Tales of Arise Reviews

The game is gorgeous, but the pacing is terrible. I quite 80% of the way because the grind made the game waaaay too repetitive to be enjoyed

Great game overall, tho there is some questionable designs, such as the double asylum demon. Some area is quite long and if you are new (like me) then you would often encounter CP problem. To my surprise the game is fairly balanced. Besides the fact that elites are so tanky on higher difficulty. Most of your power comes from gear, no RNG involved so you don't have to grind anything. Combat is insanely satisfying. Huge shoutout to the animation team for that. They are just seamlessly integrated between moves. I'm not really a fan of the perfect evasion mechanic tbh but whatever. The devs gave a huge amount of attention to the small details in this game and I love it. On my way to try NG+ now.

While this game may not be for everyone, it definitely was for me. This is one of my favorite games and it has left me feeling empty after completing it. I love every character and how they interact. I love the world and the story is pretty good. There is a lot of focus on the story. If you don't like spending a LOT of time watching cutscenes, then this might not be the game for you. I liked all the small stories and how they made me laugh. Even the side content is good. I found this because I loved Final Fantasy 15 (espesially the combat) and was looking for games with similar combat. This is one of those games. I enjoy the combat system and all the skills while being able to choose which character I want to play as. Overall I really enjoyed and love this game.

would recommend base game only, on sale, cuz it's pretty cheap now - the story at start is promising, but as the adventure goes, it's become more dull, so my suggestion is to shutdown your brain, and just digest the plot :) - the skit is like everyone said, is overused, but it's alright - pacing is so slow in the middle and rushed at the end, typical - the villain is suck, i can't sympathize with him like he appear first as a mysterious swordman at first and stay that way till the end (need more development) - too much moral lesson/message, i know that most tales game atleast from zestiria and berseria, trying to put some social issue as a lesson, but in this game i think it's too cringe and cliche - the only thing that make me keep playing this game is the character design, kisara and shionne, also the graphic is top notch, second to granblue fantasy relink i would say.

starting with the gameplay: combat is easy to pickup, but once you get into the dodging and animation cancel mechanic, you'll need some time; close to no exp or gold grind is needed, just make sure to explore the whole map and you'll have enough resource--if not abundant. the game is heavily put in story-driven perspective with the approach of taking time to explain things in details and allow you to get to know the characters. it could get a bit philosophical too sometimes, but i personally think they did it pretty well. some dialogues might be a little cringe and feels anime-y, but the casual and day to day interaction is *chef kiss*

A game with a great ascetic that almost has good gameplay, and an incredibly bland story. The combat feels like it was almost something good, but is just a bit too easy and bland, without any kind of spark. The rest of the gameplay is mostly running around back and forth across a barely interactable landscape (which was usually at least visually interesting). It was a bit too boring to finish, but maybe if one day I get lobotomised I might come back to it. Overall not an awful game, but not recommended

Story too long, bland, cliche. Combat was fun. Everything is good in the beginning until Arc 2, it's getting worse, boring and repetitive. Too much tanky hostiles.

Addictive combat system, excellent characters, beautiful style, and everything else. I never got bored.

Beat the base game yesterday. What an absolute downgrade. Been playing since Gamecube/Tales of Symphonia and the only one worse than this was Zestria. ToS and ToV are in a league of their own but ToB was still fun and enjoyable, this? Seriously, Bandai Namco, its just absurd how blatant things were cut out to sell to people. Grade shop gone making grade useless. Game actively screws you from grinding to make zones easier because EXP has sharp decrease above level, making the game an absolute slog to get through - and I played on Normal when I usually start on hard then NG+ Hardest difficulty. By far the most difficult Tales game I've played but you can tell its by design to sell you Booster DLC. Finished the game at level 60 with only purchasing the base game and main expansion... And honestly... Im trying to find a reason why Id even want to the expansion at this point. Story was also extra simple, but at least had its moments and Alphen was enjoyable, (of course Kisara is best girl, followed by Rimwell], but man what a disappointment. I had heard that this game was tainted by greed so never bothered, but I didnt really know how bad it was until I played it. Simple avoid, not worth supporting this practice of nickle and diming, and really not even that good of a Tales game. If you haven't, pick up the Tales or Symphonia Remaster or the Tales of Vesperia PC port if you can on sale - those are amazing compared to whatever heap this was.

Beautiful game and great characters, but the story really fell off about midway and combat started to feel repetitive.