A few weeks ago we told you what Tales of Arise had seemed like after spending an hour tasting its combat system and being amazed by the new graphic section. Today what we have to do is tell you about the plot of the game and its characters, since we have been able to play the first chapter of the game, which involves a little more than two hours of play and that has helped us to better understand the background of the title, as well how to get an idea of what to expect from the final game. Welcome to our impressions about the early hours of Tales of Arise.
If after accessing the preview of a game, it leaves you wanting to play more, the feelings could not be more positive. Something like this was what happened to us with Tales of Arise, which after its first preview phase left us wanting to know more about the universe of the game, since our time at the controls had been limited to combat only. Today what we can bring you supposes a much more comprehensive approach to the game itself, a small tasting of what is a few hours of the total that Tales of Arise will offer, but that serves (more than enough) to give us an idea of what we can expect from the Bandai Namco game.
A little bit of lore …
Our adventure in Tales of Arise begins knowing a little about the lore of the title and how the invaders of Rena managed to enslave the population of Dahna, dividing the planet into five zones, where In each area we will find a kind of lord, in charge of reigning over said land and keeping its population at bay., mostly enslaved.
In Tales of Arise we will control different characters, as we could see in the previous preview, but our story goes hand in hand with ‘Iron Mask’, a peculiar character who wears a mask that covers his face and who, like the others natives, works at the mercy of slavers. The life of Iron Mask changes when he happens to meet Shionne, a peculiar girl chased by the guards of Rena and that hides enormous power.
Shionne and our character will soon find a small group that makes up the resistance and that wants to end the slave yoke of Balseph, the lord of Rena who reigns over the land of Calaglia. To do this, our group must overcome certain missions to prepare, help the locals and stand up to an all-powerful enemy …
Facing the impossible
Once we have completed the first bars of Tales of Arise we can explore a little and complete secondary missions to earn money and experience and invest it in improving Shionne, our character and his team. Like most RPGs, Tales of Arise will have skill points for each character, which are used to unlock both skills and improvements on the battlefield (higher damage, defense, critical chance …) and we will also have to invest resources that we get on the game map in forging weapons that are more useful than the ones we have.
That is why, although the game invites us to move forward at all times, if we arrive too hastily to the fight against Balseph we are going to face the harsh reality. As in any JRPG that is provided, leveling and improving our team will be essential if we play in normal or more difficult difficulties, although a more lax difficulty is also available that serves to focus only on the plot and that turns the fighting into a procedure. As much as that difficulty tempts you, I recommend that you throw yourself fully into the others, since Tales of Arise features fun and satisfying combat, with a multitude of combos that make this game mechanics one of its pillars.
Returning to the dynamics of the game, The first hours of Tales of Arise make it clear what kind of game we can expect: a game with fluid and fun combat, adding variations and improvements at every turn; a plot that tells us the story of the resistance of the rebels and how they want to recover what was stolen from them hundreds of years ago and also some mysterious ties that unite two characters who apparently do not know each other.
The missions that we have been able to complete during these first hours of the game have taken us to all kinds of places, where the confrontations against enemies were only part of what we could find, with small puzzles to reach more hidden areas and obtain rewards.
Even so, The icing on the cake was put by the final phase of the chapter, which led us to Balseph’s castle. In this phase, our protagonists had to advance through the various floors of the castle, with all kinds of fierce enemies, leading to an exciting final combat in which we had to measure each attack, dodge and use the skills and consumables with head.
And how about the combat?
About combat I think we tell you everything in the first impressions of Tales of Arise: we will have normal attacks that we can combine with skills, special attacks from companions, others the result of successful combos or weakening the enemy, the possibility of changing the main character during combat, etc.
Tales of Arise reveals the activities of its world in a new trailer
In these first bars of the game we see how all the mechanics that we already had available in the first test are introduced step by step. At the beginning of the game we only have the basic attack and a couple of skills available, but as we move forward we will incorporate companions into the action, as well as their special attacks, the attacks resulting from a combo and the power to finally unlock the flaming sword that gives us a boost in terms of attack.
Beyond those concepts that we already discussed in the previous article, in this one we would like to emphasize the boss battle, since it is very different from the confrontation we had against a powerful monster in the previous impressions. If in that confrontation the fight was difficult but against an enemy that attacked slow and predictable, Balseph’s boss battle is completely different.
In this fight we find an enemy that will surely take us out a few levels, depending on the amount of how much we have completed secondary tasks in the game, so it is better for us to be loaded with consumables to recover our health as well as our points of healing (which Shionne consumes if he heals us or resurrects us during battle). It is also advisable to go with weapons created in the blacksmith of the rebel village, since the initial weapons do little damage.
Once we have prepared, we run into a boss who It will not stop attacking and we will have to study its movements to see when it is going to launch itself on us, carry out an attack or load a more powerful one with larger area of effect. It will be through dodging and the use of special abilities that we will be able to create small attack windows in which we can do more damage. Once the first combat phase is over, we will access another even more complicated one that hides surprises that we do not want to reveal to you.
In addition to this boss battle, we will also be able to engage in Secondary battles against almighty enemies that even our peers will invite us to avoid. If we decide to ignore, we will run into enemies that take us from 10 to 30 levels depending on each one, so surely what we will do in most cases is to die. If we have patience and skill and we defeat them, we will receive all kinds of materials and skill points that will pave the way for the main plot.
Even so, it is clear that those enemies, despite being in the initial phase of the game, are there to invite us to return once we advance further in Tales of Arise and have a higher level.
Impressions from the early hours of Tales of Arise
Tales of Arise leaves us very good feelings againThis time being able to learn more about Alphen, Shionne and the game universe, which faces the lands of Rena and Dahna after the former invaded and reigned with an iron fist over the latter for 300 years. Tales of Arise promises us a story of revelation, of resistance, of how a small group will face the powerful lords who came to Dahna with a goal.
Tales of Arise will be released on Xbox One and Xbox Series X | S on September 10, 2021.