Current Events > Just finished Tales of Arise

(+) Yeah! (+)

The plot gets to be some real nonsense by the end, and I can't say that I agree with the ideology at work in its underlying message, but nevertheless I thoroughly enjoyed playing it.

The point of comparison I keep using is Scarlet Nexus, which is the closest thing I've played recently. SN's writing was a total bore to me, and I definitely didn't click with it and its world the way I did here.

I just finished playing Tales of Berseria and I loved it, flaws and all. But Arise just doesn't seem like one of the "good" Tales games, it looks like the entirety of the ps3 Tales games

So what would you rate Arise then?

saspa posted...

I just finished playing Tales of Berseria and I loved it, flaws and all. But Arise just doesn't seem like one of the "good" Tales games, it looks like the entirety of the ps3 Tales games

PS3 tales include Graces which is one of the best.

Don't think any Tales game will ever be as bad as Zestria.

Number090684 posted...

So what would you rate Arise then?

In the mid 8 range.

Antifar posted...

In the mid 8 range.

Ew, that's way too high. Did you learn nothing from that mess of a final arc? Also what about how bland and predictable most of the story and villains were?

orcus_snake posted...

PS3 tales include Graces which is one of the best.

You mean worst. Combat system aside, it is garbage in every single other aspect.

Antifar posted...

The point of comparison I keep using is Scarlet Nexus, which is the closest thing I've played recently. SN's writing was a total bore to me, and I definitely didn't click with it and its world the way I did here.

Funny enough I was the exact opposite. So much so that I didn't even finish Arise.

Number090684 posted...

Ew, that's way too high.

You asked what I would rate it, not what you would rate it.

Veggeta_MAX posted...

Don't think any Tales game will ever be as bad as Zestria.

There are worse, and even though Zestiria is mediocre in some ways it kicks Arise's ass when it comes to story(Even if it is flawed too), characters, animated cutscene quality, and music.

Arise's combat played great, arguably best in the series, and the story started off pretty solid, but my god the last 80%... I was literally skipping cutscenes because it was just cut after cut of more exposition that we literally already knew and had been told a dozen times before.

Characters were uninspiring. And the whole part about Alphen starting to feel pain again - he can still use the burning sword because, what, the power of love? he will suffer massive third/first degree (the worse one) burns because he feels he can fight through it? That made no sense

Antifar posted...

You asked what I would rate it, not what you would rate it.

I know, and what you rated it says a lot about your tastes or lack thereof.

Ok

PatrickMahomes posted...

the story started off pretty solid, but my god the last 80%... I was literally skipping cutscenes because it was just cut after cut of more exposition that we literally already knew and had been told a dozen times before.

Characters were uninspiring. And the whole part about Alphen starting to feel pain again - he can still use the burning sword because, what, the power of love? he will suffer massive third/first degree (the worse one) burns because he feels he can fight through it? That made no sense

100% agree with all of the quoted. Yeah the Blazing Sword after the helmet came off made 0 fucking sense. Makes even less sense how it magically becomes a blade of astral energy composed of Dahna's will that could server Shionne and the GAS' connection and somehow merge Dahna, Rena and Lenegis all into one planet at the end. Arise's story fucking sucks.

I liked it a lot, but the over the top, preachy messaging did land pretty flat at times.

Spoilers for Rimwals arc: Forget Laws stuff and forget Rimwals sudden 180 with her rage. The part where she says, Were turning you in rather than kill you (paraphrasing)turn the most powerful witch over to whom, Rimwal? That was when the writing switched from sweet and naive to sometimes outright ridiculous.

I let it go and did eye rolls from time to time, but still had fun with the game.

I really liked that the kids were actually young adults rather than children. I get fatigued with JRPG children. Cant help it.

It has that big booty shield lady so I wanna play it.

Berseria is my first Tales game and Arise is my second. I LOVED Berseria. Did not like Arise as much. Also, man, that part when you get to Lenegis and right before Rena. Holy shit did it feel like a drag. Like I feel like it was like hours of cutscenes with maybe a single boss fight in between.

Now play Tales of Vesperia.

Ending sucked and I forgot the characters

Kaldrenthebold posted...

You mean worst. Combat system aside, it is garbage in every single other aspect.

Combat system aside? Combat systems are the only thing that actually matters in a Tales game. >_>

Legato-and-Vash posted...

Berseria is my first Tales game and Arise is my second. I LOVED Berseria. Did not like Arise as much. Also, man, that part when you get to Lenegis and right before Rena. Holy shit did it feel like a drag. Like I feel like it was like hours of cutscenes with maybe a single boss fight in between.

Yeah you outta play Vesperia and Symphonia. These two are arguably 1 and 2 in a lot of people's rankings. Granted Symphonia might feel rough going back to a 2003 gamecube game, but it's got some of the best story, voice acting, combat, characters, and music in the whole series.

NecroFoul99 posted...

I liked it a lot, but the over the top, preachy messaging did land pretty flat at times.

Spoilers for Rimwals arc: Forget Laws stuff and forget Rimwals sudden 180 with her rage. The part where she says, Were turning you in rather than kill you (paraphrasing)turn the most powerful witch over to whom, Rimwal? That was when the writing switched from sweet and naive to sometimes outright ridiculous.

Yup. Let's not forget Alphen's crazy ass plan to literally make a world where everyone wins and somehow there are no losers and no sacrifices to try and force everyone to peacefully coexist. And how despite Vholran trying to kill Alphen and his friends numerous times, doing horrible things to people all for POWER and nearly dooming Dahna and Rena in the end Alphen still opted to try and forgive him and spare him even though Vholran showed 0% remorse and refused to change his ways.

Arise is a absolute shitshow.

Legato-and-Vash posted...

Berseria is my first Tales game and Arise is my second. I LOVED Berseria. Did not like Arise as much. Also, man, that part when you get to Lenegis and right before Rena. Holy shit did it feel like a drag. Like I feel like it was like hours of cutscenes with maybe a single boss fight in between.

I'll second checking out Vesperia and Symphonia. I think you'd like them since you liked Berseria. Similar gameplay and general design for the games. Whatever you do though, stay far away from the ps3 games like Xillia and Graces.

I liked everything except that giant plot dump near the end. Scarlet Nexus did the same thing.

So good for 75% of the game. Then the plot and exposition makes it go down the drain.

Number090684 posted...

Yup. Let's not forget Alphen's crazy ass plan to literally make a world where everyone wins and somehow there are no losers and no sacrifices to try and force everyone to peacefully coexist. And how despite Vholran trying to kill Alphen and his friends numerous times, doing horrible things to people all for POWER and nearly dooming Dahna and Rena in the end Alphen still opted to try and forgive him and spare him even though Vholran show 0% remorse and refused to change his ways.

Arise is a absolute shitshow.

Yeah, and its pretty common with Tales. Dumb dumb Asbel for example. It rubbed me wrong much more often with Graces, but I agree.

(spoilers for Laws arc): I LOVED Laws moment of vengeance. Shut your stupid face! And the slomo punch to the headthen the writers abandoned that passion and went for forgiveness and friendship at all costs

I dont hate forgiveness and friendship, I just wish the writers would show a modicum of realistic behavior when trying to message their importance.

crazygamer21 posted...

I'll second checking out Vesperia and Symphonia. I think you'd like them since you liked Berseria. Similar gameplay and general design for the games. Whatever you do though, stay far away from the ps3 games like Xillia and Graces.

I agree with Vesperia/Symphonia first but disagree with "stay away" from Xillia and Graces altogether. Graces may be a cluster on many levels but the combat is absolutely top tier. I also actually had a soft spot for the title system as a way to improve stats, not sure how others feel about it.

Xillia has fewer redeeming qualities for sure, but I actually had a really good time with Xillia 2. They upped the combat with the link artes and whatnot to the point where I could basically cast a spell or two as Rowan, start a link combo, and just BTFO everything. It was awesome

Love this game. Its a top 4 Tales game for me.

I really enjoyed the 1st half of the game, especially the 1st 2 areas (it did start to dip in quality during Elde Menancia section though imo). 2nd half sucked though imp and brought the game down for me. Still enjoyed the game since the combat was fun, but the story for the 2nd half was significantly worse.

Number090684 posted...

I know, and what you rated it says a lot about your tastes or lack thereof.

Lol oh my god CE

Touch posted...

Lol oh my god CE

Yeah, I went there. Come at me.

Ving_Rhames posted...

Combat system aside? Combat systems are the only thing that actually matters in a Tales game. >_>

And that's saying something when everything else is so much worse. The plots have always been whatever, but they have never been more "THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP!1" anime trope-y then they were in that game. The characters were junk, the dungeons were AWFUL, the music was so bad. Literally the only possible good thing was the combat system. I really hated it and when people say Graces is the best it blows my head up.

I disagree about the combat being most important. The Tales series is known for great characters. Not many games have characters as dynamic as Tales. Not many games explore their motivations and their faults like Tales. I've played every game in the series, and I think the characters are it's greatest strength.

Kaldrenthebold posted...

And that's saying something when everything else is so much worse. The plots have always been whatever, but they have never been more "THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP!1" anime trope-y then they were in that game. The characters were junk, the dungeons were AWFUL, the music was so bad. Literally the only possible good thing was the combat system. I really hated it and when people say Graces is the best it blows my head up.

Agreed. Graces f is highly overrated.

Number090684 posted...

Yeah, I went there. Come at me.

You didn't "go anywhere" you told someone on the internet they had a bad opinion. That's as basic as it gets.

PatrickMahomes posted...

Granted Symphonia might feel rough going back to a 2003 gamecube game, but it's got some of the best story, voice acting, combat, characters, and music in the whole series.

They updated it for the PS3.

How goofy does it get after the 5 lords? Im past the third one and still enjoying it. I like it a lot better than Scarlet Nexus, which I have yet to beat. Theyre both alright, though.

Winnsock posted...

How goofy does it get after the 5 lords? Im past the third one and still enjoying it. I like it a lot better than Scarlet Nexus, which I have yet to beat. Theyre both alright, though.

Oh it's straight up sci-fi nonsense after that.

DirkDiggles posted...

They updated it for the PS3.

Wasn't that just a port of the PS2 version?

Pretty mediocre and the combat sucks most of the game. Story and characters forgettable. I like combat against regular monsters but against bosses and the 100k hp monsters in the final dungeon with super armor it was pretty boring.

I really liked it, but the ending was definitely... something.

Scintillant posted...

I like combat against regular monsters but against bosses and the 100k hp monsters in the final dungeon with super armor it was pretty boring.

I think either they made some adjustments post-launch or I found myself ahead of the power curve somehow. I've seen a lot of people complain about needing to grind late in the game, but the only time I really had an issue was on the first lord, lol.

Antifar posted...

I think either they made some adjustments post-launch or I found myself ahead of the power curve somehow. I've seen a lot of people complain about needing to grind late in the game, but the only time I really had an issue was on the first lord, lol.

I don't think he said anything about grinding more about the HP sponges.

The second lord gave me the biggest issue by far at the moment. I am going to the 3rd lord so maybe it will change, but I've heard the second lord is by far the biggest difficulty spike.

I will add that I spent most of the back half of the game playing as Rinwell in combat

Kaldrenthebold posted...

The second lord gave me the biggest issue by far at the moment. I am going to the 3rd lord so maybe it will change, but I've heard the second lord is by far the biggest difficulty spike.

2nd lord was imo the hardest boss in the game. I don't think any other boss gave me as much trouble, maybe because it was more difficult to prevent his strongest move than it was for the other lords (also harder to avoid being hit if he does get it off IIRC).

Edit: Actually there is one boss that gave me more trouble but it was an end game optional boss.

Srk700 posted...

2nd lord was imo the hardest boss in the game. I don't think any other boss gave me as much trouble, maybe because it was more difficult to prevent his strongest move than it was for the other lords (also harder to avoid being hit if he does get it off IIRC).

Edit: Actually there is one boss that gave me more trouble but it was an end game optional boss.

Yeah his ultimate attack I was lucky enough to just tank through with one damn person alive and chew through life bottles. It worked but damn, no clue how they INTENDED you to do it

People say the 2nd lord is the hardest, but I didn't have any issues. For me, the third lord was the absolute hardest boss in the game. Especially once he started spamming that damn meteor move since allies apparently can't dodge. Shit felt berserk lol.

Yeah lord 3 was the only other time I had to squeeze out an extra level before fighting ahain