Developer: Bandai Namco
Publisher: Bandai Namco
Release Date: 10th September 2021
Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S
Reviewed on: PlayStation 5
▫️ Review code provided by the publisher ▫️
The Tales series is one of the longest-running JRPG franchises out there and so it was with quite a lot of excitement that I dove into the latest of the bunch; Tales of Arise. With a refresh on the formula, Arise does a lot of really interesting things that have grabbed the attention of a whole new generation of gamers – and will ultimately delight fans both old and new. Here’s my spoiler-free review of Tales of Arise.
A story that goes places
As always, I will refrain from spoiling the story, of course, but here’s Tales of Arise’s narrative setup in a nutshell. You start out as Iron Mask, a Dahnan slave who has been put to work by the oppressive Renans. You don’t remember who you are or where you came from, so you’ll get to learn about the world – and how unfair everything is – alongside Iron Mask and his companions. Within the first hour or so of the game, you set out on a quest to end the oppression of your people, and, well, things escalate from there. It’s a story that might go places you expect – but also places you probably don’t.
Along your journey, you will encounter ever more companions, who not only add context to the world and its history but also add to the game in more meaningful ways. “Skits” are also making a return in Arise, which are supporting pieces of narrative that pop up every now and again. These need to be manually triggered as they appear (or at a nearby campfire), and there are 320 of them, so be sure to keep an eye out if you want to experience the vast amounts of character development on offer here.
A lot of the skits are fun, but like I said there are a lot of them. If you want tons of context and additional worldbuilding, trigger them and enjoy – and if you don’t, just let them pass you by. It’s an interesting way to let the player determine just how much story they want, just in case, they’re just here for the action. And thankfully, there’s plenty of that too. Let’s look at that next.
Exciting combat with a few twists
As is the norm for games of this type, the “tutorial” part of the experience lasts quite a while, because there’s quite a lot to learn. Systems expand as you go, and before long, combat will go from simply hacking and slashing to worrying about things like Counter Edges, Boost Strikes, Artes, strategies and, well, more than a handful of party members that are all under your control. It all sounds like a lot, and for a while, it might be, but once you get the hang of it, Tales of Arise’s combat gets really, really fun. It’s flashy, fast-paced and keeps you on your toes.
There are a few really cool things to note about the combat, too. I already mentioned Strategies that allow you to define how you want your companions to fight when you’re not directly controlling them. You have quite fine control of how these strategies play out too, as you can dictate the exact conditions for when to heal, whether to use items or your limited combat points, and a lot of stuff like that. You can even change your strategy on the fly during combat if your circumstances change.
On top of this, you’re able to mostly automate combat too, if you want. I’ve not seen this in a game since NieR Automata, but in Arise you’re able to determine whether you want to do everything yourself or let the AI fight for you. Should you pick the latter, you won’t just sit and watch, however – or at least not if you want to get the most out of your combat options. When you’re using “Auto” fighting, you still need to manually trigger things like counters, abilities, and combo moves, so you’re still very engaged. You can even just temporarily take over if you want, and “Auto” will simply take over again if you stop moving or attacking. It’s really handy and makes it easy for more casual players to have fun with it, too.
You want more? Ok, here’s more!
It wouldn’t be a proper JRPG without distractions. We know we have to save the world, but obviously, we also want to stop and smell the flowers, right? Thankfully Arise has tons of flowers. Metaphorical flowers, that is. Outside the main story, the game has a total of 70 sub-quests for you to dig into, a lot of which are really good and offer some of the game’s toughest challenges – and strangest, most unexpected encounters. Many of these can’t be completed until you finish the story, so once you’ve spent about 30-35 hours on the main course, you’ve still got plenty to do.
In addition to the sub-quests, you will be looking for collectables (owls of all things), food recipes for various buffs, craftable weapons and armour – and even some fishing. Because of course there’s fishing. It’s not the deepest or best fishing system out there, but it’s enough to keep you distracted for a few hours.
As an additional bonus, pretty much everything you do ties into character progression. Each character has a fairly big “skill tree”, where you not only unlock new skills but also improve your overall stats as you go. Some of these require certain events to trigger, like catching a certain fish, finding a specific number of owls, using some abilities enough – or building a strong bond with a companion. All in all, it serves to add some great incentives to at least give everything a try.
Tales of Quality (of life)
So, we’ve already covered how the auto-combat options make this game great for players of pretty much any skill level, but that’s not the only user-friendly thing the game is doing. They say it’s all in the details, and that’s very much the case here too. First of all, pretty much everything of any relevance that you are doing is being tracked, which means you can always see how many quests you have left, how many weapons or accessories you’ve yet to make, how many recipes you’ve found, which fish you’ve caught, which artefacts you have… you get the point.
Since you’ll be doing a lot of travelling to get around to all of these fun little distractions, you’ll be glad to know that you can fast-travel from pretty much everywhere – and to most places, too. Additionally, you can open a quick overview menu (hit square, then triangle) to get a list of each area, which ones you can travel directly to, whether there’s a new sub-quest available or if you have a quest to hand in. It’s really convenient.
On top of that, the game clearly indicates which NPCs you’ve already spoken to, if you want to hear what everyone has to say without risking repeat dialogue. Something as simple as being able to collect resources in the world without needing to watch an animation each time is also a small detail, but equally welcome here. The sheer amount of quality of life here is great.
Is it a bird? A Plane? Superman?
No, it’s your companions talking. Like, a lot. Way too much, in fact. And I’m not talking about the skits, but rather about the frankly obscene amount of voice lines you have to listen to during combat. Not only are your companions calling out the name of every single move they do, they’re also speaking to each other nonstop. Once your main character has asked someone “Why did you heal me?” for the 500th time, it gets a bit old. I’d dare say that 100+ voice lines in a 2 minute fight might be low-balling it. I imagine there are a few videos on YouTube highlighting the issue if you’re curious.
Sadly, there’s no way to turn off these voices, unless you turn off voices completely – but then your skits and actual story moments are muted, too. Hopefully, this is patched in the near future, as it is frankly the main issue with the game. Everything else is great – which brings us to our conclusion below.
So, is Tales of Arise worth playing? Yes! In the grand scheme of things, the voice line issue is very minor, as just about everything else about the game is fantastic. The story is interesting, the characters are great, the combat is fun – and there’s quite a bit of content here as well. If you’ve been looking for the next great JRPG to play after Scarlet Nexus back in June, look no further. Tales of Arise is definitely worth your time.
-K.A. Pedersen
