*REGARDING ARTES:* You can bind 12 artes at any one time (6 for ground, 6 for midair) but each character has in the ballpark of 25-35 different artes (not including mystic artes, boost attacks, etc). I realise that my wording in the video wasn't as clear as I wanted it to be, that's my bad. Sorry! *Preorder Tales of Arise here (Launching September 10th for PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and PC)* USA: amzn.to/3gcVNWY | UK: amzn.to/2SXRyXo | AU: amzn.to/3fPVT7M | DE: amzn.to/3pljArU
Great review. Just curious, I’m debating between ps5, Xbox series x or pc. I have a really high end pc. So my question is, was there any issue on pc version so far? What version do you recommend. Thank you!
@B0xxKn1gh7 I never encountered any controller issues, both my DualSense and Xbox Series controller connected without a hitch and worked fine. Apparently it's the Steam beta client that's causing problems and simply opting out of the beta client solves the issue.
@Sinh Nguyen PC version is the best version in terms of both visuals and performance but you can't go wrong with the PS5 or XSX either. PS5/XSX performance is a rock solid 60fps, game looks great regardless of platform. PC version has full controller support, no major bugs that I've ever experienced, I've been playing at 1440p / 144fps / max settings / render scale 100% flawlessly with a Ryzen 5900x and RTX 2080. :)
Square (the makers of FF) really needs to learn from the makers of Tales. After FFX, the characters/stories they put into their games are bland to borderline awful. They completely lack the charm of the older series.
@@kefkapalazzo1092 Yeah, I heard that one was good, and I didn't play it because I'm not into MMORPGs> I was more speaking of 12, 13, and 15. There wasn't a single character in any of those games I couldn't give two shits about.
@@jeffjackson9679 Don't believe the circle-jerk. FF14 story is standard MMO. lol. new zone! new villain! oh you beat the villain and save the zone. next expansion! repeat with new zone and new villain. Sometimes the villains are connected! Wow! Best story ever!
Oh man, seems like we have a classic here boyos! This game looks amazing, it's all I have ever dreamed of ever since I was just a teenager playing PS1 JRPGs, hope more a more devs can make use of art styles like this.
The fact that Berseria still managed to be phenomenal in spite of its' many flaws is saying something since it rode so hard on its story and it was worth all of it to get through to. And hearing that Arise not only heard that but fixed and optimized those flaws is definitely appreciated. Appreciate your in-depth review.
The story from Arise is still weaker than Bersaria imo. Lack of villain involvement and characterization in the plot. Rushed second half. One dimensional main characters and villains which is just a basic good vs bad fantasy story. Decreased comedic charm from previous Tales. Don’t get me wrong i still like the game, but the writing still leave much to be desired. This game has stronger combat balancing and map utilization, but I don’t see the story being that high up compared to most titles
@@AQWuria9 I am loving Tales of Arise but I guess I'm in the minority here cause this is honestly just feels meh to me. It's fine but I enjoyed Berseria far more than Arise. Arise feels super short to me as well compared to other Tales of entries, not that length equates to good but I was on board for at least a slightly longer trip? I also felt the story of Arise was really cut and paste as far as tropes go. Nothing I haven't seen before or done better tbh. I don't understand the hype behind this game.
@@AQWuria9 Sorry but I'm going to have to call shenanigans here. Especially the 'basic good versus evil' as if you played this through it would be quite obvious well into the second half it definitely *isn't* good versus evil, even to its detriment. It's fine if you don't like it, that's your opinion but the good versus evil thing was quite literally the facade it put over your eyes in that first half to pull the rug out from under you in the second. I don't know where you got 'rushed second half' from, is it because they spend so much time in the last area before moving on? I mean it would have to be subjective as well because I've played games that were legitimately rushed--Xenogears being a perfect example...so I'm not sure what you mean by 'rushed' if you want to clarify. I just--I mean you can say you disagree with the narrative direction but 'good versus evil' definitely ain't it friend, there's no subjective process here, if you played it to the end you'd literally know it goes out of its way to NOT be that...again, even to a detriment of overtly making certain simple things complex when they didn't need to be. It's like anti good versus evil. I mean BERSERIA was more Good Versus Evil. And I've been playing these games since Destiny. 80 hours for me, just for reference and I haven't even beaten the Post Game Stuff.
Abyss definitely has a special place in m heart. I will never forget crashing on my best friend’s couch after getting wisdom teeth out, eating ice cream, watching How I Met Your Mother, and playing the crap out of Tales of the Abyss on my 3DS.
I’ve been spending what little free time I have outside of work and school playing Arise. I just got my 6th party member, and I am absolutely loving this game. Easily one of the best in the series so far already, and it’s only going to get better!
Can we just give Jay a round of applause 👏 for making this review video. It must take a lot of work, time, and effort to produce content like this. You did a good job with this review!
The tales series is actually my favorite RPG series. I started it playing Phantasia via emulation and then beating Eternia and most recently Vesperia both co-op with my brother, great times and great memories. Can't wait for Friday
@@dohalimilqarasdeldemenanci8483 That's a really hard one. I love the LoH series too. Between these 2 I think tales wins only because I've been playing them for more than half of my life.
@@dohalimilqarasdeldemenanci8483 For me Tales is 1 and Trails is 2...the main factor though that determined it was the combat system, i just like action systems more than turn based. Story wise Trails beats Tales quite easily. Only game that came as close to beating both of them is Tokyo Xanadu and it mainly lost cause Aksys's translation was horrible (PS4's EX+ was a bit better after editing but the vanilla Vita version was atrocious and close to being unreadable...not too far from SAO Hollow Fragment levels tbh)...if Falcom decides to make it a franchise like Kondo was thinking about and suggesting back in 2019 and it can make an even stronger story than TX1 and add on to the combat then it may be able to easily beat both Tales and Trails by combining Ys style combat with Trails style/level storytelling like the first did but even better.
I waited for the reviews to before i pre-ordered it, if it was just ok story, i would wait for it on a sale, but like this, i think it's worth the pre-order, im sceptical with pre-orders nowadays XD
I am so dang excited to play this game Friday! no sleep in my future… “Sorry Life!” Lol. Picked the Ultimate edition so ready to go all in. Picked it up on XBOX Series XS as I have the X In the office & S in my bedroom. Love your Arise coverage! Liked!
0:13 Years later and these insert jokes of yours always catch me off guard and make me laugh lol. Also I think this is one of your best reviews you've done to date. Really well done.
Can't wait to play this dude🙌 iv played every tales. Symphonia being my favourite. I even got pre-ordered early and got the complete edition the one with the Alphen & Shionne statue 👍
broooo symphonia was my favorite! for some reason ive seen many forums where it was considered one of the weaker tales of games. but its always dear to my heart do to it being the one that got me into the series so i might be bias towards it haha. just like how im a ff7 fanboy even tho its overrated it was my first final fantasy. I didn't like symphonia 2 as much for minor reasons i didn't like that they chained Lloyd's voice actor for the sequel. He kinda sounded whiney in it haha. Kratos > Zelos all the way haha.
I'm so happy with everything the creative team working on this game has accomplished. The series feels like it's taken it's first big step since Xillia, and I'm so happy the team was given the time and breathing room to make something truly fresh and new... and not being held to running on hardware from 2006. I've also noticed this being on the radar of many people who've mostly skimmed over or ignored the series, which is making me very happy. I can't wait to finally have this game in my hands
Love it. Took my time finishing this game. I would love to see that spoilers discussion video at some point. I'd be curious to know what part came as such a surprise. I feel like I'm rarely surprised by anything in RPGs after so many Tales games, but it sure doesn't stop me from enjoying the hell out of them. :)
The popin was hilarious at one point. I was in Cyslodin and were supposed to be keeping a low profile. All the sudden 4 people poped up out of no where. (I roleplayed that they were on to us lol).
Wonderful review my guy. I picked up my copy and can’t wait to dive into it. This will be my first Tales game. However I also own a copy of Berseria that I’ve been meaning to try and was wondering if I should play that first to get more familiar with Tales and not feel like I’m taking a step backwards after Arise?
Nah, just dive into Arise. If you love the story and characters then you'll be fine playing Berseria or even older entries afterwards. Arise is a big step forward but the series wasn't bad before, there's still lots of enjoyment to be had back there. :)
Thanks for sharing, Jay! Tales of Arise was my first RPG of the Tales franchise, and I thoroughly enjoyed it! The fighting as dynamically captivating, the storyline kept me engaged and chorus melodies ingrained in segments of the music made grinding in some areas extremely tolerable! Taking advantage of the Artes, ground/aerial/Boost attacks and healing strategies--with my son's help--I was able to optimize leadership of Alphen during battle gameplay and quests up until Dohalim joined the team then I employed him as the leader finally switching to Rinwell for the final boss battles and Otherworld sub-quests! After earning the Godly Angler and Arisen trophies today, I attained Platinum status--whoop, whoop! Looking forward to subsequent DLCs and/or Tales games if such options become available in the future!
I would definitely like to see a break down of Tales "eras." It's pretty complicated when you think on it because they overlap a bit (Tales of Rebirth feels more like Destiny 2 than Symphonia despite coming after, for example). And there are some games like OG Hearts, Innocence, or Legendia that just feel like they're on an island.
Nice review! It got me more excited to play the game! I am bummed about the skits, no 2D yeah but more so that it sounds like they're not as much of/lengthy as Berseries. Playing Berseria recently and the way the skits are portrayed is one of my favorite things about them. I got to see the characters interact with each other a lot and grew to really like them all cause of the extra stuff the skits brought. Funny enough, the cutscene "skits" never felt like skits to me since the skits to me are the ones you have to press a button in order to play. Enough about this though lol Alphen I feel like I'll be using the most since I always use the main characters in Tales games the most since their easier to play as though Rinwell and Law story/character wise I might like the most. I am worried about the gameplay though since I didn't like Graces' gameplay much and this feels like it a bit with how it can be kind of restrictive going off of the demo, hopefully it won't feel like that in the full game. I'm one of story/character interaction over gameplay easily so hearing that the cameo stuff is more than just battles is great! Sounds like it'll be even more than what Berseria's were and that was a fun one so I'm looking forward to that. Shame that they is only 2 mystic artes for all the characters based on what you said. I was hoping they would have more than that and some dual/team mystic artes. Oh well, I hope the 2nd ones are really flashy and long then lol I do look forward to seeing your spoiler filled thoughts on the game...after I beat the game first of course lol
Hopefully SCARLET NEXUS gets the same treatment with a sequel, a lot of aspects of it show that the game got rushed so it wouldn't compete with Tales of Arise. A few examples would be story pacing, levels being linear and rather small, side quests being overly simple, no endgame and level scaling (though level scaling exists in the final bond episodes but enemies do not scale up with your level if you level up during it) and a few other aspects. From the concept art they posted on twitter, the levels were supposed to be much larger in scope and detailed. Anyway, at least Arise got the time and budget it needed at the very least, good to see it lived up to its potential.
Its such a relief hearing these reviews. for the last 4 or 5 years every time I get hyped for a game, i go to a reviewer i trust and I hear defeat. sadness. Dissapointment. So many games the last few years have been such tremendous let downs that hearing everyone being genuinely happy about this game makes me feel excitement. It's been a long time since a gaming company delivered above and beyond expectations.
Depends on the games you're following and how and why you're getting hyped for these games. If you're just following all of the most highly marketed games aimlessly, you're obviously setting yourself up for disappointment.
Thank you for the video! Tales of Arise might end up being my favorite Tales Of game! I'll see after finishing it later this month. I'm really excited and curious how the story will go!
Same, I love the title system too its one of the reasons why Graces f is my favorite Tales game (along with Xillia 1 and 2) that and because the battle system in Graces was perfect imo, it was never the same after that, Hearts R got close and Xillia 2 was great too but Graces was the peak for me.
Since my collectors edition arrived, I've really enjoyed myself playing tales of Arise! The figure on my shelf looks so beautiful. When it comes to the graphics, they seem a bit too colorless, but reshade fixed that
The game was without a doubt beautiful but there were more than a few times that I wondered if some of their filters were working against them. Still enjoyed this game and very excited to see what comes next for the franchise.
I tried "Scarlet Nexus" demo randomly & fell in love with it, game released & i bought it, put ckuntlesa hrs in it, finished & was in love, then i tried "Tales of Arise" demo & boom it was love at first site, I've so far put 100+ hrs & still haven't finished my first playthrough simply cause i love so much that I'm taking my sweet time with it lol, it's the first Tales game that i actually played, i did try "Tales of Berseria" demo yrs ago when game was coming out, but even though i liked it, i just completely forgot about it & i never got around to buying it, just got lost in the shuffle for me since so many other games were out, but Arise simply is top tier, story, gameplay, artstyle, VA's & absolutely loved all the Characters, everything about Arise was just beautiful, & took my by surprise since I'm new to the series but now I'm more motivated to try the older games as well, I'm now a big fan that's for sure, this was a great review as well, got yourself a new subscriber here, keep up the great work man, & thank you.
Finished the game today and a couple balance gripes aside in later levels and cp being a heavier bottle neck than I'd have liked I loved this game. Came looking for that spoiler video he mentioned in this one was coming but it's not up yet. Definately did not expect where this game went. Even if it's xenoblade 2 influence was on full display a number of times
going to sleep now when I wake up tales of arise will be ready to go on Steam. can't wait. awesome review, can't believe you said it may be your favourite game. that gets me so hyper pumped.
U should play the abyss or berseria before playing this game first. Because arise is so fooking good that it will lessen your joy when playing the previous tales.
To me this game blew me away. Honestly it’s been so long since I’ve had a game where I just lost track of time playing it from being so engaged with everything. Best game in my opinion for 2021. Side note favorite character is shionne but favorite character to play is Rinwell all the way
So hyped for Friday!!! Friday is my day off so technically I could start playing the minute I wake up. But I bought the physical version which, knowing when the Amazon driver usually arrives, won't get here until early afternoon. I am SO tempted to just buy the digital version on top so I can start at midnight but I am trying REALLY hard not to waste my money (though it seems like the devs deserve every single unit sold they can get).
One thing I don't like about skits is the small notice at the bottom-right of the screen. I can barely see when it shows up, especially since I happen to be blind in my right eye. There is a sound that plays, but it's so subtle that I have found that I have not noticed a skit was watchable until who knows how many minutes after it became available. The OCD player in me fears I might have actually missed skits as a result of this UX problem. I just wish the alert was at the center of the screen and was very noticeable. I don't think I had problems missing skits in the older games - it's particular small in Arise. Berseria also looks pretty small too when I look at screenshots. I don't know why it has to be so small for.
No need to worry about missing any in Arise in that way. Even if you don't trigger them when they're available, they show up in the campsite skit menu with a little green exclamation mark next to their title. :)
I played Berseria and while I definitely enjoyed it I never beat it because it just felt like such a long and slow drag with combat that I thought had potential but never fully engaged me it was my first tales game and hearing that this one has an incredible story and improves on the gameplay makes me really excited to experience it
@jimjamjoeyjoejoe McJammyjoeson I love the presentation of skits in Berseria (and I love quite of few of the skits in Berseria as well) but I hate the way they were (over)used and how their purpose was drastically changed compared to the rest of the series. @saturatedwithsound There is at least one ~16 minute long skit and several over 12 minutes. There are tons of forced, compulsory skits (sometimes several in a row). Berseria has the longest skits in the series, the most time spent in skits in the series (several hours ahead of the next highest), and it also has the fewest actual cutscenes in the series since the old 2D titles. It really is no secret that skits were leaned on in Berseria as cutscene replacements.
I am excited for the game, and have no doubt I'm going to love it. That said...It's just weird not having highly expressive 2D skits and post-fight screens. Going to take some getting used to, but if the demo was a true indication of what I'm looking forward to I'd definitely in the camp that prefers the old way style.
You've been pretty critical about two of my favourite Tales of games ever (Berseria and Vesperia), but i value your criticism higher than anything out there because it's always 100% spot on and you always know what you're talking about, which i believe is one big factor when evaluating a review. Seeing you this enthusiastic about this makes me excited about it as well and gave me a lot of hope, after a good, but not best feeling i personally got from the Demo on Xbox One X (But i'll be playing on PC and i bet that is going to smoothen some of the rough edges that i found in that version). I also get very good vibes from this since you already had reviewed Scarlet Nexus with much love and showing appreciation in the very same way i did for that game, which i believe it's the hidden gem of 2021, albeit it might not look like - nor will not be - the most polished when picked up from the ground.
Don't know about Scarlett Nexus being a 'hidden gem'. It had a big marketing campaign, coverage on all of the largest media outlets and was reviewed by all of the big media outlets and was developed and published by Bandai. One of the biggest publishers in the world.
@@yuzzo92 It's not niche because it's hidden, it's because people weren't widely impressed by the game. Lots of people thought it was just decent or didn't like it. Others weren't enticed by the marketing to even try it and it didn't review well enough to become a 'must play' title for people who don't usually play Bandai's games. That said, there's a lot of people who played and enjoyed this game. Only AAA games sell and do better than Scarlett Nexus. Except the odd Indie hit. It found it's audience.
@@7dayspking valid arguments, but to a certain extent. truth is that most anime-artstyle games are often snobbed or treated like B tier games, and they definitely don't have as much appeal in the west. The game has flaws, but i know plenty of people who would love it if they'd give it a chance. I'd agree on the "it found its audience" part, but i firmly believe that it has the potential of being wider than it is now.
@@yuzzo92 Most anime-artstyle games are produced on moderate or low budgets and aren't designed for wide appeal. Bandai are one of the few publishers I know of who publish larger anime styled games and a lot of them do very well. Every game has the potential of reaching a wider audience than they have. Even terrible games that people would enjoy just for the laugh. I don't think Scarlett Nexus is particularly hard done by. There's plenty of artstyles that are considered less appealing than anime, including lower budget attempts at realism that fail to hit the mark.
Tales of Graces is by far my favorite tales game, but you just compared this to ff9, which is my favorite game of all time. I already pre ordered it but now I’m sold
I wish there would be a preview clip on all the available artes in the artes menu so it's easier to figure out which artes chain better with other artes..also wish we could toggle the target lock on/off instead of instant auto lock-on when combat initiates..still it's a great game though..it's on par with Final Fantasy 7 Remake for me..
There is something in "Tales of" games that I don't like. Well, at least in Zestiria and Berseria. The puzzles. I think they were very annoying, so I stop playing both because of it. Berseria I stopped almost in the last dungeon, Zestiria I stopped after 44 hours...I really got annoyed. The puzzles are like "press this, to open that thing very far from here" or when there are a lot of doors (or something similar) "enter the right door, you are going to be teleported to the beginning. Enter the left door, you are going to be teleported to the beginning. So, you have to find the correct way to go to the right doors. Example: right, right, left, right.." In Arise, are there these kinds of puzzles?? Well, this is an aspect of gameplay that I got really disappointed in the last two tales games. I loved the story, characters...but these puzzles really ruined the fun.
Great review Jay. As an Xillia lover though I'm a bit disappointed with the limited artes selection(12 vs 16) let alone them being separated into ground and aerial artes but I'll take that over those damn arte trees any day.
I don't think you could really do many more artes because of all the other mechanics you've got going on. Boost Attacks are very much like having another 6 artes, they are an integral part of your combos, it's more like having 18 artes but 6 of them have a small recharge time. With normal attacks, mystic artes, boost strikes, and the ability to quick swap there is already way more going on in combat that can be taken advantage of in most non-boss encounters.
Not a whole lot. A couple of chests with inconsequential items in them and *maybe* 1 owl but I'd have to double check on that to make sure I'm remembering right. I actually have a sneaking suspicion that the Owl will move to a different location if you don't get it while it's "missable". In any case, the part that I'm thinking of that has those missables will be very quick to power through to with NG+ if needed. (You also don't need all the chests for trophies/achievements so if I'm right and the Owl does move location then nothing of importance is missable)
from all i heard about this series through out the year and recommendation from friend i feel like Berseria and Arise will be my two best choice i might not like the older one at old though purely because of my taste in game and how much artstyle affect my experience
I don't think the problem with the 3d skits is that there isn't enough 2d art in the game. The problem with the skits is that they look really awkward, at least from what I have seen in the demo. The character faces are so emotionless, one skit had the mage girl scream at another character and her face showed no emotion at all. Her bird looked angrier than she did. Plus the mouth movement is awkward. Either animate them completely, or don't animate them at all. If they are not animated at all, my mind will fill in the gabs. With those stilted mouth movements that's a lot harder to do. Scarlet Nexus did 3d characters in 2d panels right.
I personally do not like Xillia (outside of Xillia 2s combat) so we may differ in preferences a bit, but it’s good to hear this is a solid entry. Though to be honest I’ll have to wait till I actually play it myself because a lot of people hyped berseria and I didn’t like that one either lol. I don’t think I’ve liked a tales game like HEAVY for a long time (vesperia or Graces). Also I’m pretty sure SMTV is coming out this year and that’s a heavy hitter. I can’t say whether or not this is the best RPG of the year when a release that big isn’t out yet lol. Though tales is an ARPG and SMT is turn based so probably different demographics
This is a comment, in progress, so far after listening to the first 2 or so minutes I think this is probably the beat review of the game so far after watching several that didn’t really know what everyone was wondering from after the demo.
I completely agree with people that while berseria was good it was very flawed. This game however takes everything great about a Tales game and turns it up significantly. This game and Lost Judgment are gonna be my games of the year. Also I just recently found your channel and your videos are well done and fun to watch so keep doing what you're doing cause I'm now a sub and cant wait to see what you come out with next. I havent finished the game yet but I'll be back once I do to see your entire take on the game
