Cognition Dissemination: Is Tales of Berseria being a Distant Prequel to Zestiria a Good Idea?
We received a plethora of good Bandai Namco news for both sides of the pond between late last week and early this week. But amidst that, this week’s Famitsu magazine revealed interesting fact that’s not receiving as much attention due to its comparative unimportance: The upcoming Tales of Berseria will take place in the same universe as Tales of Zestiria, albeit in its distant past. Don’t expect direct story connections between the two, but this is clearly being done as a way to build their world’s lore. As many Tales fans have noted, it’s reminiscent of how Tales of Symphonia was a distant prequel to Tales of Phantasia, though both have their own self-contained stories.
But there’s one big difference in that comparison. Phantasia was the first title in the Tales franchise, responsible for establishing the series as a viable one for Namco about a decade before their Bandai merger. So when fans discovered Symphonia was a distant prequel when it originally released on Gamecube, there was little objection. Considering the divisive reception Zestiria received, especially the vitriolic one in Japan (that story contains moderate spoilers), this leads us to the question proposed in the title: Is making a game connected to its world a good idea? The answer is no, and I’m not sure what Bandai Namco is thinking.
To be fair, I am aware of the sound logic involved with making this decision. This would be a smart move in a bubble, since it’s a good way for them to reuse assets and base designs from the previous game, though with slight alterations to prevent the player from noticing too much.
If you’ve read a number of editorials about the video game industry (some have been on this very blog), you’ve likely heard about how development costs for AAA games have ballooned in the last few years. And while that doesn’t completely apply to Tales games, which are B-tier in their home country and niche outside it, that doesn’t mean they aren’t also looking for ways to cut costs. Traditional video games have dwindled in popularity over the last decade in Japan, so it’s understandable that developers and especially publishers want to lower budgets on individual projects. The ideal that companies have to maintain even short term profitability is hardly excusive to any country around the world, though some of Japan’s corporations admittedly tend to be less cutthroat.
This phenomenon isn’t exclusive Bandai Namco, as Square Enix and Atlus have recently done the same with Bravely Second and Shin Megami Tensei IV Final — and it’s especially excusable in the latter’s case, given their smaller size. It’s also not new for Bandai Namco: Tales of Xillia and Xillia 2 unsurprisingly shared quite a few assets, since the second game was a direct sequel. But given the reception the Xillia games received, there’s fear that the company may be repeating this mistake again.
A common complaint lobbied at Xillia involved how its latter half made it apparent the game was shipped in an unfinished state, rushed to release for Tales’ 15th anniversary. For example, some of its plot threads were rapidly addressed in the last 25%, while others weren’t cleared up at all. It also had one of the most underwhelming final dungeons in the franchise, to the point that some hesitate to call it a dungeon at all. Xillia was one of the best-selling entries in the franchise in a good while when it released in Japan, but its sequel suffered due to the backlash.
Due to Berseria’s connection to Zestiria, Bandai Namco will have to work extra hard to convince the fanbase that it won’t repeat its predecessor’s mistakes. And given reactions I’ve seen to this game thus far, before this connection was revealed, that won’t be easy. That it retains the same look and feel of its predecessors (installments from Xillia onward) was enough to make many pessimistic about it. Though the first real trailer shows that battles have received some modifications, they look a little too close to Zestiria’s for comfort to some. But its marketing from here on will be imperative towards establishing it as a potentially improved experience.
It feels like every Tales game released since the still-popular Tales of Vesperia has been divisive among the fanbase, which peculiarly remains the most aesthetically pleasing installment despite being released on Xbox 360 in mid-2008. Fortunately for Bandai Namco, many haven’t completely abandoned hope for the franchise’s future just yet — especially in the west, since every mainline installment is actually getting localized these days. Hopefully they strike a good balance again in the future — ideally with Berseria, regardless of the current pessimism.
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Geoff
News Editor | Geoff is some nerd who writes for a blog and thinks he's knowledgeable. He write a lot about video games, but is capable of writing about other subjects, too. Twitter
