Considering the huge amount of games that caught my eye were released in July and September 2021, it took me a while before I was able to sit back and enjoy Tales of Arise, the latest game in the franchise that began (at least for me) with Xillia back on the trusty PlayStation 3. How the years have flown by. When the game was first announced, I was excited. It had been a good long while since I had played a Tales game and I was excited to see what a new generation engine would bring to the role-playing series that was up there with the likes of Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, Atelier and Legend of Heroes when people ever discuss Japanese role-playing games (JRPGs). So, once my other commitments were done and dusted, I began my journey into the world of Arise.

The opening scene held a lot of promise. Two worlds. An invasion. Three hundred years of dominance from an alien (but still humanoid) race. And then players were thrust into the shoes of the amnesiac Iron Mask, a slave forced to mine for fire in the realm of Calaglia.

Already, I could count off the number of tropes that were already being employed and my initial enthusiasm waned. It wasn’t long before Shionne was introduced, a cold and aloof woman that was on her own journey to collect the Master Cores. Why she had decided now was a good time to travel to Dhana and how she travelled to Dhana were never properly explained. Yes, I’ve seen theories that she might have been a stowaway with other transportation from Lenegis, but according to Dohalim, no transports are usually sent down when the Crown Contest is underway. Had she arrived seven years ago and only now decided to make her move?

Regardless of these plot points, Shionne and Iron Mask meet, leading to a slew of situations that have the amnesiac hero firmly on the path to throw off their Renan oppressors and join the resistance.

Much of the first half of the game was centred on the collection of the Master Cores from each realm. Iron Mask, or Alphen, as he later recalls in the first battle with one of the Lords, joins up with each respective resistance group and then they plan to take down the respective Lord to collect the Master Core. Along the way, they accrue a motley crew of allies such as Law, Rinwell, Kisara and the clueless Lord Dohalim. It was a very one-note rinse and repeat process. Even when it seemed Dohalim was a Lord that would listen and serve as an ally (I mean, it’s right there in the opening credits), there was still a battle with the erstwhile Lord as he suffered a mental break once he discovered the truth behind the Fruit of Helgan.

Threaded throughout were themes of racism and the cycle of hatred that comes from when one country/ race/ planet comes and dominates a group of people for an extended period of time. Given the current political climate, it serves as a great way to acknowledge something that has impacted millions of people in our world. Yet Alphen and his team are also unable to find a solution. Slavery and segregation are an indelible part of America’s past. Subjugation of other races in Canada and Australia are also reminders that these things are not long forgotten and should not be hand-waved away.

As with most things, it takes time. To right the wrongs. To educate others on culture and country. To break down discriminatory practices in our institutions and make things equal. But most important, we also need to learn to forgive and move-on. It won’t be easy but dwelling on past hurts mean that humans might forever be trapped in a violent cycle of vengeance. As is oft quoted, ‘an eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.’ 

The second part of Tales of Arise shifts the story a month after the climactic battle with Vholran in Ganath Haros. Despite impaling the man with the Blazing Sword, Vholran’s body has vanished and the people of Ganath Haros are slowly starting to break away from the conditioning that made them subservient slaves to their ‘Sovereign.’ It is here that the story, at least in my eyes, falters.

Once Lenegis launches ‘The Wedge’ to drain astral energy from Dhana and into Rena, it is soon revealed that not even the Renans quite know what is going on. In fact, they, too, are pawns for the machinations of a much more frightening force: the Helganquil. The real aliens behind it all.

Yes, the Renans weren’t actually Renans. They were genetically modified Dhanans. For how long the Helganquil have done this is not known but it must have been several years if many Renans did not know their origin and had managed to develop their own society on a satellite stationed halfway between the two planets.

But then, of course, the Helganquil weren’t acting from their own free-will. Indeed, they too were also being controlled by the Great Spirit of Rena. A layer upon layer of servitude.

While I can understand what the developers were trying to go for, the execution of many of the plot points were left wanting. Particularly when it came to Alphen’s foil: Vholran. In a few reviews I’ve seen, Vholran has been likened to Sephiroth from Final Fantasy VII. But while they may have similar traits on a surface level, our antagonist here has little depth. There is no personal connection besides his undying hatred for Alphen and need to be superior. He isn’t enigmatic or creepy.

There could have been a lot more potential for Vholran, and perhaps if the plot centred more on a personal connection between Alphen and Vholran, I might have felt something more than apathy to a plot device that could have been written out and replaced by any deus ex machina or left-field God figure.

It’s fine if an evil person is just evil for evil’s sake but Vholran wasn’t even menacing. He was just annoying.

Zephyr, on the other hand, was much better handled because of that personal connection and the time we got to acquaint ourselves with the leader of the Calaglia resistance. That he was the father of Law and that his death helped motivate and explain the backstory of one of the other characters served to elevate him to almost playable character status.

And while many of the characters fell into typical tropes found in many JRPGs, I couldn’t help but still cheer a little for the romance developing between Alphen and Shionne. in fact, it seemed like all the members of the party had their perfect counterpart, though the prime focus was still on the man that could not feel pain (until he later could) and the woman that hurt everyone she touched because of her thorns.

It was because of them that I managed to finish the game and watched, with a smile on my face, the ending credits.

Tales of Arise also changed up a lot of the combat. A lot of the control schemes I was used to in the previous titles had to be relearned. Circle was jump, R2 was dodge (I mean, seriously…who makes R2 dodge?), and early on, enemies seemed eager to knock Alphen or Shionne out in two hits. It took some getting used to but I was finally able to wrap my head around the system and begin enjoying my time with the game.

I can’t say that it’s my favourite battle system, and the AI definitely needs some work if I ever want to conserve the use of items, but it was serviceable enough to defeat most of the enemies.

There is one other issue with Tales of Arise and that is the presence of micro-transactions in the main menu. While I never gave much thought to it, I know many people online thought it was intrusive and actually gave the game a negative review on sites such as Steam.

While I would not rank Tales of Arise that high on my list of favourite Tales of games (that place belongs rightfully to Tales of Berseria), I still had fun with the game. Thankfully, the game is also shorter than most entries (which was both a disappointment and a relief), which seemed to be just right. For too long, JRPGs have sent players on endless fetch quests with the item that the characters need for plot progression hidden in an incredibly long dungeon. Yes, it helps to level the characters, but tedium does tend to set in.

Tales of Arise also tries to address a few things but never quite pulls off the deeper discussions that are needed. To be fair, the Dhanan revolution is very much in its infancy, whereas our current problems have been festering for a lot longer without a good solution in sight. And while slavery may not ‘exist’ nowadays, the same old mistakes keep getting made. Let’s hope that it won’t take a millennium for humans to see beyond an ‘us’ versus ‘them’ mentality.

And yes, I did give Alphen bunny ears.

Oh, and Kisara is bae. That is all. I will not be taking any further questions at this time.