Berseria in Tales of Arise. I would say that Velvet and Innominat would make an appearance rather than the whole party.
Out of all the characters from the Tales of series I really feel bad for Velvet. I mean my christ she has went through so much pain & trauma in her life & on top that been betrayed by the person that she somewhat looked up to. Well at the very least Velvet did got her revenge & saved the world from turned into emotionless slains so...yay
Strongly prefer a dead character then non stop resurrected like Illidan in WOW. He died even before first WOW, but nope Activision has no imagination to come with a new character. Dead is dead, new characters most take her place.
After I finished Arise and got 100% achievements, I personally don't think the cast is even close to as good as Berserias cast. I think the only thing Arise does better than Berseria is combat and graphics. Arise is a good game, but everything else about the game is underwhelming relative to Berseria.
There's also a whole lotta lesbian subtext with Velvet and Eleanor. Velvet kicked Oscar's face to the fucking wall because he "made a girl cry." This was waaaaaay early in the game, before just about everything really kicked off for her character development.
What was that line about “Velvet starting to ripen” that Magilou said early on in the game? I think that was implying that she was attracted to Eleanor.
1:55 Have to correct you there. It is 7 years after, not 3. Scarlet night does not appear to follow a cycle. After all Velvet and Laphicet were really small back in that flashback. Scarlet night appears 10 years prior to main story, 3 years prior and during the main story. PS Also note that Velvet is very powerful but not a Mary Sue unlike a certain Star Wars protagonist. If I was to ever write about female main protagonists Velvet would be one of my focuses and compare her to Rey as how not to write a character, and take critique for that matter.
I think there's one scene that needs to be remarked in this entire story: the bath scene in the snow town (before confronting Shigure and Melchior) At that point, it is entirely established that Velvet has gone past the way of no return, having committed the same crimes and mistakes she balmes Arthur for. At that point, she expect no forgiveness from anyone. However, Phi comes out with a little meaningless complain about being called like that, followed by the next dialogue (which is to say, the best line in the game) "It's okay. I forgive you" Laphicet knew that Velvet was beyond the point of no return, but that she still is a person with a lot of emotion; one that, while knowing she doesn't deserve it, wanted to be forgiven. And Laphicet gave that one instance to feel it.
Yeah so in combat I exclusively played as Velvet so whenever I had to fight without her, whether she was unavailable for story reasons or because she had no hit points, I would struggle a lot. Also, it took me a long time to pass the tutorial in Velvet's prison cell where you have to use flash step or whatever it was three times in combat. Idk I never purposefully did it again. Man that was pointless.
I also primarily played Velvet (I do that for all the protagonists of Tales games such as Yuri and Alphen as well), they just feel the best to play for me.
Lord knows the game doesn't need anymore "anime swordies," but I think anyone who has played Berseria would agree that Velvet would be a fantastic character for Smash Bros.
I really liked Velvet. Not the edge lol that's annoying but the cute parts between her and Laphi. I am not done with the game, will come back when I finish it cause I don't want to be spoiled.
Agree that Christina Vee did great expressing her despair. Also Arise has the same director as Berseria and Symphonia had. So it looks good in that regard.
I'm very excited for Arise, although I'm unsure if its cast can possibly equal up to Berseria's cast. Still should be a good game.
@@CommRio Never preorder, far too often it has been abused. Unless new policies such as money return if the product ends up defected or something pre order is not a good deal. Did enjoy your video and analysis btw
no different direct arise is from god eater producer too tomizawa 😀🙏
@@sandro5535 What if you do what I do and preorder a few days before the game comes out just so I can get a copy as quickly as possible?
I'm guessing it's still bad since my preorder is still applied to shipments, but I want to make sure I don't have to wait a long time to play it.
I've seen games disappear from store shelves all because I didn't snag me a copy in preorder. Being someone who likes physical games doesn't help in that department either.
@@SuperSiege Well that changes it. Being a lot of new computers and laptops cant even take disks
Velvet was a huge gamble after the ultra goody-goody protagonists that came before (Llyod, Asbel, Sorey and Jude).
Too many complain about how quickly her character changes, totally ignoring the fact that a great deal of time happened between the prolouge and her escape from prison. She had plenty of time to become embittered and angry.
Exactly, plus seeing your brother die right in front of your eyes is bound to break you in some way.
Square seems to notice the gamble worked
Not to mention she was engulfed by practicully the great pit of malevolence and came out alive
Lloyd is far from a goody two shoes, he's a good guy and very nice but he's also prone two end resolve conflict with manslaughter if neccesary.
For Xillia, Milla is as much as a protagonist as Jude, and she is ruthless and brutal when needed.
And you also skipped Yuri who is probably the biggest asshole in all of the franchise (Besides our lord and savior Jade) and Luke who is probably the best written MC I have ever seen in a videogame
Overall Tales of is a franchise with a very diverse and 3 dimensional set of protagonist. This franchise is presicely known for their risky out of the norm writin. In TO the norm is being atypical and trying different things between every installment, which is why Berseria having such a massive contrast with Zesti is less of a "gamble" moment from the developers and more like something you should expect from amazing writers like Takumi Miyajima or Naoki Yamamoto
her prison time had too little representation. this could have been a good way to teach the player about the combat mechanics (basically a tutorial) in which the player is forced to endure imprisonment and mental torture, which would made regaining your freedom much more sweet.
the skyrim prologue feels much more like an actual prison than the prison portion of berseria imo.
Berseria is gonna be real hard to follow. I love every single character in this game they are all amazingly well written and that is the sign of incredible character writing. That I could go from abject hatred of Artorius and the Abby to genuinely feeling bad for them and loving their character is an incredible feat.
The people that hate Velvet for being "one note" are utterly blind to what she truly is. She is an anti hero, the epitome of the dark hero
I am hopeful that Arise can rise to the challenge.
@@CommRio me too man, but it's gonna be a tall order
@@CommRio Personally, i find it most likely won't. Berseria is my introduction to the series and i literally began playing it a week ago, but i already find it hard for any character to top Velvet. I love her too much T_T
Welp, Arise came out and…it’s good but I didn’t think it topped Berseria and it’s characters.
@Celes So far that seems to still be the case
I feel as if Eleanor is a glaring reminder that there is a high chance Velvet would have most likely opposed Artorious eventually anyway.
I’ve always liked to believe that even if Laphi hadn’t died and Velvet had stayed how she was there would have been something else that came along to wake her up in some way in a similar way to how Eleanor was.Because it’s shown at the beginning although she repeated Arthur’s lessons while killing the prickleboar it bothered her.
Same with Eleanor when she sees that the Abby is neglecting some of the villages.
Who knows,maybe there is an alternate timeline where Laphi lives and Velvet stays how she is and joins the Abby but she meets Eizen looking to get at Artorious for the sake of Aifried and she has a similar path to Eleanor.
Eleanor's arc is definitely an alternative character arc for Velvet. The similarities are striking.
I'd imagine she and Eleanor would be trainees together in this scenario and still be close friends training together under the Shepard
@@The810kid I wouldn't mind an alternate universe version of Berseria with Velvet and Eleanor going through shepherd training together.
@@CommRio well, the credits for Berseria (during Velvet and Laphicet's dream) are basically the alternate timeline, except it's not actually real
Velvet is currently my favorite video game character of all, and my second favorite character in fiction (guessing the first should not be difficult). She was so well-written and I felt a deep _melancholy_ when the game ended and any hopes of more Velvet was dashed.
Well said on Velvet's storyline. Christina Vee did an amazing job voice acting Velvet indeed! Definitely enjoyed this game and my investment with the story.
I still remember how much I cried during the whole 'A world without you, Velvet is the one thing I couldn’t bear!' scene.
I am overall an emotional and a bit histrionic person. I played this game at a sensitive point of my life when I was myself suffering from emotional trauma, but also discovering my rage and 'dark sides' for the first time ever and it hit so hard.
The dynamic of Velvet vs. Eleanor felt like two of my inner selves in a constant fight.
I remember I was also trying to answer 'why birds fly' and on one glorious night I was running, filled with euphoria and jumped and said BECAUSE THEY EFFING WANT TO and then when Velvet said it to Artorious in the end I was like 'yep, there you go' and was super amazed by it all (asked people around to answer the same question lol, it was fun :D)
Currently, I'm playing Tales of Arise, and I'm half way through, but it's already apparent that the game will never reach the depth Berseria had in terms of character portrayal and development.
Games come and go - some blow your mind, others less. But I don't think anyone who played Berseria start to finish could ever forget about Velvet and her journey. It leaves a mark.
Agree
@@shutup1037 glad someone sees it the same way!
@@Nahlim88 played Tales of Arise and I stopped midway. I dont like how they try so hard at making it dark but it become flat instead
@@shutup1037 I finished it, but I can conclude it's definitely overrated
Tales of berseria is definitely a good game that can be deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. The character creation, the depth of the plot and the presentation of the overall worldview are all very good. I have played a lot of games, but only TOB has left me deep in my memory until now.
And to think, it follows and is a distant prequel to what is easily the most shallow and cliched game the Tales series has ever had.
They REALLY stepped up their game here.
Then there is zestiria before berseria which hade mister copy and paste hero fun game not fully fun story
I have to agree it's the only game that made me feel actual emotions and just the soundtrack brings nostalgia for me. I feel like when I did my first playthrough not knowing how the story turns out.
Velvet is a solid 10/10 character
Yeah can't argue with that! Velvet Crowe definitely a solid 100/100 for me. 💯
My favourite female character in fiction
@@ArtoriusCollbrande +1
This game was so good!! Velvet is one of my favorite characters
Velvet my queen and princess
So glad this fandom is still kicking long after the game's release.
Been meaning to play this, but I don't have a PS4. Hopefully, a Switch port will be made in the future.
I wish there were more Tales ports and modern console remasters, but Bandai Nancy has been very slow to do that unfortunately so I wouldn’t hold your breath.
got a PC release just in case you didnt know
Story and characters in this game were surprisingly good . I saw the metascore and it was standing at 79 so i told myself it will be simply another good game and nothing more...oh boy i was so wrong :)
Never expected the story to be this good
And man those emotions and that bittersweet ending ... can’t even describe it. After finishing the main story i was so emotional that i couldn’t even play the post_game for few days
Indeed velvet is one of the best female characters in video game’s history
It's really that low on metacritic? That's really surprising.
@@CommRio To me fair a lot of reviews are fake, look at how Disney always gets praised by the critics even when the fans hate it. Like the Last Jedi. If all reviews were real like 80 to 90% of 10/10 scores would poof.
@@sandro5535 Yeah, critics stopped being relevant a long time ago. If you want a more accurate score, look at the Steam Aggregate, the game is sitting on a solid 90, and the best thing is, the score is tallied by *players* only, so it's a score given only by people who actually played the game.
I'm surprised you didn't bring up the ending where we see visions of what Velvet's life would have looked like if Celica hadn't died. I think that is a fantasy world she and her brother envisioned to pass the time in their Inominat prison. And its so sweet and sad
It is, maybe if I redid the video I’d include it but at the time it didn’t do much for Velvet’s character arc that we didn’t already know so I didn’t include it
The way you express her story is magnificient. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you and you're welcome :)
Tales of Berseria is criminally underrated. I just watched some cutscenes where Velvet goes on about Laphi and it never gets old, not just that but Velvet's VA's performances gets me every time. The voice acting, whether in japanese or english is top notch. All single characters have a sound motivation, even the big bad, who's more of a fool than bad. I mean, it's a solution, but it's a bad one he's got... better than nothing. Velvet's solution is not the best too, there's no magic miraculous ending if you 100% it too. Although, good fu**ing luck 100%ing this beast of a game.
I feel like asside from the overt story of emotion vs reason, Tales of Berseria is also a story about grief. About the grief of betrayal and loss, of actions you can't take back, of being a bad influence on those around you despite your best efforts. Artorius could never swallow his grief so he responded to it by burning down any possibility of it happening again, and damn any good that gets caught in the fire. Velvet in many ways does the same thing, but she had allies with a common purpose through which she could come to her senses and realise what really matters.
A bit of a personal crackpot theory is that, despite her being a therion/lord of calamity, Velvet actually STILL performs the role of Artorius' Squire. Because being a squire means taking the shepherd off the path of destruction, no matter what. Rose cemented herself as Sorey's squire not by joining up by him, but by declaring that if he started to do evil she would kill him.
Excellent video, man! Velvet's story really felt riveting. I remembered beating this game 4 years ago and getting back to playing it again. There's so much to appreciate the game.
Keep up the good work!
Thank you!
This game is so damn good. I never felt a bond form with the playable members or an rpg party this quickly since Skies of Arcadia. The scene where Velvet basically chews out Eleanor in her old cell is so great. Also it's hilarious seeing the emotional contrast between Velvet in battle mode and Velvet in mom mode.
I agree and your praise makes me even more excited for when I eventually get to Skies of Arcadia.
@@CommRio That game needs a sequel so badly.
Oh my god that scene was so masterful
@@HebiSnake Probably my favourite moment in the game. Either that or Magilou telling Velvet to act like a dove.
@@KillaCheeto56 Oof it would take me a long damn time to come up with a list of my favorite scenes in Berseria.
I played Berseria as my second Tales games (i started with Zestiria which was... Meh). I fell in love with Berseria's plot and characters since it was something else at this time - you being the bad guys who try to have revenge on their respective targets and get them killed, not to mention, female lead character was also uncommon and, sadly, still is but that's not the point this time.
Velvet's character arc is probably on of my favorites in fictions, one i would show someone as an example of good writing.
At the very beginning, you see her normal life. You already know things will do 180 turnaround but yet, seeing her deep hatred born from equally deep love, in full display for the first time, is something else. When actual plot starts, you see that her hatred grown even stronger.
All this rage, hatred, anger - it's easy to label her as typical "Edgy heroine" but whoever does that, shows that he/she didn't cared about her story. This big hatred comes from even greater love and this hardens her as a Blade of Vengeance, the Lord of Calamity. She won't stop and will do everything to obtain her goal. She's hardened by her hatred.
Sadly, as its said "Blade can't be only hard. It has to be flexible, or it'll brake"
That trap in Aball really makes Velvet start to crack, the "accident" with Oscar and Teresa makes her realize she's not so different from a person she hates and wants to kill. You can notices she's slowly loosing ground under her feet, starting to mumble to herself, trying to "harden" herself up again after these events. Strongest hit comes when reborn Laphicet shows up as Innominat, she just breaks. Person she cared about the most in her life tells her all she did was wrong, that her revenge is pointless, that she brought more pain to the world than she realizes, that she became so lost in her pursuit after vengeance that she became a monster that she saw in Artorius.
What's probably more heartbreaking, Person she cared about the most in the world is trying to break her even further.
They want her to cry, to regret everything she did, even living, they want to destroy her spirit. It takes effort of Phi and Eizen to shake her off from this despair and accept herself once again. She is Lord of Calamity, harbinger of doom and death.
Yet - this Lord of Calamity is just fragile, scared little girl. Girl that lost everything she had and despite meeting all of these amazing people, she knows that she can't be redeemed. She has to fulfill her role for a greater good. This perfectly mirror's with Artorius - both doing what needs to be done , for greater good.
Velvet changes as story goes on - these changes are subtle and are easy to miss if you don't pay attention but you can see that under all this paint of rage and hatred, old Velvet still shows up her loving and caring side, even if it's just a little crack here and there, with how she takes care about Phi or by interacting with other party members, remindg them to eat properly, that rest is important and to take care about themselves.
Especially, her relationships with Eizen, Phi and Eleanor:
-Eizen shares most of his world point of view with Velvet. Both of them are willing to go against the impossible to achieve what they want but Eizen has more reason and experience, making him great counter to sometimes Velvet just going blindly into few situations or when she can't figure out a plan on the get go. You can notice that on many occasions, Velvet asks Eizen about his opinion about their plan or current situation, also making this cursed Malak voice of reason early in the game. He respects her goal and will.
-If you went through the story or through this vid, you know why Phi is important. He's not only Velvet's unborn cousin/brother from her dead sister but also her substitute for Laphicet. When she calls him by the name of her late brother, one can quickly notice that it's her traumatized persona trying to fix herself up. Laphicet is dead but for her, this Malak Number Two can be Laphicet too. Eventualy, Phi breaks out saying that he isn't Laphicet and he has enough of being just replacement for her dead brother. Despite them being similar because they share the same blood, they are different. This is probably one of many punches that make Velvet's stoic stance start to crack. Eventually, Phi becomes that beacon of hope for Velvet and warmth she denied herself for so long, making her reopen to people and to sometimes bring her old serf to the surface.
-Eleanor, like it's said in Video, is very similar to Velvet: Both trained by Artorius with tragic backstories that are also very similar. Despite sharing one goal, their ideologies clash almost all the time but both can admit when they're defeated and say "Well, maybe you're right in the end", learning from each other and eventually becoming friends. From whole group, Eleanor understand Velvet more than anyone (at least IMO)
Velvet is tragic character - she didn't deserved what happened to her.
She just wanted a normal life like each of us. To love and be loved back.
To take care about people she hold dear to her.
But tragedy that occurred drove her down the path of no return.
At the end of the story, she fully embraced herself once again and the person she became.
As i mentioned earlier - many people give Velvet the label of "Edgy Heroine" but they're wrong.
Velvet's story is one about love, grief, anger, emotions and acceptance.
And in my eyes - it's tragic but beautiful, and worth knowing.
You know when a game is so good, when they still talk about it to this day, and how memorable the whole game is to you.
I still get the shivers and a tear whenever I see the Laphicet scene with Velvet.
Which scene exactly?
You did her a solid with this analysis. Definitely my favorite female lead in any game. She's pretty similar to jade from tales of the abyss, another great character from another great game. Though their origin story is anything but similar, the way they accept their own sins and atrocities and kept going on for a reason was so similar. Jade was also a character that is ultimately spurred by his emotions, albeit this was not the case prior to nebilim's death and "ressurection".
all the "villains" in the berseria cast had jade levels of depth. Eizen, Velvet ,Magilou heck i'd argue Rokurou also
When I look at Velvet Crowe, and the many changes she goes through throughout the course of her journey, I sometimes can't help but compare her somewhat to another soul that had also once been repeatedly consumed by the desire for revenge from an entirely different series altogether: Kratos, the Ghost of Sparta, from God of War.
Seeing the similarities and differences between the two of them, makes me wonder what each would ultimately make of the other if, after the events of their respective games, the two of them were to meet each-other in a setting where, instead of almost immediately duking it out in a near mindless battle to the death, they would simply sit on opposite sides of a campfire, and share the stories of their own lives and journeys with one another. Velvet regaling Kratos with the tale of her life and journey, the humble beginnings of her youth, the tragic events of the two scarlet nights that tore her family and innocence apart, the breakout from Titania Prison, the people she meets throughout her quest to slay Artorius, the companions that join her, the enemies she faced throughout her journey, how her interactions with Phi slowly start to heal her broken heart and psyche, how her goal ultimately changes from single-minded revenge, to saving the people of her world from lives devoid of both emotion and desire, and how it all comes to an end, with the death of Artorius, and her choosing to seal herself away alongside Innominat, both devouring the malevolence within the other in an endless cycle, so as to restore the balance between emotion and reason.
Then Kratos would impart the lengthy tale of his own life's journey to Velvet, starting from the early days of his life, the deal he made with Ares, the following tragedy of being tricked into murdering his own wife and daughter, and how he was cursed to bear their ashes on his own skin, all the days of his life. Of how he slew the furies, and broke free of his blood-oath to the Ares in Ascension. How he travelled through the underworld, returned the sun god Helios to the skies above his world, killed Persephone to prevent her attempt to destroy the world, and how he resolved himself to the start of his 10 year quest to earn forgiveness for his crimes in Chains of Olympus. His final mission from the gods to slay Ares in God of War 1, the trials to obtain the power within Pandora's box, his duel to the death with Ares, and his being appointed to replace Ares as the god of war.
About the dreams that haunted him of his mother Callisto, and brother Deimos, the short-lived and tragic reunions he had with the two of them, how he slew Erinys and Thanatos, and of how Athena seemed to mock his loss, by claiming that with the last ties to his former human life severed, he could at last fully devote himself to being the new god of war in the events of Ghost of Sparta. His growing disillusionment with the gods and their empty promises, the betrayal he suffered at the hands of Zeus, his quest to tear the very threads of Fate from the Moirae sisters to turn back the sands of time, his first, true battle against Zeus, the death of Athena's physical form, and the revelation of his being a son of Zeus in God of War 2. And at long last, his temporary alliance with the Titans, his bloody rampage through Mount Olympus, his search for Pandora, Pandora's tragic sacrifice, how he finally came to forgive himself for his role in the deaths of his wife Lysandra, and his daughter Calliope. His final, bloody confrontation with Zeus, the devastating aftermath of his own Roaring Rampage of Revenge against the gods of Olympus, and how he ultimately thrust the Blade of Olympus through his own body, releasing the power of hope contained within himself since he first opened Pandora's box, to deny Athena that power, giving it to the surviving humans of Greece in God of War 3, complete with all the many battles that take place throughout all of these events, and the resulting consequences that came about, as a result of each god's brutal death at Kratos' own two hands.
Would they, like me, see how the two of them can be considered to be so very similar, and yet also, so very different from each-other? Would they try to imagine, just how differently things could have turned out in their respective worlds, had each of them made similar, if not near identical choices, as the other had made on their own life's journey. What do you think?
Since I've never played a God of War game, I can't speak from personal experience, but what you've written here certainly shows the strong parallels. The themes of vengeance and the cost of that drive is strong with both Velvet and Kratos, but they do go about it in very different ways, so a conversation between them could be fascinating. Thank you for your comment!
@@CommRio Thank you for your reply! It makes me glad to know that my thoughts on this subject can fascinate others. Heck, I think I'd greatly enjoy it if people started making videos where they take two characters from completely different franchises, and instead of having them duke it out in a fight to the death, they instead talk about all the ways in which these two characters are both similar and different from one another. Case in point, Kratos and Velvet Crowe.
You could compare Velvet Crowe to Azura from Azura's Wrath. Since he like Kratos from the God of War series has been betrayed by the very same people who he helped
@@jaivonpyatt6905 The same thing also happened to Kratos, starting from God of War 2, when the gods of Olympus turned on him after the events of Ghost of Sparta.
@@zacharycunningham7669 exactly my point here. Velvet Crowe, Azura, Kratos all three of these characters had been through a road of betrayal & a bloodlust for revenge on those who had wronged them very badly & even after that they did in a way saved the entire world if not the entire Universe
I loved this breakdown of her character! Makes me love Velvet even more! 😊
Exactly what I'm going for
What I love about Velvet is it shows how the best kind of person in the world could end up being completely broken and hate the world when everything is taken away from them and they are forced to carry a burden they can never reconcile with. Velvet did nothing wrong, in the beginning, but they took everything she loved away from her until the only thing that keeps her surviving is the thought of revenge. This one purpose is so powerful that she basically became the villain of the story for most of the story. Tales of Berseria is a game where we play as the sympathetic villain. Don't get me wrong, Artorious is also a villain. But like, one very powerful moment for me was when Velvet, in act 3, killed Oscar. Teresa Velvet kill her brother in cold blood right in front of her. The same thing Artorious did to Velvet. The complete mental breakdown Velvet gets when she realized she did the same thing Artorious did to her was so powerful. Those 2 that she killed could've been the protagonists of a different RPG, but they're not. Velvet killed them. Velvet had become the villain that she hated to her core. That's just such a powerful moment for me, and I would like more RPGs to write more stories where we are the villains, but disguised as the good guys until that realization hits. Ultimately, what Velvet does in the end actually did benefit the world as a whole, but that was merely a side effect of what her actual goal was, which was to simply kill Artorious and then herself. I mean, purgatory in stasis is a type of death in itself...
So this made me think of the term, anti-villain. The opposite of the anti-hero. An anti-hero is a hero who does good things with bad intentions. So an anti-villain is a villain who does bad things with good intensions. Or maybe a villain who does good things with bad intensions. So that's kinda how I see Velvet in the end. She started as a wholeheartedly good person, who became a sympathetic villain because of the cruelty she experienced, who redeems herself in the end to become the anti-villain by doing something that would ultimately help the world.
Berseria is a good example of how the characters and writing manage to properly convey the themes of the story in a natural way. One of its biggest strengths is how the plot brings strong arguments for both sides of the Emotion vs Reason questions at different points of the story in a convenient way instead of demonizing the antagonists. My favorite part was how expectations are subverted when you are initially made to think that the Abbey is just another greedy and corrupt "take over the world under the guise of a savior" type organization when doing the jobs for Tabitha but the revelation of the Malak Taboo and true nature of Daemons tied to human nature proves otherwise. Made me really question my own place in the game for rooting for Velvet. After finishing the game, I had a very different outlook on human nature as a whole and no longer could see things in a idealistic black and white way like the past. If a story can provoke thoughts like that, then its doing something really great that few stories can.
Plus the characters also reflect human nature as well. Velvet embodies the duality, as Phi mentions, "both fierce and kind" with her character through both her flaws and good sides. Meanwhile Phi is the Tabula Rasa or blank slate who comes to the debate of human nature and emotion vs reason neutrally and gains a proper understanding of humanity through is experiences with Velvet and the others during his journey with them.
I've heard people complain that it takes too long for Velvet to really start to develop in the game. I've heard claims that she changes from a happy simply hunter woman into a rude, violent, overly obsessive rage monster (which is as much because of the nature of what she's been turned into as to what's happened to her BTW) and stays like that unchanging until nearly the end of the game. < This is absurd really.
Honestly I consider Velvet one of the best developed characters in all of fiction, which is because she changes VERY gradually. Velvet is laser focused on her pain and rage at first to the point of completely dismissing anything and anyone that doesn't have something to do with it, then she meets Laphi and starts considering other people's opinions and problems. As the party grows and she interacts with them more and more her obsession with revenge starts to ebb and she's willing to interact with people if not respectfully at least not rudely, though it never really goes away completely. Velvet also becomes more and more motivated to stop the bad guys because they need to be stopped, rather than because they are in her way or for the sake of revenge.
Her gradual development evolves her into a true hero which is just cemented near the end of the game, not leaped.
Fucking true. The people who wrote Velvet's character development are true masters. As are the voice actors who played her.
Yep. Vevlet's basically Lightning from Final Fantasy XIII done right.
@@davidtimmer596 Cause she is or rather what Lightning should have been in FFXIII but sadly due to bad writing of FFXIII that didn't happen. Also the director of FFXIII trilogy kept shoving her into sequels and quickly she became less effective protagonist when it started revolving around her. Velvet Crowe FTW
I'm a fan of Berserk so Berseria for me would appear like a watered-down version of it. More like I'm a fan of fantasy- not tragedy- which I feel belongs to novels and other things that you want to get into for the story alone.
That said Berseria seems more like the content for a movie, a manga, than a game.
Having my sister pass away in 2011 and my dad in 2020, I'm not alien to the feeling of personal loss. But that's how I see Zestiria as a more fun game, more balanced in the sense that it's not the personal circumstances of the protagonist that move it- not the ego or superego of a character hungry for revenge or justice... but the plot that strings the characters along with it, pulling them toward struggles and victories without the heavy drama and the convoluted twists and turns that can make a plot too heavy for a game.
The expression, "don't play games with me" means you have to be serious. My take is, games are supposed to be light- they're not replacements or substitutes for real tragedies and losses we must experience in the outside world to understand their impact.
People die... we get angry... but we move on. Like Sorey. And that's what I did.
It bothers me that tragedies and death have become "games we play." Of course Zestiria has its own tragedy, but it's not the only thing we get out of the game, and the cheerfulness and jokes do not seem "forced" or "disruptive" as in Berseria.
With Sorey, I get to ask at the beginning of the game, "How can this inexperienced dork who only loves books and his best friend ever do something so earth-shaking as to save a world he knows nothing about?"
What does Zestiria have that Berseria misses?
Sorey reminds us, as all Tales heroes do- that heroism is a choice, not an emotional surge of feeling or the dictates of reason. EMOTION vs. REASON is what the entire Tales series is about, if you look into it. But Sorey adds a little more... and he does it without the drama hype.
You need conviction... a state where feelings choose the path of reason. Tales heroes like Yuri and Velvet are moved by injustice- a sense that they've been wronged and something must be done to right wrongs. BUT IT's ALWAYS PERSONAL. It's never a decision they make out of conscience- it's never a perfect act of voluntariness, but a compulsion that drags them toward heroism.
Unlike Yuri and Velvet, Sorey never had any sense of what it's like to be human. He's coming from a different world ruled by idealism, where there is no cultural, gender and racial prejudice. Zestiria is sadder to me, because it is IRONIC NOT TRAGIC. We know there isn't a human like that... a human who chooses to be involved even when he doesn't have to be involved. In the face of suffering, we all choose not to suffer... and those who suffer like Velvet are played upon by fate or some cruel accident... it's something we know won't happen to a lot of us on a scale like that.
We know we'll never have Velvet's experiences so we can appreciate it as an audience. But Zestiria tells us without the drama and the emotional baggage, there is NO SOREY OUT THERE TO SAVE US... because a human like that who's completely untainted by prejudice is our perfect opposite.
Yet when you finish Zestiria, you're inspired to be like Sorey... to tell yourself... maybe we need to be involved. We're more human than Sorey after all... ^_^
That said, your commentary on Berseria is worth reading. I've read the same so many times. I feel that people have a common understanding of Berseria because the meaning is obvious enough. You didn't mention Zestiria but I feel like talking about it in relation to Berseria, since Zestiria is the sequel after all.
Besides, based on some comments below, I think it's Zestiria that's taken for granted because it's easier to take for granted simplicity and to think it's empty. Both stories supplement each other, so in the end, you get to have a feel of characters that are completely parallel to each other.
To some extent, I understand why Berseria was the prequel- because Sorey is different... not smarter or better... but he did something right that smarter and wiser and better people would've easily missed because like Velvet, we're all caught up in our self-righteous conceits.
All Sorey had to do was to be different. Maybe just by being different, we can work miracles. ^_^
@@turquoisemoon3654 While I agree that people sleep on Zestiria I can't really agree on some of your criticisms of Berseria. And to me, the type of story isn't bound by medium at all; personal circumstances of the protagonist are a perfectly fine basis for a video game.
Also, concepts like betrayal and vengeance were not invented by Berserk. Berserk does not own those concepts, so just because something uses them does not make it a "watered down" version of Berserk. It's its own thing. It's the same crappy logic that I would use if I wanted to call Zestiria a watered down version of Avatar: The Last Airbender. But I don't because it's a shitty argument.
Having played Tales of Zestiria beforehand really hammered in just how much of a tragic story Velvet's is.
They really did well with this game and this character.
( message from France so sorry for my english )
Thank you for this video
Velvet is probably one of my favorite characher in the Tales Of saga and you help me too understand her more
Happy to hear from you and glad you enjoyed the video and are a fellow Velvet fan
One of the best tales of series protagonist of all time
Definitely my favorite
@@CommRio Luke fon Fabre from tales of the abyss is my favorite protagonist his character development is the best in the series overall
@@LOREWITHBLAZER Someday I'll be able to snag a copy for my 3DS, but for now I remain unable to (legally) play Tales of the Abyss
@@CommRio to be fair I played on the pcsx2 I even uploaded video the with boss fight with Asch here’s a link if you want to see ua-cam.com/video/OMjgIfJ-yag/v-deo.html
9/10. I don't give it a 10/10 because of the devious concept art they sneaked in the credit scenes.
nah bro they be toying with my feelings, after that I just stared at the title screen for some good 10 minutes thinking about the "what if" artorius didn't had pulled a Griffith from berserk.
for the first solo female MC of a tales of velvet sure has more charisma than 90% of the other tales of MCs.
Melchior is the real unforgivable villain of Berseria. Every bad thing that happens in the game is DIRECTLY his fault, except maybe Celica and Phi dying. But who knows, maybe he orchestrated that too. Wouldn't put it past him.
And he would have gotten away with it, if it weren't for a meddlesome Magilou and an inconveniently placed flower.
Seeing how he appears right as Arthur is grieving to try and convince him that humanity is evil and must be supressed, he had to have been keeping an eye on Arthur to know when to appear. It couldn't have been coincidence.
Through this scene, the game implies that he may have caused it, but he definitely had to have watched it happen without interfering.
Melchior must have seen Celica's death as necessary for the world's savior to be born within Arthur.
That being said, Melchior does care about humanity, but has lived for so long and has become so jaded that the necessary loss of life means nothing to him.
I don't think I'd call Melchior evil, though, since he was a pure soul that was clean of malevolence. He simply lived life according to cold logic.
@@CommRio I only played through this game once, when it came out, and I still remember that moment with great satisfaction.
I also think that he was behind Celica's death as well, there was simply too many conveniences to not to be the case.
Like the fucker only arrive just after Artorious was in a vulnerable mental state due of the death of his wife while be fully aware of the location of the Empyrean, and he was far too collected for someone who just come right at that moment, he definitively planned all of this.
He probably thought Artorious was getting too soft and that he was losing focus on the mission, which made him decide to take action, and its not like this its beyond what he could do, not if you consider what he has done with Magilou in the past.
This bastard its the Professor Hojo of the Tales of Berseria's storyline.
@@CommRio funny Melchior and Aifread were who drove me to keep playing and loving the game. The two, being mentioned a lot but not really seen, fascinated me
Velvet is easily the best tales protagonist she has a level of complexity that not a lot of them have
Luke fon Fabre would love to speak to you
@@GiordanDiodato don't get me wrong I love luke I just personally think velvet is better written
Yuri lowell is my number one and Velvet just shot up all the way to number 2 spot lol
Yuri and velvet are tied as number one to me as the show more humanity than all the rest they suffer great loss and grow and adapt ps velvet threatening to eat here allies was a lie to get them to listen after a bit near half the game
@@Lexipumpkin783 Yeah, they are both 10/10 for me....cant pick one as the best
Tales of Berseria is able to portray such complex emotions and topics that are hard to explain with mere words so well
IMO Velvet is Lightning done right (the main protag of FF XIII). She's everything i wish Lightning was when playing through those games.
Haven't played FF XIII (or any FF games) so I'll have to take your word on that front
@@CommRio A RPG fan who never played a FF game? Now, that's original.
Ugh. I like those games but they're so frustrating. But yeah I kept thinking the same thing while playing this lol
Lightning is Velvet done wrong lmao
Great presentation.
Velvet isn't edgy to the point of making the audience feel like they'll get high blood pressure, she doesn't dress too sexy, doesn't feel like a boast about being a female makes you badass.
She feels like a human and the values taught are good; acceptance and forgiveness despite being about revenge at first.
So ima just come out and say this, Velvet is edgy AF... and man have ive been looking for that. I did not know I needed a female edge lord protag this bad until I had gone through this game. Man what a beautifully writen character.
@@defectiveswordofwarning1686 With this video, I'm comparing her to Sasuke and Shinn Asuka, I know Sasuke has this "the edgier he gets, the stronger he is" and Shinn is surprised Kira isn't evil, not like Velvet who gets kinder again as the story goes, much like a heroine after all.
@@defectiveswordofwarning1686 If “I CAN FIX HER” was a character
Bersaria is my personal favorite. It hits its mark with every theme and topic it presents to the audience. It has SO much to say about SO many things. I love it. ❤🎉
Berseria was the first I played and none of the games I've played in the series have managed to top it (although Abyss is amazing), so I feel you
I just love this game because of the lovely and well thought character design. The dialogs are so natural, you just have the feeling you want to be friends with all of them. Velvet is a character one can relate to if s.o. is having trouble dealing with other people because of trauma and self-hatred.
19:45 as velvet stabbed Arthur, she didn't stab him with hate. It was evident as Arthur wasn't crying, but Velvet's tear fell over his cheeks. That moment. I mean. The storytelling was just beautiful.
Elenor is Velvet if Artorius didn't say that Velvet couldn't be an Exorcist.
I think you're right
I just beat this game yesterday (my first Tales game), and I don't think I've seen a female lead or anti-hero in a game, who was more compelling as a character than Velvet Crowe is.
Great video! I feel like I did not appreciate/remember the story as well as I should have, but this vid makes me want to replay it!
This game hurt 😭
I think Velvets story rings most to people who know the pain of losing a beloved one or are simply compassionate. I myself am driven by my emotions but now that I am 27 I have more control over them. Velvets whole character resonates with me because there is a slight fear of becoming close with someone and losing them, feeling all that immeasurable pain all over again that you try forcibly becoming cold towards others but you just can't fully oppress your own feelings that it always will shine through. I lost my mother when I was 16 and went totally numb for about 6 years or so and then I started to get myself back up again somewhat. I didn't know what to do with my life at all. I wasn't driven by anything but then I realized that my emotions and compassion make me want to help other people and be a good friend to them.
And sorry for this long post just to explain why I love Velvet Crowe so much as a fictional character xD
No apology necessary, it's fascinating to hear how people relate to various characters, even if the reason might come from a sad place.
I don't know if I would have loved this game so much if only viewing it through my compassion without knowing what personal loss feels like.
This game rekindled my love for gaming
Awesome ending and that's usually hard to do
Tales of Verseria es mi juego favorito, por sus personajes, historia y su final, es fácilmente ignorado por muchos por puntos negativos que realmente no afectan a la calidad de lo que el juego ofrece.
Exelente video y exelente análisis de Velvet, ella es con mucha diferencia mi personaje favorito desde que jugué Tales of Verseria, y a día de hoy sigue sin ser superada.
Estoy de acuerdo contigo, el juego y los personajes son marvelloso a pesar de que algos personas dicen no es.
Estoy contento te gusta el video, gracias por tu commento.
I have been arguing that Velvet is a well written protagonist and surprisingly the first female "Tales of" main protagonist in the series at least I'm aware off anyways. Despite being edgy she still retains some feminine characteristics like being great at household and sisterly concerns towards Laphi. The VA really makes Velvet as a character shines as her stuggles for sanity for both guilt and hatred consumes her. Unfortunately not many see that even playing the game still say she's way too edgy or too cliche, I kinda blame the market for using cliches so bad that this game was being called "just" cliche to begin with. It's why videos like yours are appreciated because it explores thatVelvet character is quite in depth instead of what others see her on a surface level.
you deserve more views and subs man, this analysis was well put together
Been playing Berseria again this week. I thought yuri from vesperia was a dark character, then they introduced Velvet. She became my second favorite tales of lead character after Yuri.
The voice actress does a phenomenal job as Velvet.
It's too bad we probably won't get a Tales of game with a female lead character anytime soon.
The phrase "conflict between emotion and reason" appeared in the beginning of TOB's game promotion video and in the introduction to STEAM. This is a simple and complex sentence that encompasses the entire TOB story. However, many people's views on this story are just the vengeance and villain that stay on the surface.
You know because nothing screams reason so much as "Sacrificing a sick boy to a god so that you can enslave humanity to make them stop commit crimes"
@@MegaAgamon Utilitarian ethics often have such results.
@@Ninja07Keaton ahh yes enslaved ethics
I LOVED this character. Honestly this character alone made this the best tales game, hell maybe one of the best rpgs ever. I find most main characters boring at best. I was behind her all the way.
sad we prob never going to get another solo female lead
I wish you weren't likely right.
Well milla from xilla wants your number
@@annoyingPoe15 seeing as how she shared her mc titled with jude lol. Nah
@@LunaPPK I liked Millia but as you pointed out she shared lead character duties with Jude.
I don't really see why we wouldn't get one again eventually? Berseria sold like hot cakes, and the tales dev team clearly has no issue with making female characters have major roles within the stories of their games. I know Milla shared her spotlight with Jude, but in every sense of the word she is the main character and driving force of Xillia as a story, and I would argue that she is the "real" main character of that game. Just because Arise has a male protagonist, doesn't mean that future titles aren't going to have female leads, I think it quite likely that the next title after arise will have a female lead, since the designers clearly have tons of fun designing the outfits for the female cast members and that berseria sold so well.
I feel like she would've deserved a second game, she was literally the greatest character I've encountered in the entire serie
I love this game and I love Velvet, but the ending upseted me. Even though it made sense for it to end that way, I didn't want that to happen to Velvet
I love this game Magilou is hilarious and velvet is one of my favorite main characters in any game I’ve played a handful of JRPG’s and this is one of my favorites
I play the Tales series to this day because as Rpgs they have some of the best story's of all with really fun gameplay
Man it's always a tie between Velvet and Yuri as my favorite Protagonist in the Tales Series.
Same here they both have a lot in common. Both Velvet and Yuri will do what they think is right, even if it means people view them as a villain.
I mean Yuri goes and flat out murders people, because they escaped justice, so he decided to take them out so fulfill his idea if justice.
Yes they were bad people but the way Yuri dispatches them without remorse.
Then of course Velvet doesn't care who she uses to get what she wants. History views her as the villain.
In Zestria they mention how in the past the Shepard defeated the lord of Calamity aka Velvet thus saving the world. Well playing Berseria we find out it's the opposite that it was actually Velvet that saved the world and it was the Shepard who was the villain.
But because the abbey is so powerful history is rewritten and only a handful of people know the truth.
In My Humble Opinion Velvet.
Velvet Crowe is clearly a female equivalent of Spawn because they were turned into vengeful demons & both were betrayed by The Abbey/CIA. Velvet is a wonderful dark heroine.
Love to see the people commenting days ago, weeks ago, months ago and this game is from way back in 2017. It really shows that this game is a masterpiece.
I just started playing the day before yesterday and I got hooked up with everything in the game, characters, plot, gameplay, everything (majorly in velvet though xD, I fell in love haha)
I didn't watch this video yet but I will come back later after I finished the game to avoid spoilers. I'm on the Eizen part after they destroyed the battleship and escaped.
It's a great game so I hope you continue to enjoy it. I do think one of the reasons Berseria still has such a hold over people though is because we're still waiting on the next game of the series. Maybe it'll die down more once Arise finally does come out.
@@CommRio don't worry, I will continue to play and enjoy it! Do we have a chance to get another berseria game?
@@CantFindNemo It seems unlikely especially since Berseria is a prequel of Tales of Zestiria (albiet over a thousand years before that game). Tales doesn't tend to do more than two games in a particular world.
@@CommRio that's kind of unfortunate...
@@CantFindNemo Yeah but who knows maybe down the line they'll give a sequel a chance.
I think a remake needs to be made, because as far as I'm concerned, Velvet worked.
Beatiful video. Yes I agree. Velvet is the sole female lead in the series (Milla doesnt count) and came out for me as not only the best lead for the Tales series but sharing the numeber 1 spot alongside Haseo from .hack//G.U. as the best JRPG protagonists and the bar in wich I judge everyone else.
Its pretty fucked up that the usual suspects downplay Velvet's character as nothing more than shameless fanservice due to her design, but then again these are the same people that usually preach "dont judge a book by its cover" when it comes to female characters.
Ikr, hipocrisy at it's finest
I never got around to playing the game yet but i read a lot about her and i would have to say she could very well be one of the most, if not the most developed protag characters in the tales seires. With yuri lowell trailing behind at second
Good analysis.
I’ve encountered many in this fandom who have trouble with darkness inside people’s hearts, characters who are trait by isolation. This becomes evident in characters like Velvet and Shion.
Velvet was a gentle soul who lost her parents when she was young, then her sister was violently taken from her. Forced into a mom role where she her terminally ill brother became her whole world who was murdered in front of her eyes by the last person she loves. Immediately she slaughters the entire village including her best friend. Has her arm severed, thrown into solitary confinement for 3 years where everyday she had to eat daemons. Then is rescued by her reincarnated sister whom she kills. And people expect her to be IDK just broody?
Rage and vengeance isn’t slow. I’ve know many people who had been shat on their entire life, their suffering isn’t remotely close to what Velvet had to go through. Most of them are either very hot or cold. The hot ones are fine until their rage gets triggered and let me tell you, it doesn’t take much, because that rage is living rent free 24/7. Underneath the surface they are always boiling.
If you have doubts, look up the story of Saint Olga of Kiev. You’ll see just how not slow rage really is.
Velvet and Kaine from NieR are my two favorite JRPG characters of all time
I really hope this isn't the last of Velvet, yes it's been 8 years but there is no rule I think that they can't revisite Berseria, the door is wiiiide open to bring her back as the protagonist of a game and the Plot for that game is litterly there too "find a way to save her brother."
Oh yea, Berseria is one of my fav games of all time
I loved her
Berseria is easily my favorite game just for the cast. Velvet is top tier wife material, magilou is how you write a good comic relief, rokuro is a great revenge tale and Eizen BRO Eizen is just so cool. You actually want to hate artorious and phi is great because of his growth. The only one I’m not big on was Eleanor. But I blame that on how long it took to get her in the main storyline cast.
Imagine putting Velvet, The Punisher, Billy Butcher, and Lelouch in the same room though. Oh, what schemes or conflicts could unfold between these 3...?
Still want a full Berseria anime
Just about finished berseria and out of the 3 ive played this is my favorite one also i want an AU where velvet and the crew go and meet Edna pre zestiria i think that would be neat
I have no idea why this game is not often called as one of the best tales game
It seems like Tales fans have a lot of variety in what they call the best Tales game, not a lot of consensus there, but I do see Berseria from a decent number of people.
It's like Final Fantasy everyone has there favorite
The dungeons are really bad for the most part
Idk about you but I often see it in the top 3 among fans alongside Symphonia and Abyss
A cursory search on Reddit will tell you consensus ranks Berseria near the top as I constantly see it mentioned as the best or second to Symphonia
Velvet is my favorite female character ever and 2nd favorite period behind Gaara from nardo. Interestingly, both of them follow similar arcs. As well as a few of my other favorite characters. Silver (Pokemon), Zuko, Vegeta (sort of, though he starts evil), Katsuki Bakugou (again, sort of, though he never goes full-on villain, just an arrogant asshole)
Also, I found it interesting how despite being a lot darker, Berseria is much more optimistic than Zesteria which comes off far pretty pessimistic.
Gaara is a boy though.
Absolute best female protagonist
Also this VA needs more work I can't really recall any other things she's done unless she has a huge range
Velvet and the VA are both incredible. If you are a fan of other JRPG's you've probably heard her in those games. She was in the most recent Fire Emblem game and Tears of the Kingdom.
@@CommRio another reason to get a Switch, problem is I've never played a Fire Emblem so there's that barrier of entry when I already have a big backlog
The honest true villain of this game is honestly Melchior. Bastard is pretty much the reason the entire story got set into motion starting with Arthur, and I wouldn't put it past him either to have orchestrated the events of the first scarlet night just to get Arthur on his side. Also abusing and disowning Magilou like that, wish his death lasted a bit longer in the game, he had it coming.
Melchior is an excellent villain as well. Berseria in general has great villains and I think Melchior helps balance out the more tragic ones like Theresa and Arthur.
@@CommRio Honestly I think Arthur is an antagonist set up right where despite the main character's hatred towards him, you can never really hate him yourself, just feel sorry for him. There's a lot of subtle clues just paying attention to the good writing and animating done to express the minor details of the characters as well as the minor details you can pick up from the world building. Based on Laphicet's reaction to velvet showing up to his sacrifice as well as Phi's quest line going into 12 year sickness, I already managed to piece together that something was up and Laphicet was in on the whole thing with Arthur. I couldn't find blame against Artorius for that more than I truly saw him as a broken man. What threw me off though was the 2d animated cutscene at the start of the game showing Arthur performing the sacrifice with Celica despite later the game showing that she fell down by accident. If anything, that would be my only criticism here cause it leaves you assuming Arthur was heartless enough to kill his own wife and unborn child despite the multiple contradictions to it in the story. By the end I honestly love him as a character and cannot bring myself to call him a villain.
I'm also halfway through zestiria and am a bit disappointed to have Sorey as the MC to a sequel game in the timeline. Not that his character is bad but it doesn't resonate with me as much as artorius or velvet did in berseria. Zestiria tries too hard to make a morally gray world out of a black and white story. Shepherd + purification = good. Malevolence + Lord of Calamity = Bad. Perhaps I'm not far enough into the game for the twists but there is no current relation between Sorey and Heldalf that I know of or am hinted at by the game to feel as endorsed in the story where Velvet and Artorius were related from the start and the game's world building led up to satisfying climax.
@@ciphymasterofmedia9104 I understand this sentment for Zestiria and the disappointment people have.
In fact it is a simple good vs bad story and Sorey is an immutable good guy.
That said, as a person who played Zestiria before Berseria, I enjoyed the game and its theme and then when I finished Berseria and how it connects to the chronological sequel, for me Berseria made Zestiria a better game, at least that's what I feel.
Berseria is so good that made Zestiria feels better, of course this is only my dumb opinion, but how the two connects with each other as a whole is satisfying.
I’d argue Berseria has the strongest cast of the Tales series
If it's not the strongest it's certainly up there
I don't really have much to say about her as a character since I never finished Berseria, but I will say I freaking love her name. Velvet Crowe is so awesome. It sounds like the name of a rock band. Plus she has a great design. While I didn't finish the game, I never had an issue with her, she seemed cool to me. Not as fun as Milla from Tales of Xillia (my favorite Tales game), but I still liked Velvet. I don't know, I guess people thought she was too "edgy"? You have your brother murdered by your mentor and then spend years trapped in a hole feeding on monsters and see how edgy you turn out =/
I fucking love this game so much
This is a kind of story spoiler, don't press READ MORE if you don't want to get spoiled...
I kind of hate and like the ending, so much sacrifice made by velvet (almost everything). That is for the greater good but I think, personally, Velvet deserves a nice ending. Waifu Mommy indeed...
On the other hand, I like her character development, well, all of them to be exact!
She only smiles a lot in the later part and every time she does it, my love for her is falling deeper hahaha.
I declared her as my number 1 favorite waifu of all waifus. Her character design is so beautiful for me (my type of girl, lol).
Well, anyways I really love the whole game! I just wish that they would make an Anime Adaptation if possible huhuhu, that would be awesome!
This is how i see Tales of Berseria, this is a long post, and spoilerino of course.
Velvet really have a great characterization, A gentle loving older sister betrayed by her trusted brother-in-law who "murdered" her biological brother before her very eyes and subject her into 3 years of living hell in the darkest pit of Titania as a lab rat.
when she finally escape from that hell hole, she is now a mentally unstable girl, hell bent on revenge (people who dislike her character take this at face value) but hidden beneath that cold and uncaring facade lies her original personality a kind and loving sister, which is why she act as big-sister figure to the party disguise as (in Magilous words) "cruelty thats also compassion"
her original kind personality clashes with her hatred through out the journey and in the end her compassionate side win, she realize the severity of her sins, but still need to push onward but this time not because of nihilism (which i absolutely hate in revenge story) but to atone for her sins, to save humanity, for the party she grown to love, and even for Artorius which she called big brother in the end, and thus the demon lord of calamity that is supposed to bring destruction and chaos to humanity, ended up saving it and in doing so, paid the ultimate price worst than death, it's quite tragic if you look at it in a certain way.
Of course one cannot have a great protagonist without a great antagonist so Artorius deserve a shout out too.
Troubled by the ideals of his long dead king and mentor, as well as the fact that the Crowe's have been sold to the bandits by the villagers of Aball to save their skins, in which resulted in the death of Celica and their unborn child.
Artorius, stricken by grief, have been taken advantaged by a Fanatical Melchoir who twisted the words and ideals of king Claudin, with Artorius unstable mental state due to the death of his beloved wife and his unborn son, ( and this is where i look at him differently to yours) he vowed to punish himself, the villagers of Aball, and humanity as a whole, and cleanse them of fear and all emotions, as a sort of twisted way of atoning for failing to protect Celica and his unborn child, he did it all, and sacrificed all for his beloved wife and his unborn son, this is how i see the symbolism of his sword.
To me the tale of Velvet is about learning to love and trust again, balancing both reason and emotion, forgiveness, taking responsibility, and realizing not all are lost in life even if you are deep in despair.
Berseria is my 2nd favorite game of all time (1st being Shadow of the colossus), its a revenge story done right, Usually this type of genre ended up being a whole lot of nothing, with no lesson learned and leaves a bad taste of nihilism that i despise in any story. But Berseria is massively different.
All of that is what made this game and Velvet resonate with me, it's what made this game great for me. Unlike most Female protagonist in modern mediums, their sole characterization is that they are Whamen and they hate men and therefore must rise from the oppression (cause you know whamen are always oppress lol) and destroy the "patriarchy" in some symbolic way.
Velvet? well Velvet "hate" everyone all the same lol, indeed two of my many favorite line of hers are "Men are simple" and "Women are creatures of deceit boy" she doesn't care lol.
I feel like we will never have the same Female protagonist with great characterization like Velvet going forward, due to how everything is being politicized and being used as propaganda tool by the Left and Right, well at the very least that's the case here in the western front. how i wish things is the same as the 2000s where games are games and people have nuances on how they perceived things, it's such a miracle for a game like Tales of Berseria to be release in 2016, some of the lines and scenes in this game wouldn't fly in today's "western standards" , but then again its massively underrated so there aren't a lot of fuss about it, guess that''s a blessing in disguise in a way.
Nice to see that we have a lot of agreement in our thoughts. Along with some intriguing disagreements as to Artorius and some other stuff.
I honestly agree, both Velvet and Artorius came from the same place of being broken people hellbent on fighting back against the source of their pain. I honestly kept wondering how they'd do the story as I went through it, they could've easily made Vevlet end up as a heartless tyrant who eventually gave into her despair (would not be a bad idea for an actual "bad" ending to the game) but this revenge story ended on a note that most revenge stories never go through on such a personal level. That note is "consequence". No one in the game got away with any sort of evil acts that they did, even if at heart they had good intentions or were positive and good people. Velvet especially got such a backlash from it that Laphicet's speech to her that snapped her out of it was one of the most satisfying moments I have ever experienced in a story based game where the revenge seeking character essentially gets punished for their actions, then saved from that despaired mindset, and finally coming to terms and acceptance of what happened in their life. I practically never see that in revenge stories.
There's also the fact Berseria is a japanese game, and most japanese people don't give a rat's ass to the West's overexaggerated sensibility to everything.
Velvet and her game are strong reasons why i'm almost exclusively playing japanese games lately
I hope that there’ll be a crossover of Tales of Berseria in Tales of Arise. I would say that Velvet and Innominat would make an appearance rather than the whole party.
The fact she was based off Guts from Berserk shows bc he's regarded as THE best manga/anime character by many. Glad she didn't disappoint.
Out of all the characters from the Tales of series I really feel bad for Velvet. I mean my christ she has went through so much pain & trauma in her life & on top that been betrayed by the person that she somewhat looked up to. Well at the very least Velvet did got her revenge & saved the world from turned into emotionless slains so...yay
Shame most likely we wont see her again.
Strongly prefer a dead character then non stop resurrected like Illidan in WOW. He died even before first WOW, but nope Activision has no imagination to come with a new character. Dead is dead, new characters most take her place.
After I finished Arise and got 100% achievements, I personally don't think the cast is even close to as good as Berserias cast. I think the only thing Arise does better than Berseria is combat and graphics. Arise is a good game, but everything else about the game is underwhelming relative to Berseria.
Completely agree
@@CommRio Nice to know I'm not the only one!
There's also a whole lotta lesbian subtext with Velvet and Eleanor. Velvet kicked Oscar's face to the fucking wall because he "made a girl cry." This was waaaaaay early in the game, before just about everything really kicked off for her character development.
What was that line about “Velvet starting to ripen” that Magilou said early on in the game? I think that was implying that she was attracted to Eleanor.
My intuition wqs right about buying Berseria on Steam, such a great story and characters, this needa and anime adaptation as well
Love when the intuition turns out correct
@@CommRio indeed
1:55 Have to correct you there. It is 7 years after, not 3. Scarlet night does not appear to follow a cycle. After all Velvet and Laphicet were really small back in that flashback. Scarlet night appears 10 years prior to main story, 3 years prior and during the main story.
PS Also note that Velvet is very powerful but not a Mary Sue unlike a certain Star Wars protagonist.
If I was to ever write about female main protagonists Velvet would be one of my focuses and compare her to Rey as how not to write a character, and take critique for that matter.
I think there's one scene that needs to be remarked in this entire story: the bath scene in the snow town (before confronting Shigure and Melchior)
At that point, it is entirely established that Velvet has gone past the way of no return, having committed the same crimes and mistakes she balmes Arthur for. At that point, she expect no forgiveness from anyone.
However, Phi comes out with a little meaningless complain about being called like that, followed by the next dialogue (which is to say, the best line in the game)
"It's okay. I forgive you"
Laphicet knew that Velvet was beyond the point of no return, but that she still is a person with a lot of emotion; one that, while knowing she doesn't deserve it, wanted to be forgiven. And Laphicet gave that one instance to feel it.
Pretty goated protag reminds me alot of Ragna(Blazblue)
Yeah so in combat I exclusively played as Velvet so whenever I had to fight without her, whether she was unavailable for story reasons or because she had no hit points, I would struggle a lot. Also, it took me a long time to pass the tutorial in Velvet's prison cell where you have to use flash step or whatever it was three times in combat. Idk I never purposefully did it again. Man that was pointless.
I also primarily played Velvet (I do that for all the protagonists of Tales games such as Yuri and Alphen as well), they just feel the best to play for me.
Velvet is incredibly powerful compared to the other characters. You could probably solo the entire game with her
I always liked her arc, its pretty on par with characters like Lloyd or Luke
1. pretty
2. nice voice
3. badass but caring
4. ̶A̶s̶s̶a̶s̶s̶i̶n̶ ̶C̶r̶e̶e̶d̶ ̶S̶w̶o̶r̶d̶. Optimus Prime styled sword
This game seems to have taken alot of inspiration from Berserk
I never recognized this but I see it now
Stares at blazblue but ok
Heavily! I saw people say Miura should've sued them lol
It was a great game and i usually dont like playing a female protagonist. Just an incredibly rich character.
woulld think you show velvet coocoo
Lord knows the game doesn't need anymore "anime swordies," but I think anyone who has played Berseria would agree that Velvet would be a fantastic character for Smash Bros.
Let's get a Switch port for Berseria before we can consider her as a Tales rep for Smash
I really liked Velvet. Not the edge lol that's annoying but the cute parts between her and Laphi. I am not done with the game, will come back when I finish it cause I don't want to be spoiled.
Why we almost never hear people bring her up as a strong female character in mainstream discourse is baffling...