A Worthy Tale
As a longtime fan of the Tales series, I quite enjoyed Tales of Berseria and felt that it was a return to form after the missteps of the previous lackluster entry. Following that, when they revealed Tales of Arise, it looked to be a departure from the usual formula with a notable increase in visual fidelity as well as a heavier emphasis on fast paced combat, rewarding well-timed dodges, counters and relentless attack strings.
Despite feeling that it looked promising, I was nonetheless concerned that the changes to the series formula could be taking the game down the wrong direction and was eager to find out for myself. Luckily, it seems my concerns were unfounded as Tales of Arise turned out to be a worthy entry to this long running franchise with some much-needed injection of new ideas.
This is fine.
MSRP: $59.99 (PC)
Platforms: PC, PS4/PS5, X1/XsX
Played on: PC Specs i7 9700K OC/GTX 3070
Voice Acting: ENG/JPN.
Length: 45~ hours
As slaves bound to servitude by the technologically superior Renans, Alphen and his fellow Dahnans toiled away endlessly in the mines never dreaming of the possibility that they might one day be free of their masters. However, after a chance meeting with a strange Renan woman by the name of Shinone and rebel forces he never knew existed, Alphen decides to pick up the sword to free Dahnans from Renan oppression once and for all.
Even though the initial premise of the amnesiac hero taking up the sword to fight evil isn’t going to win any awards for creativity, the overarching storyline felt compelling from beginning to end thanks to its likeable cast of characters.
Individually, they wouldn’t be much to talk about, but they shine as a group as they each bring a unique perspective to the table as they uncover the truth of the world around them and grow together while supporting each other. The highlight being the relationship that builds between Alphen and Shionne throughout the course of their journey as it felt natural and earned thanks to the trials and tribulations they conquer together, and it served as the emotional lynchpin that kept me invested in what could happen next.
Although I enjoyed the story and characters, I felt at times that the central themes exploring racism and slavery was hammered on too hard on the nose, a bit too frequently and when I found myself listening to the cast reiterating what they just said and established mere moments ago time and time again, I felt it slowed the pace down to a crawl needlessly. This feeling was enhanced due to the presentation of the skits now looking more or less identical to most story conversation instead of the cutesy 2D sprite antics that I much prefer as all the events blended together without the visual shift.
3D model skits isn’t a bad idea but it needs to be differentiated a lot more, otherwise it’ll just be more story cutscenes. Bring back 2D sprite skits!
Despite being a long running, well respected JRPG series, Tales games have never been one to push the envelope when it comes to visuals and while Tales of Arise is by no means the best-looking game out in the market, its visuals are decidedly a generation leap from its predecessor. Highly detailed character models of the main cast that stand up to close scrutiny, colorful environments full of small details and aggressive use of particle effects makes for a treat for the eyes.
Unfortunately, the PC port of Tales of Arise seems to suffer from a rather aggressive texture/shading pop-in that was hard to ignore as it was constant, happening at all distances and despite attempting to resolve the issue by fiddling around with the settings, it persisted throughout my entire playthrough. I saw some pop-ins on the PS5 as well playing the demo, but it was nowhere near on the level of the PC port.
The porting itself felt to be rather barebones as well with minimalistic graphics options and no support for features like Ultrawide, DLSS or FSR. I think it’s high time that we recognize that it’s not enough just to have a game in a playable form on PC, it needs to include features that are PC centric so players can get the most out of the experience.
Due to the constant pop-ins on the PC, this is unfortunately a better looking game in screenshots than it is in action.
As for the combat, there is a much bigger emphasis on dodging and countering enemy blows as well as chaining moves from different characters by using their break arts and swapping characters on the fly. The lower the HP of the enemy and higher the hit count, I could fill up a stagger meter of sorts on the enemy and when it became full, I could unleash a devastating attack that would wipe out not only the enemy I targeted but the enemies in close proximity as well.
So a typical fight would start with me running into an enemy on the map to initiate the fight and immediately, I would target a foe that I want to go after. I would typically choose the ones with the lower HP or category that I have the break art charged up and ready to use against. For example, I would often go after a flying enemy where I could use Shionne’s break art to knock them down from the air and stun them for a time to build up the stagger meter and when I didn’t have enough AG to initiate any more attacks, I could use another break art and then swap to that character on the fly to continue the assault. Hopefully I’ve done enough damage and my combo counter is high enough that I could trigger the assault which would kill off the enemy I was targeting and do heavy damage to all the monsters around that area, making clearing out the rest of them all that much easier.
As I needed to keep an eye out not just to be able to dodge and counter incoming attacks but also watch out for the type of enemies and what they’re doing at all times, it made for a fast-paced but strategic experience where a fight that could otherwise be a grindy affair could be handled within seconds with the right timing and combination of moves.
There’s also the AG/CP system where AG is expanded when combat and offensive magical artes are used and CP is expanded only for recovery/buff magic. As AG recovered very quickly and with magical artes no longer being limited by sharing the same pull of finite resources as healing magic, I was able to go all out offensively for every single encounter, allowing me to experiment and combo to my heart’s content. CP on the other hand was expensive to restore and had to be managed carefully so I also had to play smart so I wasn’t losing too much HP each fight.
Figuring out a plan of attack on the fly and executing it perfectly never gets old.
When it’s all said and done, Tales of Arise features a likeable cast of characters, compelling story and one of my new favorite combat engines, not just in the Tales series but in all the JRPGs I’ve played so far and if not for the pacing issues and the PC port’s technical issues, it could have set the bar for JRPGs to follow.
Fun Tidbit – After completing the game, outside of the standard New Game+ mode, there are a series of challenging cameo boss fights waiting for players brave enough to challenge them which I’m sure longtime fans will get a kick out of.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
