Tales of Berseria

Tales of Berseria is a 2016 videogame developed by Bandai Namco Studios.

In the land of Midgand, Velvet Crowe lives with her brother Laphicet and her brother-in-law Arthur. Seven years ago, her sister Celica and her unborn child were killed by daemons, creatures infected by a supernatural disease known as daemonblight.

Velvet and Laphicet are attacked by a daemon a few days before an event known as Scarlet Night, but are saved by Arthur. When Velvet wakes up, the Scarlet Night is happening and the village was overtaken by daemons. Velvet desesperately search for Arthur and Laphicet and finds them but,to her horror, Arthur attacks her and then uses his young brother-in-law as sacrifice to an ritual. Velvet still manages to interfere, but can't prevent Laphicet's death, but gains a demonic claw in her left hand that makes her much more strong than before, and able to kill daemons.

Still, despite her new powers, she is thrown into a prison island under Artur's orders, whose real name is apparently Artorius. For the next three years, Velvet kills daemons that are thrown inside her prison, feeding on them, but her hunger for vengeance otherwise only grows. Three years later, a woman called Seres arrives at the Prison Island and helps Velvet in escaping.

Her journey towards vengeance begins...

Directed by Yoshimasa Tanaka. Published by Bandai Namco Entertainment.

Tropes used in Tales of Berseria include:

Arbitrary Skepticism: In the skit Worship in Eastgand, Eleanor shows scepticism of the idea of flying temples when Rokurou brings it up, and Magilou promptly answers by remembering her of how many seemingly impossible things magic already does on their world.
Action Girl: There are several female party members and a lot of enemies are female and very powerful.
Bare Your Midriff: Velvet's post-prison outfit exposes her stomach.
Break The Cutie: Velvet goes from a cheerful young girl in the beginning of the game to one furious storm of rage and rancor after her time in prison.
Clap Your Hands If You Believe: Malakhims' powers are based on prayers and belief. The more they receive, the more powerful they become.
Dark Is Not Evil: Velvet is a daemon, whose clothes are dark and red, but she is untimely benevolent, if anti-heroic.
Dead Guy, Junior: Velvet names the malakhim who joined her after her dead nephew. She ends to call the malakhim "Phi" while referring to her dead nephew as "Laphi" to differentiate.
Defector From Decadence: Seres helps Velvet because she believes Artorius has crossed a moral line.
Don't Explain the Joke: Magilou and Laphicet's comedy routine in Hellawes is already going bad, but then we discover Laphicet idea's of ad-libbing is explaining the joke, since Magilou told him to do things not on the script. Magilou invokes the trope by name but Phi doesn't get it.
Enemy Mine: Between two kids in Hellawes, to win an annual snowball battle, though Rokurou calls it "war".
Exposed to the Elements:
- Justified. Velvet isn't affected by cold or heat at all as result of Arthur's ritual, something it becomes very noticeable by other characters when she is in Hellawes, where snows covers everything. She has to pretend to feel cold to not look suspicious to Teresa, the leader of the Abbey on that place.
- During the skit Dealing With The Cold, Rokurou reveals cold and heat do not affect him either, because of his transformation is a daemon.
Glamour Failure: The climax of the return to Abal Village's arc involves an inversion of this. Velvet as a daemon has no longer the ability to feel taste or temperature: she feeling the sweetness of food who she playfully licks from Laphicet allows her to realize that what she is experiencing is some kind of dream.
Hot Mom: Medissa had a daughter and turns out to be very good looking and curvaceous when the party finally meets her.
I Did What I Had to Do: Artorius uses the trope almost word-by-word to justify awakening the fifth Empyrean, despite Seles's concerns the requirements.
Ironic Name: Bienfu is a total coward. Bienfu's Normin' name, which is forced to reveal so the party can use a geoboard, it's Normin' Breyve.
Light Is Not Good: The Abbey is decidedly the enemies of the game, and their default uniform is white with little bits of blue.
Little Bit Beastly: Medissa before her full transformation into a therion. Her hair gains the texture of the bodies of snakes, two of her canines grow and take the shape of snake fangs, and her left eye's pupil takes the shape of a snake.
Loophole Abuse: If you fight and defeat optional boss Lancelot, Rokurou justifies breaking his vow by fighting and killing him by saying he made his oath of loyalty as human, but now he was a daemon.
Male Gaze: Subverted. The camera takes a pan on Velvet's body during a cutscene in Hellawes, but it is actually showing Teresa's POV because she noticed someone dressing in a very skimpy way in the middle of the winter.
Manchurian Agent: After they return from Aball Village, the party wonders if Eleanor may be feeding the Abbey's information by Melchior using illusions to record her thoughts.
Master of Illusion: Melchior is a wizard specialised in creating illusions, preferably pleasurable ones, since those allow the caster to mind control the target of his illusion.
Meaningful Name: Medissa's name is two letters away from Medusa, and turns out she not only looks like a snake, but can control them to attack other people, and transforms into a even more snake-like therion.
Mismatched Eyes: Medissa's right eye is pink and looks like the ones in other humans in the game. Her left eye's pupil has gone complete vertical and the iris turned black, one of the indications she turned into a therion.
Ms. Fanservice: Velvet's post-prison outfit is exposes a lot of skin and specially the inferior part of her breasts.
Order Versus Chaos: As the game goes on, and by the dialogue of some NPCs, it's become increasingly obvious the Abbey has grown into an order-obsessed and uncaring institution under Artorius, no matter who will be affected. Velvet's party, specially their leader, however, tend to act on impulse and cry havoc wherever they go, but unlike them the party genuinely show feelings of regret.
Only Known by Their Nickname: Bienfu's name is not Bienfu, but that is only revealed halfway through the game when the party stumbles upon a cat selling a geoboard and he has to reveal his Normin's Name so the party can use it.
Playing With Fire: Seres's Artes involve flames.
Political Correctness Gone Mad: Magilou and Eleanor's stand-up comedy routine in Taliesin fails because Eleanor thinks making jokes about arson is promoting arson.
Rapunzel Hair: Velvet's hair is very long in the beginning, but braided, and reaches her feet after three years in prison, now un-braided.
Red and Black and Evil All Over: Velvet is a subversion despite her anti-heroism, dressed only in a red top and black mini-shorts but being benevolent and kind to most people despite her main objective being vengeance.
Redemption Rejection: Subverted. The party goes towards Medissa in hope of recruiting a new ally against the tyranny of the Abbey. She violently rejects and attacks all of them while declaring fanatical loyalty towards them. After they beat her up enough and bring up the case of Kamoana and Medissa's own daughter and what the latter would feel over her mother fighting to the death, Medissa reconsider her positions and joins the party's side.
Skewed Priorities: Kurogane cares more about fixing a ventilation shutter whose noises annoy him than an autonomous, deadly defense system that he forgot to put an off switch on.
Tall, Dark and Bishoujo: Velvet is 170 centimetres high, which is tall by Japanese standards, has waist-length hair and the dark personality post-timeskip.
Tempting Fate: Magilou invokes this trope after it begins to rain on Aldina Plains immediately after the party is informed that the dragon daemon they're chasing only goes to his nest on rainy days and Velvet repeats out loud the information.
The Genie Knows Jack Nicholson: Magilou refers to videogame-like terms on a medieval setting like "stats" and "playthrough" during the sketch Dealing With The Cold. Everybody else ignores what would be outright alien words to them.
The Mole: After the ending of the Return to Aball Vilage Arc, Eizen begins to suspect Eleanor is one of these, given the Abbey's presence to a place they couldn't possibly predict Velvet's party to go. Velvet reasons it away as their enemies figuring it out they collect therions.
Token Evil Teammate: Rokurou is clearly lacking in morals and prone to murder for no justifiable cause. At the end of the game, Laphicet simply couldn't purify him because of his lack of willingness to cease to be a daemon, and it's implied he spent the rest of life seeking fights for no reason.
Token Wholesome: Unlike the scantly clad Velvet and Magilou, Eleanor is the one female party member whose default costume covers a good part of her skin as to not be fanservicey.
Utopia Justifies The Means: Artorius' reasoning for his actions lie on creating a word based on his ideals.
You Are Number Six: The malakhims serving under Teresa are called Number One and Number Two.
Zettai Ryouiki:
- Seres has a grade A one.
- It is hard to notice because of her weird "skirt of books" covering it, but Magilou also have a grade A.