DO NOT PLAY THIS GAME UNLESS YOU ARE HARDCORE TALES FAN

If you had experience with other tales, you would know that it's not about great graphics and/or exciting gameplay.
Story is the main aspect of the game. You ONLY play it for the story. Which is fine, it has always been like that...

Except it was better...
I have no idea how, but it now feels worse than Berseria or even Zestiria...
Screenshots they show at store page are very deceiving, the game hardly has better visuals than its 6-7 years old predecessors. Yeah, you won't be playing this game for graphics, but advertising it like that is awfully wrong.

Combat
Combat is my main source of disappointment. Berseria, in my opinion, has best combat of all Tales I've played. Zestiria was more repetitive and not as varied, but still relatively fun to engage. Now Arise is like dark souls... except worse. Attacks are short and repetitive, combo making is hard and impractical: your most valid option for avoiding damage is dodging which can't be activated until the attack animation is over.

Levelling system
Level imbalance is insane, the game forces you to either play with the lowest difficulty possible or mindlessly grind levels through the same routine just to finally be able to proceed forward at some point. The moment you reach your very first boss, it will likely have double your level. Which means oneshot, each attack, every time. I had similar problem in Zestiria, had to grind levels a lot to slowly progress through the game, but dying to a single hit was never an issue. Now it is.

Story and MC
Not a fan of the story so far, looking at MC, you would expect Eizen kind of personality, but nah, he's more like Sorey on steroids.
The whole setting is rather silly, but these are nothing more than my initial impressions as I haven't progressed much through the game yet.

In short: this is literally same game it was in previous iterations, even worse in some places, I don't see the reason behind AAA pricing and overall hype. Just keep that in mind - you get it if you want another Tale, not a 2021 game, because it ain't one.

DO NOT PLAY THIS GAME UNLESS YOU ARE HARDCORE TALES FAN If you had experience with other tales, you would know that it's not about great graphics and/or exciting gameplay. Story is the main aspect of the game. You ONLY play it for the story. Which is fine, it has always been like that... Except it was better... I have no idea how, but it now feels worse than Berseria or even Zestiria... Screenshots they show at store page are very deceiving, the game hardly has better visuals than its 6-7 years old predecessors. Yeah, you won't be playing this game for graphics, but advertising it like that is awfully wrong. Combat Combat is my main source of disappointment. Berseria, in my opinion, has best combat of all Tales I've played. Zestiria was more repetitive and not as varied, but still relatively fun to engage. Now Arise is like dark souls... except worse. Attacks are short and repetitive, combo making is hard and impractical: your most valid option for avoiding damage is dodging which can't be activated until the attack animation is over. Levelling system Level imbalance is insane, the game forces you to either play with the lowest difficulty possible or mindlessly grind levels through the same routine just to finally be able to proceed forward at some point. The moment you reach your very first boss, it will likely have double your level. Which means oneshot, each attack, every time. I had similar problem in Zestiria, had to grind levels a lot to slowly progress through the game, but dying to a single hit was never an issue. Now it is. Story and MC Not a fan of the story so far, looking at MC, you would expect Eizen kind of personality, but nah, he's more like Sorey on steroids. The whole setting is rather silly, but these are nothing more than my initial impressions as I haven't progressed much through the game yet. In short: this is literally same game it was in previous iterations, even worse in some places, I don't see the reason behind AAA pricing and overall hype. Just keep that in mind - you get it if you want another Tale, not a 2021 game, because it ain't one.