Combat is dreadful; feels like you're hitting a beanbag chair that occasionally attacks in your direction. Enemies don't stagger at all, meaning there's no feedback from your attacks, meaning that you don't feel like you're actually doing any damage. The attack button is R1 and the dodge is R2; you can't remap this, so there is no escape from the worst action game control scheme of all time. The game looks hideous--the advanced 3D graphics combined with the anime art style create an uncanny look. I feel like I'm playing with action figures and half of them are my sisters' Barbie and Ken dolls. The storyline seems competent (by the abysmal standards of JRPGs, anyway), but if it's not worth playing the game to find out what happens. The voiceacting is terribly wooden--it would have been better as a text-only game. The animated sequences are cool, I guess, but anime post-2010 or so has this homogenous look that I dislike.
Very glad I played this on GamePass instead of buying it, even on sale. Generation Zero. Ghostwire: Tokyo. The Outer Worlds. Ravenlok. Deathloop. Sword and Fairy. Starfield. Diablo IV. And now Tales of Arise. Thank you, GamePass, for helping me dodge these bullets. I would have wasted money on this trash if it wasn't for you.

Actually, I would rather play with Barbie dolls than play this game. Barbie is awesome and Ken is a chad.