_I had very high expectations for this game going in and at first it truly delivered with an interesting setup and exciting gameplay. In the game you play as Alphen, first known as Iron mask, a slave that is unable to feel pain. He meets a girl, Shionne, and joins her in her quest to take down the oppressors and free the people of Dahna. After some time the gameplay started to feel a bit dull mostly because of the inability to cancel attacks by dodging which led to a very defensive playstyle. (Minor spoilers of the main antagonist's personality and name in Sound)_

  

**Story**

The story and the characters in particular is the best part of the game. On Alphen's journey he meets four others, apart from Shionne, each of whom struggle with their own problems. These personal stories tell contain things like overcoming prejudice, moving past regrets, following your own will and learning how to selflessly lead. The relationships between characters have a very realistic feel to them because of the time it takes for them to develop. It takes a long time for all of the characters to fully trust each other, something that sets Tales of Arise apart from many other titles I've played. It is not only the protagonists that are well written, the villains are as well, especially the main antagonist. By the end, unfortunately, the story sort of loses itself. You have no idea what is going to happen when the primary objective of the first 25-30 hours have been completed. Without going into detail the entire story after it feels like it was put together a bit to quickly.

  

**Gameplay**

At first glance I though the combat looked really solid. The connected attacks you can do with one of party members after having trapped an enemy in a combo for long enough have great animations. They truly make you feel like, together, you can take on the entire world. As you spend more time in the game however, seeing those same animations and hear the same voice lines over and over again starts to lose it's fun. The thing that made me dislike the combat so much was the forementioned inability to dodge while in an attack. This meant you had to stop attacking when you thought the enemy might attack so you could dodge away and then go in. In combination with the ridiculously high health bars all the bosses have dying to one was infuriating to say the least. On top of all this most bosses could not be staggered by comboing them taking away the best part of the combat system when facing one of them. I eventually gave up and changed the difficulty to the easiest option just so I wouldn't have to care about it anymore.

  

**Graphics**

The graphics are certainly not bad but for the majority of the game they don't scream gorgeous or anything. There are moments, later on into the game that are made very special largely in part to the art direction. Visual effects and cutscenes are excellent, many of the fight scenes in the game are very well made. The opening cutscene with the theme playing in the background is also something worth mentioning as an excellent start. As it plays every time you open the game and is so fantastic I watched the entire thing every single time I opened the game before pressing continue.

  

**Crafting and Equipment**

Exploration and side quests felt like something worth doing. Behind every corner you could find some stat increasing plant, valuably consumable, piece of equipment or am enemy that would drop an item needed when making new weapons. There were also emblems that you could craft, some of which didn't just increase your stats but also lowered another as compensation for greatly increasing another. The skill trees for each character were large but the skills you could acquire were not very special at all. They were beneficial for sure but never altered the way I played.

**UI, sound and music**

The user interface is not great. Some menus are hidden behind a key in the pause screen while other have their own on-screen button prompt and then there are those that have both an on-screen button and a key bound shortcut. The sound effects a good but not especially memorable. Once again it is through the characters that the game redeems itself. Most of the game is voice acted and the actors did a phenomenal job at that. Here I feel like the antagonist's voice actor, Joe Zieja, takes cake with his portrayal of the psychotic Vholran. Music is good, especially one song that appears in a few cutscenes is really on point but there are a lot of songs that not very memorable at all.

  

**Conclusion**

The game is on the whole one I enjoyed for most of my playthrough but one I will see myself playing again in a long time. It has flaws that are hard for me to overcome but makes other things right in their stead that lead to a game that is a fun experience. I would rate this as a 7.5 out of 10.

Thanks for reading

I had very high expectations for this game going in and at first it truly delivered with an interesting setup and exciting gameplay. In the game you play as Alphen, first known as Iron mask, a slave that is unable to feel pain. He meets a girl, Shionne, and joins her in her quest to take down the oppressors and free the people of Dahna. After some time the gameplay started to feel a bit dull mostly because of the inability to cancel attacks by dodging which led to a very defensive playstyle. (Minor spoilers of the main antagonist's personality and name in Sound) StoryThe story and the characters in particular is the best part of the game. On Alphen's journey he meets four others, apart from Shionne, each of whom struggle with their own problems. These personal stories tell contain things like overcoming prejudice, moving past regrets, following your own will and learning how to selflessly lead. The relationships between characters have a very realistic feel to them because of the time it takes for them to develop. It takes a long time for all of the characters to fully trust each other, something that sets Tales of Arise apart from many other titles I've played. It is not only the protagonists that are well written, the villains are as well, especially the main antagonist. By the end, unfortunately, the story sort of loses itself. You have no idea what is going to happen when the primary objective of the first 25-30 hours have been completed. Without going into detail the entire story after it feels like it was put together a bit to quickly. GameplayAt first glance I though the combat looked really solid. The connected attacks you can do with one of party members after having trapped an enemy in a combo for long enough have great animations. They truly make you feel like, together, you can take on the entire world. As you spend more time in the game however, seeing those same animations and hear the same voice lines over and over again starts to lose it's fun. The thing that made me dislike the combat so much was the forementioned inability to dodge while in an attack. This meant you had to stop attacking when you thought the enemy might attack so you could dodge away and then go in. In combination with the ridiculously high health bars all the bosses have dying to one was infuriating to say the least. On top of all this most bosses could not be staggered by comboing them taking away the best part of the combat system when facing one of them. I eventually gave up and changed the difficulty to the easiest option just so I wouldn't have to care about it anymore. GraphicsThe graphics are certainly not bad but for the majority of the game they don't scream gorgeous or anything. There are moments, later on into the game that are made very special largely in part to the art direction. Visual effects and cutscenes are excellent, many of the fight scenes in the game are very well made. The opening cutscene with the theme playing in the background is also something worth mentioning as an excellent start. As it plays every time you open the game and is so fantastic I watched the entire thing every single time I opened the game before pressing continue. Crafting and EquipmentExploration and side quests felt like something worth doing. Behind every corner you could find some stat increasing plant, valuably consumable, piece of equipment or am enemy that would drop an item needed when making new weapons. There were also emblems that you could craft, some of which didn't just increase your stats but also lowered another as compensation for greatly increasing another. The skill trees for each character were large but the skills you could acquire were not very special at all. They were beneficial for sure but never altered the way I played. UI, sound and musicThe user interface is not great. Some menus are hidden behind a key in the pause screen while other have their own on-screen button prompt and then there are those that have both an on-screen button and a key bound shortcut. The sound effects a good but not especially memorable. Once again it is through the characters that the game redeems itself. Most of the game is voice acted and the actors did a phenomenal job at that. Here I feel like the antagonist's voice actor, Joe Zieja, takes cake with his portrayal of the psychotic Vholran. Music is good, especially one song that appears in a few cutscenes is really on point but there are a lot of songs that not very memorable at all. ConclusionThe game is on the whole one I enjoyed for most of my playthrough but one I will see myself playing again in a long time. It has flaws that are hard for me to overcome but makes other things right in their stead that lead to a game that is a fun experience. I would rate this as a 7.5 out of 10. Thanks for reading

A somewhat drawn out storymode and disappointing combat but is saved by excellent characters