Tales of Arise Review Script, Part 1: The Calaglia Arc (Patreon)

What follows is a preview of the script I'm currently working on for my review of Tales of Arise. Everything is subject to change.

Intro:

When it comes to game franchises, the Tales of series has never been one on many people’s radar. It’s a series near and dear to my heart, with lovable characters journeying through anime-style worlds, essentially making them playable shonens. And with most games taking place in their own worlds with unique casts, each entry could easily be someone’s first Tales game. For me, that was the 3DS port of Tales of the Abyss.

Despite its 25-year history, and its uniqueness in its real-time, action-RPG approach, the Tales series has largely been considered mid-tier, especially compared to more mainstream franchises like Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest. Tales of Symphonia helped the franchise catch on in the West, and yet while its popularity outside of Japan has been steadily increasing, Tales has yet to be truly seen and respected as a top-tier, Triple A property.

Now for me personally, the “brand prestige” isn’t as important as whether people love the games. Graphically speaking, this series has never been something to write home about, but I was always more focused on the characters’ journeys and dynamics with each other. Sure Tales of Berseria might look like a really polished PS2 game ported to PS4. All I really care about is helping Velvet kill the pope, hashtag be gay do crime.

And yet after Tales of Berseria’s release in 2016, the series’ publisher and developer Bandai Namco sought to take the Tales series to the next level. They wanted to make it a spectacle. To evolve the franchise into something more accessible, more glamorous, and clearly of the level of recent Final Fantasy titles. Their aim was to overhaul the franchise’s perception so as to appeal to a wider audience, especially outside Japan, without alienating existing fans.

And so in 2016, work began on “Project Arise.” The name is a nod to the two major themes of the game: Inheritance, so as to honor all the Tales games that came before, and Evolution, which would take the best elements of all of them and forge them into something new. While its essence as a Tales game would remain intact, it would receive a complete makeover.

The Arise staff comprised of newcomers, such as producer Yusuke Tomizawa who’d only worked on the definitive edition of Tales of Vesperia, as well as series veterans, like art director and character designer Minoru Iwamoto. Oh, and of course, the illustrious composer Motoi Sakuraba, because this man literally lives and breathes Tales.

From the get-go, there was a vision for this game to be an epic. To astound the player with an incredible scope, and a new art style which would reflect the prestige the developers were aiming for. While Tomizawa stated that Arise wouldn’t be open world, it’s easy to see how many thought it would be given the level of detail and polish put into all of the environments, as well as the whole angle of the twin worlds, Dahna and Rena.

That all said… Arise never really hooked me as it was being discussed through its development. It’s not that I thought the game sounded bad, but rather that nothing about the project viscerally spoke to me the way previous games had. Not to mention that at the time, I was still very much in the throes of Velvet Crowe’s journey in Tales of Berseria, and with that game’s story having destroyed my heart and put it back to together many times over the years, Arise for the most part had become irrelevant to me.

Tales of Arise was initially meant to be released in 2020 for the series’ 25th anniversary, but had to be pushed back due to numerous issues to do with the game’s immense scope, the added complexity of developing the game for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, and uh… Miss Rona, of course. It was eventually released on September 10, 2021 on PC, PS4, PS5, and… whatever the Xboxes wanna call themselves. And thankfully for Namco, their efforts seemed to pay off.

Reviews for Arise were glowing across the board, and by April 2022, the game had sold over 2 million units, with many players citing this as their first-ever Tales game. While it does seem to be fan consensus that the writing is not the game’s strong point, especially in the “second half,” the presentation and gameplay have been highly praised as a solid step up from previous entries.

I didn’t get around to playing Arise until a few months ago. I’d been curious about it, and one day came across an in-depth video by Elixir Vitae Games about her thoughts on Arise. Highly suggest y’all check it out, because she’s where I learned a lot of interesting details about this game’s development, and in general I really appreciate her analysis when it comes to the characters specifically. Her video is what convinced me to give Arise a try, especially when I discovered a cheap physical copy on Amazon. Now how could I have said no to that?

As I played the game initially, I found myself really loving it. I was absolutely enthralled by the game’s presentation and atmosphere. And while this cast still isn’t one of my favorites, I did appreciate the work that went into them and their dynamics with each other, which kinda just goes to show how high the bar is for this series’ character writing. But as I approached the end, I couldn’t help but feel… hollow. The polished illusion had worn off, and beneath that shiny veneer, I kept noticing more and more problems when it came to the story. Because oh dear Renas Alma… that final act tho.

Ultimately, Tales of Arise is a game that I deeply respect for its ambition. I love so many aspects about this game, in particular the way it uses design to communicate its story. But as more cracks begin to form, I can’t help but feel that ambition betrays a neglect for many aspects of the game’s story and worldbuilding, which make it genuinely difficult for me to return to. It’s not bad by any means. If anything, it’s essentially a glorified tech demo, and a damn good one at that. But it’s because of that gnawing feeling of disappointment that I have to make this video.

And so, we’re gonna dive into the good, the bad, and the downright confusing of Tales of Arise. We’ll be doing a recap of the game’s story, with asides to discuss story elements, character arcs, worldbuilding details, and more, to make this friendly to those unfamiliar with the game or the Tales series as a whole. Naturally, spoilers for Arise and a few other Tales games lie ahead, but don’t worry. You’ll still be able to enjoy this. So grab a snack, sit back, and relax as I recount to you both the admirable leaps, and the pitiful pitfalls of Tales of Arise.

Now without further ado, let the shit show begin.

The Conquest of Dahna:

Our story begins on the fantasy world of Dahna. In the sky hangs its twin world Rena, a planet said to be home to the gods, and a resting place for the dead. This opening cutscene, narrated by a character we’ll meet later, serves to introduce the player to the setting. It’s designed to communicate the conflicts that run through the whole game, along with a brief summary of the history that led to those conflicts. In that sense, it’s not unlike the opening monologue of Avatar: The Last Airbender, where Katara sets up the war being waged between the Fire Nation and the rest of the world.

We learn the basics of what we need to know here: that one day, a fleet of starships descended from Rena, laying waste to Dahna. With their advanced technology, as well as genetically modified monsters called zeugles (silly name, I know), the Renan soldiers conquered Dahna and enslaved its people. 300 years have passed, and Dahna has been divided into five realms. The only realm we focus on is Orbus Calaglia, a realm of dry, barren wastelands subject to sandstorms and scorching heat.

While we do learn about Dahna’s conquest from this monologue, and a bit about the place our story begins, we don’t get much in the way of the Renans as an enemy, nor the Dahnans as sympathetic victims or protagonists. Conflict is all about character. It’s the clashing motivations between opposing parties, and their dance as they fight for what they’re after. That’s what really hooks you into whatever story is going on. It gives you someone to root for, and someone to root against.

This opening monologue, while functional, is quite dry. It reads like a lot of openers trying to establish the world as giving you a history without getting you invested in why that history matters. The Dahnans are a faceless victim to the Renans’ conquest, while the Renans at least have the benefit of the visuals of the soldiers and zeugles, along with a dedicated introduction to the current ruler of Calaglia: Lord Balseph (and yes, his name is quite unfortunate). But we don’t have a real sense of the players here beyond enslaved laborers and colonizing invaders.

Again, looking at the opening monologue for Avatar, it’s quite similar with the Fire Nation waging war against the Air Nomads, Water Tribes, and Earth Kingdom. Where it differs, however, is in introducing recognizable characters, a sense of escalating stakes, and a goal. A hope. Katara identifies herself as the narrator. She is from one of the Water Tribes who’ve suffered at the Fire Nation’s hands, whose father has left to fight against them. She tells us the Fire Nation is nearing victory in the war, meaning the situation has become dire. This very intentionally comes with the implication that she, her family, and her home are all in grave danger.

She also tells us about the Avatar: a powerful, legendary figure who can wield all four elements, and the only person who can stop the Fire Nation. The stakes escalate at the mention of his mysterious disappearance 100 years ago. So now, there’s this sense of dread, yet this soft-spoken hope that the Avatar will return and put an end to this war. Suddenly, the conflict has become more personable, and more human. It’s become real. We’re sitting there hoping alongside Katara that the Avatar will come back to save the day.

Arise, by contrast, gives you only one face: the tyrant who didn’t even start the invasion, and arguably the least important villain in the entire game. Dude couldn’t even make it into the anime intro, that’s how unimportant he is. And while it’s clear the Dahnans are suffering as slaves, there’s no sense of urgency when it comes to defeating the Renans, nor is there any character presented as having skin in the game. Even our narrator doesn’t reveal his identity, despite the fact he actually turns out to be one of the best-written characters here.

So while the opening monologue isn’t bad, it isn’t as engaging as it could be. And even knowing the rest of the game’s story, a lot of details here are missing, such as the Crown Contest, or even the battle between the five Renan Lords. That could easily be used to give the player something to latch onto, and even be extrapolated as amplifying the dangers faced by Dahnans as their suffering is used by the lords to attain the title of Sovereign.

And we definitely needed someone on the home team here. To have faces to the people we’re supposed to be rooting for, so we can do more than just feel sorry for them as they toil and die under Renan rule. We could explain how their labor is used to gather energy for the Renan lords, and in turn, better establish the concept of astral energy, which is essentially this game’s term for life force.

Maybe we could have mention of a certain Dahnan hero from ages past who led a resistance against the invading Renans, only to fall in battle and become a mere myth? Could make us wonder who could be the next hero to follow in their footsteps in the present day. Even the attempt by Renans to erase their story could signal how they attempt to stamp out the culture of the indigenous Dahnans, only for select Dahnans to defy their oppression and make a note to preserve their stories and legends with each other.

And moreover, while we hear about Rena, we don’t properly establish Lenegis. It never gets done in the rest of the game either (aside from a missable skit which is still pretty vague), so we might as well mention it here. See, the Renans don’t actually live on Rena. They live on an artificial moon orbiting Rena: a floating fortress called Lenegis. No one ever questions why none of the Renans seem to live on their homeworld.

And while there is a reason for it, the lack of a stronger establishment creates confusion for players when they go, “Wait, what the hell is a Lenegis?” And also kinda makes the characters look cartoonishly oblivious as they go, “Well, we were taught to never question why none of us come from the homeworld.” Even Shionne’s comment of, “Where did you think we all lived?” Um, I don’t know? Rena???

This could’ve also begged the question, “What did the Renans do to their own world that they all had to move to an artificial moon?” It could explain why they colonized Dahna, potentially to exploit their resources after they destroyed their own world. While the truth of the matter is quite far off from that conjecture, you could still have the audience believe that so they have a more solid grasp of the story, then rip the rug out from under them when they uncover the truth later on.

Iron Mask & the Slaves of Mosgul:

Once we’re past the opening monologue, we cut to Mosgul, a small settlement in Calaglia. We’re immediately struck with the visuals of Dahnan slaves mining the burning earth while overseen by Renan soldiers. I must say, the oppressive atmosphere is well crafted. I’m obsessed with the lighting, the red tones against the deep blues of the rocks, all the cinders and dust floating through the haze, and the image of Rena and Lenegis constantly looming in the sky. Not to mention Lord Balseph’s castle towering over the rocks in the distance. The team did a wonderful job with the art design of this game, especially when it comes to environments.

Previous games, especially since Xillia implemented the over-the-shoulder camera, have suffered in environments feeling very same-y, empty, and generic. Arise’s art direction helps bring out the beauty of the world. You can feel the exhaustion of the Dahnan slaves as they mine and collapse from exhaustion, Renan soldiers just looking for an excuse to become violent. It’s quite grim, which makes sense, as that was one of the goals when developing Arise. To make the game’s presentation match a darker tone, which oddly feels even more angsty than Berseria. And that game starred Velvet Crowe, angsty Lord of Calamity, praise be to her.

Every Dahnan realm is aligned with a different element: water, fire, earth, wind, and light. In this case, Calaglia is where fire astral energy is gathered, hence the arid terrain and all the spontaneous combustion everywhere. Not even sure where those fires in the environments are coming from or what keeps fueling them, but… they just there, dancin’. Why do the fires burn? Probably the same reason birds fly. Because they want to burn, and FOR NO OTHER REASON. (play “BURN” there, future me, or I’ll feed you to Innominat)

This elemental affinity helps to keep each realm visually distinct. It’s not as culturally relevant as locales in Avatar, so don’t expect that level of worldbuilding, but it works well enough. Honestly, it’s probably part of the whole glorified tech demo vibe. By having realms go to extremes in terms of elements, it allows the designers to create wild environments to push their newfound technical capabilities to the limits. See what they’re capable of for future titles.

The Dahnan slaves are assumedly being made to mine resources for the Renan soldiers. You’re probably wondering why, if the Renans are so advanced technologically, they even rely on slave labor. Well, the truth which gets revealed in a little while is that they aren’t actually after any of Dahna’s resources. All they want is astral energy, the life force of all living things.

They harvest that from the Dahnans, as when they’re made to exhaust themselves through manual labor, they release astral energy. The little silver things in their hands are called spirit cores. They collect the astral energy of the Dahnans, then send it off to a spirit vessel over in the Renan lord’s castle, which in turn is stored in that lord’s master core.

So ultimately, it’s by breaking the spirits of the Dahnans and exhausting them physically that the Renans get what they’re after. Admittedly, the spirit vessel part makes it a bit more convoluted than it needs to be, but it checks out. It even works if you wanna interpret it as, say, the commodification and consumption of the self? The advent of bullshit jobs because we've been so alienated from the fruits of our labor, we instead fixate on working for work's sake? Hmmmmm???

The thing I don’t quite get is the missed opportunity to properly establish the sci-fi elements. While I quite like how ridiculously grandiose the designs for the Renan soldiers are, they scream more traditional fantasy than sci-fi, which is odd given these soldiers came here in starships in the opening monologue. This would be a great opportunity to showcase the advanced technology used to subjugate and survey the Dahnans, yet all we see them use are batons for when they wanna do a violence.

This might just be because of how recent discussions of how technology can be used to subjugate us and undermine democracy, but it feels kinda odd how we don’t see more of the Renans’ technology used in that way. Barriers to control where the Dahnans can go at any given time, tracking devices so they can’t run away, drones patrolling the area recording everything—ones that could potentially use facial recognition to target Dahnans perceived as a potential problem or threat, or even rebels in disguise whose identities are kept in a database. Advanced societies like Rena and Lenegis probably would be militarized surveillance states given how authoritarian and brutal they are, so why not use those on the people they’ve colonized and subjugated? Definitely could've taken some notes from sci-fi dystopias like Blade Runner or Cyberpunk.

I mention all of this because it’s important to establish these things about your world and story early on, so your audience knows what they’re getting into. I’ve heard a lot of people express they were deeply confused when all the sci-fi elements start slamming them in the face in the final act. I also have been replaying the game both on my own and with a friend. She's a casual fan of a lot of the things we’re both into, so I tend to use her thoughts as a benchmark for how well information is conveyed to the average viewer. And in her case… yeah, the whole sci-fi part of the sci-fi/fantasy fusion was not all that well established or reinforced. So much so she started cackling when a whole-ass flatscreen TV started playing in what looked like a traditional, lantern-lit fantasy tavern.

As we watch the Dahnan slaves toiling away, a young boy named Kohl is made to push a giant barrel. Naturally, his weak nerd arms make this impossible, and when a Renan soldier gets pissed and tries to strike him, some weird buff dude in a goofy mask steps in to protect him. Before the soldier can do any more harm, he ambles off to do problematic things elsewhere. Kohl refers to the man as Iron Mask, pointing out that he’s bleeding where the soldier struck him, much to Iron Mask’s surprise.

Iron Mask goes to see Doc, the local Dahnan medic, and it’s here we get some handy dandy exposition. You see, Iron Mask… has amnesia! Usually when a protagonist has amnesia, it’s used for the same reason others are from the “normal” world and then yeeted thusly into a fantasy world—to have an excuse for other characters to yeet exposition and worldbuilding at them, because otherwise they, and more importantly the audience, would have no clue what the fuck is going on at any given moment.

He’s called Iron Mask because when he was found about a year ago by the other Dahnans, he couldn’t remember his name or past, and he’s never been able to remove his mask. To make things stranger, he’s unable to feel pain. (CRAWLING IN MY CRAWL) No literally, his nerve endings ain’t working. The man can’t feel heat or cold, there’s no sting when the soldiers strike him, you get the idea. And no, they never specify where or how they found him.

A lot of Tales protagonists, most of them men, tend to fall into the generic do-gooding nerd archetype. However, they usually manage to win some points for unique character traits. I’ve never played Symphonia, but from what I’ve seen, Lloyd is such a well-meaning doofus I can’t help but root for him. Sorey is a total gay dork and ruin nerd, so he’s officially stolen my heart, despite the weird Jesus-y undertones (which that’s a whole other video for another time). Iron Mask, whose name I’m hiding for right now because I can and I like to mess with you, doesn’t really get those same defined traits unfortunately.

That’s not to say he’s dull or anything. I love Iron Mask, mostly because he’s such a goddamn himbo, especially once the party’s assembled. He cares about people, he’s a total sweetheart, and his interactions with the leading lady we’ll meet later give me life. It’s kinda nice having a masculine male character who’s also so adorably loving and affectionate. It’s positive masculinity hours up in this bitch, and I’m here for it. It’s a bit heavy handed as Doc points it out, but he’s always willing to take on the pain of others, likely because he thinks he can shoulder it, not being able to feel pain himself.

But as we’ll see, this tends to lead him to overestimating how much he can handle. He’s the kinda guy who takes on literally everyone’s problems until he’s drowning in them. Yet he can’t help it. He genuinely wants others to be happy, and can’t stand the suffering he and his fellow Dahnans endure day in and day out, questioning why everyone else is just going along with it. Now normally, I’d say this feels contrived, given it’s another case of using his amnesia to drive a point home easily, but I can forgive it since it feels like he’s still relatively new to this life.

And it also emphasizes the fire in his heart that can’t be quenched no matter how hard he tries. He’s passionate, he’s essentially got no filter, and it’s easy to spark him into action. I found some interesting details about Iron Mask that changed during development, one of which being that he was initially gonna have more violent tendencies. Fitting, given his entire vibe with his later design was inspired by a mix of Dark Souls and Game of Thrones. This zest eerily (heh) feels like a relic from that scrapped aspect of his character, and honestly, I’m happy about that. Lord knows this cast can be melodramatic enough without another party pooper, but we’ll get there later.

The thing I can’t get though is that the Renans just… don’t think it’s odd he just showed up one day? Again, they need the Dahnan slaves as manual labor to fulfill their goals, which means they have plenty of incentive to keep track of how many Dahnans are still alive, how many died over in that ditch by the mines, and whether any have escaped. That’d probably work in tandem with the idea of the sci-fi tech if they had databases for all the slaves to ensure they were keeping track of them all.

That would especially stand out if this new guy just waltzed in from who the hell knows where with this weird-ass mask on him? He stands out like a sore thumb, and you’d think pissy Renan soldiers looking for any reason to be assholes would take the first opportunity to be awful to him. Even more so realizing he never got a spirit core embedded in his hand, meaning they're not getting any of the astral energy he produces.

Iron Mask later says that the guards tend to leave Dahnans alone so long as they keep their heads down and work, since they’re not allowed to kill Dahnans without good reason, given it defeats their goal of extracting astral energy. But we just saw Iron Mask saving a boy from a soldier, so I doubt he’s usually keeping his masked face down. First impressions are betraying this “lay low” strategy he’s espousing.

It’s also suggested that the mask, given how it seems advanced enough to let Iron Mask not die while wearing it, and also refuses to unglue itself from his face, could very well be Renan tech. Iron Mask is horrified at the idea of potentially being Renan, but it never gets investigated any further. No Renans ever go, “Hey, why do you have our tech on your face?” And I just think that’s a real missed opportunity to let him investigate why the hell this stupid thing is hiding his beautiful face.

All of this combined adds to this larger problem where it feels like this world just came into existence yesterday. A lot of contrivances, alongside glaringly strange plot points that go unquestioned by characters, make it harder to buy that this world was existing before the story began. And because of that, it becomes harder to follow along, since the world feels less like a living, breathing place, and more like a dollhouse. Perhaps that was part of the intent given how the end of the game goes, but you have to ask whether or not that approach, intended or not, was worth it. And honestly? I don’t think it was worth it, especially if it risks hampering investment early on.

If you want that strange sense of things being artificial, behold Hereditary, one of my favorite horror movies (and one of my favorite movies in general). It literally opens with a dollhouse that seamlessly transitions to the house of the family we’re following, and a lot of it was filmed on a soundstage with propped up walls to imitate the dollhouse vibe. Those play into a lot of themes in that movie to do with fate, autonomy, and facades. It signals to you early on that there is a clear intent for this strange, artificial feeling. Like these people, these places, are being crafted and guided by some unseen puppetmaster. But Arise is not communicating those things at all.

Also, and admittedly this is very much a nitpick, I have no clue how the hell this dingus sees or eats through that goddamn mask. Yes, it’s acknowledged later on in a few skits, but like… it’s so distracting. And I mention that because while it might not seem like a big problem, it adds to this list of things which break immersion. It’s less one giant problem, and more a death by a thousand cuts, flashbacks waking me up, I get drunk but it’s not enough, cuz the morning comes and you’re not my Sovereign. (that one was for the Swifties, sorry not sorry)

The Woman Cloaked in Thorns:

The next day, Iron Mask is assigned to push a train car with a few other slaves. No clue why they’re pushing this thing, nor if there’s anything important inside. Now, this might not seem all that bad since I’ve established the goal of the Renans isn’t to have the Dahnans get them resources, but rather to just physically exhaust the Dahnans through labor that’s ultimately useless. The issue is that I established that for you, not the game. Iron Mask isn’t curious as to why they’re doing all of this, which could’ve been used to foreshadow the Renans’ true intentions, so all you get in the moment is just… okay yeah sure, let’s do this arbitrary thing.

What comes next is a longtime Tales tradition: 2D anime cutscenes! Tales games have always relied upon 2D cutscenes for pivotal moments throughout the story, which have been animated by ufotable since Tales of Xillia. And because we’re meeting one of the protagonists, cue anime cutscenes! Not a problem. The only issue is the disconnect between this scene and the one that came before it. It follows a train car moving down the tracks at high speed, within some kind of valley. However, we don’t see where this train is in relation to the train cars Iron Mask was made to move. So it begs the question, “Wait, where are we right now? Is this the same train?”

It’s not. This track is actually up on a cliff high above where Iron mask is right now. So the train gets blown up with explosives dropped by what appears to be a rebel group, led by that narrator from the opening cutscene, a man named Zephyr. He sends one of his men to investigate one of the cars, and inside finds a woman with pale-pink hair who’s been chained up. It seems their goal was to find this woman. The young man frees her, but when he tries to touch her, she awakens. Thorns of energy leap from her body, and the man screams in pain as he appears to be electrocuted.  She escapes, and as Zephyr and the Renan soldiers close in on her, she does what any sane person would—dramatically jump off a cliff and disappear into the darkness below.

Cutting back to Iron Mask, we hear Renan guards asking the Dahnans if they’ve found anything. Which is odd, given these Dahnans weren’t sent to investigate anything, but just to push train cars for no reason. But naturally Iron Mask senses a disturbance in the force. He climbs up to see the mysterious woman has landed in the train car, and they share a long glance with each other.

Iron Mask always says, “You’re…”, like he’s about to say something which would indicate knowing her somehow. That could work with details we discover later, but it just kinda adds to this sense of, “What the hell is happening?” Anyway, heterosexual meet-cute. This man and this woman had eye contact, which means they’re now destined to be wed. Look, look, I love these two together, but as a gay I must take a shot at amatonormativity. You confused? Google it, lmfao.

Anyhow, we have no clue who this woman is, nor why she was imprisoned and is being pursued by the Renan soldiers or the rebels. Which for right now is fine. If they want it to be a mystery that has us asking questions, that’s cool. But uh… they’ll be withholding a lot of information about her for quite a while, potentially even the rest of the game, so prepare to build your own headcanons.

As the Renan soldiers arrive, completely ignoring Iron Mask as they stare down the woman, Iron Mask gets a scathingly brilliant idea: flip the soldiers off the car, run to the front, and get the damn thing moving so he and this lady (and some random dude) can get the hell outta dodge. Initially I wasn’t sure I liked this, but I think this aligns with his earlier protective drive that led him to jump in to save Kohl. It’s probably the mask that makes it difficult to gauge his emotions and therefore motivations. But this does check out, so good on you, do-gooder Iron Mask.

But of course, the Renan soldiers catch up with them on the tracks and a fight ensues. Naturally, given this is an action RPG, you’d expect this to be where you start fighting people. But uh… no. It’s just a long cutscene of Iron Mask doing acrobatic dodges. I get he has no weapon, but you could’ve had him take one from a soldier or something. I’m really not sure why this is just a cutscene, as it’d be a great, captivating setting to directly involve the player, especially right out of the gate.

If it’s the moving scenery that’s the problem, there are tricks to make it feasible. Plenty of older games have had similar scenarios on top of train cars or other moving vehicles, using optical illusions to make it seem the train was moving, when in reality the rest of the environment was moving around the train. I’m not sure why Arise couldn’t do something similar. It kinda leaves this bewildered disappointment where you’re like, “Fam, am I allowed to play the game yet, or is this essentially just a semi-interactive movie?”

Sidenote: while replaying the game to capture footage, I couldn't help but wonder how exactly Iron Mask pulled off all these evasive maneuvers? Even knowing his backstory, it doesn't really make sense to me, and the lack of music as I was recording kinda made it even funnier. In fact, I'll probably insert some deeply ill-fitting music to his escapades for comical effect.

Also… really not sure where these tracks lead? I assume they connect to Balseph’s castle, hence why the woman was on here to begin with. In which case, when Zephyr arrives, you’d think he’d be like, “Dude, you’re just getting us closer to the enemy’s stronghold”? It just kinda adds to this feeling of disconnection throughout the area where things just kinda sit around in a nebulous space, and there’s no real sense of how they all weave together.

Now, the way this ends is… very confusing. Nayth, one of Zephyr’s men, disconnects the back two train cars. The middle one is filled with explosive canisters, which… wait, what? Why are they here? Are they oil drums? But does this fantasy world’s tech rely on oil or some other explosive substance? How do the Renans power all their technology anyhow, and could that relate to potential exploitation and plundering of natural resources and destruction of the environment? Well none of that matters, cuz the answer is we just needed a big dumb explosion.

So the middle car stops dead in the middle of the track, with the guards’ car slamming into it and causing a metric shit ton of explosions. Zephyr’s group on the front car, still moving, jumps off to escape. We don’t see where they’re jumping to, but the angle makes me think they’re jumping off the front, which… wouldn’t you just get hit by the car immediately? And the second they jump, it awkwardly fades to black. This isn’t a cliffhanger, it just… ends.

Normally, I’d assume that characters would see a relatively safe-looking landing spot, then dive for it. Perhaps they’d get some scrapes and bruises in the process, but they’d be alive. Follow that with our perspective character passing out to allow for a smooth transition to the next scene. Something that tells us we’re safe, and we’re likely about to learn more about these rebels. Instead… the scene just ends, with no rhythm. Okay then.

Now nothing too egregious has really happened yet in terms of story, but again, it’s a lot of small oddities and inconsistencies that are already adding up. None of these bothered me on my first playthrough, but I can’t help but notice more problems with each visit. Really, the quality of a piece of media requires you to experience it multiple times. A good piece of media will age like a fine wine, with you noticing more details about it working well as you continually return to it. But in cases like this, your initial viewing may have blinded you, but the shock has worn off, allowing you to see problems you probably glossed over the first time.

The Mighty Balseph (oof):

Following hashtag traingate, we cut to Balseph’s throne room, and he is PISSED (I assume because he’s realizing now that the name he picked out for himself sucks). He lectures his guards, saying that because they missed their chance at becoming a lord, they all have no choice but to serve him. It’s a nod towards how Renan society works, but one that just kinda comes off as more confusing than anything. Especially when our concerns lay with the mysterious woman who just leapt off a cliff followed by an exploding train a few seconds ago.

Getting to that point, he demands the soldiers bring him Shionne, giving us a name for the mysterious woman. We don’t know why Balseph wanted her delivered to him, but the use of her first name, at least to me, indicates familiarity. That he knows this woman personally and might have an axe to grind. But he doesn’t. And we’re not even told why he’s after her, which to me reads as mystery for the sake of mystery.

Admittedly, I’m quite jaded on this approach in storytelling, because it’s often used so writers can get away with giving the audience as little information as possible, instead luring them in and keeping them hooked on the promise that eventually, there will be answers. In a situation like this, you don’t need a mystery. If you give the audience information, it will allow them to understand what’s happening and to be invested, instead of being confused over the basic events unfolding before them.

So in this case, I’ll just tell you. Those master cores I mentioned earlier? The ones used by the Renan lords, where they store all the astral energy they steal from the Dahnans? Well, Shionne stole the fire master core from Balseph. We’ll get into the problems with this later, but for right now, that’s all you really need to know. She took his thingy, and he’s mad about it.

And on the note of unnecessarily withholding information, we also don’t know jack shit about Balseph, aside from the fact he also goes by “Wild Beast,” not sure why, and also that his true name is Erwolsey Teldilys, meaning he absolutely used to be a pipsqueak nerd who got shoved into lockers on Lenegis. You’re welcome for the new backstory that’s infinitely better than the sum total of nothing he gets here.

Now, there has been acknowledgment from the staff that there wasn’t much in the way of foundation for the villains. Because of the game’s scope, there presumably wasn’t much time to dive into their backstories and characters. All we really get is a subquest towards the end of the game where a bunch of non-voiced NPCs tell us about each Renan lord, which… we’ll get to, don’t you worry. But this lack of understanding for the villains winds up hurting the story a lot in the long run.

Since the game hops between different realms, with each realm having its own villain, it means we’re constantly sending our big bads through a revolving door, leaving them with very little time to establish their presence and build dynamics with the protagonists. Balseph here only gets two scenes: this one, and then his encounter with Iron Mask and Shionne later where he… ya know, gets yeeted into another dimension that totally isn’t the afterlife.

Villains and antagonists are vital to a compelling story. They drive the conflict with their actions, and if they’re well written, bring out different sides of the protagonists through challenging them and bringing strife into their lives. All the better if there’s a personal connection between them, or if the villain is a foil somehow to what the character believes in or what they’re striving towards. Usually Tales games are pretty good at this with their villains, but Arise sadly falls flat in this regard.

I often find myself more impressed with the villains’ designs and concepts more than their actual characters. Without much in the way of presence, they don’t affect the protagonists all that much, and they don’t stick in the player’s mind. We don’t know anything about Balspeh to make us care about him or fear him as a villain, nor to make us concerned for when he inevitably crosses Iron Mask and Shionne’s paths.

That all said… I do love his design. The big, stocky silhouette, the black armor with pops of gold and crimson, all the skulls and the weird tail-looking thing? Not to mention the giant scar across his face. I get more personality out of the design than I do from Balseph’s dialogue or actions, which is going to be a recurring theme in this game.

Once the soldiers vacate, we get an unwanted voice call from the neighboring Lord of Cyslodia: Ganabelt Valkyris. This actually does help to establish the presence of futuristic technology used by the Renans, specifically the lords, but this is the only time we’ll ever see it. Not to mention it’s the only time we’ll ever see the Renan lords interact with and have some kind of dynamic with each other… well, unless you count very bad scenes later on, which we will also get to.

That’s another problem here. Because we’re rotating between villains, not only does that mean they individually don’t get enough time to shine, but we never see them acting as a unified force. It very much leaves you with a “villain of the week” approach where there’s no sense of escalating stakes. I’d much have preferred a meeting of all the lords here, giving us a chance to hear their voices so we can start to wonder what they’ll be like when we encounter them later on.

We also get mentions about the Crown Contest from Ganabelt, and learn that apparently, Balseph has attempted and failed to ascend the throne twice already. Again, whichever Renan lord gathers the most astral energy in their master core becomes the Sovereign of Rena. Part of the problem here is that we only get a superficial understanding of the contest, without any depth as to its history, nor who is in charge of organizing it.

Firstly, the Crown Contest is apparently held every decade. Renan lords come down from Lenegis in starships and are assigned a Dahnan realm, and in 10 years, whoever got the most astral energy becomes Sovereign. That seems… frighteningly fast to be going through different authoritarian leaders, especially ones with monarch coding. Could be used to foreshadow how strangely fast the turnaround times are, but no one does, so… screw you, I guess?

We also don’t have any clue as to who the current Sovereign is, nor whether they’re overseeing the Crown Contest. Under normal circumstances, the Sovereign would likely be the big bad, if not one of the big bads, with the Renan lords as the colonial leaders they’ve sent off-world. You take out the small fry, establishing each lord as a minion who gets progressively strong, then finish it off with the Sovereign at the end.

However, certain details of the plot make this approach impossible. Not necessarily a bad thing, but in the moment, all this vagueness and lack of clarity just muddies the waters and makes it difficult to be engaged in the story. Antagonists need motivations as well, and the only character who seems to have a clear motive is the least important antagonist. And no, the clarity of Lenegis’ government will not become clearer as we go on. In fact, you will receive anti-clarity, and you will be left bewildered, befuddled, and bemused.

This also leads us into another issue: a lack of culture. Renan society is continually stated to be centered on hierarchy. Renans decide who gets more political power and respect based on the power of their astral artes (basically spellcasting), with the strongest usually from long lines of powerful families chosen to be sent to Dahna as lords. And yet, we have no clue about how those families are structured, who are the people that make up those families beyond just the lords, nor who the hell these faceless Renan soldiers serving the lords are. Are they less important family members? Commoners from Rena who get drafted, or who volunteer?

And moreover, while Rena is keen to eliminate any traces of Dahnan history or culture, they don’t seem to have much of either for themselves. A big part of colonization is the colonizing party imposing their cultures, beliefs, and traditions upon the native people whose lands they steal. Again in Avatar, the Fire Nation Colonies are filled with Fire Nation citizens who were relocated onto former Earth Kingdom land, where any remaining Earth Kingdom citizens have fewer rights, and are essentially indoctrinated into Fire Nation culture.

So naturally, you’d expect the Renans to enforce their own beliefs onto the Dahnans. What are the religious beliefs of these groups, and how do Renans assert their own while dismissing those of the Dahnans? Are there particular deities or myths the Renans force upon the Dahnans? Just in the last game, Tales of Berseria, we saw the Abbey—the antagonistic force—outlawing the worship of the water empyrean Amenoch in Southgand, forcing them to instead pray to their own empyrean, Innominat. It seems so odd that Arise, which took five years to create, would overlook that same aspect when this occupation is the crux of its story.

We end our scene with Balseph essentially telling Ganabelt to fuck off. Not sure why Ganabelt even called in the first place, as Balseph implied that Ganabelt had some ulterior motive for offering his assistance? What would he even have to gain? Moreover, how the hell did Ganabelt even hear about this? Shionne’s thievery and escape presumably just happened, so how did word spread of this to another realm? Did one of the underlings start a rumor? Was this big news on Lenegis with word spreading to all the Dahnan realms? No clue, so again, screw you.

And it ends with Balspeh breaking his weirdly-shaped… it’s not even a glass, but it doesn’t look like a goblet either? It looks like a giant cap honestly. Anyhow, he breaks it out of rage, but it cuts to black before that happens because we don’t wanna have to animate it breaking.

The Crimson Crows:

We then see flashes of a mysterious woman enshrouded in a dark fog, calling out for someone named “Alphen.” Waking up to Iron Mask, you can probably guess what this means, but I’m gonna keep calling him Iron Mask for now just to torture you. Now, dramatic dreams and visions like this are often used in media to foreshadow future events and drip feed information. This is no different. Personally, I don’t really mind its function, but it’s the backstory later on where I’m probably gonna lose my damn mind. For right now… it’s fine, though. This is fine.

Iron Mask awakens in a mine tunnel, where he’s greeted by a woman named Tilsa. She’s the medical officer for the Crimson Crows: the resident rebel group here in Calaglia which works against Lord Balseph. And Iron Mask… has never heard of them? I get it, he’s a newbie, but you’d think in a year’s time he’d have at least heard the name before. Or that if a masked man like him one day appeared, that they’d have heard of him among the Dahnans they work with?

This also leads us into another issue I have with this game: the supporting cast. Ordinarily, Tales games would have a decently sized supporting cast who help flesh out the main characters, without stealing the spotlight from them. But in Arise, the supporting cast… does not matter whatsoever. Because of all the realm hopping, there are different minor characters in each realm, and like the villains, none get enough time to endear themselves to the player. It makes the world feel even more shallow and lifeless.

And on that note… damn, this game is fast-paced. By this point I think it’s only been 20 minutes, and yet our character has already evaded soldiers, survived a train car explosion, met the leading lady, and encountered the rebellion. The pace seems more akin to a thriller than a RPG that lets you take your time to become fully immersed, which I suppose was part of the attempt to make this more appealing to mainstream newbies. I can understand that, but I feel like a lot of the aforementioned problems have come from an inability to let the game take its time to set the mood.. Also, hilarious to me this game has a breakneck pace and yet didn’t let us fight some bitches the first chance we had.

We discover that Shionne is currently being held by the Crimson Crows for interrogation. Zephyr clocks her thorns, which cause unrelenting pain to anyone who touches her, whether she wants them to or not. One of the men calls it a great ability, which sets Shionne off as she refers to it as a curse. It seems to also act up whenever her emotions become dark and intense. In any case, we learn here that she’s a Renan, given the fact she can use astral artes, that her eyes light up when she does so (which earns Renans the term “bright eyes”), and that she has a last name. Dahnans don’t have surnames, apparently. So if you got a surname, you’re a Renan. I assume it’s part of the whole lineage thing, which ultimately doesn’t even matter so… good for you, she of the thousand names.

The Crimson Crows are interested in Shionne because of all the grief she’s given Balseph. They don’t know she’s stolen the master core either, so… yeah. But some fighting words are exchanged, as neither side is particularly happy to see the other—Zephyr’s men called Shionne “bright eyes,” and her calling them “embeddeds.” This also leads to the revelation that Crimson Crow members gouge out the spirit cores from their hands. Which… yes, is metal, but you’d think Renan technology and surveillance would make that more dangerous than it’s worth? Especially if that basically identifies you as a rebel immediately.

Anyhow, Zephyr shuts down the arguing, less interested in antagonizing Shionne and more in trying to figure out whether she’s an ally against Balseph. This is an important detail for later. Zephyr doesn’t care whether someone is Dahnan or Renan, only about whether they’re for liberation, against it, or if they’re totally apathetic. Honestly, Zephyr’s one of the best characters in the game, and he’s easily the highlight of the first few hours. He’s a great mentor figure for the young protagonists, and a compelling character in his own right. Funnily enough, he was probably meant to be part of the main cast given this concept art of the said cast. I’ll let you guess which one’s his silhouette.

Right at the worst possible time, Renan soldiers arrive to attack the mine. Not sure how they found this hideout, nor how they did it so quickly, but the breakneck pace refuses to leave any neck unsnapped. Zephyr heads outside to deal with the soldiers, leaving his men to escort Shionne out, and Iron Mask to just… do whatever the fuck he likes, I guess.

Battle Time:

Taking control of Iron Mask again, we must walk in a straight line to our escape. No literally, the entire mine is just one straight line, which we’ll be seeing quite often throughout this game. More on that later when we get out on the field. Iron Mask runs into a Renan soldier, and it’s now we finally get tossed into the throes of battle.

Now when it comes to gameplay, I really enjoy Arise. It’s a clear step up from all the Tales games that came before it, and that includes its real-time combat system, which itself has been a system constantly overhauled and evolved throughout the Tales series. The series has relied upon the Linear Motion Battles System, or LMBS, since Tales of Phantasia, which entails characters battling foes on a 2D plane, with some iterations along the way to modernize it.

Tales of Arise totally does away with the LMBS. You can move freely around the arena, and freely move the camera, just like Tales of Berseria, which wow, how did it take that long to get there? I played this on the PS4, so I’ll be referring to that control scheme. You can use your standard attacks on enemies with the R1 button, which are you basic combos that are free. They don’t take up any resources, but there’s a limit to how many you can use, beginning with 3. Oh, and you can jump using the circle button. A first for the Tales series. Shocking, I know.

Artes, which are akin to spells and special attacks throughout the Tales games, can be mapped to the triangle, square, and X buttons, so you get a bit of customization here. Artes use up the Artes Gauge, or AG, the little blue diamonds near your health bar. Wanna use an arte? It’s gonna cost you one to two diamonds, and once it runs out, you have to stop attacking to let it recover, so you can’t just spam your moves. Using the same arte over and over will also allow enemies to recover more quickly from your attacks, so none of that either.

You can’t block in Arise, unless you’re the shield gal we meet later. Instead, Arise is focused on evasion with the R2 button, so as to keep up the fast-paced tempo of battle. There’s also Cure Points, or CP, which recovery and healing artes rely upon, so when you get your healers, they all pull from the same pool. CP and health can both be replenished with items, so you gotta be smart on which resources you use, when, and why.

Honestly, I’m not big on the details of combat systems. All I care about is that it’s fun to use, and feels intuitive, which this system very much is. I really enjoyed Berseria’s system, and Arise’s feels like a natural evolution. As for whether it’s properly challenging, that I don’t care about since I play games to relax. I was raised on Kingdom Hearts, so my heart is always appreciative of a button masher that you can put more thought into, but that also won’t punish you if you just wanna mindlessly hack and slash some bitches.

I do miss the little group victory poses after a battle. They always gave you a chance to watch the characters goof around with each other, but Arise cut them for the sake of returning you to the field immediately to keep up the fast pace. I understand that decision, but the dialogue for when they come out of battle is reused so often that it gets grating very quickly. No Kisara, I don’t care if there are no scratches on your shield or armor. Also, this is definitely a nitpick, but why is text in modern games so small? Is it that hard to allow different font sizes in the settings menu?

Something I’m also absolutely in love with is this game’s music. The score, like all other Tales games, was composed by Motoi Sakuraba, and genuinely… I fear for this man. He’s so over the moon with this series, and even admits he gets fidgety when he’s not working on music for a Tales game, and I’m over here getting flashbacks to Jeff and Casey Williams being expected to pump out a whole new soundtrack every year for RWBY.

That said, Tales music is usually hit or miss for me, and on the whole nothing spectacular. A few themes will stick with me, usually character themes or the tracks for select dungeons. But in Arise’s case, that goal of wanting an epic translated into the music, where Sakuraba was actually given the chance to work with a full-size, live orchestra for the first time. Different tracks were approached with different methods, some with the orchestra, others with a band or in-studio strings. But you can definitely tell Sakuraba had a field day with this soundtrack.

I’m not a music expert, but Elixir Vitae Games goes into detail about a lot of the tracks, so I’m gonna recommend her video once again. I absolutely love the battle theme here. I think that’s a Spanish guitar going off as Iron Mask does a violence, and I love that for him. It especially suits the vibes of Calaglia, and the action-focused approach.

Meeting up with Shionne, Iron Mask helps her against the Renan soldiers. They aren’t keen on working together, yet Iron Mask refuses to let the soldiers capture Shionne, and the two work together quite well. What follows is a skit: a brief interaction between characters that’s a bit more intimate than the regular cutscenes. Tales games use skits to develop the characters and their relationships with each other. It allows them to have some fun, with skits about everything from sad backstories, to musings about the world, to cooking shenanigans.

The difference here in Arise is the presentation. Traditionally, skits have been presented through 2D portraits, making them relatively easy to arrange compared to cutscenes. Tales of Zestiria began using full-body 2D renditions, allowing for a bit more life to their movements, and Berseria followed suit. Arise changes this by relying upon the 3D models, framing them in comic book panels with limited animations. The goal here was to prevent immersion breaking from the switch between 2D and 3D.

Honestly, I don’t dislike the new approach, but I’m not particularly fond of it either. The limited animations wind up doing more harm than good in making the characters feel stiff and robotic. I much prefer the old 2D approach, though honestly, my more pressing issue is that skits in this game just aren’t as compelling. Many of the skits repeat information and goals we’re already well aware of, and they often stack up on top of each other. A lot of times you’ll get two to three, even four skits lined up one after another, all requiring you to play them out in the field.

You could simply not play them, but having them linger in the corner, knowing it’s a gamble between fun character interactions and dull recaps, instead makes me dread skits when I used to love them. Dispersing the skits probably would’ve helped. Berseria often played the important skits automatically once you reached certain parts of an area, and honestly, I never found those disruptive, but that might just be because the character interactions there were consistently stellar. I could watch that crew go to the grocery store and be entertained, mostly because most of them would ransack the store, forcing them to flee from authorities as Laphicet and Eleanor do their best to mitigate the damage.

The Blazing Sword:

Once we reach the end of the long, narrow hallway, we reunite with Zephyr and head outside. And once again, it’s anime cutscene time. The Renan soldiers surround the only exit, with their goal being to capture Shionne and slaughter the Crimson Crows. Cue a barrage of arrows, because apparently despite having advanced technology, we still default to crossbows? Sure, why not.

One of the arrows strikes Shionne in the chest. Iron Mask runs to her as a plume of fire bursts from her wound, which is sure to make you go, “What in the FUCK is going on?” Iron Mask is able to hold onto Shionne and pull the arrow out thanks to his inability to feel pain, and the arrow transforms into a blazing sword. Shionne is confused by how Iron Mask pulled this off, and right on cue, the fire master core reveals itself. Somehow, Shionne managed to embed it within herself… no, that never gets explained. But it does retroactively explain all the fire, so… yay? Anyhow you’re welcome for me explaining the master cores, because in-game, they expect you to remember them as a throwaway line from the opening monologue. Thanks, game.

So Iron Mask is able to wield the blazing sword, using its flames to incinerate the Renan soldiers in a single firestorm slash. Again, I can’t help but notice that in a moment where the character gets to show off, you again aren’t able to take control. The game makes you watch as Iron Mask does all the cool stuff while your brain glazes over. The blazing sword actually comes in later as a gameplay mechanic, so I have no clue why it wasn’t introduced here instead of being saved for later.

After slaying all the soldiers, Iron Mask doesn’t even notice the ninth-degree burns that practically turned his hands into fried chicken nuggets. Kinda amusing the way he’s so casual about realizing he has such a horrific injury. That’s not a dig, I genuinely love this moment, it had me cackling and even more in love with Iron Mask. Shionne uses her artes to heal him, meaning she’s both the sniper and the healer of this party—a paradox I am absolutely obsessed with. But don’t worry. Zephyr will drive home the elevator pitch for you in case you were asleep at the controller.

Also, Shionne’s definitely a perfect match for Iron Mask given she has completely recovered after being shot in the goddamn chest with an arrow. The wound’s gone, and I don’t even think she used a healing arte for that. Normally I’d dock points, but it’s actually some pretty solid foreshadowing for her character later in the game. Wish Iron Mask and/or Zephyr questioned it a bit more, but that goes for… literally everything in this game.

As the characters head off, I’d just like to briefly touch on the voice acting. The English casts for Tales games have always been strong, and only getting better in recent years. Quite frankly, I tend to prefer the English casts to the Japanese ones, especially for Tales of Berseria. Arise is no exception. Ray Chase does a wonderful job at capturing Iron Mask’s strength and sensitivity, Erica Lindbeck gives Shionne the air of a closed-off woman who does care deep down, and Patrick Seitz works very well as the mentor figure Zephyr.

It is kinda made funnier though given their roles in previous Tales game. In Patrick’s case, as the big bad kittybeard from Tales of Zestiria, and for Erica and Ray, some pretty pivotal characters in Berseria. Kinda wild to think that Shionne shares a voice with the “Evil Witch” Magilou, and to hear Ray be so emotional as Iron Mask when he did such a good job with portraying Artorius as a cold-hearted bastard.

Out in the World:

We then make our way to the town of Ulzebek through the Sandinus Ravine. I wanna take this moment to again praise the presentation of this game, as the environments are absolutely gorgeous. While previous Tales games used in-house engines, this is the first to be made using Unreal Engine, with a new shader as well called the Atmospheric Shader. It took about 5 years to perfect, so basically the entirety of Arise’s development time. And I must say, I’m obsessed with the results.

Normally I’m not keen on absolute photorealism. I much prefer stylization, where artists are allowed to create unique and varied interpretations of reality, but I think Arise’s art style strikes a nice balance for the series. Older Tales games tended to be cel-shaded, but have been moving in a darker, more watercolor direction since Tales of Xillia. The issue there being that the admittedly lacking graphics, along with more muted, duller colors, often made the games feel quite dated and muddy.

But Arise is utterly breathtaking. I love all the environments this game has to offer, and the character models are pretty stunning themselves. There’s so much vibrant color, and so much detail in the different materials of the characters’ clothing and the environments, that this feels like a natural evolution of the series’ art style. It’s a culmination of all that came before into something truly beautiful. The stiff animations can put a damper on things, along with the wonky lip-syncing, but for the most part, I absolutely love how Arise looks.

That’s not to mention the little quality-of-life improvements go a long way, such as letting characters jump in environments, and even swim. I don’t think they were as well integrated as they could’ve been, though. Not saying this needed to become a platformer, but some experimentation with field movement would’ve been nice for level design. Oh, also really appreciate the dedicated sprint button with no stamina meter. God I needed that in Berseria and especially Zestiria.

That all said, the hallway problem returns. Sandinus Ravine, like 90% of all the fields and other environments, is basically a jaunt from Point A to Point B. Arise isn’t an open world, and Tomizawa stated this in development. And honestly, I’m grateful it isn’t, because then the environments would’ve likely felt incredibly overwhelming. Zestiria attempted an open-world-esque approach. Despite environments still being linear, they were vast, with a whole lot of nothing as you slowly trekked across the continent. Not to mention it’s a huge time and money sink for developers. For that discussion, I recommend Noodle’s video, “Why games are too big.”

That said, all of the environments being these aggressively linears corridors adds to the issue of this world feeling lifeless. Having some interconnectivity could’ve helped a little bit. Admittedly, this has been an issue since Tales of Xillia. Before then, Tales games would let you traverse the world map as an overworld, with towns and dungeons represented by field icons. To make travel easier, you’d have access to boats, as well as an airship, usually by the end of the game to give you that sense of progression and achievement. They’d even take away these methods of travel for when the characters were in dire straits story-wise.

But since Xillia, fields have replaced the overworld, and for the most part, they’ve been generic roads and trails connecting more interesting areas. Arise’s areas are a bit better, with more personality without feeling barren like the areas from Zestiria, but that sense of restriction is still there. Along the way, we get a glimpse of Balseph’s fortress: Glanymede Castle. Beside it stands the Gates of Fire, the wall which seals Calaglia off from neighboring realms. I mention this because while it does help with Balseph’s presence just a tad to see his castle off in the distance… that fact is overshadowed by my confusion as to where the hell anything is geographically.

Ordinarily in a Tales game, you’d get a world map to see how all the different areas connect to each other. In Arise, there is no map, unless you count the one from the opening monologue. All you get is a list of locations you can fast travel to with no in-game explanation of how you’re teleporting everywhere. This further breaks immersion, because without the ability to tell where we are on the continent, you lose any sense of existing within a much larger fantasy world. Seriously, was this an oversight or something?

We come across a little campfire. Not sure who started it, nor why this roaming salesman is here, but I’m he won’t mind if we just chill here. Please don’t kill us in the night. Anyhow, camping is a mechanic I really enjoy in this game. They allow you to rest out in the field, giving you a chance to listen to some character banter, play some skits, cook for stat boosts, and even have conversations with party members before bed to become closer with them. Fun fact: Iron Mask loves spicy foods because he can’t feel pain. He adds enough spice to hospitalize a whole room of people, but for him, it’s never spicy enough. I love him. Iron Mask Rights.

It’s on this night we get even more exposition yeeted Iron Mask’s way, praise be to the amnesia trope. Zephyr and Shionne explain the gathering of astral energy, the spirit vessels and master cores, and the Crown Contest. Really not sure those things weren’t given out upfront, but okay, sure, why not? The real new information here is Shionne’s goal: to take down all of the lords.

She won’t say why, but it’s clear she’s determined to achieve her goal at any cost, even if it means fighting her fellow Renans. That said, while we will discover why, we don’t know how she got to Dahna, nor what her life was like back on Lenegis. So all the things that could paint the context of her situation, thus giving us a better picture of who she is? Nah. Make up your own. This is the Miles and Kerry school of writing tropes, fam, there’s no escape.

In any case, we’re all allies in the struggle against Balseph. And so Iron Mask decides to join the Crimson Crows, while Shionne tags along, as the blazing sword won’t work without her present. It’s kinda wild how passionate Iron Mask is about this mission given how strangely oblivious he is to the way the world he’s been in for like a year now is, but maybe that’s just the himbo energy talking.

Shionne also has an ominous dream, proving she is indeed Iron Mask’s soulmate. Except instead of a weird lady saying random things, it’s… thorns? There’s some sort of energy trying to break free, with the thorns keeping it held back, and when Shionne awakens, she says she has to hurry. There’s clearly more to her mission, and her Curse of Thorns, than meets the eye. Yay foreshadowing!

Running Errands in Ulzebek:

Finally arriving in Ulzebek, I’d like to take a moment to appreciate the design of the towns in this game. While they might be part of the linear corridor design, where the entire world is just one giant loop, I really appreciate how much effort was put into making the towns distinct and bustling. Walking through town is the closest I ever feel to believing that Dahna is a living, breathing world. Calaglia’s towns are much humbler than those of the other realms, but I appreciate the crude architecture and stairways, along with the tiny animal pens and gardens off to the side.

We meet up with the rest of the Crimson Crows, where Zephyr is determined to take down Balspeh once and for all now that Iron Mask and Shionne are aboard. Which… wow, we just met the man and he’s already entrusting us with helping him to overthrow the government? Can’t we at least go out to dinner beforehand first? Again, breakneck pace is quite alarming. Moreover, Zephyr does this planning offscreen for a while, leaving Iron Mask and Shionne to fuck around doing random errands unrelated to what’s actually going on.

I much would’ve preferred taking time to set up this mission to take down Balseph. If you’ve ever played the Sly Cooper games, the later ones are set up in an episodic structure, kinda similar to Arise’s approach with the different realms. Each episode has the characters doing reconnaissance, followed by several smaller jobs that work to set up the final heist at the end where they take down the big bad of that episode. I much would’ve preferred something like that here, to help make it feel like the characters are actively working against the Renan lords, while also helping to further reinforce the lords’ presence and influence over their realms.

Anyhow, Iron Mask gets a new look, because he gets 500 new looks through this game. It’s not one he’ll have for long, but it works. I kinda like the blacksmith gloves since he’s a huge weapons nerd. Honestly, it’s the little quirks of the characters that really endear me to them, rather than the big dramatic moments they try to give them. You can always count on Tales casts to have these weird, relatable touches to their characters.

With that, we talk to Dyron, who sends us on some quests to help out the Crimson Crows that… truth be told, I wasn’t invested in. Yes, it was an attempt to drive home the stakes of being part of a rebellion, but perhaps that could’ve been done in a more plot-relevant way? Really, this is all about introducing you to the concept of subquests. Tales games always include these to let you take a breather from the main plot for a while, and they usually also give you more insight into the characters… not the case here in Arise.

Occasionally you’ll get cute character interactions, since most subquests involve cutscenes where characters are paired off, but it’s not quite on the level of subquests from previous games. That said, I very much appreciate the event list that keeps track of all the main quests and subquests. It’s a life saver, alongside the little envelopes in the “map” menu to show you where you can accept new subquests. What’s strange, though, is that most subquests aren’t voiced. It’s just text, with occasional lines from characters like, “Yeah,” or, “Hmm.” In a game that tries to make itself more grand in terms of presentation, it’s so jarring to not have voices in this one aspect, especially when everything else in the game is voiced.

As you complete subquests, you’ll receive gald, the currency for all Tales games, along with Skill Points, a.k.a. SP. Each game has a unique way to gain new abilities and artes for characters, and in Arise, it’s through the SP board. By continuing through the story, completing certain subquests, or achieving certain tasks, you’ll unlock new titles. Each title comes with five potential artes or abilities you can unlock for a certain amount of SP. It’s a simple and effective way to encourage players to partake in subquests, rewarding them with things that’ll make battles easier, and I’m here for it.

There’s also weapons forging, which… I’m with Shionne, I do not care about it. But good for you, Iron Mask. I’m happy for you. Inns are also present just like previous games, but to be honest, I never stay at them unless it’s part of the main story. Camping usually winds up being more convenient, funnily enough, plus it’s free, and it gives you the opportunity to let your characters interact with each other. So… to hell with inns, I say.

Oh, one other type of subquest I should mention are the gigant zeugles. You see that big, freaky looking monster up on the cliff? Don’t mess with it, or you’ll get slaughtered, and probably deserve it. These high-level zeugles are found throughout the world. Defeat them, and you’ll get plenty of rewards for your troubles, and complete subquests while you’re at it too. What really annoys me about them though is that the game doesn’t tell you what your recommended level should be beforehand. Lots of times, I’d get trapped into a gigant zeugle or boss fight in a subquest where I was significantly underleveled. And uh, your only option there is to die, since you can’t escape from these fights either.

Getting Shionne A Dress:

One of our missions involves getting some new threads for Shionne. She’s not exactly happy at the idea of donning a Dahnan outfit, and so we’re told we might find something in the nearby Fagan Ruins. And Shionne is very insistent upon this. One of Shionne’s quirks is that she’s an absolute style diva, and a fashionista in the same vein as my Sun and Moon Queen Stella. There’s a subquest that even involves her giving fashion advice to some loser in town, who takes the entire game to pick an outfit, only for Shionne to go “Wtf are you wearing, you loser?” It’s great, 10 out of 10.

Along the way, we’re introduced to Boost Strikes. The little characters gauges in the corner have meters running around them. Once they’re full, you can press one of the directional buttons to use that character’s Boost Strike: a unique move that’ll do extra damage to enemies, or have a unique effect based on that character’s playstyle. Iron Mask’s is a quick slash from the blazing sword, while Shionne’s is a barrage from her gun that’s particularly useful against flying enemies. You can even use Boost Strikes for characters who aren’t actively in the party, which makes it feel like all the characters get to be present in battle.

The Fagan Ruins actually do a pretty good job at reinforcing the sci-fi elements of this story. We don’t know its full history, but Shionne believes it could have been a supply depot, or even the castle of a former Renan lord. The material is indestructible to conventional Dahnan means, but opens for Shionne given she’s a Renan. It’s kinda wild that this ancient ruin has more security than the castles of current Renan lords and their cities, but I digress.

We also learn that while many zeugles do directly serve the Renans, there are also stray zeugles out in the wild, threatening pretty much anything they encounter. As it turns out, many zeugles were actually created by the Renans genetically modifying the native animals of Dahna. It’s actually a piece of worldbuilding I really appreciate. It shows the cruelty of Renans in not only trying to control and threaten the Dahnans, but also their disrespect for anything native to Dahna, including their own wildlife. Goes hand in hand with eradicating Dahnan culture and history.

Deeper inside, we uncover what seems to be the wardrobe of the ruins’ late owner. Shionne mentions the designs are pretty dated, but she’s happy to have something other than the basic dress we first met her in. When she finally shows off the look, she does so in style. I am OBSESSED with this design. No, a dress like this probably isn’t very practical, but honestly… I don’t care. It’s so utterly fabulous, while also communicating different aspects of Shionne’s character, that I’m onboard for this look. It has a similar issue to the Renan soldiers’ armor where it communicates more of a fantasy vibe than a sci-fi one, but… ya know, recurring themes.

I absolutely love the silhouette for her look, and how regal she feels. The little bits of armor, especially in the shape of thorns, communicate her trying to protect herself, along with how her Curse of Thorns has consumed such a large part of her identity. The pops of red in her tiara, the ribbons on her arms, and in her dress give her this bold energy that suits her determination and attitude. And the fact she keeps bullets on a thigh strap? Style icon who’s also ready to kick ass. We stan.

It’s actually really cute how excited Shionne gets once she’s in this new outfit, yet she tries to play it off when Iron Mask comments on it. They may be very moody at the start, but there are glimmers of these two’s connection from the start, and I love them so much.

Saving Doc & Kohl:

When we return to Ulzebek, we hear word from Zephyr that there’s chaos unfolding back over in Mosgul. Apparently the Renan soldiers are culling the Dahnans slaves, looking for Shionne so they can take back the master core, which… is an odd way to go about things. And also strange that their search would be in the town we just left, and not Ulzebek, the larger town just down the road. We also learn this from a non-voiced cutscene, by the by, so… yeah, this isn’t hitting me with much gravity.

Iron Mask is immediately worried about Doc, Kohl, and the other Dahnans of Mosgul. Shionne tries to talk him down, but Iron Mask refuses to let the Renans cause any more suffering. I actually love seeing this fiery, protective energy from Iron Mask, and this is probably his most defined trait. It’s a bit anticlimactic with no actual cutscene showcasing what the soldiers are doing, instead giving us a lot of non-voiced, awkwardly stiff clips, along with Iron Mask yelling, “I can’t reach them in time” when he hears Doc in danger, and then he does in fact reach them in time.

Awkwardness aside, we then get some conflict between Iron Mask and Doc. Doc is focused on just getting back to normal and keeping his head down. He believes that by not rocking the boat, the Dahnans will survive another day, and he perceives the Crimson Crows as provoking the Renans to violence. But Iron Mask calls that out, saying the truth that the Renans will inflict violence upon the Dahnans regardless. He’d rather die fighting for freedom than die giving up.

It is a nice moment to show the passion of Iron Mask’s characters, but it’s also so strange, again, because of the fast pace. He went from not understanding so much of the world he’s inhabited for some time, to suddenly having these fierce, unshakable beliefs. Even Doc acknowledges how much Iron Mask has grown and changed, and I’m like “... Fam, it’s been an hour.”

Overthrowing the Government for Funzies:

With all that outta the way, it’s time to overthrow the government and assassinate Lord Ball Sniffer. Ya know, for funzies. Yes, that is cursed, and no, I will not apologize. The plan is simple: Zephyr and the other Crimson Crows will distract the Renan soldiers guarding the front gates of Glanymede Castle. Iron Mask and Shionne, meanwhile, will enter the castle through a maintenance route and take down Balseph themselves.

The plan is… frightfully simple? Again, because we’ve been spending the last hour or so just doing random quests and objectives unrelated to the plot with Balseph, there isn’t enough buildup to let this mission carry the necessary weight that ought to come with such a big undertaking. No, this isn’t a stealth game, but I’d kinda expect more from characters trying to overthrow an oppressive regime, and for said regime to have more security than an abandoned desert ruin.

Breaking into the castle, we’re finally able to wield the blazing sword in battle. When holding down the button for certain artes, Iron Mask is able to unleash a higher-level Flaming Edge move, with uses the power of the blazing sword to scorch enemies to a crisp. Doing so will shave off a bit of his HP, so there’s a considerable cost that keeps you from spamming it to hell. Kinda wish we got access to this earlier, but what can ya do?

In addition, we now have access to Boost Strike finishing moves. See the little diamond with the blue gauge over the enemy? Once it’s filled, you can unleash a team attack to finish them off. They’re similar to the Link Artes from Tales of Xillia, except in this case, each pair will have the same Boost Strike throughout the entire game. I do enjoy them, and again, it allows all the characters to feel involved in battle. But that said, having them repeat the same attack over and over really numbs the mind. They also don’t take up any resources, but that personally doesn’t bother me given it’s more a reward for sustained combos as you weaken the enemy.

There’s also a lot of spontaneous combustion in this castle, because of course there is. When you’re navigating the environment, certain paths will be blocked off by different obstacles, requiring you to use your CP to clear the way. Again, there’s a good cost-reward balance here. You want whatever’s in that chest over there, or that totally legal herb? You gotta pay for it, bitch. Though be sure to check the map before you do this, because sometimes, all you have to do is walk around the fire instead of through it. Sneaky game.

Unfortunately, this one’s another “run in a straight line,” except in this case it involves a lot of stairs as you search for elevator keys. The design of Glanymede Castle is pretty simple. The floor plants are just big circles of rocks, with a flaming hellpit in the middle. Ya know, casual Calaglian decor. There are comments on how this castle was made to suit Balseph’s personal tastes, given he’s supposed to be this boorish brute with no sense of style or class, which Shionne finds disgusting as a Renan. It’s a nice attempt at characterization, but it’s not enough to make up for Balseph’s utter lack of presence and depth.

Along the way, we save a smol servant child from some Renan guards. He’s thankful to Shionne, though Shionne tries to shoo him away, afraid of hurting him with her thorns if he gets too close. Though… Iron Mask doesn’t seem to catch on? Really rude, dude. I can’t tell if he realizes he completely misread her because of the damn mask, but like… seriously.

I will say, I do like these subtle touches to Shionne that she does genuinely care for people. We’ll see it recur throughout the game, but despite her cold demeanor, she really is quite thoughtful. She does this to keep people away because of her Curse of Thorns. I’ll be diving into this angle much more late in the game when we learn the full truth of the thorns, but suffice to say I’m very much a fan of Shionne’s complexity. Honestly, it makes her my favorite character in the game.

Arriving outside the throne room, we find a recovery circle that’ll restore our health and CP, along with a warning about a fight with a Renan lord awaiting on the other side of the doors. As a girlie who plays games to relax, I very much appreciate these. They let you go into the boss knowing what you’re getting yourself into, and going in fully prepared and revitalized. I can see how people wanting more of a challenge would be annoyed by this, but… you could just not use the circle. That option’s there too, ya know. I’m here for story, okay? Just lemme button mash to my heart’s content.

Fall of the Mighty Balseph (still oof):

Now, I’d say we face Balseph at long last, but given the lack of buildup to this moment, it’s more of a… “Yeah, let’s just do this I guess.” There’s no real excitement to face off with him given he’s had little to no presence so far, and he has no real connection to either Iron Mask or Shionne. Even beforehand, we get a skit where Shionne tries to tell us a bit about Balseph, but it’s more about his physical abilities than his actual character.

Iron Mask apparently doesn’t even think much of Balspeh, referring to him as “just the lord of Calaglia.” So he doesn’t even seem particularly interested in Balseph as an antagonist. We have no idea as to who Balseph is as a character, nor why he’s been so dedicated to the Crown Contest aside from the generic goal of “become Sovereign.” And unfortunately, that means he’s not very engaging, nor is he bringing out interesting sides to our protagonists. It’s just, “Kill this boring man to progress the plot, please.”

He functions well enough as a first villain, but in addition to not having much in the way of character, he’s also very dull onscreen. He’s supposed to be this violent brute, but his dialogue isn’t very different from what you’d expect from a run-of-the-mill big bad going on about how he’s gonna kill the protagonists. We also learn later on in the game that he’s apparently dedicated to his family. He’s this caring, protective patriarch to the Teldilys family, and none of that is even suggested in our encounters with him. So it fails to make him intimidating, engaging, and complex.

Following the first half of the fight, half of Iron Mask’s… well, mask, breaks. As it shatters, he sees flashes of the mysterious woman from earlier, and we finally see his face, and he is PRETTY. Iron Mask really be giving silver-haired himbo energy and I love him for it. There’s no time to comment on it as Balseph retreats to the castle roof, but I do wonder why it happened here given nobody comments on it. It’s probably just to give Balseph a moment to move the fight to the roof as the protagonists pause, but part of me feels it might’ve been better to hold off until a more epic moment after the second half of the fight. But this is fine, I suppose.

Anyhow, we continue to the roof so we can have a properly cinematic face-off. Unless you can see all of the realm you’re fighting for, with the threat of a several thousand-foot drop into the surrounding hellpits, is it even an important battle? And naturally to make it even more epic, we’ve invited this giant fire monster to the party. Balseph has no clue what the hell it is, but Shionne comments that it’s living, manifested astral energy, likely from the spirit vessel.

Now, the game’s not gonna explain this concept until very late in the game, where it becomes kinda important, so I’m just gonna go ahead and explain it for you now. When enough astral energy gathers in one place, it gains sentience and becomes a living spirit. The master cores prevent this, but presumably because Shionne’s been holding onto the core, there’s been nothing to keep the astral energy in the spirit vessel here from coming to life. Very appreciative that it waited until just now to gain sentience and turn into a giant fire monster.

Now, while this concept is gonna come back, it won’t be until the end of the game. This doesn’t happen with any of the other Renan lords. The actual reason for this is that they wanted this battle with Balspeh to be just as grand as the final battle, which I respect. But continuing a strange trend, you don’t actually fight the monster, but more try to avoid it while you continue fighting Balseph. And for me, that kinda takes the fun out of facing off with this thing.

Balseph also makes a comment all, “It was the two of you! I knew it all along!” As in, that they were taking the astral energy he was harvesting for the Crown Contest, which… didn’t he already know that? The whole reason he was after Shionne was because she took his master core. He even reminded us that he knew just before we came up here, so why is he acting brand new?

Something I do really enjoy is Balseph’s disgust towards Shionne. He’s personally offended by Shionne’s betrayal of the Renans, questioning why she’s so willing to destroy what her people have built, while also wearing his disdain for Dahnans on his slave. It’s the closest to true characterization we get for him, and also gives us an inkling as to the delusive superiority Renans pride themselves on. What would’ve made it better is if we knew more about Balseph’s personal take on this. It feels more like a statement made on behalf of all Renans, rather than something personally tailored to him.

Again, we don’t know much about Balspeh or Shionne’s pasts on Lenegis. What if they knew each other somehow back on Lenegis, or once crossed paths? A pre-existing relationship that has been turned on its head by Shionne’s goal of defeating the lords, adding to Balseph’s feelings of betrayal and revulsion, while also emphasizing how far Shionne is willing to go to achieve her goal, and begging the question of “… Why?” She may be doing the right thing by helping the Dahnans, but there’s a selfish motivation behind it that we’re left in the dark on. I just find it such a compelling angle that I wish they did more with it. A lot of these things honestly feel like a first or second draft rather than the final, polished script.

In his fury, Balseph lunges to kill Shionne. Iron Mask defends her, which gives me life, and yeets Balspeh thusly right into the fire monster’s gullet. A fitting end for a villain the game quickly forgets about. Also gives our protagonists plausible deniability, so they can say they took down the Renan lord, but they didn’t directly kill him. Because protagonists can never be allowed to do that, even though it’s a theme we’ve tackled in previous games like Tales of the Abyss, and it’s kinda inevitable when you’re overthrowing oppressive systems. And yes, this will be relevant later.

Somehow, Iron Mask gets the idea to absorb the monster into the blazing sword. My interpretation is that because the sword is connected to the master core, and the monster is made up of astral energy, that allows the sword to absorb the energy that composes the monster. But again, that’s kinda me doing a lot of the legwork when the game hasn’t really made this process very clear, so it feels like Iron Mask just… knows what to do because the script said so.

So he absorbs the monster into the sword, then releases all that fire to destroy the Gates of Fire, essentially allowing a way out of Calaglia now. It’s an epic moment definitely, and one I don’t mind being portrayed in cutscene given it’s not a battle. As Shionne heals him, the sun rises, which I absolutely love for this moment, along with the triumphant music. Shionne now realizes part of the mask broke given, ya know, they were a little busy fending for their lives a few moments ago, so I’ll allow this. But now, Iron Mask remembers his name.

He stands tall, and screams his name out for all to hear. And ya know what? Good for Alphen. My boi is nothing if not dramatic. Though again, another awkward fate to black kinda kills the momentum, making it feels less iconic and more, “You thought you ate.” But he tried.

I Am Alphen, Hear Me Hibana:

We then transition into another long-standing tradition of the Tales series: an anime intro. As you’d expect, it features all the major players in the story, giving you an idea of what kinda journey you’re about to embark on. Here, the featured song is “Hibana” by Kankaku Piero. Not my favorite Tales intro, but one I do love. I don’t know, I’m just a sucker for this fast-paced rock song, especially the choruses. Like a lot of Arise, it feels like a very safe option made to appeal to a broad audience. Nothing wrong with that, but I can see why a lot of people hear it and go, “Eh. It’s fine, I guess.”

That said, I was inclined to enjoy this given my love of Kankaku Piero’s previous work on some of the Black Clover intros, and it gave me an obsession with the word “hibana.” Hibana tangent incoming, you have been warned. So the word hibana, in Japanese, means both “spark” and “blossom,” the reason being that the sparks coming off a flame were likened to little fire blossoms floating on the wind. And yes, this nerdy-ass etymology has burrowed its way into becoming one of my many fixations. You’re welcome for this useless information.

Also, this is me being petty, but there are not nearly enough covers of “Hibana” out there. This game moved over 2 million covers, yet this song can’t inspire more than like… one solid cover? I demand someone do the lord’s work to cover this song following this video, because… I say so.

Apparently Alphen went unconscious after shouting his name. In a dark void, we hear him say that he sees flames as he ponders where he came from, and who he really is. When he awakens, we find ourselves back in Ulzebek, having been asleep for an entire week. Guess wielding the power of an unholy fire monster really does a number on you.

And as we learn, the burns he got from the blazing sword were especially bad. Shionne’s healing artes saved him, and Alphen seems surprised by this, though Shionne insists it’s only because she needs him to take down the rest of the Renan lords. There’s gonna be a lot of that—Shionne going, “I’m only working with you to achieve my goals.” But like… it’s so clear she’s starting to care for him, and I kinda live for this dynamic where they become closer and closer as Alphen continually supports and protects her. What can I say? I’m a sucker for slow burn.

Unfortunately, while Alphen can now remember his name, he still can’t remember anything else about his past. It’s pretty clear now that the mask is what’s holding back the rest of his memories, though the characters don’t seem to realize that, and won’t for quite a while. It’d be nice to have them discuss it a bit more, or see if Alphen would attempt to remove the rest of the mask himself. It was only broken because of how strong Balseph was, which does lend credence to it being Renan tech because of its durability.

With Balseph overthrown, Calaglia is free. Most of the Renan soldiers have apparently bailed. Where did they go? No clue, and no, it’ll never get addressed. But just because the tyrant is gone doesn’t mean it’s smooth sailing from here. There’s still work to be done to rebuild, and to create new systems that will better serve the Dahnans. And hopefully, no pockets of resistance or other groups that will prey on this power vacuum, introducing something far worse than what came before.

I do appreciate Zephyr bringing all this up, as liberation is about far more than just revolution. Without a proper plan in place, you could very easily slip into chaos once the system collapses, and again, wind up with a new, far worse system in its stead. But that never really gets anything more than lip service in Arise. We don’t see the process by which the characters reshape the way Dahna works. We hear them talk about it a lot, but the plot is more focused on the revolution than the work that needs to come after.

And on one level, I do understand it’s because revolution is just more tantalizing  to most audiences, and restructuring the government doesn’t exactly sound conducive to an action-packed RPG. But there could be a way to make it work, especially since this game does have a “second half.” But instead, the game just… glosses over this reconstruction process, leaving it to background characters entirely. It’s just frustrating to me that they’d bring up this nuanced topic only to do absolutely nothing with it.

While Zephyr speaks with the Crimson Crows, he suggests Alphen and Shionne check out the Gates of Fire to get a glimpse at Alphen’s handiwork. Along the way, we see several Crimson Crows still injured from the attack on the castle, and Shionne promptly heals them despite Tilsa saying she doesn’t have to. Turns out while Alphen was napping, Shionne was busy healing all the Crimson Crows. She tries to play it off, but Tilsa still expresses gratitude for the help.

This leads to one of my favorite scenes where Alphen questions why Shionne always tries to deflect when people are nice to her. It’s SO. FUCKING. CUUUUTE. Really reminds me of my own struggle to accept compliments, because I always felt I never deserved them. So having Alphen be so aggressively kind to Shionne, and be sincere about his gratitude for how she always supports him, heals him, and allows him to wield the blazing sword, really warms my heart. Again, I love the fact Alphen is so openly affectionate and passionate.

Unsure how to respond, Shionne gets flustered, which seems to set off her thorns. Taking a hint, Alphen backs off and refocuses on heading to the Gates of Fire. As he walks away, Shionne makes what sounds like a snide comment. But really, when you discover the full truth of her character… DAMN, it hurts. To see that Shionne really does deeply care, but feels she has to push people away, makes me love her so much more.

Medicine Quest:

Once we arrive at the Gates of Fire, Alphen contemplates over the power behind the blazing sword and the fire monster, both sourced from the astral energy harvested from dying Dahnans. Shionne says that once the energy was freed, it dispersed back out across Dahna. Strangely, when Alphen asks about the energy already harvested once a Sovereign is chosen, Shionne goes quiet, which prompts an argument between the two.

It does make sense for Shionne to be skeptical of Alphen’s amnesia. She herself doesn’t seem to have that high an opinion of people, especially someone who has enough strength to wield the blazing sword like Alphen. What I don’t get is why she’d think Alphen would know how the astral energy manifested as the giant fire monster? He didn’t even summon it. It just… appeared. In any case, it’s clear that despite these two’s teamwork improving, they’ve still got a long way to go before they can truly call themselves friendly.

Before they can bicker like an old married couple some more, a mysterious girl accompanied by an owl wanders through the Gates of Fire. As Alphen and Shionne run to her, she collapses, and we fade to black from her perspective as she faints. Lots of passing out, I’ve noticed. It’s very Aisha hours up in here with both this girl and Alphen.

We take the girl back to Ulzebek. Thankfully her injuries aren’t severe, but there isn’t enough medicine to help her wake up. Especially after the fight against Balseph, the Crimson Crows have their hands full, and supplies are running low. Alphen gets the idea to ask Doc for help, so he and Shionne head off to Mosgul. Alphen’s still surprised the girl is from another realm, while Shionne very much isn’t, given she hasn’t really considered the reality of Dahnans being trapped within their own realms.

Arriving in Mosgul, Doc doesn’t recognize Alphen at first now that half his face is exposed. There’ve been lots of rumors floating around about how “Iron Mask” took down Balseph, especially given he did so alongside a Renan of all people. No idea how they heard it was “Alphen” when he wasn't able to tell Zephyr till he awakened just today, but okay.

Doc thanks them both for their courage, going out of his way to thank Shionne personally, much to Shionne’s bewilderment. She can’t grasp the idea of someone looking past her or anyone else as either a Dahnan or a Renan. Doc implies that a lot of people aren’t going to be fond of Alphen and Shionne working together, but tells them to pay it no mind, and continue working together if that’s what they want to do.

Anyhow, we get sent on a quick fetch quest looking for medicine in Kyrd Garrison. It doesn’t take too long, but I still admittedly find it tedious. At the very least, less Renan soldiers means less enemies left to patrol the area, so that’s a plus. What really annoys me here is the fast travel being turned off. See, you’re able to fast travel pretty early on in Arise, accessing it through fast travel points on your map for certain areas.

Again, it used to be that fast travel wasn’t a thing in Tales games. You’d just have to walk on foot through the overworld, and later on, use your boat or airship to get around. But since Tales of Xillia, those methods of travel have disappeared along with the overworld. Instead, there are different methods of fast travel in each game. Arise’s system is very similar to Xillia’s. However, Arise will turn off its fast travel system at certain points in the story to restrict your movement.

Unlike older games, where what was akin to fast travel was achieved through the story as a vehicle, fast travel now feels like a given that irks the player when it’s taken away, even temporarily, and even when the distance you now have to travel isn’t too far. It breaks immersion as you’re left going, “Oh sure, now you make my life more inconvenient.” Compare this to a moment in Tales of the Abyss where you have access to an airship in the middle of the game, then lose it for an extended period of time after your group is captured, then forced to flee on foot. There, it's a moment of desperation and loss that serves the story. Here, fast travel getting turned off is just a nuisance.

Problematic Owl Girl:

Once the girl receives the medicine and awakens, we learn that her name is Rinwell, and she hails from the neighboring realm of Cyslodia. No, I don’t know why Cyslodia is the only of the five realms not to have two names. Just roll with it. After Balseph’s defeat, word of Calaglia’s liberation traveled fast. Not exactly sure how. Are the fleeing Renan soldiers the ones doing all of this, because it surely can’t be the Dahnans, who previously were sealed within their own realm, and now would have no reason to travel to another realm that’s still enslaved. Kinda goes hand in hand with the issue earlier with how Lord Ganabelt heard about Balseph’s problems, but maybe Ganabelt just sends ravens everywhere to spy on people. He seems like that kinda messy bitch.

In any case, Rinwell is part of Cyslodia’s own rebellion: the Silver Swords. They sent a few scouts to Calaglia to try and ask for help in liberating their own realm, but only Rinwell managed to make it here. Some of the Crimson Crows find this timing a bit too convenient. They wonder if she could be a Renan spy, which Rinwell adamantly denies, though Zephyr clearly trusts her. This actually does foreshadow the culture of Cyslodia a bit, what with the strong distrust and all.

I’d just like to take this moment to appreciate Rinwell’s design. In general, I’m obsessed with the designs in this game, with how well they represent the characters while remaining readable and stylish. I think having only one character designer, Iwamoto in this case, helps keep all the designs cohesive compared to previous Tales games. Rinwell’s outfit and giant hood give the vibe of a young mage, which… we’ll get to later. She’s also got a butterfly motif, since all the protagonists have an animal inspiration. In case you were wondering, Shionne’s is a rabbit, because, and I quote, “she will die if left alone.” Trust me, it’ll make sense later on.

We also get quite a bit of hostility between Nayth and Shionne. The Crimson Crows aren’t fond of the idea of Alphen traveling to other realms, worried that if they don’t have him and the blazing sword around, Calaglia will be attacked and reconquered by the Renans. Shionne, however, has no intention of remaining here. She’s determined to take down the remaining lords, and she needs Alphen and the blazing sword to do that. Zephyr tells Alphen the decision is ultimately his. Alphen reasserts his desire to liberate all people, and so decides to continue that mission by traveling to the other realms with Shionne.

Zephyr’s gonna be going with us, leaving the background characters—I mean, Crimson Crows—to protect and rebuild Calaglia. Hope you’ll remember them for later, cuz we’re not gonna be seeing them for roughly another twenty to thirty in-game hours. Zephyr is an ally in battle, but he’s not a full party member. It reinforces him as this mentor figure with skills and experience far beyond our own. Funnily enough, it’s likely he was meant to be one of the core party members early on, given this piece of concept art with his silhouette square in the middle. Why’d that change? Well, we’ll get there.

Rinwell’s coming too, since this is her realm we’re heading to, but she’s not very happy to be traveling with Shionne. She’s bewildered when she sees the Crimson Crows working with a Renan. And when she hears how Shionne helped find her medicine, she almost shuts down, looking ready to pass out again. There’s a reason for this, but all you need to know right now is she hates Renans. And I mean… HATES Renans. Oh, also she isn’t in our party yet. Why? You’ll find out soon, but for right now, you must accept that her giant hood is full of secrets.

Traveling Between Realms SUCKS:

Now once you finish dealing with a lord, you’ll need to travel through several areas to reach the next realm. Usually it’ll be a couple fields, with a dungeon or two thrown in the middle, and maybe a small village. It does add to this feeling of going on a long journey to another land, but the lack of a world map kinda kills that vibe in its crib for me. You have no way of knowing how much progress you’re truly making as you run from Point A, to B, to C, and so on. And yes, it is a series of even more one-way corridors.

As I mentioned before, this game isn’t open world, and I’m okay with that. Games like Breath of the Wild actually kinda give me anxiety with just how open and sprawling their worlds are, and I’ve had enough of the Zestiria approach with big fields of nothing. Linearity can allow for more focus on the story itself, and a more curated, finely crafted experience.

But given the story in this game isn’t much to write home about, and all the other ways this world feels so lifeless… yeah, it’s not helping. I would’ve appreciated some kind of interconnected aspect to these environments. Maybe different fields leading into one another? I’m honestly not sure, but frankly, I think I’m about ready to go back to the old overworld approach from the classic Tales games.

While we’re here, I wanna touch upon the dialogue that automatically plays when you’re out on the field. It started back in Zestiria (Or possibly Xillia? It’s been awhile since I’ve played it.), and while I do appreciate how it allows for more character interactions, it can be grating when you’re cornered by a monster and the dialogue gets interrupted. Even while recording, I often found myself needing to stop before I approached some monsters or entered another area to let the dialogue play, which takes me out of the experience and makes me start tapping my foot in annoyance.

Along the way, we see an ominous castle in the distance covered in mist. This is Castle Del Fharis, the domain of the lord of Calaglia’s other neighboring realm: Ganath Haros. Initially I did not know that, given the lack of a map, but I do kinda like that we catch a glimpse of it from here so we can recall it later on. Though it does make me wonder… could he be watching us right now? (this joke will make sense the third time you watch this)

We also meet some cute lil owls, one of which Shionne heals because she’s secretly nice, which Rinwell does not give a single hoot about. Jesus Rinwell, aren’t you tired? Rinwell’s little animal companion, Hootle, befriends said owl, and it leads us to discovering that there are tons of owls scattered throughout Dahna. You’ll find them in almost all the towns and fields. When you find them, they give you little cosmetic items for your characters. It’s a nice incentive to explore the environments a bit more thoroughly, and Hootle will let you know when you’re close to one.

Sidenote: HOOTLE IS SO CUTE. Tales has some great, admittedly toyetic mascots, but Hootle is probably one of my favorites. He doesn’t talk, so he can’t get on my nerves, and he’s just this plump little freak of cuteness. He perfectly walks the line of adorable and nightmare-inducing. Which works since, ya know, owls are majestically horrifying creatures of the night. My point is Hootle rights. Also love the fact owls are a symbol of ancient, pre-colonial Dahna. I find that deeply iconic.

Along the way, we learn that Zephyr had a wife long before we met him. She died, not from the Renans, but from illness, as they couldn’t afford medicine for her. This’ll be coming back later, but I like that we get a chance to learn more about Zephyr’s past. It further humanizes and characterizes him while also showing he isn’t this picture-perfect mentor figure. He’s made plenty of mistakes of his own, which we’ll be getting much more of in the Cyslodia Arc.

We also learn a bit more about Cyslodia from Rinwell. Unlike Calaglia, Dahnans in Cyslodia aren’t automatically forced to perform manual labor. Instead, they live in more of that kinda surveillance state I suggested towards the start of the video (you know, 84 years ago). Cyslodia’s government employs the Bureau of Civil Observation, colloquially known as the Snake Eyes, who watch the Dahnans closely for signs of potential treachery, revolt, or anything that the Renans find remotely annoying.

And Snake Eyes aren’t just Renan. Dahnans can become Snake Eyes as well, and even Dahnan civilians are rewarded by the Snake Eyes for turning in their fellow Dahnans, creating a culture of fear and distrust among the people. The Renans use this to preserve their power, since the Dahnans will be too busy either betraying or fearing each other to revolt. I’m absolutely obsessed with this idea, and again, I wish they did more with it. It’s a tactic often used by governments to suppress resistance and keep the populace in line. Divide the people, and you can get away with pretty much anything.

The sci-fi aspect could’ve really amplified this too, again with cameras, tracking devices, data harvesting, and all that other nerdy shit, but they don’t really bother going in-depth since we won’t be in Cyslodia very long. More than any other realm, the Cyslodia Arc feels the most rushed to me, and you might see why once we arrive.