Recent reviews by Arc

Despite near critical acclaim, why would I not recommend Chained Echoes?

A few things really hampered the experience for me --

1. The story.
Don't expect this to be a cheerful story. Beneath its bright graphics lies a sordid affair which carries out all the way to the end. More bitter for me personally than it is sweet, if you're set for a more philosophical journey than something that takes the load off after a grimy day at work, by all means do give it a shot.

2. The progression system.
I always felt trapped by Chained Echoes' grimoire shard system, which is its equivalent to 'leveling up'. Due to the piecemeal nature of obtaining grimoire shards (which is usually granted after a boss), I felt that I needed to conserve them in the event that I needed to get a particular skill over the other. Not until the last parts of the game did I feel free to experiment with character builds.

3. The crafting system.
It's the same issue I have with the grimoire shard system. I conserved most of my gems until the very end of the game as using them would be more of a waste early on. There's so much potential for this system to be fun, but not having these freely slot out without penalty really hampered the experience.

Was it a good game though? Certainly, it was. But these issues, especially the story, really pulled by my recommendation for this game.

I definitely see how this game can be a great pick for many people, but unfortunately it didn't really click with me. From my very limited time with the game, I found it to be quite difficult. I feel that I shouldn't have to exhaust all options especially this early in the game, but it does force you to do so. I'm sure that for the more hardcore audience who love to experiment and exploit every opportunity a game can give you, this game will definitely be for you. For the slightly more casual crowd, or those who have not much patience to play around with the game's world and mechanics, I wouldn't necessarily recommend this game.

As someone who has had limited exposure to the Tales series (having finished Tales of Eternia, World, Abyss, and Vesperia), I found the game to be quite enjoyable.

While the story wasn't as grand as I had hoped, Arise still managed to pull my heart strings and kept me relatively invested until the very end.

Mechanically, the combat system feels good and flows well though it can get repetitive due to spamming the same combos over and over again. Dodging, boost attacks, and boost strikes with party members keep things lively, however.

The music's great albeit limited, and the graphics are quite the spectacle .

Overall, I'd give this game an 8/10.

There's so much to love about Arise, but I feel that it could have given a lot more.

Still, I highly recommend Tales of Arise to JRPG fans.

I had to go out and buy new underwear because of this game.

8.5/10.