Tales Of Berseria’s Soul Gauge System Allows Players To Break Souls

Earlier today, we learned more about Tales of Berseria’s Magilou and Bienfu, a “great sorceress” and Bienfu, a Malak with a rather dapper hat. Now, Bandai Namco has more to say about the game’s Soul Gauge battle system.

Previously, the Soul Gauge system was established as a way of extending artes combos. Each character in battle, both ally and enemy, has “Soul.” The number of artes you can use in a combo is based upon the amount of Soul you have. Since everyone starts with three Souls, that means three artes. Party members can replenish by stealing an enemy’s Soul, but enemies can also steal Soul away from them.

During the Soul Gauge’s initial reveal, Bandai Namco said that number of Souls could increase beyond the starting three. A Break Soul is how you make that happen. This is a special action that increases the number of arts you can use in a combo and provide an advantage in battle. Bandai Namco didn’t say how a Break Soul can be triggered or what benefits other than an increase in artes in a combo will come from it. Screenshots showing a Break Soul were provided in the official Tales of blog, but there is no video showing them in action.

Tales of Berseria will come to the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and Windows PC in Japan in 2016. It will eventually also be released in North America and Europe.