Tales of Berseria Remastered Switch 2 and Switch 1 Impressions

Tales of Berseria is in my top three Tales of series games. I adored it back when I first played it on PC in 2017. I even bought it on PS4 to replay, but was disappointed by the screenshot restrictions. I did think it was a good version though offering a solid 1080p and 60fps target experience. I say target because Tales of Berseria wasn't a perfect 60fps on base PS4, but it was very close in my testing. When Tales of Berseria Remastered was announced, I was curious about the Switch and PS5 versions specifically. The lack of a Switch 2 release was disappointing, but I was curious enough about the Switch port to pre-order it on the Japanese eShop to play it as soon as possible. My pre-order just unlocked a few hours ago and I've been playing the opening hours on Switch 1, Switch 1 on Switch 2, and the PS4 original game to see how this new port feels. Consider these early impressions with more to come. This is also based on the 1.0.2 version for Tales of Berseria Remastered on Switch.

Tales of Berseria Remastered Switch port impressions

The original announcement listed the Switch port as 1080p docked and 720p handheld with a 30fps frame rate target. Bandai Namco's technical detail listings can be hit or miss, but I can confirm that Tales of Berseria Remastered is capped at 30fps on Switch and Switch 2 via backward compatibility. I was hoping it would be uncapped, but it is capped at 30fps. One more thing to note is that the level of detail, draw distance, and animation culling for select foliage and characters has not been improved compared to the base PS4 release with some of those even worse in the remaster on Switch. I say base PS4 because Tales of Berseria was not PS4 Pro enhanced at all. It was a 1080p and 60fps experience on PS4, PS4 Pro, and PS5 via backward compatibility, 

In addition to poor draw distance, the Switch port suffers from poor filtering and flickering for shadows. This is very distracting docked and reminded me of Ys VIII on Switch. When played handheld it isn't as bothersome and I got used to it, but it shouldn't be a thing given the game is already targeting half the frame rate. There is no graphics mode or anything to change in Tales of Berseria Remastered and I'm quite disappointed with the port so far. Even looking at it as a Switch 1 port of a PS4 game isn't enough to forgive the flickering and draw distance.

The one positive thing I can say is that screenshots and video capture are not blocked in the opening hours, including the opening movie in my Japanese digital release that features full English text and voice options.. I'm not sure if later portions block capture, but the PS4 version blocked capture across the board for screenshots and videos so this is an improvement. 

Tales of Berseria Remastered Switch handheld gameplay

Tales of Berseria Remastered Switch 2 impressions 

Tales of Berseria Remastered on Switch 2 sadly has the same 30fps target and sees almost no improvement via backward compatibility. I was hoping Tales of Berseria Remastered would be like Vesperia Definitive Edition which ran at an uncapped frame rate on Switch 1 resulting in a solid 60fps experience on Switch 2. Unfortunately Tales of Berseria Remastered on Switch 2 has the same issues as the Switch 1 version in terms of shimmering, draw distance, the 30fps cap, and animation culling. It does however improve the load times as you can see below. If you, like me were hoping for some major improvement via backward compatibillty, it is not here aside from keeping all targets at their max if there is any room for dropping. Screenshots taken on Switch 2 itself are 720p since this is a Switch 1 game with no enhancements for Switch 2. 

Tales of Berseria Remastered Switch 2 vs Tales of Berseria on PS4 and PC

The Switch port of Tales of Berseria Remastered feels like a downgraded PS4 base release with DLC included. The PS4 version ran at 60fps and has less shimmering compared to the Switch port that runs with a 30fps target. It is hard to show the issue in still screenshots, but I am disappointed that the Switch port had to see cuts beyond the frame rate moving from base PS4 to Switch docked. I haven't played Tales of Berseria Remastered on PC yet, but the original release's PC port ran and looked better on Steam Deck handheld than the Switch port of Tales of Berseria Remastered does even docked. 

Note: For the comparisons above, the PS4 version of the base Tales of Berseria release was installed to the PS5 external hard drive. The PS4 version has no PS4 Pro or PS5 enhancement so it is capped to 1080p 60fps. The Switch 1 version of Tales of Berseria Remastered was installed to the Switch 2 internal storage. It has no Switch 2 enhancements either. Both games were captured using a 4K capture device with screenshots cropped to show potential differences between the Switch docked version and the PS4 release.

Tales of Berseria Remastered load times on Switch 1, Switch 2, and PS4

For load times, I installed Tales of Berseria Remastered's Switch 1 version to the Switch 2 internal storage, the Switch 1 version on my Switch OLED SD card, and also the PS4 original game on my PS5 external hard drive (not SSD). I mashed confirm to speed up the process as much as possible and tested the time taken to go from the console dashboard to title screen and to load an early game save. The results are below in seconds: 

While the load times on S2 backward compatibility are better than the PS4 hard drive load times on PS5, it remains to be seen how it holds up compared to the native PS5 Tales of Berseria Remastered release and also the Tales of Berseria PS4 version on the PS5 SSD. 

So far, Tales of Berseria Remastered is the one Tales of series game that has me wanting a Switch 2 Edition or upgrade more than any others. I hope Bandai Namco Entertainment considers at least unlocking the frame rate in a future update because right now Tales of Berseria Remastered on Switch or Switch 2 is a much worse experience than base PS4 and Steam Deck. 

Tales of Berseria Remastered launches on February 27 in the West for PS5, Xbox Series, Switch, and PC (Steam).