I got so sick of the grinding in Ni no Kuni II that I swore off JRPGs for good. But Tales of Arise kept getting great reviews, so I got curious. I tried the demo on PlayStation and the combat looked pretty fun, so I decided to buy it and give it a shot.
I could see why it got such good reviews. I’m not really a huge JRPG fan, so the combat was just okay for me, but the story was pretty engaging. It wasn’t just that the story was decent – the cutscene direction was absolutely amazing, so it felt like watching a really good anime.
You need to do some grinding for gear.
However, like most JRPGs, there were still some grindy sections I had to get through to reach the ending. But compared to Ni no Kuni II, it wasn’t really grinding at all – it was more just a bit of a hassle rather than truly annoying.
The combat was… not really my thing. The monsters didn’t have much personality – it was just a straightforward “beat them up” style, so it felt pretty average. The character skills weren’t particularly satisfying to land either… I used to love these kinds of “just mindlessly bash everything” RPGs back in the day, but Elden Ring totally ruined that for me… I mean, what’s the point if the monsters can’t actually kill you? There’s no tension at all!
Still, the good thing about games like this is that the cutscenes and story are entertaining, and the characters have distinct personalities with their own charm. The characters are so unique that it’s actually fun just reading their dialogue.
Law jokingly suggests they could buy a mansion if they sold Dohalim, and Shionne jokes that then they’d never have to worry about food. Dohalim responds by asking if they’re some kind of bandit group.
When Dohalim speaks in a literary way, Kisara gives him realistic responses. Alphen finds it confusing, wondering whether their conversation is actually connecting or not.
When Rinwell gets curious about Dohalim’s new technique, Dohalim starts to give her a lengthy explanation. But Rinwell cuts him off and asks for it in writing instead.
Shionne whispers that Dohalim looks like he’s wearing his clothes backwards, and Kisara responds that it happens all the time.
The main story is serious, but the conversations during travel are light and funny.
What I remember most is when I was exploring the map and saw this round hole with water below. I thought “I probably won’t die” and jumped in, then suddenly Law goes “AHHHHHHHH!” but Dohalim just acts like nothing happened. Law starts arguing that he could have died and it was absolutely hilarious…
I wonder why the video I recorded of it disappeared… I definitely saved it because it was so funny…
Anyway, since the main story deals with pretty heavy themes, I think they made the side quests and party conversations lighter to balance it out. So even though the main plot is dark, the overall atmosphere stays bright and entertaining throughout the playthrough. The side quests aren’t like Ni no Kuni II’s half-hearted “what the hell is this supposed to be” kind of quests either. They don’t have much substance, but some of them are actually pretty amusing in their own small way, so they were decent.
Anyway, my playtime was around 40 hours, and it’s been a while since I got hooked on a game for several weeks like this. I think a sequel would be really fun too, but games like this rarely get sequels.
+ Lastly, the adorable Hootle!
Actually, I feel like… Hootle has more… presence than Law does…