Tales of Arise [2020]

[GDB]

Originally Posted by Shinji103

Definitely pleased to hear there’s more Arise coming. This was easily my favorite Tales game since Graces and Berseria.

It was literally the one after Berseria though.

[Dextro]

Originally Posted by Kanon

YouTube

https://youtu.be/HQX3sbPahnA

Sorry; dynamic content not loaded. Reload?

Sequel DLC taking place a year after the ending of the game. More than 20 hours of content.

Hopefully those 20h aren't the same as the final story dungeon in the original game. Those enemies were just massive sponges. 0 fun to be had there.

[serenade_beta]

I love how Zesteria traumatized both the players and this company so much that they literally go and spoil that the new character will not be playable
Ahh yes, good old Baba

https://toarise.tales-ch.jp/dlcbtd/qa/

新キャラクター「ナザミル」は、プレイアブルキャラとしてバトルに参加しますか？
ナザミルはプレイアブルキャラとしての参加・育成はできません。
やがてアルフェン達と対峙する運命にありますが、アルフェン達の旅に同行している間は、スキッ ト/イベントシーン/野営シーンなどで登場します。

[Shinji103]

Originally Posted by GDB

It was literally the one after Berseria though.

Yes, but since Berseria was my other favorite Tales besides Graces, I had to mention it.

[stray]

Only $29.99 USD, already down to $25.49 at places like Fanatical and GMG. I'm hopeful its more than just a dungeon crawl, but for the price I guess I can't complain.

[TURI123456]

There is an assessment of when/if "Beyond The Dawn Expansion" will be discounted?

[cyberdemon]

Originally Posted by TURI123456

There is an assessment of when/if "Beyond The Dawn Expansion" will be discounted?

A couple years from now. Don’t ask of discount before it’s been released

[TURI123456]

Originally Posted by cyberdemon

A couple years from now. Don’t ask of discount before it’s been released

I question this because I already paid something like 30 dollars for the "Ultimate Edition" of the game "Tales of Arise" and I don't want to pay again 30 dollars for the "Beyond The Dawn Expansion".

[Last Sinner]

This had become a standard from the Persona series and others. No surprise they pull this yet again in Japan. Another reason why Berseria is the one time I engaged this series.

[stray]

Originally Posted by cyberdemon

A couple years from now. Don’t ask of discount before it’s been released

I mean if you want it for 60% off you're going to have to wait a while but there are discounts out there... I just preordered from Green Man Gaming for 17% off ($24.89 USD). Tales is one of my favorite series so I'm there no matter what.

[FlareKnight]

I'm having a blast coming back to this game. Finished a replay of it earlier in the year so I was good for the DLC.

Spoiler for Beyond the Dawn:

I'm still really early in this, but I'm loving it. There's just a comfort in this cast of characters and seeing where they are after that time skip after the ending. Kind of fun seeing Menancia again. There's so much chaos as the people of the world adapt to their current situation. But this place feels like a bastion of hope. Of course it has the advantage of having coexistence...kind of pushed onto everyone for quite a while. Obviously the story of the main game happened. But it left them in a much better space to accept peace and coexistence. They've lived it and just need to keep living it.

Nazamil is cute, but also a character that definitely captures past sins and future trials. A girl of two peoples who could be rejected by everyone. She also nicely falls into a similar position to Alphen and Shionne. She's had a lot of weight forced onto her and clearly her pain isn't quite over yet. Kind of a smart move to make use of the one Lord we never saw (because he got smoked before the game started) as her father. She also symbolizes...the kind of child Alphen and Shionne are bound to have. One that has all the 6 elements and is from two cultures. So taking care of her is kind of a trial run for their future .

Hopefully I can sit down and really play through this more. But so far, so good.

I like that they did try to leave Nazamil in the city. It's a sensible choice since she is a kid. But I get why she followed after them. It's the first sense of belonging she's ever had. Staying alone but safe was less appealing. And again she's particularly attached to Alphen and Shionne. Those two won't be staying in that town on a regular basis.

Also I kind of love that Law detected her following but wasn't sure it was her. So he was going to deck this kid if she didn't hurry and appear on her own .

The game is slow to let you explore this new world. But that's mostly ok. I am enjoying the little bits we get from it. Seeing Dahnans and Renans just interacting now that the world has changed. Feels a bit weird to see the farmlands. Renans using their talents to water crops and dry hung clothing since...why not .

It's definitely nice to have the story picking up and exploring all the issues that were bound to crop up after these worlds merged and after all the liberation. Especially good to tackle both the hero worship and demands made of Alphen as soon as they did. Fine to ask for help, but imposing expectations definitely took things too far. And of course led to the issues with Nazamil that are cropping up. She's obviously acting from a good place, but is going completely off the rails.

I'm especially enjoying the focus that the marriage situation for Alphen and Shionne is having on the quests. It's both cute and a nice sort of thing we don't get that often in RPGs. Alphen pretending that he's not going to be marrying Shionne is a bit goofy at points, but it's still good seeing him exploring all this. And it's a good excuse to bring all these side characters from the main game into it. He and Shionne have touched all their lives and it's good to bring them in on this to a degree.

Bit more depressing is Nazamil's steady progression into a tough spot. I knew it was going to suck when they confronted her. She wanted to be useful and once she found friendship that feeling got even stronger. But then...Alphen's position and struggle as a hero versus a person led to all sorts of troubles. And she simply took the wrong approach. Going off the rails when feeling like even the friends she thought she had now hated her. Really sucked seeing her so in pain that she put that mask on herself to just take it all away.

I haven't even gotten to the big dungeon of the DLC. Say what you want about this thing (pricing, etc) the quest content is packed!

Spoiler for Ending:

So that wasn't bad.

I'm all for the classic move of playing the original OP during a fight too so glad they fit that in. And seeing Nazamil look so relieved and happy at the end made it worth the fighting to get to that point. Makes sense to let her go about on her own for a while to solidify herself as a person before she just becomes dependent on everyone. Then they can meet up again later. In the end she is OP as heck so it's not like there's any harm now in letting her walk around. She's got confidence and experience on her side.

While I would have loved some more overt stuff (the actual proposal from Alphen, a confession between Law/Rinwell, etc) I'm pretty happy with how it went. The DLC did lean hard into making even more clear where things are going. Heck we had a whole wedding subplot. Though I think including the actual wedding and then having Nazamil go off on her own after the ceremony would have been ideal. But clear where things are going and even got a preview on where they'd end up living . And again I would have loved some more overt stuff with Law and Rinwell, at least there was stuff there. And even ended with her running off ahead of him to have him follow along. Things are looking just fine there. They just need more time.

Overall I had a good time with this. There an absolute ton of sidequests which I appreciated. Had a good time going through all that, getting my ultimate weapons, and going off to help Nazamil. Whether it's worth it to people I can't say. But I didn't mind coming back to this game one more time. Took me about 27 hours but I was taking my time with it. I'm sure just focusing on the main stuff could cut that time down quite a bit.