![]() ![]() In previous Tales of games, playing mages like Rinwell was about spamming magic from afar, which isn't the most intense type of gameplay. Rinwell is the most obvious case, but this applies to Shionne and Dohalim as well. For example, it's possible to battle both at close and long range, even with characters that aren't supposed to. The game retains the series' action-PRG approach, but adds a couple of features that reshape the combat. While going through the narrative is a great ride in itself, Tales of Arise has many other great qualities. More checkpoints in the final dungeon wouldn't have hurt either. It's not a deal breaker, but I do think it could have been longer and/or better. The epilogue is unfortunately surprisingly short, which weighed down my final impressions. A JRPG is played with a team (especially when teamplay is as important as it is in Tales of Arise), so it should remain as such to the very end. As I pointed out in my review of Sword Art Online Alicization Lycoris, players don't necessarily main the lead character. Additionally, being stuck playing Alphen in the duel at the very end is annoying. I thought it was slightly too cliché, whereas the story up to that point had showcased some original ideas. And yet the final sequence itself left me disappointed. The narrative takes a fascinating Star Ocean-esque turn towards the end, offering up quite a few surprises. It's not just Dhana versus Rena (or Good versus Evil) the story tries to sort out the good and the bad within each faction, and adopt a really humane view of everything that happens. ![]() In a sense Tales of Arise is also a valuable game, as it renews the tradition of having a strong philosophical message. Each chapter ends in a fantastic climax, including an absolutely Dantesque confrontation with the Renan lord, and a magnificent epilogue. In terms of progression Namco Bandai also gets things rights Alphen's party visit Dhana's realms one after the other, and each one offers up a clever yet different way to shape the narrative. ![]() ![]() Visually, Tales of Arise makes dramatic improvements compared to Tales of Berseria, and this reinforces the quality of the storytelling. Whether it's sad, heroic, surprising, or slightly terrifying, almost every cut scene is moving and memorable. Against this, Iron Mask (who is later known as Alphen) represents the values of freedom and forgiveness. Dhana, under Renan rule, is a fairly dark world, plagued by denunciation, deception, intolerance, and summary executions. Tales of Arise is the perfect model of an epic RPG. With the help of a renegade Renan called Shionne, he acquires the Blazing Sword, an excessively powerful artifact likely to turn the tide in favor of the resistance. As he runs into the local resistance, he decides to stand up to the Renan despots. His planet, Dhana, has been under the brutal rule of a technologically superior tribe, the Renans. The narrative immediately adopts a dramatic tone the protagonist you play as (Iron Mask - a strange fellow whose face is always covered by a bizarre mask), endures a hopeless life as a slave like everyone around him. I'm used to JRPGs starting quite calmly, but that's certainly not the case in Tales of Arise. You can't make history by playing it safe, and Tales of Arise is a perfect illustration of that.Īs always with this franchise, Tales of Arise is a heavily story-focused Japanese RPG, but what struck me is how particularly dense the story is. Bandai Namco understood that in order to keep up with the rest of the industry and secure growth for the franchise, it needed to make Tales of stronger by investing in better graphics and animations. It's been five years since Tales of Berseria, and while some may have wondered whether the series was weakening, Tales of Arise proves the exact opposite. By Thomas Froehlicher, posted on 11 October 2021 / 6,461 Views ![]()
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