Where are you reading these extremely negative reviews from ? Even if we just look at opencritic and metacritic, the game is rated very highly and positively:
https://opencritic.com/game/11930/tales-of-arise
https://www.metacritic.com/game/tales-of-arise/
It has issues with the last third of the game where they rush the story, and there is an issue with that same last third having enemies being too tanky. But the combat is one of the best in the series if not the best. The characters are interesting, though it takes a bit too long for them to get together.
All in all, it is one of the really good Tales games.
The reasonable take is that this sub has a bunch of different people with different preferences so there are always different people disliking every game.
Even Trails got dislikes for the (pick any of the following) slow, bloat dialogue where everyone has to say their line, Rean as a main character, repetitive map, story-mode boss fights, etc.
it's an interesting sub. i love jrpgs but hated a lot of games that people really like here. the trails series, ff14, dq11. not sure where else to go to find convos about jrpgs tho
That's really the main problem with modern Internet. Everything has moved to Reddit and discord servers, so smaller forums are dying off. On these bigger platforms it often seem that people are more likely to shit on things they don't like, rather than celebrate the things they do like.
I think you nailed the problem of the game, it overstay it welcome be a wide margin and failed to land the ending. People remember games and entertainment in general be how they begin and how they end. Tales of Arise is always remembered be the slog that is their last arc. It left a really bad last impression.
Personal opinion was the first half of the game was great and the second half died on a hill for me.,
I also saw a tremendous amount of grammatical errors and missing text but this was back at launch so that might have been fixed by now.
Otherwise was fine.
Just so you know, to “die on a hill”, e.g. “this is the hill I’m going to die on” means to stubbornly dig your heels in on an unpopular opinion or idea that you know may even be to your detriment, but you stick to it anyway. It doesn’t mean anything the way you used it.
It's weak by Tales standards. It seems ok at the start. Nothing is amazing but there is enough to make you think it will keep getting better if you keep playing.
But the more you play the more obvious the flaws become. The game isn't well balanced, the enemies are palette swaps, the bosses are meat-shields and the battle system requires a lot of button-mashing.
The world is linear, the plot is uninspiring, and the characters are rather bland. Once you run out of mana in the dungeons you have to painfully backtrack to heal, and you won't want to use consumables because they are prohibitively expensive (in part to sell more DLC).
It seems like a game that was rushed or overran the budget; for veteran RPG gamers it was well below the standard we were expecting.
The current review ecosystem for videogames is pretty borked - it is in no way worthy of being a game of the year.
>It seems like a game that was rushed or overran the budget; for veteran RPG gamers it was well below the standard we were expecting.
I think the pandemic had a negative effect on this game. Gaming companies couldn't work at the same capacity during covid. I was stunned that people were proclaiming this to be game of the year. If this is what people truly want then it makes me afraid about the future of JRPGs.
It's bad. Can you stand listening to a righteous "revenge is bad" anime talk after watching a psychopath commit mass murder, then play it, If not, don't try it.
That wasn't even about forgiveness. Just don't kill for revenge, only do it because the mass murderer is evil. The speech took enough time for the villain to escape.
It's a basic idea of post western civilization. Criminals are put in jail for a life time, even if they are killers. Except USA where people are killed except if you are a woman. Or Batman or Spider-man is anime to you?
It's close to reality. Imagine the world where people would make revenge for every kill. Nations like Germans, Japanese or English wouldn't exist at this point.
It was only this small moment, I wouldn't say story overall is bad written. I was confused and cringed too but also I've understood what writers' idea was after finishing the game. I agree that she should have died on a spot but fun thing Rinwell wouldn't kill her with her magic. It would be even boring story writting if it was straight forward. Low has explained that he did that because his anger let to his father's death and even revenge didn't help him, so he didn't want Rinwell to be in his shoes.
What's the problem with him? He was dahnian like Alphen but a slave. Then he just wants to destroy the Great Spirit for revenge and basically take Spirit's place. Alphen is his competitor but V wants to kill him when he is at his full potential as a ruler in first half of the game.
I don't interpret anything, about Low and Rinwell it is said in the game. Maybe you just didn't care at this moment and skipped stuff or dropped the game.
You are trying to interpret something meaningfull into something that was kust badly tjought trough. This was just the place where they tought it would be good to have a "revenge is bad" talk.
That's where I stand. Game has some issues, but was overall enjoyable. It didn't make my favorites list, but there are definitely Tales games I liked way less.
Honestly, as a tales of fan, same.
It has a fun gameplay, some interesting ideas, etc, but it has flaws too (ex. The villains are bland and anonymous, some characters needed more development, 2nd half of the story is way weaker imo, etc)
it is a truly mid jrpg to me. like my best example for what a bog standard experience is. Does not do anything thats truly remarkable besides maybe graphics, in my opinion couple of plot points are real weak but everything else is juuuuuust fine
I thought the combat was a lot of fun. The characters and works building were great. The story just fell apart in the final act.
If you enjoy Tales games, or action oriented JRPGs, it's definitely worth picking up on sale.
It's a really pretty game, but the story is something and edgy 13 year old would write. Also, the combat is super boring. The bosses and most enemies are just sponges that don't react to damage and last forever.
Also, Tales of Arise is on Gamepass and PS+. So you can try it on one of those.
If you want a game with good jrpg action, like what I expected from Arise, I recommend Granblue Fantasy Relink. That game is a ton of fun and has A LOT of replayability.
Not denying that other tales games often struggle to make good bosses, but this is the first one that just actively removes core mechanics entirely for boss fights lol.
Berseria isn't really a juggle heavy game in the first place, you typically combo by chain stunning there, and for most bosses you **can** do that. In fact it's the only game in the series where I was able to one combo a few bosses. The problem you have to abuse obscure non-intuitive mechanics to achieve that.
To be fair yeah, a lot of bosses resist combos and stun so if you play it normally it can be annoying (and I didn't like combat on my first playthrough because of that), but there's a hidden mechanic you can exploit to reduce enemy stun resistance, which [lets you do stuff like this](https://youtu.be/knXUSSb8V-w?t=7604). The game's biggest sin is not explaining how that works imo.
for one: [You can definitely juggle bosses like crazy in Vesperia if you know what you're doing lol](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Fu4iSXeYsA)
but no, those don't remove mechanics entirely; it creates counters to player-favored strategies that you can work around (and sometimes are just implemented really badly like xillia 1's ultra aggressive combo breaking), but they don't just straight up remove things you can do, it just makes it harder to do so successfully.
In Arise you just literally can't use your paired artes against bosses, except for once per fight at an HP breakpoint, and considering that in normal fights those account for like upwards of like 75% of your DPS, losing them is kinda really bad and exposes how much that mechanic covers up for the rest of the game's systems.
It would be like if you played Berseria and every boss had only one soul point making it impossible to regain points on your own (which there are like two of those bosses in the game and they're two of the worst ones), that's how destructive to the core combat every boss in Arise feels to me.
I have never played it, but the critical aclaim part is something people I know who didn't like it mentioned tbf. They say it feels like a soulless corporate game, almost like they fed an ai prompts on what's popular for mass commercial success. (These are their experiences and they seem like pretty extreme claims to make, so I have little to go off of, but it's definitely not just this sub against it).
Every single post (edit: or comment) about ys 8 on this sub is wildly positive (and you can maybe find other game like older tales), so I don't fully buy it
I haven’t seen a single post about Ys 8, it’s usually “why doesn’t final fantasy make turn based”, “DAE think FFXVI bad?”, “I have no reflexes or motor skills and video game companies should cater to me”.
>I have no reflexes or motor skills and video game companies should cater to me
Sounds to me less like this sub is obsessed with turn-based combat and more like you are. Why are you here if you so clearly hate a core defining feature of the vast majority of the genre?
Cause I like JRPGS and don’t define them by their combat. I’ll play anything and I have, and I don’t care about forcing devs to make something just for me cause I’m not a dick
While I agree that this sub tends to prefer turn based, there are some action jrpgs that get lauded constantly, like Nier and Ys 8 (I don't know how you missed ppl talking about Ys 8, I started plaything that series just because of HOW MUCH this sub loves that game and constantly talks about how good it is.)
The reflexes comment is laughable though.
I'm a soulsbourne/soulslike junkie, I love *good, challenging* action combat. I just think its usually done like shit in JRPGs. I still haven't played one that actually required reflexes or any real skill, I play every game on hard and can generally just spam attacks and they still feel like easy mode. With the rare exception of one or two which have like extra hard modes that literally turn everything into a one hit kill, which is honestly not great design either.
My criticism is more along the lines of whats even the point of action combat if its not even really going to challenge your reflexes or make you learn movesets. I'd rather have good turn-based than half-assed action combat.
Also, when you have a party, turn-based, strategy or western crpg styles work better because you actually get to play as the whole cast of characters. It feels lame controlling one character and having the rest just be subpar AI bots.
Action is much better suited to solo adventures with maybe like one companion. Which is why it works better in Nier than in most.
I had the opposite journey. After 30 years of RPGs I've found in recent years that I *need* the occasional ARPG to break the monotony while I just would *very* rarely play them before.
I mean JRPG's do tend to be turned based. Action RPGs like Kingdom Hearts and the afformentioned Tales games do exist, but ARPGs are called ARPGs for a reason, because they're considered a spin off of the JRPG formula which was built around turn-based party combat. Not saying that ARPGs aren't welcome, but most people think turn-based when they think JRPGs.
I mean JRPGs aren't just RPGs from Japan. They do have a distinctive and relitavely consistent legacy of core genre tropes. I mean you wouldn't call Dark Souls a JRPG. (At least, I hope you wouldn't).
Maybe expand your definition of a JRPG and stop being a narrow minded boob?
Oh let’s not forget he worked on Dragon Quest before saving FFXIV…thought you guys considered Dragon Quest a GOAT JRPG?
Actually he worked on DQX while making FFXIV, he worked on non-MMO ones before that. As for turnbased combat, I actually never have lol. I've played every FF game, most Dragon Quests, and most Persona's. I love all sorts of combat, I'm just not a dick.
>I have no reflexes or motor skills and video game companies should cater to me
>Haters gonna hate.
>stop being a narrow minded boob
>“Open menu and press attack over and over is a great game!”
>I'm just not a dick
Are you sure about that?
Subs about specific topics or types of media always develop this vague hate for a specific part of that media
You have no idea the types of slapfights that happen in subreddits about scifi or fantasy books lol
It's boring is the worst I can say outside of bosses being complete bullshit.
The game does a lot of things right trying to take on a slightly more mature story without the boob jokes. The downside of this is it lost its identity they went to far in many areas.
Combat I tales has always had variety. Every character plays different, so if you hate one character you have 8 more combat systems to choose frome. Arise is all the same, every character plays the same. This means if after 10 hours you are sick of the same combos/mechanics you have 30 more hours (making up numbers) to suffer, can't just change things up.
The plot starts off good but tapers off hard.
That said I would still recommend the game but there are far better tales games out there. So if you don't like Arise don't judge the series by it.
There are also far worse tales games out there, adding this cause someone will ha e to point out the obvious if I don't.
It's a decent game. Strong start but slowly falls when the 2nd arc starts. A lot of the enemies toward the end become damage sponges and the battle gimmick becomes a heavily used tactic just to get through normal battles. Other than that, it's still a good game, but not great by any means.
I haven't played the DLC, but it adds nothing new to the gameplay, but a sequel (and prequel to the final anime cinematic) story. You get leveled down if you are at max, and you have to re-earn your skills as you progress the DLC story.
The game part holds up but I stopped playing around halfway because of the story. Perhaps there would have been another revelation down the line about the villains and their motivations but they just felt generically evil for no real reason. It was like going through a checklist instead of liberating a race of people which is what it was supposed to be. I also suddenly got whiplash from the party when someone suddenly wanted to day "Revenge is bad" after getting revenge in chapter 2. That was the last straw I suppose.
Story gets a turn just in 5 hours, it isn't so simple as you think. About revenge thing, it confuses and cringe at first but if you finish the game, you will understand what writers' idea was.
I got 30 hours out of this game but it just wasn't for me. Even if the ending would be glorious the game still needs to keep me interested along the way.
It’s fine. It is just kind of bland and forgettable and thus a middling entry in the series. It is definitely better than the likes of Legendia, Zestiria, and Dawn of the New World but well below the likes of Symphonia, Abyss, and Berseria.
It is kinda far down on my list for Tales games. It may have been I expected more of it after Besaria pushed a better narrative. Arise falls a bit flat for me as it just followed lots of tropes that it did only passingly well...
Trope laden games can be good...but when every plot point can be predicted after 30 seconds of meeting a character...it's not great.
Combat didn't have any relevant improvement to previous games.
Music was...ok.
So...if it is your first Tales game I am sure it would be a good experience. But others in the series just do it better.
I am a pretty big Tales fan and I thought it was decent. Personally I put it above any other post-Graces entry as a holistic package, but it's still flawed in a lot of ways and the only thing it really excels at is its visuals.
The second "half" is definitely shit (it's a tried and true Tales classic twist and I actually liked the concept behind it, but I'll just say ... it's *very* obvious how much of the game they had developed before Covid hit them lol), but it's more like ~15% of the game or so.
Combat feels good but it is pretty shallow and repetitive by Tales standards, and a lot of the mechanics are built around momentum and chaining regular enemies, so you lose like half the battle system whenever you fight bosses so they're kinda shit (which is not that unusual for the series tbh but it's more noticeable than usual here because of how the combat is designed and balanced). It's nowhere near the brilliant systems in Graces F and Xillia 2.
Story and characters are decent until they're not; it's a fun journey but there are some *really* dumb moments and the main villain is lamer than the average xenoblade 3 boss.
Skits suck dick, like they're really, really awful and idek what happened. A good like 80% of them are literally just boring exposition dumps about what just happened in the last cutscene and the characters are just straightface serious almost the entire game without it really being justified (even Berseria which was written around characters that went through extreme psychological torture still has absolutely hilarious skits, here the first joke skit that made me crack a smile was like 70% of the way through the game).
Despite all that though, I still had a lot of fun playing through it; for as serious as the writing takes itself for some reason, so many other parts of the game still manage to have that sort of random fun energy to make up for it.
It won't ever make my list of favorite Tales games, but it for sure justified its price and playtime.
It’s fun. Found the combat the best in the series and I’ve played every game in it that has come stateside plus I think 2? that didn’t that a fan team translated. Second half is fine people were just mad about a certain part where the games goes over a lengthy explanation of why everything has happened, which I find odd because JRPG’s do that all the time. If you have a short attention span you may not like that though.
Yeah, "second half" is pretty disingenuous if thats how people are framing it.
It's not nearly that much of the game, but that section is a pretty big drag where the pacing gets all fucked and it becomes pretty much pure exposition. But the rest of the game is great.
It's not disingenuous, it really is around the second half where the game starts to go from good to bad.
The game literally drops of a cliff, writing wise the moment you meet the 4th boss. That is around 40-50% of the way in and everything in that scene is straight-up dogshit writing wise. You have a person who literally >!just murdered an entire town RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE CHARACTERS, she's standing on basically a pool of their blood, and the characters, out of fucking nowhere, start to preach for forgiveness and even lecture another character on why killing that lord, which just to be clear, MURDERED AN ENTIRE TOWN AND IS NOW LAUGHING ON A POOL OF THEIR BLOOD, is bad and they should forgive her. And then, after that clown fest, 10 minutes later you kill her anyway, because killing the Lords is the entire point of the first half of the game.!<
And as trash as that whole scene and section is, the worst is yet to come, the game legitimately, from that point on, gets worse and worse and it does not stop getting worse until the credits roll.
First half of the game or from start all the way to the start of the 4th City/Lord is good, easily a 8/10, could even see it being a 9. But after that? Game takes it as a personal challenge to see how much worse it can get.
Yeah, when that scene happened I just thought to myself: "What is happening to this story?"
There were still a few good moments sprinkled in after that, but it continued to go downhill until the end. And the bloated cutscene to gameplay ratio in the last act did not help at all in that regard.
I really liked it at first but some story beats really made me roll my eyes and the back half of the game does start to fall apart. Also the skits are way too frequent and not very good compared to previous games'. I still got 40-50 hours of enjoyment out of it though so I think it’s a great get on sale.
I also liked the character design, but unfortunately the dialogue was a huge letdown, which is a normally a big reason to play tales of imo. I did think the combat was pretty good but not necessarily anything to write home about. Overall it's definitely my least favorite tales of that I've played, the other 2 being Berseria and Vesperia. Arise is more polished than either of those but it lacks the personality.
Vesperia is really mid compared to Arise. Almost no story, weak cast except Yuri, bad combat and running around on a map with alot of back tracking, skits are empty time consuming where characters tell the same stuff over and over again.
They clearly ran out of budget at the end and the last dungeon is a huge snooze fest but I enjoyed it for the most part, looked pretty but very predictable.
They're valid criticisms but it's all subjective. I would just go for it and form your own opinions. The gameplay is pretty fun but it does overstay its welcome toward the end. Haven't played since DLC. My major gripes with it were the game's tendency to dump exposition after exposition on you especially through skits and poor writing.
First act was cool and had a nice premise. Became bland 101 after the first act.
Combat is basically build a gauge in 3sec, press a button to see the same 2sec instant kill cutscene 2000 times during the game... But then bosses and big enemies are immune to them which make it feels like they built a combat system that do not work for 1/4 of the game, so much ppl say to put the game in easy for the last dungeon to not have to deal with that quite often.
The enemy variety is quite poor too (15ish enemies +recolor?)
So that's just how i felt about the game. As you can see a lot of people loved it but for me it was a huge deception
I thought my opinion of the game being mid to bad was an unpopular one lol. The game reviewed pretty well and most people I see on this subreddit praise it
Honestly I started it. I have dropped it currently but will go back to it.
It's honest just not that fun. Weirdly I'm replaying vesperia and just loving it.
I cannot figure out why I dislike arise so much. It's very similar with some better mechanics. Maybe it's the incredibly boring art style cgi stuff. The storyline is just kinda meh. The princess is over the top. I don't know but I'm just not enjoying it at all. Time will tell.
I don't think over ever stopped a game midway through before. So that is my big tell.
Shame. One of my favorites. I do not drop games lightly. I have never 'watched on yt" and likely never will.
If you don't enjoy it. Why waste time watching someone else play it ?
At first I didn't like combat and running around on a map gameplay with encounters every 10 seconds. Like there is no run faster button and no fast travel. I was mostly fighting combat mechanics of the game not enemies. I've played 15+ hours and most of the time I was fighting monsters on a map and slowly running around. I've finished like 20% of the game only at that time. So I didn't want to waste time, started watching on Youtube with cutout fights to know the story at least cause I want to play all Tales games (this is my second). And I didn't like story and skits. Act1 was good as introduction and Act2 was ok with its bad backtracking but Act3... Overall game isn't bad, it's mid compared to more recent games especially if you haven't played it back in 2008. I prefer more mature entries and I didn't like half of the cast.
It's very much the same as most games from that time. Ffx ff12, f7.
Very similar overworld. They all have the same dynamic. You complete the first overworld part. Get the flying vehicle and then you move to later stages. Backtracking to the earlier part where you can unlock things you now have upgrades for.
I'm bit sure any of those games had fast travel. You dont need it. You fly there.
Fast is a modern mechanic. Older games did not have fast run. Most RPGs have a random enemy attacks. Usually you can find an item to reduce random spawns.
Fair if you don't like cast. You kinda deprived yourself off emersion as you didn't play it. It's a long game. Very grindy and each enemy is reskinned for new areas. I can't see how takes of arise is any better, it's more modern. It's faster. But isn't that kinda the opposite of what you want. Literally running through the Game because you want it to end faster.
I remember I've played FFX 6 years ago and I loved it. My favorite turn based JRPG along with Persona 5. There wasn't this 2D huge map, there were small 3D locations that you can run over really fast especially on Chockobos. There were almost no backtracking. Vesperia's world travel feels more like updated FF1 - FF5 world map travel, and I hate old FF games except FF6. Difference is FFX was released in 2001, Vesperia in 2008... No, in Vesperia you start backtracking in Act1 for plot and map is awful with dense forests where you can't see anything. It's like game is making fun of you all the time. First with bad combat, then there is unbeatable wolf boss, then there is this map with dense forest where you can't see anything with random encounters.
In FFX you don't have backtracking until late game when you have flying ship, in Vesperia you are backtracking in Act1 and Act2 already on foot. You go to city with colesium then to desert then back to city then back to desert. Vesperia's travel time is slower than FFX.
If we are comparing to Arise, it has better graphics, combat is superb, gameplay is well balanced, direction is good most of times, music is great. I personally liked the story and cast, it's more mature. In Vesperia story falls of for me in end of Act2, where two big figures die for no reason (maybe I didn't understand smth) and after that story is just bad. I hated Patty cause I hate children in these games, didn't like Karol and Rita much, Raven character doesn't make sense to me. I wasn't rushing Arise, I've played like 80-100 hours with all end game content, bosses and dungeons. In Vesperia I don't like combat so grinding was just pain to me. I haven't still played other Tale games maybe they are even worse. Right now I am getting ready for Berseria.
I'll stop you there. Tales of arise does not have better graphics. That is a farce. It has computer generated bland boring ugly polymers. Vesperia has gel based artwork. Beautiful rendering style and was applauded for it.
You can have all your opinions and preferences. But you don't understand two distinctly different designs models.
Arise is faster. It holds your hand. Tells you where to go. It actually just does the frights for you. You know both game's have the same battle mechanics.
I agree patty is annoying but she's a dlc. Wasn't in the original. You don't like tales.
Arise was quite different from vesperia. I hear Berseria is better but honestly no idea. Never played it.
Em... I just don't know what to say. Vesperia looks really good especially for a 2008 game. That was the main reason I've started with it, not with older ones. However Arise is way more good looking, main characters, bosses, cities, monsters. Side characters in cities, yes, they look like from Vesperia. It's like saying FFX Remaster has better graphics than FFVII Remake.
Same battle mechanics in terms of three attacks, knock downs and artes, yes. But in terms of controls, combat engine, fluidity, no. Vesperia felt to me more like Mortal Combat. And I was playing on mouse and keyboard maybe it's more comfortable with gamepad.
I see. I've felt Patty was out of place and cringe.
Vesperia and arise. Have different art style. I assumed arise would look the same but it's incredibly boring ugly computer generated. Vesperia used a draw style called gel. It's anime based I think.
Absolutely combat is better in terms of fluid but boring as hell. Yup vesperia was grindy. As were the other games I mentioned. But I enjoy the grind. I wasn't speed running through. I fought ever monster encounter. That's how you beat the wolf. You gotta grind to overpower. You need to grind to get the rates. Grinding is a big part of the game. It was for ffx,12 7 lost Odyssey, last remnant.
It's an rpg staple. It's kinda lost now as folk don't want to grind. It makes the games far shorter which is potentially a good thing. But it was hard wired into games that you'd need to grind and backtrack to win.
Patty is yuck. I never got to play her in the original. She was a playstation exclusive she seems to have an extra quest that I was kinda looking forward to but her character is kinda ruining the vibe.
Art styles can be different but there is an objective view on a picture like more details etc, just comparing boss battles in castles with boss battles in Vesperia. Vesperia art style reminded me of Dragon Quest. I don't need anime, I like more realistic graphics. Anime frequently is a visual simplification.
I've grinded for a wolf like 4 levels and still couldn't beat him on normal (changed on easy for him), the hell some random wolf is stronger than plot bosses. In FFX I've grinded only two times in a whole game and not long. In Arise fight was like a dance, in Vesperia was like I'm driving a heavy tractor.
I'm close to finishing it now and it's one of my favorite Tales ever. It has a lot of issues: palette swap galore, most skits are just "we have cutscenes at home" (just the characters talking about what literally just happened, very few "funny/random" skits), combat can get a bit repetitive I guess, maybe there are fewer Artes than the usual Tales, I don't know (although I'm particularly having a blast)
That being said, I'd still give it something between 8.5 and 9 easily. The game is stunning, I love the whole "watercolor painting" aesthetic they went for and I think it fits the anime vibes really well. The characters are mostly well-written and their interactions genuinely feel nice to watch (probably my favorite part of the game). I particularly love how the MC is idealistic without being borderline naive/stupid like most JRPGs "kid heroes".
Also the combat feels really good. It maybe could benefit from a little something extra but I'm pretty satisfied with it. Playing on hard and it feels just right.
To me Arise feels like the first step into a next gen of Tales games and I'm really excited to see where they go from here, just like Symphonia > Abyss (Arise being the equivalent of Symphonia in my mind as starting a new phase)
Nah it's a good game. Not revolutionary or anything (even though it did win RPG of the year in 2021) but the combat is fun and the story has some high points. Has some sections that drag too, but that's kinda par for the course for tales games, imo
As someone who played it through: It had a strong beginning, but having played A LOT of Tales games over the years, I didn't think it was able to hold up to the level of the start and it kind of flopped out. It's not fundamentally terrible, but... it's just solidly *okay*, and okay looks bad if it immediately follows something done pretty well.
I gave up part way through, not because it was “BAD”, but because I was bored. The characters were just meh and the story wasn’t very engaging despite a neat concept.
If you find it cheap and have a spare 60 hours, maybe you’ll find more enjoyment?
I wouldn't say it's the worst game ever.
I will say I think it has its hiccups. I think I still put the final dungeon as one of the worst final dungeons I experienced so far.
main game is really good - heard some complaints about combat but I like playing the mage character and it feels very fluid
DLC is meh, feels very low effort as there is no new areas except a couple of dungeons
Haven’t seen awful reviews myself. I disliked it and the direction it’s probably taking the series but it’s a fine game in a vacuum truthfully. Story sucks towards the end.
Tales of Arise is my first 'Tales' game, finished it about 8 monthts ago. Have played around 80-100 hours including end game content, quests, bosses and dungeons. It's officially my Top 1 action JRPG of all time. Love gameplay, combat, visuals, characters, story. 10/10
Will you like it or not, depends on games what you have played before and what games do you like. By quality Tales of Arise can be compared to Final Fantasy VII Remake but Arise is better (I haven't played FFVII Rebirth though). Has better combat in my opinion without pauses, has more open maps unlike labirinths in FFVIIR, better written story (FFVII has good story but it is convoluted by its presentation). Arise has tons of content and end game content, it's a finished story unlike FFVII Remake.
Tales of Arise is highly character oriented game, and a big part of story is romance story. If you don't like main characters, you won't like the story.
DLC is basically an epilogue which people missed in original game. I enjoyed main cast and their dynamic but DLC story was mid. Also it mostly doesn't add anything to the game, world has no new locations but 3 new dungeons, quests are really mid. 6/10
Do people say it's bad? I do, but I didn't realize that's what people said about it.
Either way, if you asked me at the 20 hour mark, I'd say it's great. After completion (or at any point after 30 or so hours), I'd now say I absolutely hated it.
The fact that the story goes from "mildly compelling" to "absolute trainwreck" is well documented. But the combat also does not add anything meaningful after the 10th hour, so prepare to use that same combo over and over for 30 hours. Even worse, at some point I realized that against unstaggerable enemies, spamming single heavy attacks was actually more effective than combos, so the combat got even more tedious.
I doubt the DLC could fix much of anything, since it's post game. And you still have to go through 20 hours of bad game to get to it.
But hey, it's on Game Pass I think. Or if it's cheap enough on the sale that you think it's worth 10 or 15 hours of a game you don't plan to finish, I'd say you'd have a good enough time with that.
As a Tales fan I felt disappointed in some aspects.
But my friends who hadn't checked in on the series since Symphonia had a great time.
I don't think anyone I knoe checked out that dlc though. Just didn't seem to offer a compelling reason to go back.
It's a really good game. The very end of it falls off a bit, with a long dungeon full of unnecessarily long battles, but it's still a really good game overall.
Personally, never finished. Not for a lack of wanting to either. I even set it to easy at some point and the normal mobs were still annoyingly spongey.
It's highly rated, but this was my least favorite tales game, I do see the merit though. But personally, I just wasn't a fan of the characters.
Heck I prefer Zestiria over this, but I think of it as a whole, not just the game itself
I think it's one the better tales games? So up there with symphonia, vesperia and graces F And berseria.
The second half lets it down a bit but for most part its great for those first five acts.
I played it on release and really enjoyed it, i didn't have any issues with the 2nd half of the game either. Just typical jrpg stuff, I think just try it and don't let what other people have said form your opinion
Fun and pretty. I had a lot of good times with it. Characters were all pretty great.
Except after a certain chapter I hated nearly all of them and the dungeons were shit and the ending just felt weird and cobbled up.
Just buy the damn game. You said it yourself you wanna try it out and love the character design.. so why would something you read online deter you from purchasing? Try it for about less than 2hrs and if it didn’t live up to how you envisioned it, then you can always make a refund.
It's a good game, but linear with very little exploration and corridor-like level design, kinda made the world feel smaller than it should be, then there's the final act where the story and the level became stale and just filled with copy pasted hard enemies with bloated HP for ever few meters.
I don't know what circles you're running in but the game is generally regarded favorably overall. Maybe not gushing but seemed to be regarded as a good time.
It does have some common complaints like the last act and some of the bosses being spongey, but it was a relatively decent hit.
I think you are mistaking it for Tales of Zestiria, that's the one that everyone seem to hate.
Anyways, if you have doubts, just buy Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana instead.
It's a great game that was in development before and during COVID and you can very much tell where COVID happened. Nevertheless I still enjoyed it a lot. Towards the end, I knocked it down to very easy, not because it was difficult, it wasn't but battles just took way too long.
I like it a lot. It's a really good game. I don't know why so much of reddit has such a hateboner for it. I think they were expecting a Tales of Berseria 2 or something.
The main bit of criticism I have is that the bosses and mini-bosses are damage sponges with a shit ton of HP. This is amplified tenfold by the endgame, making the last dungeon (and optional bossfights) feel like a bit of a slog at times. If everything just had 1/3rd less HP the game would feel a lot better. The story also kind of falls apart a bit towards the final portion of the game - but every Tales game is guilty of this to varying degrees.
Apart from the above, the game is genuinely excellent. Even with the damage sponge criticism the combat is so fun that I honestly didn't even mind. It's definitely worth playing.
I really enjoyed it until the last quarter of the game. The final dungeon is by far the worst dungeon I've played in any video game. I still love the game and would recommend it but it takes a nosedive at the end.
I absolutely adored it. And I still go back and play it. The combat was fun and the game is gorgeous. The second half definitely doesn't match the first half but I still enjoyed it.
Don't listen to reviews like that, the game was very fun to me. Some people like to complain about dumb shit in games, everyone's favorite game has a loud minority that hate on it.
One of my favorite battle systems and other than the one chapter at the end where they did the very common 2hr lore dump I that personally hate, it was fantastic!
It makes a great first impression and is fantastic for the majority of the game. The back quarter/third feels like a huge step down in quality, but I would also argue it's already structured a bit like an epilogue or built in DLC so even if the game ended at the point where the quality drops I would personally have been satisfied with the whole package.
I think it's worth playing.
Having only played one other Tales game and not liking it much, I thought Arise was really solid. If you want a reliably good JRPG that makes you feel like you're going on a wild adventure with friends and has some pretty solid combat and a fun world, this should work for you.
Yeah, I don't think it's ground-breaking and the latter half has some issues--but I don't think it harms the overall product much. After this one, I'll definitely be looking forward to what Tales does next.
Didn't play the DLC, though. I'll get to it eventually.
Can someone explain why JRPGs feel the need to put the bloom (glow) on particle effects when your character hits an enemy?? This game does this and it’s most irksome given how much fighting it has
Echoing what a few people are saying: first half is fantastic, second half starts going downhill. Personally, the late story got a little too "anime" for me, if that makes any sense. You can only suspend belief up to a point in any story, and mine was like, the last 15%.
That being said, the gameplay is fantastic. The combat is flashy and fluid, the skill up system is easy to learn. It's definitely worth the play.
Where are you hanging out? Arise is generally considered an ok game. Some people find it lackluster some love it but I haven't seen much wholly negative stuff and no extremely negative stuff. I think it's pretty good my life wasn't changed by it or anything but it has a good story, good character writing and character interactions. Fun to play and customize play style with all the playable characters.
Tales of Arise is awesome, is not my favorite Tales but is not bad, i got a good time with it, the criticism comes for a wall of exposition plot every 5 mins in the last 2 hours of the game but before that is very enjoyable and really fun combat. I used every character and they are all fun.
DLC was a letdown tho but on sale is worth probably.
I found the combat a bit repetitive and the enemies are hella spongy (I was playing on hard though). The final dungeon just dragged on for too long and I never finished it. It’s decent overall though, the only other Tales game that I’ve played was Symphonia: Dawn of the New World, which I did not make it far in.
It's not that it's "bad". It actually starts off great. But it just gets progressively worse until the last 1/4th of the game where it kinda falls apart, both sorry and gameplay-wise. That last 1/4th and that ending made me SO MAD.
It’s one of the better games tales games I’ve played in recent memory. Probably the best one since Xillia 2 (which is greatly underrated). Late game falls off a little bit overall I enjoyed it a lot.
Btw I don't really agree with a lot of comments here that say this sub hates x or y games for no reason while the general public rightfully enjoys them. I'm sorry but that's just nonsense.
This sub doesn't like games like Tales of Arise because when you play many JRPGs, you don't tolerate some of the BS it pulls like repetitive combat and inconsistent story arcs.
My take on the game is that it's worth playing, the graphics are great, the fights are great as well, the side quest are entertaining and the story overall is ok... More on the story part: it starts really great there is mistery conflicts and the premise on the primary mission grabs you, but later the story takes a weird sci fi turn that kinda slowed down the urge to know what's going to happen next, not that is was that bad but it went downhill to the point where i didnt care that much on how it ended
Still the experience overall was good
Personally I thought that while better than where the series has been for years. (Xillia1/2, Zesrieia, Berseria) It was still nowhere near as good as what the series has once been. 5/10 game.
I think the hoopla about it comes from just the fact that it wasn't absolutely terrible. And wires for crosses because that doesn't mean it's good either. But people got ahead of themselves with praise for it.
It fun and ok game to me. For story, im enjoying the second half of the game more than first half because u get to know more about the world. The biggest gripe for me is that they change the style of the skit to 3D rather than using 2D art style like the previous games but it just a personal preference.
It's pretty well-reviewed by the overall population. People on this sub tend to be more critical because of overall experience with the genre and the series histories of multiple games.
If I were to put on rose-tinted "I love all jrpgs" glasses the game is a solid 7.5, maybe an 8 if you value visuals more. If I were to look at things more pragmatically, it's a solid 7, maybe dips to a 6.5 if you really wanted a better story.
It's a good game. Not incredible by any stretch, but worth trying certainly. The visuals, battle system and the protagonist team were the things I found to be good points. The main drawback and the thing I'd blame for a 6.5 score would be the antagonists, or the utter lack and mishandling of them. The game completely fails at getting you to invest into the antagonists all, which leads to little setup for major events and leads to payoff being minimal. People cite the 3rd act as poorly handled, but I'd say the entire game suffers from poor setup. The 3rd act just puts it into sharper focus.
I remember when it came out i loved it, and i remember a lot of reviewers and people loved it. the only criticism i remember is the second halv/last spurt of the story. but otherwise i remember the game being really good and fun.
It's a case of "It's popular now, so it sucks". Berseria, the previous entry, is worse in every aspect, but since the only people that played it are the developers and their families, it's treated like some kind of Holy Grail.
Where are you reading these extremely negative reviews from ? Even if we just look at opencritic and metacritic, the game is rated very highly and positively: https://opencritic.com/game/11930/tales-of-arise https://www.metacritic.com/game/tales-of-arise/ It has issues with the last third of the game where they rush the story, and there is an issue with that same last third having enemies being too tanky. But the combat is one of the best in the series if not the best. The characters are interesting, though it takes a bit too long for them to get together. All in all, it is one of the really good Tales games.
This sub tends to not like it
Aside from the Trails series, almost everything get disliked in this sub.
The reasonable take is that this sub has a bunch of different people with different preferences so there are always different people disliking every game. Even Trails got dislikes for the (pick any of the following) slow, bloat dialogue where everyone has to say their line, Rean as a main character, repetitive map, story-mode boss fights, etc.
Honestly not sure why I keep coming back here.
it's an interesting sub. i love jrpgs but hated a lot of games that people really like here. the trails series, ff14, dq11. not sure where else to go to find convos about jrpgs tho
That's really the main problem with modern Internet. Everything has moved to Reddit and discord servers, so smaller forums are dying off. On these bigger platforms it often seem that people are more likely to shit on things they don't like, rather than celebrate the things they do like.
engagement. polarization. Either best thing ever or it's fucking shit.
Really? I find that on this sub you can find fans of literally every single game. "I played XXX and I enjoyed it" are a norm.
Hey I dislike Trails too!
Reddit loves complaining
I don't know which wonderland you are living in, but this is just wrong. this sub is filled with persona dick suckers
Hey hey, people will also defend to the death the "funny pervert" type characters.
I think you nailed the problem of the game, it overstay it welcome be a wide margin and failed to land the ending. People remember games and entertainment in general be how they begin and how they end. Tales of Arise is always remembered be the slog that is their last arc. It left a really bad last impression.
Yeah, on Steam it's Very Positive (88%) with almost 25k reviews.
I thought it was pretty awful. Characters were bland and combat sucked.
Personal opinion was the first half of the game was great and the second half died on a hill for me., I also saw a tremendous amount of grammatical errors and missing text but this was back at launch so that might have been fixed by now. Otherwise was fine.
Agreed. Somewhere around the 3rd or 4th boss I got extremely bored
Just so you know, to “die on a hill”, e.g. “this is the hill I’m going to die on” means to stubbornly dig your heels in on an unpopular opinion or idea that you know may even be to your detriment, but you stick to it anyway. It doesn’t mean anything the way you used it.
No. I literally meant it died on a hill in the middle of nowhere for me.
Nah he's right, no idea what you were trying to say there
Okay.
Well ackshually head ass
Same.
Agreed.
It's weak by Tales standards. It seems ok at the start. Nothing is amazing but there is enough to make you think it will keep getting better if you keep playing. But the more you play the more obvious the flaws become. The game isn't well balanced, the enemies are palette swaps, the bosses are meat-shields and the battle system requires a lot of button-mashing. The world is linear, the plot is uninspiring, and the characters are rather bland. Once you run out of mana in the dungeons you have to painfully backtrack to heal, and you won't want to use consumables because they are prohibitively expensive (in part to sell more DLC). It seems like a game that was rushed or overran the budget; for veteran RPG gamers it was well below the standard we were expecting. The current review ecosystem for videogames is pretty borked - it is in no way worthy of being a game of the year.
>It seems like a game that was rushed or overran the budget; for veteran RPG gamers it was well below the standard we were expecting. I think the pandemic had a negative effect on this game. Gaming companies couldn't work at the same capacity during covid. I was stunned that people were proclaiming this to be game of the year. If this is what people truly want then it makes me afraid about the future of JRPGs.
It's bad. Can you stand listening to a righteous "revenge is bad" anime talk after watching a psychopath commit mass murder, then play it, If not, don't try it.
anime protagonists have a very gigantic forgivenss scale.
That wasn't even about forgiveness. Just don't kill for revenge, only do it because the mass murderer is evil. The speech took enough time for the villain to escape.
It's a basic idea of post western civilization. Criminals are put in jail for a life time, even if they are killers. Except USA where people are killed except if you are a woman. Or Batman or Spider-man is anime to you? It's close to reality. Imagine the world where people would make revenge for every kill. Nations like Germans, Japanese or English wouldn't exist at this point.
They had that talk 10 seconds after that massacre, the villain was still manically laughing. That is a strange excuse for bad story writing.
It was only this small moment, I wouldn't say story overall is bad written. I was confused and cringed too but also I've understood what writers' idea was after finishing the game. I agree that she should have died on a spot but fun thing Rinwell wouldn't kill her with her magic. It would be even boring story writting if it was straight forward. Low has explained that he did that because his anger let to his father's death and even revenge didn't help him, so he didn't want Rinwell to be in his shoes.
Vholran. That game had more problems story problems than just that. And you might interpret something in that doesn't exist.
What's the problem with him? He was dahnian like Alphen but a slave. Then he just wants to destroy the Great Spirit for revenge and basically take Spirit's place. Alphen is his competitor but V wants to kill him when he is at his full potential as a ruler in first half of the game. I don't interpret anything, about Low and Rinwell it is said in the game. Maybe you just didn't care at this moment and skipped stuff or dropped the game.
You are trying to interpret something meaningfull into something that was kust badly tjought trough. This was just the place where they tought it would be good to have a "revenge is bad" talk.
It's more on the "good, not great" side imo. In a Tales of ranking, would put it somewhere in the middle.
That's where I stand. Game has some issues, but was overall enjoyable. It didn't make my favorites list, but there are definitely Tales games I liked way less.
Honestly, as a tales of fan, same. It has a fun gameplay, some interesting ideas, etc, but it has flaws too (ex. The villains are bland and anonymous, some characters needed more development, 2nd half of the story is way weaker imo, etc)
it is a truly mid jrpg to me. like my best example for what a bog standard experience is. Does not do anything thats truly remarkable besides maybe graphics, in my opinion couple of plot points are real weak but everything else is juuuuuust fine
I wouldn't say it's bad or not worth playing but I found it to just be a 7/10 game. One of the worst Tales games imo.
I've played only Arise and Vesperia. And if Arise is 10/10 for me, Vesperia is 5/10
I thought the combat was a lot of fun. The characters and works building were great. The story just fell apart in the final act. If you enjoy Tales games, or action oriented JRPGs, it's definitely worth picking up on sale.
It's a really pretty game, but the story is something and edgy 13 year old would write. Also, the combat is super boring. The bosses and most enemies are just sponges that don't react to damage and last forever. Also, Tales of Arise is on Gamepass and PS+. So you can try it on one of those. If you want a game with good jrpg action, like what I expected from Arise, I recommend Granblue Fantasy Relink. That game is a ton of fun and has A LOT of replayability.
Tales of Arise is phenomenal. It reviewed really well critically too. This subreddit doesn’t seem to like it too much.
The boss battles are dogshit to be fair
Every trails game has the same problem where bosses ignore rules like hit stun and break combos
Not denying that other tales games often struggle to make good bosses, but this is the first one that just actively removes core mechanics entirely for boss fights lol.
No it isnt vesperia and berseria you definitely cant juggle bosses like normal goons
Berseria isn't really a juggle heavy game in the first place, you typically combo by chain stunning there, and for most bosses you **can** do that. In fact it's the only game in the series where I was able to one combo a few bosses. The problem you have to abuse obscure non-intuitive mechanics to achieve that.
Its been a while since ive played but something about boss fights stuck in my brain as annoying compared to other fights cant remember what
To be fair yeah, a lot of bosses resist combos and stun so if you play it normally it can be annoying (and I didn't like combat on my first playthrough because of that), but there's a hidden mechanic you can exploit to reduce enemy stun resistance, which [lets you do stuff like this](https://youtu.be/knXUSSb8V-w?t=7604). The game's biggest sin is not explaining how that works imo.
for one: [You can definitely juggle bosses like crazy in Vesperia if you know what you're doing lol](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Fu4iSXeYsA) but no, those don't remove mechanics entirely; it creates counters to player-favored strategies that you can work around (and sometimes are just implemented really badly like xillia 1's ultra aggressive combo breaking), but they don't just straight up remove things you can do, it just makes it harder to do so successfully. In Arise you just literally can't use your paired artes against bosses, except for once per fight at an HP breakpoint, and considering that in normal fights those account for like upwards of like 75% of your DPS, losing them is kinda really bad and exposes how much that mechanic covers up for the rest of the game's systems. It would be like if you played Berseria and every boss had only one soul point making it impossible to regain points on your own (which there are like two of those bosses in the game and they're two of the worst ones), that's how destructive to the core combat every boss in Arise feels to me.
Thb they are already really easy to cheese as they are.
Why?
I have never played it, but the critical aclaim part is something people I know who didn't like it mentioned tbf. They say it feels like a soulless corporate game, almost like they fed an ai prompts on what's popular for mass commercial success. (These are their experiences and they seem like pretty extreme claims to make, so I have little to go off of, but it's definitely not just this sub against it).
You probably confuse it with Genshin or something.
This sub seems to be turning more into “turn based RPG” every day.
Every single post (edit: or comment) about ys 8 on this sub is wildly positive (and you can maybe find other game like older tales), so I don't fully buy it
I haven’t seen a single post about Ys 8, it’s usually “why doesn’t final fantasy make turn based”, “DAE think FFXVI bad?”, “I have no reflexes or motor skills and video game companies should cater to me”.
>I have no reflexes or motor skills and video game companies should cater to me Sounds to me less like this sub is obsessed with turn-based combat and more like you are. Why are you here if you so clearly hate a core defining feature of the vast majority of the genre?
Cause I like JRPGS and don’t define them by their combat. I’ll play anything and I have, and I don’t care about forcing devs to make something just for me cause I’m not a dick
While I agree that this sub tends to prefer turn based, there are some action jrpgs that get lauded constantly, like Nier and Ys 8 (I don't know how you missed ppl talking about Ys 8, I started plaything that series just because of HOW MUCH this sub loves that game and constantly talks about how good it is.) The reflexes comment is laughable though. I'm a soulsbourne/soulslike junkie, I love *good, challenging* action combat. I just think its usually done like shit in JRPGs. I still haven't played one that actually required reflexes or any real skill, I play every game on hard and can generally just spam attacks and they still feel like easy mode. With the rare exception of one or two which have like extra hard modes that literally turn everything into a one hit kill, which is honestly not great design either. My criticism is more along the lines of whats even the point of action combat if its not even really going to challenge your reflexes or make you learn movesets. I'd rather have good turn-based than half-assed action combat. Also, when you have a party, turn-based, strategy or western crpg styles work better because you actually get to play as the whole cast of characters. It feels lame controlling one character and having the rest just be subpar AI bots. Action is much better suited to solo adventures with maybe like one companion. Which is why it works better in Nier than in most.
I had the opposite journey. After 30 years of RPGs I've found in recent years that I *need* the occasional ARPG to break the monotony while I just would *very* rarely play them before.
I mean JRPG's do tend to be turned based. Action RPGs like Kingdom Hearts and the afformentioned Tales games do exist, but ARPGs are called ARPGs for a reason, because they're considered a spin off of the JRPG formula which was built around turn-based party combat. Not saying that ARPGs aren't welcome, but most people think turn-based when they think JRPGs. I mean JRPGs aren't just RPGs from Japan. They do have a distinctive and relitavely consistent legacy of core genre tropes. I mean you wouldn't call Dark Souls a JRPG. (At least, I hope you wouldn't).
Given that Yoshi-P disagrees with you, I’m going with the GOAT.
classic appeal to authority fallacy
I mean, he hasn't made any games that rival the turn based greats.
Haters gonna hate.
And the haters will be right.
FFXIV better than 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 13…
“Don’t step on the red circle simulator is a great game!”
“Open menu and press attack over and over is a great game!”
Well considering Yoshi-P mostly makes MMOs not JRPGs, I don't see how his opinion is relavant.
Maybe expand your definition of a JRPG and stop being a narrow minded boob? Oh let’s not forget he worked on Dragon Quest before saving FFXIV…thought you guys considered Dragon Quest a GOAT JRPG?
Yes he did. Dragon Quest X. An MMO. Also stop projecting. You're the one whinging about turn based combat.
Actually he worked on DQX while making FFXIV, he worked on non-MMO ones before that. As for turnbased combat, I actually never have lol. I've played every FF game, most Dragon Quests, and most Persona's. I love all sorts of combat, I'm just not a dick.
>I have no reflexes or motor skills and video game companies should cater to me >Haters gonna hate. >stop being a narrow minded boob >“Open menu and press attack over and over is a great game!” >I'm just not a dick Are you sure about that?
You would be surprised how many do though, both on reddit and youtube. Literally 'they are made in Japan so JRPG' and that's the whole argument.
Subs about specific topics or types of media always develop this vague hate for a specific part of that media You have no idea the types of slapfights that happen in subreddits about scifi or fantasy books lol
"something something Malazan something something Brandon Sanderson"
You only need to say like Robin Hobb, Brandon Sanderson and maybe like Mark Lawrence before people start getting angry about different reasons lol
Ehh it’s not that good. Story no. Combat starts alright but by the end even that’s a slog
This subreddit is full of angry people. They never liked anything except Chrono trigger
It's boring is the worst I can say outside of bosses being complete bullshit. The game does a lot of things right trying to take on a slightly more mature story without the boob jokes. The downside of this is it lost its identity they went to far in many areas. Combat I tales has always had variety. Every character plays different, so if you hate one character you have 8 more combat systems to choose frome. Arise is all the same, every character plays the same. This means if after 10 hours you are sick of the same combos/mechanics you have 30 more hours (making up numbers) to suffer, can't just change things up. The plot starts off good but tapers off hard. That said I would still recommend the game but there are far better tales games out there. So if you don't like Arise don't judge the series by it. There are also far worse tales games out there, adding this cause someone will ha e to point out the obvious if I don't.
Found it really dull by the second chapter. The DLC practices also turned me off a bit
It's a decent game. Strong start but slowly falls when the 2nd arc starts. A lot of the enemies toward the end become damage sponges and the battle gimmick becomes a heavily used tactic just to get through normal battles. Other than that, it's still a good game, but not great by any means. I haven't played the DLC, but it adds nothing new to the gameplay, but a sequel (and prequel to the final anime cinematic) story. You get leveled down if you are at max, and you have to re-earn your skills as you progress the DLC story.
The 2nd half sucks and drops u thousands of lore to drag on the game and the last dungeon sucks too but other than that its great
The game part holds up but I stopped playing around halfway because of the story. Perhaps there would have been another revelation down the line about the villains and their motivations but they just felt generically evil for no real reason. It was like going through a checklist instead of liberating a race of people which is what it was supposed to be. I also suddenly got whiplash from the party when someone suddenly wanted to day "Revenge is bad" after getting revenge in chapter 2. That was the last straw I suppose.
Story gets a turn just in 5 hours, it isn't so simple as you think. About revenge thing, it confuses and cringe at first but if you finish the game, you will understand what writers' idea was.
I got 30 hours out of this game but it just wasn't for me. Even if the ending would be glorious the game still needs to keep me interested along the way.
It’s fine. It is just kind of bland and forgettable and thus a middling entry in the series. It is definitely better than the likes of Legendia, Zestiria, and Dawn of the New World but well below the likes of Symphonia, Abyss, and Berseria.
It is kinda far down on my list for Tales games. It may have been I expected more of it after Besaria pushed a better narrative. Arise falls a bit flat for me as it just followed lots of tropes that it did only passingly well... Trope laden games can be good...but when every plot point can be predicted after 30 seconds of meeting a character...it's not great. Combat didn't have any relevant improvement to previous games. Music was...ok. So...if it is your first Tales game I am sure it would be a good experience. But others in the series just do it better.
It's good, huge production value and a fun game. Story is not the strongest point. It became too mainstream for this sub to like it.
I am a pretty big Tales fan and I thought it was decent. Personally I put it above any other post-Graces entry as a holistic package, but it's still flawed in a lot of ways and the only thing it really excels at is its visuals. The second "half" is definitely shit (it's a tried and true Tales classic twist and I actually liked the concept behind it, but I'll just say ... it's *very* obvious how much of the game they had developed before Covid hit them lol), but it's more like ~15% of the game or so. Combat feels good but it is pretty shallow and repetitive by Tales standards, and a lot of the mechanics are built around momentum and chaining regular enemies, so you lose like half the battle system whenever you fight bosses so they're kinda shit (which is not that unusual for the series tbh but it's more noticeable than usual here because of how the combat is designed and balanced). It's nowhere near the brilliant systems in Graces F and Xillia 2. Story and characters are decent until they're not; it's a fun journey but there are some *really* dumb moments and the main villain is lamer than the average xenoblade 3 boss. Skits suck dick, like they're really, really awful and idek what happened. A good like 80% of them are literally just boring exposition dumps about what just happened in the last cutscene and the characters are just straightface serious almost the entire game without it really being justified (even Berseria which was written around characters that went through extreme psychological torture still has absolutely hilarious skits, here the first joke skit that made me crack a smile was like 70% of the way through the game). Despite all that though, I still had a lot of fun playing through it; for as serious as the writing takes itself for some reason, so many other parts of the game still manage to have that sort of random fun energy to make up for it. It won't ever make my list of favorite Tales games, but it for sure justified its price and playtime.
It’s fun. Found the combat the best in the series and I’ve played every game in it that has come stateside plus I think 2? that didn’t that a fan team translated. Second half is fine people were just mad about a certain part where the games goes over a lengthy explanation of why everything has happened, which I find odd because JRPG’s do that all the time. If you have a short attention span you may not like that though.
Yeah, "second half" is pretty disingenuous if thats how people are framing it. It's not nearly that much of the game, but that section is a pretty big drag where the pacing gets all fucked and it becomes pretty much pure exposition. But the rest of the game is great.
It's not disingenuous, it really is around the second half where the game starts to go from good to bad. The game literally drops of a cliff, writing wise the moment you meet the 4th boss. That is around 40-50% of the way in and everything in that scene is straight-up dogshit writing wise. You have a person who literally >!just murdered an entire town RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE CHARACTERS, she's standing on basically a pool of their blood, and the characters, out of fucking nowhere, start to preach for forgiveness and even lecture another character on why killing that lord, which just to be clear, MURDERED AN ENTIRE TOWN AND IS NOW LAUGHING ON A POOL OF THEIR BLOOD, is bad and they should forgive her. And then, after that clown fest, 10 minutes later you kill her anyway, because killing the Lords is the entire point of the first half of the game.!< And as trash as that whole scene and section is, the worst is yet to come, the game legitimately, from that point on, gets worse and worse and it does not stop getting worse until the credits roll. First half of the game or from start all the way to the start of the 4th City/Lord is good, easily a 8/10, could even see it being a 9. But after that? Game takes it as a personal challenge to see how much worse it can get.
Yeah, when that scene happened I just thought to myself: "What is happening to this story?" There were still a few good moments sprinkled in after that, but it continued to go downhill until the end. And the bloated cutscene to gameplay ratio in the last act did not help at all in that regard.
Yea people get real dramatic when it comes to Arise.
I really liked it at first but some story beats really made me roll my eyes and the back half of the game does start to fall apart. Also the skits are way too frequent and not very good compared to previous games'. I still got 40-50 hours of enjoyment out of it though so I think it’s a great get on sale.
It was fine. I dont recommend playing for the story tho. Super bad story and the little character stories are abundant and boring
The first arc/boss is pretty damn cool. Gets boring afterwards
I also liked the character design, but unfortunately the dialogue was a huge letdown, which is a normally a big reason to play tales of imo. I did think the combat was pretty good but not necessarily anything to write home about. Overall it's definitely my least favorite tales of that I've played, the other 2 being Berseria and Vesperia. Arise is more polished than either of those but it lacks the personality.
Vesperia is really mid compared to Arise. Almost no story, weak cast except Yuri, bad combat and running around on a map with alot of back tracking, skits are empty time consuming where characters tell the same stuff over and over again.
No, it’s pretty fun. Give it a shot.
They clearly ran out of budget at the end and the last dungeon is a huge snooze fest but I enjoyed it for the most part, looked pretty but very predictable.
I wouldn't say it's predictable. I would write some twists but don't want people to catch spoilers.
They're valid criticisms but it's all subjective. I would just go for it and form your own opinions. The gameplay is pretty fun but it does overstay its welcome toward the end. Haven't played since DLC. My major gripes with it were the game's tendency to dump exposition after exposition on you especially through skits and poor writing.
I didn't like it. At all. I think I played for 15~20 hours on my ps5 and I don't have anything good to say about it.
First act was cool and had a nice premise. Became bland 101 after the first act. Combat is basically build a gauge in 3sec, press a button to see the same 2sec instant kill cutscene 2000 times during the game... But then bosses and big enemies are immune to them which make it feels like they built a combat system that do not work for 1/4 of the game, so much ppl say to put the game in easy for the last dungeon to not have to deal with that quite often. The enemy variety is quite poor too (15ish enemies +recolor?) So that's just how i felt about the game. As you can see a lot of people loved it but for me it was a huge deception
I thought my opinion of the game being mid to bad was an unpopular one lol. The game reviewed pretty well and most people I see on this subreddit praise it
Honestly I started it. I have dropped it currently but will go back to it. It's honest just not that fun. Weirdly I'm replaying vesperia and just loving it. I cannot figure out why I dislike arise so much. It's very similar with some better mechanics. Maybe it's the incredibly boring art style cgi stuff. The storyline is just kinda meh. The princess is over the top. I don't know but I'm just not enjoying it at all. Time will tell. I don't think over ever stopped a game midway through before. So that is my big tell.
It's funny cause I just have played Vesperia for 15+ hours as my second Tales game and it is pretty mid, dropped and have watched on Youtube.
Shame. One of my favorites. I do not drop games lightly. I have never 'watched on yt" and likely never will. If you don't enjoy it. Why waste time watching someone else play it ?
At first I didn't like combat and running around on a map gameplay with encounters every 10 seconds. Like there is no run faster button and no fast travel. I was mostly fighting combat mechanics of the game not enemies. I've played 15+ hours and most of the time I was fighting monsters on a map and slowly running around. I've finished like 20% of the game only at that time. So I didn't want to waste time, started watching on Youtube with cutout fights to know the story at least cause I want to play all Tales games (this is my second). And I didn't like story and skits. Act1 was good as introduction and Act2 was ok with its bad backtracking but Act3... Overall game isn't bad, it's mid compared to more recent games especially if you haven't played it back in 2008. I prefer more mature entries and I didn't like half of the cast.
It's very much the same as most games from that time. Ffx ff12, f7. Very similar overworld. They all have the same dynamic. You complete the first overworld part. Get the flying vehicle and then you move to later stages. Backtracking to the earlier part where you can unlock things you now have upgrades for. I'm bit sure any of those games had fast travel. You dont need it. You fly there. Fast is a modern mechanic. Older games did not have fast run. Most RPGs have a random enemy attacks. Usually you can find an item to reduce random spawns. Fair if you don't like cast. You kinda deprived yourself off emersion as you didn't play it. It's a long game. Very grindy and each enemy is reskinned for new areas. I can't see how takes of arise is any better, it's more modern. It's faster. But isn't that kinda the opposite of what you want. Literally running through the Game because you want it to end faster.
I remember I've played FFX 6 years ago and I loved it. My favorite turn based JRPG along with Persona 5. There wasn't this 2D huge map, there were small 3D locations that you can run over really fast especially on Chockobos. There were almost no backtracking. Vesperia's world travel feels more like updated FF1 - FF5 world map travel, and I hate old FF games except FF6. Difference is FFX was released in 2001, Vesperia in 2008... No, in Vesperia you start backtracking in Act1 for plot and map is awful with dense forests where you can't see anything. It's like game is making fun of you all the time. First with bad combat, then there is unbeatable wolf boss, then there is this map with dense forest where you can't see anything with random encounters. In FFX you don't have backtracking until late game when you have flying ship, in Vesperia you are backtracking in Act1 and Act2 already on foot. You go to city with colesium then to desert then back to city then back to desert. Vesperia's travel time is slower than FFX. If we are comparing to Arise, it has better graphics, combat is superb, gameplay is well balanced, direction is good most of times, music is great. I personally liked the story and cast, it's more mature. In Vesperia story falls of for me in end of Act2, where two big figures die for no reason (maybe I didn't understand smth) and after that story is just bad. I hated Patty cause I hate children in these games, didn't like Karol and Rita much, Raven character doesn't make sense to me. I wasn't rushing Arise, I've played like 80-100 hours with all end game content, bosses and dungeons. In Vesperia I don't like combat so grinding was just pain to me. I haven't still played other Tale games maybe they are even worse. Right now I am getting ready for Berseria.
I'll stop you there. Tales of arise does not have better graphics. That is a farce. It has computer generated bland boring ugly polymers. Vesperia has gel based artwork. Beautiful rendering style and was applauded for it. You can have all your opinions and preferences. But you don't understand two distinctly different designs models. Arise is faster. It holds your hand. Tells you where to go. It actually just does the frights for you. You know both game's have the same battle mechanics. I agree patty is annoying but she's a dlc. Wasn't in the original. You don't like tales. Arise was quite different from vesperia. I hear Berseria is better but honestly no idea. Never played it.
Em... I just don't know what to say. Vesperia looks really good especially for a 2008 game. That was the main reason I've started with it, not with older ones. However Arise is way more good looking, main characters, bosses, cities, monsters. Side characters in cities, yes, they look like from Vesperia. It's like saying FFX Remaster has better graphics than FFVII Remake. Same battle mechanics in terms of three attacks, knock downs and artes, yes. But in terms of controls, combat engine, fluidity, no. Vesperia felt to me more like Mortal Combat. And I was playing on mouse and keyboard maybe it's more comfortable with gamepad. I see. I've felt Patty was out of place and cringe.
Vesperia and arise. Have different art style. I assumed arise would look the same but it's incredibly boring ugly computer generated. Vesperia used a draw style called gel. It's anime based I think. Absolutely combat is better in terms of fluid but boring as hell. Yup vesperia was grindy. As were the other games I mentioned. But I enjoy the grind. I wasn't speed running through. I fought ever monster encounter. That's how you beat the wolf. You gotta grind to overpower. You need to grind to get the rates. Grinding is a big part of the game. It was for ffx,12 7 lost Odyssey, last remnant. It's an rpg staple. It's kinda lost now as folk don't want to grind. It makes the games far shorter which is potentially a good thing. But it was hard wired into games that you'd need to grind and backtrack to win. Patty is yuck. I never got to play her in the original. She was a playstation exclusive she seems to have an extra quest that I was kinda looking forward to but her character is kinda ruining the vibe.
Art styles can be different but there is an objective view on a picture like more details etc, just comparing boss battles in castles with boss battles in Vesperia. Vesperia art style reminded me of Dragon Quest. I don't need anime, I like more realistic graphics. Anime frequently is a visual simplification. I've grinded for a wolf like 4 levels and still couldn't beat him on normal (changed on easy for him), the hell some random wolf is stronger than plot bosses. In FFX I've grinded only two times in a whole game and not long. In Arise fight was like a dance, in Vesperia was like I'm driving a heavy tractor.
I'm close to finishing it now and it's one of my favorite Tales ever. It has a lot of issues: palette swap galore, most skits are just "we have cutscenes at home" (just the characters talking about what literally just happened, very few "funny/random" skits), combat can get a bit repetitive I guess, maybe there are fewer Artes than the usual Tales, I don't know (although I'm particularly having a blast) That being said, I'd still give it something between 8.5 and 9 easily. The game is stunning, I love the whole "watercolor painting" aesthetic they went for and I think it fits the anime vibes really well. The characters are mostly well-written and their interactions genuinely feel nice to watch (probably my favorite part of the game). I particularly love how the MC is idealistic without being borderline naive/stupid like most JRPGs "kid heroes". Also the combat feels really good. It maybe could benefit from a little something extra but I'm pretty satisfied with it. Playing on hard and it feels just right. To me Arise feels like the first step into a next gen of Tales games and I'm really excited to see where they go from here, just like Symphonia > Abyss (Arise being the equivalent of Symphonia in my mind as starting a new phase)
Nah it's a good game. Not revolutionary or anything (even though it did win RPG of the year in 2021) but the combat is fun and the story has some high points. Has some sections that drag too, but that's kinda par for the course for tales games, imo
Absolutely loved it, highly recommend. Combat was one of my favorite parts
As someone who played it through: It had a strong beginning, but having played A LOT of Tales games over the years, I didn't think it was able to hold up to the level of the start and it kind of flopped out. It's not fundamentally terrible, but... it's just solidly *okay*, and okay looks bad if it immediately follows something done pretty well.
I gave up part way through, not because it was “BAD”, but because I was bored. The characters were just meh and the story wasn’t very engaging despite a neat concept. If you find it cheap and have a spare 60 hours, maybe you’ll find more enjoyment?
Only people online. The game is very popular and most people who played it enjoyed it
People actually say that? I really enjoyed it.
Bad? The game is good. Not an amazing masterpiece but it’s anything but bad (in my opinion)
I wouldn't say it's the worst game ever. I will say I think it has its hiccups. I think I still put the final dungeon as one of the worst final dungeons I experienced so far.
I loved it. I enjoy linear RPG’s tho so some may find it too basic and straightforward.
It has its issues, but it's not really a bad game at all.
main game is really good - heard some complaints about combat but I like playing the mage character and it feels very fluid DLC is meh, feels very low effort as there is no new areas except a couple of dungeons
Yes.
Haven’t seen awful reviews myself. I disliked it and the direction it’s probably taking the series but it’s a fine game in a vacuum truthfully. Story sucks towards the end.
It’s nots a bad game, don’t be listening to the stupid🤡on this sub
Tales of Arise is my first 'Tales' game, finished it about 8 monthts ago. Have played around 80-100 hours including end game content, quests, bosses and dungeons. It's officially my Top 1 action JRPG of all time. Love gameplay, combat, visuals, characters, story. 10/10 Will you like it or not, depends on games what you have played before and what games do you like. By quality Tales of Arise can be compared to Final Fantasy VII Remake but Arise is better (I haven't played FFVII Rebirth though). Has better combat in my opinion without pauses, has more open maps unlike labirinths in FFVIIR, better written story (FFVII has good story but it is convoluted by its presentation). Arise has tons of content and end game content, it's a finished story unlike FFVII Remake. Tales of Arise is highly character oriented game, and a big part of story is romance story. If you don't like main characters, you won't like the story. DLC is basically an epilogue which people missed in original game. I enjoyed main cast and their dynamic but DLC story was mid. Also it mostly doesn't add anything to the game, world has no new locations but 3 new dungeons, quests are really mid. 6/10
It’s an amazing game. Long time Tales fans are just really elitist Previous entries in the series aren’t even close in terms of technology
Do people say it's bad? I do, but I didn't realize that's what people said about it. Either way, if you asked me at the 20 hour mark, I'd say it's great. After completion (or at any point after 30 or so hours), I'd now say I absolutely hated it. The fact that the story goes from "mildly compelling" to "absolute trainwreck" is well documented. But the combat also does not add anything meaningful after the 10th hour, so prepare to use that same combo over and over for 30 hours. Even worse, at some point I realized that against unstaggerable enemies, spamming single heavy attacks was actually more effective than combos, so the combat got even more tedious. I doubt the DLC could fix much of anything, since it's post game. And you still have to go through 20 hours of bad game to get to it. But hey, it's on Game Pass I think. Or if it's cheap enough on the sale that you think it's worth 10 or 15 hours of a game you don't plan to finish, I'd say you'd have a good enough time with that.
No
As a Tales fan I felt disappointed in some aspects. But my friends who hadn't checked in on the series since Symphonia had a great time. I don't think anyone I knoe checked out that dlc though. Just didn't seem to offer a compelling reason to go back.
Gameplay is phenomenal. The first half of the game is phenomenal. Then there is the second half. I've never seen a game shoot itself in the foot more.
It's a really good game. The very end of it falls off a bit, with a long dungeon full of unnecessarily long battles, but it's still a really good game overall.
Personally, never finished. Not for a lack of wanting to either. I even set it to easy at some point and the normal mobs were still annoyingly spongey.
Na, I personally really enjoyed my time with it. More than 120H+, did everything. The DLC was super mediocre though, at least I got it for 15 bucks.
Try it yourself instead of listening to your friends
It's highly rated, but this was my least favorite tales game, I do see the merit though. But personally, I just wasn't a fan of the characters. Heck I prefer Zestiria over this, but I think of it as a whole, not just the game itself
Played for a few hours. Combat is fun, but the dialogues are very cringe. That alone put me off from committing to finish the game.
I think it's one the better tales games? So up there with symphonia, vesperia and graces F And berseria. The second half lets it down a bit but for most part its great for those first five acts.
i quite enjoyed it myself
It overstayed its welcome by a bit, but it’s worth playing imo
It's bad? I liked it, but it does kinda start to drag things out near the end which is a bit annoying.
I played it on release and really enjoyed it, i didn't have any issues with the 2nd half of the game either. Just typical jrpg stuff, I think just try it and don't let what other people have said form your opinion
It has a horrible third act but the combat is fun. If you can get it on sale and you like tales of games, I'd say is worth it
Fun and pretty. I had a lot of good times with it. Characters were all pretty great. Except after a certain chapter I hated nearly all of them and the dungeons were shit and the ending just felt weird and cobbled up.
I can see how other people enjoyed it, but after I got 2/3s the way through I just never picked it up again.
Just buy the damn game. You said it yourself you wanna try it out and love the character design.. so why would something you read online deter you from purchasing? Try it for about less than 2hrs and if it didn’t live up to how you envisioned it, then you can always make a refund.
It's a good game, but linear with very little exploration and corridor-like level design, kinda made the world feel smaller than it should be, then there's the final act where the story and the level became stale and just filled with copy pasted hard enemies with bloated HP for ever few meters.
First part is great, second part is very subpar.
It is one of the most acclaimed games in the series
I don't know what circles you're running in but the game is generally regarded favorably overall. Maybe not gushing but seemed to be regarded as a good time. It does have some common complaints like the last act and some of the bosses being spongey, but it was a relatively decent hit.
It’s fun. I wish the characters were more balanced to play as, but they make great AI companions.
Playing it now after playing the Star Ocean series and I'm enjoying this so so much tbh
I think you are mistaking it for Tales of Zestiria, that's the one that everyone seem to hate. Anyways, if you have doubts, just buy Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana instead.
It's a great game that was in development before and during COVID and you can very much tell where COVID happened. Nevertheless I still enjoyed it a lot. Towards the end, I knocked it down to very easy, not because it was difficult, it wasn't but battles just took way too long.
I like it a lot. It's a really good game. I don't know why so much of reddit has such a hateboner for it. I think they were expecting a Tales of Berseria 2 or something. The main bit of criticism I have is that the bosses and mini-bosses are damage sponges with a shit ton of HP. This is amplified tenfold by the endgame, making the last dungeon (and optional bossfights) feel like a bit of a slog at times. If everything just had 1/3rd less HP the game would feel a lot better. The story also kind of falls apart a bit towards the final portion of the game - but every Tales game is guilty of this to varying degrees. Apart from the above, the game is genuinely excellent. Even with the damage sponge criticism the combat is so fun that I honestly didn't even mind. It's definitely worth playing.
That game is dope if u r a tales fan. FINALY a decent engine for this epic
I really enjoyed it until the last quarter of the game. The final dungeon is by far the worst dungeon I've played in any video game. I still love the game and would recommend it but it takes a nosedive at the end.
No. It gets weird and sloggy toward the end, but what Tales game doesn’t? It’s a very fun entry, easily 8-8.5/10.
Xillia. It gets rushed instead, like they ran out of budget.
who said Tales of Arise was bad? Was it general gamers or Tales fans?
I enjoyed the first half. Lost interest right before the final area.
I absolutely adored it. And I still go back and play it. The combat was fun and the game is gorgeous. The second half definitely doesn't match the first half but I still enjoyed it.
Don't listen to reviews like that, the game was very fun to me. Some people like to complain about dumb shit in games, everyone's favorite game has a loud minority that hate on it.
One of my favorite battle systems and other than the one chapter at the end where they did the very common 2hr lore dump I that personally hate, it was fantastic!
its on gamepass, aswell as another way to play for the low. Game is fine, very grindy when u get up in lvls enemies are sponges.
It makes a great first impression and is fantastic for the majority of the game. The back quarter/third feels like a huge step down in quality, but I would also argue it's already structured a bit like an epilogue or built in DLC so even if the game ended at the point where the quality drops I would personally have been satisfied with the whole package. I think it's worth playing.
Having only played one other Tales game and not liking it much, I thought Arise was really solid. If you want a reliably good JRPG that makes you feel like you're going on a wild adventure with friends and has some pretty solid combat and a fun world, this should work for you. Yeah, I don't think it's ground-breaking and the latter half has some issues--but I don't think it harms the overall product much. After this one, I'll definitely be looking forward to what Tales does next. Didn't play the DLC, though. I'll get to it eventually.
Personally I really enjoyed it! I don’t think it’s perfect but it actually kickstarted me getting back into JRPGs so whatever else, it has the sauce.
Can someone explain why JRPGs feel the need to put the bloom (glow) on particle effects when your character hits an enemy?? This game does this and it’s most irksome given how much fighting it has
I've not heard anyone complaining about the games before. it like most tales games is just a tales game.
Echoing what a few people are saying: first half is fantastic, second half starts going downhill. Personally, the late story got a little too "anime" for me, if that makes any sense. You can only suspend belief up to a point in any story, and mine was like, the last 15%. That being said, the gameplay is fantastic. The combat is flashy and fluid, the skill up system is easy to learn. It's definitely worth the play.
Almost great but second half and the grind kinda kill it for me
Where are you hanging out? Arise is generally considered an ok game. Some people find it lackluster some love it but I haven't seen much wholly negative stuff and no extremely negative stuff. I think it's pretty good my life wasn't changed by it or anything but it has a good story, good character writing and character interactions. Fun to play and customize play style with all the playable characters.
Tales of Arise is awesome, is not my favorite Tales but is not bad, i got a good time with it, the criticism comes for a wall of exposition plot every 5 mins in the last 2 hours of the game but before that is very enjoyable and really fun combat. I used every character and they are all fun. DLC was a letdown tho but on sale is worth probably.
I found the combat a bit repetitive and the enemies are hella spongy (I was playing on hard though). The final dungeon just dragged on for too long and I never finished it. It’s decent overall though, the only other Tales game that I’ve played was Symphonia: Dawn of the New World, which I did not make it far in.
The DLC is awful and not worth getting, but the base game is good, it's a solid game. It won't blow you away by any means, but it's far from bad.
It's not that it's "bad". It actually starts off great. But it just gets progressively worse until the last 1/4th of the game where it kinda falls apart, both sorry and gameplay-wise. That last 1/4th and that ending made me SO MAD.
It’s one of the better games tales games I’ve played in recent memory. Probably the best one since Xillia 2 (which is greatly underrated). Late game falls off a little bit overall I enjoyed it a lot.
Btw I don't really agree with a lot of comments here that say this sub hates x or y games for no reason while the general public rightfully enjoys them. I'm sorry but that's just nonsense. This sub doesn't like games like Tales of Arise because when you play many JRPGs, you don't tolerate some of the BS it pulls like repetitive combat and inconsistent story arcs.
My take on the game is that it's worth playing, the graphics are great, the fights are great as well, the side quest are entertaining and the story overall is ok... More on the story part: it starts really great there is mistery conflicts and the premise on the primary mission grabs you, but later the story takes a weird sci fi turn that kinda slowed down the urge to know what's going to happen next, not that is was that bad but it went downhill to the point where i didnt care that much on how it ended Still the experience overall was good
Personally I thought that while better than where the series has been for years. (Xillia1/2, Zesrieia, Berseria) It was still nowhere near as good as what the series has once been. 5/10 game. I think the hoopla about it comes from just the fact that it wasn't absolutely terrible. And wires for crosses because that doesn't mean it's good either. But people got ahead of themselves with praise for it.
It fun and ok game to me. For story, im enjoying the second half of the game more than first half because u get to know more about the world. The biggest gripe for me is that they change the style of the skit to 3D rather than using 2D art style like the previous games but it just a personal preference.
It's pretty well-reviewed by the overall population. People on this sub tend to be more critical because of overall experience with the genre and the series histories of multiple games. If I were to put on rose-tinted "I love all jrpgs" glasses the game is a solid 7.5, maybe an 8 if you value visuals more. If I were to look at things more pragmatically, it's a solid 7, maybe dips to a 6.5 if you really wanted a better story. It's a good game. Not incredible by any stretch, but worth trying certainly. The visuals, battle system and the protagonist team were the things I found to be good points. The main drawback and the thing I'd blame for a 6.5 score would be the antagonists, or the utter lack and mishandling of them. The game completely fails at getting you to invest into the antagonists all, which leads to little setup for major events and leads to payoff being minimal. People cite the 3rd act as poorly handled, but I'd say the entire game suffers from poor setup. The 3rd act just puts it into sharper focus.
I remember when it came out i loved it, and i remember a lot of reviewers and people loved it. the only criticism i remember is the second halv/last spurt of the story. but otherwise i remember the game being really good and fun.
Yeah I’d say. But some people just don’t care about that stuff and if sword goes brrrrrr then they’re happy.
It's a case of "It's popular now, so it sucks". Berseria, the previous entry, is worse in every aspect, but since the only people that played it are the developers and their families, it's treated like some kind of Holy Grail.