We Need To Talk About Tales of Arise... 

Oh I've got the artbook with their ages on it. Alphen is 21, Shionne is 19, Rinwell is 14, Law is 16, Kisara is 25 and Dohalim is 28.

I'm just glad that upgrading weapons, armor, and accessories were so much easier compared to Zestiria and Berseria. I hated having to individually level up everything then fusing it then leveling them up again to make anything remotely useful. Other than the money issue it was as simple as do you have these items then boom a new piece of equipment ready to go.

The story's concept was good in my opinion. The themes were solid. The main problem was when it started info dumping and rushing the 2nd part. They should've have taken Show Don't Tell approach and developed it more. Another problem was the final antagonist. He had a lot of potential but was underdeveloped.

Long story short, arise really raised the bar. This game may not be perfect, but it's a huge step towards the evolution of the tales of series.

I just got my platinum yesterday and I love it! I love all the characters too and I agree Shionne is the most prettiest Tales female I’ve seen too. And the framerate drops for the PS4, yes its true especially during boost strikes and when you’re in Viscint, the mini map doesnt show up for a few seconds. This is actually my favorite Tales game of all time, I’m a sucker for romantic anime/video games. 😅

The game seems more adequately balanced on Hard. Aside from the Lords though, those can be a bit brutal "maybe a little too hard".

I love the character interactions in the skits like how Rinwell, Hootle's and Law's relationship is. I'm close to finishing Arise I've been ignoring gaming channels with spoilers until I complete the game it's been a challenge

To counter the battle system, I liked it in the released game more than the demo, but I think that was because you get to slowly learn each aspect of the battle system and master it. In the demo I was struggling to understand everything.

I'm only about half way through the game but am enjoying the story a lot. I appreciate the fact that they tackle mature themes.

"There's way too many skits" I mean when you come from Berseria it really doesnt feel that way for me. Also I have to strongly disagree on the slog of a relationship you mentioned between Alphen and Shionne and comparing them to Rinoa and Squall is to me a bit excessive. Shionne's not your run of the mill princess. She's neither a Rinoa, nor an Estelle. Her past and her vision of the future does not allow her the freedom to fall in love. Alphen has his own struggles, not being in the same generation, his sin, his gratitude to Naori. There was not a point I felt like "just tell them you love each other!" because I always perceived the scenes as they already know, yet until everything dies down, they both know they cant further their feelings. Excuse the long rant but seeing the dynamic of my favourite Tales couple criticised to that extent feels wrong for me. Cheers.

I think the biggest issue with the game was the enemy variety. 30 hours in and I'm still facing boars and wolves and those mossel electric things. The bosses are excellent but everything in between is literally doing the Grandma's Boy solution of changing the wolves to green for this level. Other than that, best combat of the series by a mile and I went right into it after playing Berseria and Berseria feels like a PS2 game by comparison. They have the template down now and the more mature tone is a huge plus as lets be honest, the majority of Tales fans are in their 20s and prefer to follow adults rather than "children of destiny" part 2300. Ray Chase was also fantastic as Alphen too, and the way you keep all characters involved even if they're not in the starting lineup was great as well.

the combat was amazing for a long time, but near the end.... it was a struggle, every enemy is a big boy and the grind to kill those guys was way too much. I ended up running past past what enemies I could. Saying that it was a great game and could be made even better with a few tweaks.

The skits reveal plot development and character growth that are needed for the game.

I just finished it today and all the post game content. Loved it!

I think that the music in Dohalim's region is actually pretty good overall 😎😎😎

I was very impressed with the story. When I first got details about the group going around and fighting oppression I just imagined, okay, here we go "Tales of Woke", but in reality the story is very well balanced. The party learns to value the lives of both groups and even allows for redemption and forgiveness of the oppressor group. There are monologues that make it clear that even without the Renans, Danans have been oppressors in the past and the real goal here freedom from all forms of oppressors, not just to set up a new society that changes who the oppressors are. I was really impressed with the game tackling some real truths about human nature and the party actually considering the "is this worth it if we just free the Danans only to have Danans ruling over Danans?" This was thoughtful and well done in my opinion, I have high praise for this game's story.

My experience with this game was the polar opposite of my experience with Tales of Berseria. Loved the gameplay, the story never clicked. By the final dungeon, after four skits in a row, I started button mashing through them to get back to combat.

Tales of Graces F also goes to space and in a more unbelievable way. Tales of Symphonia uses Dimensional warps on flying scooters. Like I am fine with the space travel. Considering tales games have done crazier things.

Just finished the game last night and on to the platinum road and Damn, I slept with a huge grin with that ending.

Honestly, after a while, I was just fighting for that kiss scene. Still would’ve love something to happen with Law and Rinwell with all of the teasing, etc.

Tales of Arise is amazing! Love the new cast and battle system!

So glad you got a chance to play this game! I agree with you that the battle system is great, and your comparison to Graces is spot on given how the devs cited that as an inspiration for its combat and progression system! As far as the story goes, I enjoyed it myself though I also get your criticisms of it. The devs mentioned in an interview that the story is inspired by the games that have come before, and there’s quite a few callbacks. That said, I don’t think that came across in the story and this might’ve been a case of the devs forcing an idea onto something that could potentially be more compelling or more indicative that it’s an homage to Tales stories of the past. What I also agree with your review is it’s music. It felt more Western RPG inspired, which I speculate was done to appeal to more mainstream players, but I don’t think it worked out. I was really surprised how different the sound was compared to Berseria and got confused for a second. I heard that Legendia’s soundtrack is incredible, which was actually done by someone else, but maybe this is a situation where Sakuraba needs a break from the series, given that he’s been a part of the games for decades at this point. Always glad to watch your videos man! Looking forward to the next one as always

If you want to break the game equip this to Alphen Magic Emblem with 15% Fire Damage 15% Fire Damage 15% Fire Damage 15% Fire Damage Have all your Damage Near Death Skills acquired, Get behind the enemy and Hold Infernal Torrent till you only have 1hp

i also tought enemies had too much hp until i gave alphen a magic emblem with 4x 15%fire dmg and he started deleting everything

Battle system is YS-tier now

Taking away the after battle screen was one of the best thing this game did. The transition was smooth and didn't waste my time making me look at random stats every single time.

I started playing the game a couple days ago and I actually really like it. It's really fun. I defeated the first lord and it was difficult but I managed to pull it off. The difficulty level is staggering but it's still fun

I also felt it is rushed towards the end. I think they still have plan for that final act but due to lack of tiime they just dump text on you. Still the best game I've played this year and one of the best jrpg I've played in recent years I like this more than super anime cliche persona 5.

I’m so with you about the story. As beautiful and mature as the game looked the story telling was surprisingly childish.

I love the game, love the combat, love the interactions between the characters. My only gripe with the game is the revelation of the big bad boss *spoiler* Is basically an alien planet.

10:00 Despite what you like more, none of those Tales game sale over a million copies in a week after launch like Arise.

Ganabelt gave me a hard time! But man was it satisfying after punching his face! :D Great game!

Tales of Arise is the best JRPG atm even beating the Trails series or Persona at its best at least for me.

No Victory poses? I loved the Tales Victory pose at the end of a battle. That's not cool. I think your tastes align a lot with mine. I'm a 40+ long time JRPG fan and I understand a lot of where you are coming from on your synopsis of the game. Thanks for the great critique.

Absolutely amazing game from combat to story to characters. The Japanese voice acting was great and even the English dub was pretty damn solid. Only thing I don't approve of the game is the DLC practices with level up dlc and outfits that unlock OP skills

They didn't just mix graces and berseria, they've thrown a bit of xillia there too with the air combos, which is great. Looking forward to your Graces F review since i discovered the series thanks to it.

i agree, i play every game on easy and decide from there if I enjoy it enough to invest time into the challenge.

Just got the platinum after 115hrs, entire playthrough on Hard. Battle system is chef's kiss for a next-Gen Tales game.

Been waiting to hear my boy Erick’s opinion on this. Thanks for the review!

It's an amazing game

Valid points and great take as usual. I'm pretty close to the end and it's still on course to end up one of my all time favorite games though.

The battle system is really good but some of the bosses are just insanely hard at times. I was 10 levels ahead of them and still getting 2 shot killed on normal.

The skits are optional but you see the prompt you have to click It hehe

8:00 - The Tales of games almost ALWAYS have some kind of Sci-Fi theme to them though. Tales of Symphonia, which is considered by many people to be a masterpiece in the series is very heavily Sci-Fi themed. Not only that, but they establish early on in this game that Astral Energy is a biological part of all life and without it, people just turn into colorless primordial goo. On top of that, the invasion from 300 years ago involved ships that look like something out of Mass Effect. So the Sci-Fi themes are always present in Tales of Arise. They don't just come out of nowhere.

This is an old video, I know, but I just finished the game last night and wanted to comment. I concur with pretty much everything Erick says here. I loved the game and was drawn in by the characters and the beautiful environments. I do think the economy in the game pretty much sucks, including the need to craft AND pay for weapons. Also, I at end game I found myself traveling back to merchants WAY more than I should have due to being under leveled even on easy mode, and I did not skip out on fighting throughout the game. I actually did something I have never done before (as I am vehemently against pay to win schemes) and bought DLC in the form of an additional 10 levels and 100,000 gald just to get through the damned end game. Other than that, I will say that the characters were some of the best I've played in a Tales game and the story, at least up to the end game, was very, very good. Anyway, here's a belated thank you to Erick for another great video!

I went with the Xbox Series X edition because the PS5 version seems to stutter by 5-10 FPS here and there. It was very noticeable in the demo but it's buttery smooth on my Series X.

I'll have to come back to watch this. I'm near the last arc just doing side quests and stuff. I have to say, I'm pretty enamored with it despite some gripes. It might actually be the most raw fun I've had with a JRPG in years.

Thanks for this! Other people seem to talk about the same thing. Your take feels really genuine.

The sword needs to be wider, maybe I would’ve played.

HI Erick, really enjoyed the video with u and Ircha. great job to both of u.

You seem really passionate about games and that's a good thing! Also, thanks for the minor spoiler warning, as someone who hates any kind of spoiler I really appreciate that too! Subscribed.

I don’t think the enemies have too much health, they have health in hard mode to encourage you to learn to dodge and get bonus gauge and partner attacks

Hard mode is dumb for some fights, I had to knock it down to moderate for Ganabelt then I just decided to keep it there. Go for it, if you want to strategize how to beat them but most of the things I've read involve either not letting the AI do anything (sometimes just letting them die) or switching everything to manual, both of which will make any fight a major slog. I really didn't mind the hard difficulty with the character I was piloting but the problem was the AI just getting nuked right from the start and using up all my CP before I even get a heal myself. Just finished the 3rd lord and still having tons of fun, hope it ends well :)

The only bad thing I can think of is the paywall conveniences like the 15 item limit which you can pay your way out of. The game itself is great, the monetisation sucks

I think with the weapons and crafting money was a slight issue for me as I would try and buy Orange gels whenever I could but the resources for the crafting was never a real issue for me. I go a bit crazy exploring the map and fighting every enemy on it the first time I go through a place so I generally pick up all I need along the way

I agree with most things but in regards of the story I strongly disagree, I loved it overall and I didn't feel the slow buildup of the relationship between Alphen and Shionne was them trying to be cheesy, I got the feeling throught the game (and there is a part where even Shionne says it herself) that Alphen wanted to get closer and closer and so did Shionne, but her thorns were gonna end up destroying Alphen if that happened, that's why she decided to act cold and reject her feelings. The instant she doesen't have the thorns she rushes to him and gives him a kiss... I respect your opinion tho, It's nice to see content creators that have a different opinion from others and just respect what the rest thinks, It's quite rare and I like how you phrased every part of your criticsm and how you explained your point of view, which coming from a hardcore rpg player seems really logical and it definitely makes sense. Good video and good review!

Can't wait to see you play Tales of Vesperia. That game is absolutely excellent! I'm personally looking forward to playing Symphonia after I finish Arise.

I'm playing this now and this game is the best

Thank you, man, I was waiting for you to review this one as this is one of the very few RPGs I have played in a long time (as Dragon Warrior and the first Final Fantasy were one of the first games I ever played I fell in love with the genre... just to later grow sick of the same plots, characters, ). I agree with most of what you said, so I only want to comment that I really love how there are no victory poses haha, that made me feel the game really fluid (altough they could have done it optional). And regarding the difficulty, most of my defeats were while exploring higher level areas (right now I'm thinking on giving a try in the training grounds with the level 99 enemy... I'm at level 61 but I can cheese it... really slowly), I lost to bosses only a couple of times (I think is was at the ship chapter) and until then is when I decided to pay attention to the skills and enemy weaknesses, and find ways to maintain combo chains. Well, thanks again, what you said is spot on with what I have experienced so far.

The sci-fi was heavily built up, I figured this would have been obvious from a guy who’s played hundreds of JRPGs.

I'd say the combat was more of a combination of berseria and Vesperia/Xillia.

I think people really lift up Berseria but I think it had as many issues as any other Tales of. The story was good and a departure from typical Tales. But the battle system was just ok. Environments were not great and only a few of the characters were good. Villain was good which helps a lot. But I think all Tales of games end up being that way for me. There are always a few things that keep them from being an all time great game. I really enjoyed Legendia and Vesperia. Have to finish Arise but I can agree to some of your points for sure so far. Keep up the good content!

I really like Rinwell from what I've seen. She'll probably be my favorite, because I'm a younger guy. ;)

4:28 - My least favorite character for about the first half of the game is Rinwell. Rinwell has this issue of 'No you're wrong. We have to kill all Renans.'. And even when the other characters make good points about not all of them being evil, then she just starts muttering crap under her breath like, 'Whose side are you on?'. But once you reach the fourth area and she sees what she might become if she keeps going the way she does, she very quickly does a lot of growing up.

Eric Reviews! Great to hear what you thought about it. It's my number 1 tales game. In terms of victory poses, I'm thinking they were removed to shorten the time it takes to get into and out of battle. I loved these fast transitions!

Thank you for your review! This is my first Tales game and I loved everything about it. I am excited to pick up others after I play a few other games. I always enjoy hearing people's opinions about games, especially if it's a series I'm just starting and they've played many in the series. This gives me hope that I'll enjoy others. I was afraid with how much I like this one, others won't keep my interest but it seems like that shouldn't be the case. Thank you!

Gameplay This is where it really shines. I am one of those who despise Berseria Combat for being too repetitive and a snoozefest and having no LMBS. But this one easily manage to capture the magic of what Tales combat is. Having to juggle the enemies to the air then pummel them again in the ground is always satisfying. The combat feels so smooth and the effects, the chaos and the explosions are top notch that I never felt since the 2d Tales games. Story and Characters Just right. Some plot Twist here and there but still manages to be a good one. Kisara is L-O-V-E Difficulty For mobs, they are very easy even on Hard difficulty. But for most bosses, they are just damage sponges on hard and the lack of stunlock feels that fights are just Attack, Dodge, Attack, Revive, Rinse and Repeat. Having the boost strikes when their HP is in half is a very nice touch though, both being their for the battle to be climactic and to relieve the monotonous way of fighting them. I'd say Moderate is the best for the bosses. No long fights but with the right amount of challenge. Graphics and Performance Easily the best one so far. Sound and Music Battle Music is one of the best for me. But that's it. It was okay overall. Not bad, but not great either. Just good. DLC: The DLC for artes is acceptable, same with the costumes as you can still finish the game even without them. About the Gald, I can't help but think that the scarcity of Gald througout the game was tied to the DLC. I'll understand if they made them "AFTER" the game was released, But it's not. And yes Eric, Victory Pose all the way...

Level 85 now and i had 4000000 currency. Never had any money problem, but i did EVERYTHING as it became available, I even delayed the main story sometimes. I never grinded so you can avoid money problems just doing side missions and opening all the chests. (some chests give a ridiculous amount of money)

I think with this story, it just has a huge dose of "It might just REALLY not work for you personally." I've definitely seen a lot of other perspectives on these elements that paint them in a very different light. Some things just get under a person's skin and there's no way to write a story without triggering that. You'd just have to write a totally different story, and that's the nice thing about Tales. If you didn't click with the last one, the next one will be something else entirely. There's no hard rule about what they can and can't do with the story. No matter how good a series is, there's really only going to be a few that actually get your 'ideal game' award, and to do that, they're gonna have to make a bunch that aren't in one way or another. That said, if there's anything to comment on with looking at it from another perspective, I didn't love this game for its elements that reminded me of tons of other JRPGs. Tales, to me, feels like it builds a tropey plot at first, but the actual points of the game lie underneath the surface, like the themes about freedom and what it means in this game, and that's the part I liked. (The other part is generally the characters, so I'm glad at least that worked for you.) :)

The best tip i gotta give you based on some of the thing you said, you REALLY need to finish a game before giving your opinion.

Anyone that likes Kisara can't be wrong. A true man of culture.

I have to say it's the best game of 2021, way better than Ys IX.

All tales have like 400 skits. Its story and character development.

Coming fresh from playing Tales of Vesperia: DE, I can say that Arise is a whole lot tamer on the skits front. I also want to say that Arise is the best Tales of game for me in recent memory. I just wish there were more explorable houses in the game.

Doliham his cryptic wisdom and manner of speaking and understanding and back story reminds me of uncle iroh from avatar last air Bender

im with you erick.....your right about the good and bad things about the game and me personally experienced them but i think the story was a masterpiece why?? because of the resembles and the concepts it was about some important objectives...like....why hatred gonna burn you and your surroundings or how stupid the racism is and how revenge is pitiful and why we have to have forgiveness towards each other and how and why we have to stand against injustice

I don't have a PS4 anymore, I don't use my switch. But I love playing on my PC because there's like always a good Fling Trainer. I try not to overdo it with the cheats, but it's nice not having to worry about all the BS materials for upgrades or gil if you're low

Honestly there is a huge problem in that you cannot die. There is no opportunity cost to just trying and trying. The characters and story was a bit shallow but im not done and i feel that there is a twist coming

Use shionne, she is easiest to use. You can range jump arts, run, heal when necessary. It's much easier that way

best jrpg I played in a while

I really enjoyed this game, it's Combat is godlike imo, the soundtrack was beautiful, and I really liked the characters, they're designs were awesome, especially kisara and her delicious booty 🤤lol, I really did enjoy the story though it really did feel rushed towards the end of the game, and that's a shame because this game has a very good cast of characters, easily one of my favorite casts and favorite games in the series but Tales of the Abyss is still my favorite.

Dont feel bad about easy mode. I played the main story thru on normal and once i started end game post game content ive been playing on easy/story mode. Made leveling to 100 not feel like such a chore. Play what feels right. I loved every minute of this game :) ps i do think this is better than vesperia and way better than berseria imo

One thing that helped me with the difficulty was the accessories, to each boss I made some focused on them. I’m going for the platinum, and I played on the moderate. It is challenging, but I like it. I really enjoyed this game. Spoiler: Have you found Edna?

You're my go-to JRPG reviewer. I feel like too many reviewers just like things because they're popular, or they like to brag about how easy some of these complex games are. If I didn't work and had all the time in the world then I'm pretty sure any game would eventually become easy for me too lol.

I love the conclusion and twists of the Story^^ But otherwise..i can totally agree with you. Xillia ist still my number 1 tho

I’m about 10 hours into this game nearly and I like it so far. Story is confusing which is almost a deal breaker for me when playing a rpg but the gameplay is really fun and graphics and battle system is top notch. Not liking the characters too much though but some are interesting and nicely designed

I'm playing on the hardest difficulty and every boss is pretty much a nightmare. I don't know if I'll get through it's entirety because it's a bit too much at times.

Can't wait to play this sometime. Just started with the Tales Of series, so have quite the backlog to get through, but one day lol - thanks for the video!

I haven't finished the game (just got Law) but one thing I don't like is Alphens combat abilities specifically his blazing sword and boost attack. Having to spend resources to heal to do his blazing attacks and boost strikes while other characters don't have that stipulation irks me. With Berseria your consuming claw attacks at least healed you a little bit.

I absolutely had blast playing this game! The fact that enemies have so much HP actually encourages the player to play good and trigger Bonus strikes to kill them fast, so I had to learn to do aerial combos and stuff and it felt great. The scenario has ups and downs but still has a good level of quality throughout. The ending felt a bit rushed but the final scene is so beautiful that I jumped out of my seat (I love romantic scenes). My favorite Tales of might still be Graces but I appreciate the fact that the series is evolving (graphically, Arise was STUNNING)

One thing that irritated me was during the boss battles. Once you reach the halfway point you get that weird free Boost Strike...but it doesn't do any damage!! The hp damage number shows up but the bar doesn't go down. This is really obvious in NG+ when I'm essentially one-shotting early game bosses but the HP bar freezes at the halfway point.

I'm gonna have a hard time getting invested in a game after marathoning all of Kiseki/Trails in the last year and a half. Reverie can't come out soon enough.

This is my first time seeing ye Channel it popped on my suggestions. Gotta say great job man I just beat tales last night actually I got it wen it came out. I loved it so much I put almost 200 hours into it playing everyday I'm not working.

for me , this is the best tales of game ever, im in love with this game

Finished the game after playing through entirely on Moderate. Overall it was enjoyable, but two big issues: I definitely felt the HP issue. Especially near the end, everything was just a sponge for damage and fights just started taking far too long. I started just pulling multiple groups together and fleeing just to clear areas faster. The second issue is that the localization just falls off a cliff once you get to Niez. They start being weirdly vague or wrong with exposition and by the final dungeon I just was skipping most skits etc. Characters would just vaguely repeat nonsense that was sort of plot-related, but get things wrong or contradict what they just said. I just feel bad for the translators, since this was the first global release for a Tales game. They weren't given the time and resources they needed.

I am not sure if you have noticed, but I am getting the Star Ocean vibe from Tales of Arise.

Love that fate poster

I liked this game, but i agree that the shop, economy and crafting sucks. Heal items are super expensive, you have to sell dog tags or metals and finish side quests to get money. No victory poses or end fights skits are a downer. This game needed a little more of tales of graces. Where you buy o craft a basic weapong or armor and level it via crafting. Or the end fight skits where the character really shine because of the comic relief.

I picked this up last week, and I have to say its really a good game. Best game I've played in a while.. well done

enemy types/list was just so bad :( no variety, just color swaps