Tales of Arise – -apkrig
The Tales of… series is a well-established brand that is of particular interest to lovers of the JRPG genre in its classic, traditional forms. But you won’t stop time, so there’s Tales of Arise, which, according to the creators from Bandai Namco, is supposed to move the whole brand into the era of the next gene. Of course with the PS4 and Xbox One versions, because, let’s face it, there’s no reason why this title couldn’t be released on the last generation.
I had the opportunity to play, unfortunately quite a short, a section from Tales of Arise and as a person who played Tales of Vesperia and Berseria, I am satisfied. Although the team is swearing by wanting to move the series forward, the Japanese filmmakers are actually sticking to the ground and are primarily concerned with audiovisual improvements. They do not give up the basic elements of the series and do not try designer veletches that would discourage a loyal fan base. Which is probably reasonable: Tales of… may be popular in the West, but it’s mainly Japan. And the local players aren’t really looking for radical changes.
From the very first moments in the game, it can be seen that the creators really worked on the visual side. Tales of Arise is powered by Unreal Engine 4 and the environment looks really nice. No, don’t expect Ratchet’s level with Clank or The Last of Us II, it doesn’t even make sense with the highly stylized JRPG anime. But more sophisticated character models and, above all, spectacular, wonderful action make sense.
On the contrary, what froze me is the classic scandal of JRPG: Some dialogues take place only in the form of written text, in which the characters say out loud only “Hmmm” or something similarly revealing. It’s a genre habit, understandable only because an incredible amount of text would have to be dubbed, but I’d still like to play a title that avoids it.
But the characters are definitely not silent otherwise. The demo that I had in hand started after about 20 hours of play, when I already had a full group of six people, between whom you can switch freely. There are two main characters, but it didn’t seem like a character should play the third violin. On the contrary, although there was little story in the demo, during the very fights and announcements during the camping (with inseparable cooking for the boosts), most of the actors managed to profile themselves decently. Quite quickly you will understand who is a herald, who a silent warrior, who is taken too seriously and who seemingly cundere a warrior whose heart will certainly melt over time. But the demo was mainly about fighting. All members of the party take part in this, while the partners are controlled by the AI, or you can switch to them yourself. The fight ends in failure only if the enemies destroy all your characters.
A skirmish occurs if you touch a monster while walking through nature, and the game then switches to real-time combat mode. But it is still primarily a tactical matter. You have to be careful of the action points when dealing special attacks, and your goal is to take advantage of the weaknesses of the enemies against certain elements and, above all, to achieve the moment when the attacks fill the meter to launch a special attack. You can choose different duos of comrades-in-arms for it, and they differ accordingly.
I played the first of the two passes through the demo primarily for the warrior Alphen, whose special area attack deals more damage in exchange for the hero’s health. It only started to work properly when I was immersed in the AI setup and fine-tuning the priorities so that the healers really mainly heal. Suddenly the game was played better, with football terminology from “secure defense”.
But I don’t want to suggest that the game would be too difficult. After a clash with the main boss of the demo, it was immediately clear to me that the connoisseurs of the series, and in fact anyone who has experience with a similar genre, will want to increase the difficulty. At the same time, it is possible that the characters were raised for the needs of the demo.
The fights are dynamic, making you think fast, but not furiously like any fighting game from PlatinumGames. But most of all, it looks spectacular and the constant peaking of the heroes creates the impression that it is a group of adventurers who know each other well, not artificial mannequins who are just waiting to cast a spell. It is this sense of belonging, which can be deepened by conversations during camping, that gives me hope about drawing characters.
When it comes to drawing, the anime movies made by the famous Ufotable studio for the game are absolutely opulent. And since I responsibly ran the demo twice, I could also compare English and Japanese dubbing. Unsurprisingly, I will recommend Japanese with English subtitles again. The English belongs to the absolute standard within the JRPG, so it does not offend or inspire. Japanese dubbers gave the characters more personality and expression.
After finishing twice, the prevailing feeling in me is that the Tales of Arise demo was too short. Not because I couldn’t try everything I wanted (although there was a flood of elements that weren’t made available), but because the staff quickly grew to my heart and I was curious about more and more exchanges of views and comments. And I was sorry when I had to say goodbye to my partners.
I’m looking forward to the release of the game, which will take place on September 10 on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X / S. I like the Tales of series, and if you have no experience with it, I highly recommend the remastered version of Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition. In contrast, Tales of Arise mainly offers more adult character design (I know that the stylization of the heroes from previous parts was a big obstacle for many Western players), but the core of the game, although similar to previous parts, still stands today.
