Wooo!! I got a video out! Its a miracle! Look forward to Valkyria Chronicles 4 review next! (Join the patreon to see a little sneak peek) Then an end of the year video and of course Dragon Quest 11 will be the first review of next year! Www.patreon.com/pelvicgaming
Nice to hear you’re doing DQXI, I knew you planned to around this time and I’ve been playing it for the past few weeks. So far I’ve found it pretty good in all regards, except bring a podcast or something because there is an hour’s worth of music for a 60+ hour game and you will get *very* tired of it
Great take on Arise. I liked it a lot and overall is probably in my top 3 Tales titles. I’m not a big fan of Berseria so we probably differ there. It’s got good characters but a lot of the rest of that one came up short for me. Excited for you to play VC4 and DQXI. I love VC1. 4 was good but I prefer the first. I think you’ll enjoy it though! DQXI is one of the best modern classic JRPGs imo. Very long but it’s not a bad type of long. I enjoyed every minute of that one
I hope you enjoy Dragon Quest 11. I liked it, but I would temper expectations, especially if you weren't blown away by previous DQ games. The music is pretty weak, the silent protagonist is handled a little weirdly (the camera lingers on him a lot, but he isn't very expressive), and the main story is nice but simple - mostly the framework to host the episodic town stories. That said, it knows how to just be *fun* and let you actually run around and play and even has a world map that lets you set the story aside and just explore. It's definitely one of the best SNES games I ever played :)
Thanks, as always, for your laser POV dissection. Good to hear a more nuanced review. That DLC practice is unpleasant. And ofc Tales of Graces f rules. 😎💖
that dlc shit is annoying AF, smt 5 on switch has the same bs. Modern gaming bs. its infested the industry now. (smt 5 is a good game though but F that dlc)
Arise in a word is just "Safe." I liked it, but said myself it's biggest downpoint is the story. I think the game is what the series needed after such a long hiatus to get a bunch of new people into it, and I think it's the best rounded game as in there's no area that's outright bad in execution so nothing should be an immediate turn off but- Despite all this it makes it hard to grab on to anything and hold the game up as high as many of the predecessors. It's a tales game that I think is fine for its time but will see very few people going back to it later. It's not like abyss or vesperia where, even with their flaws, there's something really strong worth going back to. DLC practice was indeed poo too, money-wise though I struggled up front but 10 hours in up to the end I was overly rich.
@@omensoffate I read. I ultimately don't think it matters much though. So many projects start out as something else and become defining works in a series when they finish (not saying that's Arise, but Arise is definitely a tales game at the end of the day.)
This review is so refreshing! All I heard was everyone praising this game - “game of the year”, “best Tales of game ever”, “best JRPG ever” etc. so I did something I always try to never do... I went in with high expectations. That was my immediate downfall because the game was “ok”. I enjoyed the combat quite a lot and the game looked very good but that was about it. Agreed with the fast travel system and map - fantastic! I’ve now made the decision that whenever a big JRPG releases, I’ll be staying off Twitter for a good 2 weeks or so because that’s where I was seeing everyone’s praise.
@Ogami Lol. I literally went through the same JRPG parkour as you did. Just finished the Trails of Cold Steel and I then started Tales of Arise. I was just "meh" through the whole story, usually sighing at the repetitive skits. I honestly am mind-boggled that this game won JRPG of the year. Alright, it has some great points (visuals, combat, some quality of life improvements from previous Tales), but it's far from a game of the year. That shouldn't even be my opinion at this point.
Honestly, My favorite part about ARISE was doing the Cameo Side Quest. Seeing certain area of Destiny, Symphonia, Abyss, Xillia was pretty cool to see.... And that's about it.
I loved this game. While the story starts with a boom, it definitely falls off in a way. But the mechanics are by far the best in the series. The graphics were great clearly. It's a great recommendation but don't expect t Tales of Symphonia/Abyss level of story
Not a fan of tales. I like tales of grace f and vesparia better. This tale game have flaws. Most of it are more of endorsing DLC paywall. The only thing I compliment it is the battle system. Story is average. Graphic is good.
@@PelvicGaming Lol I do love my Tales of Series. But when I'm disappointed, I ain't gonna lie about it. I feel like if this is someone's first Tales they're gonna have a different opinion about it. Symphonia was my 1st, it may not be the best but it was my favorite. Had so much fun with it and the memories of playing it. I'm sure the same could be said for you and Graces F.
@@PelvicGaming But honestly, Coming out of how great the story Berseria was. I had a feeling even before the game came out it wasn't gonna be able to match up with that....Maybe they knew too.🤷♂️
you have no idea how relieving it is to hear that im not the only one with a problem with sakuraba's music in tales of... its so one note and you can 90% of the time just interchange songs and not even notice the difference
I have enjoyed more osts within other Tales Games, but with Arise i only liked the Main battle and the Camping music. The Orchestral music was nice for awhile but got repetitive. 😅
What gets me is it's the same guy who did music for Baten Kaitos, so every time I try to think of a Tales of track I always just imagine that game instead. I love the style he has, I just think it's too repetitive and doesn't stand out between games enough, even if he helps make some absolutely killer tracks.
DQ11 really is what the subtitle says "Echoes of an Elusive Age". They made a JRPG like they used to, and for me, that was extremely comforting. The innovation was the introduction of a flamboyant, gay character, that was the rock that held the party together emotionally... This is innovation if you ask me. Just make sure you do the 3rd act (post credits) of the story, it is the real ending.
@@jinchuriki7022 Hmm, I just fought every battle on the way, and I didn't need to grind at all. I know a lot of people just skipped battles, and ended up grinding quite a bit towards the end.
The Motoi Sakuraba slander 😱 I agree that the music in Tales of games has never been strong. The man's work on other series though (Baten Kaitos, Valkyrie Profile...) is 👌
Tales is one of my biggest, “I want to like this but…” series. I’ve tried Symphonia, Abyss, and Berseria and I always lose interest long before the end of the game. At this point I’ve finally learned that this series just isn’t for me DQ11 was fine. Probably would have appealed more if I’d played more of the series but I didn’t really feel like there was anything noteworthy about it, except the length (and I don’t mean that in a good way). It’s also one of the only games I played without the sound on because the music was freaking awful
I felt the same for DQ 11. The music wore on me and I don't think there was specific town music. It was an OK jrpg. I really liked tales of vesperia and I want to try berseria due to its high praise, but I fear it is just alright. I would play it if it was on the switch, but I doubt I would commit on PS4 or PC
I’m the exact opposite. DQ11 got me in to JRPGS, and the length didn’t seem to bother me. I had never really been exposed to the world of JRPGS besides Pokémon until I played it, so I have a little bit of bias towards it.
Yeah I felt that way about tales too...till I played it with my neighbor. Since then, every tales game I have to play multiplayer or it sucks for me. Play it like a coop dungeon crawler and it's a much, much better experience
I haven't played Arise yet but this was basically my experience with Vesperia. After hearing so many peopl call Vesperia their favorite Tales games I walked away from the experience extremely underwhelmed
That's how I also feel about abyss and Symphonia. I came to the conclusion that I don't feel like the tales series is that good for my tasting, aside from the combat systems I think everything is just average.
Okay… I’ll be real, I like your vids but… This comment section is hardcore cope. I see a bunch of commenters that didn’t like the attention the game got and didn’t like it for subjective reasons (which I’m okay with) getting justification for not liking it. And a content creator that got overhyped and played said hyped game long after it was out. Worst way to go into a game but your opinions are still valid. I didn’t like the fact that it felt like you tore apart arise for things other tales of games do. The story, the characters.. it just felt like a “new game did it so it’s bad” feeling. Literally every tales of game has cliche character and writing. It was fine until now. Honestly, I think people saw that many reviews gave it the “best tales of game” label and they felt attacked because they have a favorite tales game and it isn’t arise. Mine is Vesperia and I’d be happy for arise if I hated it. And to those people I say, be happy for the tales series. It’s great and never got the attention it deserved. They took a different approach visually and cinematically (and didn’t change much else) and it payed off. Your favorite tales of games weren’t seen. The attention to a new one might change that. You’re allowed to not like it but don’t come at the reviewers who genuinely did. Their opinion isn’t any less valid. I’m saying this because I see a lot of comments saying things like “I was so tired of people singing it’s praises” and “the game got hype it didn’t deserve” like what??? Who are you to decide that?? The game is praised because it did what tales games do, and then in went extra flashy to pull in more people. Now tales is a little more on the map then it was before.
Thank you. You said everything that should be said about it. People are calling this the best JRPG of the year and that’s pushing it. Also the side quests are introduced weirdly in that two of the earliest ones are ones you cannot complete until later so I skipped a few early quests because of that. Also DQ11 is better than this game. If you liked Final Fantasy 6, Chrono Trigger and enjoy party interaction you should have a better time with it than this game at least.
This game benefitted from “drought clout” like nobody’s business. Solid game, but because 2021 was so dry in gaming, it got way more clout than it really deserved. Not a terrible game, but definitely overrated.
@@omensoffate That doesn't answer my question.. why use excuses to justify how they feel? Not to mention false excuses lol because 2021 was far from dry
@@dangbro5652I think the creator and her audience just don’t vibe with this kinda style (and no I don’t mean the genre of jrpg). There’s a lot of comments that show they enjoy other kinds of things. For example, the combat is supposed to be chained across characters to continue the combo meter. It’s not supposed to be 1-dimensional deplete your gauge, run away to refill, and then coke back 😂
I really appreciate your honest opinion especially since you are a fan of the series. While playing i always asked myself if i was playing the same game that reviewers who gave it 9s and 10s across the board did, i think they did a pretty good job with the graphics but they really need to put in A LOT of work in many of the other areas.
Absolutely enjoyed your review. As a long time tales of player. It felt like a invitation for brand new players then the fan base. Which is good I'm happy that it brought on a new crowd but with this being game of the year this may be the direction future tales may go into which makes me a little bit nervous but fantastic review nevertheless
interesting comment. i havent played the game yet but it seems to me the invitation you mention is more a result of the media around then the actual producers doing something new. i would even go the other way and say too little was improved/changed from the usual tales of formula. what do you think is missing in Arise?
@@goncaloferreira6429 most tales of games have a certain charm to it. Is very hard to explain you just know it if you've been paying attention to the actual game series. This game felt like as the reviewer said most of the time and energy went towards graphics. This game could have been called "not another RPG" and still had the same effect. The only tales of "staple" was the skits and Even those didn't have the same charm. Again it's hard to explain but you know it if you are a tales of fan
@@vinnymac102 well, that didint help at all. that charm thing could mean a lot of different things to different people. my origianl point is that all tales ingredients seem to be there: small cast of somewhat tropy characters, skitts, fast combat, anime aestetics, writting and plot, a group of antahgonists, mascots etc. so why no charm? any chance it involves the change to more realistic graphics?
@@goncaloferreira6429 well animated skits, actually dungeons not hallways, actual minigames, mystic arte cut ins, I mean there's quite alot missing in arise.
I actually really liked the balance and tension of the item pricing and how rare gold was - made for one of the first JRPGs where I didn’t hoard items, used them often and then felt compelled to pour gold into replacements. Stocking up for that final dungeon was a vibe and I was very grateful there were some mechanics in its design that let me go get more supplies right as I was down to my final orange gel. But yes - live for your critiques - so many skits - so much weird stilted dialogue. Hush now, I wanna make cool combo strings with my anime fam.
I absolutely agree with you. Tales of Arise is a good game but people are taking too much when say this is the best Tales Game. I think Vesperia, Abyss, Xillia, Symphonia and Berseria are better games.
Tales Of seems to me to be a series which just consistently underwhelms. All of them are fine but none of them are ever essential. For what it’s worth Sakuraba is definitely capable of good music, he just doesn’t seem to try very hard for Tales. The clip of Arise’s battle theme you played reminds me of his ‘the valedictory elegy’ from Baten Kaitos, which is excellent
" All of them are fine but none of them are ever essential." Ugh, a really painful truth in the Tales of series. well except Bersaria and Graces F obviously hehe
Oof, sad but true. I still like Symphonia and Abyss, but they've got some major faults. My favorite is actually Berseria, and even that one I have a hard time recommending due to the issues of it being on a lower budget. Hopefully Arise becomes a baseline for graphics and combat and they can start putting more effort into story/characters and better dungeon design.
This is the review I was looking for. I just finished this game (late to the party) and I don't understand where the high praise from other reviewers came from. The combat it fine, but the CP system feels limiting and downright punishing in longer endgame dungeons. The story is thin, the way they dealt with the themes of slavery and oppression are questionable, the economy is out of balance, and some of the dialogue sounds like it was written by ChatGPT. I was disappointed with this one as well :/
Your intro is exactly how I felt about this, and so many other games. I usually assume it’s an age thing. Maybe a new generation is playing the games and their voices/opinions are what we hear the most. I know it’s a bit on an arrogant assumption…and maybe a generalization as well…But I just assume that they have a shallow level of experience with everything the genre has to offer, so they think something new and shiny = amazing. This game didn’t even come close to graces f or abyss for me
I'm glad I'm not alone in this feeling. I wonder ifd it's because we're vets or do we actually have high standards? Or are we just desentized? But like you, this game was one of the more mid Tales of games.
@@PelvicGaming I guess it depends on what you prioritize in your hierarchy of importance. I can understand how people who like the graphics “upgrade”, and see the combat changes as an improvement, might prefer arise…but to me, the biggest appeal to a tales game is the characters. I don’t want to take a tales story too too seriously, because I don’t think the writing is ever really good enough to be taken too seriously. That’s why I love graces F so much. It does what I expect from a tales game~ fun and colorful characters (battle quotes and skits are amazing) …and the combat is extremely fun. With arise, it seemed like they saw how much people enjoyed the darker story approach that berseria took, and they were hoping to bank on that by keeping things relatively mature and serious. It just falls flat. The skits are flat and lifeless. The characters feel like they only exist in service of the plot…and while the combat is definitely good, the systems are just really straightforward and lacking any true depth or creativity
Okay, while I'm not on the same page with you overall, an opinion is an opinion and everyone will have a different one. That said, I want to make clear, that I'm not trying to insult anyone nor do I want to change your opinion. Just some things I noticed, while hearing about your impressions of the game. Chronologically as they appear in your video: The (dumb) Name "Zeugle": The term derives from the Grecian term Zeugma, meaning to join together or a yoke. This serves as not only a reference to their chimeric nature, but that term also has roots in the name Zeus, that of the Olympian God and famous philanderer. This gives a godlike suggestion to the Renans. The Characters: This mostly comes down to expectations I guess, but I didn't see them as one dimensional as you did. There where a lot of little glimpses and insights into them, especially (and unfortunately) through a bit too many of the seemingly smaller and unimportant side-quests. But all in all, yes, they could have done better, but also much worse, therefore, I'm quite satisfied with what we've got here. On Vholran: Here I'll mostly agree. They startet out wuite good with him, but I also think he fell apart in the later parts and especially the finale. I expected a lot more trouble with this dude... ^^ The second half exposition: Maybe I'm just used to the practise or I just can find more entertainment in a lot of cutscene and text content, but I basically enjoyed it. (again, matter of taste) I didn't even experience the last dungeon as a chore, like many others critisized. The Battle System: I haven't had that much fun with a action based combat system in like... ever. For my taste and skills and aside from the missing dodge mechanic, which I agree with, they totally nailed it. The Cure Point system: I never had any issues and I liked it very much. I had enough left for every overworld healing event or obstacle. If not, the next or last camp wouldn't be far off. So I had no problems with it and I never had big money issues either. The DLC Discussion: Maybe they shouldn't have put the constant ad there, but I just looked over it. I had the DLCs already (got the collectors edition) but deactivated the exp, combat, etc boost packs. I only used the costumes and these artes are therefore unlockable from the beginning. Let me tell you, I didn't think that they've been the best ones and didn't really used them in later parts anymore. Based on my experience with them active, I don't think anyone without them would really have a noticeably harder playthrough. So as I said before, I didn't even had that much issues with the money. Accessory Crafting, Cooking, Skits: You should have taken a better look at the accessorys, they are extremely useful in many situations... The skits, as the new style is a matter of taste: I personally liked them much. Some could have been better, but overall, I enjoyed them. The cooking however was one of the most useful strategic things and I think I got me a lot of useful bonuses out of it. The lacking enemy variation (aside from reskins): To a degree, I agree to this. They could have done better (but I guess time constraints after re-crafting everything for a new engine, which isn't a easy task got them in the end), They basically gave this fact a reason in the story. The Zeugles are basically cloned weapon-monsters made by the renans. It would make sense that there are not many races amongst them and in 300 years, they just adapted themselves to the environments but the time wasn't lopng enough for evolution to fully kick in. ;-) I know, it's probably a cheap excuse, but somewhat realistic. The animated cut scenes: Here I thought the exact opposite. Aside from the skits itself, for me, the in-engine cut scenes reached a level of quality where the anime-cut szenes began to feel like they didnÄt fit anymore. The characters even looked totally different in my opinion. The studio also did better work for tales games in the past. Maybe they get better agin next time, but as far as Arise goes, I liked the en-engine stuff much more, honestly. The Soundtracks: Opposite for me, I loved the classical score. I didn't really liked the tracks for the openings. I did'nt hate them, but especially the first one was too "poppy" for me. Is it the best game ever? Nope, of course not. The best Tales? I have to fins out, I'm not done with the series. The best JRPG ever or of 2021 (as per the game awards)? Maybe, but we've got SMTV... ;-). Best ever of course not. Best game (in genre or overall) will never happen, because nothing is perfect and depending on who plays it, the opinion will be different. There might be someone out there, for whom the best game ever is named "ET"... ;-)
THANK YOU!!!! Finally, every review I watched said this game was amazing “the best tales game”, “game of the year”… This barely even feels like a Tales game
I tried to like this game, because I heard good things about it, but I was disappointed too. More so than you. They tried too hard to make it "NEXT GEN" And yeah, the story felt like I was going through the motions than actually giving a damn about the characters. The only one I came close to liking was Zephyr, and even then he got killed off too quickly for me to care. Maybe I'm spoiled by Berseria, Vesperia, and Xillia,. Or maybe I picked up Lost Judgment that came out weeks later and that was more satisfying and fulfilling, but yeah, and the whole DLC being shoved in my face, I DO NOT APPRECIATE! I'm not sure if I can support the Tales series going forward if they continue the Arise route. I didn't even finish it. Gave up halfway through the wind realm
I'm enjoying playing through this game but the whole DLC setup is just disgusting and the fact the game has got so much praise and won GOTY for RPG tells Bandai Namco that it's ok and maybe they'll even dial it up a notch in the next game. I wouldn't be bothered as much if it was just cosmetics but there's a difficulty gap between the regular enemies and the bosses. Regular enemies feel really easy to kill and bosses hard. The greedy micro transaction practices take away from on overall great JRPG imo.
I tried to give this game a chance, but I just couldn't get into it from the very beginning of the game. Something about it just felt off. I guess no Tales game can satisfy me the way Symphonia does.
Seriously, spot on review. Played this game and beat it over 60 hours and while I really enjoyed it there were many flaws which you outlined. Subscribed
Maybe this is weird to say, but I'm glad you didn't like the game because I didn't either lol. I also felt like I was playing a different game than everyone else. The story was shallow as could be and the combat felt watered down compared to games like Vesperia and Graces. They hugely improved the graphics, environments, and feel of the controls, but those aren't the most important things to me. In any case, thank you for an honest, straightforward review!
You nailed so many of my dislikes of the game. As a huge tales of fan, the characters were pretty weak compared to other entries, they were very one-note and didnt get me to love any one of them. The world building was weird: 5 realms drastically different just being adjacent to one another didnt feel immersive. I would have preferred that danha was actually a labo manufactured planet for rena, it would explain its unnaturalness. The Boost dual finishers became really annoying after 20 hours since you see them 3 times per combat every combat. The low amount of voice acting and the dlc practices making the restorative items cost a fortune to push you to buy it off really irked me. Yeah it looks beautiful and the combat is shiny and fast, but these arent enough to make it a memorable experience to me. So glad i found your channel, you seem to have a keen eye for character development, story progression and many other things! Your mature approach is a breath of fresh air in the youtube jrpg community full of "goody-two-shoes"!
Tales of graces F had a better battle system. Im playing Arise right now and I think its pretty good. The fluidity in battle takes a while to get use to but it works out. The story isn't to bad at all. Its hard mode is impossible. Id put Abyss Symphonia for the game cube and Graces F at the top
I miss Brutally honest reviews that tells you the details that players actually notice when playing the game, not to just get it out because its part of their video quota of the week Kudos to you and happy holidays!
huh, I've been hearing such great things about this I just kinda blindly put it on my list. It's nice to hear it's not all roses though, so maybe I won't go in with such high expectations
Your opinions of Tales of Arise mirror mine for Tales of Graces f. I didn't hate the game or anything, but I don't get why so many people loved it. The story was ok, the characters, while lovable, don't really develop that much, and the combat was the worst from the tales games I've played. It's not a bad game, but I never got why so many people call it one of if not the best.
I agree with the lack of character development but honestly they were all so wonderful I didn' t need them to have some deep arc. As for the combat, I ...I've never heard someone call it the worst before. D: For me it's hands down the best.
@@PelvicGaming I agree with what you said about the characters being wonderful. Characters don't need development to make them lovable, like Luffy from One Piece. As for your opinion on the combat...I personally can't see it as the best. If you want to see the combat in it's true potential, I recommend you play Tales of Xillia.
@@meryl17 There no invincible frames for when you use an item, the game's AI acts like idiots most of the time, and the limit gauge was by far the worst in the entire series. It's only fun if you have a good idea of what the combat is like. I plan to replay the game some time later to give it a second chance, but to me, it's not the best combat like everyone claims it is.
You will prrrrrrrrobably like DQ XI more, but I get the hesitation after this game's stumbles. Still, I do think you're going to get a lot more out of it.
To be truthful, I haven't touched a Tales of game since a little bit of the original Vesperia on 360. I really want to get back into the series, but then I see titles like this posing off as a "great" title. The DLC wall is a major turn off for me, as I'm sure it is with a lot of people. I, too, heard nothing but good things about Arise, but I'm grateful you brought a lot of its flaws to light. Thank you again for your honest opinion and review. Very informative and had my attention from beginning to end. Keep up your lovely craft. Can't wait for your next video, but I will, like a good person.
Thanks for being a loyal follower ♡ You've been here since the beginning it feels like! If you wanna get into a Tales of game try Berseria! And of course Graces F into that campy shit
You Know This Game Felt More Like Star Ocean Then a Tales Of Game Especially From the Music And All Of The Sci Fi Stuff I Enjoyed It And Even Managed To Platinum It.
Thanks for this! I downloaded the demo a while back and I found it really underwhelming. But then the game came out and everyone I knew was talking about how amazing the game was, and so I kept it on my wishlist and thought about picking it up several times. The kind of stuff you described would be the exact points that would disappoint me as well. You saved my butt!
I have to say that a lot of your points were pretty much how I viewed this game I'm glad I completed this game but it's no where near one of the best games to come out this year/in the Tales series As someone that played the original DQ11 I recommend getting the updated version Anyway great job with the vid hope you enjoy the other games you'll be playing/reviewing 🙏
I recommend that you never buy into the hype for a game because the higher your expectations are, the higher the chance you'll be disappointed Also... I HOPE YOU LOVE DRAGON QUEST 11 DESPITE YOUR HIGH EXPECTATIONS🤞😰🙏
Got this on sale 2 in 1 packaged with Scarlet Nexus and enjoyed the hell out of both of them. I think this one just didn’t do it for Pelvic, which is fair enough. (As apparently the only gamer alive who couldn’t stand RDR2 I get that some things just don’t appeal.) It even made me go back and play some older Tales games, but none of them could compare at all, for me, and I never made it more than a few hours into them. It’s the hectic, free run, dodge roll, combos, specials, break meter combat that’s so fun here, and that led me to looking into some other Bandai-Namco games which fit that model of gameplay. As for the characters here, again, that’s really just preference. I remember thinking that after playing RPG’s since childhood, this was the first one that didn’t have party member I *disliked.*
the game overall is super mid, I saw so many people hype it up, when I played it myself I found that the combat is the absolute BEST in the series, but thats not saying much since the combat in most of them sucks or isn't good until end game/new game plus, which means it sucks, it should be good FROM THE START, not take 30 hours to get good. The architecture and landscapes are the best in the series too, but again, thats not saying much when most of the games have flat plains (lots and lots of grass or sand) in between cities. The story was very below average, Berseria's story actually made me cry at the end, I just wanted this shonen circle jerk to end. The characters were very basic so I didn't care for them much, we moved through their story arcs insanely fast so none of it resonated. The villains were plot devices, not even actual characters.
I've enjoyed Sakuraba's Musik since Golden Sun 1 and 2 on the GBA. In boss battles his rock tunes are similar to Ys' Soundtrack, which kicks ass! BTW, he also composed the Dark Souls Soundtrack! He most definitely has a memorable style.
DLC to skip grinding? In a JRPG? In Tales Of??? Yeeeeuck! It was bad enough when Ubisoft started doing it in AC:O but I didn't expect to see it here :( I bounced off Tales of Symphonia (admittedly it was the ps3 port so not its best showing) - I don't think I'll make Arise my second attempt at getting into Tales Of 😬
I agree with mostly everything in this review except maybe the music I thought it was pretty decent but man when I first saw this game I thought this was the chosen one but I had a looot of problems with this game while playing, from the claustrophobic maps to spongy enemies to the "empty" world where it seems the whole story is only your characters talking with each other (and like you said I didn't find ANY of them particularly interesting and Shionne was just insufferable and when she becomes nicer, she just became boring like everyone else)
Lack of mutiple events and it's only happens when you get to you next objects. As a guy who finished Vesperia I gotta say that game had loads of story events everywhere to the point of feeling like an epic journey. Arise felt like it had less of that, but still enjoy the game and characters.
that's true in the beginning of the video, I've heard nothing but amazing things about this game, and that is the best JRPG of the year which i mean, is not like there were any other JRPGs with the scale of Tales of arise this year anyway lol, so I guess it got nominated by default ?? idk but just imagine if another Dragon Quest or mainline Final Fantasy was released this year they would have overshadowed the hell out of Tales of Arise without a question
One thing I love about the video game medium is there's really no "objective" opinion. Games are subjective for a reason. Tales of Arise is one of my favourite games of 2021, and I adored Rinwell and Hootle. I really enjoyed the party as well, and grew quite fond of them. But hey, each to their own. Always enjoy your videos!
Decided to watch this cuz I've been playing Arise as my first tales game. I got it on a sale and didn't look too closely at the DLC since none of it looked like plot addons and I share much of the same issues so far. I've hit part 2 of the game I hate the cure points system and the back-to-back skits are incredibly annoying i've just started to ignore them. Combat is pretty solid though not being able to dodge out of combos was annoying so I just played as Rinwell and spell fusion is very fun. This game hasn't turned me off to playing another tales game if Graces F is on steam I may give that a go next idk I wanted to vent good review take my like.
I just finished this game I agree with ur most of ur points. I liked the characters the final third of the game had way too much expositions.the combat did get stale cause of the stupidly sponges enemies and volhron was mad disappointing But the ending was good and I enjoyed it for my first tales of game and I hope the rest of the games are better
I don't really care for the Tales series, and nothing about this game looked like it'd change my mind on the matter. That said, I agree with your point regarding the way skits are presented, sort of reminds me of how I really don't like how supports are presented in 3H compared to previous games, the still portraits are cheaper, sure, but the way scenarios are presented in that game just irk me more, I guess they highlight how lacking the animations and graphics are at the end of the day.
Interesting to hear a review that's a bit more down to earth, I personally love the game but I too realize that it's not without its flaws, certainly not the best tales game *coughs* Vesperia. That being said I often hear people talk down on the gald and CP system, I personally like this change, it increases the difficulty by making sure players don't spam healing arts or become item whores. I agree that the Dlc is very corrupt but for a different reason, BN kinda back petaled with the changes I just praised them for, and making it cost money only makes it worse. The Tales of series has always been a walk in the park even on chaos difficulty, and this game actually had me sweating a bit on unknown mode, I hope more people can see that this game is NOT the 10/10 game they think it is.
I'm playing DQXI right now. I really enjoy it's pacing, graphics, and audio; it's giving me a surprising kind of relaxation that I really need right now.
Haha I'm glad I'm not the only one confused by the overwhelming positivity. @.@. I mean cool if they enjoyed it, I just didn't love it as much as everyone else I guess.
I didn't even like the combat in Arise. Free run and dodge just felt so slow and clunky compared to dash and sidestep of Graces f and Xillia 2. The excessively narrow windows of opportunity to do anything did not play to its strengths. Took me until after the 5th realm before the battle system even started to click with me, and by then I was checked out.
To give some people a clue just how egregious the DLC skill situation is, the game healers, Shionne and Dohalim, Shionne will naturally learn an area heal eventually while Dohalim won't. I played on Moderate and you definetly want the area heal. Dohalim can only learn his, Fairy circle, via DLC. Without it he can't quite match up to Shionne. Conversely if you do get the DLC as soon as he joins the group then he surges ahead of shionne for give or take 10 levels until she learns her area heal. I beat the game without touching this largely cause it honestly skeeved me a bit.
Now imagine how good the next Tales game will be after this one gathered so much praise without doing anything special. I also didn't like Arise as much as everyone else, it was a mid Tales game for me, IMO Vesperia, Abyss, Graces f, Destiny and Symphonia are still way better Tales games but I won't complain about Arise finally making the west aware of this JRPG franchise, in fact I feel really happy that it finally happened.
If I'm being honest, I can't totally agree with you. To me, it's better than the last few Tales titles that have come out. It's a step up, and I hope BN keeps trying to raise the bar with future games.
I disagree about the characters I think this is like the first game in the series where I loved all the cast, I also think its time people copy star ocean 5s party system the old 4 members in combat is getting a bit stale. I do agree the main story was so compelling to me I really wanted to know what was the deal with this whole War. I do agree the main villain is very meh hes cool in design and I love water wielder but he is so meh plus hes boss fight was deffo the easiest boss for me. But i will say that second time fight was brutal the fact that he goes for the kill on all of your team was something we never really seen before in a Tales villain and he held nothing back against the kids either. The villain though it does give me cut content vibes, it feels like he should have been in more scenes or at least have more scene time. The third act of this game does really slog with all the cutscenes and talking.
Good review and I agree with nearly every point. It's odd how loved this game is. I think it's a mix of people being easily impressed with decent graphics and flashy combat but also a lot of younger gamers that don't have much for a frame of reference. If Tales of Arise was one of my first few JRPGs, I'm sure I'd describe it as a masterpiece. But for someone that's been playing this genre off and on since the 90s, it's really nothing special. It feels good to play and is pretty to look at, but that's where the praise should end. The characters were plain, the story was stilted, and they blew the budget so hard that we got less enemy variety than a SNES era JRPG. If I had to rate Arise, it would get a 7/10. Average at best, and not anywhere near the best Tales game
Combat, story, music and graphics, all amazing! However the reason I didn't stick with this game and why it fell off for me was the characters, Christ they were dull. As you said the characters are so crucial to this game series, sadly this game didn't have any that I liked (outside of designs). Seems silly to let one aspect put you off a game entirely but it's such an important aspect.
I can't really defend Sakuraba's output, but his early 00s work used to feature a ton of bangers. Golden Sun, the Valkyrie Profiles, hell, even Mario friggin' Tennis all had mad hype tracks. Even the Tales games would have a small handful of amazing battle tracks or atmospheric dungeon tunes. He just sounds burnt out now...
I couldn't finish it. It too... moralistic? I felt like the game constantly was beating me over the head with it's moral virtues. I guess I generally agreed with them, but I'd rather game show, and not tell, these things. Don't spell out the ideas we're suppose to take away from it. Show us what happens, show us the consequences, and let us draw the conclusions ourselves.
Yayy!!! I love your videos :) I agree, the story and characters definitely weren't very good in Arise. However, the combat was the most fun I've had in a Tales game, and the graphics are the most impressive. Story wasn't a huge motivating factor, but the gameplay itself was so fun that it didn't bother me too badly. I completely understand the feeling of a game being built up by the fanbase, only to be disappointed in your own experiences. That was Tales of Vesperia for me. SO many people online talked about how it was not only the best Tales game, but the best game to ever exist. Then I played it, and Vesperia doesn't even make my top 3 Tales games, and it's probably not even in my top 30 video games of all time.
Thanks for your opinion, but is not a bad game, is a good game, yes with flaws but I love it... I love the story, characters and combat. Is my game of the year!..
feel like this game is gonna be looked back on way worse than it is now and previous games but the next game in the series will build apon the gameplay and tec used for this game to make something way better than this.
I appreciate the opposing view after seeing all the dicksucking from the mainstream review sites. I've been into this series since Phantasia but most of the late ones have been disappointments so I haven't touched Arise yet. How would you compare the dungeons of this game to Berseria for example? Mainly the linearity and puzzles.
great review :) I agree with every critisism that you made, I even agree with how significant their bad effect is. I still remember really enjoying Arise though. I think the only real element that I disagree with is that, whilst I didn't get especially attached to any individual character I did find their interpersonal chemistry very engaging and memorable (does that make any sense? like they weren't interesting on their own but I really enjoyed the way that personalities interacted and bounced off each other) Oh and I played on PC and quickly ended up adding infinite gold, xp boosting and applying a 10x damage buff to by party (with cheatengine) - essentially turning off the combat system and any kinds of grinding elements - So i just breezed through the game looking for the parts that were fun (finding owls!) and not having to think much about anything that was annoying.
I enjoyed it for all of the same reasons too. But I did the opposite, I thought the game was easy so I played it on the hardest mode all the way through 😂
I enjoy Shonne and Rinwell relationship during battle. Like after Shonne heal Rinwell like: Y-You saved me? You people do care! Meanwhile, Shonne is like: Now see to it, that you don't hurt again. Hmph! Says, Rinwell. Oh typical Rinwell.
Ooh, harsh, but I feel fairly spot on. I do have to say though that Vholron while being a bad villain, that the series is pretty hit or miss with them. I can't say that someone like Heldalf was much better than him in all honesty. I still overall enjoyed the game, but after few months and the initial hype have toned down, I can see that it was far from perfect. I'm most curious to see what they can do in future with this new engine they've made and hopefully learn from the missteps they had along the way. More than anything, I'm happy that the series is back.
OMG, I feel heard, I feel seen, I feel so represented by this review. It's not a bad game, but its not that great either, I agree 100% with what you said, especially about the skits. That style looked cheap in Lost Odyssey and so does in Tales of Arise. And to be honest, I'm kinda done with these "serious and mature" Tales of games. Give me back my fantasy "childish" Tales of experience!!!
With regards to DQ11 it's different. DQ11 didn't abandon its identity. That franchise is basically like pokemon. It has kept the same formula pretty much since the 90s Arise abandoned many staples of the series and just doesnt feel like a tales game. Not sure if you ever got around to playing DQ11 but as far as turn based games go its one of the best and up there with FF10 This is why final fantasy has been so divisive over the last two decades because they have been constantly evolving (or de evolving to some 😅)
I definitely felt that gald drought at the beginning of the game. While it could be explained that because of slavery it meant dahnan’s couldn’t keep currency, it still was quite difficult to keep health up. Maybe more health recovery points at the beginning to make up for it? It was an alright game, but I would recommend to get it on sale if you want to play.
Ive played almost all the Tales games and this one is nowhere near the best on most metrics. Its one of the worst. The only metric it has every other game beat in is visuals. The game and its surroundings look amazing for a jrpg. Xillia and Graces F are peak tales to me The story starts strong but nosedives after a certain point. Alphen is probably the most bland main character ever and poorly written for the most point. He has an Iron Mask over his face but somehow we have to believe he can see shionne in a dress and get aroused. He can see where to swing his swords too which brings me on to the next contradiction...he wields a blazing sword but doesn't have any burns. He hugs shionne and has no burns. Shionne says the blazing sword is immune to water??? Kisara and Dohalim were the only real interesting ones to me. I absolutely hated how the devs just methodically spam you with skits every time you take a few steps. It feels invasive and the ratio of combat to talking was not balanced at all. They ramp this up to truly disgusting levels after a certain point (cough boarding the starship) because it's like 5 hours straight of talking and walking. For the first time in my life I found myself getting aggrevated at a tales game and was shouting at the screen "omg just get to the point" or "do you ever shut up". I started skipping scenes I also hated how they just randomly shipped off each character into 3 pairs (probably an anime thing but I dont watch animes). The one liner grunting is just cringe and copied from the zelda franchise. YS9 did this too As for combat it's an insult to the tales franchise and an insult to any arpg that exists. I mean the button mapping is awful and cannot be changed so just awful game design (for example designed around face buttons but map jump to one of them) With regards to map actions using the same resource as what you heal with is just bad deisgn. To afford everything you need to buy 100k gald DLC. Again crappy game design Whoever the dev was for this game feels like an 18 year old kid whos never played any good game (or even this game lol) because many of the systems are just badly deisgned
LooooL so you didn’t enjoy it? Funny review, Tales of Aries is actually my GOTY I’ve never enjoyed a tales of game before, Arise gassed me and that battle theme goes Ard! Keep up the great work
This is the first "Tales of" game I bought and couldn't get past the first town, because the "conversations" with NPCs amounted to all of them saying some generic sentence you can't reply to. I was controlling characters with no personalities talking to NPCs with no personalities. Felt amateurish and insulting to ask me to spend dozens of hours on something with so little soul.
While not as good as graces for xillia, I quite liked arise. The only gripe I had was skits. For all the reasons you said. Characters weren't good because the skits were bad. They just repeated the plot, none were charming, and they didn't space them out. They need better writers for that. I will say, being a plot boy over character boy, the story was enough for me to be entertained. But by the end of the game I just skipped all the skits.
I think it's high praise comes from it being made with unreal engine + technical side of the game ironically also it's flaws come from moving to a new engine. For newcomers it's a great entry but for series veterans can feel like it's lost a bit of Tales of magic. Personally I actually enjoyed the skits repetitiveness because as I could only play it short bursts, it was like having " Last time on Dragonball " all over again. Can easily forget a JRPG's story after not playing for a week. And all the DLC nonsense is definitely a decision made by the Bandai Namco overlords.
I am playing Arise right now (off and on) so I'm not going to watch all of your review BUT I'm already seeing that its pretty unimaginative. I do like the graphic style and story boards and it looks like some monster quests. Game play is good, doesn't feel too Rockem Sockum Robots. But am I excited about playing? About as excited as Elden Ring. Meh. But I will finish it eventually.
Wooo!! I got a video out! Its a miracle! Look forward to Valkyria Chronicles 4 review next! (Join the patreon to see a little sneak peek) Then an end of the year video and of course Dragon Quest 11 will be the first review of next year!
Www.patreon.com/pelvicgaming
Nice to hear you’re doing DQXI, I knew you planned to around this time and I’ve been playing it for the past few weeks. So far I’ve found it pretty good in all regards, except bring a podcast or something because there is an hour’s worth of music for a 60+ hour game and you will get *very* tired of it
Great take on Arise. I liked it a lot and overall is probably in my top 3 Tales titles. I’m not a big fan of Berseria so we probably differ there. It’s got good characters but a lot of the rest of that one came up short for me.
Excited for you to play VC4 and DQXI. I love VC1. 4 was good but I prefer the first. I think you’ll enjoy it though! DQXI is one of the best modern classic JRPGs imo. Very long but it’s not a bad type of long. I enjoyed every minute of that one
Currently replaying DQXI. Hopefully I'll have the same opinion about it when I first played and beat it.
There's just something about Dragon Quest 8 that I think will always be the best one 😝
I hope you enjoy Dragon Quest 11. I liked it, but I would temper expectations, especially if you weren't blown away by previous DQ games. The music is pretty weak, the silent protagonist is handled a little weirdly (the camera lingers on him a lot, but he isn't very expressive), and the main story is nice but simple - mostly the framework to host the episodic town stories. That said, it knows how to just be *fun* and let you actually run around and play and even has a world map that lets you set the story aside and just explore. It's definitely one of the best SNES games I ever played :)
Thanks, as always, for your laser POV dissection. Good to hear a more nuanced review.
That DLC practice is unpleasant.
And ofc Tales of Graces f rules. 😎💖
It's always an honor to see you in the comment section! AND YEEESS TALES OF GRACES F FOR LIFE SISTA!!
that dlc shit is annoying AF, smt 5 on switch has the same bs. Modern gaming bs. its infested the industry now. (smt 5 is a good game though but F that dlc)
Arise in a word is just "Safe."
I liked it, but said myself it's biggest downpoint is the story.
I think the game is what the series needed after such a long hiatus to get a bunch of new people into it, and I think it's the best rounded game as in there's no area that's outright bad in execution so nothing should be an immediate turn off but-
Despite all this it makes it hard to grab on to anything and hold the game up as high as many of the predecessors.
It's a tales game that I think is fine for its time but will see very few people going back to it later. It's not like abyss or vesperia where, even with their flaws, there's something really strong worth going back to.
DLC practice was indeed poo too, money-wise though I struggled up front but 10 hours in up to the end I was overly rich.
Funny thing is this wasn’t gonna be a tales game
@@omensoffate I read. I ultimately don't think it matters much though. So many projects start out as something else and become defining works in a series when they finish (not saying that's Arise, but Arise is definitely a tales game at the end of the day.)
This review is so refreshing! All I heard was everyone praising this game - “game of the year”, “best Tales of game ever”, “best JRPG ever” etc. so I did something I always try to never do... I went in with high expectations. That was my immediate downfall because the game was “ok”.
I enjoyed the combat quite a lot and the game looked very good but that was about it. Agreed with the fast travel system and map - fantastic!
I’ve now made the decision that whenever a big JRPG releases, I’ll be staying off Twitter for a good 2 weeks or so because that’s where I was seeing everyone’s praise.
But it is fantastic. 2 weeks later, or 9 months.
@Ogami Lol. I literally went through the same JRPG parkour as you did. Just finished the Trails of Cold Steel and I then started Tales of Arise. I was just "meh" through the whole story, usually sighing at the repetitive skits. I honestly am mind-boggled that this game won JRPG of the year. Alright, it has some great points (visuals, combat, some quality of life improvements from previous Tales), but it's far from a game of the year. That shouldn't even be my opinion at this point.
Your reviews are great and very honest. I still want to play this game, despite it's flaws.
I hope you enjoy it more than I did!!
Honestly, My favorite part about ARISE was doing the Cameo Side Quest. Seeing certain area of Destiny, Symphonia, Abyss, Xillia was pretty cool to see.... And that's about it.
I loved this game. While the story starts with a boom, it definitely falls off in a way. But the mechanics are by far the best in the series. The graphics were great clearly. It's a great recommendation but don't expect t
Tales of Symphonia/Abyss level of story
tales fan? can you give me your general opinion on strory, themes an characters?
how would you rank arise next to the other games?
Not a fan of tales. I like tales of grace f and vesparia better. This tale game have flaws. Most of it are more of endorsing DLC paywall.
The only thing I compliment it is the battle system. Story is average. Graphic is good.
@@tr1bes thanks for the answer. have a nice one.
Definitely disappointing but I didn't hate it. Also wished they still had Go Shiina for the music. Zestiria and Legendia still the best Tales of OSTs.
Damn! That's surprising coming from you as a massive Tales of fan!! But yeah it disappointed me a bit. Thats said I don't think its a shit game.
@@PelvicGaming Lol I do love my Tales of Series. But when I'm disappointed, I ain't gonna lie about it. I feel like if this is someone's first Tales they're gonna have a different opinion about it. Symphonia was my 1st, it may not be the best but it was my favorite. Had so much fun with it and the memories of playing it. I'm sure the same could be said for you and Graces F.
@@PelvicGaming But honestly, Coming out of how great the story Berseria was. I had a feeling even before the game came out it wasn't gonna be able to match up with that....Maybe they knew too.🤷♂️
you have no idea how relieving it is to hear that im not the only one with a problem with sakuraba's music in tales of... its so one note and you can 90% of the time just interchange songs and not even notice the difference
100% agree
I have enjoyed more osts within other Tales Games, but with Arise i only liked the Main battle and the Camping music. The Orchestral music was nice for awhile but got repetitive. 😅
What gets me is it's the same guy who did music for Baten Kaitos, so every time I try to think of a Tales of track I always just imagine that game instead. I love the style he has, I just think it's too repetitive and doesn't stand out between games enough, even if he helps make some absolutely killer tracks.
DQ11 really is what the subtitle says "Echoes of an Elusive Age". They made a JRPG like they used to, and for me, that was extremely comforting. The innovation was the introduction of a flamboyant, gay character, that was the rock that held the party together emotionally... This is innovation if you ask me. Just make sure you do the 3rd act (post credits) of the story, it is the real ending.
Sylvando was pretty funny. Dq11 was really fun, and I love a good long story. The grinding like Usual sucked though. Really needs to go away.
@@jinchuriki7022 Hmm, I just fought every battle on the way, and I didn't need to grind at all. I know a lot of people just skipped battles, and ended up grinding quite a bit towards the end.
The Motoi Sakuraba slander 😱 I agree that the music in Tales of games has never been strong. The man's work on other series though (Baten Kaitos, Valkyrie Profile...) is 👌
Really really liked the Baten Kaitos ost
man is a big name.
Shining Force 3!!
Tales is one of my biggest, “I want to like this but…” series. I’ve tried Symphonia, Abyss, and Berseria and I always lose interest long before the end of the game. At this point I’ve finally learned that this series just isn’t for me
DQ11 was fine. Probably would have appealed more if I’d played more of the series but I didn’t really feel like there was anything noteworthy about it, except the length (and I don’t mean that in a good way). It’s also one of the only games I played without the sound on because the music was freaking awful
I felt the same for DQ 11. The music wore on me and I don't think there was specific town music. It was an OK jrpg. I really liked tales of vesperia and I want to try berseria due to its high praise, but I fear it is just alright. I would play it if it was on the switch, but I doubt I would commit on PS4 or PC
I’m the exact opposite. DQ11 got me in to JRPGS, and the length didn’t seem to bother me. I had never really been exposed to the world of JRPGS besides Pokémon until I played it, so I have a little bit of bias towards it.
Yeah I felt that way about tales too...till I played it with my neighbor. Since then, every tales game I have to play multiplayer or it sucks for me. Play it like a coop dungeon crawler and it's a much, much better experience
I haven't played Arise yet but this was basically my experience with Vesperia. After hearing so many peopl call Vesperia their favorite Tales games I walked away from the experience extremely underwhelmed
Oh you should see my review of Vesperia. I had the exact same experience- It was just okay
That's how I also feel about abyss and Symphonia. I came to the conclusion that I don't feel like the tales series is that good for my tasting, aside from the combat systems I think everything is just average.
Okay… I’ll be real, I like your vids but…
This comment section is hardcore cope. I see a bunch of commenters that didn’t like the attention the game got and didn’t like it for subjective reasons (which I’m okay with) getting justification for not liking it. And a content creator that got overhyped and played said hyped game long after it was out. Worst way to go into a game but your opinions are still valid. I didn’t like the fact that it felt like you tore apart arise for things other tales of games do. The story, the characters.. it just felt like a “new game did it so it’s bad” feeling. Literally every tales of game has cliche character and writing. It was fine until now. Honestly, I think people saw that many reviews gave it the “best tales of game” label and they felt attacked because they have a favorite tales game and it isn’t arise. Mine is Vesperia and I’d be happy for arise if I hated it. And to those people I say, be happy for the tales series. It’s great and never got the attention it deserved. They took a different approach visually and cinematically (and didn’t change much else) and it payed off. Your favorite tales of games weren’t seen. The attention to a new one might change that. You’re allowed to not like it but don’t come at the reviewers who genuinely did. Their opinion isn’t any less valid. I’m saying this because I see a lot of comments saying things like “I was so tired of people singing it’s praises” and “the game got hype it didn’t deserve” like what??? Who are you to decide that?? The game is praised because it did what tales games do, and then in went extra flashy to pull in more people. Now tales is a little more on the map then it was before.
Thank you. You said everything that should be said about it. People are calling this the best JRPG of the year and that’s pushing it. Also the side quests are introduced weirdly in that two of the earliest ones are ones you cannot complete until later so I skipped a few early quests because of that.
Also DQ11 is better than this game. If you liked Final Fantasy 6, Chrono Trigger and enjoy party interaction you should have a better time with it than this game at least.
This game benefitted from “drought clout” like nobody’s business. Solid game, but because 2021 was so dry in gaming, it got way more clout than it really deserved. Not a terrible game, but definitely overrated.
Ya mom got clout drought
Why can't people have just genuinely enjoyed the game? I mean, why does it have to be some excuse as to why they enjoyed something more than you?
@@dangbro5652 because the game is mid
@@omensoffate That doesn't answer my question.. why use excuses to justify how they feel? Not to mention false excuses lol because 2021 was far from dry
@@dangbro5652I think the creator and her audience just don’t vibe with this kinda style (and no I don’t mean the genre of jrpg). There’s a lot of comments that show they enjoy other kinds of things. For example, the combat is supposed to be chained across characters to continue the combo meter. It’s not supposed to be 1-dimensional deplete your gauge, run away to refill, and then coke back 😂
This ended up being my favorite since Symphonia, Legendia and Abyss. I loved it. I respect your opinion though!
Tales of Graces F is, indeed, the best, and you EH HEH! was super adorable! XD
I really appreciate your honest opinion especially since you are a fan of the series.
While playing i always asked myself if i was playing the same game that reviewers who gave it 9s and 10s across the board did, i think they did a pretty good job with the graphics but they really need to put in A LOT of work in many of the other areas.
Absolutely enjoyed your review. As a long time tales of player. It felt like a invitation for brand new players then the fan base. Which is good I'm happy that it brought on a new crowd but with this being game of the year this may be the direction future tales may go into which makes me a little bit nervous but fantastic review nevertheless
interesting comment. i havent played the game yet but it seems to me the invitation you mention is more a result of the media around then the actual producers doing something new. i would even go the other way and say too little was improved/changed from the usual tales of formula. what do you think is missing in Arise?
@@goncaloferreira6429 most tales of games have a certain charm to it. Is very hard to explain you just know it if you've been paying attention to the actual game series. This game felt like as the reviewer said most of the time and energy went towards graphics. This game could have been called "not another RPG" and still had the same effect. The only tales of "staple" was the skits and Even those didn't have the same charm. Again it's hard to explain but you know it if you are a tales of fan
@@vinnymac102 well, that didint help at all. that charm thing could mean a lot of different things to different people.
my origianl point is that all tales ingredients seem to be there: small cast of somewhat tropy characters, skitts, fast combat, anime aestetics, writting and plot, a group of antahgonists, mascots etc. so why no charm? any chance it involves the change to more realistic graphics?
@@goncaloferreira6429 well animated skits, actually dungeons not hallways, actual minigames, mystic arte cut ins, I mean there's quite alot missing in arise.
Ah, yes. The main antagonist is basically discount Sephiroth. Lol
DQXI is great and you will adore Sylvando. Calling it now!
I actually really liked the balance and tension of the item pricing and how rare gold was - made for one of the first JRPGs where I didn’t hoard items, used them often and then felt compelled to pour gold into replacements. Stocking up for that final dungeon was a vibe and I was very grateful there were some mechanics in its design that let me go get more supplies right as I was down to my final orange gel.
But yes - live for your critiques - so many skits - so much weird stilted dialogue. Hush now, I wanna make cool combo strings with my anime fam.
I absolutely agree with you. Tales of Arise is a good game but people are taking too much when say this is the best Tales Game. I think Vesperia, Abyss, Xillia, Symphonia and Berseria are better games.
Tales Of seems to me to be a series which just consistently underwhelms. All of them are fine but none of them are ever essential.
For what it’s worth Sakuraba is definitely capable of good music, he just doesn’t seem to try very hard for Tales. The clip of Arise’s battle theme you played reminds me of his ‘the valedictory elegy’ from Baten Kaitos, which is excellent
" All of them are fine but none of them are ever essential." Ugh, a really painful truth in the Tales of series. well except Bersaria and Graces F obviously hehe
Oof, sad but true. I still like Symphonia and Abyss, but they've got some major faults. My favorite is actually Berseria, and even that one I have a hard time recommending due to the issues of it being on a lower budget. Hopefully Arise becomes a baseline for graphics and combat and they can start putting more effort into story/characters and better dungeon design.
Have you listened to his older Tales works?
Idk pal for me Symphonia, Abyss & Vesperia are THE essential Tales of in any JRPG collection.
This is the review I was looking for. I just finished this game (late to the party) and I don't understand where the high praise from other reviewers came from. The combat it fine, but the CP system feels limiting and downright punishing in longer endgame dungeons. The story is thin, the way they dealt with the themes of slavery and oppression are questionable, the economy is out of balance, and some of the dialogue sounds like it was written by ChatGPT. I was disappointed with this one as well :/
Your intro is exactly how I felt about this, and so many other games. I usually assume it’s an age thing. Maybe a new generation is playing the games and their voices/opinions are what we hear the most. I know it’s a bit on an arrogant assumption…and maybe a generalization as well…But I just assume that they have a shallow level of experience with everything the genre has to offer, so they think something new and shiny = amazing. This game didn’t even come close to graces f or abyss for me
I'm glad I'm not alone in this feeling. I wonder ifd it's because we're vets or do we actually have high standards? Or are we just desentized? But like you, this game was one of the more mid Tales of games.
@@PelvicGaming I guess it depends on what you prioritize in your hierarchy of importance. I can understand how people who like the graphics “upgrade”, and see the combat changes as an improvement, might prefer arise…but to me, the biggest appeal to a tales game is the characters. I don’t want to take a tales story too too seriously, because I don’t think the writing is ever really good enough to be taken too seriously. That’s why I love graces F so much. It does what I expect from a tales game~ fun and colorful characters (battle quotes and skits are amazing) …and the combat is extremely fun. With arise, it seemed like they saw how much people enjoyed the darker story approach that berseria took, and they were hoping to bank on that by keeping things relatively mature and serious. It just falls flat. The skits are flat and lifeless. The characters feel like they only exist in service of the plot…and while the combat is definitely good, the systems are just really straightforward and lacking any true depth or creativity
Okay, while I'm not on the same page with you overall, an opinion is an opinion and everyone will have a different one. That said, I want to make clear, that I'm not trying to insult anyone nor do I want to change your opinion.
Just some things I noticed, while hearing about your impressions of the game. Chronologically as they appear in your video:
The (dumb) Name "Zeugle":
The term derives from the Grecian term Zeugma, meaning to join together or a yoke. This serves as not only a reference to their chimeric nature, but that term also has roots in the name Zeus, that of the Olympian God and famous philanderer. This gives a godlike suggestion to the Renans.
The Characters:
This mostly comes down to expectations I guess, but I didn't see them as one dimensional as you did. There where a lot of little glimpses and insights into them, especially (and unfortunately) through a bit too many of the seemingly smaller and unimportant side-quests. But all in all, yes, they could have done better, but also much worse, therefore, I'm quite satisfied with what we've got here.
On Vholran:
Here I'll mostly agree. They startet out wuite good with him, but I also think he fell apart in the later parts and especially the finale. I expected a lot more trouble with this dude... ^^
The second half exposition:
Maybe I'm just used to the practise or I just can find more entertainment in a lot of cutscene and text content, but I basically enjoyed it. (again, matter of taste) I didn't even experience the last dungeon as a chore, like many others critisized.
The Battle System:
I haven't had that much fun with a action based combat system in like... ever. For my taste and skills and aside from the missing dodge mechanic, which I agree with, they totally nailed it.
The Cure Point system:
I never had any issues and I liked it very much. I had enough left for every overworld healing event or obstacle. If not, the next or last camp wouldn't be far off. So I had no problems with it and I never had big money issues either.
The DLC Discussion:
Maybe they shouldn't have put the constant ad there, but I just looked over it. I had the DLCs already (got the collectors edition) but deactivated the exp, combat, etc boost packs. I only used the costumes and these artes are therefore unlockable from the beginning. Let me tell you, I didn't think that they've been the best ones and didn't really used them in later parts anymore. Based on my experience with them active, I don't think anyone without them would really have a noticeably harder playthrough. So as I said before, I didn't even had that much issues with the money.
Accessory Crafting, Cooking, Skits:
You should have taken a better look at the accessorys, they are extremely useful in many situations... The skits, as the new style is a matter of taste: I personally liked them much. Some could have been better, but overall, I enjoyed them. The cooking however was one of the most useful strategic things and I think I got me a lot of useful bonuses out of it.
The lacking enemy variation (aside from reskins):
To a degree, I agree to this. They could have done better (but I guess time constraints after re-crafting everything for a new engine, which isn't a easy task got them in the end), They basically gave this fact a reason in the story. The Zeugles are basically cloned weapon-monsters made by the renans. It would make sense that there are not many races amongst them and in 300 years, they just adapted themselves to the environments but the time wasn't lopng enough for evolution to fully kick in. ;-) I know, it's probably a cheap excuse, but somewhat realistic.
The animated cut scenes:
Here I thought the exact opposite. Aside from the skits itself, for me, the in-engine cut scenes reached a level of quality where the anime-cut szenes began to feel like they didnÄt fit anymore. The characters even looked totally different in my opinion. The studio also did better work for tales games in the past. Maybe they get better agin next time, but as far as Arise goes, I liked the en-engine stuff much more, honestly.
The Soundtracks:
Opposite for me, I loved the classical score. I didn't really liked the tracks for the openings. I did'nt hate them, but especially the first one was too "poppy" for me.
Is it the best game ever? Nope, of course not. The best Tales? I have to fins out, I'm not done with the series. The best JRPG ever or of 2021 (as per the game awards)? Maybe, but we've got SMTV... ;-). Best ever of course not.
Best game (in genre or overall) will never happen, because nothing is perfect and depending on who plays it, the opinion will be different.
There might be someone out there, for whom the best game ever is named "ET"... ;-)
THANK YOU!!!! Finally, every review I watched said this game was amazing “the best tales game”, “game of the year”… This barely even feels like a Tales game
I tried to like this game, because I heard good things about it, but I was disappointed too. More so than you. They tried too hard to make it "NEXT GEN" And yeah, the story felt like I was going through the motions than actually giving a damn about the characters. The only one I came close to liking was Zephyr, and even then he got killed off too quickly for me to care. Maybe I'm spoiled by Berseria, Vesperia, and Xillia,. Or maybe I picked up Lost Judgment that came out weeks later and that was more satisfying and fulfilling, but yeah, and the whole DLC being shoved in my face, I DO NOT APPRECIATE! I'm not sure if I can support the Tales series going forward if they continue the Arise route. I didn't even finish it. Gave up halfway through the wind realm
I'm enjoying playing through this game but the whole DLC setup is just disgusting and the fact the game has got so much praise and won GOTY for RPG tells Bandai Namco that it's ok and maybe they'll even dial it up a notch in the next game. I wouldn't be bothered as much if it was just cosmetics but there's a difficulty gap between the regular enemies and the bosses. Regular enemies feel really easy to kill and bosses hard.
The greedy micro transaction practices take away from on overall great JRPG imo.
I tried to give this game a chance, but I just couldn't get into it from the very beginning of the game. Something about it just felt off. I guess no Tales game can satisfy me the way Symphonia does.
Seriously, spot on review.
Played this game and beat it over 60 hours and while I really enjoyed it there were many flaws which you outlined.
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Ironically my favorite character was Zephyr smh. Also I love that ending theme
Maybe this is weird to say, but I'm glad you didn't like the game because I didn't either lol. I also felt like I was playing a different game than everyone else. The story was shallow as could be and the combat felt watered down compared to games like Vesperia and Graces. They hugely improved the graphics, environments, and feel of the controls, but those aren't the most important things to me.
In any case, thank you for an honest, straightforward review!
You nailed so many of my dislikes of the game. As a huge tales of fan, the characters were pretty weak compared to other entries, they were very one-note and didnt get me to love any one of them. The world building was weird: 5 realms drastically different just being adjacent to one another didnt feel immersive. I would have preferred that danha was actually a labo manufactured planet for rena, it would explain its unnaturalness. The Boost dual finishers became really annoying after 20 hours since you see them 3 times per combat every combat. The low amount of voice acting and the dlc practices making the restorative items cost a fortune to push you to buy it off really irked me. Yeah it looks beautiful and the combat is shiny and fast, but these arent enough to make it a memorable experience to me. So glad i found your channel, you seem to have a keen eye for character development, story progression and many other things! Your mature approach is a breath of fresh air in the youtube jrpg community full of "goody-two-shoes"!
I'm basic, I think, just since Symphonia's still my favorite Tales of game. Like you, honestly wasn't feeling this one, either.
Tales of graces F had a better battle system. Im playing Arise right now and I think its pretty good. The fluidity in battle takes a while to get use to but it works out. The story isn't to bad at all. Its hard mode is impossible. Id put Abyss Symphonia for the game cube and Graces F at the top
I miss Brutally honest reviews that tells you the details that players actually notice when playing the game, not to just get it out because its part of their video quota of the week
Kudos to you and happy holidays!
huh, I've been hearing such great things about this I just kinda blindly put it on my list. It's nice to hear it's not all roses though, so maybe I won't go in with such high expectations
Your opinions of Tales of Arise mirror mine for Tales of Graces f. I didn't hate the game or anything, but I don't get why so many people loved it. The story was ok, the characters, while lovable, don't really develop that much, and the combat was the worst from the tales games I've played. It's not a bad game, but I never got why so many people call it one of if not the best.
I agree with the lack of character development but honestly they were all so wonderful I didn' t need them to have some deep arc. As for the combat, I ...I've never heard someone call it the worst before. D: For me it's hands down the best.
@@PelvicGaming I agree with what you said about the characters being wonderful. Characters don't need development to make them lovable, like Luffy from One Piece. As for your opinion on the combat...I personally can't see it as the best. If you want to see the combat in it's true potential, I recommend you play Tales of Xillia.
@@meryl17 There no invincible frames for when you use an item, the game's AI acts like idiots most of the time, and the limit gauge was by far the worst in the entire series. It's only fun if you have a good idea of what the combat is like. I plan to replay the game some time later to give it a second chance, but to me, it's not the best combat like everyone claims it is.
You will prrrrrrrrobably like DQ XI more, but I get the hesitation after this game's stumbles. Still, I do think you're going to get a lot more out of it.
To be truthful, I haven't touched a Tales of game since a little bit of the original Vesperia on 360. I really want to get back into the series, but then I see titles like this posing off as a "great" title. The DLC wall is a major turn off for me, as I'm sure it is with a lot of people. I, too, heard nothing but good things about Arise, but I'm grateful you brought a lot of its flaws to light. Thank you again for your honest opinion and review. Very informative and had my attention from beginning to end. Keep up your lovely craft. Can't wait for your next video, but I will, like a good person.
Thanks for being a loyal follower ♡ You've been here since the beginning it feels like! If you wanna get into a Tales of game try Berseria! And of course Graces F into that campy shit
You Know This Game Felt More Like Star Ocean Then a Tales Of Game Especially From the Music And All Of The Sci Fi Stuff I Enjoyed It And Even Managed To Platinum It.
Thanks for this! I downloaded the demo a while back and I found it really underwhelming. But then the game came out and everyone I knew was talking about how amazing the game was, and so I kept it on my wishlist and thought about picking it up several times. The kind of stuff you described would be the exact points that would disappoint me as well. You saved my butt!
I'm so happy to help! Yeah idk what people were talking about being the greatest tales of game....
I have to say that a lot of your points were pretty much how I viewed this game I'm glad I completed this game but it's no where near one of the best games to come out this year/in the Tales series As someone that played the original DQ11 I recommend getting the updated version Anyway great job with the vid hope you enjoy the other games you'll be playing/reviewing 🙏
I recommend that you never buy into the hype for a game because the higher your expectations are, the higher the chance you'll be disappointed
Also... I HOPE YOU LOVE DRAGON QUEST 11 DESPITE YOUR HIGH EXPECTATIONS🤞😰🙏
Oh you're 100% right. I try not too. ):
Got this on sale 2 in 1 packaged with Scarlet Nexus and enjoyed the hell out of both of them. I think this one just didn’t do it for Pelvic, which is fair enough. (As apparently the only gamer alive who couldn’t stand RDR2 I get that some things just don’t appeal.) It even made me go back and play some older Tales games, but none of them could compare at all, for me, and I never made it more than a few hours into them. It’s the hectic, free run, dodge roll, combos, specials, break meter combat that’s so fun here, and that led me to looking into some other Bandai-Namco games which fit that model of gameplay. As for the characters here, again, that’s really just preference. I remember thinking that after playing RPG’s since childhood, this was the first one that didn’t have party member I *disliked.*
DQ11 is amazing, but it can get grindy and sometimes feels padded out.
I am so glade to know I am not the only one with the problem of the game. But it is a fun game, just not game of the year for me.
the game overall is super mid, I saw so many people hype it up, when I played it myself I found that the combat is the absolute BEST in the series, but thats not saying much since the combat in most of them sucks or isn't good until end game/new game plus, which means it sucks, it should be good FROM THE START, not take 30 hours to get good. The architecture and landscapes are the best in the series too, but again, thats not saying much when most of the games have flat plains (lots and lots of grass or sand) in between cities. The story was very below average, Berseria's story actually made me cry at the end, I just wanted this shonen circle jerk to end. The characters were very basic so I didn't care for them much, we moved through their story arcs insanely fast so none of it resonated. The villains were plot devices, not even actual characters.
I honestly didn't see half the issues she had with this game. It's my second ever tales of game and I love it. To each their own I guess.
I've enjoyed Sakuraba's Musik since Golden Sun 1 and 2 on the GBA. In boss battles his rock tunes are similar to Ys' Soundtrack, which kicks ass!
BTW, he also composed the Dark Souls Soundtrack!
He most definitely has a memorable style.
Finally, someone who shares the same opinion as me on this game.
DLC to skip grinding? In a JRPG? In Tales Of??? Yeeeeuck!
It was bad enough when Ubisoft started doing it in AC:O but I didn't expect to see it here :(
I bounced off Tales of Symphonia (admittedly it was the ps3 port so not its best showing) - I don't think I'll make Arise my second attempt at getting into Tales Of 😬
Just get it for pc and use cheats for Buffs like double xp
I agree with mostly everything in this review except maybe the music I thought it was pretty decent but man when I first saw this game I thought this was the chosen one but I had a looot of problems with this game while playing, from the claustrophobic maps to spongy enemies to the "empty" world where it seems the whole story is only your characters talking with each other (and like you said I didn't find ANY of them particularly interesting and Shionne was just insufferable and when she becomes nicer, she just became boring like everyone else)
Lack of mutiple events and it's only happens when you get to you next objects. As a guy who finished Vesperia I gotta say that game had loads of story events everywhere to the point of feeling like an epic journey. Arise felt like it had less of that, but still enjoy the game and characters.
that's true in the beginning of the video, I've heard nothing but amazing things about this game, and that is the best JRPG of the year which i mean, is not like there were any other JRPGs with the scale of Tales of arise this year anyway lol, so I guess it got nominated by default ?? idk but just imagine if another Dragon Quest or mainline Final Fantasy was released this year they would have overshadowed the hell out of Tales of Arise without a question
at least in brand name.
One thing I love about the video game medium is there's really no "objective" opinion. Games are subjective for a reason.
Tales of Arise is one of my favourite games of 2021, and I adored Rinwell and Hootle. I really enjoyed the party as well, and grew quite fond of them. But hey, each to their own.
Always enjoy your videos!
Decided to watch this cuz I've been playing Arise as my first tales game. I got it on a sale and didn't look too closely at the DLC since none of it looked like plot addons and I share much of the same issues so far. I've hit part 2 of the game I hate the cure points system and the back-to-back skits are incredibly annoying i've just started to ignore them. Combat is pretty solid though not being able to dodge out of combos was annoying so I just played as Rinwell and spell fusion is very fun. This game hasn't turned me off to playing another tales game if Graces F is on steam I may give that a go next idk I wanted to vent good review take my like.
I just finished this game I agree with ur most of ur points. I liked the characters the final third of the game had way too much expositions.the combat did get stale cause of the stupidly sponges enemies and volhron was mad disappointing But the ending was good and I enjoyed it for my first tales of game and I hope the rest of the games are better
Symphonia is the best 😁
I don't really care for the Tales series, and nothing about this game looked like it'd change my mind on the matter. That said, I agree with your point regarding the way skits are presented, sort of reminds me of how I really don't like how supports are presented in 3H compared to previous games, the still portraits are cheaper, sure, but the way scenarios are presented in that game just irk me more, I guess they highlight how lacking the animations and graphics are at the end of the day.
Same here. I couldn't get into Tales series. Something about them feels too childish or off about them.
Interesting to hear a review that's a bit more down to earth, I personally love the game but I too realize that it's not without its flaws, certainly not the best tales game *coughs* Vesperia. That being said I often hear people talk down on the gald and CP system, I personally like this change, it increases the difficulty by making sure players don't spam healing arts or become item whores. I agree that the Dlc is very corrupt but for a different reason, BN kinda back petaled with the changes I just praised them for, and making it cost money only makes it worse.
The Tales of series has always been a walk in the park even on chaos difficulty, and this game actually had me sweating a bit on unknown mode, I hope more people can see that this game is NOT the 10/10 game they think it is.
Glad to see someone finally speaking the truth about this game. 🙏. Great video 👍👍
I'm playing DQXI right now. I really enjoy it's pacing, graphics, and audio; it's giving me a surprising kind of relaxation that I really need right now.
Tales of Graces F is not only the best Tales game it's probably the best jrpg of the ps3
THANK YOU I’ve been seeing all these positive reviews and I’m like, did we even play the same game!?
Haha I'm glad I'm not the only one confused by the overwhelming positivity. @.@. I mean cool if they enjoyed it, I just didn't love it as much as everyone else I guess.
My personal game of the year but thats the beauty of opinion. It's subjective. Great review!
Fair enough! And thank you for watching!!
I really loved this game personally but to each their own
I didn't even like the combat in Arise. Free run and dodge just felt so slow and clunky compared to dash and sidestep of Graces f and Xillia 2. The excessively narrow windows of opportunity to do anything did not play to its strengths. Took me until after the 5th realm before the battle system even started to click with me, and by then I was checked out.
To give some people a clue just how egregious the DLC skill situation is, the game healers, Shionne and Dohalim, Shionne will naturally learn an area heal eventually while Dohalim won't. I played on Moderate and you definetly want the area heal. Dohalim can only learn his, Fairy circle, via DLC. Without it he can't quite match up to Shionne. Conversely if you do get the DLC as soon as he joins the group then he surges ahead of shionne for give or take 10 levels until she learns her area heal. I beat the game without touching this largely cause it honestly skeeved me a bit.
Now imagine how good the next Tales game will be after this one gathered so much praise without doing anything special. I also didn't like Arise as much as everyone else, it was a mid Tales game for me, IMO Vesperia, Abyss, Graces f, Destiny and Symphonia are still way better Tales games but I won't complain about Arise finally making the west aware of this JRPG franchise, in fact I feel really happy that it finally happened.
If I'm being honest, I can't totally agree with you. To me, it's better than the last few Tales titles that have come out. It's a step up, and I hope BN keeps trying to raise the bar with future games.
I disagree about the characters I think this is like the first game in the series where I loved all the cast, I also think its time people copy star ocean 5s party system the old 4 members in combat is getting a bit stale. I do agree the main story was so compelling to me I really wanted to know what was the deal with this whole War. I do agree the main villain is very meh hes cool in design and I love water wielder but he is so meh plus hes boss fight was deffo the easiest boss for me. But i will say that second time fight was brutal the fact that he goes for the kill on all of your team was something we never really seen before in a Tales villain and he held nothing back against the kids either. The villain though it does give me cut content vibes, it feels like he should have been in more scenes or at least have more scene time. The third act of this game does really slog with all the cutscenes and talking.
Yeah I agree. The game was OK but I didn't see why people were going crazy over it. The art style was really cool though
Good review and I agree with nearly every point. It's odd how loved this game is. I think it's a mix of people being easily impressed with decent graphics and flashy combat but also a lot of younger gamers that don't have much for a frame of reference. If Tales of Arise was one of my first few JRPGs, I'm sure I'd describe it as a masterpiece. But for someone that's been playing this genre off and on since the 90s, it's really nothing special. It feels good to play and is pretty to look at, but that's where the praise should end. The characters were plain, the story was stilted, and they blew the budget so hard that we got less enemy variety than a SNES era JRPG. If I had to rate Arise, it would get a 7/10. Average at best, and not anywhere near the best Tales game
Combat, story, music and graphics, all amazing! However the reason I didn't stick with this game and why it fell off for me was the characters, Christ they were dull. As you said the characters are so crucial to this game series, sadly this game didn't have any that I liked (outside of designs). Seems silly to let one aspect put you off a game entirely but it's such an important aspect.
I can't really defend Sakuraba's output, but his early 00s work used to feature a ton of bangers. Golden Sun, the Valkyrie Profiles, hell, even Mario friggin' Tennis all had mad hype tracks. Even the Tales games would have a small handful of amazing battle tracks or atmospheric dungeon tunes. He just sounds burnt out now...
This is easily the best review of this game. You pointed out very important features that everyone else is silent about.
Wowie, thank you kindly.
I couldn't finish it. It too... moralistic? I felt like the game constantly was beating me over the head with it's moral virtues. I guess I generally agreed with them, but I'd rather game show, and not tell, these things. Don't spell out the ideas we're suppose to take away from it. Show us what happens, show us the consequences, and let us draw the conclusions ourselves.
Yayy!!! I love your videos :) I agree, the story and characters definitely weren't very good in Arise. However, the combat was the most fun I've had in a Tales game, and the graphics are the most impressive. Story wasn't a huge motivating factor, but the gameplay itself was so fun that it didn't bother me too badly. I completely understand the feeling of a game being built up by the fanbase, only to be disappointed in your own experiences. That was Tales of Vesperia for me. SO many people online talked about how it was not only the best Tales game, but the best game to ever exist. Then I played it, and Vesperia doesn't even make my top 3 Tales games, and it's probably not even in my top 30 video games of all time.
I finished Zestiria and Zillia and they were both dull af, put me off Tales games for life
Zesty is terrible. I remember enjoying Xillia personally but it's been so long!
Thanks for your opinion, but is not a bad game, is a good game, yes with flaws but I love it... I love the story, characters and combat. Is my game of the year!..
Haha, I like your take on the game, didn’t beat around the bush at all and I appreciate that Lady Pelvic
Haha I never do
feel like this game is gonna be looked back on way worse than it is now and previous games but the next game in the series will build apon the gameplay and tec used for this game to make something way better than this.
I appreciate the opposing view after seeing all the dicksucking from the mainstream review sites. I've been into this series since Phantasia but most of the late ones have been disappointments so I haven't touched Arise yet. How would you compare the dungeons of this game to Berseria for example? Mainly the linearity and puzzles.
great review :)
I agree with every critisism that you made, I even agree with how significant their bad effect is. I still remember really
enjoying Arise though. I think the only real element that I disagree with is that, whilst I didn't get especially attached to any individual character I did find their interpersonal chemistry very engaging and memorable (does that make any sense? like they weren't interesting on their own but I really enjoyed the way that personalities interacted and bounced off each other)
Oh and I played on PC and quickly ended up adding infinite gold, xp boosting and applying a 10x damage buff to by party (with cheatengine) - essentially turning off the combat system and any kinds of grinding elements - So i just breezed through the game looking for the parts that were fun (finding owls!) and not having to think much about anything that was annoying.
I enjoyed it for all of the same reasons too. But I did the opposite, I thought the game was easy so I played it on the hardest mode all the way through 😂
I enjoy Shonne and Rinwell relationship during battle. Like after Shonne heal Rinwell like: Y-You saved me? You people do care! Meanwhile, Shonne is like: Now see to it, that you don't hurt again. Hmph! Says, Rinwell. Oh typical Rinwell.
Ooh, harsh, but I feel fairly spot on. I do have to say though that Vholron while being a bad villain, that the series is pretty hit or miss with them. I can't say that someone like Heldalf was much better than him in all honesty. I still overall enjoyed the game, but after few months and the initial hype have toned down, I can see that it was far from perfect. I'm most curious to see what they can do in future with this new engine they've made and hopefully learn from the missteps they had along the way. More than anything, I'm happy that the series is back.
OMG, I feel heard, I feel seen, I feel so represented by this review. It's not a bad game, but its not that great either, I agree 100% with what you said, especially about the skits. That style looked cheap in Lost Odyssey and so does in Tales of Arise.
And to be honest, I'm kinda done with these "serious and mature" Tales of games. Give me back my fantasy "childish" Tales of experience!!!
With regards to DQ11 it's different. DQ11 didn't abandon its identity. That franchise is basically like pokemon. It has kept the same formula pretty much since the 90s
Arise abandoned many staples of the series and just doesnt feel like a tales game. Not sure if you ever got around to playing DQ11 but as far as turn based games go its one of the best and up there with FF10
This is why final fantasy has been so divisive over the last two decades because they have been constantly evolving (or de evolving to some 😅)
I definitely felt that gald drought at the beginning of the game. While it could be explained that because of slavery it meant dahnan’s couldn’t keep currency, it still was quite difficult to keep health up. Maybe more health recovery points at the beginning to make up for it? It was an alright game, but I would recommend to get it on sale if you want to play.
Ive played almost all the Tales games and this one is nowhere near the best on most metrics. Its one of the worst. The only metric it has every other game beat in is visuals. The game and its surroundings look amazing for a jrpg. Xillia and Graces F are peak tales to me
The story starts strong but nosedives after a certain point. Alphen is probably the most bland main character ever and poorly written for the most point. He has an Iron Mask over his face but somehow we have to believe he can see shionne in a dress and get aroused. He can see where to swing his swords too which brings me on to the next contradiction...he wields a blazing sword but doesn't have any burns. He hugs shionne and has no burns. Shionne says the blazing sword is immune to water??? Kisara and Dohalim were the only real interesting ones to me.
I absolutely hated how the devs just methodically spam you with skits every time you take a few steps. It feels invasive and the ratio of combat to talking was not balanced at all. They ramp this up to truly disgusting levels after a certain point (cough boarding the starship) because it's like 5 hours straight of talking and walking. For the first time in my life I found myself getting aggrevated at a tales game and was shouting at the screen "omg just get to the point" or "do you ever shut up". I started skipping scenes
I also hated how they just randomly shipped off each character into 3 pairs (probably an anime thing but I dont watch animes). The one liner grunting is just cringe and copied from the zelda franchise. YS9 did this too
As for combat it's an insult to the tales franchise and an insult to any arpg that exists. I mean the button mapping is awful and cannot be changed so just awful game design (for example designed around face buttons but map jump to one of them)
With regards to map actions using the same resource as what you heal with is just bad deisgn.
To afford everything you need to buy 100k gald DLC. Again crappy game design
Whoever the dev was for this game feels like an 18 year old kid whos never played any good game (or even this game lol) because many of the systems are just badly deisgned
Are you going to play SMT V?
LooooL so you didn’t enjoy it? Funny review, Tales of Aries is actually my GOTY I’ve never enjoyed a tales of game before, Arise gassed me and that battle theme goes Ard! Keep up the great work
This is the first "Tales of" game I bought and couldn't get past the first town, because the "conversations" with NPCs amounted to all of them saying some generic sentence you can't reply to. I was controlling characters with no personalities talking to NPCs with no personalities. Felt amateurish and insulting to ask me to spend dozens of hours on something with so little soul.
While not as good as graces for xillia, I quite liked arise.
The only gripe I had was skits. For all the reasons you said. Characters weren't good because the skits were bad. They just repeated the plot, none were charming, and they didn't space them out. They need better writers for that.
I will say, being a plot boy over character boy, the story was enough for me to be entertained. But by the end of the game I just skipped all the skits.
Bro your reviews are A1! Love the personality flair! Keep up the good work! These videos look super intense to edit and make !!
Glad you like them! I appreciate the kind words
I think it's high praise comes from it being made with unreal engine + technical side of the game ironically also it's flaws come from moving to a new engine. For newcomers it's a great entry but for series veterans can feel like it's lost a bit of Tales of magic.
Personally I actually enjoyed the skits repetitiveness because as I could only play it short bursts, it was like having " Last time on Dragonball " all over again. Can easily forget a JRPG's story after not playing for a week.
And all the DLC nonsense is definitely a decision made by the Bandai Namco overlords.
Is this a good game if I didn't like zestria and I didn't like abyss I liked graces f and vesperia there very hit and miss for me.
I am playing Arise right now (off and on) so I'm not going to watch all of your review BUT I'm already seeing that its pretty unimaginative. I do like the graphic style and story boards and it looks like some monster quests. Game play is good, doesn't feel too Rockem Sockum Robots. But am I excited about playing? About as excited as Elden Ring. Meh. But I will finish it eventually.