Tales of Arise is the newest entry in the long-running Tales series and after a few years of planning and production, the execution is nearly flawless. From top to bottom, the mechanics of the game complement every activity you’ll be part-taking in during your 70ish hour adventure.

The landscapes are lush with vegetation and the game manages to make rocky mountain trails look stunning. The musical score was used to surprising effect to bring out dormant emotions in the areas you’ll be visiting. I also fell in love with Tales of Arise answering pretty much every question I had and actively snuffing out plot holes.

In the world of Tales of Arise, Dahna and Rena are twin worlds that have coexisted for millennia. At one point in time, Rena constructed an observation post between them named Lenegis. After Lenegis was built, Rena attacked and conquered Dahna. Under Renan rule, native Dahnans have been forced to be slaves for 300 years.

During this time, Renan’s have set up 5 different realms on Dahna, each tasked with harvesting a specific astral energy element. Each realm is ruled over by a Renan lord of supreme power and they each are vying to be the victor of the Crown Contest. Whoever can harvest the most astral energy after 7 years will win the Crown Contest and be the next Sovereign of Rena. There’s an opening cutscene that explains the history, but it was confusing to understand and left me confused from the jump.

After the brief exposition dump, we find ourselves in the realm named Calaglia. Our protagonist is only known by the moniker Iron Mask. Unable to feel pain or remember his name, Iron Mask has a rebellious spark ignited in him when he has a chance encounter. Upon meeting our other protagonist Shionne, a Renan, they decide to tear down the walls that imprison them and hunt down the five lords of the realms.

As mentioned before, Tales of Arise does an amazing job of answering questions players may have. This includes questions such as, how in the world can Iron Mask see or eat with that thing on?! Some are answered outright and others are allowed to breathe. This creates a very well-paced story that keeps players engaged in the events of the game. The conversations characters have amongst themselves as they try to piece together each mystery add more vested interest.

The party members you’ll be meeting along the way are fairly memorable, but some fall into the trap of leaning into anime tropes a bit too often. Even though some members didn’t have the same amount of depth as others, I still found myself really enjoying the time spent with them. As an added benefit, there are over 300 skits that deepen our understanding of the relationships between characters and the world around them.

It really pays off to trigger these skits, as they help you form a real connection with your companions. During or outside combat, characters are always subtly reinforcing the character development they’re going through as the story progresses. There’s also almost non-stop banter between them that keeps the adventure lively and light-hearted. 

The developers of Tales of Arise pulled no punches when creating their combat system. This game is absolutely loaded with tricks and mechanics that will need to be mastered to put a dent in these beefy enemies. In most JRPG’s, there’s always a core party that players use while the rest are relegated to emergency use or just EXP sponges. I’m happy to announce that every party member in Arise is relevant and will need to be actively used.

Each member has a “Boost Attack” that not only deals damage but is designed to counter specific enemy attacks. If a party member isn’t in the active party, their Boost Attack can still be called in to trip up enemies, cancel Astral Arte attacks, break armor, etc. Not to be confused with Boost Attacks, Boost Strikes can be triggered by repeatedly pummeling an enemy until they are ripe to be executed.

Boost Strikes are performed by two party members and trigger an in-game cinematic of a super attack to finish off the enemy. Boost Strikes will be necessary to finish off larger enemies and bosses. Using specific moves will increase the proficiency of those move types for each character. There are three proficiencies and after hitting a milestone, the character will learn a new move.

Characters can also spend their Skill Points (SP) from completing quests and defeating enemies to learn new moves or receive new passives from the Skill Panel. Character moves are gated by an Artes Gauge (AG) and Cure Points (CP). All character skills consume AG, though some use more than others. Healing skills and support skills use CP. After CP is depleted, healing and support skills can no longer be used until it is replenished with items or rest. AG however will replenish on its own and start off full at the beginning of every fight.

While traveling the overworld there will be ore to mine, ingredients to find, fish to catch, and chests to open. Wild Zeugles and soldiers will be roaming about to get in the way. Unfortunately, there are no ambush or first strike mechanics, so it doesn’t matter how you approach visible enemies. Once you make contact, the fight encounter starts normally. You have the ability to pause fights to make a party member use a specific skill, however, the fight unpauses when the target is selected.

I also noticed a lack of progression tracking for character proficiencies. It really kept me in the dark not knowing when a character was about to learn a new skill or if they had a ways to go before the next milestone. Quests are also not given a recommended level, which was a bit frustrating at times. I would approach a vastly over-leveled enemy that would one-shot me and then I would have to load back from the title screen.

The game is extremely pretty, however, the crazy effects during battles can get overwhelming at times. This is particularly the case later in the game when party members can shoot off their strongest moves that take up half the screen. Even if it’s hard to read the enemy, I thoroughly enjoy watching the spectacle of it all. The environments are also a lot denser than what I was expecting from a cross-gen game. For as much as the game gets right in the graphical department, it’s really held back by being a cross-gen title.

The pop-in for NPCs and assets is pretty aggressive. I played entirely on Performance Mode and didn’t notice any dips in framerate. I switched to Quality Mode to see if the pop-ins would go away, but instead, it just looks extra rough at 30 fps. On top of the pop-ins, running around in dungeons was a tad bit annoying. Every door opened inside a dungeon/castle would trigger a loading screen. A lot of these dungeons are designed to make you backtrack, so it got real old real fast. The loading was quick, but I would have preferred just being able to walk into a room instead of loading into it.

Tales of Arise is an epic romp through Dahna as you venture forth to liberate the planet from Renan oppressors. The combat systems are impressively deep and the enemy designs will keep challenging your mastery of those mechanics. The main cast is on the weaker side when inspecting them individually, but together the band of liberators is as strong as any other party. The writers managed to write a tight story and left no stone unturned.

The animations are smooth and the spell effects are top-tier. The post-game was packed with content and fleshed out well. It delivered one last emotional swan song to tie the ribbon on one a heck of a game. After sinking 100 hours to get the platinum trophy, I’m left feeling empty having to leave my friends behind on Dahna. Bandai Namco managed to churn every bit of power from aging hardware to deliver the best RPG of 2021.

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Tales of Arise

59.99

9

Score

9.0/10

Pros

• Deep Combat Systems
• Beautiful Environments and Effects
• Fair EXP Gains
• Strong Main Cast of Characters

Cons

• No Recommended Level Warning
• Lack of Proficiency Tracking
• Fairly Aggressive Pop-In