LogFAQs > #958043245

This is a really interesting discussion, because as mentioned the lack of humor in Arise is very noticeable and I've... definitely been missing it. I don't want to go so far as to call it a complaint, because A) I think the cast chemistry is just fine without it and B) this is one of the darker worlds the series has ever featured and none of Arise's party members except for maybe Law really have the kind of characterization that lends itself to silly moments.

Like, I agree in principle that the franchise is at its best when it gets serious, but I still feel like the comedy has become something of a Tales staple and I don't think they're mutually exclusive philosophies. Berseria, as mentioned, balances the two really well, because the cast has an excuse to be as out there as they are, especially with Magilou around. Xillia 2 probably still takes the cake for darkest story and its characters still find a lot of time to joke around (although I think I'm the high man on this board when it comes to X2 so maybe some would disagree on how well that works).

Yeah, Graces is in contention for most lighthearted and funniest Tales game and its story is a mess, but those things are independent of each other in my opinion. It still attempts to go darker at times and it ends up as a swing and miss purely because those serious story beats are bad in and of themselves. Xillia 1, which again, I think I like a little more than most, is admittedly a little dry, but there's also very little comedy going around in that one, so I think it's hard to point to lightheartedness as the issue there. And Zestiria especially has problems that go far beyond any one simple explanation.

The overall point is that while I think there might be something of a correlation, there are more reasons for the divide between the top-tier Tales games and the bottom tier than just the encompassing tone. The absence of laugh-out-loud moments in Arise is definitely gonna end up as a mark against it for me unless there's more game left than I realize and those hits start coming after this part of the plot is wrapped up, not to the point where it's stopped from being a fantastic game by any stretch of the imagination but to the point where it definitely loses something compared to the absolute upper echelon of titles.

As much as I've enjoyed it and will almost definitely continue to enjoy it, there have been times in Arise where I felt more like I was playing a Final Fantasy game with a Tales coat of paint than I was a Tales game proper. That's a really esoteric claim that I'm gonna need to sit back and parse more upon completion, and I want to stress than I'm very much in support of the series going outside of its comfort zone a bit in service of joining us all in the modern era, but I do think there's small aspects of its overarching identity missing, and I hope that's not necessarily indicative of the direction moving forward.

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Chilly McFreeze
https://imgur.com/UYamul2