blahblahblah MAGIC!
You know what this game needed? More Hootle. More freaking Hootle and Law, fighting for the love of their lives, to the bitter end.
Seriously though, I went into this game completely blind and came out in love with the cast of characters. Having not touched a Tales game in nearly a decade (besides a replay of Symphonia) I had forgotten the masterclass of character growth and banter these games are rightfully known for. Top notch voice talent helped to push it even further.
The combat is crisp, responsive, and so damn pretty that sometimes I even forgot that some of these enemies (and not just bosses) have way more HP than they have any right to. The combo abilities between party members never got old, even after the literal thousandth time (1,157 to be exact!). This element of battle was hands down my favorite.
The story has some high peaks but also some low valleys. There was a point maybe 2/3rds of the way in that started to feel like a visual novel, and I was losing the plot for a bit there. With the budgets that modern games have you don’t often see what we were used to years ago: a strong (aka fully budgeted) opening and mid game only to be let down by a massively under budgeted and rushed final act. I don’t think Arise suffered from that symptom, but I still felt some pacing issues. Arise still does a great job branching out from the ‘small people problems’ into ‘whoa big world crisis problems’ and I enjoyed that immensely.
The difficulty was a bit of a roller coaster ride as well, but I appreciate that you can change the difficulty on the fly and actually benefit from playing it a bit harder. I think I played 70% of the game on hard, but for some bosses I knocked it down (Ooze Hive I hope you rot in hell you add spawning bastard!). At other points I did that for the dungeon, just because some of these normal mobs have too much HP and never really felt in danger, so they were just sponges for damage.
Oh! And the music! Wow, I admit I’ve never been a huge fan of Motoi Sakuraba, but this is by far one of my favorite soundtracks they’ve worked on. The different areas, being very distinctive in the game, also featured very distinct music, and each piece fit the theme for the zone. The battle music never got old, no matter how many times I heard it, and the ex dungeon battle and boss music? Perfection!
This is also the first Tales game I’ve ‘100%’ and I’m glad I did! There are things the devs did here to respect the players time that I wish other game companies, especially in the JRPG space, would take note of. Finishing the game at around lvl58 I thought I’d be grinding for hours to reach max level, but the ex dungeon had other thoughts. First boss down, the game asked me if 3 levels was enough? Oh, not quite huh? Well can’t please everyone, so the next handful were advancing me 4-5 levels at a time. And the ex dungeon featured one of the hardest boss fights I’ve experienced in an action JRPG, to the point my fingers were a bit achy after the 12 minute slog. Well worth the experience.
I cannot wait to see where Bamco goes next with the series, and think I might take a deep dive into the many Tales games I’ve skipped over the years.
And, please, for my fanservice needs, can we get a spin off with just Law, Rinwell and Hootle? Tales of Arise: Three’s Company. Please!
You know what this game needed? More Hootle. More freaking Hootle and Law, fighting for the love of their lives, to the bitter end.
Seriously though, I went into this game completely blind and came out in love with the cast of characters. Having not touched a Tales game in nearly a decade (besides a replay of Symphonia) I had forgotten the masterclass of character growth and banter these games are rightfully known for. Top notch voice talent helped to push it even further.
The combat is crisp, responsive, and so damn pretty that sometimes I even forgot that some of these enemies (and not just bosses) have way more HP than they have any right to. The combo abilities between party members never got old, even after the literal thousandth time (1,157 to be exact!). This element of battle was hands down my favorite.
The story has some high peaks but also some low valleys. There was a point maybe 2/3rds of the way in that started to feel like a visual novel, and I was losing the plot for a bit there. With the budgets that modern games have you don’t often see what we were used to years ago: a strong (aka fully budgeted) opening and mid game only to be let down by a massively under budgeted and rushed final act. I don’t think Arise suffered from that symptom, but I still felt some pacing issues. Arise still does a great job branching out from the ‘small people problems’ into ‘whoa big world crisis problems’ and I enjoyed that immensely.
The difficulty was a bit of a roller coaster ride as well, but I appreciate that you can change the difficulty on the fly and actually benefit from playing it a bit harder. I think I played 70% of the game on hard, but for some bosses I knocked it down (Ooze Hive I hope you rot in hell you add spawning bastard!). At other points I did that for the dungeon, just because some of these normal mobs have too much HP and never really felt in danger, so they were just sponges for damage.
Oh! And the music! Wow, I admit I’ve never been a huge fan of Motoi Sakuraba, but this is by far one of my favorite soundtracks they’ve worked on. The different areas, being very distinctive in the game, also featured very distinct music, and each piece fit the theme for the zone. The battle music never got old, no matter how many times I heard it, and the ex dungeon battle and boss music? Perfection!
This is also the first Tales game I’ve ‘100%’ and I’m glad I did! There are things the devs did here to respect the players time that I wish other game companies, especially in the JRPG space, would take note of. Finishing the game at around lvl58 I thought I’d be grinding for hours to reach max level, but the ex dungeon had other thoughts. First boss down, the game asked me if 3 levels was enough? Oh, not quite huh? Well can’t please everyone, so the next handful were advancing me 4-5 levels at a time. And the ex dungeon featured one of the hardest boss fights I’ve experienced in an action JRPG, to the point my fingers were a bit achy after the 12 minute slog. Well worth the experience.
I cannot wait to see where Bamco goes next with the series, and think I might take a deep dive into the many Tales games I’ve skipped over the years.
And, please, for my fanservice needs, can we get a spin off with just Law, Rinwell and Hootle? Tales of Arise: Three’s Company. Please!