It’s been a long 5 years since Tales of Berseria, but Tales of Arise is finally here for PlayStation
4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox series X and XS, as well as on Microsoft windows.
And knowing that Tales games typically change up their systems from game to game,
I was excited to see how Arise’s new stylish boost strike combat
systems would fare. And if it’s enough to stand against its peers? Let’s find out!
The story starts with a serious premise showing Rena’s swift conquest over Dahna
resulting in 300 years of Dahnan slavery. We're introduced to our main protagonist Alphen,
a Dahnan slave with no memory of himself or why he's wearing an iron mask that he can't remove.
He quickly becomes acquainted with Shionne, a mysterious Renen girl cursed to only cause pain
to those that touch her. Thankfully, Alfen cannot feel pain… a match made in heaven,
and the game will beat that into your head for a bit no matter how on the nose it already is.
The two are forced to work together, meeting up with various resistance groups and future
partners in hopes to defeat the Renen lords and free Dana from centuries of
slavery. The game does a great job of painting the gravity of the situation early, while also
foreshadowing more to come in the story past this initial conflict. With seeds of betrayal,
peace where you least expect it and mysterious enemies I have always found myself excited to
see what happens next through the story. I'll be the first to admit I have a weak
spot for when story driven games reinforce their point directly within its gameplay.
Like this one scene where one of your party members will suddenly refuse to fight,
and you later learn why. Tales of Arise likes to deprive you of resources through the game,
not providing many items for free and forcing you to craft all your weapons. This fits the story
perfectly, as enslaved civilizations wouldn’t commonly have these kinds of supplies for sale.
I even had to check my resources a few hours into playing the game when I realized basic encounters
didn’t give Gald, this game’s currency. It makes sense that a giant rock wouldn’t randomly have
money. I greatly enjoyed the lack of resources provided because it resulted in each item carrying
that much more weight as I wouldn’t know when I’d be able to next get a reliable amount to use.
Tales games also build heavily upon their characters with loads of in game interactions.
A series staple being skits, small conversations between the characters that can happen as a
result of just about anything...And I do mean anything as sometimes you’ll find yourself
with several skits back-to-back even after long cutscenes and this can become rather cumbersome.
Tales of Arise builds on this by having the party interact more often. Chatting on the overworld
map, in combat and even letting you select party members to talk with when camping out.
Thankfully, I’ve been finding myself enjoying the characters a lot. They are often hostile towards
one another but in a way that makes sense given the circumstances that brought them together.
It even enhances how they interact, unafraid to tell off another for their flaws, while still
presenting some of their own. Now typically, these have been done using 2D animated versions of the
characters, but this time it uses the 3D models in different poses and frames in an almost comic
like style. While the dialogue and character interactions are still fun and enlightening,
the 3D models can occasionally lead to a jarring and almost robotic look, which can be unappealing.
Tales games use a combat system called the “Linear Motion Battle System.”
At its core it takes real time fighting gameplay and mixes it with more traditional RPG elements.
This time, Tales of Arise focuses on creating a more mobile playstyle,
focusing on dodging and even removing the ability to guard, excluding the one character
with a shield. There are 3 artes between air and ground creating a total of 6 equitable artes.
These are combined with basic attacks to string together devastating combos.
You can use 3 basic attacks at a time and start with 3 pips for your artes gauge; these numbers
can grow to help extend your combos as the game goes on. This initial limit to equitable artes
was quite a nuisance after some time as it doesn’t quite feel like enough artes. I often found myself
pausing to cast some arts I didn’t have room for and to swap for others. Thankfully this is later
fixed with the addition of an alternate set of arts accessible by holding the right trigger,
and this feels much better allowing me to really explore the characters potentials.
This also sets a trend for the combat system though. Combos reducing cast times and resets
on kills too, are a few of the many different skills that assist in the combat’s evolution over
the course of the game. This adds more complexity to the system and I've been having a ton of fun
getting a chance to learn and experiment with it all. Arise also sports a boost attack system that
calls in allies for help, which each having a different effect meaning you’ll want to be
strategic about which you use when. Using boost attacks also restore the player’s artes gauge,
so if their utility isn’t helpful for the fight, you can keep your combo up by calling them. On top
of this there are also Boost strikes. These are flashy finishers that kill off small enemies and
deal big damage otherwise. These act as a quicker kill for those able to keep their combos count
high as an enemy’s HP lowers. These animations are stylish and flashy but best of all, they also
have variety with each character having one with another character. It really helps keep them less
repetitive. Thankfully learning these intricacies isn’t mandatory. Tales games, with Arise being no
exception, let you change the difficulty of the game whenever you want. From being easy enough to
let you just enjoy the story, to hard enough to stress even seasoned players and there’s
no penalty for having a lower difficulty either, though players that choose to raise the difficulty
are rewarded with getting skills faster. Having been playing on a higher difficulty.
I’ve found that this makes each fight more dangerous due to their resource of cure points.
This is a gauge that will limit the amount of healing you can do and can be refilled with
items and resting at a campsite or inn. I really like this system as there have been problems with
healing in some Tales games in the past, either essentially being free making damage irrelevant,
or it was useless and forced the player to heal another way. This combined with the
enemies hitting hard and having different tells enforces a need to learn the playable characters
as well as each enemy to help keep this resource up in order to better progress through a dungeon.
Speaking of which, a boss awaits you at the end of each one. The wild zeugal bosses are
tough and each feels unique, employing very different patterns and abilities.
Their weak point system ensures you’ll have to approach each one differently and strategically.
Placing their weak spots away from their attacks and other times right where the boss wants to.
I’ve found this to add an extra layer on its own to each boss as I’ve found myself needing
to be more aware of the bosses’ movements to help hit this point more. Every boss also changes its
patterns at least once halfway through, keeping players on their toes. This rule also applies
to the bigger human bosses as well. The Human bosses command an extremely intimidating aura
helping enforce their power as far as the plot is concerned but also in terms of the challenge they
present. Shrugging off your hits, hitting hard and scattering their attacks I’ve never found
myself truly feeling ready to take one of these bosses when the time comes. Nothings invoked their
sense of power more than when the boss starts channeling its mystic arte. The feeling of trying
your hardest to stop it only for them to finish and almost wipe the entire party has already made
for some very memorable moments. The game also offers one other form of bosses called gigantos.
These are optional bosses scattered around the world to pose extra challenges or to go back and
fight later. These fights are fun and tough, but it would be nice if the game could distinguish
which are for in the moment and for later. The first one you see is level 45. Not to say you
cannot beat it at level 5, but it doesn’t seem likely when it one shots you and you have to
let it, since you can’t run. Good thing getting wiped just spits you back out on the overworld.
Speaking of the overworld, Tales of Arise’s presentation is often stunning! The effects
and characters look great, and the environments are gorgeous to boot. Where the world really comes
to shine is with their new “Atmospheric Shader''. At first, I wasn’t sure what would really separate
this from any other means of shading, but I very quickly realized when it came time to explore the
areas. Everything past a certain point ends up rendered in such a way that it’s almost like a
painting, creating many screen shot worthy views as you traverse the land. It always has me excited
to see what new areas await me. The animations feel smooth and natural, especially the combat
animations. The special effects are quite flashy, which made me excited to see each and every arte.
Even enemies and the surroundings up close look great, possessing an impressive amount of detail.
The environments look fantastic, and are fun to explore, featuring hidden items in
all kinds of corners rewarding players for going off the beaten path. Despite the ps4’s
graphics settings the game is still beautiful. The music, too, is an absolute treat. “Hibana”
by Kankaku Piero is possibly one of the best intro songs for a game I’ve heard and the battle themes
get my blood pumping in a matter of seconds, even when used during the fishing minigame.
The Boss themes have a similar feel but while invoking an extra level of fear to boot.
The map sections capture the weight of the situation and the hope behind your
mission through the game. Even the more mundane moments are heightened with silly-sounding music.
Performance wise, while I wasn’t able to test every version, ps4 owners can rest assured
that it looks and runs just fine, at a rather consistent rate around 30fps it’s a fine way
to experience the game for those who are not able to do so on the next generation consoles.
And while it looks fantastic on PC with max settings, I did experience one rather
obnoxious audio bug in this version only. When the characters are talking in skits and
cutscenes they’ll start the voice line and then it cuts out and restarts. This doesn’t happen for
every clip, but it is a very common occurrence typically happening once or twice a cutscene.
Thankfully this doesn’t throw off the audio during such scenes, but it was noticeable.
One fun element are the costumes that you’ll unlock in game as well as the
ones that come with the deluxe and ultimate editions. It’s always fun
to mess around with your characters and even make them look as silly as possible.
Being in swimsuits in a tundra or resembling that of a cat eared sephiroth. When using the DLC from
the Special editions be careful. There are many items and even store discounts you can claim.
If you’re looking to play at the game’s intended difficulty, you’ll want to be wary of what you
redeem, as some of the costumes can provide more skills to the characters, So if you
don’t want to make the game too easy, I would recommend saving before claiming your goodies.
On the whole, Tales of Arise feels like a game built upon its ancestors, learning from both
their successes and shortcomings alike. With various combat systems reminiscent of those in
earlier games in the series, but reinvented in its own style, combat feels familiar yet also
fresh. The many gameplay intricacies further lend to my desire to learn the system more
and provide replay value for those who want to further test their skills on higher difficulties.
The story is well told with characters that are consistently interesting and it's refreshing to
see that they stand on their own from one another. Add to it gorgeous visuals, stunning environments,
and a soundtrack so good it would be criminal to not sell by itself, and you have a game that
I ended up loving. And don’t worry if it’s your first Tales game, as the series doesn't feature
connected stories, and Arise does a great job of teaching its core mechanics, so this is a great
starting place for those new to the series. Thank you all for watching. What do you
think? Will you be picking Tales of Arise up? Comment down below and don't forget to
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