Tales of Symphonia was my first tales game, and even today, it gave me the biggest fear of trusting people because of it 😅

It was very disappoint for me when they got rid of multiplayer co op, since i like to have an option to play with my family. Most of the older tales title has multiplayer co op and its strange for this one not to have it.

I think you may have already been recommended this but you should for sure be trying Granblue fantasy: relinked. That's the jrpg of this year. I've had zero issues with any quest or story missions, it never becomes a slog. The game knows when and how much story to give and just lets you play. Combat is amazing, visually i think it is the best looking game of its kind that's come out, And the bosses are the highlights. it also has a very monster hunter type feel to it.

I think I have a little left. I fought that last dude and then that. Thing came out or however it went and once the opening changed I never opened again.

Please god play Tales of Vesperia, its so good. I've loved the tales series since Symphonia on the gamecube and I feel like that was the golden age of the series.

Rinwell was the only character i played as haha but i agree with a lot of your points. I just dipped after credits because i was definitely done even if the game had more to offer

Tales of the Abyss was my first Tales game. Love it to death especially the gameplay. For me Arise story was decent but not what I was hoping for.

Yeah it definitely was a surprise after the lords since that's what you were working towords the first half of the game and was like oh theres so much more, but I feel it was still very tales like. The very last fight being scriped was a throw too. They changed a lot of the formula of what tales games were for this game and outside of watching cutscene for hours for a bit of gameplay I enjoyed this game but yeah it has its issues for sure not in my top tales games but was an enjoyable game for me. Combat for the game was definitely a weaker point for me because it came down to work to break and finish the enemy or to continue to break again. By the end of it, I was spaming like 3 arts to stagger and didn't really have to think about it. It definitely lost a lot of depth for making it look better and flashier.

I don't blame you for that feeling at the end ..... for me this was the first tales game and the only one . but despite that i'm a fan for the game now cuz of your same reasons (also the combat is like ".hach\\g.u" from my childhood -LOL-turn of your brain and mash the same 3 skills) who else played it .

Tales of Arise's biggest flaw for me is the lack of hitstun on its bosses. A core part of Tales combat has always been comboing your enemies. The bosses always had some amount of superarmor, but enough strung hits would break it and reward you with an uninterupted damage window. It rewarded finding the right openings and fighting well. But when every single boss can facetank your hits without a worry and strike back at any moment, it makes it completely unbalanced in the enemy's favor when it combine that with massively inflated health pools and huge AOE attacks that deal big damage and wipe out your AI allies easily. All that is a much bigger sin to me than a weaker ending.

I never touched the dlc despite having looked forward to it a lot, as you can not carry over any of your progress in levels and such and are forced to begin at level1 again. Just felt bad to me

I've only watched the first mins but it's incredible how similar of an experience we both had. Tales of Arise is my first tales game, I started it in 2023 and only recently completed it in 2024. While playing thr beginning part I got super interested in the battle mechanics and story, I could not wait to reach endgame to finally put my skills to the test and master the combat. But alas, the final part came and although being a very emotional and spectacular ending, it made me feel like I was done, I finally finished it and moved on (which I guess it's not really a bad thing for an ending to literally be the end of a playthrough for most players)

I feel like Tales of Arise had a very good start at the beginning. If I were to compare its story beats to something, it'd be FFXIV. Stormblood in particular with the desire to free the people and the other things that come with it. But the later parts of Arise went into Endwalker territory too quickly with very little buildup. Comparing Vholran and Zenos in this regard. They're similar enough on the surface, but one of them went beyond the other after having some time for story beats to flesh them out. Vholran himself is very... Stormblood Zenos-esque, and that is not a compliment at that point in time. It really is time that could make Arise so much better in the story department.

Never did play a Tales game...it's not open world is it? Not a fan of those...turn-based RPGs though, I guess it just depends on the game itself, sometimes it doesn't work for me and I'd get bored. lol

Wasn't expecting this, well better luck on the next rpg you decide to play. I know one I'd love to hear you play. And no it isn't ff14. Edit: well I should have stuck to the end... all I can say about replicant is, I prefer it over automata. There are things in it I do like less, but over all from start to ending.... not gunna say, I love replicant.

Hearing people say Arise is their first Tales game is soul crushing to me because the game abandoned everything I love about the Tales series. I got into Tales with Eternia because it was sold to me as an RPG with a 4-player co-op 2D fighter for a battle system...AND IT WAS! Even had an end game item that let you have all skills equipped but you have to do fighting game inputs to perform them! Unfortunately it didn't have enough fighters to go around (mages sucked to play as) so I said "Oh well. Next game." and had we gotten Destiny 2 or any of the other Team Destiny games I would have been happy. Alas, we only got the 3D ones and the series has been downhill ever since. With Berseria abandoning the Linear Motion Combat System that defines the series and Arise ditching multiplayer, everything that made Tales special is gone now. Heck, Namco even shut down Tales Studio before making Arise. Unfortunately the series has been so badly handled in the West that the entire fandom's perception of the series is kinda warped and I don't think most people even know what they're getting into with a Tales game.

It's one of the few titles of the franchise I didn't pick up Mainly because they removed multiplayer and the fact that you don't get a lot of button combinations to assign artes to. If you ever want to give the franchise another try I suggest Symphonia for the amazing story or Vesperia for the largest character roster and best combat.

Good video, this is how I felt about this game when I beat it. As a long fan of the "Tales of" franchise and cleared couple games, I don't own the systems to play some of the older ones. I felt the story in this game, especially toward the end def, fell short of what I'm used to from the other games. When I got to the end, I was thinking that there might be more and then credit rolls. I do like how much smoother the game feels compare to the two predecessors Zesteria and Berseria in terms of movements and collisions.

Never heard of this game

The villain is literally kylo rein from star wars the rise of skywalker. Bro got stab once and came back, and his hair reminds me of him.

Tales of Abyss, Symphonia, and Vesperia are the best in the series. Tales of Xillia 1&2 are pretty solid, Graces F has a horrible story, but great gameplay.

Play Granblue Fantasy Relink if you felt disappointed by Tales of Arise.

Some writers need to learn that it’s okay to have a villain. The fact that there was 4 times in this game that the “villains” were forced by something or someone to do their evil deeds made victories feel empty and up to the very end no less. The game could’ve easily ended 20 hours earlier and would’ve been better for it.

It's sounds like the devs ran out of time to make a proper ending.

Massive agree with your points. Maybe check out Tales of Berseria and/or Vesperia. They may be older entries, but they both stick the landing a lot better (and they're both just generally better games, imo).

I played up until the part where the main guy is left alone and thought "Yep, I'm done with this game"

I like Tales of Arise but certainly not my favorite Tales game

The DLC is also awful because you can't use your old save, you got to start fresh.

I have the same issues with this game. Other games in the series are much better especially from a story perspective. Definitely recommend Symphonia, Vesperia and Abyss. Symphonia is older and you'll feel that with the combat (it's linear rather than being able to run freely) but has a great story and cast.

I wil say I wish, Law's character development didn't go down the drain the second they stepped a foot into the third kingdom, my man went from having a heavy burden on his mind to the goofy character of the group and later made him hungry for female attention again out of nowhere. I will never understand who made the decision to inject Law's backstory and character into very few skits that are mostly post game and Alphen's camp talk and spread thin during the story

First

The game should have ended after the first soverign fight (vholgin? I think hes called?) Imo. Combat kinda sucks on hard since you basically have to set your allies to do nothing but dodge or else they all die or you die thanks to the visual clutter. At the end they begin telling you the same thing over and over, once in a cutscene, once through dialogue, once in a skit, etc. The only good parts of lenegis were dohalims parts imo.

Even Tales of Crestoria did this narrative better.

I mean yeah tales of arise kind short compare to other game. If you want more complex tales with the same them i recommend tales of Symphonia it's on pc "or more better play on pc than switch" even for game on GameCube. Take note it's old game so graphic wasn't for everyone.

The final dungeon in particular is an utterly atrocious experience. So long. So boring. It's just one of the worst dungeons I've ever played in any RPG.

I came here to shout at you for slandering this game, but then you reminded me of that ending. I guess i wiped it from my memory.

Tales of Arise was one of the biggest disappointments of its year for me. I wouldn't say the game is bad per se, it's just incredibly mid in all aspects.

As a long time fan of the franchise i had a lot and i mean A LOT of issues with this game going from the repetitive combat and spongy enemies, the boring characters and messy story telling with some unresolved plot threads, the microtransactions galore and the bosses, holy fuck the bosses in this game are the worst, but what really killed my interest for the game was that last 3rd, holy fuck its like the devs didnt know how to end the story or they spent all their budget in the first 2/3 of the game. what a disappointing experience and sadly this game already sold 3M wich is obvious will be the gold standard for future games in the IP.

I've played most of series now except eh oldest ones and the series has honestly been struggling for a while, both gameplay and story wise. The best one imho is still Vesperia, by faaaaaaaaar. Best characters and plot in the series. Even the combat, if you look past the very strange "2D" controls that older Tales had, is one of the better ones in the series especially when it comes to magic. Besides Vesperia, Berseria and Xillia (not Xillia 2) were also pretty good. Graces was very weird and strange, sometimes pretty cool other times I just wanted to get out. Zesteria was the biggest miss for me even though it has one of my favorite characters in the series, but everything besides that was very bland. Arise also felt very bland to me both in story and gameplay. Hate how games keep getting more and more restrictive with what you can do and it was very apparent in Arise. And the story .. yeah, mildly interesting and the start and then boring almost the entire rest of the game. None of the characters were actually good either. Shion was the best maybe, but I still barely had any attachement to her.

For me, a mediocre story is ok if the gameplay is excellent but a bad/idiotic story will 8/10 ruin a game. Also great edits for the throat goa... I mean throat clearing.

I hate when the main character is decided by the game not a creation character, that makes no diversity whatsoever. For the story in my opinion.