User Score
7.9

Generally favorable reviews- based on 727 Ratings

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  1. Nov 21, 2021
    7
    Nice visuals.
    Mostly good voice acting.
    Combat is a bit hyper for my taste and the leveling up of skills could have been better explained.

    Wasn't too excited about the story otherwise I would give it a higher score.
  2. Nov 9, 2022
    7
    Good jrpg but last third is just filler, with boring detailed story.

    I remember that Vesperia vas also long and boring at some point.

    So I rushed trough game and it was pretty difficult even on very easy in 32hrs...
  3. Mar 5, 2023
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Game is boring...
    Graphic : 9/10
    Music: 7/10
    Combat 9/10
    Story:7/10
    Item/Equip system: 5/10

    2/3 early game is good, but the late game is boring as hell
    Weapon simple and boring like Mobile game
    Characters become stupid at late game.

    Wasted my money !
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  4. Sep 13, 2021
    7
    Tales of wise this fits between graces to xilia to the kind of standard you might be expecting. They've spent a lot of money on this PS4 game, and you can tell. Oh i know it says PS5, but even that version is a PS4 with a lick of paint, do not expect anything too out there, they haven't went crazy with quality.

    Gameplay is what you expect, a lot of artes you've already seen, It's kinda
    Tales of wise this fits between graces to xilia to the kind of standard you might be expecting. They've spent a lot of money on this PS4 game, and you can tell. Oh i know it says PS5, but even that version is a PS4 with a lick of paint, do not expect anything too out there, they haven't went crazy with quality.

    Gameplay is what you expect, a lot of artes you've already seen, It's kinda simplified but gets better later on, like 15-20 hours in, if you can gold on for that long. The first thing you'll want to do is move "dodge" away from R2 and somewhere else, L1 works quite well for me. Not sure what the developers were thinking, it's like they've never played a video game before. The story is the usual cliche with dark overtones (think the slave camp and previous tales of with two different "factions") - yes if you've played certain other tales of games, you'll feel they've recycled and altered it to suit. But it's the same old tale.

    It's certainly not game of the year; that'd be Psyconaughts 2. easily. Not even a contest. Honestly the amount of hype and advertising this game got i expected more. The previous 3 entries have been sub par so doing something good wasn't exactly going to be difficult.

    Combat is still largely the same (yes you can put it on Auto for grinding and do not rely on the AI too much, they're as dumb as they've always been). The camera during combat can, as always, cause issues. The skits aren't as funny or very well put together. The characters are sub par and they just feel off, like cut out and pasted into their terribly written backstories.

    It felt shorter from other tales of games, could just be me but even on what's termed as "normal" which is actually 'moderate'. because you know welcome to 2021.

    Worst part of the game is the fishing, mostly because it doesn't give you a tutorial. I think what happened is the person who wrote it, did it on a beer coaster which was covered in soy sauce so they couldn't read any of it. So just put what they could read into the game itself. It makes as much sense. It also comes pretty late on than it should, another design issue. I mean by the point you come across the jetty, it's like the 4th one you've visited. And finally fishing starts because only a certain character can do it. It feels tacked on for that very reason. Half way through they were probably like we have no mini games, quick shove one in... i mean the first jetty you come across has its own instanced area. I mean a little less obvious would have been nice. (probably added the ranch, again, own instanced area around the same time, as a weak excuse for a "mini game" or something else to do - the ranch is another terrible addition)

    The tutorials for most parts of this game are terrible, at one stage when you get a certain character with a shield (you get a basic tutorial of them for their skills) i got 2/2 success without actually using their skill. I know. fantastic. well done.

    It's a 7. terrible mini games. terrible cast of characters with badly lip synced movements for the english version. I mean it'd be a 6, but at least they cast kirito in here. Average part recycled story, i mean now they're just creating garbage for the sake of garbage.

    Take this back, pick up the "Trails of" series instead. Start with cold steel they're all on the PS4/5 now. Get some enjoyment out a established series that's fun. They should have remastered graces instead.
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  5. Sep 18, 2021
    7
    The most good looking of the series, but far from being the best...I was expecting to play hundreds of hours, took me only 60hs. Totally disappointed with the end/post game.

    - Music is mediocre; - Few types of monsters with different skins; - AI is terrible, Tactics menu is worse than ever - Combat is the same Tales Formula with some few tweaks to make it simpler (wich I disliked).
    The most good looking of the series, but far from being the best...I was expecting to play hundreds of hours, took me only 60hs. Totally disappointed with the end/post game.

    - Music is mediocre;
    - Few types of monsters with different skins;
    - AI is terrible, Tactics menu is worse than ever
    - Combat is the same Tales Formula with some few tweaks to make it simpler (wich I disliked). Negative point to the simple dodge system (just like Ys 8) and no block (except for Kisara;)
    - Played on hard from start, a few challenging bosses fights but overall the game is easier than the latest titles;
    - Done eveything in 60 hours on hard mode (playing slowly, trying to enjoy everything)...it´s too short compared to other Tales. Trophies, End/Post game are pathetic, with very bad difficulty balance compared to the main story, people will just lower difficulty to get 100%;
    - Making the game easier (with stupid paid DLC´s giving huge benefits) and allowing you to make 100% in one go at any difficulty, destroyed the New Game+, wich was the most interesting feature of the the franchise
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  6. Sep 28, 2021
    7
    A good game that overstays it's welcome. I really liked the games first 20 hours, but it quickly got way to repetitive, and the story is really bad.
  7. Sep 14, 2021
    7
    Bamco does it again with another mediocre Tales game RPG.

    1. Mediocre generic music check - sounds almost the same from zone to zone (either they don’t pay Sakuraba more and he ain’t having it or he has checked out long time ago for this series and is on autopilot). This isn’t new to this series and is expected the music has always ranged from average to mediocre, but this one takes the
    Bamco does it again with another mediocre Tales game RPG.

    1. Mediocre generic music check - sounds almost the same from zone to zone (either they don’t pay Sakuraba more and he ain’t having it or he has checked out long time ago for this series and is on autopilot). This isn’t new to this series and is expected the music has always ranged from average to mediocre, but this one takes the cake. The only decent Tales game with nice music is Zestiria, and only because multiple artists contributed to the score among them the amazing Go Shiina.

    2. Terrible cliched story with so many predictable turn of events you swear they were checking off cliche points to add to the game. Among this the characters lack depth, and are pretty uninteresting blabbing the same dialogue on repeat with each other, and I am talking about the story here not the nonsense they repeat while you are exploring cause that’s expected.

    Overall a pretty average and not worthy of purchase game unless you are desperate for RPGs, and even then I would wait for a discount. The main points of RPGs are characters and story, and this series has a reputation of delivering mediocre results on both counts including this one. What’s worse than playing this game is discussing critically it’s faults with others who are fanboys and can’t see anything but rainbows. It’s no wonder this series has never achieved the popularity of other RPGs when Bandai Namco doesn’t even try.

    The only saving graces are the decent graphics, and the combat system which while decent it’s nothing revolutionary. It’s almost like Bandai Namco just focuses on combat, and throws whatever else on the game to drive the combat and forgets that this is an RPG first, and the combat should be secondary. It’s sad because one of my greatest joys is playing a game with amazing music and this series fails time after time. Well I say no more Bandai Namco I ain't giving you money for less than great results.
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  8. Sep 27, 2022
    7
    The game is fun. The plot is good. However, I am quite sad that it has no multiplayer. For me, that almost was deal breaker and kept me from buying it for so long. I will give it a good rating but I hope you chose to give your next game multiplayer. As I think your your tales games will just be another JRPG on the market at that point. With nothing that sets it aside form the rest.
  9. Aug 29, 2023
    7
    Classico jrpg story driven,comparto artistico ben fatto;non eccelle pero' in nulla... bello e al contempo diverso il combattimento negli scontri dove poter cambiare il personaggio quasi in tempo reale.Anche se le battaglie sono forse le piu'riuscite e spettacolari con le varie combo in tempo reale,la velocita' dello stesso, il complesso di elementi a schermo e le bizzarrie della telecameraClassico jrpg story driven,comparto artistico ben fatto;non eccelle pero' in nulla... bello e al contempo diverso il combattimento negli scontri dove poter cambiare il personaggio quasi in tempo reale.Anche se le battaglie sono forse le piu'riuscite e spettacolari con le varie combo in tempo reale,la velocita' dello stesso, il complesso di elementi a schermo e le bizzarrie della telecamera lo rendono non perfettamente fruibile. Come i suoi predecessori non e' un open world ma un intersecarsi di lande semi aperte e dungeon.Un buon gioco,ma non va' assolutamente elevato come must buy, a livello di esperienza globale non si discosta poi tanto da tales of berseria che a me personalnente e piaciuto anche di piu specialmente nella storia.Decisamente troppa hype. Voto 7.0 Expand
  10. Jan 26, 2023
    7
    I was looking forward to a new "Tales of" game. I finished the game 100% and completed every achievement. Here's a more detailed scoring:

    Combat and Gameplay: 8/10 Story: 4/10 Music: 7/10 Graphics: 8/10 World and Level design: 6/10 Combat is good and If you get the hang of it you can do some fun combos and absolutely destroy enemies. I personally had more fun controlling Rinwell
    I was looking forward to a new "Tales of" game. I finished the game 100% and completed every achievement. Here's a more detailed scoring:

    Combat and Gameplay: 8/10
    Story: 4/10
    Music: 7/10
    Graphics: 8/10
    World and Level design: 6/10

    Combat is good and If you get the hang of it you can do some fun combos and absolutely destroy enemies. I personally had more fun controlling Rinwell in combat. Controlling other Characters in combat is an improvement compared to previous "Tales of" games. I think this game offers a way to have fun in combat with every character and the solo challenges that you can do were fun.

    The Story was mediocre and for me a bit bland. Sometimes the interactions between characters in Skits and throughout the Story felt weird and out of place, sometimes even pretty cringe and nonsensical. I didn't like the direction towards the end of the game and how the plot evolved. I think the Story is the weakest part of this game which is sad since previous "Tales of" games usually had pretty enjoyable stories.

    The Music is okay. Can't say much now months after I played the game but I don't remember any song so it's only a 7/10.

    Graphics are a good step forward from previous "Tales of" games. Since this is not a fully next-gen game I'm looking forward to what they can do in the next game. Since I played on PS5 I had no performance issues.

    While the design of the world looks great this game is sadly still stuck in the PS2 era of level design. You can see a wide open area of the world but you are restricted to corridors. I sincerely hope the next "tales of" game doesn't do this.
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  11. Sep 23, 2021
    6
    If you like PS3-level graphics and overplayed, prototypical JRPG tropes, then you'll love Tales of Arise.
  12. Nov 17, 2021
    6
    Just finished the game. It had alot of potential but wasn't executed well. I have played a few of the games in the Tales of series before and did not have an issue with most of the changes they made in this game (only gameplay issue I had was not getting able to customize the AI's battle movements). I thought the design of the environments and characters were great. I was extremelyJust finished the game. It had alot of potential but wasn't executed well. I have played a few of the games in the Tales of series before and did not have an issue with most of the changes they made in this game (only gameplay issue I had was not getting able to customize the AI's battle movements). I thought the design of the environments and characters were great. I was extremely disappointed with the storytelling and character development, character interactions seemed off and I didn't really believe in them as a group of adventurers. There was one character (maybe two) that had good development but everyone else seemed like shells. I think a lot of potential character development was missed because characters were designed to be paired with another character of the opposite gender which pigeonholed their interactions. I liked that there was a focus on romance in this game but I didn't believe in the couple and their budding relationship, the game designers decided they should be paired, so it happened. Overall, somewhat fun/good-looking game but disappointing storytelling and character development, particularly for a Tales of game. I would wait until the price lowers to buy. Expand
  13. Oct 20, 2021
    6
    Great game if you don't mind wading through all the patriarchal bs and sword=penis innuendo. It's 2021, can I just have a little gay content please?
  14. Nov 30, 2021
    6
    Its an okay game with many fun mechanics, but it also has many problems. I'll list the pros and cons below.

    Pros: - Great graphics/artstyle - Really fun and engaging combat with great boss/monster mechanics - Decent story overall - Great skill/arte system - Good worldbuilding from NPCs - Great voice acting - Nice, fitting music - Love the locations/environments Cons: -
    Its an okay game with many fun mechanics, but it also has many problems. I'll list the pros and cons below.

    Pros:
    - Great graphics/artstyle
    - Really fun and engaging combat with great boss/monster mechanics
    - Decent story overall
    - Great skill/arte system
    - Good worldbuilding from NPCs
    - Great voice acting
    - Nice, fitting music
    - Love the locations/environments

    Cons:
    - Basically same story formula is used for each party member intro and the enemies with varying severity

    - Characters confirm the same lessons and what we already know way too much, and there are too many 'I wonder', 'what if', 'so many questions, lets ask around' situations that mostly go nowhere, they need to stop repeating things that we addressed ten times just to pad the story/dialogue, its lazy and repetitive

    - Reminiscing scenes are mostly either characters bickering at each other, characters repeating information we already learned but in different ways, and characters going through stuff then being supported by rest of party multiple times and with basically the same dialogue each time

    - Shionne (not a big fan of tsundere, especially when its overdone)

    - Dialogue is bland, same generic lines are used with each new boss or new party member

    - Great outfits are locked behind expensive DLCs, and in-game outfits are mostly the same but just with different colors

    - With how great the game looks and what the PS5 can do, mixing anime scenes into the cutscenes is jarring and tends to ruin an otherwise great cutscene

    - No photo mode, or way to change camera positioning

    - No option to skip boost strikes or finishers (I don't need to see the same lengthy animations 200 times) and setting input queing to short is not a solution especially when you get all characters with one boost strike/finisher after another

    - No option to turn off or reduce ally battle effects, there are some bosses where visibility is an issue, I can't properly see what the enemy is doing if my allies and spamming flashy skills all the time, so I then have to rely on hearing, I have no idea why they've done it like this

    - Forced reminiscing, for example there are times when the party disbands and you are required to talk to each of your party members to continue, but as I've said they just repeat facts we already know, and lessons we have already learned/went through many times, its just so unnecessary.

    Despite the many cons, I rated this a 6 because the pros outweigh the cons much of the time, especially the combat, so its still an okay game that is worth playing through.
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  15. Oct 3, 2021
    6
    So the game play is pretty great! The graphics are good and there's a lot of fun different mechanics. THE STORY IS STUPID! THE CHARACTER DIALOGUE IS TRASH!!! So much emotion! The dialogue makes a Spanish soap opera look bland - angst, tears, preachy, self righteousness you name it. I also hate how they push the dlc at you all the time - it's even advertised in a scrolling banner at camps.So the game play is pretty great! The graphics are good and there's a lot of fun different mechanics. THE STORY IS STUPID! THE CHARACTER DIALOGUE IS TRASH!!! So much emotion! The dialogue makes a Spanish soap opera look bland - angst, tears, preachy, self righteousness you name it. I also hate how they push the dlc at you all the time - it's even advertised in a scrolling banner at camps. So if you can push through those two things you've got a great game with many hours of enjoyment (at least 40). If you like the "Tales of" games or are looking a jrpg to dig into you'll love the game play - but the way the story and dialogue is going I kinda want everyone , good guys and bad - to just explode half the time. This review done at 28 hours, 2/3rds the way through the story. Expand
  16. Jul 15, 2023
    6
    Good, not great. It's just fine. Just an average jrpg with good graphic.....
  17. Jan 21, 2022
    6
    Tales of Arise

    Version played: PS5 Price: 35 euro (60 full) Graphic mode: Performance mode Tales of arise tells a story of a group of rebels ending slavery ran by 5 Lords of representing one element each. The two main characters have quite a unique and fascinating relationship - one overly compassionate man that cannot feel pain, and a bit of a heartless woman with a curse that
    Tales of Arise

    Version played: PS5
    Price: 35 euro (60 full)
    Graphic mode: Performance mode

    Tales of arise tells a story of a group of rebels ending slavery ran by 5 Lords of representing one element each. The two main characters have quite a unique and fascinating relationship - one overly compassionate man that cannot feel pain, and a bit of a heartless woman with a curse that prevents anyone touching her without being struck by massive pain which leads her to struggle finding relationships. She’s in possession of an item called “A master core”, which let’s her summon a powerful blazing sword - so powerful that it burns the flesh of whoever wields it, thus the “Iron mask” (the male character) being the only person that can effectively wield it with the help of her additional healing powers.

    The story - while interesting, sadly has pacing issues. The story is fairly simple and concise, yet the game stretches it out. This is mostly obvious in “skits”, which are small cutscenes where you are prompted to press R1 to play numerous times throughout the game. Usually, the skits are told through comic book style cut ins, which admittedly looks very good. But most of the skits that aren’t comedy, explain the already thin and overtold story once again.

    The story lacks a good villain, as the Lords are also incredibly boring characters most of the time, most of their motivations come down to “I do it because I’m bored” or “I do it because I'm a moustache twirling villain”, with a few exceptions.

    About 25-30 hours into the game, the game enters its second half, which is when the story truly takes a nosedive and the pacing even becomes more sluggish.

    At one point I had to force myself to keep playing the game, mostly because the story just drags on, but the game has some genuinely great moments that I wanted to see.

    Throughout the rebels journey you’ll come across multiple towns and different sceneries. The areas themselves are truly beautiful. The outside areas are fun to explore, although a bit corridor -esque, but encouraged with plenty of food and materials to find. Sadly, the same cannot be said for towns and NPCs. While beautiful, tales games have always had issues with NPCs feeling void of life. They’re simply sign posts with a human model doing something very generic, such as waving their hand, slightly moving their hands as they pretend to speak. Not a single NPC in a town actually walks around, or does something remotely interesting, which breaks immersion of being in a town that supposedly should be vivid with life. Ironically, the most immersive town is one in ruins, one meant to be plagued by war and having multiple casualties because the lifeless and soulless npcs actually help set the tone of the city.

    Combat is the second reason I kept playing the game. This is one of the best iterations of the “tales of”-combat. It feels fluid and has quite a lot of player expression in it from all the different combo paths the game offers. Every party member also has a unique playstyle and strengths. You can have up to 4 party members on the battlefield at once, but the others can be tagged in whenever needed or occasionally support with their special abilities. All of the characters are very enjoyable to play as and can be freely switched around if you want to spice things up. You also have a fair bit of RPG-style customization that lets you play however you want and adapt to every situation that the game throws at you. You’ve got talent trees, weapons with different elements, craftable accessories with tons of different effects.All this while a banging combat theme playing in the background.

    Overall, I’d recommend the game to RPG fans that are fans of exploring, likes to experiment with character customization, and enjoy a good combat system, with the occasional good and emotional scenes. But sadly, this experience is best sought elsewhere if you are a fan of the genre.

    3/5
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  18. Feb 19, 2022
    6
    i've played this game for at least 5 hours and it doesn't get good. graphics and sound is good but gameplay is just average at best, nothing new if you've played final fantasy before accept that this is much worse than a final fantasy game
  19. Nov 24, 2021
    6
    It's a very good jrpg, but missing some elements I would have loved to see (eg. the fights could start with advantage or disadvantage depending on how you approach your enemies) and am actually tired of the same 4 kinds of stereotyped characters, even if the themes in the story are really interesting and I love Shionne and her attitude towards power.
  20. Sep 19, 2021
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Good game .. i like boss fights in the game Im not into the story… this is first tales game to me Expand
  21. Oct 2, 2021
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. positives: The game's gameplay is great, I like the level of customization, the story to an extent is enjoyable, the game is lengthy and it has substance. Cons: It's filled with unnecessary plot twists and long periods of dialogue without gameplay in between and it is not necessary. A great game in my opinion; builds on the premise it had in the beginning, Vs. throwing a game-changing plot twist near the end of the game and dedicating drawn-out dialogue in order to explain everything that happened in one go. There's also a lot of reiterating in the dialogue and it gets annoying. Expand
  22. Jul 22, 2022
    6
    Mediocre videogame. Really repetitive and with an uninteresting plot. I rate the game 6 since it has a good graphic and a nice setting (albeit very generic), there is a lot to do, to read and a lot of activities to carry out. Anyway, the rating cannot be more than this because it also has some serious flaws.

    Combat is average, it looks cool and is fun to control the characters and kills
    Mediocre videogame. Really repetitive and with an uninteresting plot. I rate the game 6 since it has a good graphic and a nice setting (albeit very generic), there is a lot to do, to read and a lot of activities to carry out. Anyway, the rating cannot be more than this because it also has some serious flaws.

    Combat is average, it looks cool and is fun to control the characters and kills enemies... but it has no depth at all and is very repetitive. When your characters grow they just become stronger and new abilities don't change the way you use them or add anything interesting. Enemies are HP sponges, it's not fun to fight a wolf for 5 minutes, even less when it's the 10th wolf of the area.

    Story is ridicolous. So much plot holes and cliche. The setting is a planet that has been invaded by an advanced alien civilization; they enslaved everyone and divided the planet into 5 reigns. In the first few hours of the game you go from being a slave to liberate 1/5 of the world by simply entering the "king" room and killing him. After you kill him every other invader simply goes away despite them being there for 300 years and being technologically on another level compared to those who rebelled. You repeat this other 4 times and free the whole world. The story becomes very convoluted by the end but it's not really well explained and remains very disappointing. Dialogues are boring and they happen too often and are too long, characters lack personality and aren't really interesting.

    Subquests are boring and mostly consist of "kill this special enemy with 10000000000HP", or just fetch this item.

    I didn't play any other "Tales of..." game so if you're into the serie you probably know what you're getting into, but I don't recommend this game to anyone that isn't a super fan of anime and JRPGs with real time combat. And even in that case, you could dislike the game.
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  23. Dec 12, 2021
    6
    Tl;dr, Story goes from ok to bad and then to very bad. play the demo and if you like the battles and decide to get the game play it in normal difficulty.

    As stated the story starts with interesting points but drops the ball about 1/4 to 1/3 in. Nonsensical World building that depends on extremely gullible and tunnel visioned characters to advance the plot points. Characters with no
    Tl;dr, Story goes from ok to bad and then to very bad. play the demo and if you like the battles and decide to get the game play it in normal difficulty.

    As stated the story starts with interesting points but drops the ball about 1/4 to 1/3 in. Nonsensical World building that depends on extremely gullible and tunnel visioned characters to advance the plot points. Characters with no depth at all and in some cases even annoying and incoherent. The skits are a chore to sit through but fortunately you can mash them up to speed (which can also be done with most of the game cutscenes, truly a blessing) the voice acting ain’t bad but as other reviews say the just say the same bs on repeat (previous exposition, low key flirting, petty incoherent dilemma) so you can read few words and not miss any meaningful development.

    As for the battle system I did enjoy it, was planning to give a better rating just for it, but about halfway through, the game just throws you the same enemies but with different skins, truly lame, specially in the last dungeons were it is too noticeable. Seriously there are less than 20 different enemies. So normal is the way to go, battling as little and as fast as possible so it doesn’t grow stale too fast. I didn’t bother controlling other characters or modifying their AI, heck, Most of the time I didn’t even know which magic was friendly and which wasn’t with so much color balls and splashes in the screen. But you can stick to move alphen around, set the few artes you are confortable with and it’s enjoyable enough.

    It lacks volume control on battle voices which is inexcusable. Music is forgettable, the main battle theme with the fast violin is annoying tho.

    Also the last boss glitched on me and couldn’t do more damage after getting to 1hp. Had to reload. Utter bs.
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  24. Aug 10, 2023
    6
    This game was my introduction to the Tales of series, after all the praise it got, I was curious to check it out so I decided to play it. To be completely honest, I got into the game wanting to like it, but unfortunately from the first few minutes, I realized that it's just going to be a typical JRPG with some generic plot points and common anime tropes.

    Well, what I got is exactly that,
    This game was my introduction to the Tales of series, after all the praise it got, I was curious to check it out so I decided to play it. To be completely honest, I got into the game wanting to like it, but unfortunately from the first few minutes, I realized that it's just going to be a typical JRPG with some generic plot points and common anime tropes.

    Well, what I got is exactly that, the game is nothing more but the most basic and uninteresting JRPG I've played so far. From beginning to end, nothing really happens, the story is monotonous, and the last few hours are a slog to go through, the final dungeon is exhausting, filled with overleveled spongey enemies and terrible level design, and the ending is absolutely pathetic and nonsensical.

    As for the characters, the main cast is underwhelming, there's barely any development, and the side characters are very one dimensional and forgettable.

    I don't want to seem very negative, because I actually enjoyed the game for the most part, the gameplay is good, the graphics look fantastic, various different worlds to explore, beautiful landscapes and environments, cool looking animations and great visuals.

    I actually had fun solely because of the gameplay, and it motivated me to explore a lot and do side quests and interact with the world for many hours, even though there the side content isn't anything special, there's a decent amount of things to do.

    That being said, I wanna point out that the game itself seems to have taken a lot of inspiration from other JRPG titles, but the problem is, it never succeeds, it always tries to do something big but ultimately falls flat, as if it's not capable of reaching that peak yet. In fact, during some parts of the game, I could tell that it's a little bit rushed, especially towards the end.

    Personally I'm disappointed, is it a solid fun game? In some ways yeah, do I recommend it? Not really, I mean if you're craving to play a JRPG then maybe, but there are superior JRPGs out there that do everything this game does but better.

    Final Rating: "Above Average" ~ 5.5/10.
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  25. Apr 23, 2022
    6
    Game is a huge disappointment. The only good things it has going for it, is cute characters, fun banter, weird accessories.. & it's pretty.

    Other than that, the game is extremely shallow & the combat sucks. The lock on/targeting in the game is a joke. The realtime fighting is a joke..

    I'm very disappointed in it.
  26. Jan 24, 2023
    6
    Great game, -2 for one of the most idiotic mechanics in gaming (CP), another -1 due to some ridiculously stupid bosses (Ganabelt, Efreet etc) and another -1 due to the impossibility of using the mystic arts with Rinwell.
  27. Apr 25, 2023
    6
    Lepszy film animowany niż gra wideo.
    Brzmi i wygląda świetnie, rewelacyjnie wykonane są postaci i lokacje. Jeśli jesteś fanem japońskiego sposobu opowiadania historii, z całym tym wyolbrzymionym dramatyzmem, emocjami i gdzieniegdzie powtykanym humorem, to będziesz zadowolony. Zwłaszcza z przerywników filmowych, których jest cała masa.
    Niestety, sama rozgrywka nie dowozi. Głównie zawodzą
    Lepszy film animowany niż gra wideo.
    Brzmi i wygląda świetnie, rewelacyjnie wykonane są postaci i lokacje. Jeśli jesteś fanem japońskiego sposobu opowiadania historii, z całym tym wyolbrzymionym dramatyzmem, emocjami i gdzieniegdzie powtykanym humorem, to będziesz zadowolony. Zwłaszcza z przerywników filmowych, których jest cała masa.
    Niestety, sama rozgrywka nie dowozi. Głównie zawodzą pojedynki, przede wszystkim te z bossami, którzy mają setki, tysiące punktów zdrowia. Ty natomiast posiadasz zasób zwany CP (cure points), który jest używany do odnawiania twojego mizernego paska życia i który notorycznie się wyczerpuję, szczególnie w większych potyczkach.
    Każdy z grywalnych bohaterów ma specjalny atak, który ma służyć do kontrowania konkretnych akcji wrogów, ale niemal nigdy nie jest dostępny wówczas, gdy naprawdę jest potrzebny.
    Sztuczna inteligencja twoich sojuszników jest tępa i ciągle doprowadza do ich śmierci. Zresztą gra posiada zupełnie niezrozumiałe dla mnie opcje automatyzacji. Można dosłownie uruchomić automatyczną walkę, wówczas potyczki przechodzą się same, o ile bohaterowie nie postanowią popełnić seppuku.
    Jest to gra wyłącznie dla zagorzałych fanów anime.
    Ps. jako DLC można nabyć m.in. nie tylko walutę gry, ale wręcz zwiększenie poziomu postaci. Jak to przeszło przez urząd celny?
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  28. Aug 10, 2022
    5
    This is the worst, dumb, simplistic and bland story I've ever played in an rpg, only the last quarter gets kinda interesting. I really forced myself to play it. Repetitive combat with tons of enemies everywhere, and once you get the full party, you realize how shallow, messy and repetitive combat is. Doing the same strategy over and over, seeing the same combat cutscenes for 50 hours.This is the worst, dumb, simplistic and bland story I've ever played in an rpg, only the last quarter gets kinda interesting. I really forced myself to play it. Repetitive combat with tons of enemies everywhere, and once you get the full party, you realize how shallow, messy and repetitive combat is. Doing the same strategy over and over, seeing the same combat cutscenes for 50 hours. Characters speaking too much nonsense dialogue during the time you're not fighting. Simple and poor side quest design which, which in fact are merely fetch quests. Poor and lifeless cities. Rushed and disappointing ending. This has been my first Tales experience and didn't quite enjoyed it at all. Will play others anyway, can't judge an entire saga by one bad game Expand
  29. Oct 13, 2021
    5
    I guess I'm in the minority, but I think the storyline is near unbearable and I'm struggling to finish the, presumably. last stage with about 35 hours in. The bad guys are just bad guys for little reason other than they are evil, with each just a different type of evil. The protagonists besides Shionne drive me crazy, with exception of about 3 minutes of Rinwell at the end of the 4thI guess I'm in the minority, but I think the storyline is near unbearable and I'm struggling to finish the, presumably. last stage with about 35 hours in. The bad guys are just bad guys for little reason other than they are evil, with each just a different type of evil. The protagonists besides Shionne drive me crazy, with exception of about 3 minutes of Rinwell at the end of the 4th stage. The little skits are extremely repetitive to each other and within it self.

    The combat is great, the CP usage is interesting, available tactics are lacking. Descriptions of each of the artes are minimal as to what they actually do and what the difference between the stars are besides doing a increasing damange - but how much, who knows? The game certainly looks great on the PS5, but I guess I'm more interested in a superb story - like FF10, than the combat.
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  30. Sep 18, 2021
    5
    I haven’t played a tales game since berseria, and was excited to jump back in based on what I saw; Tales of Arise has exceeded my expectations
    Story is phenomenal, combat is solid and smooth, games systems is great and has a lot of depth.
    World is wide linear, which I’m okay with as everything has been solid and allows for some exploration whilst not breaking pace with the story too
    I haven’t played a tales game since berseria, and was excited to jump back in based on what I saw; Tales of Arise has exceeded my expectations
    Story is phenomenal, combat is solid and smooth, games systems is great and has a lot of depth.
    World is wide linear, which I’m okay with as everything has been solid and allows for some exploration whilst not breaking pace with the story too much. Soundtrack is great and English voice isn’t terrible. Characters are not lame in dialogue and less cheesy.
    The game doesn’t spam you with sidequests and the rewards helps towards growing your characters power level which makes them worth doing.

    My only negative is the sheer amount of dialogue, sometimes i just want to get straight into it but often it can be anywhere between 5-20mins of “chain” dialogue and skits before you get control of your character again during zone/story key points. Late game there was so much dialogue that i ended up doing other stuff like cleaning the house, checking emails etc whilst the game was playing in the bg, just slap on headphones and keep the controller handy…. Seriously i am not kidding or exaggerating!

    If it wasn’t for the fact that the late game felt more like a visual novel with sections having up to 45mins of chain dialogue at a time, I would have given it a better score, i wanted to play a game, not listen to an audio book.

    Some games suffer from bloat in sidequests etc, this game suffers from too many cut scenes, seriously it’s insane.
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  31. Feb 5, 2022
    5
    First of all, I'd like to mention that I'm a huge Jrpg fan since the ps1 era and that I'm 35h deep into the game. Tales of Arise has been on my radar for a couple months and I was really eager to try it. Sadly, I didn't get hooked at all. Everything is so repetitive, towns are absolutely lifeless, story is boring, besides Shionne the cast is weak and to combat system is unbalanced (IFirst of all, I'd like to mention that I'm a huge Jrpg fan since the ps1 era and that I'm 35h deep into the game. Tales of Arise has been on my radar for a couple months and I was really eager to try it. Sadly, I didn't get hooked at all. Everything is so repetitive, towns are absolutely lifeless, story is boring, besides Shionne the cast is weak and to combat system is unbalanced (I try/play every game on hard or higher difficulty and I'm really struggling with this one on normal mode...and then I realised there were microtransactions, now it makes sense). I don't know if Persona 5 and FF7 remake set the bar to high but I'm really struggling in enjoying jrpgs lately. That being said, the game looks absolutely fantastic, music is great and the voices are too. 7/10 for me (I'm even wondering if i'll finish it and I rarely give up on games)

    Edit: I dropped my score to 5 after playing the last part of the game: a rushed disaster and endless boring cutscenes
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  32. Sep 27, 2021
    5
    Ma tutti questi 10 il giorni stesso dell uscita?? Ma la gente gioca prima di dare i voti ? ...il tales perfetto...storia personaggi eccellenti ...ho giocato tutti i capitoli di tales usciti in europa ...e francamente non me la sento di dare più di 5... personaggi sottotono..storia allungata e confusa sul finale ..
  33. Dec 7, 2021
    5
    1st playthrough - Medium ; 2nd Playthrough - Hard ; Total Time: 81 hours
    How can i define Tales Of Arise? the latest entry in the series provides stunning graphics, beautiful landscapes and engaging combat, but what about the story? and the rest?
    Lets talk about what Tales Of Arise succedes first, the game has a nice combat, feels good to play it although it becomes remarkably boring and
    1st playthrough - Medium ; 2nd Playthrough - Hard ; Total Time: 81 hours
    How can i define Tales Of Arise? the latest entry in the series provides stunning graphics, beautiful landscapes and engaging combat, but what about the story? and the rest?
    Lets talk about what Tales Of Arise succedes first, the game has a nice combat, feels good to play it although it becomes remarkably boring and uninspired in the later stages, the little things like the finishers and new skills help the game stay fresh for a while until it inevitably becomes boring again.
    The graphics are amazing, the landscapes look fantastic and full of life and beauty, the characters look amazing, their expressions are masterfully animated, you can feel the emotion that the characters wants to portray and so on and so forth.

    Unfortunately there isnt much positive things i can say about Tales Of Arise, now on to the negatives, the story is absolutely a mess, its bland, not original, which in it of itself its not a problem, but its bad and not original, the game is so surface level at explaining how things develop.

    Every single region its just a place where you do a couple of missions and bye, there is no remarkable characters in any region, there isnt a motive to come back aside from some mini bosses and some filler quests.
    The characters are some of the most uninspired, bland, personality-lacking ones ive ever seen, Aside from Shionne And Alphen, which are the protagonists, the rest of the cast fails miserably in developing connection with the player, maybe 1-2 party members have a good story but thats about it.
    The combat is mediocre at best, dont get me wrong, it is satisfying, it is engaging, it is phenomenal, for a couple of hours. after a while you will find youself spamming the same set of skills, doing the same things, not needing to adjust your playstyle at all, no matter what you do you will always end up defeating the enemy, so why bother? there is no incentive to get strong because the game is so easy and lacks challenge, you dont feel challenged at any point in Tales Of Arise, just spam a set ammount of skills and youre good, no big deal, the combat is so bland that playing the game for the second time was a pain, i found myself constantly just trying to get pass the enemy hitboxes just to not trigger a fight because you dont do ANYHING different.

    Ambiance: While the game does look fantastic and the graphics are phenomenal, the ambiance is a totally different aspect that cant be "bought" with good graphics, the regions are just so bland, they are so cliché and so outdated, it doesnt evoke any sentiment, its just a region, its just a let down really. if the awesome graphics could be combined with good ambiance, it would make the perfect atmosphere and even make the story better, but that doesnt happen.
    Bosses and Villains: they are just bosses, they dont have ambitions of their own, they dont have objectives, they are just there to fill the role of a villain, they lack story, they lack personality, everything, the villains are arguably the worst part of this entire game. their designs are bland, just like the rest of the game.
    Last but not least, the plot devices used in this game are ridiculous, characters will just let things be THE WORST POSSIBLE until they finally decide to act just so the game has a longer play time, and even when they try to do something it obviously turns out for the worst, never for the best, proving that its just a bait for people to think that the characters have some sense and some type of intelligence of their own, when it reality everything in this game moves around plot devices and dumb decisions and dumb characters.

    Overall Tales Of Arise is a overrated and painfully mediocre game, however, if you are looking for a plain story where you dont have to think too much or pay attention to anything, a gameplay that is fun for a little while, beautiful graphics, and some fuses of excitement and romance, go for it. BUT IF you are looking for a Great RPG with great story, great music, great ambiance, deep characters, profound dilemmas and engaging combat with actual difficulty, Tales Of Arise is NOT for you.
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  34. Nov 27, 2021
    5
    The game is ok-ish, not worth 79€. I kind of liked the main story, and the manga world spirit. The evolution of characters are RPG classics but efficient.
    I disliked the dialogues, too much, too long, too often and too childish. It is really unbearable after few hours of game. It is good that we can skip it.
    Progression is linear and the fights are really repetitive, but I found some boss
    The game is ok-ish, not worth 79€. I kind of liked the main story, and the manga world spirit. The evolution of characters are RPG classics but efficient.
    I disliked the dialogues, too much, too long, too often and too childish. It is really unbearable after few hours of game. It is good that we can skip it.
    Progression is linear and the fights are really repetitive, but I found some boss fights really nice and epic.
    I was really happy to finish the game to finally move on…
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  35. Jan 13, 2023
    5
    I had to force myself to finish it, it took me two months of stalling because every time I load the save and start playing I get annoyed with their voices, the dialogue is atrocious! (I thought Xenoblade 3 had the worst dialogue until I played Arise).

    Too linear, too little eneme variety, sometimes too inconvenience.

    The premise is good but the execution is terrible, 5/10.
  36. Jul 9, 2023
    5
    quite fun in the beginning, but gets pretty repetitive at the end. Still, most fun i've had playing tales series since Vesperia
  37. Dec 5, 2021
    4
    This game is for children or teenagers.
    Its shallow, unimaginative and immature.
    Combat is a total failure, too much things going on and way too fast. Everybody is screaming lightning bolt or something all the time. Enemies takes all the screen space. Items feel like cheating because the balance is broken. Boss are just bullet sponge with 100k health. There is absolutely no depth
    This game is for children or teenagers.
    Its shallow, unimaginative and immature.

    Combat is a total failure, too much things going on and way too fast. Everybody is screaming lightning bolt or something all the time. Enemies takes all the screen space. Items feel like cheating because the balance is broken. Boss are just bullet sponge with 100k health.

    There is absolutely no depth here. I regret the time I lost playing this.

    Gets a 4 because of straight Japanese culture and design of visual. The rest feels like 1980.
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  38. Sep 15, 2021
    4
    The only thing this game really has going for it is the combat, and even that is little more than button mashing.

    The story is only decent.
    The characters are stock standard anime/JRPG tropes.
    Music is completely forgettable.
    Graphics are a mixed bag. Characters are a high resolution but have the animations of a PS2 game, and the environments are pretty flat with TERRIBLE pop-in.
  39. Dec 19, 2021
    4
    I liked the music and visuals. But I could tell the story/characters would be bland and the combat was quite repitive. I didn't feel the extra dialouge scenes added anything substantial to the story. Other JRPG's are able to hook me sooner.
  40. Jul 1, 2022
    4
    This game is an enormous disappointment and I'm baffled at its positive reviews. I feel compelled to at least warn others as to what they are getting if you waste money on this.

    This is essentially a linear walking simulator in which you spend just as much time reading dialog ue and being interrupted by a nine style party dialog ue scenes as you do walking and engaging in the boring
    This game is an enormous disappointment and I'm baffled at its positive reviews. I feel compelled to at least warn others as to what they are getting if you waste money on this.

    This is essentially a linear walking simulator in which you spend just as much time reading dialog ue and being interrupted by a nine style party dialog ue scenes as you do walking and engaging in the boring combat.

    The game chose to make armor sets and costumes two different thing to compell microtransactions as well as be lazy and not have to have a different design for each armor you equip.

    The game also compels microtransactions by making even grinding to level up extremely tedious.

    To call this game an open world rpg is just an outright lie. All progression is locked behind linear progression of the story in terms of the skill trees. It will become quite clear early on just how far from an rpg or even an action adventure game this is. It may look pretty but it plays like a mediocre game from the early 99s

    It's merely a playable movie of a very generic, extremely repetitive and half baked anime. If that's your thing have fun.
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  41. Nov 8, 2021
    4
    I'm convinced most of these 10/10 reviews are fake. Expect cliche tropes, shallow writing, generic music, serviceable VA, bland combat, hollow set pieces, and uninteresting side mechanics.
  42. Mar 1, 2023
    4
    No thanks. I bought the game due to the good reviews. However, the game really disappoints. The plot is so predictable and the skits are especially annoying. Why can't they just make them into cut scenes? I feel the developers are just being lazy and it feels weird for gamers to stare at some static slides and listen to the unimportant dialogues. The only thing I like about the game is theNo thanks. I bought the game due to the good reviews. However, the game really disappoints. The plot is so predictable and the skits are especially annoying. Why can't they just make them into cut scenes? I feel the developers are just being lazy and it feels weird for gamers to stare at some static slides and listen to the unimportant dialogues. The only thing I like about the game is the combat but overall it was a total waste of time. Expand
  43. Feb 9, 2023
    4
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. The first half of the game is great. It feels like a Tales of game. It really drops the ball in the second half though. There are so many plot holes it may as well as be swiss cheese.

    Daeq Faezol is where you learn the truth of the Renan home planet. A planet that is pretty much dead, mind controls its inhabitants and wants to syphon energy from its neighbor to create a void; pretty much killing itself?

    Renan's syphoning energy to gain power makes sense, they seem power hungry throughout the game. Then suddenly you find out its the planet itself. There are people called Helganquil and the crown contest is pretty much pointless for the Renans. Since both Soveriegns are revealed to be Dahnan's and there has never been a Renan Soveriegn.

    Oh, and the people on Lenegis are clueless. Though probably somewhat effected by their home world. Yet, there is no mind control from the Renan planet on the Dahnan home planet. Meaning all Renan's on the Dahnan home planet are free of its influence.

    What, I gathered from this information is the Renan planet wants to commit double suicide.
    It's people left its influence.
    The Crown contest is a sham.
    And the last half just complicates things so much that it ruins the first half.

    I am ashamed to call this a Tales of game.

    Character wise and gameplay wise. It is really good; it just drops the ball with the story.
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  44. Sep 27, 2021
    3
    This game's story is awful. Characters say and do things that don't make sense constantly, the dialogue sounds unnatural (either due to mistranslation or plain bad writing), and the society the game is depicting feels like it was constructed by a middle-schooler taking their first civics class.
    The game is basically all about classism and tyranny but it clearly doesn't actually understand
    This game's story is awful. Characters say and do things that don't make sense constantly, the dialogue sounds unnatural (either due to mistranslation or plain bad writing), and the society the game is depicting feels like it was constructed by a middle-schooler taking their first civics class.
    The game is basically all about classism and tyranny but it clearly doesn't actually understand these topics. You kill some tyrant and BOOM, everything is better. What about his second in command? Who's going to take over leadership? How are these subjugated people going to learn how to create some semblance of a fair and functioning society? Don't bother thinking about it because the writers sure didn't.
    This lack of effort extends to the characters too. They act in ways that don't make sense for people of their background. You can pretty much sum up every character in one sentence.
    Overall I'd say this game is beyond mediocre; It's straight up bad. If this is the "Best JRPG of the year" then they sure aren't what they used to be.
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  45. Aug 8, 2022
    2
    As a huge fan of Tales Of games, this was just awful. The characters are what really carry these games usually but all of these fools are just so painfully boring. Honestly can't think of anything to grab onto to enjoy any of these characters, they feel like tropes and nothing else. Like puppets playing a part rather then actually characters to relate to. Tropes also extends out to theAs a huge fan of Tales Of games, this was just awful. The characters are what really carry these games usually but all of these fools are just so painfully boring. Honestly can't think of anything to grab onto to enjoy any of these characters, they feel like tropes and nothing else. Like puppets playing a part rather then actually characters to relate to. Tropes also extends out to the painfully generic plot and step by step type delivery. It leaves very little room to wonder where the plots going to go when it constantly reminds you the steps needed to get there. Only fun thing about this was the combat. It was nice and flashy. Combats hard to enjoy though when that's really all there is to this game.

    Tales of Berseria absolutely moved me, this game moved me to turn off my Ps5 after generic plot line #187 popped up.
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  46. Jul 24, 2022
    2
    Game starts out promising but then the story gets kinda weak and drags on. Combat is fun enough to plow through over half but towards the end I was done, combat very repetitive. Side quests and intermittent quests all extremely repetitive. I could bring myself to finish the game and pretty sure I was about 90% through. Lost interest in story and gameplay mechanics.
  47. Aug 13, 2022
    2
    You can feel that this game was made by a team of interns with very low budget. Plot holes down right and center, 10 enemies re-skined 15 times, 10 weapons re-skined 15 times, 10 costumes re-skined 15 times, you get the idea, even boss enemies re-used. They even didn't bother making the ending in 3d, they just put the cheap 15 fps anime cutscene (PS5 version haha). Many times there are noYou can feel that this game was made by a team of interns with very low budget. Plot holes down right and center, 10 enemies re-skined 15 times, 10 weapons re-skined 15 times, 10 costumes re-skined 15 times, you get the idea, even boss enemies re-used. They even didn't bother making the ending in 3d, they just put the cheap 15 fps anime cutscene (PS5 version haha). Many times there are no transition between the levels, just the black screen. I wanted to rate this higher since I did finish the game, but they did not even include very limitted co-op which we used to have, but don't believe this is because of the new "unique" and "dynamic" combat system, it was just cut to save money just like everything else. Absolute garbage Expand
  48. Oct 15, 2021
    1
    Exp from mobs is lowered x2 for ONE level difference. Is no gring here, PM of this project is ... worst game of the series
  49. Oct 7, 2022
    1
    Jeu old school a couloir, gameplay limité en combat et brouillon, surtout si on est habitué aux souls, bestiaire pauvre, arbre de talent inintéressant, loot ridicules dans les coffres, le jeu n apporte rien a part une lassitude dans le temps.
  50. Nov 15, 2021
    0
    Easily one of the worst stories the series ever told. A lot of grindy gameplay and its just not a good Tale's game overall and is being pandered unnecessarily to fame that an average game doesn't deserve.
    Tales of Arise is a dark future for the series if this is the direction they will take for it has lost the spirit the series once had.
    Easily one of the worst stories the series ever told. A lot of grindy gameplay and its just not a good Tale's game overall and is being pandered unnecessarily to fame that an average game doesn't deserve.
    Tales of Arise is a dark future for the series if this is the direction they will take for it has lost the spirit the series once had.
    http://mysticallis.blogspot.com/2021/10/tales-of-arise-critical-review.html
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  51. Sep 21, 2021
    0
    Absolute trash in every sense of the word, easily the worst tales game yet, a lot of fake 10/10 scores, no way is this an improvement on Tales of Berseria,
  52. Sep 20, 2021
    0
    This game is a hollow shell if the effort they used to put into tales games. Tales of symphonia is so much better than this game. The dialog is horrible. I cannot emphasize that enough. There is absolutely no character development where it needs to be and I cannot bring myself to give a **** about this story. They give you a overpowered weapon before you reach your first boss. You pull itThis game is a hollow shell if the effort they used to put into tales games. Tales of symphonia is so much better than this game. The dialog is horrible. I cannot emphasize that enough. There is absolutely no character development where it needs to be and I cannot bring myself to give a **** about this story. They give you a overpowered weapon before you reach your first boss. You pull it out of crystal's **** The enemy's have no variation at all. They give you a quest to defeat a level 40 plus monster before your even level 10. There are pop ins. The game doesn't look nearly as good as the trailers. Stupid owls instead of hidden chefs. No different npc dialogs from different characters like the old games. This is a lazy game and I wasted my money because of the 10 out of 10 reviews for this game. It's garbage and there are many better jrpgs. Expand
  53. Oct 24, 2021
    0
    Поиграла совсем немного и слава богу что не стала тратить больше времени на эту унылую игру...Единственное что мне понравилось это дизайн главного героя...Самое большое для меня огорчение в этой игре это диалоги между персонажами, они правда глупые и детские если не сказать грубее, почему то большинство аниме игр этим грешат, это китч, не понимаю почему такая идея еще умерла...Поиграла совсем немного и слава богу что не стала тратить больше времени на эту унылую игру...Единственное что мне понравилось это дизайн главного героя...Самое большое для меня огорчение в этой игре это диалоги между персонажами, они правда глупые и детские если не сказать грубее, почему то большинство аниме игр этим грешат, это китч, не понимаю почему такая идея еще умерла...
  54. Nov 1, 2021
    0
    Сюжет убог и уныл. Персонажи и их логика за гранью любого здравого смысла. Боевка однообразна.
  55. Dec 23, 2021
    0
    After years of using Metacritic I made an account because I feel so betrayed by having believed all the positive reviews I read of this game before buying it. This site has gone terribly downhill due to this era of video game companies paying for fake reviews, and I'm starting to feel like Metacritic is just some aging used car salesman who will try and sell any piece of trash on behalf ofAfter years of using Metacritic I made an account because I feel so betrayed by having believed all the positive reviews I read of this game before buying it. This site has gone terribly downhill due to this era of video game companies paying for fake reviews, and I'm starting to feel like Metacritic is just some aging used car salesman who will try and sell any piece of trash on behalf of anyone who gives them money to do so. Tales of Arise is packaged as a brand new awesome JRPG with hundreds of rave 10/10 reviews, but so many of the reviews are from people who clearly have not played this game for any substantive amount of time, so here's the cold hard truth of a game 45 hours in:

    What starts off great, in fact just shy of fantastic, peaks at about 15 hours in, and then steadily declines with each continued hour of play until by the time you're 40 hours in, you feel you'd rather clean toilets at an all you can eat buffet for those 40 hours. The story feels written to the level of laziness you'd expect from one of those 600 lb beasts who patrol the aisles of Wal-Mart on an electric scooter whilst eating chicken nuggies. No character development whatsoever. In fact, negative character development. There are five lands you venture through, and most characters say virtually the same stupid things about the world dynamics at each juncture, to the point where you think the character maybe has a learning disability... and then you realize oh wait it's just a video game character, the person with a learning disability is clearly the idiot who created these characters and wrote all their dialogue.

    The battle system started off great, and seemed to have a lot of potential with how many skills there are and all that, but it quickly became a tedious button mashing endeavor that's a hodge-podge of all the popular JRPG battle modes (think a crappy dodge/parry from YS, combined with the skill usage of FF7 remake, mixed with the partner combos of the classic Chrono Trigger). The problem with the battle system is two-fold: 1) there is no diversity of enemies. You fight red wolves, then blue wolves, green, and then orange, etc., along with color variations of plants, winged gargoyles, etc. I've killed 1400 wolves that could fill a rainbow. 2) Over time, most of the skills that seem cool end up being completely useless, because some of them take so long to either charge, or have long animations, that are easily disrupted in the chaotic battles with lots of enemies, so you inevitably resort to the two best quick hitting skills. So basically you mash the same two skills 4 million times to the same ten enemies with different colors depending on what region you're in. Don't get me started on the broken targeting system, where sometimes main character Alphen will just start swiping in the weirdest directions anywhere but the target I'm locked onto.

    As far as navigating the world, it's a painfully linear map, where you go down winding narrow paths with different weather and colors, picking up crystals and treasure chests that are easy to find, there's no area that feels unique whatsoever, and it's honestly a horribly underpopulated world compared to some of the other great games out there. The giant capital cities feel tiny, and the world feels increasingly smaller the more you explore it, to the point where you feel like you're more on a small prison island and not a big country. Imagine being in one of those tiny Smart Cars with a capped speed limit of 35 mph, driving around the farmlands of Nebraska, and that will feel more majestic than traversing the realms of Arise. It feels like you walk two-three blocks from region to region.

    If you're still reading this, I'm guessing you're really doing your research on this game, or you're like me and going how the hell did this have so many 10/10 reviews, it's an injustice! This game really is a 4-5 out of ten, but I needed to give it a 0 to offset so many of these garbage fluff reviews. To be honest, this should not even be in your top 20 game radar, and unless you've got nothing else to do but kill 50-60 hours, play anything but this. Xenoblade Chronicles 1+2, YS VIII&IX, Fire Emblem Three Houses, Persona 5 Royal, Octopath Traveler, right here is a list that will come with 600 hours of playtime easily well spent above this one, and my guess is most of you already played these. Arise could have been a great game had the developers put actual effort into it, but it feels like a mega-corporation gave them stringent deadlines, they had an alright concept, and just grinded out to get their paycheck, rather than deliver something fans would love for decades. Forgettable bosses, forgettable characters, no fun side quests or worth side stories, just a hodge podge of mediocrity.

    And that's the straight truth.
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  56. Apr 22, 2022
    0
    I love the Tales Series … but this game is the worst Tales game … bad story, boring characters, boring combat …
  57. Aug 31, 2023
    0
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. ''Let's Go..................................................................................................................................'' Expand
Metascore
87

Generally favorable reviews - based on 76 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 75 out of 76
  2. Negative: 0 out of 76
  1. CD-Action
    Jan 19, 2022
    85
    The latest entry in the Tale series offers everything loyal fans could have expected, but also has a chance to enamor many newcomers. The story about two heroes from the opposite sides of a conflict joining forces is surprisingly multi-layered, the combat is flashy and satisfying, and the journey leads you across beautiful, varied regions. As for the flaws, I need to mention problems with map legibility and the necessity to grind, but fortunately both issues are occasional. [12/2021, p.68]
  2. Dec 2, 2021
    85
    Tales of Arise achieved steady progress under the traditional JRPG framework. With a solid plot and refreshing battle, a very good JRPG experience has been created for players. Although the overall quality is very high, the game still has some problems in character creation and story logic, which prevents it from reaching the peak of the JRPG category.
  3. 90
    Tales of Arise offers fast and fluid combat and an epic story, paving the way for the first great JRPG of a new console generation.