Review Tales of Arise: A good candidate for the best role-playing game of the year

Tales of Arise takes the franchise to the next level with an emotional story, unique characters, fun combat mechanics, and many special features.

Tales is a longstanding brand of Bandai Namco. Starting in 1995 with Tales of Phantasia until 2016 with Tales of Berseria, the series has 16 games.

Tales of Arise, the game that was released in early September this year is a move that shows that developer / publisher Bandai Namco has decided to revive this franchise.

To do that, Bandai Nam brought in veteran employees who contributed to the success of Tales of Phantasia. Besides that, they also introduced a darker story while keeping intact everything that made the series so great.

Will Bandai Namco succeed in reviving the Tales franchise with Tales of Arise? We will see that through this article.

Tales of Arise is set in the conflict between two planets, Dahna and Rena, with Dahna trying to escape the oppressive slavery created by this Rena. With this context, the main character of the game will include people from one of the two planets and their personalities complement each other.

The main character, Alphen, is a man from Dahnan. He has neither a past nor the ability to feel pain. Opposing him is Shionne, the second protagonist of the game. She is a woman from Renan and has the ability to inflict pain on anyone she touches.

Accompanying them are Law and Rinwell, with Law being the “fight first, brain later” type of character and Rinwell being the complete opposite. Last but not least are Dohalim, Lord of the Rena, and Kisara, his former squire of Dahnan.

Working together, the main characters have a lot of stories and interactions, creating conflict and determination, despair and hope, pain and love, freedom and oppression. Overall, Tales of Arise is a story told in pairs, and each story showcases different elements of the characters involved in it.

In terms of combat, Tales of Arise is not necessarily a complete creation in the JRPG genre, but it can be said that this game has reached the pinnacle of the series.

During the battle, the player can use 4 characters at the same time with the remaining 2 characters acting as support. Players can chain combos, use devastating attacks, combine to create powerful Boost Strikes, and perform powerful Mystic Arts moves. Most of the time, the player will be in the role of Alphen and his special attack is Flaming Edge.

Flaming Edge is a form of attack that requires Alphen to sacrifice his own health in order to unleash powerful moves. Basically, Flaming Edge will make players consider whether they should attack with all their might, or play entrenched style to preserve the health bar. New Flaming Edge moves will also be unlocked throughout the game, limiting the repetition of moves.

Combining the above with the use of items and changing characters as you like, Tales of Arise offers an engaging combat experience that is not monotonous with only spamming one or two attacks continuously. .

Another commendable feature of Tales of Arise is the variety of enemies. Combining different types of monsters and soldiers, the game gives us 156 enemy types. With such a large number, the strategy to defeat them will be equally diverse.

Tales of Arise is also a feat of engineering, perhaps because of the long time in development, the game works smoothly, without errors – at least for the duration of our experience. With many games having a large number of bugs when they were first released, this is a factor that deserves praise.

Of course, no game is perfect, and Tales of Arise is no exception. Tales of Arise’s side quests often repeat the same pattern: defeat this horde of monsters, find other ingredients, get those items to learn a specific recipe, or defeat a giant monster are persecuting a particular area.

However, since side quests can be done while exploring, players don’t have to search far and wide to complete these side quests and can instead complete them as they progress through the story. main story.

The dialogues, especially taking place in combat, are sometimes awkward and repetitive. Alphen and Shionne’s relationship starts off hostile, but they soon develop closer together. However, even near the end of the game, Alphen still expresses surprise when Shionne heals him and this line is invincible against the relationship the two have.

Even so, it’s important that none of the game’s flaws undermine the Tales of Arise experience.

Indeed, Tales of Arise is a game designed for longtime fans of the Tales franchise as well as those just starting out in the series. The plot, combat mechanics, and other features have come together to provide a high-quality JRPG game. All of this has made Tales of Arise not only one of the best JRPGs on the market today, but also one of the best games of 2021.

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