Tales of Arise is a sprawling, epic adventure of self-discovery, revenge, liberation and forgiveness.
The story is set 300 years after the occupation of Dahnan by the more technologically advanced and "Arte" (magic) weilding inhabitants of it's twin world, Renan.
The Renan have enslaved the Dahnan and are using them as conduits to harvest the planets Astral energy.
In particular this Astral energy collection is of the utmost importance to the Lords of Renan, who are locked in competition over it; for whoever collects the most will be the next sovereign ruler.
You play the part of the protagonist who is initially just called "iron mask". You awake in one such slave camp, with no memories, an iron mask firmly stuck on your head and the inability to feel any pain.
That's it as far as story goes for this review..... zero spoilers!
The narrative and pacing of the story is excellent, particularly given the enormity and scope of the game.
It does a fantastic job of keeping you engrossed, revealing unexpected plot twists, character developments and interactions all the way through.
While some of the main characters maybe jrpg tropes, the story doesn't always move in the direction you think it's going to and that genuinely keeps you on your toes and stops the game from becoming stale.
The game drives the narrative through a combination of controlled gameplay, anime cutscenes and semi animated comic book style panels all of which gel perfectly and look absolutely stunning in the unreal 4 engine.
As with most modern jrpgs you control your main character (which you can select from between available party members) as you traverse the various semi open world map sections of the game; world completing quests, subquests and collecting items (in much the same way as Dragon quest 11 did).
While in this mode you are limited to directional controls, Sprint and jump, you can interact with items and NPCs within the environment and of course there are wandering monsters.
For the most part monsters can be fairly easily avoided if you so wish, however if you get too close to a group, then combat is initiated and the game changes up a gear.
The combat mechanics are really where Tales of Arise shines. The initial tutorials do a fantastic job of introducing you to the new controls, introducing basic mechanics and the foundation to build an expand upon your abilities and movesets.
In fact these gradual tutorials continue until well after the game's 10 hours mark, never overwhelming you with too much information.
The level of customization, automation and diversity within the combat mechanics is incredible. When you think you've mastered one character you can simply switch to another character during combat and learn a whole new approach.
It's one of the few games that I've played with the AI does a good job, in addition you have complete autonomy and fine-tuning of the parameters that define the AI behavior.
You can decide when, or which items they will use, at what point during the fight, how they will act and which enemies or abilities they will prioritize.
Abilities, synergies, modifiers and bonuses are offered via the character specific in-game skill trees which are called "skill panels" in Tales of Arise. Different skill panels are unlocked either as the story progresses or as you reach a milestone in game.
Each skill panel has five skills attached the first is unlocked for free and subsequent skills are unlocked using SP (skill points), which are gained by completing quests or defeating monsters. If you unlock all five skills on a panel you gain an additional passive bonus.
This gives you so much freedom to create the party dynamics and build that you want to play and again the pacing is perfect, you are never overwhelmed with options nor are you starved for choice as the game progresses they just open up organically for the most part.
Combat is very Hands-On (unless you set it to auto or semi auto) you have full control over your character within the combat arena.
Basic attacks, special attacks, jump Dodge, counters, combo attacks and ability modifiers.
Certain abilities or breakpoints or trigger combos with other characters from your party which are incredibly visually impressive while still feeling like an integral part of combat rather than mini cut scene.
Overall the combat felt slightly reminiscent of a combination of Final Fantasy XIV and the more recent Final Fantasy VII remake, but still manages to apply its own unique take and keep combat fresh, even after many hours.
Although some of the boss/elite fights can feel far more "Monster Hunter" or "raid boss" than standard jrpg fare, taking anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes to down depending on your party level. While this can feel like a great accomplishment when they're defeated, it can conversely be very frustrating if you fail at the final hurdle, run out of potions and have to start all over again.
The game does have some soft checks on level requirements throughout the story.
After initially trying a couple of side quests, I had originally decided to leave them well alone and concentrate on the main story as I didn't feel they were as well written or fleshed out as they could have been.
However after failing several times to down one of the bosses, it became quite apparent that I had to go back and mop up all the side quests in order to sufficiently level my party to take on the challenge.
For the most part the game is incredibly well voiced, however some of the main characters do fall all too easily into the jrpg stereotypes.
There are the weird outbursts of emotion at what seems like very odd times coupled with teenage "you all hate me don't you" moments; but this is all part and parcel of a jrpg.
The only times the voicing really started to grate on me, was with the owls and during combat.
One of the games collectible mechanics is to find owls hidden around the open world, these owls can then be returned to the owl king and queen, in the owl forest in return for armor upgrades and cosmetic items.
These owls will "hoot" when you are in the vicinity to alert you to search the immediate environment for the hidden creature.
However the hooting is incessant and not so much bird owl noise as it is weird human camp sex voice. It's hard to explain, but you will definitely know it when you hear it!
Similarly annoying of the dialogue interactions of the various members of your party during combat.
Well initially very impressive: the characters voice the titles of their special abilities as they execute them and bounce witty one liners or words of encouragement off each other as they fight.
This is all well and good when there are only two or three people in the party, but as soon as you have a full ensemble, combat sounds more like a cocaine fueled conversation at a table full of 80s stockbrokers, everybody talking at once and over the top of each other, ultimately becoming a wall of noise (which as mentioned above can last for up to 10 minutes).
However these are only very minor gripes in an epic game that has been remarkably well executed.
For the longest time the "Tales of" series seems to have been in the shadow of Final Fantasy series. Zestiria and more recently Berseria did a lot to update the franchise, making it more accessible, mainstream and increasing its popularity. However Arise is by far the best entry so far and in my opinion just edges out any competition from Final Fantasy. Yes, that's right..I think this game is better than any of the Final Fantasy games....
I am not a die-hard jrpg fan but I've played a lot and I do enjoy them, Tales of Arise has now stolen my top spot as all my time favorite (from NiNoKuni 2).
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