Tales of Arise (PC/PS4/XB1) - September 9, 2021

[Karbuncle]

Riperoni, co-op is the selling point of those games for me since I play them with my brother... what a silly idea to just axe it entirely.

[Tomiko]

Unlisted video showing special skills

[Kaslo]

[6souls]

[Odesseiron]

I've kept up with the series over the years. I've always found the Tales series fairly generic and boring. (that's fairly unpopular I know). But that being said this looks like from the trailer, the first Tales game I WANT to play. Here's hoping to a good one.

[Kirin]

New trailer is giving me some Eternia and Graces vibes...so thats a positive thing instead of more Xillia or Zestiria.

[Karbuncle]

Xilia made me bored out of my mind, never finished it. But Zesteria was great, thoroughly enjoyed that one. Feel like I should point out I've only ever played the entire Tales franchise (Save Symphonia) as the Co-Op partner with my older brother, so YMMV. Really liked the weapon system in Zesteria and trying to make great or busted weapons.

Loved Graces too though, never played Eternia.

[Zealot]

Zesteria was... fine.

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[Obsidian]

Zesteria was fine, but Berseria absolutely did not miss the horrid weapon synthesis horse shit. I still think Xillia/Jude was the pinnacle of the old Tales combat. I wish they'd go back to that combat style but I've pretty much accepted that they won't.

[Lucavi]

I always hear people talking about the combat, but what about the plots?

[Kachiko]

I always hear people talking about the combat, but what about the plots?

Nothing to write forums about..

Oh, maybe you meant "plot"? YMMV.

[Ayn]

My take on the plots, as someone who's played a lot of Tales games (didn't play Innocence/only got a little bit of the way into Rebirth, which supposedly has one of the best plots)

Xillia: Eh.

Xillia 2: An improvement in most respects; the individual character side story system that had going on was great (for all that people panned it; Legendia did something similar in the second half that made it better). Stuff got stupid at the end, and you had to read supplemental material to make sense of some of the crap not explicitly stated.

Graces F: Amazing combat system. Some parts of it get dark in a way that remind me of Phantasia. Also some of the most hilarious skits (Jewel Box? The Masked Barona), as well as end battle quotes.

Bersaria: About the only thing it did worse than Zestiria was the music (it wasn't bad; just sounded like baseline Sakuraba). Skits were also top notch.

Zestiria: If they deleted Rose from the plot entirely and just made it "Sorey and Mikleo's excellent adventure" then it'd be better. Re: music. If you notice some weird ups and downs with the music (like some areas sounding totally different) it's because Go Shiina did a few tracks. Which were awesome.

Eternia: It actually took me a long time to warm up to this one because I disliked the character designs at first, but it was a great game. A lot longer than I expected, too, but a fun ride. No idea what happened to my copy (well the English one; still have the Japanese one).

I mean it's easy (and damn near borderline hipster-like) to say they have cliched plots. Play enough RPGs and you see a repeating theme. If they have endearing characters or funny quirks, then it ends up being ok.

For reference for Graces:



And poor Hubert:

[KuroTsuki]

Vesperia was the last great, or even good, Tales game (not counting Graces F since that's a rerelease). Everything since has been bad to ok. Berseria was close, but the equipment system was terrible.

[Lucavi]

Nothing to write forums about..

Oh, maybe you meant "plot"? YMMV.

No. Not anime tiddies, because any bog standard anime can churn out the fanservice. I mean actual story. Plot.

There's gotta be something beyond all the screeching combat and combo counters and girls in dresses and sword-wielding protags.

[KuroTsuki]

Vesperia was the last great, or even good, Tales game (not counting Graces F since that's a rerelease). Everything since has been bad to ok. Berseria was close, but the equipment system was terrible.

Actually, I might bump Berseria up to "good," but I'd still say it's way below stuff like Symphonia, Abyss and Vesperia.

[Zealot]

Abyss was truly excellent. Vesperia wasn't as good but still a great game. I've also played Symphonia, which I would put under Vesperia but definitely good.

Note: this is all in reference to the plots of each.


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[Lucavi]

I watched the entirety of Berseria and enjoyed what they were putting down. I thought they did a very good job of a "win at all costs" narrative.

[KuroTsuki]

Abyss was truly excellent. Vesperia wasn't as good but still a great game. I've also played Symphonia, which I would put under Vesperia but definitely good.

Note: this is all in reference to the plots of each.


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That would be my order too for those 3. Abyss >> Vesperia > Symohonia

Definitely the GOATs of Tales games.

[Obsidian]

Vesperia is the best game to me by far, both for the characters and the combat which is greatly improved over Abyss.

However, Zestiria is at least "okay" tier for a single reason: Zaveid's theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNKeQWyrfVU

[Karbuncle]

Spoiler: show

My take on the plots, as someone who's played a lot of Tales games (didn't play Innocence/only got a little bit of the way into Rebirth, which supposedly has one of the best plots)

Xillia: Eh.

Xillia 2: An improvement in most respects; the individual character side story system that had going on was great (for all that people panned it; Legendia did something similar in the second half that made it better). Stuff got stupid at the end, and you had to read supplemental material to make sense of some of the crap not explicitly stated.

Graces F: Amazing combat system. Some parts of it get dark in a way that remind me of Phantasia. Also some of the most hilarious skits (Jewel Box? The Masked Barona), as well as end battle quotes.

Bersaria: About the only thing it did worse than Zestiria was the music (it wasn't bad; just sounded like baseline Sakuraba). Skits were also top notch.

Zestiria: If they deleted Rose from the plot entirely and just made it "Sorey and Mikleo's excellent adventure" then it'd be better. Re: music. If you notice some weird ups and downs with the music (like some areas sounding totally different) it's because Go Shiina did a few tracks. Which were awesome.

Eternia: It actually took me a long time to warm up to this one because I disliked the character designs at first, but it was a great game. A lot longer than I expected, too, but a fun ride. No idea what happened to my copy (well the English one; still have the Japanese one).

I mean it's easy (and damn near borderline hipster-like) to say they have cliched plots. Play enough RPGs and you see a repeating theme. If they have endearing characters or funny quirks, then it ends up being ok.

For reference for Graces:



And poor Hubert:

Graces was probably my favorite in recent memory, played the Forte edition and really enjoyed it, especially the hidden arts like the one you posted, which I found entirely by accident once which prompted a google search lol.