Releasing a DLC expansion 2 years after the original Tales of Arise (and in a period where the Tales series has been weirdly inactive and fans are extremely hungry for any kind of remaster that isn't Symphonia yet again) is certainly a bold choice, and yet, this DLC feels extremely safe! Beyond the Dawn is a playable epilogue that lets you explore the world of Arise after the endgame events that greatly changed its future. If you've ever played a game with an ending that says something like "so and so helped with reconstruction efforts after the war", imagine getting to actually play that out for 15-20 hours and that's what this DLC is! This is certainly a valid hook and there's precedent within the series for this kind of exploration (Graces' Future arc and Symphonia 2), but this DLC isn't ever going to be as polarizing as those games can be. What you're getting here, for better or worse, is just more Tales of Arise exactly as you remember it. For me, that's (mostly) a good thing since I really enjoyed Arise, but at the same time, I expected at least a little more new to chew on here!

The main story of Beyond the Dawn revolves around a new character named Nazamil who exists in a unique spot within the game's deeply conflicted world. Confronting racism and finding ways to end and move past it were the core themes of Arise and BtD partially explores that through the lens of Nazamil and her Dahnan + Renan blood. When the story is focused on the team's growing bond with Nazamil and how they help her process the trauma she's experienced as a result of her past, it works quite well and certainly makes the DLC feel substantial enough as an epilogue. It doesn't really "continue" the story so much as it serves as a new challenge for the team to confront, which also shows how much they've grown since the start of the game. Everyone's deeply compassionate and understanding as a result of all they've been through and everyone's focused on thinking about their future and doing what they can to march towards it. Seeing the team take in Nazamil as one of their own instantly like she's their adopted child is really sweet! It's all very reminiscent of Star Ocean 5's story, actually, at least that's where my strange brain immediately went. That's not a bad thing, though, because I am a firm SO5 defender! To get back on track, things become less consistent when you deviate from the main story.

The main story itself isn't particularly long, consisting of three dungeons (which are new, thankfully) and a healthy amount of backtracking to talk to familiar NPCs. On its own, this is fine enough if you think of it as a refresher tour of the base game. You get to check in on every major town, see how everyone's doing, and be on your way without getting dragged down by anything. However, the game soon starts showing its hand by gradually plopping more and more sidequests onto your map. I'm a sidequest guy for sure, I typically always do them, but when they're the majority of your time spent with the game (there's 40 of 'em!) and they're almost all simple fetch quests, you start to wonder if they all needed to be here! Considering that there aren't any new artes to learn, playable characters to try, or non-palette swapped enemies to deal with, the only new thing you're getting out of these are the stories they tell, which are rather mixed in quality overall.

Almost every sidequest revolves around Dahnans and Renans learning how to live with themselves and each other in a post-slavery world. The big exception is a multi-step "EX Quest" chain of helping Alphen learn about weddings so that he's ready to propose when the time comes. It's definitely more fetch questy than it should be, but the story it tells is surely one of the DLC's highlights. The way most quests usually shake out, though, has you either reminding someone that racism is in fact very bad or helping people find ways to improve the state of the world. Some of these are genuinely sweet, such as spreading a donut recipe across cities and cultures, encouraging residents to form a band, or helping kids get along after their differences cause a fight, but others can sometimes feel laughably naive. Maybe it's just me, but the solution to getting a town that has a dark history of incentivizing people to rat on each other to drop all their baggage probably isn't as easy as putting them all in the same room and ordering drinks! A particularly funny moment happens late in the story; after a sequence where Alphen gives a speech telling the Dahnan and Renan people that they can't rely on him for every little thing ever because they need to become self-sufficient in order to grow, the game immediately gives you a bunch of sidequests about doing various menial things for the people you literally just spoke to! The base game often has its heart in the right place regarding its takes on societal and racial issues, but it undeniably stumbles in certain key moments and BtD is similar in that regard. I think it does an overall good job of encouraging the strength of humanity when it bands together, but if the imperfections of the original story grinded your gears (a valid stance), this probably won't change your mind.

This time around, there are sidequests tied to the main cast that'll actually upgrade their boost strikes if you do them. This is a really nice incentive to do them because the upgrades are pretty huge, but the quests themselves aren't always exciting explorations of the characters like they purport to be. Alphen and Law get to literally confront their inner demons through challenging solo battles as they learn how to reconcile with their increasingly complex place in society and the greater burdens placed upon them, whereas characters like Kisara and Rinwell get a pair of simple quests that feel indistinguishable from ordinary sidequests. Considering that the group dynamic is so important to the success of this game's writing (and the Tales series as a whole, really), it's a shame that not every character gets the same level of treatment. The "EX Quest" idea is heavily underutilized and could have surely been used in place of some of these quests to create fewer but more meaningful ones. I was really surprised that Nazamil never got one, but since she's not actually in the party for much of the story, I suppose it can't be helped.

Beyond all that, there really isn't much more to cover with Beyond the Dawn. The gameplay is unchanged (you even have to rebuy and relearn all the same artes and skills!), the dungeon design is consistent with the base game, most of the music is reused, and there's little incentive to explore past the sidequests since all of the existing towns have the same structure. The final boss is really cool, at least! There's nothing exceptionally wrong with this DLC, but it's a tough sell to anyone but those who greatly enjoyed Tales of Arise and are as hungry for a new Tales story in any capacity as I am. I would say I'm in that group, but if you look around at the "online discourse", a lot of people got sick of it real hard before it was over! That's why I'm so surprised this DLC even exists. It took surprisingly long to make and was sent out to a market that doesn't come off as interested in it in the slightest. The acquisition rates for every trophy in the DLC never exceed 5%, and that's on the PS5!! As a "sequel" to Arise, this definitely isn't what anyone would be looking for, but if you'll allow me to be generous for a minute, it at least functions as a cozy little avenue to see these characters one more time. I suppose I'm a bit of a melancholic softie, but I can't deny that I got satisfaction out of seeing this crew enjoy each others' company one last time before they once again go their separate ways. Just as they think about and take action towards their future even if doing so is bittersweet, I too eagerly await to see what lies beyond the dawn for the Tales series. Though the highs and lows, I'll be there.

Releasing a DLC expansion 2 years after the original Tales of Arise (and in a period where the Tales series has been weirdly inactive and fans are extremely hungry for any kind of remaster that isn't Symphonia yet again) is certainly a bold choice, and yet, this DLC feels extremely safe! Beyond the Dawn is a playable epilogue that lets you explore the world of Arise after the endgame events that greatly changed its future. If you've ever played a game with an ending that says something like "so and so helped with reconstruction efforts after the war", imagine getting to actually play that out for 15-20 hours and that's what this DLC is! This is certainly a valid hook and there's precedent within the series for this kind of exploration (Graces' Future arc and Symphonia 2), but this DLC isn't ever going to be as polarizing as those games can be. What you're getting here, for better or worse, is just more Tales of Arise exactly as you remember it. For me, that's (mostly) a good thing since I really enjoyed Arise, but at the same time, I expected at least a little more new to chew on here!

The main story of Beyond the Dawn revolves around a new character named Nazamil who exists in a unique spot within the game's deeply conflicted world. Confronting racism and finding ways to end and move past it were the core themes of Arise and BtD partially explores that through the lens of Nazamil and her Dahnan + Renan blood. When the story is focused on the team's growing bond with Nazamil and how they help her process the trauma she's experienced as a result of her past, it works quite well and certainly makes the DLC feel substantial enough as an epilogue. It doesn't really "continue" the story so much as it serves as a new challenge for the team to confront, which also shows how much they've grown since the start of the game. Everyone's deeply compassionate and understanding as a result of all they've been through and everyone's focused on thinking about their future and doing what they can to march towards it. Seeing the team take in Nazamil as one of their own instantly like she's their adopted child is really sweet! It's all very reminiscent of Star Ocean 5's story, actually, at least that's where my strange brain immediately went. That's not a bad thing, though, because I am a firm SO5 defender! To get back on track, things become less consistent when you deviate from the main story.

The main story itself isn't particularly long, consisting of three dungeons (which are new, thankfully) and a healthy amount of backtracking to talk to familiar NPCs. On its own, this is fine enough if you think of it as a refresher tour of the base game. You get to check in on every major town, see how everyone's doing, and be on your way without getting dragged down by anything. However, the game soon starts showing its hand by gradually plopping more and more sidequests onto your map. I'm a sidequest guy for sure, I typically always do them, but when they're the majority of your time spent with the game (there's 40 of 'em!) and they're almost all simple fetch quests, you start to wonder if they all needed to be here! Considering that there aren't any new artes to learn, playable characters to try, or non-palette swapped enemies to deal with, the only new thing you're getting out of these are the stories they tell, which are rather mixed in quality overall.

Almost every sidequest revolves around Dahnans and Renans learning how to live with themselves and each other in a post-slavery world. The big exception is a multi-step "EX Quest" chain of helping Alphen learn about weddings so that he's ready to propose when the time comes. It's definitely more fetch questy than it should be, but the story it tells is surely one of the DLC's highlights. The way most quests usually shake out, though, has you either reminding someone that racism is in fact very bad or helping people find ways to improve the state of the world. Some of these are genuinely sweet, such as spreading a donut recipe across cities and cultures, encouraging residents to form a band, or helping kids get along after their differences cause a fight, but others can sometimes feel laughably naive. Maybe it's just me, but the solution to getting a town that has a dark history of incentivizing people to rat on each other to drop all their baggage probably isn't as easy as putting them all in the same room and ordering drinks! A particularly funny moment happens late in the story; after a sequence where Alphen gives a speech telling the Dahnan and Renan people that they can't rely on him for every little thing ever because they need to become self-sufficient in order to grow, the game immediately gives you a bunch of sidequests about doing various menial things for the people you literally just spoke to! The base game often has its heart in the right place regarding its takes on societal and racial issues, but it undeniably stumbles in certain key moments and BtD is similar in that regard. I think it does an overall good job of encouraging the strength of humanity when it bands together, but if the imperfections of the original story grinded your gears (a valid stance), this probably won't change your mind.

This time around, there are sidequests tied to the main cast that'll actually upgrade their boost strikes if you do them. This is a really nice incentive to do them because the upgrades are pretty huge, but the quests themselves aren't always exciting explorations of the characters like they purport to be. Alphen and Law get to literally confront their inner demons through challenging solo battles as they learn how to reconcile with their increasingly complex place in society and the greater burdens placed upon them, whereas characters like Kisara and Rinwell get a pair of simple quests that feel indistinguishable from ordinary sidequests. Considering that the group dynamic is so important to the success of this game's writing (and the Tales series as a whole, really), it's a shame that not every character gets the same level of treatment. The "EX Quest" idea is heavily underutilized and could have surely been used in place of some of these quests to create fewer but more meaningful ones. I was really surprised that Nazamil never got one, but since she's not actually in the party for much of the story, I suppose it can't be helped.

Beyond all that, there really isn't much more to cover with Beyond the Dawn. The gameplay is unchanged (you even have to rebuy and relearn all the same artes and skills!), the dungeon design is consistent with the base game, most of the music is reused, and there's little incentive to explore past the sidequests since all of the existing towns have the same structure. The final boss is really cool, at least! There's nothing exceptionally wrong with this DLC, but it's a tough sell to anyone but those who greatly enjoyed Tales of Arise and are as hungry for a new Tales story in any capacity as I am. I would say I'm in that group, but if you look around at the "online discourse", a lot of people got sick of it real hard before it was over! That's why I'm so surprised this DLC even exists. It took surprisingly long to make and was sent out to a market that doesn't come off as interested in it in the slightest. The acquisition rates for every trophy in the DLC never exceed 5%, and that's on the PS5!! As a "sequel" to Arise, this definitely isn't what anyone would be looking for, but if you'll allow me to be generous for a minute, it at least functions as a cozy little avenue to see these characters one more time. I suppose I'm a bit of a melancholic softie, but I can't deny that I got satisfaction out of seeing this crew enjoy each others' company one last time before they once again go their separate ways. Just as they think about and take action towards their future even if doing so is bittersweet, I too eagerly await to see what lies beyond the dawn for the Tales series. Though the highs and lows, I'll be there.