Why Tales of Arise is a Bad Tales Game (In My Opinion)

[@mikehorn2924]

Where’s my grade? Where’s my TP?? Where oh where is the wonder chef?!?

[@yulianasellyca4001]

Don't forget to Tales Cameo Costumes

[@himynameisfin]

This game was a disappointment for me too. Boring characters that flip flop from traumatized to happy go lucky, standoffish to best friends. The villains are cartoonish and lack any depth, the story is dumb and very A to B to C. I actually didn't mind the combat but it was a bit messy at times and could have benefited a lot from 6 skill slots from the start. The biggest downside was the DLC which was way more invasive than older games. Even those outfits unlock exclusive titles, skills and endgame level permanent stat boosts. This will be the last time I buy one of these as I'm not a fan of scummy DLC or gotcha business models and they're clearly going in that direction.

[@MrMadmaggot]

" The biggest downside was the DLC which was way more invasive than older games. Even those outfits unlock exclusive titles, skills and endgame level permanent stat boosts." You just hit the point.

[@RadiantEdge027]

I have the same exact sentiments about the bosses. What good is that mechanic/stat when you can't apply it to the fights where you will be tested in your skills and understanding of the battle mechanics...which you mainly hone via the normal fights. I'm still gonna finish this game since I got it full price but goddamn. The enjoyment I get is quickly thrown out the window when it's boss time. The Vita games handled bosses better than Arise: You can combo and stagger them, and they'll break free via a telegraphed attack. If you're able to time your button prrss correctly, you'll stop this attack and can continue to combo them. If you're unable to, you get punished via the boss breaking free and damaging you. I would like to see something like that instead moving forward. Alas, since Arise sold the best (like MHW) future games will most likely follow its design. Yuck. I also lament the lost of 2D assets and pictures for items, menus, and the UI. Those things added some color and life. I hate how Arise menu and HUD are all too serious, simplified, and mainly 3D. Although, I'm very open to experimentation and trying to change up its formula. I feel Arise is still a Tales game in its core and intentions, it's just that the application and direction is flawed or focused on widespread appeal instead.

[@MrMadmaggot]

They tried to casualize it and also to save money on 2D skits. I just finished the game I liked it! I really liked it. I didn't love it as ToBerseria (maybe cuz ToB was my first JRPG and my first "anime" thing). I enjoyed ToA evne tho its flaws, hope they fix some of them for the next Tales that might happen in 4 years.

[@andylevant6247]

@@MrMadmaggot At first I thought you mean tales of abyss when you said ToA

[@cleangoblin2021]

Zeugle enemy goes ROAR!!!!! And youre stunned

[@superizillian957]

⁠@@cleangoblin2021 makes no sense I get yelled at and I don’t have a scratch on me

[@novemberraingaming360]

The only thing I dont like about this game is they let you take a sidequest then boom you cant beat the boss yet because you are level gap, and some of those you cant flee...there are lots of those quests

[@12Metatron]

ugh so true

[@SumptuaryFive5]

yeah like one of the first side quest you can get that introduces you to the stronger zeugles and then that monster is level 43 while you're like 7

[@LOREWITHBLAZER]

The only thing I don’t like about the game is that they didn’t have after battle victory animation like the other games and I love tales of arise skits but i like the 2d skits better from the other game

[@Particle_Ghost]

The game is absolutely horrible and doesn't even resemble the charm of any of the previous games in the series. Even the way the studios were structured in the past and worked on by different teams no longer exist and have been absorbed by Namco. The game also didn't make much money because most people aren't good at basic math. People are quick to say how successful it is and how it's the highest selling game in the series, but people fail to realize the budget of the game because the demand for the graphics and newer engine to keep up with Triple-A games when the series was never meant to really be a AAA game to begin with. Xillia, Vesperia, Berseria and Symphonia have all sold over a million copies, but those games also had a much smaller budget. Xillia 1 had the biggest budget of 10 million, which is why the game didn't receive a lot of extra content and it was put into the sequel because the game reached its budget. The other games had a much smaller budget. Arise is the highest selling at around 3 million units, but the budget is far greater, rumored to be around 40 million. Which game do you think made more money which actually makes it more successful? A, a game like Symphonia that sold around 2.5 million copies and had a budget of a few million dollars, or B, a game like Arise that sold 3 million but cost 10 times the amount of money to make if not more? It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure it out.

[@lukaszzylik4437]

I really don't mind the combat. I think it's pretty fun. My issue is that I hate the story and characters. This is one of the worse stories I've experienced in an RPG. It's boring, generic and stupid and there's so much of it. The five lords arc is generic JRPG schlock. But the second half is just pure garbage. It's insulting.

[@tuantran-me9nz]

yeah, story and writing is very bland/bad. the cast is meh. the only that keep me to the end is the combat.

[@lukeholland1671]

The characters were terrible in this one made it hard to really enjoy it.

[@MrMadmaggot]

mmm funny I actually liked the story and character development. Some cliches were kinda cool tbh, after all that weren't part of the main story of each character. The 5 lords arch even tho at the very beginning was generic, the plotwist made it to gain sense. The second half is not bad, I don't think is garbage.

[@osc-oldschoolclips5204]

Once again I loved the game however I found myself mad at pretty much *every single playable character* once they reached Niez. I was extremely annoyed by how they acted there!!

[@SnowmanSantana]

This is the first tales game ive played and i loved it tbh the story was abit cheesy but good and the combat is real good it reminds me of KH games, i just hate how all the enemies were dmg sponges even on the lower difficulties, instead of fighting 3 enemies in a fight that take 3000 hits to die why didnt they have waves of enemies for most fights, i dont mind bosses being dmg sponges thats expected but every enemy was a dmg sponge

[@juanpzu]

I play some Tales games but in this game, I dont like the battle HUD, miss the MP, i dont like the Skits, i miss the anime conversations

[@samuel.jpg.1080p]

my main complaint with this game is the bosses have too much HP, it takes so long to beat them and they have much more hyper armor. Why would Bandai Namco design a combat system around combo and guard break if the bosses and large enemies are almost immune to them? Makes no sense and it only add fake difficulty. Fight become too long, it becomes boring. Also the economy is busted. The items are too expensive, considering that you will spam items on boss fights and the reward for side quest and item drop are not really that big. Plus the main villain is really underwhelming. He's just evil for the sake of being evil, just like the other 3 Lords before him, which all of them are also forgettable. And I can't seem to understand why a planet (Dahna) only has 5 countries, each with only 1 city per country and the dev seem to not care about showing you how the economy in the lore & story works. How does trade work between each countries/realm? I don't know, dev doesn't care about that. I'm having such a hard time believing Arise's world because it's not believable. Tales Of Abyss did this a lot better and in turn make me immersed way more in the world.

[@akairibbon4658]

They honestly all feel like crap to play. I just want the stories and the fun dialogue lol. There's such better games to play for gameplay.

[@envy.of.e11even]

Older tales of games definitely handled boss fights better and I think older tales of games have handled speacial in battle mechanics better the fire sword is cool but it’s pointless if I can’t use it against the boss

[@supaspartan770]

I kinda agree, People keep saying its an amazing, best JRPG game ever. It isn't. It's not a bad game, but its not a great game either. Overall, it was a very mixed bag for me.

[@judaihyuga]

Honestly, I disagree with you on the characters. At least when it comes to Alphen and Shionne. Alphen is the most generically heroic character the series has ever produced, with absolutely nothing else to his personality. He's immediately well liked by everyone, and even when he does something stupid, it never blows up in his face, ever. Shionne could work if she had been better fleshed out, but by making her overly standoffish with the other characters, she barely interacts with anyone at all and her character doesn't begin to grow until well passed the halfway point of the game. Despite the fact that slogged through every skit, I barely remember her even being there at all. Yet, once she reveals the secret of her thorns, her personality does a complete 180 and suddenly she's friendly with everyone all the time. Velvet opening up to the party was a slow process that happened over time while Shionne just flips a switch and now she's friends with everyone. To top it off, both her and Alphen's backstories are barely there. The only thing about Alphen that gets shown in game is his time on Lenagis, but we barely learn anything about his time on Dahna outside of him being a soldier and getting a doll from a kid which is then used in the single most forced attempt to draw a connection between him and Shionne in which she thinks the doll she had as a kid might be the one that kid gave Alphen (which is about as much as we ever learn about her for that matter). Alphen's amnesia is as generic as the rest of him because, oh golly gee wiz, the guy that doesn't remember his past has a super important secret, who could have seen that coming besides everyone. Worse than both of them though is the villains. Not a single antagonist in this game has even the slightest hint of depth to them. Every single one is a mustache twirling dickhead that kicks puppies in their spare time because they had the audacity to exist in their general vicinity, Volron worst of all. If Alphen is generically heroic, Volron is generically villainous. He operates on the logic most children have grown out by the time their 10 of "I'm stronger than you and can therefor do whatever I want". He has absolutely no redeeming qualities to him whatsoever, nothing of any significance is revealed to inform his actions or mindset, and when Alphen tries to offer him forgiveness it's completely pointless and unearned. He gets shoehorned into the plot repeatedly, but his connection with Alphen has absolutely no purpose and is entirely shallow. They're rivalry is based entirely on the fact that they're both Sovereigns and nothing else.

[@lukeholland1671]

Well said. Couldn't of said it better

[@Chelaxim]

Sorey from Zestiria?

[@judaihyuga]

@@Chelaxim Infinitely better than Alphen. At least Sorey has a personality.

[@breakthebad1770]

Alphen is generic? The whole tale series is generic, I don't know what you're talking about.

[@ItsXetren]

@@breakthebad1770 I don't know what _you're_ talking about. I can't speak for many Tales games because I haven't played a a majority of them, but Berseria is certainly not generic. How often do you have a protagonist that could also be called a villain? Not nearly often enough to be called generic, that's for sure.

[@Kikaromi]

Man, it feels cathartic to find a video that contained all my gripes with the battle system and not handwaving them away. Taking away Guards on top of Enemies and Bosses having Super Armor was a match made in hell. It makes attacks feel toothless despite the graphical updates; doesn't help either your attacks do ~100 chip damage compared to this honking 200k HP boss. I agree that Arise lives up to the wait from a story standpoint, but if I don't enjoy actually playing it? I may as well watch a Cutscene Compilation so I'm not getting frustrated every time I gotta fight something.

[@lordpookie]

get gud

[@Kikaromi]

@@lordpookie Getting gud doesn't make Boss Super Armor or the chip damage go away.

[@Gooshieooshie5000]

This is in no means to be rude, but are you sure you understand the combat system? Like ya bosses have a ton of Hp, but once you’ve mastered how the game works, the bosses go by so fast. You can beat the post game bosses with ease by just breaking them at attacking their weaknesses (I recommend using either Shionne, Rinwell or Dohalim)

[@illusma7822]

​@@Gooshieooshie5000 lol ikr? Like if you max out the correct equips, you see a huge difference then and there

[@hyperturbofox17]

The Tales battle system nowadays gone from a fighting game into Zelda overworld combat.

[@CloisteredExplorer]

As much as I adored the changes in this game I definitely can agree some of the points you made. There's a lot I love about this game but there's a few gripes I have with it. Main one being my favorite character to play (Kisara) gets aerial artes way farther into the game than I was expecting. I personally thought the combat was great, and I even found it dethroning Tales of Graces for me by a slight amount. Although I feel boss fights, and much tougher enemies, by the next entry could be benefited from not being damage sponges. As cinematic as the fights were, and as much as I felt the energy behind the fight's cinematics, as actual battles they weren't usually all that fun unlike regular enemies which were fun to knock around. It basically has the same problem I had with Xillia, with the exception that you can actually combo bosses, which in all honesty is addicting to pull off. I feel they tried to make boss fights feel like events, but other Tales games already pulled that off really well without resorting to spongy health bars. It's really the only big gripe I have with it (Aside from Kisara getting aerial artes really late, in my experience at least) and if that gets fixed by the next game then to me it will pretty much be perfect. I'm one of the people who enjoy the more 3d-ish style of combat compared to the Linear-motion battle system, but that's not to say I don't like LMBS. I just find the new combat more enjoyable. Otherwise I have nothing else to ramble about and I liked the video despite liking the game myself considering how well everything was conveyed. But I personally felt it was a strong entry with rough aspects that can be polished by the next game. Hopefully boss fights are treated like regular boss fights because honestly aside from that and spongy enemies I really loved the game.

[@xenosanctum2531]

I think I prefer the Linear Combat since its more traditional fighting game. I also don't think fights need to be flashy. I much prefer it if the system holds back on flashy stuff until the mysics thus making them feel more rewarding when you pull it off.

[@mhbarney8499]

I adore Xenoblade and only have played Tales of Berseria before. And I must say...I love tales of arise. The harmony and conversations between the group are the most mature and satisfying I have ever seen. As you said: Berseria was equal with that. The group was amaizing. Alphen imo is sooo much better then 90 % of all the anime protagonist. He is quirky, has his strenghs but also weaknesses. Every time I was like "Oh come on I would ask that because this question has to be on everyones minds" ... there is Alphen asking exactly that. They don't just ignore plot for the sake of being brought up later. Berseria is amaizing but I like Arise a bit more. Which is also do to Alphen and Shionne being amaizing imo.

[@giepie9281]

Agreed, the details in dialogues far above other tales series

[@sevenequalsoneheart6710]

I wish they could remake the earlier Tales of games with the incredible art of Arise. Especially after seeing the obligatory crossover quest where we got to reexperience dungeons from earlier titles in the graphics of arise. I understand though that games with that level of beauty in their graphics often have to have smaller environments and lengths or else risk buffering, do to the improper balance of graphics and power that modern day consoles seem to possess. And with companies not wanting to shell out the money needed to fix the imbalance only favoring one or the other and still expecting a functioning game that provides both...i can see why Bandai Namco is even frustrated with only being able to upscale their previous titles to look good on modern televisions. Instead of being allowed to go in and build the game from scratch with the new graphics engines. Games like Rebirth, Symphonia, Vesperia, Eternia, Innosence, and so on will only be given minimal visual updates because of how large their worlds are and newer games like Zesteria, Berseria, and Arise having smaller worlds, playtimes and casts because of how much memory has to be used to bring use the beautiful visuals. Heck Berseria had to cut more corners as it relied too much on skits even when delivering plot related info. As if they didn't have the time to animate the actual scenes with the 3d models... Appologies for being repetitive. I have a hard time conveying my thoughts sometimes. And i suppose i am frustrated with the lack of imagination the series has...particularly with its crossovers...i have an idea for a crossover that goes a bit off of the beaten path and could effect the future games rather subtly. Mostly because i have longed to see interactions between 8 specific characters who, from what i had researched, hardly had any interactions in any of the crossovers. Even though these 8 characters possess varied enough battle styles, weaponry, personalities, and even elemental affinities. They make a surprisingly balanced team of healers, mages, shields, and power based playable characters no matter how you slice it, and to top it all off, with the exception of Edna, all of them are the youngest characters in their respective games. Genis, Mao, Elize, Laphicet, Sophie, Edna, Patty, and Karol. I feel like after the events of their games they could hold their own in a crossover. And as for the Laphicet is Maotelus situation. i can see him having been saved after the events of Zestiria where the lord of calamity merged with him, though now he is much weaker and has to regain his lost power. Plus i can just imagine him and Edna getting along sharing stories about Eizen. The plot, and keep in mind that i hadnt played all the games, involves a threat that effects the elemental balance of all their worlds. As an evil that was banished to another dimension attempts to steal the powers of the legendary deities who take on different forms and names within each worlds. Establishing a sort of expanded lore to each game as the Efreet of Symphonia and the Efreets of Vesperia (no this would not retcon the entelexeia and the events of Vesperia. I just dont have time to elaborate) and Xillia are all one in the same. If they are seen as a fire deity they are an extention of the one universal fire deity. And this doesnt just apply to the 8 elements. Other spirits such as Maxwell, origin, chronos, chameleon, martel, pluto, Muzet, and gremlin are also at risk of having their respective powers hijacked by this evil. So milla goes to look for heroes throughout the Tales of Multiverse and recruits Karol, Patty, Elize, Laphicet, Sophie, Edna, Mao, and Genis to be reborn as the new spirits of the traditional 8 elements and save the powers already hijacked by the loyal followers trying to release the banished evil. Which includes Gremlin, Luna, Chameleon, Pluto, and Martel. With Milla, Origin, Muzet, and Chronos being the spirits that banished the evil in one of their many pastlives or alternate identities, the bad guys would need only one of them to break their evil lord out of their multiversal prison. In short Mao becomes the New Efreet/fire deity, Genis becomes the new Celsius/Ice deity, Sophie becomes the new Sylph/Wind Deity, Edna becomes the new Gnome/Earth Deity, Karol becomes the new Volt/Lightning Deity, Patty becomes the New Undine/Water Deity, Elize becomes the new Shadow/Darkness Deity, and Laphicet becomes the new Aska/Light Deity. Each of them becoming an amalgamation of themselves and the respective elemental deities in design as the game goes on. I even imagined Laphicet merging with Aska during their battle against the evil Pluto whos managed to take control of the spirits of friends who had died throughout everyones adventures like Marble, Don Whitehorse, Seifer, and all of Laphicet's allies from Berseria since...you know 1000 yrs between then and Zestiria... But yeah this game may never happen if the games are gonna keep hitting this developmental roadblock

[@theprotagonist2025]

The battle system in arise has been the best its ever been since Graces F, both have amazing fluidity, flashy with easy to do combos and (unlike other tales games) Every character actually feel great. Graces f is still superior in my opinion because of the directional arte strings but arise implemented the dodge mechanic which makes you feel completely untouchable once you mastered it. Honestly having to dodge attacks with Rinwell (a fucking mage) and casting 4-6 spells in record time stun locking enemies feels amazing.

[@xenosanctum2531]

Combos should NOT be easy IMO since they are suppose to separate the pros from the amatures. Since Eternia Tales games have been not only about growing your stats but growing you player skill too. Using regular fights you master your combos and boss fights see you put those combos to the test. Skilled Tales players can beat tough bosses on minimal stats because they have mastered the combat system.

[@judaihyuga]

I hated the battle system for both myself. Graces was a slog for me just because I despised the battle system in it's entirety and Arise is too damn easy. I can't recall a single fight in Arise that was difficult outside slowing chipping away at the enemies life bar which is just tedious and it's particularly insulting with 3 of the 4 Elemental Spirit fights where you just go through a gauntlet before insta-killing the big monster. It doesn't feel like a test of skill, it's just battle of attrition that feels like it's testing the players patience.

[@lukewarmice8292]

I feel you. With the combat it's kinda dry with the character you got. You constantly use the same 3 skills over and over. You can't even lock on and you eventually find yourself swinging at air for half the fight. Upgrading the equipment fells useless because you have to find certain items (like you said) but you're fighting the same enemies the entire time. From the start to the second lord fight I think there are only 5 different enemies for 90%.All of my quest that could be done were done as soon as I received them because you had to fight the same enemies so much just to level up. I eventually starting running pass them. Your right about the skill points. I felt like I had to finish 100 fights for 100 sp. And the story is predictable/impassive. When law's father died, I was just thinking " uh okay". I knew the leader of the resistance was evil based off his appearance. I found the progress of the game was moving way too quickly. I was thinking before the first first lord that he was going to trap us in a dungeon or he would escape but nope. I haven't played Xenoblade 2 but to get a map like the first one on a game like this would've been nice. I found them just to small with to much restriction. I could keep going but I wrote to much already 😂 Edit: I still think the game is alright it's just full eh moment that could be better.

[@sj4iy]

No, you don't. You unlock 12 skills altogether and the point is to change them out as you gain more to make higher and higher and higher combos for extra damage. The combat is quite difficult to make combos that flow well and work together. Doing that for all 6 characters is even more difficult. Because once you get to the higher level boss fights, it becomes nearly impossible to do enough damage if you're not stringing together combos to beat them. And yes, you can lock on. Some enemies might aggro you but it's not hard at all to simply lock back on to the original enemy. This game is by no means perfect (no game ever is) but what you're saying screams to me that you didn't truly understand the combat. Also, there are a lot of different enemies to fight every new area you explore. That's just common sense.

[@lukewarmice8292]

@@sj4iy I said with the character you got. I know you have more skills and you can change them out but once combat starts your teammates are using every skill they have while you only have 3 in your corner. Unless you're constantly pausing every 30s to change 1 skill it's kinda irritating.

[@Animus_Altia]

You can lock on. I was wiffing attacks for the first hour or so until I realized that when you attack without holding a direction your attacks will auto-track in the direction of your targetted enemy. Being able to attack away from that target by attacking while holding a direction opens up flexible options instead of restricting you to the target.

[@illusma7822]

​@@lukewarmice8292 you've got 12 skills and you can easily lock on to enemies once you've gotten the grasp of the combat. You definitely didn't play for more than 20 hours (at the point of writing this comment)if that's been your experience

[@matth1641]

I dropped this game at the last dungeon, it was a chore to get through it but the last dungeon completely took away any desire to complete it. As a long time Tales fan, having played every single entry (JP only included), this is the one that has taken away my desire to ever play a new mainline entry. The two things that I absolutely love about Tales are the characters + character interactions and the combat, both of which are pretty awful in Arise. I can deal with a bad story, but I can't deal with bad combat AND bad characters. I honestly think so many people are using mental gymnastics to convince themselves and others that Arise is the best Tales game since Symphonia when it's clearly not a Tales game at all (and it ain't good either). With the influx of new fans where Arise is their first and favorite game in the series, the future of Tales looks rather bleak. Bandai Namco already took the Tales Studio out to the backyard and put it out of it's misery back in 2012 and since then they've been dragging it's corpse around the yard trying to convince everyone that Tales is even better now that it's dead. I'll stick to the older games if I want to play Tales, y'all can go beyond the dawn without me.

[@Mar-blar]

I agree completely, I've already been in several arguments from those who are new to the series who've solely played arise and defend it to the end with the rebuttal of all previous entries being "trash", they never ended in any of their favors because all these people could say was that the game looked great , which speaks volumes.

[@Ozzhiroth]

I've definitely come around to your opinion on this. Dolahim did it. 90k HP on normal with AOE mystic artes spam and your ai stands in the fire no matter how much I move them.

[@xenosanctum2531]

Its funny becuse that was the very fight I was refrancing when I said I watched a let play.

[@Londoniusthe3rd]

His Mystic Arte is mad easy for the player to avoid though (unless they use Kisara maybe, lmao). Just dodge the rocks and eventually whittle him down on your own if you have too.

[@Ozzhiroth]

@@xenosanctum2531 it only gets worse later.... There's regular big enemies with way too much HP

[@SumptuaryFive5]

@@Londoniusthe3rd yeah as you said players, not AI, no matter ther boss as soon as theres an AoE, the party dies cause they can't dodge for shit ^^'

[@10640404]

I thought it was a good game. There were some things that I didn’t like about it like cure points and gald not being dropped by enemies. Not my favorite Tales of game, but I definitely liked it. I disagree with you that it was a bad game, but you’re entitled to your own opinion.

[@xenosanctum2531]

I put a lot of focus on Tales' battle system since I belvie its the series strongest attrabute. Thus, a bad battle system ruins it for me despite a good story and solid characters.

[@senel1996]

Don't worry your opinions are valid. I platinum'd the game and I was still disappointed at the end. Arise has it's moments but as a whole package it's meh alright solid 7.8 game but a 6 Tales of game. I come for the combat and if a maxed out Alphen with a max setup with 12 arte that all don't even flow well into eachother is too galaxy brained for diehard Arise stans I'd hate to see what Ludger's palette of 48 artes before you factor in skills, linked artes, and Chromatus would do to them. All this to say that not all change is good for a formula. Ganabelt was a cool fight we can agree?

[@GeonamicWarrior]

I'm so glad there are more videos like this coming up and voicing the flaws of the game that people seem to gloss over with their "AMAZING GAME" reviews. Something I was really hoping you'd touch on in regards to the dumb combat is the lack of individual strategy AI customization, formation, and ordering item usages. This is all coming from someone who's beaten the game on Hard mode. I typically love fighting bosses with 3 casters who are only casting while staying far away as one melee character keeps the boss's attention on them while in melee range. I typically play as the melee character because that's more fun than only spellcasting. The purpose is to avoid AOE attacks from the boss hitting casters because they're far away from the melee character. It's an absolute nightmare to do this strategy in Tales of Arise unlike other titles. Even with the party-wide "Always, Keep Away From Enemies, No Restrictions" strategy combo, I still see my casters run up to enemies to do normal attacks before using spells and very rarely running away from enemies if they move in too close. You won't believe how many times I've had to swap characters in the middle of battle just to keep my casters from pulling off "LEEROY JENKINS!" moments. Even with Shionne's normal attack range being the farthest of the 3 casters, some boss's melee AOE attacks reach far enough to hit her unless she doesn't normal attack and stay the F back, like I want. Formation may not matter to some, but they save a lot of time positioning characters at the start of battle. If I'm playing as a caster and want to use their non-spell artes because they're more fun, I need to get closer to enemies, but every caster is automatically placed in the back at the start of battle. I need to cross over half the battlefield just to start melee combos with my casters, and that means a lot of slow starts to normal enemy battles. Since we can't tell which character to use an item, if I want a quick way of healing my controlled character but I'm in the middle of a combo, most of the time, I need to stop my combo because my own character is the only one capable of using the item instead of making one of the AI characters stop what they're doing to use it because my character's actions are automatically more offensively important in fights than AI character actions solely because I'm in control and know when not to suicide run into enemies to attack. Also why doesn't anyone talk about how most of the boss fights have minions, are just minions, or the boss is stupidly easy alone that you see why they need minions?

[@cryptix0]

I thought I was the only one who thought this I beat it but I thought it was an above average tales game but compared to Vesperia and Symphonia I thought it wasn't as good in my eyes great vid

[@conversationstranglersteve9873]

Symphonia was great, but I thought I was the only one that liked Vesperia lol. Alot of people seemed to have hated it. I thought it was great- Yuri is my favorite Tales protagonist yet.

[@RawPower867]

Symphonia and Vesperia are still king.

[@jackvan5174]

I don’t know man. I respect everyone’s opinion and interesting to hear. However, by far Arise is my favorite “Tales Of” game.

[@ahmadrunningwild85]

No worry. Mine's an eosed tales sadly: Tales of Luminaria🥲

[@Raylightsen]

- The story is fine, but the combat system is awfully terrible. - Feels ultra mega clunky, slow, hits are not strong, they feel weak, sound wise, and damage wise. - Bosses are insanely strong, and enemies are HP sponges.

[@cartoonvideos5]

Yup that's my biggest issue. Story is serviceable but the combat is a flaming dumpster pit.

[@venitro7]

Completely agree with everything here. This used to be my favorite franchise and I played pretty much every game multiple times but now I've completely lost interest in the series with the latest installments.

[@AngeVNs]

I thought the beginning of the end was Xillia I basically thought everything about that game was mediocre Berseria had great story and characters but that's the only positive thing I can say about the series since Grace's f

[@awkwardGardener]

Arise is a good enough game, but it's not what I was looking for in a Tales game. For a large portion of my time with Arise, I just found myself missing the characters and gameplay of older Tales games while not feeling very invested in the cast of Arise. Arise's combat feels like they went full on Character Action, especially with removing guarding from all but one character. It just felt like a mediocre DMC wannabe. I ended up dropping Arise after finishing the story and didn't even bother with post game content, which is too bad considering who the cameo characters are this time around, and onstead jumped into a 5th playthrough of Berseria and had so much more fun over all.

[@D3bugMod3]

Hi, Did i beat Arise, yes. After taking a break for about a year. And no i did not enjoy it. Ive tried to go back an replay it. Which usually ends with me replaying Berseria or Symphonia. My hope is we're getting all the rereleases to give them time to work on whatever the next Tales games is. Take care and have a good one🫠

[@xenosanctum2531]

Yes I did, my 2nd playthrough was not as bad as I knew what to expect also the game isn't very deep with content so I was able to do plently of side quest too. You can check out my full retroseptive and game rankings for my full thoughts.

[@rickweiss2793]

I couldn’t agree with you more. I bought Arise a few day’s ago and despite the words “Tales of” on the front of the box, it just didn’t seem like a tales game to me. In fact, it actually felt like some other type of action jrpg that game devs are constantly pumping out nowadays! Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a horrible game by any means but it just didn’t seem like a tales game to me. Btw xenosanctum, what’s your opinion on the dark souls like element of starting a campfire in order to respawn monsters in Arise?

[@xenosanctum2531]

I'm not a Dark Souls fan which is likly another of the reasons I don't like this game. Your right that there dosn't feel like much diffrance between a Neir vs Scarlet Nexus vs Tales these days. At least Xenoblade is doing somthing diffrent.

[@rickweiss2793]

@@xenosanctum2531 Speaking of Xenoblade, have you heard any recent news or rumors of the purported xenoblade chronicles 3? I heard a rumor (don’t know if it’s true or not) that tatsuya takahashi plans to make the XBC games a trilogy.

[@xenosanctum2531]

@@rickweiss2793 There are rumors of XB3 being both previouse games together but I am sceptical. The games benifit from being relativly standalone thus a giant combo adventure might drive peopl away. They don't want a repeat of Xenosaga 3 selling 0.25 million because it was unplayable to those who didn't play ep 1 and 2.

[@Daigon95]

Well they did mention wanting to soft reboot the series starting with this game. Reason why the game is called, Arise. Guess u can say this is the start of the 2nd era of the Tales series.

[@rickweiss2793]

@@Daigon95 And what happens when people try to fix something that isn’t broken? It gets broken. 😔

[@isaacburton5859]

I'm looking forward to your full retrospective on this game. I haven't played any of the Tales games, but I have been interested in them and I really like this video because it's different from a lot of the other videos about this game. Thanks for your interesting take on this game!

[@xenosanctum2531]

Thanks, by no means should you avoid this game just becuse I didn't like it. I'm just not big into generic action JRPG's as others are.

[@chinwenduizenwata6763]

@Isaac Burton you should definitely check out Tales of Berseria since you're interested. It's the best one imo

[@Wardemonxi]

I can't believe anyone would put xillia 2 on a list of less than stellar titles. Xillia 1 Xillia 2 and Graces F stand at the top of tales games for me especially when it comes to combat systems.

[@TheOmegaDragon]

I've beaten it on hard mode. The complaints are more to the lack of familiarity with the mechanics. I had similar problems like when Kisara was unable to block charge attacks but figured out to distance myself before using her BG to block because the enemy kind of winds up before charging.

[@timefortims6410]

You sum up my feeling on this perfectly. He has every right to his opinion to not like the game, but his statement about boost artes and penetration stat really bugged me. He was dead on about the bosses being HP sponges though!

[@Shadowcast577]

They wanted to make a Tales game become Dark Souls, and if I wanted to play Dark Souls I'd you know...go play Dark Souls. I personally will not buy another tales game since they seem content on going further down this path.

[@rebelblade7159]

This is a nice and well thought out critique of the combat system. I am a newcomer to the franchise with Tales of Berseria and really loved it for the fantastic story that got me hooked. Then played Vesperia definite edition and while I did not enjoy the story that much compared to Berseria, the combat really felt much better. At first I kinda struggled but after understanding some mechanics and seeing one KZbinr pull off a spectacular fight against Flynn, I started to really appreciate the depth of its combat system. Sure it feels a bit bland at the start when you have few artes unlocked but once you get access to more stuff to make use of, there is a lot of variety in combat, pulling off some crazy combos to stunlock enemeies. Compare that to Berseria where it felt like button mashing with Velvet most of the time. I think the new changes are due to accessibility concerns due to aiming to appeal to a wider audience. Its quite common these days for franchises to lose their core identity in pursuing wider appeal. Assassin's Creed is a good example. Tales really needs to rethink its combat system for future games.

[@xenosanctum2531]

The issue is Arise is selling very well, which is telling Bamco to keep pushing this direction for the seires. I am worried and hence thats why I made this video.

[@MrMadmaggot]

I hate casualization, and that is what I think is going to happen to Elden Ring. Fucking casuls, yet they could improve and do something to balance casual and hardcore or old school, dunno

[@VisualdelightPro]

@@MrMadmaggot ME too I absolute hate casuals, I am flabberghasted by this happened to Tales series since Tales of Beseria, alongisde that game my beloved franchise Samurai Warriors 2 & 4, samurai Warriors 5 is a cutting corner a Grear story flashy Cut down form of a Hack slash game with extreme RPG ELEMENTS.

[@Twostraightwhitemalesreact]

​@@MrMadmaggot causal people are what keep games going without them developers wouldn't put much money in a lot of games. E.g look at guilty gear strive it sold tones. Now street fighter 6 is going the same route.

[@CeruleanAether]

Soon as I unlocked Unknown mode, I switched to that for the rest of the playthrough and haven't looked back. For me, I am REALLY enjoying the battle system. I love the amount of strategy involved in matching bursts to enemy unit types, elemental considerations, and timing attacks to an enemy's vulnerability. The perfect dodging mechanic is actually pretty broken when you use it correctly (or it can get you killed if you get too greedy or misposition). It's very fluid, and combos can get really wild. And even though you can't combo bosses, I find being able to outplay/outmaneuver them infinitely more enjoyable than comboing them to death. I do have criticisms though. Some attacks that should combo just... don't (rising falcon, why), and personally, I'd like the break gauge to be visible so that the player can take better advantage of the short window an enemy can be stunlocked. And finally, I'd like Rinwell to have a greater variety of spell formulas that just Maelstrom and Shooting Stars. Her artes are neat, and her spells are nice too, it's just, the charging system is super cool - there's just not being taken advantage of too well.

[@joe_darksoul12]

Also you can almost immediately break enemies in Tales of Arise by using the element they are weak to just a helpful tip.

[@axx012]

I found that useless with alphen. I would have the right weapon but it is usually so much weaker due to me upgrading to stronger weapons so it did zilch to the enemies.

[@matteste]

For me, I just found the game painfully average. It was not technically bad, but it didn't really stand out as anything excellent either. It just dragged with mediocrity with plot and characters feeling very dry, like some kind of fantasy writing 101 guidebook or something. The new style of skits certainly didn't help with it often feeling like they were just regurgitating what we already knew rather than developing the characters in any meaningful way. It started somewhat decently enough but then just meandered with a boring villain of the week format where even the supposed main villain felt like a footnote. The battle system was also really dragging things out for me as it felt like bloody everything was so goddamn spongy. This is something the bosses were especially guilty of, and what was worse, they pretty much invalidated a lot of the mechanics as they were immune to things such as juggling and hit-stun meaning you just had to stand there and wail on them with ground moves, and if you were built for aerial battle? Tough luck.

[@crunchyblend8809]

It was my first tales game and its a 7/10 game. Combat got repetitive so I just play on easy and the story was okay. The characters were cool.

[@ijudgeanime]

I actually started with Zestiria as my first tlaes game, followed by Berseria and then Arise. My viewpoint on the Tales series is limited but I loved every single one of them! Looking to play some older tales games soon

[@envy.of.e11even]

Play tales of the abyss I don’t care if you have to emulate it

[@yamnbam4346]

I thought this video would be bad, but no, you made some good points. I enjoyed Arise, and like it’s style, but I do agree that Arise is pretty different from the older games. Basic attacks are dogshit and combos are more or less easy to pull off, at least from my experience. What used to be a literal fighting game had turned into “press button and do the move.” It’s fun for me, just for different reasons. And since it was my first game, moving back in time through the older games has been kinda tough. Honestly though, I think it comes down to personal preference. I don’t think I’ll be able to make the jump to an older game (anything older than Vesperia) so I’d kill to see some of this old combat you mentioned in a new game. Edit: I’m trying to say it feels less skill based. There’s definitely still skill to the game, I just feel like Arise’s style makes it easier. I think it’s the perfect game to pull in new fans, but this is only assuming that the next Tales game (on console or something) plays like an older game.

[@xenosanctum2531]

I tryied my best to refrance as many other Tales games to prove my points as I am a big fan of the seires and my dislike to this game comes from fundametly loving the rest of the seires and feeling like Arise is not living up to it. I agree with the combos, their need to be a bit more skill involved outside of spaming the same arts over and over again. Take Rebrith in which arts can be customized to give diffrent benifits (like a healing attack or blowback attack) this makes you uses diffrent arts depening on the outcome you want. I worry after Zesteria, Berseria and Arise that the old system is now dead (outside of remakes). Heck if the next game is a Destiny PS2 remake then even thats gonna have CC since that game inveted the concept. I you have the chance please give Tales of the Abyss a try out. Its a late PS2 game (With a 3DS port) and plays very similar to Vesperia (and it a tad faster/easier too).

[@CBZero]

Berseria still my favorite Tales game

[@leon4000]

This game just won Best RPG for the Game Awards 2021. All I know is that that's quite something.

[@METAL4K-UK]

I'm loving it. It is my first Tales game.

[@adonicetrig8908]

I struggle to relate to their complains at all, shit like “cluncky combat” or “damage sponges” or “boring characters” or even “bad story”, hell I never played the game on lower difficulties than moderate because the fights always felt too damn easy in the first place thanks to how smooth the combat was, the one time I can confidently say that a boss fight was a complete damage sponge are some of the ones we got in the DLC recently, but that’s intentional so complaining about it would be dumb, still did them on moderate, still enjoyed them lots. As for the main cast, yh nah there’s nothing to say, they’ve got some of the most depth out of all characters in the series, enough said, and the story, come on it’s genuinely up there for one of the most unpredictable and well-executed stories we’ve had so far, so again, their complaints don’t stick onto me at all, and trust me I’ve tried to understand where tf they’re coming from, it sounds like blind hate to me just like with Zestiria, Legendia and DotNW, with people boarding on the hate train without even playing the damn games.

[@xSilentZeroXx]

@@METAL4K-UK Nobody cares, tourist.

[@omarmks6670]

I played the demo which sucked. Graces and zesteria are my favorite games in the series. Underrated and unwarranted hate. Arise is just a mediocre game though

[@TsunarKelone]

So I Love tales of arise, its perhaps one of my favorite tales games, and I dug into the combat like hungry man at a buffet, I did watch your video to full and I wanted to clarify, some things about the systems in place to help understand. Now you did say the combat system didn't click and that's fair not every game is meant for everyone and maybe the game isn't for you and that's fine. But the first mistake people make is coming into Arise expecting a tales battle system, and while systems are in place that existed in previous titles, the game is much more akin to an action rpg like dark souls or kingdom hearts, than a fighting game. First off Penetration and dodging, Enemies have basically a poise system that that keeps them from staggering until their poise is broken, the higher your penetration the easier it is to break their poise, now dodging is WAAAY more important in arise than any tales game before, think of a dodge less as a defensive option and more of a way to start combos. let me explain, when you perfect dodge you can active a mechanic called a counter edge, preforming this greatly increases your penetration to the point itle instant stagger almost any enemy in the game and even stagger some bosses, from here you can start to juggle normal enemies and lock them into a combo till you can basically instant kill them, the game doesn't really do a good job at explaining this so I understand most people this not clicking. Next point Boost strikes) Boost strikes are used more than just situational attacks, they also restore your CC which allows you to keep combing even when you run out of resources, if you have an enemy in a stun lock instead of letting the combo drop you can use a boost strike to reset your resource to keep the combo going, further more, they have situational responses to specific enemies, invulnerability frames for the entire animation making them a way to instantly cancel a combo to either stun a boss or invul through an attack or and this is where the big combo plays come from, swapping to another character during the boost strike to continue the combo on that character which more than double or triples the amount of artes at your disposal and extending your combo potentials. finally bosses) Bosses are more of a test of the games mechanics not how well you combo, its a test on your ability to space out your attacks, react accordingly and punish when you see an opening, which is a big departure from previous titles which the idea was to test how well you know how to lock a target into a combo. You can stun lock bosses but it is reliant on how well you can rotate between boost strikes and counter edges, most bosses have two counter edges they are weak too, a situational one and Alphen, by rotating between them and building your BG recovery speed you can basically keep a boss downed the entire fight as a successful Boost strike instantly staggers a boss which is more than enough time to deal a good chunk of health from them. Counter edges once they build up enough poise damage also can stagger bosses I'll admit for a much shorter amount of time. Again I'm not trying to criticize you not liking the direction of recent tales games and I GREATLY appreciate you not going "ITS A SHIT GAME AND ITS BAD CUS I DONT LIKE IT" no everyone is entitled to their interest and you are allowed to not like something if you aren't the target audience, I just figured id try to explain some things about the combat that the community tends to not grasp and help explain the direction the game was aiming for, I myself have criticisms of the combat system, like how the AI makes the game ten times harder than it should because they die so freaking fast without literally baby sitting them, while it isnt as bad as Xillia 2's A.I its definitely still pretty bad. That said thank you for reading and I hope I could clear some things up ^u^

[@xenosanctum2531]

"the first mistake people make is coming into Arise expecting a tales battle system" thats litterally the point of my whole video. I buy tales games for a Tales battle systems, if it doesn't have this then why is it a Tales game? I get if you like this game but why could this game not have been a new series called IDK "Arise: Flames and Thorns" and kick start Namco's new Arise seires of games.

[@TsunarKelone]

@@xenosanctum2531 Fun fact originally tales of arise was intended to be a new IP, but they liked the concept and idea behind it enough they they ported it to be a new tales game. I don't think change is bad, neither is a new direction for the series, long running franchises need to change and adapt to new directions if they are going to stand the test of time, and sometimes it just means that older audiences don't like the change, I don't think that's bad, that's just the way of game development, I've had plenty of stuff that changed and went "Ya know I don't think its for me anymore" and that's okay. I think the new direction though I agree simplified tends to lend itself to a much more broad audience, so many people who never played a tales game before Or didnt like the complexity of say vesperia got into the series through arise and opened the doors to go back and play older titles like symphonia, and if that means more people can get into this franchise and it becomes less niche here in the states I say go for it! =D Also please dont take my comment as an attack or saying your wrong, cus you aren't that wasn't the point of my comment it was to shed light on the depth of the combat system and share that some of those fighting game tales nuances are still there, just in a different way.

[@xenosanctum2531]

@@TsunarKelone I didn't intend to attack you. I just wanted to make a point. Also I disagree with you on the change thing. Series need to evolve not change. Look at Fire Emblem basically the same 2D grid base combat since the 90s but now with smoother UI and extra fetures. Series need to habe a core set of ideas otherwise they arnt really a series anymore. Tales is so much more than just an Anime theamed action jrpg but I don't get that feeling from Arise's devs.

[@TsunarKelone]

@@xenosanctum2531 I sorta agree, its good to have a sense of identity, at their core Tales series has always been character driven focused Jrpg's with heavy influence from fighting games, which arise still does, however the genre of fighting game its taking its mechanics from is very different. Symphonia, abyss as you pointed out took heavy inspiration from soul cal, tekken, smash bros, side view fighters. While Arise takes heavy inspiration from arena fighters, arena fighters lack the directional inputs and often have super moves tied to face buttons, further more they tend to have assist that can be called in to either A) interrupt an enemy combo, B) extend your combo or C) swap into the character after they are used as an assist. which are exactly how they are used in arise, so the fighting game mechanics are still there, they are just drawing from a different genre of fighting game now. Further more Id argue the loss of directional commands arent as bad as you make it out to be, In most fighting games, the directional imputs are your combos thats how you extend, in tales, it was never the case, aside from Vesperia and symphonia, the directional imputs never relaly mattered, they were more so flavor, they never really had a mechanical use, vesperis you could use Yuri's down neutrals to spin a target around, and in symphonia Lloyd have slashing and thrust but even then you could go the entire game without using them, they never really mattered, so removing them feels abit more stream lined than a tragety.

[@Soafia]

I think that’s so interesting. I’ve always described the Tales Of series as “RPG Soulcalibur”, so I could definitely see the loss of that fighting game feeling to really affect your enjoyment in the game.

[@maxwallach47]

Yeah, I liked the 2d fighting as well. This was the first tales battle system that was not 2d that I really liked. It's extremely strategic that made every character useful and to be honest I always found that to be the hardest part of the tales series for me to wrap my head around until arise.

[@MissMilaRose]

Omg I can't agree more on the subpar and lackluster battle system which makes the game unplayable. However, there's visual aspects etc that show just how lazy Bandai was with this game. Shionne is always in a T-pose position- which is the BASE pose when modeling a character. Zero effort was put into animating her arms. Then she puts one arm on her hip and the other doesn't budge and just floats in T-pose. I don't know what they were thinking launching the game with just this showing incomplete and lack of animation efforts... Then there's the cut scenes. I do like how they cut the segments, but re-using T-pose models instead of creating beautiful 2D art? Lazy. The result means cut scenes aren't engaging. If you've enjoyed the 2016 Berseria, you know almost all dialogue is voice acted. Only cut scenes are voice acted in the 2021 Arise and I really don't care to converse with villagers in a 6 year newer release to a game that did that thoroughly making the world more immersive. Now, with the UI... I just don't like it. It doesn't look good. It doesn't look modern. Final thoughts, Zestiria feels more modern and well made than Tales of Arise and I'm simply disappointed with this game launch. 1h game play and I'm not sure if I have it in me too keep trying to like it.

[@illusma7822]

Most enemies are in the t-pose/default pose too when you're hitting them with mystic artes

[@zzzvioland602]

The most boring tales game, except for the improved graphics, the rest of the game is completely regressed compared to the previous game. The old problems of the tales series games such as maze maps are still not resolved. It can be seen that the producers regard TOAR as a transitional work, and I am really sad. Now the speed of new works in the tales series is really too slow, and TOAR’s five-year production time has not made it a better work

[@Sebek031]

Changing combat system every mothership entry doesn't bug me,i didn't had any issue to learn combat mechanics of Berseria just after finishing Arise(yep I'm a newcomer). Me only issue was to memorize The artes in those combos; i have six characters who also learn new moves. Me head can't memorized everything on them.

[@watchandliveforever]

I played every tales game for hundreds of hours.. Except arise.. Arise has no character depth it has nothing that made me think I will remember these chars forever. The enemy bosses felt like blank NPCs I actually got emotionally upset from how drastic my beloved story driven game series changed. Even the new skits system felt bland and emotionless... I will be sad about this knowing it's probably the future path they will take with every new game.

[@ghostghost514]

I like tales of Arise. However, there are a lot of changes and replacement for sake of "innovation" that led to losing its charms and led me, as a fan of the series, to get disappointed by the game. I Don't agree with all you said. But in the end, while time passes, the criticism of this game from the fans will get in surface. People find themselves wanting to replay the older titles more than Tales of Arise and find more enjoyment in them.

[@yulianasellyca4001]

Only Tales of Arise doesn't have Tales Cameo/Legacy costumes

[@boeta9778]

that postgame ednaXeizen fight is count as cameo, right? right?

[@Falmosta]

Finnaly someone that gets why I don't think arise should win game awards. They took way to many mechanics from scarlett nexus. The change to items noblonger being % base healing also bothered me. I personally didn't like that buff eat up party healing points. CP should have be a per character feat for buff and healing if the didn't want TP. Healing in berseria was nerfed into the ground and almost un useable. Also the lack of a retry opinion for optional bosses makes it a pain to try a fight again. I played the game on hard mode which I do for most tales of games and it really didn't have the same feel as other tales games.

[@MrMadmaggot]

Many dislikes, dunno why ppl got offended. In my case I have only played Tales of Berseria, which I loved, I loved Velvet I loved the story, and the combat was fine (I think). That game introduced me to JRPG's and anime. About the combat, maybe becasue I just played ToB, I think the combat in ToA is better. But the real issue comes with some details that were in ToB but not in ToArise. Like the 2d Animated Skits, I think that was part of the essence of the last Tales. Same with how do you approach the enemy, If you approach the enemy form behind you ambosh the enemy, if the enemy approaches you from behind then you are OUT. Another thing is that SMH, even tho is better graphicly, ToB feels more authentic or better, I really dunno how to explain that. Edit1: And the dialogs after finishing a battle in ToB were also funny af, now that doesn't exist in ToA Edit2: Mmmm I regret what I said about ToB being better or autentic, Arise was better graphically and also felt autentic, I just finished the game. Edit3: I forgot what you said about penetration, that stat is pretty useless if it doesn't work against bosses, lets be honest is 1 out of onlyu 6 or 7 stats, yet it isnt too much of a deal, was something that was bad but not too bad. About what you said of the power attacks well yes, they only work depending on the enemy which ain't bad. I guess you should try and give it another option to this game.

[@rainyeager8887]

The ego of usual consumers get easily offended nowadays if you don't follow the stream like them, something simple as that would be my guess for all those undeserved dislikes.

[@MrMadmaggot]

@@rainyeager8887 Yeha I mean he didn't even insult the game or the players. He just gave his opinion

[@Jun-zh9np]

I enjoyed tales of arise, bith gameplay and story The thing I don't like about arise is the boss mystic artes mechanic

[@veghesther3204]

I hate it the skill learning system in this game is pure crap and like that Divine Force star ocean game the OUT of battles Camera for finding chests on the world map is really CRAP in this tales of game.

[@megamike15]

the jrpg reddit is trying so hard to defend this game with stuff like " this is how tales always was." or" the people being negative are a vocal minority.

[@xenosanctum2531]

I do get the feeling that the winds are chaging on this game. When I first made this video I was very much in the minoraty. However since then I have seen a growing discontent with this game as more people are comming out and saying they where disapointed.

[@marcusclark1339]

Arise is a broad appeal "global audience" type of game that sanitizes everything in the series and it shows there's a reason so much is removed and changed, the result is how nothing hits as hard anymore

[@machodgdon]

The narrative pivot this game has in the second half is more than enough reason for people to pick it up. I didn’t think any story would come close to Xenoblade for me, but this game is on that level

[@xenosanctum2531]

Most people I have talked to hate the nartive shift in the 2nd half of the game.

[@Blarglesnarfe]

I just wish these games could surprise me, but they always follow a very similar format in their stories. It wasn't BAD, just... okay, standard, normal.

[@Rex13013]

​@@BlarglesnarfeI sorta agree, the story in arise is pretty meh imo

[@zerobob8586]

I love spamming Rinwells magic, Customizing accessories is pretty cool. The story is pretty good and i love all the characters. I beat it and loved the ending, it was good to see.

[@TheBatmanMan1]

I’m right there with ya man, I played it a short while after launch since all I heard were great things, and could not understand how it got so much freekin praise. Glad to see someone out there who’s not fawning over it. It’s got an interesting world, but to be honest I couldn’t really connect to any of the characters and felt that the story fell very flat. Seriously I can remember some chunks about the story, but so much of it was either forgettable or just poorly explained in general. That, combined with the fact that I really didn’t like the battle system (for many of the same reasons you describe.) Honestly, this is a game that I would think is mediocre at best as a very generic (albeit very pretty) JRPG. But I think I get additional frustration from the simple fact this is called a “Tales” game when it bears almost no similarities to any of the “Tales” staples… at least none of the ones that matter. Honestly the most “tales” staple that this game has is the skits, and even those were botched, as they made it so that many of the story moments are told via skit… and I just wanna scream, “that’s not what skits are for!! They’re for the simple conversation and interactions between party members as they’re walking down the road! They’re for character development! levity! Introspection! Reflection on past major events!” At the most, skits should show how individual characters are angry or upset about something major in the story - they should NOT be used to convey major moments of the story itself (Berseria also did this, which is why I didn’t care for that game either). At that point, the games more like I’m watching a visual novel, and THAT doesn’t feel like a tales game for me. Oh Sheeze, I went and ranted more than I intended - sorry.

[@viruschris3160]

Now that you mentioned this about the Battle System, it really isn't that good. :< I did think at first the combat was the best part of the game (I absolutely hated the story in the 2nd half with all that exposition and I became increasingly disliking Rinwell over time) the lack of guarding for all characters -- minus Kisara -- while bites where blocking certain attacks will help. And the blasted Super Armor. Made fighting a chore. Until I got better artes and upgrades, but by then I wanted to avoid fighting too. I recall to other games like Graces F, Vesperia, and Xillia 2 and greatly prefer those gameplay styles the best. Another thing I dislike about the Battle System is the way items are handled. Apparently, you can't SELECT what character uses an item for ANOTHER character. It seems locked to them. When I use a Life Bottle the character that is down uses it (which is nice), but when my healers are down and I have no revives I can't use a healing item for a teammate EXCEPT the one I'm controlling and gets the item. What? I don't understand that change. I do think Arise is a pretty game, but it's really lacking in a LOT of areas for a Tales and I wouldn't even call it one of the best Tales game. I'm really odd many say it's like Symphonia when it's really not. I even found the characters bland for the most part and the chemistry wasn't really there compared to other Tales game. Just... I wanted more and I don't think it deserves some of the praises it's getting. It's a fine RPG, just a mediocre to bad Tales game.

[@xenosanctum2531]

IMO there hasn't been a Tales game with a battle system I liked since Xillia 2.

[@viruschris3160]

@@xenosanctum2531 I love Xillia 2. I wish it came to PC. I really enjoyed Ludger's ability to swap between weapons in mid-combat, transformations, and teaming up with the other characters. Sure the story is a downer, but it's a really enjoyable game overall. Plus a fantastic fanfic about Alt Milla living came out of it and really love that alternate story with a happy ending.

[@xenosanctum2531]

@@viruschris3160 The ending really ruind it for me. Plus the whole game feels like a cash grab. I personally wish we got a more fleshed out Xillia insted.

[@viruschris3160]

@@xenosanctum2531 Yeah... so much exposition at the end. Like I was wondering if I was playing Star Ocean for a moment and everything was rushed. It baffles me people say this is the "best" Tales game ever. Ummm... I'm going to respectfully disagree. This was among the most bland of Tales games in terms of story and characters. Even the skits felt flat at times for me.

[@InGodshands7]

My first tales game was symphonia in 04’, then Vesperia when it came out, then this. And the only thing I don’t really like about TOA is on my Xbox one the frames are low and no after victory posing/convos.. THATS IT THOUGH .. and no disrespect to you, but it sounds like you want to live in the past

[@MrMadmaggot]

Nah, there are some issues, reskin monsters, 1 stat out of 6 which is useless against bosses, invasive DLC's, aerial attacks that come nearly to the end game.

[@Spr1ggan87]

Tales games have sucked since they removed the overworld, everything since Vesperia has been an FFX/13 knockoff that all take place in corridor world.

[@megamike15]

dq 11 shows you can have a modern jrpg with an over world even if it's more zone based.

[@useroffline5612]

This game combat system is simply button mashing , Artes doesn't have any additional utility beside elements. Final dungeon is a Joke with Rinwell equipped with Acc 4x Light Damage UP , using Thunder Field dealt damage up to 4k each bolt at Level 55. Combined with Alphen equipped with Acc 4x BG+8% filled up his boost gauge very fast , Spamming it makes Enemies Down Everytime.

[@manydk]

I making a in depth review for this game. I did beat it and would like to do lot of stuff before i finish it.

[@rossedwardmiller]

This was my first tales game and I put in 10 hours but stopped when I realized I’d been skipping all the skits and cutscenes because the characters and dialog were just too cringey and were basically just anime tropes and not likable. I know it’s not just me because I love dragon quest, trails, yakuza/LAD. I also thought the combat was getting way too much praise. It’s not as good as an action game like so many reviews said. It has a lot less weight and just didn’t *feel* good to me.

[@envy.of.e11even]

Tales of the abyss is the perfect formula for a tales of game and was the only tales of game where I actually played different characters and enjoyed the story all the way through

[@xenosanctum2531]

Eh, I thought Graces was better at giving charatcers unique and fun play styles.

[@yogirajmore63]

Vesperia is the last game with the best classic tales battle system. Xillia does not count as it is more close to the cc battle system

[@Hexadecimal_QueenofChaos]

The game had minimal humor and most of its attempts at it were stilted and awkward, the party was not cohesive as a group IMO. This alone was a huge step down from the usual Tales series standards. My personal wish would be to make Law and Rinwell older so the banter could be between the personalities of the characters rather than every convo coming down to just two kids squabbling and the “older members” telling them to calm down. The only time I laughed my ass of was when [spoilers] Vholran came crashing into the final boss fight on a flaming broken space ship….. what a missed opportunity to make him a goofy villain who thinks he is scary but is anything but… everything about his character is goofy goober material but the game is dead serious about making him seem threatening.

[@wendelgrant7332]

i think if there wasn't super armor on borderline everything this could have been a contender for one of the best tales of games but like the game will say "oh stop this mystic arte" but nothing you can do stops it then your whole party is wiped and its like too bad get better ( im looking at you ganabell ) like if they let us combo and stagger the enemies ( maybe xillia level where they counter attack after X attacks ) this game would be 100x better , like it kills my enjoyment of the game when i literally can do nothing vs bosses or strong enemies and that's not even taking into account no gald drops , the best artes locked behind dlc , the best items locked behind dlc , the cure points , etc. like farming in this game to even get your team the resources to handle some of these enemies is ludacris and unless you have the DLC items they are bloody expensive and your characters have sh-ty artes cause all their best ones are DLC locked , like it effectively is a what 150$+ game when you consider the almost necessary DLC

[@Deport_All_nonWhites]

*armour **ludicrous English comes form the English, not Americans. Stop destroying OUR language.

[@wendelgrant7332]

@@Deport_All_nonWhites Sigh... you grammar Nazi's , you understand what it say's but you have to nit pick everything

[@dirkcoin1037]

U sound sorta like FF X Seymour

[@RoelLira]

I really like this game, one of the best tales ever and i have played every tales of until today.

[@Yunglex313]

While I do agree with many elements of the review, my one nit pick is choosing to demonstrate the issues with the armor break system using using a heavy golem type enemy, which should be different to force a flinch without magic or Alphen's fire attacks. The issue is how it is more based on numbers rather than a players skill, choosing to enforce requirements of knowing how to increase a characters penetration stat over active attacks, which has been the trick for previous entries. Really it's different kind of player understanding of the battle system which may or not go over depending on person to person but thems the breaks when trying to reinvent the wheel.

[@xNachtmahRx]

I haven't enjoyed any Tales after Vesperia which I loved. Already had to force myself through Xilia back when it came out. They should release less of them and put more soul into them again (passion, not souls-like)

[@xenosanctum2531]

Dude they stop doing rapid releases after Graces and Aries took 5 years. Not sure how much slower they can work.

[@limeboo3731]

I was so excited for this game, I adored Berseria, Xillia and Vesperia, but now I look at the reviews and I'm wondering whether there's something I missed. I can't be bothered to keep playing it, some design choices are far too irritating. If you're enjoying this game I'm glad, but looking back on Vesperia & Berseria, I can't understand at all why this game has gotten so much praise.

[@limeboo3731]

There are tales fans saying this one is better than Vesperia. These people are insane to me.

[@Hyp3rSonic]

​​​​@@limeboo3731I had more fun with Arise than Vesperia. Imo, vesperias combat has some more flaws than Arise's, and gameplay is the main reason why I play games. But, I found Arise's combat to be extremely good imo(not counting bosses, they are extremely bad, especially the 2nd lord). Anyways, I hope you understand my reasoning, since I want people respectfully agree/disagree with anyone's opinions. 👍 But also, Vesperia is my least favorite of the ones I played, also because of my opinions on the combat. Here's my list 1.Arise 2.Berseria 3.Vesperia

[@aqua-technic]

Just got recommended this video by KZbin, and you're right. Arise is not a Tales Of game at all, it's trash.

[@chimeratcg07]

But it is one.

[@kdubbbz]

"Tales games to me are supposed to be JRPG's with fighting game style battle systems" Well it is clearly a JRPG....with a "fighting game style" battle system.

[@xenosanctum2531]

Not really, to me it feels more like a hackNslash with a few extra steps. I don't feel like I'm in a tense battle of wits with my opponent like I am in a Fighting game.

[@Qladstone]

Fighting games are its own genre with a tradition of directional inputs, combos, and ultimately a versatile moveset that can be used and combined in various ways to give the player a large degree of control and freedom of expression the more effort the player puts into understanding and learning the moveset and controls. Just because it is an action game, doesn't mean it has these qualities. We're talking about games like Tekken 6, Devil May Cry 4, Bayonetta 1, and not Assassin's Creed or Witcher.

[@soulflame5635]

This is second honest vid I saw bout Arise. You have valid points ( I played nearly all tales ). Seems like people who like Arise cannot stand someone having different opinion. Arise is very different from other tales games. I strongly dislike what they ve done with grind/costumes/new game + in arise. Wish they left victory pose screen after battle - I liked that. Good vid thumb up.

[@randomd00d19]

I felt like I was popping crazy pills playing this game after everyone was praising it. The whole thing felt WRONG and the tankiness of bosses was stupid. I was willing to give the weird new mechanics and button layout an honest try with an open mind, but getting one shot in moderate mode after wailing on a similarly leveled boss for 10 minutes was just a embarrassing. The way I played it that felt comfortable was moderate for mobs and very easy for bosses. Felt okayish. And don't even get me started on how limiting combat points are for healing. Did not like this game. Just beat the icy area. I don't think I can last through the rest of the game. Whoever balanced this game was high af.

[@xenosanctum2531]

I didn't mange to last much longer than you.

[@finfunnel1597]

Weakling...

[@illusma7822]

lol

[@fly8414]

i loved the game, but for the record i found around 12 typos in it

[@xenosanctum2531]

Typo's never really bother me much becuse I can't spell even if my life depended on it.

[@davidmayer4374]

I agree with you about the combat. I just loved the combat of the older games. But cant get into the newer tailes games combat. In Zestiria und Berseria the combat was just button smashing for me. But Tales of Arise is even worse. What also butters me is that the never titles have no over world map. If they would put all the older tales games on the Playstation Online Store I would buy all of them in an instance.

[@ahmadrunningwild85]

Tbf...Arise was made with the aim of attracting new fans. Bamco succeeded but they alienated us old tales fans sadly🥺

[@xenosanctum2531]

They have also done next to nothing in order to keep these new fans on board.

[@SeveredWorldLore]

I understand where you're coming from a bit. Break souls from Berseria felt stronger than Break Boost in Arise while being more frequent. If other Break Boost were more powerful then I'd say the cooldown would be justified (Specifically Dohalim's, Law's and Rinwell's, Shionne's is just alright and Kisara's defense party buff is a nice touch.) The super armor on open field enemies is similar to Tales of Hearts R though, It takes getting use to and is a replacement for enemies having the ability to block. The gameplan in the recent past Tales games usually is to power charges until your next arte guard breaks, combo and repeat unless It's berseria where once you get going everyone has nonstop offense. You compare it to Arise where it's a much more slower paced game, where starting your combo comes from dodge counters or breaks. Not saying one is better than the other, but just that Arise is different but not really different from previous entries. It's a culmination of past games. I don't have a problem with the combat system exactly. What I do find to be lack luster is the artes and uses of the weakness system. There are barely any fire or water melee artes and the elements seem scattered around characters with no direction. Except for Kisara who has a bunch of Earth and wind artes. Then you look at Dohalim who has less Earth Artes than Kisara if I'm correct. It's reminiscent of Symphonia. Another problem with the artes are that the start up for most of them are too slow, artes like Alphen's Mega sonic thrust are pretty useless. Reminds me of Graces. Similar to other Tales games the combat doesn't truly get interesting until you're around end mid game where you can start building your characters to fit a certain archetype. I built Alphen as a Break Boost spammer, Shionne is a healer, Dohalim is pretty much all around, Law is arte cost reduction, Rinwell is penetration and reduced casting time focused, Kisara is defense focused. In the end, Arise is pretty much a Tales game. It even still has pop in issues.

[@rinkitorirataki7488]

i remember fighting the second lord on hard first play through was hell, no matter what i do he wouldn't move, keep charging a head into a mage type enemy that have super armor and HP of tank is really suck.

[@leo87877]

i was hoping to like tales of arise didnt even get very far when i tried the combat hated it immediately dropped it never went back to it lol i still think tales of vesperia and berseria are ten times better

[@xenosanctum2531]

Berseria has its issues. I mostly overlooked them becuse the game was easy enough that combat didn't bother me too much. Arise combat, on the other hand, was too monotonus for me to overlook it. Had it too been a simple hackNslash I probs would of overlooked it too.

[@ThePurpleKnightmare]

The community's positive response to this is because of the fact that it's aesthetics brought in so many non Tales fans, the game is bad, but it's not THAT bad if you think of it as just a different JRPG, a 1 off title. So all these people who didn't experience the good games are okay with it, they will go as far as to say they like it. However for those who have played Vesperia, Abyss, Xillia, etc, it's awful. Sure Zestiria ruined skills, and Berseria didn't fix that, but Arise stuck with that and just made it worse in every aspect. Graphics are the only thing this game does well and even then it's art style is boring, I'd much rather Tales of Vesperia or Xillia art style. Knowing that this is probably going to keep going like this and Tales of is dead as a result is sad.

[@megamike15]

how ever the issue is as this sold well this is how the series will be from now on.

[@cubeciel2551]

You people only know to hate lmao

[@ThePurpleKnightmare]

@@cubeciel2551 No, I constantly read people like you talking about how negative people who complain are but you all fail to understand, the reason people complain is because we like stuff and we want it to be the best it can be. If the devs takes away stuff we like and we ALL complain, they will have to give it back and then the games will be better off. Nothing comes from being overly positive about bad things, the people who didn't play Tales of Games before don't need to come in and ruin it for the Tales of fans who are in the process of losing their franchise. There are tons of games like Tales of Arise, and we don't need the next Tales of game to be yet another one of "these games" Tales of has it's own identity and it's unique, something you won't find everywhere else and we need to do our part to keep it as the franchise it is/was, and not the next PvE DPS sponge game with absurdly low overall durability.

[@ThePurpleKnightmare]

@jrzayat You're an idiot, you're making multiple post arguing against people trying to keep games good. You're not trying to make the game better yourself, you're just shutting down people with real complaints for no reason. This isn't gate keeping, if you're so much of a baby that you couldn't play the previous entries in the Tales of Series, then you can't play this one, it is far more difficult, or at least when trying to make it as easy as possible, this one is the hardest. You can like Tales of Arise all you want, it doesn't mean a thing, It's not a Tales of game, and it's killing a franchise that I don't want to disappear, so I, and others show our complaints by making/commenting on videos sharing our problems. You're... oh and this is ironic, you're standing in our way of getting through to developers, by adding an alternate, although not helpful to anyone, including yourself, perspective that shuts us down and drowns us out. You're gate keeping us, from a franchise we have been playing since 2003-2005. Way to go, the next game may feature only 2 useable Artes instead of 6 or 16 (1 early and 1 available later on) might have an even less effort/shorter story and less characters, which being more generic and more grind heavy, and it will have been your fault, and the fault of others like you who stand in the way of those complaining in hopes of making games better/keeping them good.

[@megamike15]

@jrzayat all i ever see from people that like araise say they never liked the series in the first place. why should a series change for people that never liked it in the first place just to alienate the ones that did?

[@GradMeat]

Yea I got the game last month and played until I beat volron. Played some more and then sorta stopped. My main gripe was the combat since it feels like it takes so long. I was playing the game on moderate but chose to lower the difficulty, since it was getting frustrating fighting enemies that are just health sponges. It never felt like I was doing big damage when playing well. I might get back into it just to beat the game otherwise I played other games instead. I'm looking forward to legends arceus and elden ring. Heck after I stopped playing arise I played and beat nier automata, I even want to get replicant now.

[@xenosanctum2531]

Have you played older Tales games?

[@GradMeat]

@@xenosanctum2531 nah I haven't. I might paly them someday since I think there's a tales game on ps now which I have a subscription for, but I don't think it would be any time soon.

[@xenosanctum2531]

@@GradMeat If you do get the chance please try Vesperia. IMO it the series at its best. If you don't like that game then Tales probably isn't for you.

[@chasegaetze4507]

I loved FF7 Remake battle system. Used the enemies weakness and the stagger gauge went off the chart

[@AtreyusNinja]

I was unable to continue this game, purchased on day 1 and abandoned after 45 hours, total disappointment...

[@Iychoenk]

Why?

[@AtreyusNinja]

​@@Iychoenk the only good thing i found inside this game was the combat system, oh ofc, graphic was on point as well. too childish and stupid dialogues made me quit

[@Basileus127]

I agree with you for the most part, but I don't understand why directional inputs are good but using the face buttons isn't. I found Vesperia's controls to be very clunky, like I was fighting the inputs more than the enemies. Using the left stick for both attack inputs and movement is especially bad for aerial characters like Judith. I found her to be very bad to use until I gave up on the artes button and just mapped her attacks to the right stick shortcuts. I don't see why we can't have deep ability sets like Judith but with a simplified control scheme like Berseria's. To me, Arise's issue isn't the controls - it's just that the characters don't have as much depth to master.

[@xenosanctum2531]

Judith is a difficult character to play FULL STOP. Vesperia doesn't really do Arieal play well, Hearts R is a much better arieal game. TBH though I'm not much for Arial Tales games since it requres the characters to be really floatly to work. I agree with your last point thought, there doesn't feel to be that much depth to the combat. It basically comes down to simply dodge timing.

[@MoguMasso]

No, it's not hard. It's clunky. The controls are the problem. As soon as you switch to the right analog stick it's way easier. And let's face it, everyone here that started a combo with the up arrow + circle to do and arte on the ground had his character jump at lease once because inputs are straight bad. I'm fighting the joystick, not the enemy.

[@jiannitzianopoulos2528]

I completely agree with you. The demo was already enough for me though to turn me off, as I REALLY hated the battle system. I have so SO many style and design changes to comment on (Like WTF are those ugly and unintentionally scary faces in the skits....,), not to mention the OST that has been getting more generic with every entry (Remember banger boss battle themes like Fatalize or Fighting of the Spirit? Compare those to most boss battle themes from modern tales games that all use the same orchestra sound fonts and just don't get you pumped up at all) and so much more... Call me old-fashioned or biased, but I never liked Team Destiny's games, and YES I consider ToGf bad. There, I said it. But casting or using artes without TP/MP never felt right with me... instead having some kind of stupid action counter is just way to restrictive. Especially when you're forced to dodge to increase it (?!) Not being able to block in Arise is just a bad joke, really, just as preset arte trees that give you no freedom at all. Unfortunately I think the Tales series is now officially dead, at least the one we all grew up with. New people to the series and especially children can surely enjoy ToA, but for me, someone who considers ToS the best game ever made and with TotA and ToV on of the three best games in the series, it seems that yet another franchise has changed to an extent that prevents me from enjoying it. It's sad... I love the Tales series so much but I just can't support the changes they are implementing. Now, did I buy ToA? Tbh... Yes I did, but it's been lying on my shelf since then. I never got into the mood for it, I feel no excitement. The demo was a chore to get through because of the combat system and I don't see myself spending my time off with a game that drains me even more than academia.

[@eddy93bits]

cringe

[@jiannitzianopoulos2528]

@@eddy93bits people who can‘t tolerate other opinions are. Like I said, I‘m pretty confident a good amount of people will like the game, it just isn‘t for me and a the type of fan that likes the older entries.

[@eddy93bits]

@@jiannitzianopoulos2528 just don't buy the new games that's it, wait for remasters if you don't like the series anymore, extremely stupid to buy something you don't like.

[@jiannitzianopoulos2528]

@@eddy93bits Never heard of giving something a chance right? And as far as I can recall, you don‘t have any information on my financial status nor can you assess my purchasing behaviour. I think it‘s becoming more and more evident who it is one should cringe at, so I‘d rather drop this here.

[@viki803]

@@eddy93bits you are the one who cringe. I still agree with Jianni's opinion.

[@xenosanctum2531]

Just a reminder this video is strictly an opnion. Do not take my dislike of Tales of Arise as a personal attack on you for liking it. We are all entitled to our own opinions.

[@ftsar3494]

The devs: tales of arise is not gonna be like the other games You: tales of arise is bad because its not like the other games

[@xenosanctum2531]

True, if you make the game too diffrent from the rest of the series you risk losing the series identaty.

[@ftsar3494]

@@xenosanctum2531 The game really isn't too different tho, its just a more refined and modern take on past tales games, with different combat mechanics than the old ones, he clearly has the mindset of it not being like that so he set himself up for failure

[@HabibAbdellatifi]

Totally disagree with you but i definitely think your pov is coherent. Liked the video ;)

[@lucassworldofletsplays9270]

The combat not being in linear motion isn’t a massive issue for me. When I first played Abyss and unlocked free run, I couldn’t help but think “why is this necessary?” The fact that free run is even a feature is basically unnecessary, because they could have just let you move freely around the map from the start. The linear battle system worked in the first few entries because the battle scenes were *actually* in 2D.

[@xenosanctum2531]

Games like Tekken show that even in a 3D arena 2D controls offer a more precise level of controls. Things like low mid high style of attacks are easier to implment in a 2D space. May I ask you to name a major compedative fighting game that plays purley in 3D? Tales kept the 2D format well into the 3D era as it offers a level of control which pure 3D cannot do. Pretty much evey pure 3D action RPG has to be very lient on inputs (with characters automatically closing gaps and altering their aims) or they offten end up as more hackNslash styles where attacks have massive hit boxes to account for the giant space 3D offers. Besideds so many other series play purly in 3D, the 2D style game Tales a uniqueness. Now its in full 3D what's there to diffentiate it from other action JRPG's?

[@rachaelrandomassname1848]

I haven't even played it and I already love the damn game

[@aurorance]

That's why they implement the hardest difficulty to players like you who think "combos are too easy to be made" lol Or you can just go play dark souls or whatever

[@xenosanctum2531]

Its funny you say that becuse Dark Souls: A) Has a guard button B) Holds back on flashy attacks for more tactical game-play C) Is about outwitting your enemies vs. hitting them with the longest combo imaginable All things I wish modern Tales games would bring back.

[@aurorance]

@@xenosanctum2531 um then go play it Easy right?

[@type2red]

Love this game so far, love the difficulty and characters so far Rinwell is a fav. My nitpick would be the zoomed in camera that you cannot zoom out smh and the weapon crafting requirements and low gald but then again that adds to the difficulty so i guess it’s ok.

[@alexgardner3125]

I was really liking it when I first started. As I played, I started to feel like something was off. By the time I got to the final dungeon, I realized I was getting up to something like 100 combo before staggering the enemies. There's no point to adding mechanics that take a full minute to utilize. The combat encounters in the final dungeon just bored me so much that I didn't bother finishing.