Board 8 > Tales of Arise Review Zone

(+) Yeah! (+)

I'm 16 hours in and about to fight what I think is the main boss of the third realm. I assume this is about the halfway mark. I have been doing all the subquests possible up until this point except that level 43 giant zeugle at the beginning area of the game. I really like the QoL improvements in this game and the extremely tight pacing has also grown on me.

I generally take 70+ hours for a first playthrough of Tales games but I realize more has happened in those 16 hours of Arise than what usually happens near end game in most of the games in the series. I welcome this change. I think JRPGs especially get bloated for the sake of being long and epic, which usually means a lot of fetch quests and filler to unnecessarily pad it.

The latest place I've reached is Leneghis

The music here is spectacular.

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I'm missing a camping point and have...NO IDEA how that's possible.

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I will say this.

If you are one of those Tales fans who considers the best part of the game is the challenge of getting everything to max and doing all of the hardest content and getting over 100 hours out of it, this is probably not going to be your favorite.

Because I am 4 trophies from platinuming this, one of those is for the level cap which I am 6 away from and the other is that I gotta raise more livestock. The other 2 are hidden. And in terms of the actual content in the game, some of the arena fights aside, I am 99% sure I have seen it all as of 10 minutes ago. Just missing 5 skits.

To be clear this is not an issue for ME, I love that it's so easy to see everything.

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As long as I get to see everything it doesn't really matter how long it takes

Some Ys games are under 10 hours and still some of my favorite games

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This is reminding me of how FFX and FF7R approached things. Unless you really want to do all the side bullshit, the main game is leading you where it needs to and doesn't stop to ask questions. Nor should it to be honest. It's a really old school SNES/PS1 era feel to how unbloated this is.

I'm starting wonder how keenly aware they were of 7R when making this. It only came out a year later, but the stylistic choices are eeriely similar. Not in the "Star Ocean is Phantasia ripoff fodder", but yeah.

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Found the missing campsite. Will just say to be aware that using a campsite when it's a story objective does not actually count as using that campsite, lol. I was missing one you quite literally cannot actually miss.

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I love this combat system.

Not sure if more opens up in it aside from learning more skills(I'm into section 4/area 4), but it's so easy to get into combos and sustain them. The dodge mechanic is wonderful, and it all just looks so flashy and fast paced. My only complaint is that it's easy to get lost in all the chaos.

Graces was better on a technical level I think, but this blows everything else out in the series.

Even if the game isn't as long as the others(No idea, I'm 20 hours in), but this will be be a game I'll probably come back to for New Game+ anyway just because I love the combat.

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The combat system is a huge mixed bag for me by the end. Lots of problems that only make themselves apparent later and in harder content. However, fundamentally very good and I hope they build off of this moving forward instead of starting from scratch. Tales needed the full, true free run. If only tapping L1 to target the nearest enemy worked, lol.

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Shionne in the Noble Crimson outfit. Holy crap.

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Platinum get.

I officially have done everything I intend to do and will save the file for a pote trial NG+

The game bafflingly does not keep record of what you have cooked and what accessories you have crafted (but it DOES for weapons??) so I'm not gonna worry about those. I'm guessing the last few skits I have not seem are from finishing those out.

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where Plat topic

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This is literally the first time I have ever seeked out a Platinum and it was only because I was practically already there.

Also not going to make a completion/full spoilers topic when I'm the only one who has finished the dang game!

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but that's the fun of making one!

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Oooooh you pick costumes for everyone when you start NG+ and the characters will be in them before they join the party.

...Iron Mask is still locked on in cutscenes though, even though it isn't in gameplay??

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Did Bamco seriously delist Symphonia from PSN?

Between this and Cybersleuth that company has a fucking problem.

EDIT: Nevermind, Symphonia HD was literally a PS3 game, wow.

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I can confirm the HD Collection was on PS3

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Reinstalled and booted up Berseria <_<

The PS5 controller glows pink!

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MAGIKAZAM!

caps

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I wish Erica Lindbeck could be in every piece of media I consume forever.

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I was interested until I ready you can spend real money on XP in this game.

Lol no I'm not supporting that

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I'll wait two years and buy it at like $12 or something.

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masterplum posted...

I was interested until I ready you can spend real money on XP in this game.

Lol no I'm not supporting that

...then don't buy it. It's a single player game.

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Or play it on Story like I am. Keeps me out of DLC needing range.

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Honestly playing on Hard I'm feeling like the game is pretty well balanced! Just about the only thing I might point to is Orange Gels being 3,000 gald is kind of whack but it seems like that's an increasingly vanishing issue as more systems unlock.

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I suck at the combat so I go through my entire stock of orange gels every dungeon/boss fight and I'm playing on normal lol

I'm still early but Alphen really likes to get dramatic about shit when it kinda makes no sense yet. "I know you'll always be by my side!" 4 hours in

And like 30 minutes ago he was super suspicious of her

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This is a mega OCD question but does anyone have any idea what's going on with the uneven experience amongst the party in this game? My Alphen is somehow way behind everyone except Rinwell, and I've already 100% determined that neither being dead nor being out of the party affects exp distribution at all. And yet randomly I'll finish a boss and see that someone's pulled ahead of someone else in level. I can't find any mention of any system that would explain this.

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I normally play these games on easy or normal as i'm crap at Tales games. So far in this one though i'm playing on moderate and doing alright. I've only just got the third character though so i'm sure i'll be lowering it at some point.

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The writing just straight up fell off a cliff here in the fourth realm when it has been solid throughout the game.

Is this the usual Tales of mid game lull?

Also this realm feels a lot smaller than all the ones before it and aesthetically it is a far cry from how beautiful the third realm was.

Like the what the fuck was up with that scene involving Rinwell, Law and the fourth lord? It was so terrible I started laughing. Like the skits after that battle make it even worse in retrospect.

Just finished the fourth realm and reached the 2nd area of the fifth realm. That was quite a turn of events. Why does this feel like endgame? My characters are barely level 30 and it already feels like the plot is heading towards its conclusion.

I'm only 26 hours in the game right now. Is this just the shortest Tales of game main story and side content wise? I'm curious how long it has taken people over here to 100% the game.

If it is short, that can be a good thing. Really old school approach.

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I just got to ice nation and the battle and combo system is starting to click more for me. I gotta say, the STRIKE attacks just feel super slick. Can't wait to see more. I love everything about ridiculous cut-away cinematic team attacks in jrpgs.

wild arms 5 had such good ones

As for this game's writing, i wish it would let up on the "character overexplains an area's or character's background" trope. But what can you expect from a jrpg (let alone a tales game).

Also remapping buttons makes this game feel so much better.
Square for reg attack
Triangle for arte 1
R1 for arte 2
R2 for arte 3
X for jump (field and battle)
O for evade/block
O for talk (field; also mapped L3 to talk/examine, which is surprisingly convenient)
Swapped R2 in the field to toggle dash rather than having to hold it down.


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Strife2 posted...

If it is short, that can be a good thing. Really old school approach.

I agree it is a good thing because Tales games usually have terrible pacing for what are usually 60-70 hour games.

I'm just curious how much longer I have because I am enjoying this game quite a lot.

Finally got my fifth member. Is there a way to permanently have them in my active party? It seems I have to add her every battle.

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R1 in the menu outside of battle.

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Several sites are reporting sales of 1 million copies already.

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200k in Japan and 800k internationally so far, rounding down a bit. I don't think JPN reports digital? And of course it varies region to region elsewhere so you can never know for sure.
Regardless those are great numbers on their own.

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Omg there's a fix for the pop in issue, including NPCs. Need to try tonight.

https://www.reddit.com/r/tales/comments/plx35o/how_to_remove_most_popin_in_tales_of_arise_on_pc

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Update: MUCH BETTER

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The pop in doesn't bother me too much, but I'll have to try that later.

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You need to do the engine.ini hack for the environmental pop in. Within the thread, he also linked to a github page that has a separate SDK to fix the NPCs.

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RikkuAlmighty posted...

I'm still early but Alphen really likes to get dramatic about shit when it kinda makes no sense yet. "I know you'll always be by my side!" 4 hours in

This is definitely something that's been bothering me a lot so far. Like the game wants me to think that the party's relationships have progressed in a specific fashion but it's done nothing to actually sell me on that.
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pyresword posted...

This is definitely something that's been bothering me a lot so far. Like the game wants me to think that the party's relationships have progressed in a specific fashion but it's done nothing to actually sell me on that.

Ya it's jarring, especially compared to Falcom games which are SUPER careful about consistency within the script lol. For now, I'm finding it amusing.

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9 hours in and I'm still not sure if Shionne's default costume is overdesigned and stupid or really good.

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Beat the fifth realm and just got fast travel back to all realms. Looks like I'm side questing for a while.

I thought nothing could possibly top Elde Menancia's aesthetics but my god was Pelegion one of the most hauntingly beautiful palaces I have seen in any game.

Axl_Rose_85 posted...

Beat the fifth realm and just got fast travel back to all realms. Looks like I'm side questing for a while.

I thought nothing could possibly top Elde Menancia's aesthetics but my god was Pelegion one of the most hauntingly beautiful palaces I have seen in any game.

Absolutely gorgeous.

A lot of the content that just opened up is actually endgame stuff that you are definitely not a high enough level for yet. It's honestly a little confusing.

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UshiromiyaEva posted...

Absolutely gorgeous.

A lot of the content that just opened up is actually endgame stuff that you are definitely not a high enough level for yet. It's honestly a little confusing.

I have been fighting pretty much every battle I could in the game and I'm still usually lower level than most of the bosses.

I take it you either start gaining levels like crazy the next few areas or there's some serious grinding in store for me?

I barely had to grind except for the last few levels to hit 95 before I said fuck it and bought the last 5 levels to 100, lol. Just weren't any enemies a high enough level to make it go fast enough for me.

You do start getting lot of EXP from bosses. I wood absolutely start putting all the best EXP buffs you can before bosses. Nab happy bottles to max your chain before starting the fight, too (3 bottles from 0 to max). The way EXP works in this game, normal enemies give you basically nothing if they are at or lower level than you, so grinding is practically pointless.

You also gain over 30 levels in the post game dungeon from bosses alone which is...yeah.


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