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. 😎💖
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.
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.)
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.
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.
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.
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 👌
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.
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!
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
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.
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!
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
This is why I really like your channel. You are not afraid to go against the grain of what most people think and I respect you very much for that. This has been the most hyped Tales game since Symphonia in my opinion. Many commenters on TH-cam view it as a game you just can’t talk bad about. However I knew something was up when Erick Landon put it as his 6th or 7th best Tales game. And now your review confirmed it. The game is overhyped and over praised. The fact that it was best RPG of 2021 didn’t help matters either. That being said, I still have yet to play it. However after this review I’m now prepared for a very different experience then your typical JRPG. I’m worried about the money aspect now. I always seem to spend money on stuff in JRPGs that end up being poor choices not too long after. I really hope the quests are repeatable. Because if they are not I’m concerned I’ll trap myself with poor armor and no money and therefore have big problems progressing? Maybe I’m over reacting. I don’t know. Kind of wonder over time if this game will be viewed like FF8. Popular when it came out but now very divisive in the JRPG community with some people loving it and others downright hating it. We shall see.
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.
I fell in love with RPGs thanks to FF6, FF7, Suikoden 1 & 2, Xenogears etc in the 90s, and I got bored of DQXI pretty quickly. I finished Dragon Quest VIII but felt that the experience was pretty meh overall. Dragon Quest XI manages to be even less interesting (at least at the start). It's always "get to a new town >> there is a problem >> fix it by going through a dungeon >> get a new playable char (or not) >> rince and repeat". Nothing grabs you. So I stopped playing and never went back. If you partly like JRPGs for the FF-like cinematic experiences of the 90s / early 2000s, you'll be disappointed. I wouldn't say it's one of the best SNES RPGs, but rather one of the best NES RPGs since I feel that FF4, FF6 and Chrono Trigger are way more interesting. But maybe I just got older and it's not like I don't have tons of games in my backlog. Maybe I wasn't patient enough, but the premise of the story is absolutely awful (your mother reveals that you're basically some kind of a "chosen one" (read: a JRPG hero) and that there must be evil at work somewhere out there, so she urges you to go and find it... ...Can a JRPG story be even worse?). From what I've seen, DQ11 is insanely uninspired and the pinacle of bought-out reviews.
I haven't played the full game yet, just the demo, but I agree the CP system irked me. I understand that there needs to be a cost to heal when there are no TP, but this felt tacked on. And FINALLY someone agrees with me about Motoi Sakuraba being overrated! Technically, he makes good compositions, but they ALWAYS sound the same : Rocky/jazzy battle themes, the feel-good generic field themes and the "bwaaaaaaaahhhh" castle themes, etc.
Arise did a lot of things right but still, so many parts of it were regressions compared to the previous entry - Berseria. Both the protagonist and villain are not as well-written as Berseria's. Normal attack is back and it's the worst implementation of normal attack in a Tales game yet - there is exactly one repetitive sequence, no directional modifier, and it takes up 1 button that could have been used for arte binding, which is now down to 3 artes. Combo customization is gone. Skill system has too many ambiguous skills. Healing items give you flat amount and scale terribly. Shopping menu doesn't allow buy/sell in batches. No more Holy Bottle and Dark Bottle. Facial expressions in skits are now super stiff because they use 3d models. Granted, it has the most wholesome and satisfying ending out of every Tales games ever and that's the lasting impression people have of Arise.
I haven't played it yet, but man, what a letdown to learn about all the flaws with this one. it looks so good. 16:36 HA! nice try, but that's Vesperia :) btw, do you have any way of playing the fan-translation of Tales of Destiny DC that dropped earlier this year? would love to hear your take on it. I think you'd like it, seeing as it was done by the same team that later did Graces. it's where they pulled the CC based battle system from. think of it as a 2D version of the battle system in Graces.
I wasn't "fully" on board with your opinions until you said Tales of Graces was the Magnum Opus, and then it was like, "Oh ish, yea!!" Arise is paltry when compared to something as amazing as Graces. I 'm honestly so torn on Arise because I think the story just falls out from underneath itself when you get the MAJ reveal about the Renan home world :(
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 😬
Probabaly the most boring Tales Of game I've ever played. And it's now the highest rated game in the series. I really don't understand. Characters are boring, skits are boring, and no after battle animations. All the fun and charm is gone. The story was solid and well paced, but compleeeetely falls apart. Combat system was decent until you realize Shionne or Rinwell spam is way more effective and brain dead than any infinite you are pulling off on a single enemy with one of the melee characters. Blah. I hope this sterile and overrated game isn't the blueprint for the future. They still have yet to fix the boring world structure and terrible dungeons that have plagued the series since Xillia. This is just a prettier version in the same line of those budget ass Tales Of games. Except I much prefer the combat of Xillia or the characters of Berseria. Magilou has more personality in her pinky than this entire cast combined. Shot out to Shionne's black dress tho.
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.
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 am definitely with you on that. I really like the series in general. But this ... I only wanted it to end at some point and then the neverending skit - skit - cutscene - 10 minutes of fighting - cutscene, ANOTHER cutscene - skit - skit! almost made me stop playing before even reaching the end ... It is not overall bad. There are things I liked. But I was pretty disappointed, all in all. I am not sure where all the positive reviews came from, to be honest. And I also thought the the new style of skits does not work. I looked back at some in Graces f as an example for the old style and they are still so charming!
I'm glad it's not just me who was massively disappointed in this game. All I liked was the combat and fast travel. And I also dislike the cp system. I disliked like, everything else. Especially the characters. I was so mad after buying 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.
Thank you for this review. I'm glad you mentioned the DLC part. That is why I have not purchased the game, ESPECIALLY seeing as it is a 80 CAD game... I will instead replay the previous entries and spend my money on other titles. :)
Thank you for this! I think its safe to say the tales of series isn't for me, i played the tales of gacha on my phone as my first introduction and whole the units looked cool I had no idea who was what so I finally got tales of vesperia on steam last year after eyeballing that game for YEARS and when I finally played it.....SUPER UNDERWHELMED. Now with arise I played the demo and it was okayyyy but I had red flags during that 30 minutes and YOU CONFIRMED EVERY RED FLAG. The characters felt stiff, The unfunny try hard cutscenes,. Etc. Sadly.i already got arise on steam sale because of the hype and I will give it a second try but im in no rush. Please pelvic, try out 13 sentinels I think you'll LOVE IT. I thought DQ11 Which I was genuinely hyped for was pretty bland all throughout, i mean there's classic tropes and then there's boring basic-starter-kit.
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.
Aww I was hoping you’d like it, but that’s why I watch the videos because you never. I personally loved the game and characters but can agree with the flows specially the DLC bullshit, thankfully later in the game money isn’t a problem but it may be too late then. HATED the CP healing thing as well but the combat is so fun and very good voice acting for the English crew, I’ll play it again down the line in Japanese. Edit: Meant to say you never know what you’ll think of things etc.
Really agree, though combat was amazing, like superb, especially on hard (or whatever its called). But yes, otherwise, I felt just like you. I've been confused why this is JRPG of the year.
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
"shit is fuckin expensive." Oh I've missed you. These reviews are excellent and I'm always laughing too. I haven't played this yet. Haven't actually played a Tales game yet. Playing digital devil saga on PS2 among other things. Do you play other genres?
OKAY, so! I've been waitin' for you to drop this vid ever since our little chat on Twitter, cause boy did I have some thoughts, but didn't want to spoil you haha. First and foremost, great vid, agreed with pretty much everything. Now, I did actually platinum this game, and I feel like, doing all the extra stuff was, for the most part, pretty good (there are some boss battles that are ABSOLUTE trash, looking at you Earth Gnome), but I think one of the biggest issues is that until you're really pushed to change your way of play up, you won't really discover that using the blazing sword effectively makes all the slow slog battles that much faster. Once I found out how GOOD and insanely powerful the blazing sword techniques were, I never went back, but the main story is pretty simple so you practically never need to use it. In fact, when I DID use it on main bosses, they'd quite literally die in seconds. It was super lopsided. The areas were beautiful and I do agree that I was more invested in the main story than the characters. Dohalim was probably my favorite character for being so... aloof. That was more tolerable than all the other 1 beat traits the other characters had. The main villain was essentially like a poor man's Kuja from FF9? Like, the similarities between him & Alphen and Zidane & Kuja are hard to ignore. But also he's so boring that while writing this, I literally... cannot remember his name?? That being said, I had FUN with the game, and as long as I turned my brain off, it was a decent little romp through a fantasy world, but the world itself I wanted to explore more and each area felt so contained and tiny that it was hard to really immerse myself in it. Also, and this is super nitpicky I'm sure, but it really bugs me when games have a timeskip in them, acknowledged by the cast themselves (IE jumping from Part 1 to Part2) but the rest of the world doesn't follow suit at ALL? Like damn, it's been literal MONTHS and the people in the first region are still dressing in rags and living in stone huts with no doors or windows? I don't think it would have been too hard to make another map for the towns in Area 1 that shows some of the improvement since these people were liberated. Nicer houses, things under construction, clean people with actual clothes and shoes? But I digress. Anyway, if anything, I'll say that I'm thankful for Tales of Arise for getting me INTO the series, because from my perspective, it's all uphill from here, and can only really get better. I know I have a whole SLEW of Tales games to check out now, so at the very least, I'm happy I finally gave Tales a try, even if it was the most lukewarm entry. Anyway, I wrote entirely too long of a message in a god damn TH-cam comment, but again, thanks for the vid!
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!
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 got into tales almost two years ago. I played Tales of Symphonia, Vesperia and Berseria before Arise. I think ToA didn't have the best cast nor story but I loved the combat. I was actually having fun for the first time in a Tales game on higher difficulties.
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
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.
I really enjoyed Arise, the combat is stellar and the characters are great, especially Shionne and Dohalim, the story was weak tho, rushed and poorly paced with some big exposition dumps towards the end instead of throughout and yeah, the villain was lame Overall tho, it was a good game but Scarlet Nexus should have won the best RPG award imo
Great review, Glad to see more people come out and say that they were disapointed. I never got to finshes the game becuse the battles drove me to put the game down and stop playing. I insted played Tales of Rebirth, which despite needing to uses a PDF translation guide was a leages better game to play. BTW are you sure this game has the worst villian becuse main villian in Tales of Destiny just shows up randomly at the end of the game out of nowhere.
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!..
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.
I love your videos, but you love Graces which I hate, and you dislike Arise, which I love. So I will leave a dislike but I still look forward to your videos :D
I was one of the people singing it's praises mainly because I strongly dislike Berseria due to it's Game play. I disliked almost everything about it's game play. I played it all the way through for it's story, but I was bitter about it all the way. Tales of Arise on the other hand, I will tolerate an OK story if it gives me more user friendly combat. This game didn't give me anything I absolutely can't stand like Berseria did. I'm not a "Tales fan" btw. Berseria was the first one I played, and it inspired me to not touch the previous games with a 10 ft pole.
@@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.🤷♂️
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.
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.
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!
Wow. I was 100% going to get this, based on all the positive reviews I'd seen, but there's some serious deal breakers here. You changed my mind. Shocked I've not heard anyone talking about most of these issues before now.
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.
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.
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 :/
I understand the criticism of Tales music, it mostly plays it safe outside of some stand-out tracks every now and then. Sometimes it does a good job a creating the right atmosphere for the areas you're in.
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.
Honestly the intro sums up pretty much a conclusion I came to about the steam review system as a whole. I love me a whole mix of different game genres (excluding shooters and sportsgames mostly...so the popular stuff I guess) but everytime I browse the lists and nooks of the internet for titles in hopes for new experiences or interesting aspects - may they be in gameplay, worldbuilding, graphic design or whatever - it is a given that I will stumble my uneducated way through the pitfalls of the "player"based review scoring system of steam where I can bet that I will find games with 100s of reviews telling me that appearently that game is a 80+/100 experience and as I find myself being interested in a game that clearly I clicked on for a reason and then finding out it has such a positive reception I would think they must do something right to give me an experience in at least one or two of the above named aspects, if not even be an all around great experience that would definitely be worth my time to check out. And obviously there is a lot to say about whether a numerical scoring system for an artpiece can ever truly give a good impression of that work, overall it is always one of the first things that catches the attention and an indicator with some merits. Obviously it is not meant to be taken at face value and there is other, more refined reviews to be found afterwards. And I don´t want to say it is as simple as only relying on steamreviews either as the whole thing could be rigged from the start if I just make the assumption that at least 2/3rd of the people bothering to give a game a reviewscore are already fans of the series/genre and are knowledgeable about certain aspects of those games and can handle them better as someone like me who just stumbled upon them at random. But I really do think that could be countered by actually reading a well put together article from an actual games enthusiast with the knowledge to provide an indepth guide to everything the game has to offer...question then is if I even wanna inform myself that much on something random. I have been going through a whole list of PS1 and PS2 era JRPG games recently and even when watching videos about their "best JRPGs of that era" stuff I find myself thinking that indeed all the points they are giving are reasonable and they do make all entries sound quite awesome alltogether...until they name one that I actually have experienced myself and find myself thinking "nope that was actually really boring for me". So it´s like a threshhold thing, were I specifically have to go out and find a specific reviewer who plays games in a similar style to me and equipped with the knowledge to compare games in a genre where I can see that they have the same tipping points on their preferences that turn an experience one way or another. And that is simply because the overall grading of a game can come together with a lot of individually great points but that one thing that is just offputting enough to sour any and all fun and making it a slug to get through what should be a fun endeavor is such a personal judgement on an artpiece. It even leads me to believe that beyond just finding the actual "best" review of a game, it might be that sometimes not all games are meant to be enjoyed in their original intent for consumption. Sometimes I can get a very satisfying experience out of a game, simply by passively watching a story summary of it, or seeing someone else play it in a way the developers intended for it to go but I could not follow that intent myself. And then there is also always the aspect of personal time and place which must be right, otherwise the best game will manage to annoy me possibly for things that are nonissues on better days. So I guess what I wanna say is: Never trust a review unless its this one...or not. Anyways, game looks pretty but I appreciate the honesty to put together some negatives (that´s a whole other aspect, reviews being less critical than what would be needed in order to feign love for a franchise to make the readers/viewers happy since most clicks are generated by fans and nobody wants to deal with negative feedback so everybody gotta stay positive even if it costs them an arm and leg) because it probably doesn´t look like a game for my wishlist after seeing that.
This review has made me a subscriber. Thanks for being honest about this Tales Game! Here’s hoping we get a better story and characters in the next game.
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)
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.
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 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 🙏
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
Thanks for your insights - I think it has some visual aspects that are nice but you have some great points here on other key aspects. Great video pelvic! ✌🎮
This was exactly the review I was looking for. I heard it wasnt the best in the tales of. No one ever touched on why well enough. I was contemplating diving into Ys IX or ToA now that im done with SMT V. Ys IX it is!
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.
I appreciate the honest, no bs review. I feel like whenever a title in a venerable franchise like this comes out, a lot of people seem to turn a blind eye to or just not notice issues you'd normally criticize a game for. I don't know if it's fan loyalty, nostalgia or just not wanting to see the flaws in a long awaited title. Perhaps the fact that Arise is the most visually impressive Tales has made reviewers forgiving? Anyway, it's for this reason we need reviews by relative newcomers or outsiders rather than people who've been in love with the franchise since the 90s.
Perhaps the flaws don't mean anything to the reviewers. I have alot to criticize this game for, but it's the best Tales game since Vesperia as far as I'm concerned.
Ah, yes, only a highly criticizing review can be "honest, no bs", of course. This utterly nonsensical sentiment will never go away, will it? Maybe, just maybe, other reviewers weren't as bothered by Arise's flaws and appreciated its strengths more? I know, a totally crazy concept!
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.
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!!
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.
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.)
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.
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.
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.
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!!
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.
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!
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
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.
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....
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
This is why I really like your channel. You are not afraid to go against the grain of what most people think and I respect you very much for that. This has been the most hyped Tales game since Symphonia in my opinion. Many commenters on TH-cam view it as a game you just can’t talk bad about. However I knew something was up when Erick Landon put it as his 6th or 7th best Tales game. And now your review confirmed it. The game is overhyped and over praised. The fact that it was best RPG of 2021 didn’t help matters either. That being said, I still have yet to play it. However after this review I’m now prepared for a very different experience then your typical JRPG. I’m worried about the money aspect now. I always seem to spend money on stuff in JRPGs that end up being poor choices not too long after. I really hope the quests are repeatable. Because if they are not I’m concerned I’ll trap myself with poor armor and no money and therefore have big problems progressing? Maybe I’m over reacting. I don’t know. Kind of wonder over time if this game will be viewed like FF8. Popular when it came out but now very divisive in the JRPG community with some people loving it and others downright hating it. We shall see.
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.
I couldn't pay attention to the review cause "zoogles?....zoogles? Wtf? Zoogles?" kept repeating in my head.
I fell in love with RPGs thanks to FF6, FF7, Suikoden 1 & 2, Xenogears etc in the 90s, and I got bored of DQXI pretty quickly. I finished Dragon Quest VIII but felt that the experience was pretty meh overall. Dragon Quest XI manages to be even less interesting (at least at the start). It's always "get to a new town >> there is a problem >> fix it by going through a dungeon >> get a new playable char (or not) >> rince and repeat". Nothing grabs you. So I stopped playing and never went back. If you partly like JRPGs for the FF-like cinematic experiences of the 90s / early 2000s, you'll be disappointed. I wouldn't say it's one of the best SNES RPGs, but rather one of the best NES RPGs since I feel that FF4, FF6 and Chrono Trigger are way more interesting. But maybe I just got older and it's not like I don't have tons of games in my backlog. Maybe I wasn't patient enough, but the premise of the story is absolutely awful (your mother reveals that you're basically some kind of a "chosen one" (read: a JRPG hero) and that there must be evil at work somewhere out there, so she urges you to go and find it... ...Can a JRPG story be even worse?). From what I've seen, DQ11 is insanely uninspired and the pinacle of bought-out reviews.
I haven't played the full game yet, just the demo, but I agree the CP system irked me. I understand that there needs to be a cost to heal when there are no TP, but this felt tacked on.
And FINALLY someone agrees with me about Motoi Sakuraba being overrated! Technically, he makes good compositions, but they ALWAYS sound the same : Rocky/jazzy battle themes, the feel-good generic field themes and the "bwaaaaaaaahhhh" castle themes, etc.
BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAH. I'm laughing cause I know *exactly* what you mean lmfao
Apart for the soundtrack I love, I 100% agree with you
Arise did a lot of things right but still, so many parts of it were regressions compared to the previous entry - Berseria. Both the protagonist and villain are not as well-written as Berseria's. Normal attack is back and it's the worst implementation of normal attack in a Tales game yet - there is exactly one repetitive sequence, no directional modifier, and it takes up 1 button that could have been used for arte binding, which is now down to 3 artes. Combo customization is gone. Skill system has too many ambiguous skills. Healing items give you flat amount and scale terribly. Shopping menu doesn't allow buy/sell in batches. No more Holy Bottle and Dark Bottle. Facial expressions in skits are now super stiff because they use 3d models.
Granted, it has the most wholesome and satisfying ending out of every Tales games ever and that's the lasting impression people have of Arise.
I'm so happy you also loved the ending. It's campy and shit but I was soo here for it. But yes all the criticisms yup I agree mhm
I haven't played it yet, but man, what a letdown to learn about all the flaws with this one. it looks so good.
16:36 HA! nice try, but that's Vesperia :)
btw, do you have any way of playing the fan-translation of Tales of Destiny DC that dropped earlier this year? would love to hear your take on it. I think you'd like it, seeing as it was done by the same team that later did Graces. it's where they pulled the CC based battle system from. think of it as a 2D version of the battle system in Graces.
I wasn't "fully" on board with your opinions until you said Tales of Graces was the Magnum Opus, and then it was like, "Oh ish, yea!!" Arise is paltry when compared to something as amazing as Graces. I 'm honestly so torn on Arise because I think the story just falls out from underneath itself when you get the MAJ reveal about the Renan home world :(
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
Probabaly the most boring Tales Of game I've ever played. And it's now the highest rated game in the series. I really don't understand. Characters are boring, skits are boring, and no after battle animations. All the fun and charm is gone. The story was solid and well paced, but compleeeetely falls apart. Combat system was decent until you realize Shionne or Rinwell spam is way more effective and brain dead than any infinite you are pulling off on a single enemy with one of the melee characters.
Blah. I hope this sterile and overrated game isn't the blueprint for the future. They still have yet to fix the boring world structure and terrible dungeons that have plagued the series since Xillia. This is just a prettier version in the same line of those budget ass Tales Of games. Except I much prefer the combat of Xillia or the characters of Berseria. Magilou has more personality in her pinky than this entire cast combined.
Shot out to Shionne's black dress tho.
Game was generic as fuck to me I could not finish it
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.
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 am definitely with you on that. I really like the series in general. But this ... I only wanted it to end at some point and then the neverending skit - skit - cutscene - 10 minutes of fighting - cutscene, ANOTHER cutscene - skit - skit! almost made me stop playing before even reaching the end ... It is not overall bad. There are things I liked. But I was pretty disappointed, all in all. I am not sure where all the positive reviews came from, to be honest. And I also thought the the new style of skits does not work. I looked back at some in Graces f as an example for the old style and they are still so charming!
I'm glad it's not just me who was massively disappointed in this game. All I liked was the combat and fast travel. And I also dislike the cp system. I disliked like, everything else. Especially the characters. I was so mad after buying it.
To much spoilers
wh...what?
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.
Thank you for this review.
I'm glad you mentioned the DLC part. That is why I have not purchased the game, ESPECIALLY seeing as it is a 80 CAD game...
I will instead replay the previous entries and spend my money on other titles. :)
Thank you for this! I think its safe to say the tales of series isn't for me, i played the tales of gacha on my phone as my first introduction and whole the units looked cool I had no idea who was what so I finally got tales of vesperia on steam last year after eyeballing that game for YEARS and when I finally played it.....SUPER UNDERWHELMED. Now with arise I played the demo and it was okayyyy but I had red flags during that 30 minutes and YOU CONFIRMED EVERY RED FLAG. The characters felt stiff, The unfunny try hard cutscenes,. Etc. Sadly.i already got arise on steam sale because of the hype and I will give it a second try but im in no rush.
Please pelvic, try out 13 sentinels I think you'll LOVE IT. I thought DQ11 Which I was genuinely hyped for was pretty bland all throughout, i mean there's classic tropes and then there's boring basic-starter-kit.
Ironically my favorite character was Zephyr smh. Also I love that ending theme
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.
Aww I was hoping you’d like it, but that’s why I watch the videos because you never. I personally loved the game and characters but can agree with the flows specially the DLC bullshit, thankfully later in the game money isn’t a problem but it may be too late then. HATED the CP healing thing as well but the combat is so fun and very good voice acting for the English crew, I’ll play it again down the line in Japanese.
Edit: Meant to say you never know what you’ll think of things etc.
Really agree, though combat was amazing, like superb, especially on hard (or whatever its called). But yes, otherwise, I felt just like you. I've been confused why this is JRPG of the year.
Underrated channel 🥰 and i agree, the villian was awful
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
Loved the video! Perfect analysis! Merry Christmas girl!
"shit is fuckin expensive." Oh I've missed you. These reviews are excellent and I'm always laughing too. I haven't played this yet. Haven't actually played a Tales game yet. Playing digital devil saga on PS2 among other things. Do you play other genres?
OKAY, so! I've been waitin' for you to drop this vid ever since our little chat on Twitter, cause boy did I have some thoughts, but didn't want to spoil you haha.
First and foremost, great vid, agreed with pretty much everything. Now, I did actually platinum this game, and I feel like, doing all the extra stuff was, for the most part, pretty good (there are some boss battles that are ABSOLUTE trash, looking at you Earth Gnome), but I think one of the biggest issues is that until you're really pushed to change your way of play up, you won't really discover that using the blazing sword effectively makes all the slow slog battles that much faster. Once I found out how GOOD and insanely powerful the blazing sword techniques were, I never went back, but the main story is pretty simple so you practically never need to use it. In fact, when I DID use it on main bosses, they'd quite literally die in seconds. It was super lopsided.
The areas were beautiful and I do agree that I was more invested in the main story than the characters. Dohalim was probably my favorite character for being so... aloof. That was more tolerable than all the other 1 beat traits the other characters had. The main villain was essentially like a poor man's Kuja from FF9? Like, the similarities between him & Alphen and Zidane & Kuja are hard to ignore. But also he's so boring that while writing this, I literally... cannot remember his name??
That being said, I had FUN with the game, and as long as I turned my brain off, it was a decent little romp through a fantasy world, but the world itself I wanted to explore more and each area felt so contained and tiny that it was hard to really immerse myself in it. Also, and this is super nitpicky I'm sure, but it really bugs me when games have a timeskip in them, acknowledged by the cast themselves (IE jumping from Part 1 to Part2) but the rest of the world doesn't follow suit at ALL? Like damn, it's been literal MONTHS and the people in the first region are still dressing in rags and living in stone huts with no doors or windows? I don't think it would have been too hard to make another map for the towns in Area 1 that shows some of the improvement since these people were liberated. Nicer houses, things under construction, clean people with actual clothes and shoes? But I digress.
Anyway, if anything, I'll say that I'm thankful for Tales of Arise for getting me INTO the series, because from my perspective, it's all uphill from here, and can only really get better. I know I have a whole SLEW of Tales games to check out now, so at the very least, I'm happy I finally gave Tales a try, even if it was the most lukewarm entry. Anyway, I wrote entirely too long of a message in a god damn TH-cam comment, but again, thanks for the vid!
Omg I so agree with you about the dlc stuff. It makes me cringe so much being such a huge tales fan
Yeah...sad to see.
Graces f IS THE MAGNUM OPUS👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
I feel you on the soundtracks. The only one that caught my interest was the Fire temple in Zestiria
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!
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 got into tales almost two years ago. I played Tales of Symphonia, Vesperia and Berseria before Arise. I think ToA didn't have the best cast nor story but I loved the combat. I was actually having fun for the first time in a Tales game on higher difficulties.
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
DQXI is great and you will adore Sylvando. Calling it now!
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.
I really enjoyed Arise, the combat is stellar and the characters are great, especially Shionne and Dohalim, the story was weak tho, rushed and poorly paced with some big exposition dumps towards the end instead of throughout and yeah, the villain was lame
Overall tho, it was a good game but Scarlet Nexus should have won the best RPG award imo
play witcher 3...you will never be seen again
Love your channel! BTW is there a reason the for name pelvic gaming?
ToA was a mediocre game that got popular, but the meanstream is not ready for this conversation
Great review, Glad to see more people come out and say that they were disapointed. I never got to finshes the game becuse the battles drove me to put the game down and stop playing. I insted played Tales of Rebirth, which despite needing to uses a PDF translation guide was a leages better game to play.
BTW are you sure this game has the worst villian becuse main villian in Tales of Destiny just shows up randomly at the end of the game out of nowhere.
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!..
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.
I love your videos, but you love Graces which I hate, and you dislike Arise, which I love.
So I will leave a dislike but I still look forward to your videos :D
Love the video keep up the good work
hehe, "zoogle"
I was one of the people singing it's praises mainly because I strongly dislike Berseria due to it's Game play. I disliked almost everything about it's game play. I played it all the way through for it's story, but I was bitter about it all the way.
Tales of Arise on the other hand, I will tolerate an OK story if it gives me more user friendly combat. This game didn't give me anything I absolutely can't stand like Berseria did. I'm not a "Tales fan" btw. Berseria was the first one I played, and it inspired me to not touch the previous games with a 10 ft pole.
Ah, yes. The main antagonist is basically discount Sephiroth. Lol
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.🤷♂️
Tales of Graces F is, indeed, the best, and you EH HEH! was super adorable! XD
This ended up being my favorite since Symphonia, Legendia and Abyss. I loved it. I respect your opinion though!
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.
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
So excited to watch this (and just became a Patreon). Happy holidays!
Hey thank you!! We'd love to have ya in the discord and be apart of the Pelvic Region Legion!!
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.
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.
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!
Wow. I was 100% going to get this, based on all the positive reviews I'd seen, but there's some serious deal breakers here. You changed my mind. Shocked I've not heard anyone talking about most of these issues before now.
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.
Finally, someone who shares the same opinion as me on this game.
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.
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.
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 :/
I understand the criticism of Tales music, it mostly plays it safe outside of some stand-out tracks every now and then. Sometimes it does a good job a creating the right atmosphere for the areas you're in.
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.
Honestly the intro sums up pretty much a conclusion I came to about the steam review system as a whole.
I love me a whole mix of different game genres (excluding shooters and sportsgames mostly...so the popular stuff I guess) but everytime I browse the lists and nooks of the internet for titles in hopes for new experiences or interesting aspects - may they be in gameplay, worldbuilding, graphic design or whatever - it is a given that I will stumble my uneducated way through the pitfalls of the "player"based review scoring system of steam where I can bet that I will find games with 100s of reviews telling me that appearently that game is a 80+/100 experience and as I find myself being interested in a game that clearly I clicked on for a reason and then finding out it has such a positive reception I would think they must do something right to give me an experience in at least one or two of the above named aspects, if not even be an all around great experience that would definitely be worth my time to check out.
And obviously there is a lot to say about whether a numerical scoring system for an artpiece can ever truly give a good impression of that work, overall it is always one of the first things that catches the attention and an indicator with some merits. Obviously it is not meant to be taken at face value and there is other, more refined reviews to be found afterwards. And I don´t want to say it is as simple as only relying on steamreviews either as the whole thing could be rigged from the start if I just make the assumption that at least 2/3rd of the people bothering to give a game a reviewscore are already fans of the series/genre and are knowledgeable about certain aspects of those games and can handle them better as someone like me who just stumbled upon them at random. But I really do think that could be countered by actually reading a well put together article from an actual games enthusiast with the knowledge to provide an indepth guide to everything the game has to offer...question then is if I even wanna inform myself that much on something random.
I have been going through a whole list of PS1 and PS2 era JRPG games recently and even when watching videos about their "best JRPGs of that era" stuff I find myself thinking that indeed all the points they are giving are reasonable and they do make all entries sound quite awesome alltogether...until they name one that I actually have experienced myself and find myself thinking "nope that was actually really boring for me". So it´s like a threshhold thing, were I specifically have to go out and find a specific reviewer who plays games in a similar style to me and equipped with the knowledge to compare games in a genre where I can see that they have the same tipping points on their preferences that turn an experience one way or another. And that is simply because the overall grading of a game can come together with a lot of individually great points but that one thing that is just offputting enough to sour any and all fun and making it a slug to get through what should be a fun endeavor is such a personal judgement on an artpiece.
It even leads me to believe that beyond just finding the actual "best" review of a game, it might be that sometimes not all games are meant to be enjoyed in their original intent for consumption. Sometimes I can get a very satisfying experience out of a game, simply by passively watching a story summary of it, or seeing someone else play it in a way the developers intended for it to go but I could not follow that intent myself. And then there is also always the aspect of personal time and place which must be right, otherwise the best game will manage to annoy me possibly for things that are nonissues on better days.
So I guess what I wanna say is: Never trust a review unless its this one...or not. Anyways, game looks pretty but I appreciate the honesty to put together some negatives (that´s a whole other aspect, reviews being less critical than what would be needed in order to feign love for a franchise to make the readers/viewers happy since most clicks are generated by fans and nobody wants to deal with negative feedback so everybody gotta stay positive even if it costs them an arm and leg) because it probably doesn´t look like a game for my wishlist after seeing that.
This review has made me a subscriber. Thanks for being honest about this Tales Game! Here’s hoping we get a better story and characters in the next game.
Renans and Danimals. Can't wait for your VC4 review.
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)
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.
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 😂
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 🙏
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
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
Awesome review, love how detailed you are! Liked and subbed!
Eeee! Thank you so much!!
SPITTING, THANK YOU. ESPECIALLY IN REGARDS TO THE ARTES. Such a good and honest review
My personal game of the year but thats the beauty of opinion. It's subjective. Great review!
Fair enough! And thank you for watching!!
Thanks for your insights - I think it has some visual aspects that are nice but you have some great points here on other key aspects. Great video pelvic! ✌🎮
This was exactly the review I was looking for. I heard it wasnt the best in the tales of. No one ever touched on why well enough. I was contemplating diving into Ys IX or ToA now that im done with SMT V. Ys IX it is!
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.
I appreciate the honest, no bs review. I feel like whenever a title in a venerable franchise like this comes out, a lot of people seem to turn a blind eye to or just not notice issues you'd normally criticize a game for. I don't know if it's fan loyalty, nostalgia or just not wanting to see the flaws in a long awaited title. Perhaps the fact that Arise is the most visually impressive Tales has made reviewers forgiving? Anyway, it's for this reason we need reviews by relative newcomers or outsiders rather than people who've been in love with the franchise since the 90s.
Fans can still be critical, fanboys are another story. I like to hear from those familiar with a series on a new entry if I’m also familiar with it.
Perhaps the flaws don't mean anything to the reviewers. I have alot to criticize this game for, but it's the best Tales game since Vesperia as far as I'm concerned.
@@Bornagainvillaintell me more
Ah, yes, only a highly criticizing review can be "honest, no bs", of course. This utterly nonsensical sentiment will never go away, will it?
Maybe, just maybe, other reviewers weren't as bothered by Arise's flaws and appreciated its strengths more? I know, a totally crazy concept!
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
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.