The Fantastic 87 Metacritic JRPG with a Stunning Story and Super Lovable Characters (Even Compared to Persona 5)

There must be something in the water because JRPGs have been exploding in popularity these past few years. Of course, we’ve had emerging genre leaders like Persona 5 Royal and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, but other, oft-overlooked titles can be just as epic, endearing, and mechanically complex, and they deserve their flowers too. Tales of Arise, a fairly popular action-JRPG from 2021, still feels underrated, despite its various accolades and sterling reviews.

Tales of Arise is the seventeenth mainline release in the Tales franchise, which began all the way back in 1995 with Tales of Phantasia. Like so many other legacy JRPG series (e.g., Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest), Tales has significantly evolved over time, with Arise being the franchise’s most ambitious entry to date. It follows a cast of characters from the rival planets of Rena and Dahna, which have been at war with each other for centuries. The story is rooted in fictional political intrigue and social struggles, which gives it a refreshing degree of depth. This, coupled with its uniquely satisfying gameplay and massive, detailed world, makes Tales of Arise a more than worthy adventure for fans of contemporary JRPGs.

Tales of Arise Has One of the Best JRPG Casts of the Decade

Tales of Arise’s Main Party

Iron Mask/Alphen: A Dahnan amnesiac who starts the game working as a slave. He wears a mysterious mask and is unable to feel pain.
Shionne: A Renan woman inflicted with the curse of “thorns,” who teams up with Alphen to rid Dahna of the five Renan lords.
Law: A brash and headstrong young Dahnan man who joined Renan law enforcement under duress.
Dohalim: A diplomatic Renan ruler on Dahna, Dohalim presides over Elde Menancia and strives for Dahnan and Renan equality.
Rinwell: A Dahnan mage who is capable of casting Astral Arts, a discipline generally reserved for Renans.
Kisara: A highly competent and revered soldier working under Dohalim, sharing in his vision of equality and peace between Renans and Dahnans.

There’s a lot more than players will learn about these characters over the course of Tales of Arise’s roughly 60-hour playtime, but they all share at least one common throughline that’s obvious from the outset. In the world of Arise, Renans are the oppressors, hoarding resources and enslaving countless Dahnans to achieve their goals, which are often rather frivolous and self-serving. As such, there’s clear tension between the two races, but Arise’s cast members all have a foot in each camp, as it were.

Rearrange the covers into the correct US release order.

Easy (5)Medium (7)Hard (10)

For instance, Law is the son of a notable Renan rebel and harbors anti-Renan sentiments, but works for the Renan police. Dohalim, on the other hand, is a Renan official working on behalf of the oppressed Dahnans. These complicated ethnic and social problems lead to a compelling group dynamic, one defined in equal parts by conflict, understanding, and mutual growth. These sorts of complex, “odd couple” party compositions are a staple of JRPGs, and for good reason: they facilitate interesting and unexpected storytelling.

It helps that Tales of Arise’s cast members are individually quite likable. Their goals are all distinct and clearly defined, they all have well-thought-out backstories, and their relationships with each other are engaging and often unorthodox. Their differences in background, nationality, and affiliation simply add further texture to their interactions, which make up a considerable portion of Tales of Arise’s main campaign.

Like previous Tales games, Tales of Arise features Skits, optional, lower-stakes interactions between party members that can occur at various points during gameplay.

Tales of Arise Has a Stunning World and Even Better Combat

The Tales of Arise map is broken into five major regions, all of which have their own special appeal. Indeed, from the fire-and-brimstone of Calaglia to the verdant hills of Elde Menancia, Tales of Arise’s sprawling environments are consistently surprising, unique, and immersive, ensuring that you’ll never quite know what to expect. Environments are mostly linear, though some will have worthwhile detours or alternate paths for players to take. At any rate, the linear nature of Arise is a breath of fresh air in a lot of ways, especially as more and more RPGs take the “bigger is better” approach.

Moment-to-moment gameplay is fantastic as well. Like its predecessors, Tales of Arise features the Linear Motion Battle System (LMBS), which is basically a traditional 3D ARPG combat framework, but built around moving in straight vertical and horizontal lines across a battlefield. This makes combat in Arise feel strangely similar to that of 3D fighting games like Tekken and Soulcalibur. It’s quite a singular style of combat design, and lends battles a nice balance of fast-paced action and longer-term tactics.

While the past few years have been fantastic for JRPGs and video games in general, 2021 is often looked at as a slowdown period for the industry. There were definitely some bangers, like It Takes Two and the criminally underrated Returnal, but the annum pales in comparison to those that followed it. Perhaps this is why so many gamers overlooked Tales of Arise when it launched; maybe it was lumped together with other, less impactful releases. But years later, it’s clear that Arise is something quite special and deserves more time in the sun.