The combat in Tales of Arise is definitely very fun, but is not very deep compared to other entries in the franchise. The story starts off very strong, but begins to get very bland and boring towards the half-way point. The characters are also nothing to get excited about either and don't contribute to wanting to progress the story. Definitely a step up in the graphics department and am glad that a Tales of game is getting mainstream attention, but just an average game in the series for me that I had to almost force myself to finish.

Although I love this game, I think Kevin's story is pretty weak compared to the rest of the Kiseki games. What makes this game a 4/5 for me are all the doors in the game. The amount of lore and foreshadowing that is contained in these doors made me so excited to play the rest of the series. If you've gotten this far, you've probably fallen in love with so many of the characters that just seeing side-stories with them as the main focus is so rewarding after playing through 2 full length JRPGs to get here. Star Door 15 also begins the exploration into my favorite character in the series.

Played X for the first time in 2020. Quickly became one of my favorite JRPG stories. Although the story is cheesy, there's something nostalgic about the writing that made me not mind. Some of the tracks in this game are so memorable and great. I really wish this game had better voice acting, it was hard for me to take seriously at times. As for gameplay, the battle system is great with a great progression system for characters, but the dungeons have dated designs and haven't aged well in my opinion.