is an
action role-playing game developed and published by
Bandai Namco Entertainment for
PlayStation 4,
PlayStation 5,
Windows
Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...
,
Xbox One
The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...
, and
Xbox Series X/S
The Xbox Series X/S are home video game consoles developed by Microsoft. They were both released on November 10, 2020, as the fourth generation Xbox, succeeding the Xbox One. Along with Sony's PlayStation 5, also released in November 202 ...
. The seventeenth main entry in the ''
Tales'' series, it was originally planned to release in 2020 but was delayed to September 2021 due to internal quality issues and the ability to launch the game on more platforms. It's also the first game of the series with a worldwide simultaneous launch. The game follows a man and a woman from the opposing worlds of Dahna and Rena and their journey to end the Renans' oppression of the Dahnan people.
Developed by a team composed of both series veterans and newcomers, the aim was to revitalize the ''Tales'' series. Minoru Iwamoto, one of several artists who worked on ''
Tales of Zestiria
is an action role-playing game. It is the fifteenth main entry in the ''Tales'' series, developed by Bandai Namco Studios and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment. It was released in January 2015 in Japan on the PlayStation 3. For Western re ...
'' and ''
Tales of Berseria
is an action role-playing video game developed and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and Microsoft Windows. It is the sixteenth main entry in the ''Tales'' series and a prequel of ''Tales of Zestiria''. ...
'', returns as both character designer and art director. The game is built using
Unreal Engine 4
Unreal Engine (UE) is a 3D computer graphics game engine developed by Epic Games, first showcased in the 1998 first-person shooter game ''Unreal (1998 video game), Unreal''. Initially developed for Personal computer, PC first-person shooters, i ...
. Upon release, the game received generally favorable reviews and won the award for Best RPG at
The Game Awards 2021
The Game Awards 2021 was an award show that honored the best video games of 2021. The event was hosted by Geoff Keighley, creator and producer of The Game Awards, and was held to an invited audience at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles on De ...
. It sold 2 million units by April 2022.
Gameplay
Like previous games in the series, ''Tales of Arise'' is an
action role-playing game, although its gameplay has gone through unspecified alterations as part of its development goals while retaining the basic ''Tales'' battle system, dubbed the Linear Motion Battle System.
The game has a big focus on evading and countering, with ''
Tales of Graces
is an action role-playing game released for the Wii in Japan in December 2009. The game is a core product of the ''Tales'' series and was developed by Namco Tales Studio. The game was ported to the PlayStation 3 under the title and was rele ...
'', a 2009 entry praised for its combat, cited as inspiration. Unlike many of the previous titles in the series, the game does not feature
multiplayer
A multiplayer video game is a video game in which more than one person can play in the same game environment at the same time, either locally on the same computing system ( couch co-op), on different computing systems via a local area network, or ...
, with the development team deciding to focus on various interactions between characters in combat, including the addition of the "Boost Strike" feature, allowing multiple party members to perform destructive attacks together under certain conditions.
Story
Setting
''Arise'' takes place in a setting divided between the medieval world of Dahna and the advanced world of Rena. Three centuries ago, the Renans based on Rena's artificial moon Lenegis invaded and conquered Dahna, subsequently enslaving the population and dividing the land into five isolated realms, each ruled by a Lord: The barren and scorching Calaglia, dark and cold Cyslodia, the fertile plains of Elde Menancia, the windy mountains of Mahag Saar and the rainforests of Ganath Haros. Periodically, the "Crown Contest" is held to decide which among the five Lords is chosen to become the next Renan Sovereign, based on the amount of astral energy extracted from Dahna's population and environment stored on the Master Cores in each Lord's possession.
The Dahnan resistance against the Renan occupation is currently divided into four independent movements spread across the planet: The "Crimson Crows" from Calaglia, the "Silver Swords" from Cyslodia, the "Gold Dust Cats" from Elde Menancia and the "Dark Wings" from Mahag Saar. The only realm who lacks a resistance cell is Ganath Haros whose Lord subjugated the entire population, regardless of race.
Plot
At the realm of Calaglia, a masked Dahnan slave with no memories of his past, nicknamed "Iron Mask", gets himself involved with the Crimson Crows when they rescue a Renan girl called Shionne Vymer Imeris Daymore, whom he finds familiar, from imprisonment. Shionne is afflicted with a curse (known as "thorns") that hurts anyone who touches her. While evading their pursuers, the slave manages to pull a blazing sword from the Master Core in Shionne's possession and use it to repel the Renan forces. As only Iron Mask can wield the sword due to his lack of sense of pain, he and Shionne form an alliance to take down the five Lords and gather the other Master Cores they possess. With help from the Crimson Crows, the pair confront and defeat Calaglia's Lord, Balseph. In the occasion, the slave's mask partially breaks and he remembers his name, "Alphen". After liberating Calaglia, Alphen, Shionne and the Crimson Crows' leader Zephyr depart to the realm of Cyslodia, guided by Rinwell, a mage and member of the Silver Swords. Once arriving there, Zephyr is captured by agents serving the local Lord Ganabelt Valkyris, led by Zephyr's son Law. Having a change of heart once his father is sentenced to a public execution, Law assists Alphen and the others in an attempt to rescue Zephyr who ends up being killed by Ganabelt himself. Law joins Alphen, Shionne and Rinwell to avenge his father and the four confront and kill Ganabelt.
The party then sets to Elde Menancia, a realm whose Lord, Dohalim il Qaras, abolished slavery and encourages Renans and Dahnans to coexist. However, they learn from the dying Migal, leader of the Golden Dust Cats about a plot from Dohalim's aide Kelzalik to drain the astral energy of the Dahnans in secret by poisoning them for his own gains. Accompanied by Migal's sister, the Dahnan knight Kisara, Alphen and the others stop Kelzalik's plans and Dohalim sentences him to exile, before renouncing his Lordship and joining the party with Kisara. At the realm of Mahag Saar, the party discovers that the Dark Wings overthrew the local Lord, Almeidrea Kaineris, who is in hiding. While looking for Almeidrea, Shionne confesses to the others that her objective is to collect all the Lords' Master Cores to create the ultimate Master Core, "Renas Alma", in order to get rid of her curse. Upon news that Almeidrea was captured, the party attends her public execution just to discover that she took advantage of the situation to lay a trap for the Dark Wings and kill them while extracting their astral energy before escaping. In the occasion, Rinwell recognizes Almeidrea as the Lord who killed her parents.
By lending a boat, the party boards Almeidrea's battleship and defeat her in combat, when the Lord of Ganath Haros, Vholran Igniseri, appears and kills Almeidrea before attacking Alphen. During their fight, the rest of Alphen's mask is destroyed, unlocking his memories and restoring his sense of pain before the enemy retreats, taking Shionne captive. Once in safety, Alphen reveals to the others that he was a test subject for Renan experiments 300 years ago, preceding the invasion, and forced to take part in the "Spirit Channeling Ceremony" with a Renan maiden called Naori Imeris who is an ancestor of Shionne's, using the Renas Alma. However, the ceremony failed, causing countless deaths and it was Naori who put the mask on Alphen to seal his memories before sending him back to Dahna in a spaceship, his body preserved in cold sleep before he awakened one year ago. The party storms Vholran's castle, where they reunite with Shionne and defeat Vholran, securing all the Lords' Master Cores. A mysterious being appears before the party, using a sixth Master Core in her possession to absorb the astral energy of the other cores to form the Renas Alma and flees with it and Vholran's body.
During the following month, Alphen and the others help the citizens of Ganath Haros to rebuild until a bio-mechanical structure sent by the Renans begins draining the astral energy of Dahna directly and sending it to Rena's moon Lenegis. To prevent Dahna's destruction, the party infiltrates the structure and manages to temporarily shut it down. Searching for answers, the group locates Alphen's spaceship, restore it, then travel to Lenegis, where they discover that Vholran, who is still alive and the Renas Alma are in custody of the Helganquil, alien beings who are the true inhabitants of Rena, who intend to use them to reenact the Spirit Channeling Ceremony, whose real purpose is to drain all Astral Energy from Dahna. They also learn that the human Renans living on Lenegis are descendants of Dahnans kidnapped from their home planet to take part in the Helganquil's plan to funnel Dahna's Astral Energy to Rena's Great Spirit, who had already drained all the energy from Rena and killed almost all life in the planet.
The party launches an attack on Rena where they confront and defeat the Great Spirit, destroying its core and retrieving the Renas Alma. However, when Alphen and Shionne begin the ceremony to seal it, Vholran attacks them, stealing the Renas Alma and challenging Alphen to a duel while Shionne seals the Great Spirit inside her body. Alphen defeats Vholran who refuses to concede and instead commit suicide by blowing himself up together with the Renas Alma, destroying it. Shionne asks Alphen to kill her to destroy the Great Spirit, but Alphen instead calls for the Great Spirit of Dahna's help and together, they stop the destruction of both planets by fusing them into one single world while saving Shionne by getting rid of her thorns. Some time after the battle, Alphen and Shionne get married, as they and their friends enjoy new lives in a world where Renans and Dahnans live in peace.
Characters
Development
According to producer Yusuke Tomizawa, development of ''Arise'' began before the announcement of the ''Definitive Edition'' of ''
Tales of Vesperia
is an action role-playing game developed by Namco Tales Studio. The tenth mainline entry in the '' Tales'' series, it was released for the Xbox 360 and published in Japan and North America by Namco Bandai Games in 2008, and in European territor ...
'' in 2018. Beginning development under the codename "Arise", the aim was to reevaluate and evolve the ''Tales'' franchise formula. The game's title derived from its codename as it best exemplified both the game's story themes and the team's wishes. While previous ''Tales'' games used a dedicated in-house engine, ''Arise'' was built using
Unreal Engine 4
Unreal Engine (UE) is a 3D computer graphics game engine developed by Epic Games, first showcased in the 1998 first-person shooter game ''Unreal (1998 video game), Unreal''. Initially developed for Personal computer, PC first-person shooters, i ...
, allowing much higher graphical quality compared to earlier entries. Character models and movement were also improved, with the team aiming at the same level of quality found in 3D films and television.
While the previous game ''
Tales of Berseria
is an action role-playing video game developed and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and Microsoft Windows. It is the sixteenth main entry in the ''Tales'' series and a prequel of ''Tales of Zestiria''. ...
'' had been a cross-generation game for
PlayStation 3
The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed by Sony Computer Entertainment. The successor to the PlayStation 2, it is part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. It was first released on November 11, 2006, in Japan, November ...
and
PlayStation 4, ''Arise'' was made exclusively for modern hardware.
Tomizawa stated that while the team was aiming for a level of quality that can be enjoyed globally, the game would not neglect its Japanese fans.
''Arise'' was developed by
Bandai Namco Studios
is a Japanese video game developer headquartered in Kōtō, Tokyo. Its offices in Malaysia and Singapore, Bandai Namco Studio Malaysia and Bandai Namco Studios Singapore, are based out of Selangor, Malaysia and Infinite Studios, Singapore respec ...
. The team included veterans going as far back as ''
Tales of Phantasia
is an action role-playing game originally developed by Wolf Team. It is the first title in Namco's '' Tales'' series. Initially released for the Super Famicom in December 1995, it was later ported to a number of other platforms, including a Ja ...
'', alongside newcomers who were passionate about the series. The art director and character designer was Minoru Iwamoto, who had worked on both ''Berseria'' and ''
Tales of Zestiria
is an action role-playing game. It is the fifteenth main entry in the ''Tales'' series, developed by Bandai Namco Studios and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment. It was released in January 2015 in Japan on the PlayStation 3. For Western re ...
''. This was the first time the same person had filled both roles, and was part of Bandai Namco's move towards unifying the game's themes and artstyle. The world design went in a darker direction compared to earlier entries, both to further the series evolution and appeal to the Western market. Despite the overt focus on 3D graphics, 2D anime cutscenes are still planned as with previous entries.
Similar to the previous games in the series, the anime sequences were produced by
Ufotable
is a Japanese animation studio founded in October 2000 by former staff of the TMS Entertainment subsidiary Telecom Animation Film and located in Suginami, Tokyo. A unique hallmark seen in many of their works ('' Ninja Nonsense'', ''Futakoi Altern ...
, while the game's score was written by
Motoi Sakuraba
is a Japanese composer and keyboardist. He is known for his numerous contributions in video games, such as for '' Tales'', '' Star Ocean'', ''Mario Golf'', '' Mario Tennis'', '' Golden Sun'', and ''Dark Souls'' series, as well as several other a ...
.
The game's theme song is "Hibana" by Kankaku Piero, which marks the third time a theme song in the ''Tales'' series has had both an English version and a Japanese version.
Ayaka
, known simply as Ayaka, is a female Japanese singer, songwriter and record producer formerly signed to Warner Music Japan. Born in Osaka, she moved to Tokyo to pursue a singing career. She married actor Hiro Mizushima on February 22, 2009.
B ...
performs two songs for the game, "Blue Moon" for the game's grand theme song and her cover version of
My Little Lover
My Little Lover is a Japanese pop group belonging to the Avex Trax label as of the single and the album ''Akko''. Previous releases were under Toy's Factory. The group has had several members, but currently only Akko (Akamatsu Akiko 赤松亜 ...
's "
Hello, Again (Mukashi kara Aru Basho)" (Hello, Again 〜昔からある場所〜, ''Hello, Again ~A Place that has Been Around for a Long Time~'') for the game's insert song.
Release
''Arise'' was revealed at
E3 2019
The Electronic Entertainment Expo 2019 (E3 2019) was the 25th E3, during which hardware manufacturers, software developers, and publishers from the video game industry presented new and upcoming products to the attendees, primarily retailers a ...
, although details of the game had leaked on the internet a few days before.
The game was originally planned to release in 2020 for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One,
but was delayed to September 10, 2021, due to internal issues and the ability to launch the game on
PlayStation 5 and
Xbox Series X/S
The Xbox Series X/S are home video game consoles developed by Microsoft. They were both released on November 10, 2020, as the fourth generation Xbox, succeeding the Xbox One. Along with Sony's PlayStation 5, also released in November 202 ...
.
On October 3, 2021, a new DLC content was announced, including a crossover quest featuring
Kirito
is a Japanese rock singer and musician. He was born in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Formerly vocalist of the rock band Pierrot, he is now the vocalist of Angelo and also holds a solo career.
Bands
Kirito was initially involved with Pierrot (original ...
and
Asuna, the main characters of the ''
Sword Art Online
is a Japanese light novel series written by Reki Kawahara and illustrated by abec. The series takes place in the then-near future and focuses on protagonists Kirito (Sword Art Online), Kazuto "Kirito" Kirigaya and Asuna (Sword Art On ...
'' franchise, along with new costumes based on them.
Reception
''Tales of Arise'' received "generally favorable" reviews, according to review aggregator
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
.
''Tales of Arise'' won for Best RPG at
The Game Awards 2021
The Game Awards 2021 was an award show that honored the best video games of 2021. The event was hosted by Geoff Keighley, creator and producer of The Game Awards, and was held to an invited audience at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles on De ...
. ''IGN'' said it had the best story and gameplay of any ''Tales'' game since ''Tales of Symphonia.''
Sales
In under one week on sale, ''Tales of Arise'' had shipped over 1 million copies, becoming the fastest-selling entry in the series.
By October 2021, the game had shipments and digital sales of 1.5 million.
By April 2022, the game had sold 2 million units.
Notes
References
External links
*
*
{{Ufotable
2021 video games
Action role-playing video games
Bandai Namco games
PlayStation 4 games
PlayStation 5 games
Arise, Tales of
Unreal Engine games
Video games developed in Japan
Windows games
Xbox One games
Xbox Series X and Series S games
Video games featuring female protagonists
Video games scored by Motoi Sakuraba
Video games with cel-shaded animation
The Game Awards winners