Tales of Arise - Review @ Davidvinc

Couchpotato said:

I miss her posts on the watch you would of liked her as she hated a certain member who always targets your posts as well.

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Who would that be? I'm pretty sure Aubrielle didn't hate anyone, and I'm also pretty sure she wouldn't appreciate you trying to speak for her.

Yeah, let's ease up on the hate talk. We can piss each other off from time to time without embracing the Dark Side.

I'm beyond that point as I frankly do hate that certain poster. I could go on but since you guys prefer PG I can't write how I really feel. Just wait I'll probably go off at him again.

Couchpotato said:

She does pop up a few times a year though.

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Indeed! She dropped in just a few days ago to wish Henrique a happy birthday.

Couchpotato said:

I'm beyond that point as I frankly do hate that certain poster. I could go on but since you guys prefer PG I can't write how I really feel. Just wait I'll probably go off at him again.

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Don't do that, please. That's going to become a problem.

Skepticism does have its' place. -) I, for one, am always hopeful that Aubrielle will grace us with her presence again.

Nereida said:

I'm skeptical, but I'll take your word for it.

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If my word is worth something, take it as well. I second Carnifex here!

This thread is getting kinda hijacked so let me try to bring it back to course.

I couldn't help it and got Tales of Arise last night, hoping I'll get some time to play it during the weekends. I know it's a 80 hour game, but I just liked too much what I was reading about it.

So, just 1 hour into the game, I am loving it. The two first characters you find in the game, knon as "Iron Mask" and "Shionne", are really interesting to me. Maybe I'm befooling myself and this is very standard in modern JRPGs, but I'm actually digging into their personal stories and finding it very appealing. I usually prefer games in which I make my own protagonist these days, but given the variety of characters the game offers and the fact that you can treat any of them as your "main", it kinda works for me.

The combat is fantastic and spectacular, and also playing it well makes all the difference on whether you succeed or not. Feels like you could tackle fights well above your paygrade if you are really good at it, opposed to most RPGs that is really your level and power what determines whether you will win fights or not. The difficulty has a lot of scaling options, with a very high difficulty setting just released as free DLC (the one I'm playing of course because I'm a lil masochist!).

Also the fact that the game features full anime movies/sequences every now and then, including a full orchestrated intro is amazing. I wish western games had this kind of thing, it does so much towards hyping the story and making you feel like it's more than just a game.

So yeah, I'm having a lot of fun, also very limited by the fact that I have deadlines to hit, but hopefully, that makes every moment I play it all the sweeter.

Oh, and because this is not a given these days, also have to mention. Absolutely zero bugs, failures, or glitches of any kind. Virtually no loading times even as you change areas/scenes, and generally pleasant to enjoy all throughout. It runs smooth as the smoothest velvet.

I'm sure I'll find negative things soon, I'm only one hour into it, but so far I'm impressed.

I've never been able to get into jRPG's. Part of it is the females typically sound like they're 12 and run around with stuffed animals or some type of pokemon. Another is weapons that are so large that physics wouldn't allow them to be wielded. It kills my immersion. If you're going to make a weapon that looks like an Earth weapon, make it obey Earth rules

crpgnut said:

I've never been able to get into jRPG's. Part of it is the females typically sound like they're 12 and run around with stuffed animals or some type of pokemon. Another is weapons that are so large that physics wouldn't allow them to be wielded. It kills my immersion. If you're going to make a weapon that looks like an Earth weapon, make it obey Earth rules

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The only main female character I've met so far in Arise is a strong, independant character that definitely doesnt sound like she's 12, which I believe may be one of the reasons I had such an easy time to get into the game. Annoyingly enough, she does wear a dress that you can upskirt, from what I've gathered it's because she's some kind of noble, but so far, she's definitely not there with the only plot hook of functioning as the Alpha Male's love interest (fingers crossed so that it remains that way).

Met a couple of secondary female characters too which seem mature and free of a lot of the most denigrating JRPG tropes, which is refreshing.

Ahh well, now it's sounding even better, thanks for your thoughts on the game, Nereida. Now I'm really going to have to keep an eye on this one, and snatch it when a decent sale comes along.

My favorite aspect of the game is actually the pacing. 50 hours in and not a single minute of tedium. Everything just flows beautifully.

Nereida said:

Feels like you could tackle fights well above your paygrade if you are really good at it

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Unfortunately almost all higher level enemies are story-gated until very late in the game.

I managed to put more time into it, defeated the first "Lord". That was -epic-. I honestly don't remember in recency feeling so impressed at the audiovisual display that a game has thrown at me, the fitting orchestrated theme, the fully voiced dialogues, the anime sequences; it's truly something to experience for anyone that cares for that kind of thing. And the funny thing is, I'm not even into eastern stuff or anime, I just watch the occasional fully English-translated thing that makes it to the western mainstream, but this is somehow getting my undivided attention.

So far I'm fully addicted and I can't wait to play more.