Tales of Arise - New Tales Game (PC/PS4/PS5/Series/Xbox) 09/09/21

[Retroguy]

Wow this really goes to pot in the last section, even aside of where the story goes.

 

It almost becomes a visual novel with how little gameplay there is in comparison to cutscenes, and I say that as someone who usually likes lots of story in a game like this. Then you've got side missions suddenly appearing which are way beyond your level, containing battles which just appear out of nowhere. Up until this point all the side missions have been totally doable at the point you get them. And then a lot of the areas force you to retread your steps for absolutely no reason- early dungeons give you a quick way out or allow you to quick travel, but this just gets totally ignored after a certain point.

 

It's like they just gave up with the game three quarters of the way through. Very disappointing.

[Kayin Amoh]

2 hours ago, Retroguy said:

Wow this really goes to pot in the last section, even aside of where the story goes.

 

It almost becomes a visual novel with how little gameplay there is in comparison to cutscenes, and I say that as someone who usually likes lots of story in a game like this. Then you've got side missions suddenly appearing which are way beyond your level, containing battles which just appear out of nowhere. Up until this point all the side missions have been totally doable at the point you get them. And then a lot of the areas force you to retread your steps for absolutely no reason- early dungeons give you a quick way out or allow you to quick travel, but this just gets totally ignored after a certain point.

 

It's like they just gave up with the game three quarters of the way through. Very disappointing.

 

 

The post game content is great, incidentally. Though yeah, the writing becomes excessive during the final 20% or so, and the things they're saying aren't interesting in the least. One character will talk about something, then another character will - I'm not joking - then repeat the exact same boring thing, only with their own personal spin on it. And by 'own personal spin', I mean, 'no personal spin'. They'll literally just repeat what others are saying. Dozens of times.

 

It's really weird. However, Kisara would remain amazing even if her only role was to read the all names out of a phone book.

 

The side missions are doable in the end game with a bunch of item use, but the post game bonus dungeon will shoot your levels through the roof in no time at all. And it looks a hell of a lot better than the actual final dungeon, especially the mountainous area.

 

Not sure what you mean about having to retread your steps though. You can fast travel from the map at any point, and while it can take a while to hit a fast entry point, they're still there. Am I reading this wrong?

[Retroguy]

Just now, Kayin Amoh said:

Not sure what you mean about having to retread your steps though. You can fast travel from the map at any point, and while it can take a while to hit a fast entry point, they're still there. Am I reading this wrong?

No, not reading it wrong- there are whole dungeons towards the end of the game, and even one bit with a dungeon and a whole other area you have to backtrack through where they disable fast travel. And it’s not like anything happens story wise in that bit they force you to go through. It’s crazy, you even have to fight the same monsters on the way back. Critical JRPG sin!!!

 

And yeah, the last quarter of the game definitely needs some heavy editing. I’m guessing they just ran out of time and/or money, but it sticks out like a sore thumb.

[Kayin Amoh]

Ah, maybe I just didn't try to fast travel when the limitations came down. I know the last dungeon allows you to, but many of the others I didn't need to fast travel so I just pushed straight through and it worked the times I did try to use it. (Though there is that section where you can't return to the older areas for a while.)

 

Ah, wait. Is that the bit with the light in the cave? After the boat ride? I do recall heading back through it instead of fast traveling.

[df0]

That is where I gave up. The last part of the game bored me to tears so I had the neat idea to move away from there and do some simple side quests, maybe go back a few zones and just hammer away at easy targets. A palette cleanse so to speak. Anything but cardboard characters with the personality of a wet sack of gravel dumping exposition.

 

Game said no. No fast travel allowed. Well, fuck you then.

[Retroguy]

12 hours ago, Kayin Amoh said:

Ah, maybe I just didn't try to fast travel when the limitations came down. I know the last dungeon allows you to, but many of the others I didn't need to fast travel so I just pushed straight through and it worked the times I did try to use it. (Though there is that section where you can't return to the older areas for a while.)

 

Ah, wait. Is that the bit with the light in the cave? After the boat ride? I do recall heading back through it instead of fast traveling.

It does it then too but the worst bit for me was

Spoiler

Lenegis, you have to go alllll the way back to the ship through a dungeon and Lenegis itself.

It is indeed odd that at the parts of the game that are incredibly narratively-heavy where you might want to break them up with some side quests, you can’t.

[Thwomp]

I wish there was more storytelling in this. I've just reached 

Spoiler

The desert island after Alphen's mask came off

and the anime cutscene and story reveal were amazing, but it's literally only the third cutscene I've seen in 35 hours of playing. They're too few and far between.

[Trumpets]

I'm a few hours in and it already feels like a big step-up on the last few games in the series. The series budget seemed to shrink with every new entry after Vesperia, so to finally play a Tales game that looks like a modern videogame with some money spent on it makes all the difference.

 

I'm liking the whole 'invaders from another world enslave the populace' set-up too, and the combat appears to have shed a lot of the unnecessary systems that plagued Berseria. Even the main character is pretty likeable!

[Thwomp]

I've noticed a stupid thing with the combat. If you choose automatic your character has access to all of the artes, rather than the ones you hotkey. So by choosing automatic you can level up your artes quicker because you don't have to go through the menu to select them 🤔 unless I'm missing something.

 

[Trumpets]

I'm finding the bosses present a big difficulty spike in this game, meaning that even after emptying each dungeon of enemies I still need to grind a few levels before taking on the boss, which is a pain.

[Trumpets]

On 14/11/2021 at 15:58, Trumpets said:

I'm finding the bosses present a big difficulty spike in this game, meaning that even after emptying each dungeon of enemies I still need to grind a few levels before taking on the boss, which is a pain.

 

...and because of this I've had to turn the difficulty down a notch. Way too hard for me. They still present a challenge but I'm enjoying it more now that I'm not hitting a roadblock at the end of every dungeon.

 

Overall it's mid-table Tales for me, better than many of the PS3-era releases but a long way short of Vesperia.

[Thwomp]

I must be close to the end now 

Spoiler

Just met Hevrekt 35

I really wish Dolahim had been the main character, because his story is the most interesting out of all the characters.

[Kayin Amoh]

Yeah, you're closing in on it. I like Alphen's design, but he's JRPG Protagonist 101 personality wise.

 

I'd heavily recommend doing the post game dungeons too, you'll level up fast doing them so it's not as tough as it seems and they're pretty good additional content.

[Thwomp]

I'm so sick of this final dungeon, what a slog 😪

[Thwomp]

I finished this the other day, and overall I felt it was a very shallow experience. It looked nice, but then you could go in barely any buildings or talk to hardly anyone. The side quests had no substance to them either, and when I got to the end of the game the story had flip-flopped so much that I didn't care. 

 

A lot of things were never mentioned again.

Spoiler

Like the crown contest winner, Milgrasse (?). I know they suggested one of the monsters was made up of crown contest winners, but an explanation of what happened would've been good.

 

Also, not realising that Renans didn't exist over 300 years ago. Surely they have history lessons in school on Rena? Nobody ever wondered why their history just stopped beyond a certain point? 

 

The characters surprisingly won me over. I hated Law at the start, but I liked him by the end - he had some funny lines.

 

I've said this before though: Dohalim should've been the main character - a high class lord struggling with the new found knowledge that 

Spoiler

he's no better than the race he ruled over: the Dahnans. He IS a Dahnan. 

 

[cassidy]

I'm about 22hrs into this now.

 

I bloody love it the combat is awesome and the battles look stunning on the Series X and my CX. 

 

Just made it through the mountains after Dalheim joined me. And the bloke in black just turned up and nearly smashed us all. 

 

 

 

[Kayin Amoh]

He's got a weird name, but it's Dohalim. 

 

It's weird. I was burning out on it hard by the end, but I also remember it pretty fondly now. It's a stunning looking game, especially in the snowy mountains. 

 

I do wish the writing was better though. It's acceptable at first, but it hits a point where they're all just continually parroting what each other says leading to conversations that are nothing more than exposition dumps with little nuance or personal flair.

 

That said, it's a cool game. The battle system, graphics and even the character designs really help it overcome that ham fisted writing.

[Vorgot]

Got this to play yet, but have a load of JRPGs I picked up in sales, its a long list that will take a while to get to. This may be next after I finish Dragon Quest though.