Sure, it is not by any means necessary to beat the game, but feels cheap that they're locking content that should be in the game behind DLC costumes. Locking titles behind DLC costumes is absolutely unforgivable for me, since titles are tied to the skill trees. It doesn't hinder the experience, but I wish they were a bit more expansive, specially the final dungeon. The Tales series was famous for dungeons having puzzles and secret rooms, so it boils down to walk from room to room killing enemies. Many fights are damage sponges, specially boss fights.ĭungeons are a bit too linear. You'll often get hit by stuff offscreen that you can't really predict.Įnemies have a bit too much HP for my taste. The fact there is no camera zoom options makes it even worse. The Tales series (and JRPGs in general) were never shy about recycling enemies, but Arise does that a bit too much.įield of View during combat is awful. There is only a dozen of different types which you'll always fight. The story kinda falls flat in its face, where it boils down to "Go to this town, fight the Renan Lord, move on." The second half of the game has a lot exposition dump out of nowhere and it feels very rushed.ĭespite the game aesthetics and world design being gorgeous, they tried too much to pander to the western audiences, and because of that it lost a bit of that "identity" of the Tales series always had with its environments. The fact this game has very few missables means you don't have to play with a guide. The Tales series was always notorious for timed sidequests that often involved convoluted means to unlock. No more flying ship, but it is a small price you pay for such comodity. Them finally getting a larger budget and using a better engine vastly expanded what they could make with the game.įast travel was an absolute godsend. The art direction is absolutely gorgeous. In addition, the character designs are amazing, very grounded and functional, specially when compared to Berseria's. I was legit amazed by the wide range of facial expressions they managed to pull. Would be great if they added a frame-cancel through dodging/blocking, though.Ĭharacters are genuinely likeable, with their own distinct personalities and their interactions they actually feel like real people. Responsive, flashy, being able to link any Artes into each other is amazing, and Boost Strikes never get old to watch because they're so ridiculously badass. I would probably place it in the lower top/upper mid-ish area for Tales titles.Ĭombat is arguably the best in the series. Overall, it's a solid game but not without its flaws. They are mostly the right length with enemies spread out well, so they don't feel like a chore to go through at least (besides the final dungeon). I still liked most of the twist in there, but they could definitely have been setup much better.ĭungeons, well it's mostly hallways but I'm one of the seemingly few people not really bothered by that design. Story was pretty decent for the first ~40hrs (up until the end of the 5th Lord's Realm) but then there is a fairly noticeable drop in quality and you can kinda tell the developers probably ran out of time. There are some pretty good ones, but most of them were in sidequests. Skits took some getting used to but they are pretty alright once I adjusted to them, but they have a really formulaic structure of 3 each time a new cutscene happens, which leads to some having the same issue as Berseria of just repeating what you already know or getting too many of them at times. They also really gutted the AI strategy settings, can't even choose what type of enemy each member should prioritize for instance. Unfortunately, all of the antagonists are really terrible in comparison.Ĭombat is a lot of fun and overall great, but bosses (and even some standard mobs) have way too much hp and near permanent hyper armour makes it pointless to bother with combos or any artes that have long animations (Law is one of the most hurt by this as he got a fair few artes with lengthy animations). The main cast is overall good (though I think Kisara and Law are a bit on the weaker side) and their relationships are what really carries it, with Alphen/Shionne being a great romance.
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