The basic starting point is protagonist Alphen, who ducks and dodges through fights as a fiery swordsman, but while every supporting character fights alongside you in a combat arena, they can periodically be summoned in for special moves that really hit home against certain enemies. One constant is Arise's combat system, and it's fantastic. Arise's troupe are really something special, each one of which you'll be given different reasons to root for, but it's a shame the vast majority of the character building happens in the first half of the game. Arise's back half is waylaid by fairly monotonous dungeon-crawling though, opting for wall-to-wall action in favour of character development. The wizened Dohalim is an enticing companion, and a pleasant surprise in that he's a person of colour given ample screen time to develop over the course of the 30-something hours of this JRPG.
#TALES OF ARISE SWITCH FREE#
Arise's strength is in its characters, uniting from all walks of life to break free of the chains that bind them. It's in that second portion that the adventure starts to wear a little thin. The first focuses on breaking the shackles of slavery and ruminating on how an enslaved people can set up their own society once they're free of their oppressors, while the second game strays into Kingdom Hearts territory of intergalactic adventures and lengthy monologues about the spirit and willpower that resides within us all. It's a massive adventure as well, jamming what's effectively two games, each with their own animated title sequences, into one package. It's a little disappointing, then, that Tales of Arise can't quite manage to maintain its commentary on and depiction of slavery without muddying the waters by falling back on some cliches. 'A woman with an insatiable appetite but who is very embarrassed about it' pops up through the enigmatic Renan warrior Shionne, for example, and the headstrong Danan youth Law wants to punch through everything in sight, at one point literally offering his services of punching through a concrete floor.
Like a friend being begrudgingly dragged on a night out, some well-trodden anime concepts rear their heads to balance out the darker nature of Arise's storytelling.
#TALES OF ARISE SWITCH SERIES#
Despite the rampant release schedule though, Tales of Arise is the first new entry since 2016's Berseria, and is generally viewed as a soft reboot for the series at large, attempting to find footing with a bigger audience than ever before, especially in the west.Īrise still falls back on some recognisable anime storytelling trends you've no doubt seen in countless pieces of media before. Still, Tales has never quite risen to such highs worldwide, occupying a more cult-like following compared to the blockbuster successes of the aforementioned series. The Dahnans have been made to suffer unimaginable horrors under the rule of the Renans, who hail from a technologically-advanced world and will stop at nothing to drain this planet's resources and its people for all they're worth, and the action-RPG isn't shying away from studying the exploitation and loss of self that takes hold under slavery.Īs the 17th entry in the Tales franchise, Bandai Namco's series has seen more releases in less time than Square Enix's Final Fantasy saga. Tales of Arise is a story about an enslaved race of people, who slowly learn to pick up arms and fight back against the oppressors who've held a vice-like grip around their throats for over three centuries.