Review in progress:

Boring story. The characters never shut up and repeat the same things over and over. They're paper-thin anime stereotypes you've already seen a million times. Tsundere characters are trash and always will be. The pacing is horrible. The first few hours primarily consist of walking to and from cutscenes. The amount/frequency of the skits makes this even worse.
The overpriced and predatory DLC spoils who the rest of your party will be without any warning.

The zones are very small and linear. There's no feeling of exploration at all. There are even invisible walls to keep from going to the wrong area narrative-wise. In a 2021 game. Fast travel will be disabled at times even when there isn't a logical reason in the story.

The UI is terrible. Why doesn't the map default to where I am? Why can't I see connecting elevators on the map when not all of them lead to the same place? The objective marker only displays when you are in the target area and not in the adjacent one, so you constantly need to check the map to see where to go. You can't even set map markers manually. Some of the character dialogue is in the bottom left corner of the screen and it's really easy to miss unless you stop what you're doing.

The combat was OK but felt a bit button-mashy due to how much HP enemies have. The boss I fought was a huge damage sponge.

No amount of Unreal Engine 4 can hide the fact that this feels like a dated product. Xenoblade Chronicles has large/wide areas to explore and that was on the Wii. This is more like a 3D Pokemon game in terms of suffocating linearity.

The PC port sucks. Pop-in/LOD is awful. There's a bug that prevents you from changing the resolution that they were too lazy to fix. This is completely unacceptable. Japanese PC ports are still terrible outside of like five recent Capcom games.

I don't get what people see in this franchise. They are C-tier JRPGs at best and don't do anything well.

What the hell is up with these reviews here

Now, it's my first Tales game, so I don't know how this game stands against the rest of the series. On its own, the best way I can define this game is calling it comfort food for enjoyers of both JRPGs and shonen anime.

As someone who grew up with shonen, this game tickles the right spots in my brain. The story is divided into arcs, and each arc has very little interaction with the next. You go to an area, learn about it, kill the lord, liberate it, on to the next area. This ocasionally means some character actions that don't feel properly setup (Rinwell vs. Almeidrea), or characters acting non-sensically just to... tick a box in the list of tropes I guess? (Law vs. Almeidrea)

It also means that there is no conductor line connecting everything together for a huge chunk of the game, which might make it feel unfocused, which I guess it is, but the characters and their interactions really carried the narrative on their back to me. Every conversation they had with each other felt so charming and full of personality to me, and the design of the entire party is extremely appealing to me, for some reason.

This also means that the final stretch of the game is a huge info dump, where the whole party effectively becomes little more than exposition machines, and they become very verbose, but in a redundant manner, repeating the same stuff over and over, there is a lot of fluff in the final stretch, and it kinda reminded me of the worst parts of FFXIV.

It's extremely clunky, and I wouldn't be surprised to hear that there were development issues towards the end, as even the cutscenes lose quality. Climatic cutscenes throughout the game are bombastic, with some pretty incredible fight choreography, until they just... aren't. It makes for a fairly exhausting last 5-ish hours or so. The final dungeon is also filled with giant enemies, with big HP bars - I almost dropped the difficulty to easy, just so things would move faster.

Almost. Parenthesis to talk about the combat: it's not deep or involved in the slightest, but goddammit it's flashy as hell, and the flashyness is so well done, that it alone kept me entertained throughout the whole game, all 60 hours of it. The AI doesn't feel very good though, but I think this is my personal preferences talking. It's one thing to play an ARPG like Kingdom Hearts, where Donald and Goofy are dead all the fucking time but Sora can do everything, so whatever. Here though, someone dying is bad for you, and it's highly questionable when party members die because they were too stupid to dodge. I never feel entirely in control, which always annoys me on some level.

But fuck they are flashy, and I endured those HP sponges enemies on the normal difficulty, because at the end of the day, I was being entertained by it, those finishing moves never got old, I legit don't know how they managed that. I also don't agree with the common criticism against the CP system, as I felt it gave a management resource aspect to the game, that always kept me on my toes, rather than frustrate me. I did do plenty of sidequests though, so there is that. Maybe it really is frustrating if you just follow the main story, I couldn't say.

There was also one story beat at the very very end that... look, it's painfully obvious that they really wanted to finish the game with a particular fight, and then just wrote in reverse to get there, logic and consistency be damned. That, plus the clunky as hell pacing of the final stretch, meant I was ready to give this a 7/10.

But man... that final fight and the ending that followed were some fairly extraordinary shonenshit nonsense - the right spots of the brain were being tickled yet again, and I suddenly forgot that I was exhausted with the game, like a mere 10 minutes before.

This is also a good moment to bring up the excellent English voiceover direction, and point out that plenty of scenes have some impressive gravitas, and occasionally offer some slight subversions of anime trope. The soundtrack does a great job enhancing every moment, from combat to cutscenes, even if it's nothing I'll listen casually - it's similar to Vagrant Story in that aspect.

The production values are also great, it's a gorgeous-looking game blablabla, that much is obvious. Any RPG that makes me spend a good deal of time doing sidequests (there's fishing!) is a great time to me. I am excited to try out other Tales games in the future, but this is apparently somewhat of a departure from previous entries so I actually don't know if me enjoying this means anything for the rest of the series. But if nothing else, I got at least one pretty good JRPG out of it.

I had a blast with this game. The combat is fun and just as customizable as you would want it to be, allowing you to go as crazy or as simple as you'd like. The characters are fantastic, some of the best I've seen in this genre of games. The story is really good during the first act, but kind of feels a bit stretched thin and rushed during the second. But the postgame is really good! I was surprised at how much content was unlocked after the game was over.

I've played a few select Tales of games, but this is the first one that managed to keep my attention until the end. Hell, I loved this game so much, I got 100% of the achievements! Overall, this is a really good, solid JRPG that I'd recommend to anyone interested in trying out the genre to the first time.

This year, I played Abyss, and it immediately claimed the spot of my favorite Tales Of title. It's a fortunate coincidence that the next Tales Of game I played is likely just as good, if not better. I adored Arise – it's an absolutely stunning, enjoyable, and charming game.

It takes a weighty theme like slavery and, in my opinion, handles it rather effectively, even though it eventually delves into high-fantasy territory – a trademark of the Tales Of series. The game manages to maintain a grounded experience at various points, boasting excellent character development and visuals (some of my favorite party character designs ever, without a doubt).

I can empathize with long-time Tales Of fans who might have felt a sense of betrayal with this game, though I don't believe Arise veered as far from the series' essence as other franchises like Final Fantasy have at times. The boss fights provide an exhilarating thrill, and although I mainly played as Alphen, the other characters were intriguing to play as during the limited time I spent with them (particularly in the coliseum).

Towards the end, the game does drag a bit. I believe the story elements could have been more evenly distributed throughout the campaign instead of being heavily concentrated towards the conclusion. Nevertheless, this didn't diminish my fondness for the game in the least.

Foi um dos melhores JRPGs que já joguei. Trilha sonora impecável, gráficos lindos, as batalhas impressionam (o primeiro lord já chega mostrando tudo que te espera no game). Joguei no modo acima do normal pra já dar aquela caprichada na dificuldade e falo que devia ser o modo padrão de quem quer se entregar a esse game. Acredito que no normal vc nem deve usar itens de tão facil. A história começa com um objetivo muito certeiro mas logo se torna ínfimo pro grande rumo que vai tomando. A batalha é o carro chefe onde o game vai te pegando pela mão mostrando cada coisinha pra no final do game ser uma bagunça de poderes, ataques e magias porém tudo muito bem orquestrado e controlado. As partes em cenas críticas tornam o game ainda mais empolgante fazendo pensar que vc ta literalmente jogando uma história animada japonesa com direito a altos e baixos entre os integrantes da jornada. Te faz acreditar que cada um ali é extremamente importante pro crescimento da trama. Quem não gosta de história pode ser que em um certo momento enjoe do game, mas eu curti cada segundo. 10/10

Difficulty: 4/10
Time to platinum: 60-80 hours
Platinum N°: 114

One of the best jrpg i've played in the last time without a doubt.

It features a beautiful world filled with well-designed locations, addictive and dynamic combat, lovable characters, and a story that got me hooked from the start.

The path to the platinum is long and consists of: level up to 100, defeat various special bosses (some of level 99), catch all the fish, find all the owls (collectibles), forge 100 weapons, complete 70 sub quests and watch 300 long conversations, among others.

A game that made me feel what Final Fantasy has not made me feel for years, the only negative point i found (at least in my humble opinion), is that near the end the story lengthens the arrival with the final boss quite a bit. But beyond that if you are a fan of jrpg is a must play.

Played: December 2021

Tales of Arise makes interesting choices then repeatedly cuts itself off at the knees, which makes a generally fun game also a bummer. Actually, story-wise, it's kind of a catastrophic bummer.

The art direction is gorgeous, and the environments shine, but the lack of aesthetic and dialogue personality across NPCs makes the world feel hollow. A small touch like giving them first names instead of "Dahnan Woman" could've gone a long way. I'm playing Dragon Quest 11S for the first time, and while they are also anonymous, the NPCs are given flavorful mini-narratives that make them at-home in their surroundings.

The franchise-famous skits do a lot to make even the blandest of the cast affable after 70 hours, but that ceiling is only as high as the characters are compelling. The voice acting is charming enough, but only Dohalim and Kisara's story gave me something to chew on. Our leading man Alphen does fine as a straight arrow but suffers from "main character syndrome". Our leading lady Shionne promises a mystery that under-delivers and leads to some of the biggest characterization inconsistencies between main cutscenes and skits. Rinwell and Law might actually fit the tone of this story most accurately, but they're also constant reminders of how much of this game's worldview is just not for me. Hootle, though, is very very cute!

Here's the thing. Arise's narrative commits the cardinal sin of trying to tell a story about something it cannot handle. You cannot power-of-love your way through contending with 300 years of slavery. The occassional skit or line that attempts nuance just feels like plausible deniability, and the narrative ultimately places systemic oppression at the feet of individual grievances even when explicitly saying it isn't. I'm trying to keep this spoiler-free, but here's a broad sketch of an oft-repeated cycle: The party will stumble across a grey situation, ponder its complexities and conclude there's no easy answer, then end with our hero speechifying an easy answer. The didactic tendency to just conclude "there's good and bad on both sides" betrays an adolescent understanding of humanity. And I don't mind simplicity! But if you're playing with the fire of slavery -- an evil that's as scarring and institutional as anything any world has ever seen -- then you gotta bring your A-game.

I'd also add that when the narrative veers into other-worldly territory in classic Tales fashion, the lack of grace with which it marries the human politics and the cosmic conflict really de-legitimizes whatever it's trying to say about oppression. I get that JRPGs and Tales games have this vestigial genre need to tie the at-present story to their universe's creation myth, but I just lost complete interest by the time we got to the big true-nature-of-the-world revelations.

There's a 15-hour version of this game that's just a two-hander following Dohalim and Kisara dealing with shit that I could love.

Honestly, the gameplay is a good time. The day-to-day minutiae of adventuring and world-traversing is fun, the combat is a riot (I'm a sucker for repetitive battle dialogue), and it's even got some of my favorite fishing in recent memory. Soaking in the wonder and landscapes of a new region never lost its luster. I want all the quality of life upgrades to stick with the franchise forever, and I really would love to see this art style continue.

Our main man starts off with amnesia, which actually made the core beat to beat mystery of the plot interesting despite how glaring the thematic stuff got. It's just too bad the writing's reach extends so far past its imagination's grasp.

Solid game with a fairly interesting plot and probably one of the best real-time battle systems I have encountered so far in an action JRPG. Combat feels a little clunky initially, but as soon as you get more than two characters in your party, it becomes pretty intense. Even though you can easily survive by button mashing and spamming heal items on normal, harder difficulty settings require strategy and proper dodging. Endgame content in particular was pretty hardcore, even on easy settings.

The story relies on the usual JRPG tropes, even though some interesting ideas start to come out in the latter part of the game. Even at its best it's still quite generic, but I thought it managed to find its own personality by the end. Characters are rather flat but tolerable for a JRPG.

The gameplay primarily consists in running across dungeons and maps while killing monsters. There are some classic fetch quests and "go kill five wolves" kind of submissions, but they are usually very quick, with most objectives very close to a fast-travel point.

While cel-shaded graphics and art direction are always on point, the level design is mostly dull and linear, with a lot of small empty rooms connected by long corridors. Especially when getting towards the ending, it felt like they were left without time or budget to expand the areas or add new enemies. I also experienced a lot of pop-ins even in the least crowded maps.

The direction on dialogues and cutscenes is pretty good, and hardly lets you notice the relatively low budget. Some anime cutscenes highlight the most important moments of the plot, but honestly, I thought the in-engine cutscenes looked way better.

The only thing that seriously bothered me is the amount of dialogue. A lot of it is optional just to expand the lore, but even the main storyline dialogues tend to be too long-winded and repetitive. It's like they are trying to explain the same thing in 20 different ways, just in case grandma didn't get it yet. It's all dubbed and spiced up by camerawork, but they could have told the same story with the same level of detail using 1/3 of the time.

Eu não sei o que pensar de Tales of Arise, o combate é muito bom, sem dúvidas, a trilha sonora é boa, as animações feitas pela Ufotable são maravilhosas, principalmente as aberturas; a história é UMA BAITA MONTANHA-RUSSA, no começo você ta no alto, tudo de boa, normal, tranquilo, apresentando proposta do game, personagens, universo, daí TOMA: narrativa rushada, Skits pipocando na tela nos piores momentos, cenários lineares, a retirada da tela de conclusão de batalha (isso aí me pegou) e a segunda metade do jogo, sendo um soco no estômago pelo péssimo quesito de ritmo; mas depois pega esse final que abre sorriso e de brinde um post-game bem gostoso de fazer.

Essa foi minha experiência :)

Putz mano, eu queria ter gostado mais desse jogo, os pontos positivos como já citados são ótimos, sendo estruturas bem sólidas pra um game desse porte, fora a apresentação visual dessa obra, que é excelente, tudo bonito, brilhoso, bem feito no geral; personagens? Só Shionne rapaziada, só Shionne.. infelizmente tem uma galera genérica que não curti tanto, tipo, olha o Law cara.. pelo menos temos a Shionne, adorei ela em particular. ELEMENTOS DE RPG, coisa que banalizei no Berseria e aqui eles concertaram, finalmente retiraram aquelas passivas herdáveis, que sinceramente era uma palhaçada, agora elas são fixas por item, glória senhor.

Mas é sobre isso, mesmo depois das minhas reclamações ainda joguei, platinei, comprei roupinha adicional e gostei pakas do game, mas ainda fico puto com a história, pelo péssimo rumo que ela acabou tomando, de qualquer forma paciência, TALVEZ EU SOU O PROBLEMA, recomendo pra geral ai.