A Mystic's Guide of Jumping into Tales of 2021

The Tales has had a prolific pedigree of Titles since 1995, from Phantasia to Arise today. It has often been recognized as the third largest JRPG title behind Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy in Japan and has maintained a niche but growing audience in the West and thus rest of the world.

That said for any new comer it is often daunting to wonder about where to enter the series, specially with a fan base so split since the early days of the series that it would make Final Fantasy laugh. With the release of Arise leading to an influx of new player to the franchise and the waves of praise and sales making other's worry if they too should join in these long journeys, the questions are once more renewed.

Now most of these stand in these categories:

1) After playing Arise, where should I continue the playing the series from? 

2) As a person interested in all the series, where should I actually start the series?

3) Do I have to start the series  from the beginning if I want to play the latest in the series and understand them?

 

First of all let me get rid of that third question.

No! You absolutely don't need to play any previous games. Each game, like Final fantasy, Dragon Quest, Persona and many other JRPG series, is a standalone world, story and characters and each game brings its own twists to the game play and design.

 

Now with that out of the way, let me group those first two questions in the ensuing discussion.

 

For most players and new comers, accessibility is usually the most important factor in actually getting to play the game and in that aspect we have 5 titles: Vesperia, Arise, Berseria, Zestiria & Symphonia.

 

It makes logical sense to discuss these games first and which one of these in my general opinion makes most sense to get into or not as a newcomer.

 

After this there will be a general discussion about possible other routes to get into the series depending on various factor of preferences for the players.

Despite all that, the first and best advice to the new comer is, don't take any opinion as set in stone. Explore the various titles of the series at your own leisure if u really cannot decide on an entry point.

 

 

 Tales of Vesperia

Vesperia has remained one of the top favorites for a majority of fan base for a long time and it will probably stay that way. It's a classic JRPG. It has everything that Tales had been iterating on since Phantasia (& particularly all of Team Symphonia's works) in near perfect balance. It has an an utter evergreen charm that oozes out boundlessly and it is a whimsical Tale with equally fetching characters.

Accessibility is 10/10. You can find it cheap in stores, buy it in sales and it exists on nearly every console and PC and doesn't need too heavy of a set up to run either. Its a lengthy Tale that will truly give u good idea of what the series is all about and why the fan-base schism widened for games that came after. 

 

For a New comer, Vesperia provides hefty bang for your bucks and will likely make you appreciate the series if you are looking for a good story and characters and just want to have a comfortable time in general with a classic RPG. It's not hard like old school games but may give you a challenge at times however in return it teaches its systems well unlike many past titles. Apart from that it is an extremely beautiful looking game as if it just released yesterday and that will probably be how it stays due the evergreen quality of cell shading and visual style. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED as an ENTRY POINT.

For those coming who are looking for more after Arise, again while the game is recommended for all the above reasons and due to accessibility, you have to ask yourself question what exactly about Arise do you like the most. 

If its the general feel of the game, then you may feel right at home with Vesperia.

If its the story and characters then you are likely to enjoy this game even more.

If its the game-play you enjoy the most then its a little more complicated. 

            If in terms of Game-play, you want an action system that is equally frantic and button-mashy with tight action game controls as ARISE then you might not enjoy Vesperia specially in the start considering the battle system is entirely based on a different philosophy. 

Oh yes, you still build chains but its not as easy as it's in Arise, and the game plays more like a fighting game then an action game. You have limited moves that you have to time correctly and similarly avoid the enemy's attack by back-steps, countering or blocking. Your initial move-set is also quit limited and once your combo string ends you might be taken aback with a bit of delay in reacting like as if your stamina bar ran out in Dark Souls. All of this improves as you unlock party members, more abilities and combo add-ons. Now it all depends on each individual on weather they want to play a combat like this however if You are sure you want a reactive action system then this game is not for you.

        If by Game-play You want something with interesting systems, a change that might surprise you or in general a different design and feel of world, combat and RPG systems than Arise then again this game is recommended as a first choice for you to explore after Arise.

 

GENERAL RECOMMENDATION LEVEL: EXTREMELY HIGH 

TALES OF ARISE:

It's the unfortunately new face of Tales series. Instead of re-conciliating things in the fractured Tales community since changes in design (since Xillia) and combat (since Graces), Arise seems to act like a Steroid injection. On the face of it, Tales has never had more players in one consecutive time period and along with certain updates to its old skeleton and a near perfect release timing, this last gen Tales game puts on a good front but inside it widens the gap and disappointment for many with its lackluster story and the grindy game design, a few exploitative DLC spending attributes and a less interesting, more action focused, evasion and button mash battle system.

That said, If you are someone who is interested to try out the series and has never played JRPGs before and want to try this game out because everyone round you is playing it and it looks cool and you find the Battle system interesting and easy to get into. YOU CAN ALWAYS TRY OUT THAT DEMO. If you enjoy it then this Game is RECOMMENDED for you as a fine point to start from.

 

If you are fond of Action games and don't care for story and characters. MODERATE RECOMMENDATION

If you are someone who has played many JRPGs before, enjoy story and interesting characters more and want something that gives you comfort and is fun to explore the systems of then its recommended that you don't fall in it's trap. LOW RECOMMENDATION. (unless u really have nothing to play for now)

If you are a casual player who just wants the best new stuff where it wont be too hard to get into; while this game is LAST GENERATION, it is still the hot topic of the year and has PC and modern gen updates as well to aid performance. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Tales of Berseria

The former face of Tales, Berseria brings to the table impressive world building, plot and characters that feel a little unusual even by Tales' standards. It has a many callbacks to previous Tales games that long time fans enjoy a lot. It's also very easily accessible; from PS3 (in Japanese or unofficial English Translation pack) to PS4 and PC. Berseria really gives RPG of comfort a new meaning,

 

Berseria's plot and characters are its greatest sell. If you are someone who is primarily interested in a comfortable time and very good story then: HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

If you are someone who wants the feel of what franchise has to offer overall and what it's all about then: MODERATE RECOMMENDATION

If you are someone who wants a great action game-play; NOT RECOMMENDED 

If you are someone who played Arise and want to try out more of this series primarily because you liked story and characters: HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

However, if you are interested in map design, exploration, combat mechanics; NOT RECOMMENDED

 

OVERALL RECOMMENDATION LEVEL as entry point: MODERATE TO LOW

Tales of Zestiria:

The contentious TALES of game for many. Zestiria is easily one of the least recommended Titles for any new comer.

Verdict is plain and Simple for any player, weather you just got free of Arise and wondering what new Title you should pick up or A person thinking about your first Tales game: NOT RECOMMENDED

This game is only for veterans who want to see it all. It's often recommended to be played after Berseria because of the links between the two games and since Berseria technically makes You appreciate the world of Zestiria more since its set Thousands of years after Berseria's story.

Tales of Symphonia:

The Tales that to this date has remained the most popular Tales in the west overall and is the first true classic Team Symphonia Title.

If you enjoyed the story of Arise and want something similar: RECOMMENDED

If you are a new comer to the series: NOT RECOMMENDED as a starting point.

However if you are used to old school jrpgs and want a similar feel with interesting mechanics: RECOMMENDED

If you are someone who is playing through all the available game then recommended that you play this one early in your plays, like maybe start with Vesperia and got to Symphonia to see the roots of the series.

Symphonia is available on PC, PS3, PS2 and Game-Cube
The PC and PS3 versions are based on PS2 version and This version has some additional features but runs at 30fps. THE PC & PS3 version have had their art style redone and there are mods to fix it on PC. Also its not exactly easy to get the PC version running.

 

The Game-Cube version is the original version and runs at 60 fps. If you cannot get your hands on the Game-Cube but have an official (cough!) copy then you can emulate that too.

OVERALL RECOMMENDATION as Entry Point: LOW to MODERATE

That's that for the most easily accessible games of this series.

However, there are other points where if Players have the option they can enter the series from and there are games that are more recommended as a next stop after Arise than others.

TALES of GRACES F:

The Tales that started it all for modern Tales battle systems.

The game is currently locked behind PS3 but if you can get your hands on it then it too can act as an entry point.

 

If you are someone used to JRPG stories and primarily want good story and characters: NOT RECOMMENDED

If you are someone who finished Arise and wants more of the same experience: HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

If you are someone completely new looking for overall fun experience that's easy to get into and find this game accessible: LOW RECOMMENDATION 

OVERALL RECOMMENDATION as an Entry Point: LOW-MODERATE

 

Tales of Xillia:

The penultimate entry for the classic Tales era Battle System before the Graces became the norm. Arise is also another controversial entry where you will find a lot of lovers and equal amount of hate, for it played a major role in modern schism of the Tales community with its stylistic and world design changes. This was the first time Production IG got the scrap and Ufotable came to the forefront for the anime cut-scenes as well.

Xillia is currently locked on PS3.

If you are someone new and can access this game then it can serve as a very good starting point. It has a decent story, good characters and an interesting world with a battle system that is a fan favorite recommendation by most veterans. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

If you are someone who got done with Arise 

    and are fond of its combat and want nothing else: NOT RECOMMENDED

    are fond of the story, characters and are confused by fan reaction to the combat of Arise and want a newer game play experience: HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

OVERALL RECOMMENDATION: HIGH (If this game was more accessible, id have put it just beside or after Vesperia to try for a new comer. Its that good primarily because of its battle system.)

Tales of Abyss: 

The game has easily one of the finest plots in the series and arguably the JRPG genre along with equally enthralling and well developed character arcs.

The game is available on PS2 and 3DS.

If you are someone who can access any version of the game and have the ability to run it, then its not a bad entry point at all.

If you are someone who wants to enjoy a good plot and story and characters weather you are new comer or looking for something different after Arise : HIGHLY RECOMMENDED 

Tales of Phantasia:

If you are a purist and someone who wants to start the series and play all of the games as they released then go ahead mate, no ones stopping you. You're definitely in for a treat.

The recommended version of Phantasia should probably be SNES version to appreciate the game's technical value of the time and also because the PS1 version butchers the music. SNES version also has one of the more cheeky fan translations that you'll enjoy a lot reading.

However if you are too fond of the skits and the 3d over-worlds of PS1 era then go with that version.

 

Thus I believe for new comers to the series of various backgrounds, judging by all you accessibility options , hopefully this list will provide an idea of where you might stand in getting into this series or experiencing more of its goodness avoiding the experimentation that might end up turning most off or confusing them. 

See you next time as a Tales fan and future veteran.

 

Sayonara,

 

The Old Mystic

Archives from the Past: Tales of Berseria

TALES OF BERSERIA                         (  8.6/10)

(RPG of discovering Your Own Reason to Live) 

(THIS REVIEW IS AN ARCHIVE FROM ANOTHER TIME. IT IS SIMPLY MEANT AS A RECORD AND AS A TIME CAPSULE TO REMIND THE AUTHOR OF FIRST IMPRESSIONS AND FEELINGS ABOUT THIS WORK AT THE TIME OF RELEASE. THIS IS WHY IT WILL VERY LIKELY NOT FOLLOW THE USUAL STANDARDS AND FORMULA SET IN THE METHADOLOGY OF THIS SERVER OR ACCURATELY REFLECT CURRENT CRITICAL APPROACH & OPINIONS OF THE AUTHOR) 

To live with reason or to give in to emotion, what is the right choice? Take away the free will of mankind, the will and weakness to commit sin and what will you find left behind.? 

Through each of its immensely broken characters, from the self righteous religious fanatics out to save the world to the humans who gave in to their melevolant emotions, Berseria turned out to be the tale of Lord of Calamity that managed to not only tell a deeply engrossing, eye tearing and an emotionally heart rending tale but a tale that made the sequel that came before it immensely better. Knowledge of Zestiria was hardly needed to play this game and yet having that knowledge indeed improved on the emotional outcome of this tale.

Gameplay & Exploration ...  7.5/10

Berseria brought the classic action Tales gameplay back with a slight twist that made spamming combos and making your own unique combos a very engrossing and fun process. The whole game ran at 60fps and there were marked improvement in the gameplay from Zestiria.

Namely now while the shift to battle screen was instantaneous, there was however no problem of getting stuck in tight corridors as the game shifted to the open area for the battle right before a tight corridor which thank God was an improvement that could not go unnoticed because this time around spamming the magical arts made it that much difficult to see the action at times when huge fire explosions and lightning effects ran onscreen at the same time blinding your character behind a curtain. What one wonders the situation have been without any imorovenent? 

Yet this is hardly a problem worth high consideration since it has existed in the series by nature of the battle system from the series's beginning. Yet to alleviate even this issue, Namco even has made this time the battle camera free to roatate which was an immense help and a boon to the enjoyment of the battles. 

The best thing about the battle system was perhaps how fluid it was. Spamming 50-60 hits was never a problem if u knew what u were doing and not just button mashing. It only became harder to extend this number once the hit points reached in 70s or 80s which I am still sad about since i couldn't reach the desired 100 hits for the ultra rare trophy.

The saddest thing about the combat was that Berseria was on the easy side. Infact the normal mode was so easy that i hardly bothered to restock my items before the final boss fight and this was the same throughout the whole journey.

Nevertheless  hard and very hard options are there for anyone desiring a greater challenge to switch to anytime.

The gameplay lacks when it comes to exploration. Berseria while choosing to let go of the large swaths of unused maps for open world of Zestiria went  for a more small confined corridor like area approach which were divided into zones which was again in comparison not much of an improvement and the exploration for most part felt dull compared to the charm and joy of exploring an overworld map as in the past Tales games. Even then the developers have tried to cull down the burden of backtracking through the same areas again and again by introducing a   magic skate which unlocks later in the game. Nevertheless the corridor like approach isn't working for Tales since Xillia and it's only a wonder why Namco hasn't abandoned it so far.

Story, Plot and Characters  9.5/10

This is where Berseria elevates itself among the Tales since it probably has the best character development along with characterization since Abyss. The plot is indeed much better than any of the past Tales and again on par with Abyss's plot. It's an emotionally charged story that on surface appears a revenge plot but is infact a deeper, more philosophical discussion of what is one's identity.

It aptly describes how without will to rise or fall, to sin, to do good, to aim for a goal, a human cannot be human. One is only a human in truest sense once they embrace their short comings, weaknesses, their strengths and their will of achievement.

Each character in this tale from the self righteous shepherds to our Anti Hero Velvet Crowe and her band of most ill fitting and crazy party members,  broken from inside, fall in the grey area. All have their sins and their aims and virtues and they make for a compelling and memorable cast that won't be forgotten anytime soon.

Berseria was very well paced in its storytelling and to my joy delivered emotionally taxing shocker after shocker during the ending half of the game.

Music      7.5/10

Compared to Zestiria, this was a huge step back in quality and variety yet what was produced by the long time Series composer Motoi Sakuraba fit the tone of the game well leaving me with some very memorable tracks. It was a serviceable soundtrack as a whole.

Graphics:         7/10

Graphics were fine in Berseria, the art style worked but it won't stand the test of time like the beautifully cell shaded past games of the series. Furthermore some environments were completely generic and seemed still like just large hallways filled with enemies. The lack of over world and the older styled dungeon design where puzzles were dominant are a sore requirement for the Tales that they have failed to fulfill since the last few games. Still Berseria did better than many predecessors by incorporating some light puzzles throughout its dungeons.

What disappointed me even more was how bland the final dungeon felt compared to the awe stricking Final area of Zestiria which was a joy to traverse. 

Replayability, other RPG features  8/10

Berseria does carry a good replay value since the story beats have always something new to offer with each watch. It's a long 50 hour adventure that will keep u engrossed until the end and at times keep u wondering what might happen next.

The Japanese Voice Acting was magnificent while the English Voice acting was serviceable with one or two exceptional performances yet no way do they manage to touch the heart or the dialogue beats of the scene as their japanese counterparts.

The equipment management system was much better than the confusing clutter of Zestiria and it is Deep enough to please the hard core Tales fans. (though it definitely does not.😬 ) 

The skits return with a greater emphasis this time in story delivery compared to Zestiria and were all amazingly done. Yet they tended to have that abyss syndrome where 3 or 4 would appear one after the other and at times became tedious since u didn't want to miss any of them. Otherwise skits were perfectly done this time (compared to how they were limited to rest area mostly last time & were missable), Thank God. 

All in all Berseria was an amazing experience and a tragic tale that will stay with me for a long while.

Total aggregate= 39.5/50

Out of 10= 7.9

My preffered rating= 9.3

Total score = 7.9+ 9. 3/20     =       8.6

Tales of Arise: A Mystic's Review

 

 On 10th of September in the year 2021, after a long and arduous wait of many years and a few delays, Tales of Arise, the latest entry in the Tales of Series graced our screens. Was Arise a new beginning for the series, was it a redemption that everyone wanted, an evolution that would blow most minds? Things can only bode well for this review with such a generic beginning from a veteran (or old fan) of the series getting introduced to the series with Symphonia, falling in love with it and having gone back to play the series till Phantasia (the SNES version) and stuck with it to this date. To put it simply for now, I had many positive things to say about Arise on launch particularly how it captures many into its world with its strong opening segments. The real question is not what we asked earlier but weather Arise has been able to live up to its promises till the final moment? Considering this avenue of exploration in mind, a word of warning beforehand that things may not be as smooth sailing, particularly for ardent fans of this game and newcomers to this series caught up in its beautiful characters, its bombastic visuals and its fast paced frantic game play, all of which is accentuated by the loads of high scoring reviews from your typical journalists in the industry. This review is in contrast meant to reflect a fairer picture of how the game should be viewed particularly from the eyes of those who have stuck with the series for so long. Suffice it to say, a lot has changed since the initial impressions.

(I will be sticking to the default methodology of review as explained earlier in this server and scoring accordingly) 

Graphics/Art-Style

The true evolution the series has seen since the past generation is definitely in regard to this element. Arise uses a special look that at many times makes it appear like a watercolor painting and quite often it is a mesmerizing sight moving through the world in different times of day and seeing those color meld and change with the changing time. It's definitely a looker in lieu of the art style and indeed a huge step in the right direction compared to many previous Tales mainline entries after Vesperia. There are times when the game starts to feel like watching a CG anime film particularly how the many main story cut scenes are done. In fact sometimes it felt hard to tell what is a recorded cut-scene and what is in engine. The environments, specially in many later areas could appear incredibly grand and truly make one feel like being absorbed in a different world. As a matter of fact even if you looked at many textures closely, you could see a brush stroke like effect on them masking any lower quality resolution and preventing the game's illusion from breaking down. It is indeed an ingenious offering that is going to age well in comparison to its last generation contemporaries. 

Of course there are still certain elements in the style itself that I feel will not age as well as the cell shaded style of the Golden Era Tales games. There are times, particularly on the old generation hardware, the illusion breaks and the game starts to feel more like your average Unreal 4 JRPG. Sometimes this is due to lighting and sometimes its just that certain environments are done in a way or cut-scenes choreographed in a way that the water color filter effect doesn't seem as prominent. Still, minor criticisms aside, this is an incredible base to develop the next game on and I cannot wait to see how the new and improved visuals will awe me. 

Another impressive factor of notice here is the dearth of anime scenes by Ufotable. There really is nothing as impressive as the outstanding work Ufotable has done to bring so many impressive moments to life and make them memorable. Really makes me wish Ufotable was doing a whole new Tales anime with all their modern bells and whistles of craft. The animations are going to grab any viewer and impress them with their colour pallet, their shadow work, contrast and the mature art style used making it feel like a 90s anime coming to life on modern techniques. Simply exquisite! 

In the end there is only one real genuine complaint from the developers of this game. How can you, with a game this beautiful, skip on introducing a photo mode and not give an option to remove that ugly blip of mini-map from  the screen at the press of a button. It truly remains an immersion breaking element on the many frames of this world's painting. 

(9/10)

 

Gameplay/RPG Design/Performance

There are many elements to discuss here; the combat, the many various RPG systems governing the gameplay experience and the level design. My initial impressions particularly focused on the main highlight; the combat and we'll elaborate on it. The Tales series first began with an addictive yet flawed battle system called the Linear Motion Battle System that was something akin to playing a 2D fighting game- action rpg hybrid where one actively inputs combos and alongside manages spells and party members through game's menues either by command or AI. The system went through various iterations and name changes over the years but its core concept remained almost similar even as it transitioned to 3d in Abyss and then reach perfection of that style in Xillia games. That system was once again iterated upon by the Destiny Team into something where you would have to churn out as many hits as you can in a limited amount of moves measured by a bar or some points in Graces. I still find it unfortunate that the perfection of Xillia was abandoned in favor of continuing forward with Graces style combat when Zestiria was being developed. The system saw more iterations in Berseria and while it was still quite addictive there, it grew annoying too because of how unbalanced a particular element in that game was resulting in over powering of all characters. Arise's combat thus is further iteration on Berseria and a kind of a perfection finally of the graces style the team has been trying to nail down for quite a while. However, is it truly a perfection as much as we like to think it is? I think I can stand by those words and say that Yes, the combat itself is well created. However, there are other elements which hamper the enjoyment quite a lot specially after one gets used to the game after a few hours into it. 

I can not help but praise that they had the foresight to include button mapping as an option for all versions of the game considering that I found the default mapping to be quite odd. That is something more games should do on consoles so that any nuisance for hand memory is avoided. If they had not provided this feature, the button mapping might have ended up being the greatest nightmare for me. What truly obstructs the enjoyment in this game however is the lack of enemy design. Its a fact that previous Tales like most other JRPGs had reused colored variations of various enemy types throughout the series, however there were always a few new introductions in any new dungeon with a new interesting design, bestiary and moves. The last dungeons often always had a complete cast of newer enemy types with their own specific moves and weaknesses to exploit. Arise had to go and not only put almost the same enemy designs with the most minimalist changes in move-set in almost all the areas of the game; rather it also started to include previously boss type enemies which could not be staggerred with any weakness exploitation as part of normal enemy cast resulting in a significantly annoying Hp sponge experience. It is truly one of the worst parts of this game. Infact when the final dungeon rolls, there are many beside me who have and will find the combat not flowing in the same way it should at that point in a Tales game. In my case, I just wanted the game to end from that never ending cycle of same Hp sponge fights. They turned a perfectly good combat into a tedious mess because of poor enemy engagement, variety and certain other mechanics.

Sadly, this is not the only feature to lament about. Next up is the dreadful CP system. I don't understand who thought it was a good idea to force players going at a decent flow to break it just because the CP got eaten up mid dungeon and fly back to some shop or campsite and then rest or buy one of the most expensive items in the game to survive in the dungeons; an issue encountered particularly in the later areas of the game. Its downright disappointing limiting features and options in a story focused RPG for players to play at their own pace. Furthermore, for a Tales game highly focused on combat, it was like the game punishing the players for actively participating in it. This system wouldn't be as much of a problem if the problem had been quadrupled by the messy economy of the game. It was painfully hilarious seeing the price of the orange gels, a staple of the series being rarely purchasable. On top of that quite a lot of money earning was tied to side quests, a further pace breaking element. It would not be unreasonable to say that they were not done well this time specially considering they kind of mastered the side content stuff in Berseria. There are some fun moments although most of them ended up falling in the same typical underdeveloped JRPG cookie cutter format of go hunt some monsters, talk to that npc and return to report. The side quests in a Tales game should always be optional stuff that does not force people to break the pace from the main story and spend time grinding through them to support the basic necessities in the world. Specially for people as busy as many in Old Tales fan base, it felt quite difficult to find the time or will to actually continue at many points in the game. That is not all!

With all the terrible enemy variations, the tediousness of combat and economy; the leveling up too was unbalanced particularly in the later areas of the game. It is not as atrocious an element as mentioned before but if you want the pace of this game to not be a slump despite those cooking boosters then be prepared to pay some money to Bamco for the exp boosters. They really change the pace in a good and genuinely stable way albeit if you don't carried away in your spending. It is downright hilarious to have a good JRPG experience these days, people have to choose, but not with the tactics and options in the game's systems but rather in the magnanimous storefront of the publisher with their hard earned money.

Now I am pretty sure this all sounds bad and many will immediately rise to defend many of this game's features as a way of evolution and modernization and making the game challenging. But that's the thing guys! This is not what the series needed nor what we asked for and its a pace breaker. Go play some of the past games. Even the worst ones mostly avoid this particular problem keeping the fun of a Tales game intact. Anyone of all ages can play them and enjoy the humor, characters and story. These game's are comfort food RPGs and Arise doesn't provide that comfort one would expect or want from a Tales game after a busy, tedious and depressing day of work! Why do you have to break what was not broken beforee.

 Yet that is not all! All of these complaints emerge particularly because of one more mess they made in the name of innovation and evolution. The removal of Individual Party Member AI tuning and replacing them to something that mimics gambits. This was a complete terror for all the earlier ideas that may have sounded good on paper for creating a robust challenge in the RPG. Tales games have never had superb AI by default and often times one had to tune up many options, for example keeping a mage focused at a distance and casting artes or making a certain party member time the combo attack with your controlled one or for another to focus on spreading out the other enemy or attack only a flying one. There was simply a dearth of options that worked to help build a constant enjoyable visual and mechanical flow of the battles back then. Arise looses all that and its AI often times is downright terrible in these situations. So many time the characters take damage and die when they could perfectly have been doing something else that actually worked. This just made the whole CP problem increasingly annoying. This is something they need to fix by the next game rolls because I haven't seen a single praise for this change and the criticism has been pretty much similar regarding it.

Another feature that I have severe qualms with is the overdrive methodology. It's all left to chance instead of being a proper utilizable tactic. Because of boost kills, it does not have as much importance and with upgrading skills , it can be triggered quite frequently in battle however, overall, because of its randomization and triggering depending on how much damage a character takes or how well they dodge an attack, its not a feature that can be utilized timely and often does not end up fulfilling the real purpose it is meant for. In this mode more often a player will end up losing the chain he's built than keep it and that would result in the effect of Mystic Arte being completely diminished.

I also have severe qualms for the Arts and Skills being tied to titles. Titles that one may never even trigger if they don't delve even once into some of the extra content or achieve certain goals. It is a downright shame, how from a relatively robust skill earning system tied to weapons and their usage, we went to this midling approach. Tales usually tries new ways with each game of delivering new artes and skills but this in my opinion is the worst one since in most cases here, people might never be able to get all the important skills at all if they avoid all the side content and just focus on main story. For example a huge portion of Kisara's skill tree is locked behind titles she has to earn from fishing, a mini game that is extremely annoying to take part in or waste time on. This ends up leaving a character like her completely devoid of useful skills until very late in the game and even then, people might never see her full skill tree (Not everyone is after a platinum!). The method Tales had been using until Vesperia, before it was made too complex to comprehend in later games, was really an ideal way to deliver new skills. Similarly arte learning was not such a  chore as it is in Arise. Despite using some artes hundreds of time, by the end of the game, I had barely unlocked most of their superior arts. In the future, I hope this system won't be repeated in the next titles.

 Next up is the dungeon and field design. Honestly, its pretty similar and linear like the previous generation's Tales games. Its a shame that all these JRPG developers have abandoned the puzzle solving aspect of the dungeons, and the over-world which really lend to the feeling of exploration. But apart from that what is impressive is the graphical veneer painted over these linear zones and dungeons and their huge spaces which make them feel more expansive making the the few branching paths feel a little more exciting to explore. Similarly there are quite a few hidden objects in the dungeons behind various walls and chests and its always helpful to find a useful item or accessory in there specially with the game's economy as punishing as it is. One feature of praise here however is the ability to fast travel from almost anywhere in the map to various map's at fixed points. Honestly for a game that is already tedious, this was a real time saver and should stay for future games as well if they intend to stick with this level design.

Look, people love this game and would fight tooth and nail to defend its design and combat. I cannot deny them their opinion and I won't. As I said before, the combat is well made and can get quite addictive. Some of my friends have found an addiction of building chain after chain of aerial combat upon most enemies and I myself as an average player have managed to constantly create chains of about 280+ hits on many enemies. However considering all those RPG features and the way enemy design and AI worked, it left a bad taste in my mouth and I found the gameplay to be more tedious than enjoyable most of the time. To those who enjoyed it, I am happy for you but we should really be looking towards what makes these games great and brings out their full potential while retaining the feel that most of us originally fell in love with. Arise offers a good base to develop on for the future and I really hope that developers can learn from the unfulfilled potential here and find a more balanced ground in the future.

One more aspect to id like to mention is the performance of the game. Like Berseria, Arise is also technically an older generation game and considering it was built for an older generation of hardware and the usual UE4 performance on these consoles, Arise still showed plenty of glitches and performance hitches throughout its run. Despite being in development for this hardware generation for the longest time, it needs plenty of patches to fix these issues. There have been reports of crashes. I personally experienced the game hanging up going in and out of menues. The framerate lock should have been tighter and perhaps the effects quality and resolution overall slightly lowered to suite a less hitchy run.
Even the newer console generations have not been spared form performance issues with resolution mode on mode xbox series x and Playstation 5 performing worse than even a Play Station 4 with huge frame drops the entire playthrough. As for older generations, it makes no sense to me why Bamco and a fewother japanese developers choose to leave the framerate unlcoked on the older generation of hardware specially when its clear that it will perfrom poorly. It would have been wise to include both an unlocked and locked framerate mode on these machines as well.

(8.5+6+7)/3= 7.2

If you want more insight into Battle System Woes of Modern Tales Games : check this channel out: Tales of Arise Combat Issues

Story/Characters/ World Building

Before really delving into the details of the story and characters and breaking them to an extent, it is first important to iterate, what defines a Tales game particularly, a Tales story. First of all, all Tales games and stories are decent but some are more weaker than the others. Tales have had a prolific , if underrated, history of fantastic worlds, with strong lore and world building. The strongest points of a Tales story are its characters and how around some similar concepts or tropes, a Tales story using a completely new world weaves an endearing and often shocking narrative. Some of these features of the plot for sure involve, summon spirits, various elemental energies, a battle between two entities may it be two countries, two races or two worlds. Similarly certain strong reasoning can be found behind motives of main antagonists resulting in a franchise with a cast of antagonists as memorable as the protagonists. There is often an element of soft romance between two of the main party members. This has always been a staple of the series since Phantasia. In fact some other commonly appearing features in these plots are a half point discovery of a betrayal from core party members or a death of a party member. Tales games have never slouched when it came to being dark or clear about the significance of its themes. For me the greatest thing about all these Tales is how they weave the plot together to make it surprising and often unpredictable, making me go bonkers as it opens further and further into its revelations. 

Arise is a Tales game through and through in many ways. It has all the necessary features meant to comprise a Tales plot. However, unfortunately for Arise, at this point in time when it's main purpose was to look forward and go beyond the expectations set by Berseria's utterly impressive plot, it ended up one of the weakest, most cookie cutter JRPG plots ever. Now new comers may well enjoy a plot like this if playing for the first time but I found it to be a disgrace for a Tales game. Why? 

Well, for one there wasn't a single moment of genuine surprise for me. Each twist and even minor character moment went down exactly as I predicted right from the opening moment and introductions of these characters to the main villian at the end. A trope filled story and even a predictable story is fine if done well but I found myself more often bored with the story than interested in it. It has to be stressed how super sappy the overall feel of this game is anyways

The main antagonist turned out to be the weakest in history of mainline Tales and the most cliched and underdeveloped one ever. Honestly it felt more like playing a final fantasy story rather than a Tales game.

There are however two things that holds this plot together impeccably better than many of its similar counterparts in this genre and perhaps even some of the older games in the series. The execution and the character development. Now don't get me wrong. I have huge qualms with the characters of this game too which often felt weird placeholders for most of the game until the second "season" where they really started to grow into their own. Alphen and Shionne's romance was done really well. There were some genuinely eye watering or stunning scenes because of their dialogue and scene choreography. Personally I consider the soft, more natural and usually unfufilling romance that develops gradually over in Tales games. For example in Abyss, the romantic development of Luke and Tear was never the abrupt emotional change that we saw in Arise with literally all their character couples but rather a slow, methodical built up that never needed a focus in and onitself. It is one of the ending for the arcs felt so much more beautiful where I waited with a racing heart to see what the real conclusion would be. Still its never bad to have a change of paint once ina while specially when its not a shabby job.

The strongest moments of this plot was the opening segment but from there it all went downhill for the plot. I really only stuck onto this game in hopes for it to defy my expectations and the battle system that kept me somewhat engaged but overall everything only accumulated to tediousness. The second season was literally an exposition dump throughout its plot run.

The characters aren't anything special. They have been done to death. Most of these characters didn't really felt to have real stakes to the end of the plot and felt one note but they did grow on you because of their well written interactions. However its still important to note that this party has nothing compared to mad romp of Berseria's cast who was ready to backstab each other if any one interfered with the other's objective and morally varied in their goals and yet each had stakes in the plot till the last minute. There was a significant lack of a charming character like Yuri Lowell or a stereotype breaking cast like that of Vesperia where you don't find a mage to be a droning scholar or a cutesy little girl with with a staff in hand but a snotty brat of a teenager or for example instead of a wise old man, you find a lecherous old spy with hands in every faction of the world partying with the gang. Arise also had wierd and sudden changes in world perspectives of the characters. Just look at the Law and Rinwell scene during Almeidra fiasco! That was the wierdest and most typical emo-anime turning point for two of the story's main characters and it was a poor job in every respect.

Similarly Alphen and Shionne also lacked the same tension that for example Milla and Jude had in their Tales or the development that Luke and Tear found in Abyss as detailed earlier. Its downright sad that in a series full of strong characters, this is what we got from a game that was meant to soar higher than all previous tales. 

Meanwhile coming to the ending, i would be surprised that for a Tale like this, people even with an iota of JRPG knowledge didn't predict it to be what it was. For a Tales game it was quite strange to see a super happily ever after ending. After all this I was only affirmed in the notion that there is nothing really special about the cliched one-note characters and plot of this tales except the execution and I really hope they can improve on the story in the next game and bring about another plot as strong as Abyss or Berseria or atleast make it fun like in Hearts R or else for me this is the end for Tales.

 Even now I am stunned, wondering at what kind of weed those critics praising the story of this game were on and even a bigger insult was calling it "the darkest TALE ever.😐"  It is strongly advised that these critics actually play the older games to understand how much more darker behind the veneer of their apparent anime looks were the previous Tales; full of genocide, murder, wars, deaths, torture and mature themes of different perspectives of handling justice or the responsibility of ruling a country or coming to terms with your own mistakes and growing out from a complete lowly character into a true hero! Play these games to their bitter sweet endings and their fullfillment of varied philosophical discussions of themes and then decide what actually is Dark! A more fittign title for Arise should be "Sappiest Tales game of all Time."

The characteristic genre name of Arise was "Telling the Dawn of Heart RPG" and there was so much that could have been accomplished with it. Still the overall drama that unfolded worked in favor of creating a budding bond between its characters. But did it really sit well with the overall main themes of Arise? It seems while a certain themes were in presented and focused on more prominently in Arise, the philosphical discourse over heavy subjects was simply uninspired and mostly used as a plot crutch like the themes of slavery and liberty. But overall its handling of other themes and discussions over racism were handeld well if not in particular unique, eye opening ways. In the end the way this plot ended in the creation of the a whole new world and ignition of a spark of love in a heart that never felt capable of feeling anything because of being isolated for so long satisfies that overall genre name given to this RPG.

Finally the world building in this Tales wasn't the most expansive and strongest either. There are so many holes and important tid-bids about the world that were left untold and unexplored. Compare that to previous Tales of worlds where its hard to find a lore question they didn't manage to explain. For example there are still so many questions that could have been answered. We could have seen a more detailed history of Dahnan's and learn more about origins of Dahnan mages and why the new breed of Dahnans, the Lenegis Rehnans had glowing eyes or how original Rehnans actually lived before the Great spirit materialized? Considering the development time, they had plenty of time to work in detail over all the plot holes and world lore but alas its clear that sometimes even all the time in the world cannot really save a lack of focused eye over world building.

(7+7+7)3=7

Soundtrack/Sound Design

The soundtrack is overall a weak element in this game. It is the first time, the series composer Motoi Sakuraba was given to direct the score using a full orchestra. The result? Well, its definitely grand and well constructed, however the problem is that its hardly memorable. At first I thought I was the only one feeling as if any of the tracks were really sticking in my head but I was satisfied to learn that most of the critics and veterans and many music enthusiasts playing this game reflected this view. 

Most of the soundtrack is constructed to be more atmospheric this time around than thematic to story or characters. That is an approach not new to Tales. Many previous Tales games have had various soundtracks for various atmospheres or locations and it had thematic motifs for various story moments. Many of the grander tracks of Arise were easily recognizable for using motifs from Zestiria and there were some motifs from older games as well such as Symphonia &Phantasia. It is strange however that this game with its heavy focus on characters does not have any particular character themes to make use of which I feel hurts the soundtrack more than anything else.

Surprisingly even the battle theme didn't really stick well. It was perhaps one of the better tracks overall but it was nothing compared to Go Shina's works in Zestiria and Legendia and many of previous Sakuraba's work. Suffice it to say, considering Sakuraba's pedigree in various projects in video game industry and his work in the series, this soundtrack really didn't impress me. There was no "Fight between the Wind & Blinking Sky" (the wind trial track in Zestiria) or instantly memorable "Furnace of War" or "Undying Resolve" (battle theme in Vesperia) or the very cathartic and memorable tracks that have remained in my regular music play list such as "About a Flower" (Hylure theme in Vesperia) or "Mages of Shadow Land" (Aspio theme in Vesperia) or "Academic City" (from Symphonia) or the wondrously exotic "On the Other Side of Mirage" (in Vesperia) or "Forest of Treant" (From Symphonia & Phantasia). There is just so much more from Tales soundtrack that I haven't even close to listing such as "Town of Winds & Ruins" (Symphonia) or the iconic "Theme of Lloyd" (from Symphonia or "Overflowing Nature" (from Xillia) and on and on. Whatever I mention even without yet bringing in the superb work of "Go Shina" in the listings, it'll still be a drop from the water. Sakuraba's work used to be great and experimental but unfortunately for past many games he has been losing that magic touch. Berseria definitely had some very great tracks but overall its soundtrack was also one of the weaker Tales ones specially after the masterclass work that was done in Zestiria. The character themes in particular really uplifted that soundtrack. However Arise unfortunately falls even lower in comparison. 

There was however one very interesting track where it seemed Sakuraba seemed to have gained his Tales magic back. One really experimental rock and roll track that played in Castle Del Fharis before the boss battle.

Meanwhile talking about the Opening and Ending songs then I'm not the greatest fan of Hibana. Sure it grows on you after a while but I've never skipped a Tales song this frequently. Compared to previous work of Flow, Bonnie and Bump of Chicken's, Ayumi Hamasaki and BoA's works, it definitely felt less addictive and sounded weaker. It also really didn't work well considering the tone of the game. But on the other hand, both of Ayaka's contributions to the game namely "Hello Again" & "Blue Moon" were masterpieces that I can not skip a single time.   

 

Look there have been some arguments during my discussions about how atmospheric, non motif music cannot be considered bad and might not be memorable but that doesn't mean it is not good music. I dont disagree with that view except for the latter part. Atmospheric music can be very memorable for example some of the examples mentioned from the series itself. But apart from that if you look at some other RPGs or games such as Skyrim or Mass Effect, most of these RPGs make heavy use of atmospheric music and yet so many of them are memorable. Of course its a matter of personal taste to a large extent but the polls so far in my work have been pretty solid on the fact that Arise soundtrack despite being good isn't anything memorable or solid. Hopefully its about time Bamco had other composers contributing again alongside Sakuraba to give more color to the soundtrack.

 

Apart from this the sound effects in this game were really crisp. There wasn't something as addictively satisfying as entering a save-point in vesperia or collecting those Katz orbs in Berseria but the sound effects were punchy, crisp and very atmospheric most of the time. 

 

(6+7)/2= 6.5 

Re-playability/Extra 

Tales of Arise has some extra content to offer. It's not as extensive as previous Tales games but its enough to keep people happy. Of course there is the Arena/Colosseum challenges that one can take on. Then there are missing collectables. A few major sub quests open up allowing you to fight harder version of game's bosses and the cameo from past Tales games.Getting the New Game + in this game is an egregious job of collecting all the Owls, two of which can completely skip one's notice unless by a stroke of luck or with the help of a guide and one gets to fight a surprise boss to achieve that final owl. 

There is one really irritating Fishing game that's heavily tied to the story and one character's whole skill tree which makes it a cardinal sin for a game in my honest opinion.

Apart from that if anyone never got around to completing all the various challenges like all skits, cooking dishes, other side quests, then they can do that in the post game.

(7.5)

Overall Opinion

In the end, I can only say that I had huge hopes for the next Tales, taking the franchise to next generation but the result has overall only disappointed me so far overall, While the series has build a solid base for the future, it is important to stress that I really hope that good scores, sales and lack of constructive criticism doesn't make the developers slouch on the next game but improve on every aspect they can of the base they have built with Arise. 

Despite my harsh criticism of this game, I am happy for the popularity the game has given the franchise suddenly and I really hope the new comers can go back to the older titles particularly of Team Symphonia's golden era trilogy and experience the best of this series. I wish everyone the best for the wonderful journey Tales franchise will take you on and hope that it only serves to bring our hearts closer together so we can tomorrow unanimously praise a good series that has reached even greater heights.

In the end overall, this Tales came in with a strong start and brought in some good character development with it and some enjoyable moments of humor but slouched on the story and world building. It brought a very polished combat to the presentation but ended up wasting effort with bad AI and enemy variety. Best of all perhaps, it has brought in visuals that won't easily be forgotten despite still being an older gen Tales considering the base platform of development.

(7.5)

True Overall Score= 

   (9+7.2+7+6.5+7.5+7.5)/6

=                       7.5/10