Since the jump to the PS4 hardware Bandai Namco's long running Tales of Series has made some steps forward with the battle system making them more enjoyable than any of the recent Final Fantasy entries that has been trying to copy and emulate its combat system poorly. However, it has been relaying on the PS3 quality graphics engine and it has been asking for a change in its graphics engine for a long while. That now changes with this latest entry into the series that is Tales of Arise takes the series in an all direction.
The first and most important thing of all is moving onto a new graphics engine which is the Unreal Engine 4 and within just seconds of starting the game you instantly start to notice just how incredible the game looks and what the engine is able to pull off. From the flaming rocks of Calagia to the snow fields of Clyslodia and also the beautiful lush grass lands of Elde Menancia the game just looks incredibly beautiful and the amount of detail you see such as flames still burning around, massive blizzards and being able to see massive cities from afar when looking from a side of a cliffs is stunning and the day and night cycle that happens as you are exploring around truly brings the world to life. When I step into a new area, I would always observe my surroundings as well as going to a cliff edge somewhere to get a view of the area I'm in because this game just looks so amazing and so well detailed and for a Tales of game you would have not expected the game to look so good but it does. Now I have only been able to play the game on the PlayStation 4 500 GB Slim and sure there is some expected environmental pop in and also the occasional frame-rate dips especially during battles but the game manages to run reasonably smooth considering that this was a game originally intended for the Xbox One & the PS4. Animations both in cutscenes and the battles feel very natural and are really well done and all of the effects you see in combat such as the Magic-Artes (or Astral-Artes as the game calls them) and other attack animations and effects just all looks incredible and chaotic as you would expect.
The designers did take a step further in the graphics with all new skit animations which now play out in 3D using the in-game engine with panels which make them feel like manga book panels come to life and they are brilliant to watch. Skits are a part of the Tales of Series and while some people will miss the 2D anime portrait look of the series that has been known for the in-game look to go along with the manga book like panels is a nice step forward with the skit conversations. I also like that during the course of the game when new party members join in the field menu's background changes to show who is in the party which is actually a pretty cool touch.
As for the storyline it is both what you would expect from a Tales of game with the whole two worlds but it dives into deep subject matter such as slavery. In the storyline the Renans invade the peaceful world of Dahna with their superior technology and has thrown all inhabitants into slavery. Players assume the role of an amnesiac slave who steps up and escapes with a Renan women named Shionne and takes up the Blazing Sword against the Renan Lords who rule all over Dahna. His mask then breaks where he remembers his name 'Alphen' and also joins up with various resistance groups who are standing up to the Renan oppressors. Dahna is split up across five continents that are ruled over by Renan Lords, each holding a Master Core where they'd be next in line to participate in what's called the Crown Contest where the winner would then then go on to become the next Renan Sovereign. There are also other storyline details that explain the Renans, Alphen and other things but I'll avoid spoiling it.
One of the best things about the storyline is the characters and the massive character development. Without giving away too much, the Dahnans endured 300 years of slavery in the Renans rule robbing them of their history, dignity & freedom and it builds up the fear in them where they are weak and helpless to stand up against them and the vast hatred for them that they would have upon getting their first taste of freedom, the Renans treat them very badly and use them to extract Astral Energy from them. Then there are some Renans who don't share the same kind of hatred as the others but get bad treatment from some Dahans who suffered so much from the rule of the Renan people and you can't blame them for it after what they have been though. Some of the main characters got forced into labour for the Renans and you can see the amount of hate they have gotten from the Renans after being forced into serving them and they would have faced death if they resisted just like the other Dahnans if they tried to do the same. One of the characters Zephyr who is leader of one of the resistance groups is resisting against the Renans but however he does this whilst believing that not all Renans are not evil and is also doing this because it is to help those who haven't the strength to stand up and resist. He encourages Alphen that there is more to just opposing the Renans and helping his fellow slaves. Then there is one-character Dohalim who is a Renan Lord who believes in coexistence between the Dahnans and the Renans and wishes for peace between the two and wants no involvement with the Crown Contest. The realm of Elde Menancia has both the Dahnans and the Renans socializing with each other rather then forced slavery and the storyline development during that section is well written especially later when you learn about what happened with Dohalim and his town and what gets him to join Alphen against the Renan rule.
The cutscenes are brilliant with some excellent voice acting for both Japanese and English audio options, great writing albeit with one or two minor spelling errors and really good dialogue from the characters and thankfully you can skip them if you are finding the cutscenes too long. The optional skit portions give more light into the various the world around them and there are some moments where the characters all wined down and produce some humorous conversations at times. There are some dark moments with Tales of Arise with the way they went with the storyline but however it is a very well told story that has you feeling every moment of the characters.
Tales of Arise further expands the Linear Motion Battle System much its predecessor Tales of Berseria. The free-roaming returns allowing you to run circles around the arena but instead of having characters guard against attacks to reduce damage it now focuses on well-timed evasions which then allows you to retaliate with a counter attack. Characters have both Artes that can be used on the ground wherever it is Strike Artes or Astral Artes but also have Artes that you can use while in the air. Oh yes there are now Aerial Artes that you can use because you can now jump into the air which opens up a lot of aerial attack and juggling opportunities. Your playable characters can equip up to three Ground Artes and Aerials which can be assigned to the three Arte buttons and eventually you'll get an item that allows to assign more Artes to use in battle. Well timed dodges and also dealing and taking enough damage will awaken a character's Overlimit which makes you stronger for a set time and also allows you to perform a powerful Mystic Arte if you follow the correct requirements. There are also some other new abilities added into the game, first up is the Boost Strikes where when prompted two characters unleash a devastating attack that finishes off enemies and I like how very creative they are. My personal favourite Boost Strike is one where Rinwel channels all five Astral Energy elements onto Alphen's sword as he then charges into the energy swings his sword and then all of the Astral Energy then causes a massive explosion on the target. Some of new Arte attacks they put into the game are very creative and I also like some of new character Boost Attacks where pressing one of the directional buttons on the d-pad will execute a special attack. Alphen has a risk vs reward ability with the Blazing Sword where using his Boost Attacks drains his Health in exchange for dealing massive damage to enemies, Shionne's has her using her Rifle to shoot down Aerial Enemies onto the ground, Rinwell's allows her to stop an enemies' magic spell from casting on the party, Law's stops enemies with armour that is very difficult to penetrate, Dohalim uses his vines to slow down enemies' movement and Kisara uses her massive shield to guard against enemies charging in at her and she doesn't evade like everybody else does as she relies on defending. Every playable character has their own unique fighting style and abilities that suit a different play style and you can switch characters in and out of battle at any time adding in more strategic options if things get out of hand. Getting used to all of the character's abilities takes some little bit of time to get used to and you do have to make the right moment with the character's Boost Attacks to either use them for unleashing bigger combos or to use them on an enemy that is about to charge at you or an enemy that is just about a powerful Astral Magic Arte that could deal massive damage or wipe the party out.
To make your characters more effective in battle is that you have a Skill Panel in the menu where unlocking Titles by doing certain conditions allow you to use SP earned in battle get upgrades such as new Artes, increased stats, faster casting and also being able to move around while casting spells which is a game changer for mages. Like all other Tales of games unlocking titles are a great way to getting more out of the characters and unlocking other skills & abilities to overcome tough challengers.
With all of the options in combat available it's best to make full of the abilities and all of the new mechanics at your disposal because Tales of Arise even on the default difficulty fights at the very beginning of the game can be a challenge. Enemies can deal massive damage, using a character's Boost Attack at the wrong time will likely put you in a bad spot and spamming Alphen's Boost Attacks & other Blazing Sword attacks carelessly will quickly drain him out. Enemies aren't really all that spongy and can be staggered quick effectively if you are making use of the abilities and also the enemy weaknesses plus you can get used to how all enemies function and how to counter against them. Bosses on the other hand can prove tough and can wipe nearly a good chunk of a character's health if you are relaying on just reckless button mashing. Boss fights in these Tales of games are all about watching your enemies' attack pattern and then evading & guarding against the attack before it hits you. You can alter the AI controlled party members in the field menu into how they act in battle and also what to use but the allies are more than capable of holding their own in combat just as long as they are not wasting any of your precious healing items. Tales of Arise shows that there is more to an Action RPG then just lazily throwing in spongy enemies for the sake of making them spongy and annoying like with Square Enix's Final Fantasy VII Remake and Final Fantasy XV which had all enemies annoyingly spongy, have weak and rather not so useful AI allies and also trying to copy the controls and some mechanics from the Tales of Series but they are just poorly executed. The Tales of games always had brilliant combat systems and with each new instalment they would always do one or two new things with the formula but most importantly keep the gameplay just like what the Tales Series is known for. Every attack feels impactful and you feel every single blow being delivered to the enemies, you are seeing that combo meter go up higher and higher as you and your party are unleashing their Artes and when you deliver the final blow on a very powerful boss the accomplishment for winning is incredibly. It truly shows that if you are still looking for a fast paced, well-crafted and very enjoyable combat systems then the Tales Series will have some of the combat in an Action RPG. It is a bit of a shame that there is no local multiplayer support for this title, wherever it was intentional, or because of the engine or because of the state of COVID-19 it does feel like there is one tiny thing missing. Usually, Tales of games allow for a friend to join in the fray and experience the adventure with you but it is a bummer that you can't with this. Also, the default control settings can be a bit odd and honestly don't feel natural for a Tales of game but thankfully you can change the control settings to how you like the buttons to be which is a good thing.
During combat and also whilst exploring the vast reaches of the world the characters will often interact and banter with each other and giving support to one another and the dialogue they often say is always encouraging and in a good way and often times funny. They also point out when an enemy is about unleash its best attack on you so that you can do your best to either get of the way or try to stop it before it hits one of the party members. I often laugh at when Rinwell makes fun of Law and how Shionne gets flustered when complementing Alphen's fighting in combat yet they don't like seeing each other get hurt. The party members are very supportive of each other and they do what they can do help each other in combat which gives a lot of depth and believability to them.
Outside of combat there is plenty of stuff to see and do in Tales of Arise, there are towns to visit, NPCs that you can interact with, shops where you go and get yourself prepared with recovery items and new gear. A system added is an Accessory Crafting system where you can craft accessories using special materials which can have different effects such as increased stats, resistance to status afflictions, increased chances of obtaining new items and you can also assign these effects to whatever slots of an accessory depending on the accessory rank that you are going to be using. It's an effective system and much more refined compared to the weapon upgrade systems in the past games.
There is the Camping system where you can camp out and cook meals to add boosted effects to prepare for the next challenging quest. Whilst camping out you can also talk to other party members to boost their relationships even if you don't get to pick a dialogue option that could boost the relationships. New to the game is Farming where you can get animals to produce more ingredients for cooking as long as you unlocked a number of recipes. Lastly you can then participate in a Fishing Minigame, the fishing minigame is easy enough to pick up and play and the better fishing gear you find the better or rare fish you be able to fish out.
All of the areas in the game are comprised of fields, caves, mountains, a war boat, as well as some indoor towers and compounds and many of the them including the dungeons are well laid out. There really isn't much in puzzle sequences with Tales of Arise aside from prompted using a character's special ability break certain obstacles out of the way and all of the areas are simple enough to navigate through with enough forks in the road to find all kinds of hidden items, you also do get the Fast-Travel allowing you to go from one location to the next with a click of a button as long as there is a Fast-Travel point on the map otherwise you have to walk there. Eventually when you come to the end of the dungeon there is a boss fight that you do, you beat that and then you leave the dungeon and go to the next destination.
There are also plenty of sidequests that you can do from fetch quests to hunting down enemies on the map. There are also the super powerful Gigant Zeugle boss enemies that are fairly challenging to take on as well as some laugh out loud side events that you watch, then you also got a Owl Hunting sidequest where you find missing Owls over the course of the game which give you attachments so that you can outfit your characters with fashionable looks alongside cosmetic DLC costumes that you can purchase with real life money and plenty of the costumes are pretty good enough and they do have different colour variations of you prefer a different look to them. So, we had cats, dogs, cheagles, rappigs, centurions and a talking doll and now we have owls as the next line of animal mascot for the next Tales game. Sure there are some sidequests that appear during the second half of the game that throw enemies and bosses that are thirty levels above your party current power level that make them intentionally for endgame purposes and not something you do right away, however on the positive side it did encourage me to take on a difficult challenge using every item, resource and also every mechanic at my disposal that the game has taught me and I was able to beat one of those sidequests underleveled where as I did wait till endgame to do the rest of them. After clearing the game there is the option of tackling the post-game content which extends the playtime and some of it incredibly cool that it is best seen for yourself. Tales of Arise has a fantastic amount of content on board and a great amount of length where you are going to be looking at 80 to 100+ hours from main story content to the optional & post game content plus you do have the New Game Plus where you transfer everything you unlocked to your next playthrough provided that you found enough Artefacts that you also find throughout the game which allows you to do so.
Now the issue I have with Tales of Arise is one that will always hate when RPGs especially J-RPGs do is that you don't money from winning battles and I don't get why they did this. You can only earn Gald from completing sidequests or by selling off useless gear, materials and other junk that you find and the issue there is that you don't get a whole lot of money selling off much materials unless you can find a exploit with the Renan Soliders to get them to drop Dog Tags just to get enough money for healing items and new gear you need. Also materials are necessary for crafting new weapons for your party members so to force yourself to selling materials get the money for what you might need to prepare yourself is just ludicrous and leads to hours of grinding to get the money needed even Kisara points out on the amount of money that was needed to be spent. Getting EXP on the other hand for level ups isn't all that bad though even if the EXP you gain is dependent on the levels between the party members and the enemies you go up against. Like I said before the battles are manageable mostly against regular enemies but with bosses, they will still pose a challenging threat that can still wipe the floor with you if you are not playing with carefully with strategy just like with every other Tales game, button mashing is only going to get you killed especially in the early hours.
On top of the brand-new graphics engine the new anime cutscenes by Ufotable just look really incredible even the opening the intros which I always will watch whenever I boot up the game. The soundtrack by Motoi Sakuraba has some of the top composition and the battle theme tracks that play out are so brilliant and I like how in major dungeons the music immediately transitions from a field to battle remixes are really incredibly well done. I seriously can't get enough of the first battle theme track that plays during the early hours, as soon as the first 75 seconds of the theme track come on, I just immediately lose myself and start going into pure happiness. Needless to say, Motoi Sakuraba is always delivers well and always fit the mood for the games.
Tales of Arise takes the long running RPG franchise in all new direction and it is a true next generation Tales of game. With the Unreal Engine 4 graphics that make the game unbelievably gorgeous, a fantastic and more refined and challenging battle system, excellent storyline that deal with tough subject matter like slavery, easily likeable characters and a new skit system using the in-game graphics marks that they are taking several steps forward with the series. Tales of Arise is an indication and a good example of how to evolve a franchise, takes some risks and keep its core Action RPG gameplay the series has been known so that it can appeal to a bigger and broader audience, so much though that it has become one of the fastest selling games in the series yet. Tales of Arise surpasses the previous entry Tales of Berseria in many ways and it is without a doubt one of the best RPGs of 2021 and also perhaps one of the best Action RPGs of all time. If you like RPGs and never played a Tales of game before and want to start getting into more quality driven and well refined combat systems than you need to check out Tales of Arise. With that the Tales Series has liberated the hearts of fans all over the world as it takes the steps forward into the next generation.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Game Score: 10/10
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Game Title: Tales of Arise
Platform: PlayStation 4
Developer: Bandai Namco Entertainment
Genre: Action Role Playing
Age Rating: PEGI: 12+
Release Date: 10th September 2021
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Good Points:
---------------------
Fantastic Battle System that has characters with their own unique fighting style, boost attacks, skills and Artes
Unreal Engine 4 graphics that makes all characters and environments look unbelievably gorgeous and beautiful to look at making each location memorable
Brilliant soundtrack and the transition from field to battle remixes with some of the major dungeon themes is incredible
New Skit system showing 3D ingame panels is impressive
Very creative Boost Strike Artes
Character interaction and banter is well executed giving each character excellent depth and believability
Fishing Minigame that is rather enjoyable
Many Sidequests and other activities like Farming & Camping are brilliant
The Bad Points:
---------------------
You don't earn Gald from battles which makes grinding problematic
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reviewed by: Anthony Hayball (AQWBlaZer91)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------