To the point that it's one of the main reasons for playing them?Yes absolutely
To the point that it's one of the main reasons for playing them?100% yeah
I... Don't think most Tales fans would say that the combat is one of the more consistently good aspects of the series. I certainly wouldn't.
Combat is important, but Graces isn't super popular despite running laps on that front for a reason.
Berseria did not have great timing. It was a follow-up to a bad game and released at the end of a generation. It managed to do semi-okay purely through word of mouth.
(I prefer it to Vesperia, which is everyone's darling, and that one didn't quite click with me, even if I did enjoy it)Vesperia is a game that I think people would like a lot less if they went back to it. Greatly benefited from being the first HD game + Troy Baker as Yuri Lowell.
that said for the most part Berserias sales have recovered enough to get to 2.5 million? It could have been word of mouth or just that games in general are accessible with PC releases too. Dont think its considered a failure nowDidn't know it reached 2.5 million. That's actually a lot higher than it was last time I checked, good long-term sales legs for a JRPG. Although I think it's also been heavily discounted repeatedly so those aren't full retail price sales.
that said for the most part Berserias sales have recovered enough to get to 2.5 million? It could have been word of mouth or just that games in general are accessible with PC releases too. Dont think its considered a failure now
Sales have improved but that game is regularly below $12, even more regularly below $6. The game made up sales by being dropped to pennies. I don't know how much actual money it's made.They probably have some data showing that Berseria's deep discounts will incentive people on the fence to go "sure, I'll bite" while there's not much they can do to make people buy Zesteria. I could be wrong though.
Funnily enough, Zestiria is typically more expensive than Berseria during sales (or at least that used to be the case). I wonder how that works for them lol.
It's a bigger problem in Abyss though because unlike most Tales games there is also some extremely important character story content tied behind some of the more easily missable ones that should have just been straight up main story events.The one that jumps to mind is when asbel and hubert
My opinion of one character in particular changed drastically between the casual flying through first playthrough and the 100% completion playthrough years later.
EDIT: lol I don't know how I just didn't read the last chunk of that post calling out Graces. Yeah it's a problem there too, but I don't think it's as severe. There's nobody in Graces who I would do a completely 180 on after seeing their missable sidequests content.