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Tales of Arise |OT| Back in Our Good Graces

decisions

Member
Tales-of-Arise-PS5-wallpapers-13.jpg

GENRE: JRPG
DEVELOPER: BANDAI NAMCO
DIRECTOR: Hirokazu Kagawa
COMPOSER: Motoi Sakuraba
PLATFORMS: PS4/PS5/X1/XSS/XSX/WINDOWS
RELEASE DATE:
SEP. 10TH, 2021

METACRITIC: 87



Tales of Arise is Bandai Namco's newest entry into the long-running Tales series of RPGs. It comes five years after the series' last release, an unusually long time for the franchise to take between games. The developers took their time with this release in order to make meaningful strides forward for the series, making dramatic improvements in the series' graphics and presentation.


Tales-of-Arise_2021_06-17-21_075.jpg
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Tales-of-Arise_2021_06-17-21_061.jpg

Screenshot credits to Gematsu


 
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STARSBarry

Gold Member
A fair bit in, iv enjoyed this game far more than some of the more recent titles. No idea how much is left to go but so far just defeated the 5th lord in a battle that very much felt like an endgame boss of a regular JRPG, the game just keeps going though, reminds me of symphonia although no where near as cringy (I think the main characters being older helps, with younger party members joining later to fill the void for the kids to relate to) depending on how this goes I can safely say it's a great soft reboot for the series, well done Namco Bandai.
 
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Vyse

Gold Member
I’m only an hour or so in and enjoying so far. Demo had a lot going on. Full game starts at a much better pace.
 

Merkades

Member
This game's art style is so....weird. At points I think it looks really nice, but far more often I think it looks terrible. Particularly, literally actually, any distance shot. Everything then becomes a lightly colored smeared mess. I really do hate it when peeps go artsy. I am glad this is a one-and-done Tales, hopefully the next one is more normal looking.

Additionally Shionne and Rinwell are kind of unlikable (I am at the fourth lord). I am sure they will get better, but they seem antagonistic just to be so.

This said, I still like the game, but it will definitely not top my previous faves in the series.
 

decisions

Member
I'm 6 hours in and really enjoying the game so far. I don't think the cast quite has the charm of Vesperia's, but overall this is one of the stronger games to start out as I think the battle system gets fun quickly and the graphics improvements make exploring so much fun as the game really does have beautiful environments.

However I switched to the sub after about 3 hours and I found the game to be dramatically improved. I like dubs when they're good, in my opinion this one while not terrible is quite lacking compared to the JP performances. So I recommend people use those. I continue to find Ray Chase to just be horribly monotone and boring. Also the lip sync is way better for JP voices.
 
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Graciaus

Member
I'm only two hours in. Combat is odd but I've seen a video of the full combat system with all characters and it looks a lot better.

No post combat skits is lame. Personally liked the 2d skits better then what they do now.

PC version is broken if you play on a 4k TV. Can be fixed using special k mod.
 

Kenpachii

Member
Played it for a bit, but way to many loading screens in the game for me to bother moving forwards. Loading everywhere.
 

SkylineRKR

Member
As I posted in the Review thread, Arise starts off kinda basic and I didn't get the high scores this game gets but its actually extremely good the further I progressed. Right now its my favorite Tales game.

First of all, technically its kind of shit. You can obviously see this is a PS4 game, there are loading screens for entering inns for example. They are short, but they are there. You just know the PS5 can do far better here, it could load this entire thing into the memory.

But I love the visual style. The different realms have personality and great use of colors. Its standard fare; a rocky fire realm, an ice realm, a forest realm etc. But I love how it looks. The combat starts off really average as you can only do 3 artes in a row and you don't even have much more yet. The targeting is questionable and you seem to whiff a lot of attacks. Its kind of messy at first. But once you get more characters, skills, AG and other perks it gets much better. Actually this game is kind of tactical like FFX, random mobs are never challenging (even on Hard) but using the right moves does end battles quicker and nets you better rewards. So you have these Boost attacks, I love them. They basically call in any character including the one you control to do a one time special thats on cooldown. There are flying enemies or enemies who go airborne for a special, you can call in Shionne and she shoots them out of the air to briefly stun them and break them. After this you need to do proper arte combos to fill the gauge and you can use a finisher that kills weak mobs or severely damage stronger ones. Rinwell, the mage, you call her in when an enemy charges a spell. She cancels and reflects the spell with the same results. For every type of enemy there is an answer. You can also call in boost attacks if your AG is depleted and the enemy bar is nearly full in order to maintain the build up to a finisher.

MP or TP or w/e doesn't exist anymore. Instead there is a shared CP pool. This ensures everyone can cast heals and revives as long as its not depleted. This means there is no individual bar management anymore, but you need to fill it up at drawn out battles and those items can't be bought at first and don't come cheap. CP is the reason I sometimes struggle on Hard mode bosses. Ofcourse, since artes are on cooldown now this change makes sense. Otherwise you would heal and revive forever.

Crafting is better than Zestiria. Weapons are crafted by mats you find and win, and sometimes old weapons so don't sell them. Usually these mats for the best weapons are found in the latest area so I never had to grind so far. Accessories you have to create, and then put your perks on it FFX style. This is pretty good and some stones have rather good perks on them. For some bosses you want to put null poison or paralysis on, or elemental defense. And for random mobs you could make rare item drop up etc since they're almost never tough anyway.

As for the story, its the least cringe Tales game I have played. I like the cast and while the dialogues do lecture you about oppression, war and other cliches I don't mind it. I even enjoy some skits (esp. with Kisara who gets livid if you spend too much cash). The story is never something memorable and takes a weird turn eventually but it flows better than say Vesperia. I play with the dub, the VA is okay (esp. Kisara and Shionne) but the sync is pretty bad so beware. I love the fishing minigame btw. Its pretty fun to do and to catch them all. But Kisara is my goat character anyway.
 
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Lanrutcon

Member
So tips for new people:
- Don't bother grinding until you unlock the chaining mechanic.
- Craft anti-elemental accessories for every type when you can, and for the love of God equip them against bosses. The boss fights in this are absolute horseshit and you will want every advantage you can get.
- You can browse through the areas on your map screen, and it'll show you if there are quests to do
 

SkylineRKR

Member
So tips for new people:
- Don't bother grinding until you unlock the chaining mechanic.
- Craft anti-elemental accessories for every type when you can, and for the love of God equip them against bosses. The boss fights in this are absolute horseshit and you will want every advantage you can get.
- You can browse through the areas on your map screen, and it'll show you if there are quests to do

Second Realm boss is absolutely a wake up call. I couldn't even win it without defense against Light Element. So get those Alexandrites ready.
 

Croga

Member
Loving this at the moment, wish I had more time to play. I think it has the potential to be my favorite Tales game.

Playing on the hardest available difficulty is always the way I do it with Tales games (love the combat, so don't want enemies dying too fast and the game being too easy, so the increased health pools on mobs is great for combo practice etc) , however the 2nd boss was absolutely insane and a huge difficulty spike.

Those clones were ridiculous, and I legit didn't even have enough damage output to kill them before his mystic arte cast finished and he wiped the party. Had to turn it back down to moderate to reduce his health.
As has been said previously, get those Alexandrites equipped on everyone lol
 

RoboFu

One of the green rats
Loving this game! besides liking the over all gameplay I actually like the story and haven’t wanted to skip the cutscenes which is a pretty big deal for me. Definitely one of if not the best Tales of I have played in a long time and I started with the snes games.
 

DelireMan7

Member
Tales of is a franchise I want to play since a long time.

This one looks amazingly good to my eyes. I always wanted to start the franchise with Symphonia or Phantasia. But Arise might take the spot ;)
 

Lanrutcon

Member
Finished realm 3. End fights weren't as bad as that asshole optional boss who drops down from the sky outside town. That fucker was 1 shotting people by the pairs.
 

TintoConCasera

I bought a sex doll, but I keep it inflated 100% of the time and use it like a regular wife
Tried the demo. Game looks great but I didn't dig the combat, it felt too button mashy. I think they should have made the demo more aligned with the start of the game, as I felt I had way too many options right from the get go.

Still kinda liked it, might get later on a sale.
 

Graciaus

Member
Tales of is a franchise I want to play since a long time.

This one looks amazingly good to my eyes. I always wanted to start the franchise with Symphonia or Phantasia. But Arise might take the spot ;)
The only thing with starting at the end is the combat systems have evolved a lot over the years. I find the old 3d ones just don't hold up anymore. Could just be me.
 

DelireMan7

Member
The only thing with starting at the end is the combat systems have evolved a lot over the years. I find the old 3d ones just don't hold up anymore. Could just be me.
That's a risk. But I would say I have a very good tolerance for old game gameplay. So it might not be a problem for me
 

Dynasty8

Member
20 hours in so far and I am really liking it.

I HATED the last 13 years worth of Tales games. Last one I enjoyed was Vesperia.

Arise might be my favorite.
 

ProudClod

Non-existent Member
Bought this on a whim over the weekend because I saw the good reviews and was itching for a good JRPG before SMT5.

This is my first Tales game.

Was very critical of this series previously, mostly because it looked to me like a Frankenstein's monster of tired anime and JRPG tropes rolled into a visually mediocre package. And honestly, looking back to some of the previous games, it still looks like that (although I may give them a try after this).

But holy, I'm loving Arise.

I'm in the second realm, and the game just oozes thoughtfulness and deep consideration. Sure, some of the dialogue is a little bit cringey, and the game beats you over the head with some themes. But there are clear themes. And they are communicated through everything from art style and music to side-quests and one-off NPCs that you only talk to once.

This is such a refreshing change from the aimless, thematically bloated, and poorly directed JRPGs from Square I've spent the last decade playing.

Can't wait to play more.
 

TheFawz

Member
Finally started playing thanks to community PC mods that fix the terrible pop-in and add Widescreen & FOV support. Still not quite perfect but good enough to play without a terrible experience. Had some trouble with controller remapping but figured it out now.

So far I'm really enjoying the design and polish. I had skipped all the Tales Of games since Graces because of how terrible/silly they looked despite being a huge fan of the series since Phantasia on Snes. I just hope that the success from Arise lets them increase budget to add things like HDR, proper Surround Sound, Bring back Co-op (And offer Online support), Increase scale of voice recordings, scale back DLC/MTX and such
 

KàIRóS

Member
The fishing minigame is simple but fun and it's the best way to make money quickly too, I kind of ignored it when I unlocked it but now I get every new fish I find, it's addicting.
 

ssringo

Member
Heading towards the 5th lord and I've enjoyed the game so far but I'm kinda struggling to pick it back up after the events at the end of the 4th lord fight.

I already hate "OP as fuck mysterious random guy that dominates everyone" characters. Then to have him run off with Shionne sucked because the AI seems unable to handle healing at a reasonable level without her. Just killed my momentum and enthusiasm.

I'm sure it'll be fine once I get past this bump in the road. It's just powering through this section sucks (for me).

On another note, I really like Kisara but in a game with awful balancing her shield feels terrible to use.
 
Finished realm 3. End fights weren't as bad as that asshole optional boss who drops down from the sky outside town. That fucker was 1 shotting people by the pairs.

I fought him underleveled and low on items the first time (found him accidentally before even starting the quest almost as soon as I was out of act 2) and pretty much had to back out.

The second time later when I was prepared my AI teammates pretty much kept going down like crazy and I was popping life bottles and orange gels left and right and I thought I’d have to back out again, but once the boars finally got killed off suddenly the AI remembered how to avoid boss attacks and I didn’t have to pop a single item again and the fight was actually pretty easy.

I’m thinking the AI only dodges attacks from the enemy they’re targeting so they ended up missing everything from the mini boss when they were targeting the boars.
 
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SkylineRKR

Member
Heading towards the 5th lord and I've enjoyed the game so far but I'm kinda struggling to pick it back up after the events at the end of the 4th lord fight.

I already hate "OP as fuck mysterious random guy that dominates everyone" characters. Then to have him run off with Shionne sucked because the AI seems unable to handle healing at a reasonable level without her. Just killed my momentum and enthusiasm.

I'm sure it'll be fine once I get past this bump in the road. It's just powering through this section sucks (for me).

On another note, I really like Kisara but in a game with awful balancing her shield feels terrible to use.

Its a low point for sure. I don't like when

games take characters out of your party. Arise doesn't do it as often as Vesperia and Xillia do but its still shit. Shionne is crucial. On top of that they removed Alphen's fire sword and Mystic Arte. The first is useless without some good healing anyway. It does make the pole guy more useful since he's a backup healer.

Regardless I am powering through on Moderate, also one shot the dragon. But yeah it does feel gimped with one character and thus one boost attack less, no fire sword etc.

Kisara is awesome and also fun to play imho. But her use is somewhat diminished. I found her clutch against the 3rd Lord, I tanked that entire fight with her and canceled his dash with her shield. But its not so viable in other battles. Her boost attack is probably the worst, you can liberally use Rinwell against any caster you see without much timing, you can use Law against armored and shielded guys without timing but Kisara seems to be only useful on enemies who dash at you and requires specific timing. They only go down when they actually dash.
 

Flabagast

Member
This is such a refreshing change from the aimless, thematically bloated, and poorly directed JRPGs from Square I've spent the last decade playing.

Can't wait to play more.
Totally agree. It’s so much better than DQ XI in every way that it’s not even funny,
 

ssringo

Member
Kisara is awesome and also fun to play imho. But her use is somewhat diminished. I found her clutch against the 3rd Lord, I tanked that entire fight with her and canceled his dash with her shield. But its not so viable in other battles. Her boost attack is probably the worst, you can liberally use Rinwell against any caster you see without much timing, you can use Law against armored and shielded guys without timing but Kisara seems to be only useful on enemies who dash at you and requires specific timing. They only go down when they actually dash.

I've actually used her exclusively since she joined and will do so unless forced to do otherwise. I do like using her, just wish her shield didn't feel like a handicap most of the time.

Her boost is definitely the worst due to it's limitations. I think the shield should be dropped in front of the enemy your character is targeting instead of in front of you. Failing that the duration of the stun could be considerably longer so you get more time to wail after pulling off a properly timed boost. Although it's not just her boost that feels bad, blocking feels too finicky and less reliable than everyone else's dodge during a fight with your party and monsters running all over the place.
 

KàIRóS

Member
I've actually used her exclusively since she joined and will do so unless forced to do otherwise. I do like using her, just wish her shield didn't feel like a handicap most of the time.

Her boost is definitely the worst due to it's limitations. I think the shield should be dropped in front of the enemy your character is targeting instead of in front of you. Failing that the duration of the stun could be considerably longer so you get more time to wail after pulling off a properly timed boost. Although it's not just her boost that feels bad, blocking feels too finicky and less reliable than everyone else's dodge during a fight with your party and monsters running all over the place.

IMO Kisara has the best Boost Attack just because it gives the whole party a free buff to Defense and E.Defense, I always use it when bosses enter overlimit.
 

Polelock

Member
Question, I have a series x, a ps5 and a pretty decent PC. I'm trying to pick the right platform to get it one. I haven't seen any reviews yet so I thought I'd check here. It looks great.
 
Damn made a mistake and tried to fight that insect boss in the beginning of the game,I had no problems beating that purple sub boss in the caves that shoots acid.
 

Sleepwalker

Gold Member
Question, I have a series x, a ps5 and a pretty decent PC. I'm trying to pick the right platform to get it one. I haven't seen any reviews yet so I thought I'd check here. It looks great.

Get it on PC, you can fix a few things like pop in with the PC version, also performance if your pc is decent enough
 

SkylineRKR

Member
The fishing minigame is simple but fun and it's the best way to make money quickly too, I kind of ignored it when I unlocked it but now I get every new fish I find, it's addicting.

Yeah its good and rather easy. You'll learn to know the silhouettes and what kind to cancel out if you have it already. Doesn't matter where on when you throw, its all random. Lure doesn't matter either, but it does guarantee some specific kinds. With the first 2 rods you're simply not going to reel in boss fish, but once I had 20 I got the third one and then it works out. I have every fish from the first 4 realms.

I never bash the button either. Only when its a weak fish to speed it up. Just LS and the prompts are always the same, like when it jumps its always R2. So that becomes incredibly easy.
 
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Lanrutcon

Member
I fought him underleveled and low on items the first time (found him accidentally before even starting the quest almost as soon as I was out of act 2) and pretty much had to back out.

The second time later when I was prepared my AI teammates pretty much kept going down like crazy and I was popping life bottles and orange gels left and right and I thought I’d have to back out again, but once the boars finally got killed off suddenly the AI remembered how to avoid boss attacks and I didn’t have to pop a single item again and the fight was actually pretty easy.

I’m thinking the AI only dodges attacks from the enemy they’re targeting so they ended up missing everything from the mini boss when they were targeting the boars.

There are quests for 3 optional super bads coming up in your future. For two of them the AI was being pretty boss...the third was an episode of Jackass. I'll wait until you fight them to make an educated guess as to which one contained the hilarity.
 
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Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
Man... Namco Bandai really dropped the ball by deciding not to release this on Switch. I want to play it but no other console or PC.
I love my Switch but I can’t imagine Switch can run this game properly. Switch system already doesn’t play nice with UE and the fact Arise has lots of loading, on my PS5 is not much issue because it’s pretty fast but I would imagine the loadings on Switch would be very unbearable.

I would rather Namco make a Tales game exlusive to switch instead trying to port Arise on Switch.
 
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