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Tales of Arise Review Thread

Teslerum

Member
It's by some a bit overrated at the moment (No, its not levels above any other Tales game. Unless we start at Xillia, then yeah its the best since then, though Berseria is close), but its a very good game and if anything its nice to see the Tales franchise continue to recover and improve.

Like the gameplay so far, still prefer Graces F as far as 3D tales go, but its the most enjoyable Tales combat system and systems for a while (Even though the menu presentation is very meh). Charachters are decent/great, Story is ok so far. Very, very Tales (including nostalgic plot elements) even if the overall tone is darker/edgier.

Though, after Berseria and Arise the next Tales game should be a bit more mellow again in tone. Otherwise this could get tiresome.

Edit: Ah, yes. The anime intro..... is among the worst Tales has done. Says nothing about the quality of the game as some bad Tales have great ones, but yeah. (IMO)
 
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Exentryk

Member
The main thing that's different here is that the written dialogue is pretty decent. Usually you expect that awkwardness with dialogue and mannerisms in JRPGs, but not so much here. Other than that, the cutscenes and action are well done and it keeps the story exciting and interesting.

So yeah, really enjoying the game in the first hour or so. I might need to tweak the camera speed though. Just haven't adjusted to it, but will give it another day.
 
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Fix for NPC pop-in on PC:
https://github.com/emoose/Arise-SDK/releases/tag/v0.1.5

Some comparisons.

No fix:
l1GwUYg.jpg


Fix:
FhkSfU4.jpg


Distance for NPCs show without fix:
U27KRGp.jpg


Distance NPCs show with fix (and would be longer but there is a wall behind me):
IfwaiuF.jpg


No real impact on FPS for me at least.
 

Markio128

Member
It’s a good game and I’ve enjoyed my first 6-7 hours with it. The pop-in can be a little distracting, but overall, the visuals are really nice. My only real criticism of the game is the lack of variety in enemy type. Oh, actually, another minor gripe is the fast travel not always being available. It is never clear why I can use it one minute and then not the next. Very strange.
 

Herr Edgy

Member
Would love to play this.
I recently bought a TV after not having owned one in forever. Always PC gamed really. Sold my PS4, have a Switch but rarely use it. Games like these belong on the big screen though.
PC and TV are in different rooms. I found out about the Steam Link app that basically comes with the TV, and it works pretty nicely; but the controller!

Man, I didn't know peripheral wireless connections were so shitty in this day and age. Was always more of a cable guy. PC to couch is about 5 meters away, with 2 walls in the way. My bluetooth connector can't handle it. Damn shame.
 
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saintjules

Member
Is it a real challenge, or is it just bullshit RNG criticals and status ailments?

At least for me it was a challenge. What I think it is is more HP on the enemies and them potentially doing more damage to you.

I have to check a side by side comparison, but normal enemies do take a while to beat, especially that first lord boss.
 
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KungFucius

King Snowflake
Would love to play this.
I recently bought a TV after not having owned one in forever. Always PC gamed really. Sold my PS4, have a Switch but rarely use it. Games like these belong on the big screen though.
PC and TV are in different rooms. I found out about the Steam Link app that basically comes with the TV, and it works pretty nicely; but the controller!

Man, I didn't know peripheral wireless connections were so shitty in this day and age. Was always more of a cable guy. PC to couch is about 5 meters away, with 2 walls in the way. My bluetooth connector can't handle it. Damn shame.

You could try a USB extension cable and route that through the walls.

I have PCs hooked up to 2 of my 3 TVs. If your TV is big enough, I really recommend a gaming PC hooked up to a TV with a controller and wireless kb/mouse.
 

levyjl1988

Banned
This is game is a fucking masterpiece, on the level of Dragon Age Origins for me personally. I'm glad this is available on Xbox. Pre-ordered the Ultimate game and bought all the DLC, this game definitely is worth the support, especially if it comes once every 5-6 years to develop quality works, really digging the QoL stuff and no missable chests and owls is PERFECT!
 

SkylineRKR

Member
Bosses are all over the place. I sometimes dial down to Normal mode for them. The third lord boss was difficult at first, but he requires a specific strategy. I think I could've done it on hard as well. You need to tank him with Kisara pretty much all fight, and use her boost attack when he's dashing, or a perfect block if you don't have boost. Just disable Shionnes healing circle and AoE heal with Kisara when he's downed, its only 8 CP. Problem is the AI will get killed by his dashes if you don't stop it in time. I didn't have items and couldn't go out to farm. Stocking up on Orange gel is absolutely imperative and never use it outside of boss battles. This way you can sustain healing and resurrection mid fight.

Some elite enemies are hard as well. But I mostly fight them underleveled. I believe the dragon is 25/26 ish, I beat him at 22 on Normal mode (and this was after clearing the realm). Leveling up is slow (because I fight a ton, and also do reasonably well with lots of 1.30 gains, and still underleveled?), I think this is Namco trying to sell DLC. But overall, like anything outside of bosses and elites, the enemies are easy even on Hard. And you do get more exp and SP at that setting.

But I do think this is one of the best Tales games out there. There is something really addicting about it that I have a hard time putting it down. I think the pacing is pretty good once you're past the opening events. I actually like the story, and the amount of cringe is rather low. The tone is serious overall, but there is still some jokes esp. at the camp and in the skits. Arise gets progressively better imo. I liked the entire third arc. And fishing is pretty cool, and not frustrating. The combat is okay. Switch playable characters at times. Its fun to tank and perfect block with Kisara, and go all out martial arts with Law not getting hit and go into hyper mode. Not feeling the ranged fighters and casters really, but I have this issue in any Tales game. Perhaps I should practice Shionne.
 
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Zenaku

Member
PC version is locked to 4096x2160 on a 4K TV.

Needs a fix soon. I'm sure it's impacting performance.
Had this same problem, was playing at 8192x4320 via DSR only to find later all my screenshots are 3072x1728, which explains why the game was quite blurry for me.

I went to the games GamesUserSettings.ini file (AppData/Local/BANDAI~/Tales~/Config/Windows~) and manually changed the following:

Resolution=1
ResolutionX=3840
ResolutionY=2160

The games config screen still shows a greyed-out 4096 but as long as you make no changes to the config in-game it should work. Game looks much sharper and my screenshots are proper 4k resolution.


Also dumped UE4 settings into the engine.ini to improve shadows, grass and draw distance, so I'll have to try that NPC fix.
 

Herr Edgy

Member
You could try a USB extension cable and route that through the walls.

I have PCs hooked up to 2 of my 3 TVs. If your TV is big enough, I really recommend a gaming PC hooked up to a TV with a controller and wireless kb/mouse.
Thought about that too. Probably wouln't go through the walls but for the occasional gaming sessions just having it go on the floor would be fine. I live alone anyways.
But then upon reading up on it it seems like ~10 meter USB cables often have trouble delivering data properly, or if you chain multiple extensions together there are some problems.

I'm sure there is a way to make it work but it also seems none are _too_ reliable, or you need to just buy stuff and hope it works as it should.
 

Isa

Gold Member
I'm loving this game! My girl and I have been glued to the game, finally beat the first Lord, but I took a break as she went to visit her family, so I bounced to other games. The story is impactful and well directed, pacing seems spot on, I'm digging the combat, music and really like the cinematics when they pop up. They're cool, or mysterious, or even slightly scary. Bandai Namco has been very consistent these past few years, its great to see. The dlc costumes are really well made too.
 

DjMystix

Member
Just completed the excellent F.I.S.T. (one of the best metroidvania I've played in a long time) and started this. Already disappointed that walking into stores requires loading. Not too far in but other than graphics engine, I wonder what else is improved. The game has too many loading screen lol
 

Mozzarella

Member
I generally have no communication with devs, unless I'm actually talking to them during a preview or interview or something like that. The editor handles all pr communication with us, so we generlly get a mail saying who wants to review this. Sometimes there are games I want to review and I approach the editor with that. And yeah, we rarely have any contact with devs, we communicate with the publishers unless we're dealing with a situation where devs publish themselves.



Awards are by their very nature unfair, and that is why I don't like them at all. It's nothing more than clickbait where whichever game was played by the most people wins. I review a lot of more niche titles, so I'm the only one who played them. How do I convince my colleagues to vote for something they never played?

It's a hopeless thing and has no meaning. Most popular game wins cause that's the one everyone has played. And there is just not enough time to play everything you want to get around to. Everyone has backlogs, game journalists too.
Thanks for the insight, I had to come later to add to this conversation that your take about awards is very accurate. Regarding best role playing award, i remember that it was a miss more than a hit in these award shows. 2017 by awarding Persona 5 a very weak RPG compared to Divinity OS2 which is a freaking joke of a choice, and in 2018 by completely snubbing Kingdom Come Deliverance out of the whole nominations, ofcourse the first game (divinity) was a PC exclusive (1st contraindication for giving it the award) and also hard game (2nd contraindication for giving it the award) and niche European game not made by known Japanese studio or Triple A developer (3rd contraindication for giving it the award). 3 major reasons for the joke choice.
KCD is also the same except it wasnt exclusive but it was buggy and niche and difficult to get into, so 2 of the reasons apply and the bugs worked against it. Still would give it best RPG of 2018 easily, but i guess few journalists bothered to play it or finish it and maybe just maybe im speculating and assuming here, that Director's perspective and views being (right-wing/traditional) worked against the game winning awards too.
Regardless i think you are spot on that they are unfair, clickbait and more catering to popular games but still a lot of the times a good worthy winners are chosen so i think they still hold some merit, but a reasonable person would still keep in mind the factors i just talked about. I hope in the future journalists will manage to take this more professionally and more fair.
I find most of the GOTY winners to be really good games, from this decade i would say 2010-2011-2013-2015-2017-2018-2019 were all deserved GOTY winners (not necessarily my choice but i think they deserved it too) to me so in this decade i approved 7/10, i guess that is cool lol.
Anyway thanks for the discussion, appreciate the information and insight on your answers. Have a good day.
And sorry for off-topic post.
 
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German Hops

GAF's Nicest Lunch Thief
It's amazing to see the Tales series still going strong, even though it never quite reached the level of popularity that Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest have enjoyed.

I wish Suikoden had such a long lifespan. :(
 
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DonkeyPunchJr

World’s Biggest Weeb
Gotta say, I am REALLY enjoying the combat in this game, way more than I expected. Might be my favorite combat in a Tales game.

It has just the right amount of complexity to it. I’m having fun trying to make my combos as big as possible while avoiding damage. I’m finding it a lot more intuitive to dodge/counter in this game compared to block/parrying in the other games. A lot less annoying momentum-killing interruptions. When I fuck up, I know it’s my fault.

Also I appreciate being able to beat the crap out of enemies while they’re knocked down. And being able to “phone a friend” and keep my combo going when I’m running out of options.

well done, can’t wait to play some more
 

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman


Tales of Arise reviewed by Terence Wiggins on PlayStation 5. Narration by Mark Medina. Also available on PlayStation 4, Xbox, and PC.

Bandai Namco has hit the mark in reinvigorating the 26-year-old Tales RPG series. Tales of Arise brings to life a beautifully realized world with a story that isn't afraid to tackle heavy subjects and knows when to take its foot off the gas for a bit. Its characters feel real and relatable even in fantastical situations, and a fresh and fun combat system livens up their battles. Combined with plenty of quality-of-life improvements ironing out some of the series' long-standing frustrations, this is an easy recommendation to not just fans of the long-running series but anyone interested in diving into an expansive action-RPG.
 

YukiOnna

Member
Question for those who played since Xillia: How barren are the environments in this game? The last few games definitely suffered from that where it was just arenas of monsters. Is the world the same or is there more to the exploration?
 
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