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Do you think Tales of Arise deserved the rave reviews it got?
- Thread starter Dust
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It was a solid 8 out Of 10 for me. So it didn't quite live up to the reviews, but in some sense I'm glad it reviewed well. I'd never played a Tales game and it was the reviews that got me to try the demo and then buy the game.
As a huggggge Tales fan this game kind of started off with a bang but a lot of issues prevented me from fully enjoying it. Mainly it felt incomplete and the end portion felt out of place.
"...in this thread" otherwise the "but" there doesnt make sense.
It's an okay game that kinda coasts on it's production values but falls the fuck of in the latter half of the game. The combat is mostly okay, though bosses are generally pretty unfun.
I'd peg it as a solid 7/10 and nothing more. As a longtime fan of the series, I found it pretty disappointing. There's definitely room for improvement and iteration, so at the very least, it can be a solid foundation for another game down the line.
I'd peg it as a solid 7/10 and nothing more. As a longtime fan of the series, I found it pretty disappointing. There's definitely room for improvement and iteration, so at the very least, it can be a solid foundation for another game down the line.
Would lower difficulty levels alleviate this problem? If available.
Only slightly. I turned the game down to easy during the second boss fight and the next few bosses still took me >20 minutes of chip damage to take down. It's simply the way the boss battles are designed - you can really only do meaningful damage to them while they're staggered and it's very difficult to stagger them. And their damage output is always through the roof compared to the enemies in their areas.
Also once you get them down to a certain HP threshold, if you don't kill them fast enough, they will repeatedly spam their Mystic Arte on you over and over again until you run out of healing items.
The first 2 worlds were great, but the 3rd was horrible and at the 4th I just lost interest and stopped playing. The game did a lot of great things to modernize and reboot the series, mostly on the art side, but gameplay mechanics were too simple and there was a lot of annoying repetition & tedium. Story wise I think they also stayed on the same topic for too long and watered down anything interesting about it. Might get around to finishing it one day, though I was disappointed to see that there was no patches to fix issues, improve things or add noteworthy content
Just finished it tonight. There is some genuinely lovely work here but wow also so much to dislike -- huge disagree on the review scores!
Tales of Arise's art is stunning, but the sparse environments break the illusion of a lived-in world. The NPCs could've used small touches like individual names instead of "Dahnan Woman". As for characters, you come to appreciate even the blandest one after 70 hours of skits and campfires, but only Dohalim and Kisara compelled me. The others had solid voice acting, but they're affable and not particularly interesting. Hootle is cute as hell -- can't go wrong there!
But yo. This game's worldview is deeply adolescent and high on ideology. It's been mentioned that this is very close to both-sides-ing slavery. There is a skit or throwaway line that attempts plausible deniability, but the narrative places systemic oppression at the feet of individual grievences even when it's explicitly trying not to. What a mess. There is a place for stories about individual resentments leading to broader strife -- one that's even in these writers' wheelhouse! -- but when you're playing with the fire of slavery, you have to bring your A-game in how you consider the material realities of the human condition. The writing has a thematic reach that extends well past its imagination's grasp, and it approaches silly bordering on embarrassing. Not sure if this is a spoiler, but
I did find Dohalim and Kisara's arcs to be the most thoughtful and complex. I'd go as far as to say I'd really enjoy a 20-hour game on the two of their arcs written from a more mature perspective.
TLDR: The story of Arise raises difficult questions, likes to say there are no easy answers, then provides easy answers by way of rousing hero speeches about setting aside differences. That can work in a lot of contexts, but I believe this one was set up for failure.
Still, the minutiae of the adventuring is a good time, the combat is quite satisfying and a direction I'd like the series to progress (some sponge issues -- I played on Moderate), and there was a solid chunk of the game that had me genuinely curious about the big plot revelations despite the red flags. I did give this almost 70 hours of my time, after all. There is a 3000 word version of my take on the narrative that I will spare the strangers on Resetera, but let me just re-emphasize how gorgeous the art direction is. Sublime stuff.
Tales of Arise's art is stunning, but the sparse environments break the illusion of a lived-in world. The NPCs could've used small touches like individual names instead of "Dahnan Woman". As for characters, you come to appreciate even the blandest one after 70 hours of skits and campfires, but only Dohalim and Kisara compelled me. The others had solid voice acting, but they're affable and not particularly interesting. Hootle is cute as hell -- can't go wrong there!
But yo. This game's worldview is deeply adolescent and high on ideology. It's been mentioned that this is very close to both-sides-ing slavery. There is a skit or throwaway line that attempts plausible deniability, but the narrative places systemic oppression at the feet of individual grievences even when it's explicitly trying not to. What a mess. There is a place for stories about individual resentments leading to broader strife -- one that's even in these writers' wheelhouse! -- but when you're playing with the fire of slavery, you have to bring your A-game in how you consider the material realities of the human condition. The writing has a thematic reach that extends well past its imagination's grasp, and it approaches silly bordering on embarrassing. Not sure if this is a spoiler, but
when the story veers into cosmic territory it further de-legitimizes its own narrative about oppression because it doesn't marry the human-political and the planetary conflict with much grace. I get that JRPGs and Tales games have a vestigial genre need to tie the at-present story to the world's creation myth, but I just lost complete interest during the big true-nature-of-the-world revelations.
TLDR: The story of Arise raises difficult questions, likes to say there are no easy answers, then provides easy answers by way of rousing hero speeches about setting aside differences. That can work in a lot of contexts, but I believe this one was set up for failure.
Still, the minutiae of the adventuring is a good time, the combat is quite satisfying and a direction I'd like the series to progress (some sponge issues -- I played on Moderate), and there was a solid chunk of the game that had me genuinely curious about the big plot revelations despite the red flags. I did give this almost 70 hours of my time, after all. There is a 3000 word version of my take on the narrative that I will spare the strangers on Resetera, but let me just re-emphasize how gorgeous the art direction is. Sublime stuff.
No, I am a bit puzzled by it honestly. I think it is an okay jrpg but not really anything beyond that.
I was wondering the high reviews myself, especially since Tales games seem to usually get solid-but-not-spectacular reviews. I found aside from graphics and production values, this game didn't really improve on what came before in the series. I played Berseria for the first time this year, a few months before Arise, and while that game has its fair share of problems (fields and dungeons that drag on for a bit too long, absolutely chaotic button mashy combat), its characters were much more entertaining and memorable, and the story was very interesting.
Arise's biggest flaws for me were the story felt like a retread of other Tales (racism, parallel worlds and energy transfer between them), the pointless filler wrpg-style sidequests, and the characters lacked the personality and flair of the usually larger-than-life personalities of other Tales casts (Berseria and Vesperia being personal highlights). Not to mention, pacing the likes of we haven't seen since Xenogears Disk 2 once you get past the "wedge" area. The constant info dumps and skits, coupled with a horribly long final dungeon built from repetitive corridors (when this game generally had concise dungeons that felt handcrafted) stacked with HP sponge monsters... really hurt my overall perception of the game.
still platted it b/c I have nothing better to do
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Kinda getting Xenoblade Chronicles vibes from the game. If I love that series, will I like ToA?
It is my first Platinum since 5 years ago. I liked it so much that I went for completion.
IMO it's a beautiful game, and it's a great execution of the classic JRPG formula. It is however not a groundbreaking game, and that is fine. My only complaint is the small enemy variety.
IMO it's a beautiful game, and it's a great execution of the classic JRPG formula. It is however not a groundbreaking game, and that is fine. My only complaint is the small enemy variety.
I loved Xenoblade and hated Tales of Arise. IMO Tales of Arise really fails on the world design and writing fronts, especially compared to anything from the Xenoblade Chronicles series.
Hard to say. Xenoblade had a lot more sidequesting and the equivalent to "skits" were generally a bit better than what you get in Arise where most of it is repeated exposition. The maps are also a lot more conducive to exploration than Arise which is really not much different from other Tales games where its pretty linear.
The combat is pretty different too although I much prefer Tales combat than Xenoblade personally. Xenoblade did have more interesting encounters despite the mmo-lite combat though. Arise gets really repetitive with its enemy and boss encounters.
I suppose both games have a "journey" aspect with some major twists and turns about the world the characters inhabit.
In my opinion I would say definitely, its technical aspects and production value aren't as good but in gameplay and variety it has it beat.
Personally, yes. I found the game systems really impressive and well-thought out. The game economy, for example: in a normal Tales game money becomes irrevelant fairly early on, which makes item economy irrelevant. In Arise CP-restoring gels really matter and you need to be careful with how you're using your items. This also creates an incentive to master the combat systems so you don't end up taking more trips back to a camp than you absolutely need to.
I rarely finish RPGs. I finished Tales of Arise, but I admit, I turned the difficulty down to the lowest difficulty possible and skipped all side content once I got to the second half of the game.
Enjoyed Tales of Berseria more.
Story was lackluster and locking you into actions during combat really soured the game for me.
After the 2nd boss, it starts to go downhill for me. My hope for a great jrpg now lies with Star Ocean 6 and FF7 remake.
Story was lackluster and locking you into actions during combat really soured the game for me.
After the 2nd boss, it starts to go downhill for me. My hope for a great jrpg now lies with Star Ocean 6 and FF7 remake.
I thought it sucked. I can't get myself to care about the cringe inducing storyline and the little side chats at campfires/the skit cutscenes we're even worse. And the more I skipped cutscenes, the less I was able to follow what was going on and thus my motivation to even turn it on waned. I like active time battle systems but this just wasn't for me. I would say perfect for the middle school aged kid who can muster the will to invest the time getting into the storyline.
I'll be honest I probably would have felt the same way about something like Lunar the silver star if I played it for the first time at my age vs when I was 13 or so. And I loved that damn game as a kid, crappy theme song and all. There's a window of opportunity for games like this and I'm way past it sadly to say.
I'll be honest I probably would have felt the same way about something like Lunar the silver star if I played it for the first time at my age vs when I was 13 or so. And I loved that damn game as a kid, crappy theme song and all. There's a window of opportunity for games like this and I'm way past it sadly to say.
It felt wayyyyyy too rushed. When you beat Vholran for the first time I said aloud to myself "is this gonna be the first Tales game to be split into 2 games? Cause no way they fit the other 2 planets into this game unless this game is 90 hours long". Dahna felt well paced, but then you go to Rena and Lenegis and Rena is basically a single corridor to the end and Lenegis it the same thing. Felt really really rushed and the story unfortunately got more and more cliche as it went on.
I'd say it was a 6.5-7/10. Above average, decent game, but definitely not the 8.5-9/10 that game companies were giving it.
I'd say it was a 6.5-7/10. Above average, decent game, but definitely not the 8.5-9/10 that game companies were giving it.
I'm only 25 hours in,
, and I must say I've really enjoyed it to this point. I see all the comments criticizing it for its final third and ideological content, so I'm braced for that, but so far this is a world that has interested me more than Scarlet Nexus, to make one comparison. The pacing of combat/exploration and dialogue has been just about right for my tastes, and I appreciate that each character offers unique mechanics in battle.
Granted, I haven't played a Tales game since Symphonia.
about to face the fourth lord
Granted, I haven't played a Tales game since Symphonia.
So.... 35h in. Just a bit after the second intro unlocking.
This game is.... good but there's a lot of potential very badly explored here. I like the story, the narrative is a bit awkward at some points, specially those mid session engagement with R1. Some are completely out of tone in the experience.
The combat.... well, I'm not playing any more. I left at auto play, only using d-pad commands when needed. The thing is... when an enemy has a weak spot I tend to engage more in the combat.
If the combat was deeper in this regard, finding weakness, crippling enemies on different ways and keep the pressure it would be much more awesome, but after level 40 with a bit of good strategy on the auto you will always win (medium difficulty).
And the art is wonderful. Excellent use of Unreal Engine 4.
This game is.... good but there's a lot of potential very badly explored here. I like the story, the narrative is a bit awkward at some points, specially those mid session engagement with R1. Some are completely out of tone in the experience.
The combat.... well, I'm not playing any more. I left at auto play, only using d-pad commands when needed. The thing is... when an enemy has a weak spot I tend to engage more in the combat.
If the combat was deeper in this regard, finding weakness, crippling enemies on different ways and keep the pressure it would be much more awesome, but after level 40 with a bit of good strategy on the auto you will always win (medium difficulty).
And the art is wonderful. Excellent use of Unreal Engine 4.
I've legit put the game down. I like the combat but I get no fun from how spongy the enemies are. It takes forever to finish a simple freaking fight with normal enemies.
Feeling the urge to replay Berseria right now.
Feeling the urge to replay Berseria right now.
I really enjoyed it. I have some gripes with some of the story decisions but overall it was really fun. The difficulty curve evened out by the end so I didn't feel as strapped for cash and resources after fighting. Abusing fast travel and rest points helped haha
Hell no. Certain areas of the overall was a step up like graphics and combat.
Story was ultra boring. Combat feels great but you fight the same few monsters some different bosses.
Point system used to heal in addition to magic/item.
Painfully average as a sum. I beat it on Xbox.
Story was ultra boring. Combat feels great but you fight the same few monsters some different bosses.
Point system used to heal in addition to magic/item.
Painfully average as a sum. I beat it on Xbox.
It's a solid 8/10. First tales game I've ever played, so I'll buy a future entry for sure on day one.
I'm near the end and I pretty much love all the characters. But good GOD is the cutscene and exposition overload a real problem here. It's like they asked what the worst part of Zestiria was and decided to ramp it up. Why do games like this feel the need to keep adding bullshit to the story as it goes? All it does is slowly peel back the audience's enthusiasm each time a new "twist" happens. It's like it doesn't respect the player enough to just tell a straightforward story and thinks we all need a new shiny story trinket every 5 minutes to keep our attention.
Highly recommend you try Xillia and Xillia 2. If you like those, then Vesperia and Berseria. Personal opinion, of course. But they're the ones that have given me the most enjoyment. Far more than Arise (which I do still like).
Only thing I think this game succeeded at was the art style and animation.
Everything else failed to live up to the above 2 qualities the game had. Bloated combat, a story that fell so hard in its face in the second half and numerous other issues I experienced. Game began well and ended badly for me.
Everything else failed to live up to the above 2 qualities the game had. Bloated combat, a story that fell so hard in its face in the second half and numerous other issues I experienced. Game began well and ended badly for me.
100% with you. The combat is fun but every single fight seems to overstay it's welcome and ends in the same few ways. The bosses in particular are so freaking annoying. I could perfectly play them to the point of not being touched and it's just repeating the same combat loop 50x before the boss is dead. Lord help you if you happen to slip up or brain dead AI screws you and have to redo the encounter.
I would replay Berseria a dozen times over before I touch Arise again. Characters and story are just plain better too. Fight me!