When I played the demo, I don't like the battle so why would I bother to pick the full game?
Thankfully there's a sub quest, world detail, character and skits. Based on information that I pieced together during the demo interest me so I give this game a shot. I didn't regret it, I enjoyed this game.

This game had quite slow opening on it's story, combat, and character. There's stuff going on but it seems the game taking few hours of your time before everything starting to click.

TL;DR:
- the demo motivate me to give this game a chance because of the character, world and story
- the demo save me from losing interest during the slow section of the game

The most enjoyable part of the game is the party's character. I love every single one of them. Let's try to break down two main leads early character:

Alphen is the leader. The game does an good job exploring the "i can't feel pain" which ties quite well with the his personality and quirks. He's a good leader too, he know what he's trying to achieve and move the plot forward. He's strikes pretty good balance between "reliable" while also "relying" to other.

Shionne is the main heroine, had thorn that will hurt everyone that touch her but an expert in healing. The thorn ties quite well with her personality too, which feels satisfying once she start to opens up to everyone.

Just those duo alone already give interesting dynamic to the banter, the interaction and the gameplay.

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Example: "Alphen cannot feel pain".
This quirk is an double edge sword. While he can't feel it, he still receive the damage but he won't realized how severe his wounds is.

Then there's a "Blazing sword", it will burn everyone who use it alive so he can hold it no problem but it still dangerous. Shionne prevent him from burned alive with her healing skill. On the battle he sometimes confused why he need to be healed in the first place which is a nice touch.

This quirk expands to other area like his taste of food, because he don't feel pain this lead his body to crave very spicy food to satisfied his sensory system. The spicy food preference will be commented by the others which lead to fun skits and dialog. This quirk will expand naturally through out the game, it's a nice touch.
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That's only those duo alone, we still got another 4 party member which had their own flaws, struggle, quirk and arc. Everyone interaction will evolve the more we progress, it's so much fun seeing them just interact with each other and satisfying.

TLDR:
- I love the character a lot, well executed although feel trophy at first.

If seeing them goffballing each other is so much fun, skits will be your favorite feature. I like it a lot, this contribute to huge factor to why I love this party so much.

Skits is an interaction or dialog that will be presented with comic style layout. Unlike Scarlet Nexus's implementation of dynamic layout which I really hate, I like this game implementation of it. It's simple, but it works. It's clean and dynamic.

Skits varies from "the party arguing about morality" until "a sand that went to their boots". It's so much fun to see and we got to know them better. This small skits effect will compound to you resulting in a more rich character and fun journey.

I like this game look. I like the character animation and facial expression too, they're smooth and expressive.

Music used as background, they don't have memorable ost aside from opening, ending and battle them.

The gameplay loop is ok, you don't need to grind to finish the game. You got decent exploration, crafting, linear upgrade, fishing, subquest, hidden quest, optional boss etc. Most of the gameplay is decent.

The combat system can keep me entertained once its fully opened up to. I have fun charging combining Rinwell's spell to cast a stronger one and timing it up with everyone attack to achieve instant kill.

I like they tight the story with the combat, Example: the blazing sword and shionne role in the combat. The blazing sword will drain your health, but you can rely to Shionne to heal while you do reckless move with the blazing sword.

However, I found this combat a bit exhausting and a bit repetitive. Sure I can utilize tons of art and tons of combination and crazy combos, but the way they give me challange make the battle a bit stale.

They got many enemy type, each with their own attack pattern and challanges. It's quite fun learning their pattern and how to handle it. But...

The difficulty scaling is bad. You'll see lot of reskin, and reused enemy pattern. The enemy doesn't evolve mechanically once you see every enemy type, they just add more HP and different weak spot which IMO a lazy way to scale difficulty. I don't like their approach. The last dungeon is horrible too, it last too long and the enemy is health sponge.

TL;DR:
- the first few hours of combat is boring because the option is very limited and I don't feel click yet
- the mid game give me lot of fun, I understand the mechanic, I experimented with different stuff and learning enemy pattern.
- the late game become a bit stale because mechanically still similar and the challanges is only hp sponge.

THIS, DON'T BITE TOO MUCH THAT YOU CAN'T CHEW.

The story had potential, they explore mature theme like collonialism, slavery, price of freedom, . But bandai tried to do too much. The story beats is there, the concept is there, the setup is well done but on the second half they run out of steam.

It seems during the second phase development they realized "oh ♥♥♥♥, we don't have enough time" and cut them out through exposition dump. On top of it, I don't really like the ending (I like the epilogue tho) but they just pulled out cheap deus ex machina.

For the rushed feeling, it's like you're watching a movie then suddenly it stopped and tell you the plot points instead of letting the plot unfold naturally. Imagine instead of watching "Avengers: Infinity War" , you read this bullet points:

• Thanos ambush Thor ship to extract space stone, killing loki in the process
  
• Squidward attacked new york to get the time stone. But he fail so thanos do it by himself
  
• ...
  
• Thanos snap his finger, 50% of population disapear

It feels so different compared to reading the original script or watching the movie. Those plot point can and will be more impactful if you let them unfold naturally instead of reading bullet points.

TL;DR:
- The 3/4 part of the main story is good
- They managed to build the world, interesting concept, interesting conflict but they don't have enough time to unfold those plots naturally
- The second need to be just as long as the first cour, unfortunately they speed things up that gives a sour taste in my mouth.

Tales of Arise is a game that a game that I looking for in the tales series, a more streamlined and a game that won't give me a burn out just to finish it

The characters is the strongest area on this game, I like them a lot the memorable moments usually came in the skits and sub quest, which mostly just them having fun. The romance plot is good too, I found their interaction is cute and heartwarming. However, the main plot had issue with the story telling,they're biting more than he can chew which gives the second half a more "rushed" feeling.

This game had an opportunity to be a "great game", sadly its only a "good game"

*Check my profile for review scale