Tales of Arise is the 17th main entry in the Tales Of series. Featuring the narrative of Alphen, a Dahnan man that can not feel pain, and Shionne, a Renan woman that electrocutes anyone that touches her with her “thrones”. Together they travel around the region of Dahna with 4 other companions to overthrow the oppression of the Dahnan people from Renans. Initially announced in 2019 and it has been 5 years since the last mainline Tales Of game, the game was met with a lot of skepticism due to its changes from the series’ formula but ultimately I want to believe those changes were for the best while still maintaining the series’ structure with its gameplay and story. In the end, Tales of Arise delivers a vibrant world with its hyper-focus of characterization and themes and flashy but smooth and responsive combat. Making Arise not only my personal favorite Tales Of game but also one of my favorite games of all time.
(Barring the opening moments of Arise, this will be spoiler-free).
The very first notable thing when Arise begins is its graphics. Considering past Tales Of games have been criticized for its dull and plain environments, Arise utilizes Unreal Engine 4 with its gorgeous and beautiful landscapes. From lush green forests to frosty snowy hills to heated lava plains. The world of Dahna is full of vibrant colors with variations of climate and atmosphere that clearly set around each of the 5 main regions of Dahna and how it corresponds to their elemental value (a recurring plot element in the series). Cutscenes are fluidly animated and choreographed as well, giving a more cinematic and thrilling presentation during important plot threads of the game. On top of a score to accompany the mood at any given time (which is more memorable than past Tales Of games), Arise is filled with various amounts of aesthetics to even add substance to the story purely by visuals.
The gameplay saw plenty of technical changes from past Tales Of games. While core elements, such as using artes and going into overlimit to use Mystic Artes, remained. Arise’s combat-focused more on dodging and evading and replacing many of the series’ known functions. Such as replacing multiplayer with its Boost System feature, replacing technical points (TP) with cure points (CP) and the Arte Gauge (AG), a stronger difficulty to stun enemies, and the lack of a victory screen after defeating enemies. However, the addition of the Boost System adds new gameplay features such as Boost Attack and Boost Strike to exploit the enemies’ strength. With the new changes, the gameplay encourages the player to be more active and aggressive with movement and despite these new mechanics, they all function in harmony and work together to create frantic but yet smooth and fluid combat.
In addition to the standard level-up mechanics in Arise, there is also a skill panel tree for each character to unlock different arts or improve their skill sets such as making it easier to get a perfect evade, reduce the amount of time to cast an elemental arte or increase the potency of healing artes. Branching paths to obtain different skills always create a greater sense of customization and combat development for the character. Weapon and accessory creation are also available to increase the party’s stats, and more become available to forge as the story progresses. Arise does not have a huge amount of leveling elements compared to other games of its genre but it provides enough customization to build each character in different ways throughout the game.
Despite its gorgeous visuals and tight-knitted gameplay, what makes Arise truly shine and make the game playing is the story. The game wastes no time establishing the plot beats as soon the game starts. In just the first 30 minutes, the game’s protagonist, Alphen, break free from Rehan slavery during an intense and explosive train chase scene, meet Shionne and learn of her situation and join a Dahnan resistance group to free Calaglia, one of the main realms of Dahan from an oppressive Rehan lord. And that is just the first 30 minutes out of a 40-90 hour long tale. Arise’s plot grew in scale and scope with various plot twists during the second half and ultimately became a grand epic plot renaissance of older Tales games and even other JRPG series such as Star Ocean and Xeno. All while still maintaining its overall theme of unition and overcoming prejudices, explored in different topics such as freedom and slavery, not getting consumed by anger and hatred, coming to terms with one’s past and acceptance.
The characters especially embody these plot beats and topics as they are the shining gem of Arise and the best part of the game. While there are only 6 main characters, each character is some of the most deeply fleshed characters I have ever seen in a game with their own personality, circumstances, likes and dislikes, quirks, and their own issues to overcome. Initially, the characters had an overall sense of distrust with each other mainly due to the Rehan and Dahnan dynamic. But overtime the cast began to understand and support each other and the biggest wall they were facing inside of them. Within the course of the game’s journey, the 6 main characters went from being strangers that were just essentially there due to having a common goal to having a familial, caring and warm, and close bond with each other.
The interactions with the characters are incredibly natural and organic, full of depth and there’s extremely abundant during the game’s run. From the series’ staple skits (even though I do miss the 2D anime skits, the new comic skits grew on me), during and after combat and fighting, working and completing side quests, camping during the night, and even random events such as healing a random person. The topics always vary as well and they are not even related to the main plot. The casts tend to engage in discussions about cooking, food, artifacts and relics, training, owls, and even romance and that is just a very small sample size of the seemingly endless conversations between the cast. Between the main plot and the various side scenarios, Arise offers plenty of character growth and chances to witness their strong, heartwarming connections across the 6 main characters. Especially since the cast is divided into 3 pairs to bring out the most development from each pair with each other, in an intimate and even romantic way. In fact, the cast of Arise became one of my personal favorite casts in any piece of media I have experienced. I can go on with how well-written and great the cast is but that would essentially take spoiler-filled essays to explain in detail.
The cast shines a lot during the game’s various amounts of content and it’s enough to rank up to 90-100 hours on one playthrough. While some of the quests are hunt quests that allow the party to tackle powerful bosses and gain astral flowers, an item to increase CP, each side quest always gives context for the request and allows two of the main characters to investigate the quest, allowing even further bonds between the cast. The side quests can vary from monster hunting, finding lost items, clearing optional dungeons and bosses, talking to various people, or just watching the characters getting into random shenanigans. Not to mention the NPCs update their dialogue for every major plot event. Although it’s not as dense compared to a Trails game, updating NPC dialogue is always a plus since they add to the world-building and make Dahna more alive. There are also other collectibles to obtain such as the number of owls and artifacts to discover, catching boss fishes, and clearing solo and group training exercises. Along with the main plot, Arise offers plenty of side content to get the best out of the overall story. Especially since some of the side quests are supplemental to the main plot and add extra insight.
Arise however is not without its issues since it’s not a perfect or flawless game despite its strides with the story, visuals, and gameplay. While the gameplay changes can be argued as a negative, I personally did not have any issues with it. The biggest gripe I notice is the lack of villain development and writing. While the motives are passable enough considering the setting and the overall plot and do create enough conflict against the main cast, each villain isn’t memorable and even generic, since not a single villain stays in the picture for too long. Also while the second half of Arise creates a greater scale of its theme and explores its topics in new ventures, it can be argued as being too “over the top” and “shounen cliche” with its sudden shift of direction. It can be said to be a farcry for its stable, more grounded, and focused first half of the plot, which addresses the issues of the world more directly. However, this is a matter of personal taste at best since I personally think the second half elevated Arise’s story into a truly adventurous narrative with great impact.
Arise can also be argued for its lack of creativity with the plot. While it still works very well for the overall narrative, Arise borrows many of the past Tales games with its plot beats. I will not go into details to prevent spoilers but if you play a few Tales games, then Arise’s plot will begin to feel more and more similar to past Tales games. To the point, the plot will become a cliche in the JRPG genre overall. This may be seen as a positive or negative trait, but I personally love the homage to past JRPGs, especially with the scale and the relationships of the characters. Other nitpicks could be said such as not unlocking the second set of artes you can use until the entire cast joins up with Alphen and Shionne and the fishing minigame can be rather tedious.
With smooth, acrobatic gameplay and beautiful, vivid visuals combined with some of the deepest character writing I have ever seen within a race torned setting and a world-hopping plot, Tales of Arise delivers one of the best stories I have seen in gaming and clear any doubt or insecurity with the direction of the franchise. It managed to even surpass my own expectations. I never doubted Arise would be a bad game but I would never expect that it would be my favorite Tales Of game and one of my favorite games of all time. I highly recommend the game to anyone wanting to experience what I believe will be remembered as a classic JRPG 20 years from now since it took many of the great elements from Tales and evolved it into something purely amazing.
(Barring the opening moments of Arise, this will be spoiler-free).
The very first notable thing when Arise begins is its graphics. Considering past Tales Of games have been criticized for its dull and plain environments, Arise utilizes Unreal Engine 4 with its gorgeous and beautiful landscapes. From lush green forests to frosty snowy hills to heated lava plains. The world of Dahna is full of vibrant colors with variations of climate and atmosphere that clearly set around each of the 5 main regions of Dahna and how it corresponds to their elemental value (a recurring plot element in the series). Cutscenes are fluidly animated and choreographed as well, giving a more cinematic and thrilling presentation during important plot threads of the game. On top of a score to accompany the mood at any given time (which is more memorable than past Tales Of games), Arise is filled with various amounts of aesthetics to even add substance to the story purely by visuals.
The gameplay saw plenty of technical changes from past Tales Of games. While core elements, such as using artes and going into overlimit to use Mystic Artes, remained. Arise’s combat-focused more on dodging and evading and replacing many of the series’ known functions. Such as replacing multiplayer with its Boost System feature, replacing technical points (TP) with cure points (CP) and the Arte Gauge (AG), a stronger difficulty to stun enemies, and the lack of a victory screen after defeating enemies. However, the addition of the Boost System adds new gameplay features such as Boost Attack and Boost Strike to exploit the enemies’ strength. With the new changes, the gameplay encourages the player to be more active and aggressive with movement and despite these new mechanics, they all function in harmony and work together to create frantic but yet smooth and fluid combat.
In addition to the standard level-up mechanics in Arise, there is also a skill panel tree for each character to unlock different arts or improve their skill sets such as making it easier to get a perfect evade, reduce the amount of time to cast an elemental arte or increase the potency of healing artes. Branching paths to obtain different skills always create a greater sense of customization and combat development for the character. Weapon and accessory creation are also available to increase the party’s stats, and more become available to forge as the story progresses. Arise does not have a huge amount of leveling elements compared to other games of its genre but it provides enough customization to build each character in different ways throughout the game.
Despite its gorgeous visuals and tight-knitted gameplay, what makes Arise truly shine and make the game playing is the story. The game wastes no time establishing the plot beats as soon the game starts. In just the first 30 minutes, the game’s protagonist, Alphen, break free from Rehan slavery during an intense and explosive train chase scene, meet Shionne and learn of her situation and join a Dahnan resistance group to free Calaglia, one of the main realms of Dahan from an oppressive Rehan lord. And that is just the first 30 minutes out of a 40-90 hour long tale. Arise’s plot grew in scale and scope with various plot twists during the second half and ultimately became a grand epic plot renaissance of older Tales games and even other JRPG series such as Star Ocean and Xeno. All while still maintaining its overall theme of unition and overcoming prejudices, explored in different topics such as freedom and slavery, not getting consumed by anger and hatred, coming to terms with one’s past and acceptance.
The characters especially embody these plot beats and topics as they are the shining gem of Arise and the best part of the game. While there are only 6 main characters, each character is some of the most deeply fleshed characters I have ever seen in a game with their own personality, circumstances, likes and dislikes, quirks, and their own issues to overcome. Initially, the characters had an overall sense of distrust with each other mainly due to the Rehan and Dahnan dynamic. But overtime the cast began to understand and support each other and the biggest wall they were facing inside of them. Within the course of the game’s journey, the 6 main characters went from being strangers that were just essentially there due to having a common goal to having a familial, caring and warm, and close bond with each other.
The interactions with the characters are incredibly natural and organic, full of depth and there’s extremely abundant during the game’s run. From the series’ staple skits (even though I do miss the 2D anime skits, the new comic skits grew on me), during and after combat and fighting, working and completing side quests, camping during the night, and even random events such as healing a random person. The topics always vary as well and they are not even related to the main plot. The casts tend to engage in discussions about cooking, food, artifacts and relics, training, owls, and even romance and that is just a very small sample size of the seemingly endless conversations between the cast. Between the main plot and the various side scenarios, Arise offers plenty of character growth and chances to witness their strong, heartwarming connections across the 6 main characters. Especially since the cast is divided into 3 pairs to bring out the most development from each pair with each other, in an intimate and even romantic way. In fact, the cast of Arise became one of my personal favorite casts in any piece of media I have experienced. I can go on with how well-written and great the cast is but that would essentially take spoiler-filled essays to explain in detail.
The cast shines a lot during the game’s various amounts of content and it’s enough to rank up to 90-100 hours on one playthrough. While some of the quests are hunt quests that allow the party to tackle powerful bosses and gain astral flowers, an item to increase CP, each side quest always gives context for the request and allows two of the main characters to investigate the quest, allowing even further bonds between the cast. The side quests can vary from monster hunting, finding lost items, clearing optional dungeons and bosses, talking to various people, or just watching the characters getting into random shenanigans. Not to mention the NPCs update their dialogue for every major plot event. Although it’s not as dense compared to a Trails game, updating NPC dialogue is always a plus since they add to the world-building and make Dahna more alive. There are also other collectibles to obtain such as the number of owls and artifacts to discover, catching boss fishes, and clearing solo and group training exercises. Along with the main plot, Arise offers plenty of side content to get the best out of the overall story. Especially since some of the side quests are supplemental to the main plot and add extra insight.
Arise however is not without its issues since it’s not a perfect or flawless game despite its strides with the story, visuals, and gameplay. While the gameplay changes can be argued as a negative, I personally did not have any issues with it. The biggest gripe I notice is the lack of villain development and writing. While the motives are passable enough considering the setting and the overall plot and do create enough conflict against the main cast, each villain isn’t memorable and even generic, since not a single villain stays in the picture for too long. Also while the second half of Arise creates a greater scale of its theme and explores its topics in new ventures, it can be argued as being too “over the top” and “shounen cliche” with its sudden shift of direction. It can be said to be a farcry for its stable, more grounded, and focused first half of the plot, which addresses the issues of the world more directly. However, this is a matter of personal taste at best since I personally think the second half elevated Arise’s story into a truly adventurous narrative with great impact.
Arise can also be argued for its lack of creativity with the plot. While it still works very well for the overall narrative, Arise borrows many of the past Tales games with its plot beats. I will not go into details to prevent spoilers but if you play a few Tales games, then Arise’s plot will begin to feel more and more similar to past Tales games. To the point, the plot will become a cliche in the JRPG genre overall. This may be seen as a positive or negative trait, but I personally love the homage to past JRPGs, especially with the scale and the relationships of the characters. Other nitpicks could be said such as not unlocking the second set of artes you can use until the entire cast joins up with Alphen and Shionne and the fishing minigame can be rather tedious.
With smooth, acrobatic gameplay and beautiful, vivid visuals combined with some of the deepest character writing I have ever seen within a race torned setting and a world-hopping plot, Tales of Arise delivers one of the best stories I have seen in gaming and clear any doubt or insecurity with the direction of the franchise. It managed to even surpass my own expectations. I never doubted Arise would be a bad game but I would never expect that it would be my favorite Tales Of game and one of my favorite games of all time. I highly recommend the game to anyone wanting to experience what I believe will be remembered as a classic JRPG 20 years from now since it took many of the great elements from Tales and evolved it into something purely amazing.