Tales of Berseria is the best Tales game in years. The characters are complex, and frequently charming. The gameplay is smooth and responsive. The story is heartbreaking. There’s just one problem: PlayStation players can’t use the system’s Share button with the game. Both the video and screenshot functions are disabled completely. Players aren’t even able to grab an image to commemorate their trophy. If you’re playing on PS4, there’s no sharing allowed.
This seems like a minor bug, the type of problem that will get patched out initially. Unfortunately, this isn’t a new problem, nor does it seem to be an error. The previous game in the series, Tales of Zesteria, had the exact same issue, it was never resolved. When asked about the problem directly, the official Tales of Twitter blamed the block on licensing issues.
@TojekaSteve @BandaiNamcoUK For licensing reasons, share button isn’t possible on Tales of Zestiria.
— Tales of… (@TalesofU) October 15, 2015
Some gamers have refused to accept this vague explanation, accusing Bandai Namco, the game’s publisher, of targeting YouTubers and Twitch streamers. While these kinds of assumptions may seem over the top, they aren’t exactly out of line. After all, Japanese developers have certainly been overzealous about protecting their content in the past. In this particular case, however, the ambiguous claims about licensing issues may actually be the truth.
Bandai Namco has published all kinds of titles on the PS4, from God Eater 2 to Dark Souls III to Dragonball Xenoverse. With the exception of the Tales titles, all of the games they’ve published to date allow Share Play. If Bandai’s not causing the problem, what is? While we can’t answer the question definitively, the answer probably has to do with music.
The Zesteria and Berseria soundtracks feature some of the same composers, like Go Shiina and Motoi Sakuraba. Both games also feature music from Japanese rock band Superfly. If there was a licensing issue with even one of these tracks, it’s possible that Bandai Namco went overboard and blocked Share Play entirely.
These kinds of music licensing issues don’t have anything to do with screenshots, but that probably doesn’t matter. If a publisher chooses to disable Share Play, everything gets blocked, even the content that should be harmless.
It’s a frustrating problem, especially for gamers that love to share gaming content with their friends.
That said, this issue doesn’t take away from the game itself. While it would be great to take pictures of the game’s pirate ships and bizarre conversations, the title is more than good enough to stand on its own. And of course, if gamers can’t live without sharing photos and videos, they can always pick up Tales of Berseria on the PC. Bandai Namco may be able to block Share Play, but they can’t block the Print Screen button.
Music? No, they don’t allow you to take screenshoots, and screenshoots are without music.