When developer Gust revealed Atelier Ayesha: The Alchemist of Dusk, it marked the start of a brand new storyline for that Atelier series. It also, at least initially, seemed like it may be a brand new begin in different ways as well. Main character Ayesha was noticeably older than all of the heroines from the previous arc, and Gust was trying to enhance the visual quality of the game's characters and landscapes. As someone who was increasingly (and frustratingly) outgrowing the franchise, I held out hope that Atelier Ayesha may be that reworking it'd desperately needed. In some ways, the sport was indeed evolution-but it fell far short of revolution.
A few years later, I'd find myself inside a similar situation using the unveiling from the latest chapter of another Japanese RPG franchise: Tales of Arise. “Now it's time for change,” the announcement trailer promised, also it looked as though the dev team may be skewing the characters older and putting more work into modernizing the game's graphics. I knew I'm there before, and yet I once again let myself get excited at the idea of what might be possible.
Now the end credits have rolled and I've cleared out all of the side content I felt necessary for doing a review, I will tell you that Tales of Arise still falls into a few of the trappings that JRPGs have either struggled to escape, or fully embraced towards the detriment of gaining a wider audience. Its story at times can be quite silly and overly convoluted. Its main characters never fully push beyond standard tropes, while minor ones usually have little depth for them. Conversations could be repetitive and lacking in substance, while more emotional moments aren't always because of the weight or time for you to breathe they deserve.
And yet, in a lot of ways, Tales of Arise filled me having a joy which i haven't felt from classical JRPGs in years. It's impossible to not come off as hyperbolic in referring to precisely how enamored I came to be with this particular game, and just how it single-handedly renewed some of the faith I used to have inside a genre I remember when i dearly loved. As a player, less a reviewer, I have a lot to say about the game, so much excitement to see others when I'm allowed to just enjoy the positive side of game titles while glossing within the flaws.
As a reviewer, there is lots I could tell you about Tales of Arise, but I wish to focus specifically on four major aspects that I thought the sport did really well-and one which it didn't.
One can't discuss Tales of Arise without talking about its visual style, and also the team really did an admirable job here. Plenty of games did the “interactive Japanese animation” look well at this time, but saying that this game “looks like anime” does indeed it an injustice. Could I name various Television shows or movies that Tales of Arise resembles on some level? Sure. But instead of simply trying to emulate a specific style, I believe the team's artists were instead working to craft something that belongs to them, with smaller details and artistic decisions that give the game more of a unique look. This ain't your granddaddy’s Tales games, and fan of manga artist (and Tales character designer) Kousuke Fujishima that I am, boy shall we be held glad for your.
While certain aspects don't completely sell the look-third-tier characters clearly didn't get the attention more important NPCs and our heroes did, for example-the visuals help much set the stage for that more mature shift the narrative takes. Yes, everything from the cast around the world itself still looks more colorful and cartoony than many more serious games, but it's a method that's able to support its own serious moments without feeling off.
This leads us to what could be the strongest element of Tales of Arise for me personally, which is its cast of characters. I'm just going to be honest: Characters happen to be the specific reason why I've avoided playing a lot of previous Tales games. When I see a 14-year-old girl who appears like a 10-year-old girl, and who's supposedly a pirate and a melee fighter, you've lost me. Entering Tales of Arise, my biggest concern was a relatively minor one: how silly protagonist Alphen looks with a half-destroyed helmet stuck to his face. But, when we find out how he came to seem like that, it is a genuinely awesome-and earned-moment.
I found love almost every other main cast member as well, without ever feeling like the game was desperately attempting to convince me which i should. There's Shionne, the sniper/healer whose curse has driven her to a life fueled by revenge; Law, the young traitor to his people who must escape his father's shadow; Kisara, the royal guardswoman who has forgotten what she's fighting for; Dohalim, the ruler whose utopia sits upon basics of lies; and Rinwell, the token young female magic user whose hatred for her oppressors burns hotter than her fire spells.
I think Rinwell offers the perfect example from the excellence of the game's main cast. Young JRPG teammates always cause me to feel nervous, since they are this kind of easy aspect to get wrong-or worse, creepy-but for the most part, Rinwell is really a shockingly good character. Such as the above-mentioned pirate Patty, she too is 14, but unlike Patty, she actually looks it. She doesn't act unnaturally cutesy or child-like, yet she does have the type of immaturity when examining larger life issues that a woman her age would have. Once she finally comes face-to-face with the cause of her tragic past, she's not capable of coping with the situation either emotionally or mentally-because of course she would not be able to. However, using that event, and everything else that happens over the course of the story, Rinwell grows like a person, and ends up transcending the “token young female magic user” trope she seems to initially represent.
For all of its six main characters, Tales of Arise is really a journey of growth, one that leads them far from the places these were when we first met them. Again, I'm compelled to point out that, if you break the game's story right down to its core elements, we have seen all this before. Hero guy with amnesia, female companion with mysterious powers, world that needs saving where there is nothing ever as straightforward as it seems. It's what Tales of Arise does with the actions from moment to moment which makes the knowledge engrossing.
The setting for what unfolds is Dahna, a planet enslaved through the inhabitants of their sister world Rena for over 300 years. The Renan lords that rule within the land treat the planet, its people, as well as their enslavement as one big game, where the lord who are able to harvest probably the most spiritual energy using their territory's slaves gets promoted to rule over both planets. After all those many years of oppression, the Dahnan people have given up hope of ever being free. However, an opportunity meeting between Alphen and Shionne, and the immense power they're mysteriously in a position to remove of 1 another, finally sets things moving.
Tales of Arise's story works as well as it does thanks to interesting yet down-to-earth characters, a more restrained (well, mostly) types of storytelling, and an atmosphere that can be surprisingly dark at times. You will naturally root for Alphen and Shionne because the spark for a revolution, even if their causes of lighting that fire originate from very different places. Dahna's five main kingdoms get noticed not just in style, but additionally substance, letting the sport keep the adventure fresh without ever getting bogged down in one place for too much time. There's some quantity of buying in to the narrative you'll have to do, and if you're unable to do so, this would be considered a story that's hard to appreciate. For me, I came to be fully invested from the opening hour, and was always eager to find out what would happen next.
The final piece of the Tales of Arise puzzle that I actually want to highlight is its combat-but allow me to warn you, things are getting just a little complicated.
Like most previous Tales games, whenever you encounter a monster on the area, the game switches to a contained arena where the fight plays out. Combat is fully real-time, so that all basic attacks, Artes (the game's name for skills and spells), dodges, blocks, or jumps emerge in the press of a button. You could have as much as four characters in the game with two in reserve, and also at any time, you are able to both swap out active teammates for reserve ones, or change to control another character. Any roster members you are not controlling or who aren't in reserve fight via AI, and you may not only select between a number of preset tactics types for the AI to follow, but even dig into those options to further tailor the AI conditions to your liking. I've long been keen on AI-controlled teammates in RPGs, because I like the feeling of fighting together with my teammates rather than them just being puppets that i can control. As i know few people shares my opinion, I believe Tales of Arise's team AI is pretty darn good. I had numerous fights in which the character I was controlling died, and instead of just switching to a person else, I waited to ascertain if my team could still accomplish a win. More often than not, they did.
From there, Tales of Arise stacks on combat system after combat system. First off, every character has their own Artes Gauge, from which spent suggests use Artes. (The gauge refills automatically, therefore it is there mostly to keep you against spamming attacks over and over.) However, when the Artes you want to use are healing or support skills, additionally they require Cure Points, which come from a pool shared through the entire team. Cure Points don't refill automatically, so you'll need to use items, remain at an inn, or find other methods for replenishing them. Every character then also offers a Boost Gauge, which fills while fighting. When someone's Boost Gauge is full, you are able to command them to use their personal special skill referred to as a Boost Attack via the D-pad. Shionne, for example, can knock flying enemies from the air, while Law can break through a shielded enemy's defenses.
Then we add in to the mix Boost Strikes, Counter Edges, Over Limits, Mystic Artes, combo counters (along with diminishing returns for combos), Critical Hits, Weak Points, Battle Chain Bonuses, and cooking buffs-all which come into play in combat by opening additional special techniques, team-up attacks, bonuses in and out of doors battles, and much more. Oh, and that is in addition every one of the six characters on your team has their own unique gameplay twist when you're controlling them, and their own special Map Actions that cost Cure Points when out going through the world.
It's a lot to take in, and that i don't blame anybody who finds Tales of Arise's combat to become intimidating. The truth is, should you consider the game as you would something similar to Street Fighter V or Guilty Gear Strive, your perspective can shift a bit. Fighting games are notorious for his or her complexity, however they are also still totally playable without learning all a character's abilities. Tales of Arise features a whole lot of technique in its combat, but it is okay to simply concentrate on those options that best fit your personal tastes. Should you choose dig in to the full battle system and employ it to your advantage, then combat is both incredibly enjoyable and hugely empowering. This is one of those RPGs where I never-well, mostly never-tired of squaring off against foes, and stringing regular attacks into Artes into Counter Edges while using Boost Strikes and also the temporary unlimited Artes Gauge that more than Limits offer was endlessly satisfying.
For much of time with Tales of Arise, I had been certain of the score I'd give it. It had been an ambitious, well-crafted masterpiece of the JRPG that maybe didn't get everything right, but sure did its best to try. And then, I hit the last 1/6th of the game, and things began to fall apart. I'll have to be vague because of massive spoilers, but a certain location was set up as incredibly important only to possess the payoff botched. The expansive, detailed areas I'd once explored gave way to meager setpieces. Dungeons became long slogs of identical-looking hallways and rooms, where previous ones had displayed far better design and creativity. Enemy encounters grew so numerous which i was finally getting fed up with fighting. And, worst of all, a lot of the emotional power and smart direction of previous story moments seemed to fall to the wayside. I kept pressing on since i desired to see what awaited at the end of my journey, however i was no longer enjoying getting there like I remember when i had.
The failure from the game's final act also emphasized the main one manner in which Tales of Arise remains shackled towards the past: relying on a continuing rotation of exploring a new location, speaking with people, discovering what's happening, entering a dungeon, and fighting a boss. Yeah, I know-that's a lot of RPGs, Japanese or otherwise. But does it have to be? Split up the cycle. Don't have every boss await at the end of a dungeon, and let some dungeons don't have any fighting period. The ultimate portion of the game would have held far more meaning had there not been just one enemy, and instead focused on letting us fully take in what had happened there.
Tales of Arise is incredibly ambitious, daring, and maybe even risky for a franchise which has 26 years of fandom behind it. Despite its faults, this is a fantastic gaming experience that I would easily recommend to even those who are only casual JRPG fans. I'm thankful I took an opportunity on it, and cannot believe how excited I am for where Tales may now move from here.
As a sensible man once said, “Let the past die. Kill it, if you have to. That’s the only method to become what you're intended to be.” You'd the decrepit, decaying manifestation of Japanese RPGs of old almost killed, Tales of Arise-if you alone might have finished the task and stabbed the blazing sword deep into the monster's heart.
