The tale of two worlds in Tales of Arise isn’t anything groundbreaking, but it’s also not something to look past either. An overall pretty solid game with high scores across the board except for a few things that bring it down at certain points.

- Combat: The combat is overall solid as despite the small cast of playable characters (6), there’s an archetype to each character, so you’re able to play whichever you’d like. While the core of the combat relies on essentially either perfect dodges for counterattacks as a melee character or skill spam in the back for the ranged characters, each one managed to find their own footing. Besides the individual combat, there’s also the Boost Attacks each character has, which charge up over time in battle and can be used to stop an enemy’s attack, of which each has their own specialty. The Boost Strikes, however, despite how powerful they are, are only really ever available to the player as a ‘finishing move’ on an enemy, thus not doing that much throughout the game. The only annoying caveat of the combat system is how most healing skills require ‘CP’ to use, a resource that can only be replenished by resting or using certain items, and sometimes, this can run out quickly.
- Graphics: One of the highest points of the game in my opinion. The game looks great in all aspects, character designs, environments, special effects, it’s all got it’s own theme and really pushes towards it, whether it’s something vibrant and full of life or ominous and foreboding. There were legitimately several points in the game where I just had to pause and look around the area to see the detail put into the basic walls of an area, and this applies to everything in the game, no matter when you get there.
- Exploration: The game is quite large, and despite that, it doesn’t feel overly packed. The game is very linear, to be clear. The most you’ll find off the main quest’s path is maybe an area or two, a subquest here and there, but mostly it’s just items, which also aren’t just spammed everywhere, and given how expensive bulk buying can be sometimes, it’s worth the pickup. Either way, the only real negative about the exploration is that sometimes the game will lock your fast travel due to story reasons, which personally is something I hate. Even though I wasn't planning on going anywhere, the moment I find out I can’t just so happens to be the same moment I remember I need to run back somewhere for something.
- Characters: Honestly the game is pretty good on this aspect, not only do the main characters noticeably change through the story, some of them to a sizeable degree too, but even some of the side characters that are really only relevant in their areas go through some changes when returned to later on. Despite all that though, they can get annoying sometimes, personally I was fed up with Rinwell towards the last quarter of the game (ex. Getting mad at Law for doing literally anything in some of the later skits).
- Price: The game is 100% worth the price *if you were to just get the base game and nothing else*. Almost everything else is severely overpriced. I’ll talk more about those in the DLC-related sections further down, but the base game itself is highly worth the price. Especially with the fact that it now goes on sale for $15, even if you end up shelving it, it’s not too much of a loss.
- Completion Experience: To start off, any game without missable or difficulty-related achievements is already a pretty good completion, but combined with how the majority of the achievements will be gotten through just beating the story, and you’ve got a pretty good 100%. Beside that, though, there aren’t a lot of other things to worry about. The game has built-in counters (not trackers) for things such as owls found, quests completed, skits viewed, etc, so you don’t need to worry about keeping explicit counts of what you’ve done since most you don’t need to worry about. Lastly, of course, the final completion time (for the base game) came in at around 50 hours for me, using a guide for collectibles so I didn’t have to backtrack at the end.

- Story/Lore: While the story isn’t exactly bad, it’s not the best. There’s quite a few clichés throughout. It does have a pretty good point where you think the game is getting somewhat close to the end, and then it goes haha, off to Lenegis. The skits mostly provide interesting looks into what the characters are thinking beyond what is told during cutscenes, but the fact they’re all told in a visual novel-esque style is a bit sad.
- Beyond the Dawn Expansion: The DLC is absolutely not worth the price. A base ask of $30 will get you about 10 hours of content (all achievements), which consists of a new story, 1 new weapon for each character (which is quite literally unlocked at the end of the story), and new skits and subquests. That’s it. No new characters, outfits, title skills, etc.. The worst part of all though, is that there is no transfer between the base game and the expansion. The most you get is some bonus items (gald, SP, and a barely-better weapon) for essentially 100%ing the base game. That’s right, you have to re-acquire all your skills, equipment, artifacts, even fast travel points, because the map has been changed ever so slightly. Now this all sounds terrible, so I’m sure you’re wondering why it’s not in the cons category. The reason is pretty simple, it’s just plain alright. The story is pretty decent, but it ends in the most cliché thing of all, the power of friendship, but the lead-up is nice. As mentioned with the other DLC, you should absolutely wait for a sale to get it.

- Difficulty: The game’s difficulty is way out of control. No standard enemy fight will ever cause you trouble. Ever. Meanwhile, the first two bosses of the game are incredibly difficult compared to your knowledge, experience, and stats at the time you fight them. The thing that opposes this the most is though, that after that, everything, bosses included, is ridiculously easy. Of course, you can’t overwhelm an immense level gap in the nature of RPGs, but the threat of bosses becomes almost non-existent as you gain certain skills. There are of course higher difficulties, but all that really does is make the fights take longer because of more HP.
- Manufactured Demand (DLC): A very, very, notable con for the game is the manufactured demand. That is, selling the solution to the problems they created. The minor issues this affects is the grindy nature of RPGs, leveling, points to unlock skills, money/material farming, etc. All of these, of course, are conveniently sold as DLC. For example, you can purchase a combined 40 levels (note: does not increase the level cap, just levels you up) for a combined US$13.94. The most major affectant though, is how the base game cap on consumables is 15. Conveniently enough, there’s an artifact that increases that cap to 99 for only one $4.99 DLC. This is a very annoying issue, but it can be ignored. Absolutely wait for a sale if you’re going to buy any DLC though.

- New Game +: Standard New Game + features, however, a very important thing to note is that all your things DO NOT carry over by default. Finding the extra owls and beating a post-game quest rewards you with the items that allow you carry over essentially everything, but again, not be default.

The tale of two worlds in Tales of Arise isn’t anything groundbreaking, but it’s also not something to look past either. An overall pretty solid game with high scores across the board except for a few things that bring it down at certain points. [h1]Pro(s)[/h1] - [b]Combat[/b]: The combat is overall solid as despite the small cast of playable characters (6), there’s an archetype to each character, so you’re able to play whichever you’d like. While the core of the combat relies on essentially either perfect dodges for counterattacks as a melee character or skill spam in the back for the ranged characters, each one managed to find their own footing. Besides the individual combat, there’s also the Boost Attacks each character has, which charge up over time in battle and can be used to stop an enemy’s attack, of which each has their own specialty. The Boost Strikes, however, despite how powerful they are, are only really ever available to the player as a ‘finishing move’ on an enemy, thus not doing that much throughout the game. The only annoying caveat of the combat system is how most healing skills require ‘CP’ to use, a resource that can only be replenished by resting or using certain items, and sometimes, this can run out quickly. - [b]Graphics[/b]: One of the highest points of the game in my opinion. The game looks great in all aspects, character designs, environments, special effects, it’s all got it’s own theme and really pushes towards it, whether it’s something vibrant and full of life or ominous and foreboding. There were legitimately several points in the game where I just had to pause and look around the area to see the detail put into the basic walls of an area, and this applies to everything in the game, no matter when you get there. - [b]Exploration[/b]: The game is quite large, and despite that, it doesn’t feel overly packed. The game is very linear, to be clear. The most you’ll find off the main quest’s path is maybe an area or two, a subquest here and there, but mostly it’s just items, which also aren’t just spammed everywhere, and given how expensive bulk buying can be sometimes, it’s worth the pickup. Either way, the only real negative about the exploration is that sometimes the game will lock your fast travel due to story reasons, which personally is something I hate. Even though I wasn't planning on going anywhere, the moment I find out I can’t just so happens to be the same moment I remember I need to run back somewhere for something. - [b]Characters[/b]: Honestly the game is pretty good on this aspect, not only do the main characters noticeably change through the story, some of them to a sizeable degree too, but even some of the side characters that are really only relevant in their areas go through some changes when returned to later on. Despite all that though, they can get annoying sometimes, personally I was fed up with Rinwell towards the last quarter of the game (ex. Getting mad at Law for doing literally anything in some of the later skits). - [b]Price[/b]: The game is 100% worth the price *if you were to just get the base game and nothing else*. Almost everything else is severely overpriced. I’ll talk more about those in the DLC-related sections further down, but the base game itself is highly worth the price. Especially with the fact that it now goes on sale for $15, even if you end up shelving it, it’s not too much of a loss. - [b]Completion Experience[/b]: To start off, any game without missable or difficulty-related achievements is already a pretty good completion, but combined with how the majority of the achievements will be gotten through just beating the story, and you’ve got a pretty good 100%. Beside that, though, there aren’t a lot of other things to worry about. The game has built-in counters ([i]not trackers[/i]) for things such as owls found, quests completed, skits viewed, etc, so you don’t need to worry about keeping explicit counts of what you’ve done since most you don’t need to worry about. Lastly, of course, the final completion time (for the base game) came in at around 50 hours for me, using a guide for collectibles so I didn’t have to backtrack at the end. [h1]Pro/Con (Person-Dependent)[/h1] - [b]Story/Lore[/b]: While the story isn’t exactly bad, it’s not the best. There’s quite a few clichés throughout. It does have a pretty good point where you think the game is getting somewhat close to the end, and then it goes [spoiler]haha, off to Lenegis[/spoiler]. The skits mostly provide interesting looks into what the characters are thinking beyond what is told during cutscenes, but the fact they’re all told in a visual novel-esque style is a bit sad. - [b]Beyond the Dawn Expansion[/b]: The DLC is absolutely not worth the price. A base ask of $30 will get you about 10 hours of content (all achievements), which consists of a new story, 1 new weapon for each character (which is quite literally unlocked at the end of the story), and new skits and subquests. That’s it. No new characters, outfits, title skills, etc.. The worst part of all though, is that there is no transfer between the base game and the expansion. The most you get is some bonus items (gald, SP, and a barely-better weapon) for essentially 100%ing the base game. That’s right, you have to re-acquire all your skills, equipment, artifacts, even fast travel points, because the map has been changed ever so slightly. Now this all sounds terrible, so I’m sure you’re wondering why it’s not in the cons category. The reason is pretty simple, it’s just plain alright. The story is pretty decent, but it ends in the most cliché thing of all, [spoiler]the power of friendship[/spoiler], but the lead-up is nice. As mentioned with the other DLC, you should absolutely wait for a sale to get it. [h1]Con(s)[/h1] - [b]Difficulty[/b]: The game’s difficulty is way out of control. No standard enemy fight will ever cause you trouble. Ever. Meanwhile, the first two bosses of the game are incredibly difficult compared to your knowledge, experience, and stats at the time you fight them. The thing that opposes this the most is though, that after that, everything, bosses included, is ridiculously easy. Of course, you can’t overwhelm an immense level gap in the nature of RPGs, but the threat of bosses becomes almost non-existent as you gain certain skills. There are of course higher difficulties, but all that really does is make the fights take longer because of more HP. - [b]Manufactured Demand (DLC)[/b]: A very, very, notable con for the game is the manufactured demand. That is, selling the solution to the problems they created. The minor issues this affects is the grindy nature of RPGs, leveling, points to unlock skills, money/material farming, etc. All of these, of course, are conveniently sold as DLC. For example, you can purchase a combined 40 levels (note: does not increase the level cap, just levels you up) for a combined US$13.94. The most major affectant though, is how the base game cap on consumables [b]is 15[/b]. Conveniently enough, there’s an artifact that increases that cap to 99 for only one $4.99 DLC. This is a very annoying issue, but it can be ignored. Absolutely wait for a sale if you’re going to buy any DLC though. [h1]Extras[/h1] - [b]New Game +[/b]: Standard New Game + features, however, a very important thing to note is that all your things DO NOT carry over by default. Finding the extra owls and beating a post-game quest rewards you with the items that allow you carry over essentially everything, but again, not be default.