The Tough Competition for Tales of Berseria
Tales of Berseria has enjoyed its time in the limelight in Japan’s gaming market in the last few months, in so many words, but it’s already time to discuss the upcoming western release. Though it was previously given a vague “early 2017” release timeframe, Bandai Namco confirmed at this weekend’s New York Comic-Con that it will arrive in western territories on January 24th, a little under four months from now. It will mark the quickest localization for a new Tales title since Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World for Wii in 2008 nearly eight years ago.
To elaborate: Following the release of that title, Bandai Namco stopped localizing Tales titles for western territories for a while. They restarted with Tales of Graces f, which released in the west over a year after its Japanese release. The lengthy localization times occurred for subsequent Tales releases too, until last year’s Tales of Zestiria arrived within around ten months. With Berseria, that will have shortened to a little over five months, meaning the company efforts to catch us up to speed have paid off. Given the franchise’s increasing popularity outside Japan, it wouldn’t be a surprise if future installments started releasing simultaneously (or close to it) starting with the next release.
For Berseria’s sake, though, perhaps they should have given this more time before publishing it. If you follow a lot of Japanese games and their localizations, you may already be aware that January will be a busy month for releases. This game will arrive alongside Resident Evil 7, Kingdom Hearts II.8: Final Chapter Prologue, Yakuza 0 on that same day, and will compete with the last two for the attention of the audience for niche Japanese games. It will also release close to the recently delayed Gravity Rush 2, which was knocked back to January 18th, 19th, and 20th in Europe, Japan, and America, respectively. Needless to say, it will have a lot of competition, and I’m not confident it will be able to overcome the challenge.
(By the way, February would be no better, as it would have to compete with Berserk and the Band of the Hawk, Nioh, Horizon Zero Dawn, and especially Persona 5. They’re up a creek here.)
That’s because fans of the Tales series haven’t been enthusiastic about this installment in any part of the world. You won’t find many who’ve enjoyed all three recent Tales games, but of them, Zestiria received the most criticism due to the development team trying some new experiments that didn’t work as well as expected. While its characters were well-developed, the overall story falters. The camera also suffered from serious visibility issues in combat, and its open field was lacking in design. Of course, for Japan, the biggest issue was how one character received the short end of the stick, which they took as a betrayal (it’s a long story, which contains minor spoilers). It’s why the game quickly fell off sales charts in Japan.
Unfortunately for Bandai Namco, many of them didn’t return for Berseria, as it was the worst-selling installment since the original Graces in Japan — though it notably still sold around 350,000. Zestiria burned them, sure, but this game using a similar art style (with a few modifications) and having story ties to it by being a prequel didn’t help. It’s likely their fanbase simply wants to move on from this universe and style. Those issues didn’t help it in Japan, and I can’t see it overcoming them for the western audience. That it’s releasing alongside the aforementioned stiff competition won’t help.
It’s a shame to see the deck so stacked against Berseria, because word from those who’ve played the Japanese version is that it’s a significant improvement over Zestiria gameplay-wise. The development team took the criticism from its predecessor and the Tales of Xillia titles to heart, and sought out to make an improved title through their painstaking efforts. Despite that, those positive opinions haven’t helped much in Japan, though its sales weren’t bad by the franchise’s standards. Perhaps Bandai Namco’s western arm has some good marketing plans in store for our version, because it will need serious assistance.
I’d be surprised if Bandai Namco wasn’t aware of how the franchise can’t continue as it is now, lest the next installment will succumb to even lower sales. To get dejected fans interested again, they’ll either need to create an installment that includes a bevy of new features that shake up the Tales formula, or give it a complete reboot. The former has a better chance of happening, though that could also mean we won’t see a new installment for a while. In the meantime, hopefully Bandai Namco’s western sales expectations aren’t too high. And if it doesn’t sell to expectations, hopefully they realize why it failed, and that they’ll make adjustments for future installments and release schedules.
About The Author
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
