For a time, it felt like the Tales games were churned out on an assembly line, made quickly and on the cheap. Now and then, a game would break the mould and shine, but for every standout like Tales of Vesperia, fans had to endure duds like Dawn of the New World, Zestiria, Berseria, and Graces. Not counting the spin-offs and mobile games, there are about 17 mainline entries. While not all of them land as intended, it’s impressive how consistently the series has delivered massive, sprawling RPGs that have been steadily moving toward full-on action gameplay since the beginning.
Thankfully, the franchise moves quickly, so fans don’t have to wait long for the next instalment, which will hopefully offer an even better experience. For Tales of Arise, there’s a sense that the developers aspired to make something greater than they have done before and weren’t going to phone it in like the last few times. Compounded with the DLC, Tales of Arise: Beyond the Dawn Edition has made its way to Nintendo Switch 2, in what might be the greatest “Tales of” yet.
Tales of Arise follows the tale of two worlds and the people trapped between them. For centuries, the advanced planet Rena has dominated Dahna with ruthless control. The Dahnans live as slaves, mining in harsh conditions across five separate realms while their Renan rulers drain Astral Energy from them. This oppression fuels a high-stakes event known as the Crown Contest, where the five Renan Lords compete for dominance by extracting the most energy from their lands.
The story kicks off in the blazing land of Calaglia, focusing on a masked amnesiac slave known as “Iron Mask,” who feels no pain. When local resistance fighters attack a train carrying a Renan prisoner, Iron Mask meets Shionne Imeris, a beautiful, young Renan woman cursed with “Thorns” that violently shocks anyone who touches her. Having stolen a powerful Master Core from the local Lord, Balseph, Shionne finds in Iron Mask the only person able to wield the blazing sword born from it, thanks to his immunity to pain.
Things get complicated when the mask breaks, and Iron Mask remembers his name: Alphen. Driven by a desire for freedom, Alphen and Shionne set out on a journey to defeat the Renan Lords and end the tyranny. They are soon joined by a colourful party of companions from different regions: the optimistic Law, the sharp-witted Rinwell, the gentle but strong Kisara, and the scholarly Dohalim.
Each new region they visit reveals deeper layers of suffering and prejudice, as well as insights into both the Dahnan and Renan societies. As the party gathers the Master Cores and grows stronger, they begin to question everything they thought they knew about the two planets, their history, and their own identities. Bonds form, old wounds surface, and the line between oppressor and oppressed starts to blur. What begins as a straightforward rebellion evolves into a much larger struggle involving destiny, sacrifice, forgotten histories, and the very fate of both worlds.
It’s a great setup, but unfortunately it slips into a predictable pattern of region-based liberation arcs and heavy exposition, especially once the party is assembled and big revelations hit. This results in lengthy dialogue scenes that feel more like exposition dumps than organic storytelling, slowing the momentum considerably in the final stretch.
The story seems to have something to say about colonialism. Given that this is a Tales game, it inevitably defaults to more generic JRPG tropes, such as world-ending threats and confrontations with godlike beings. The plot is predictable, and the story bites off more than it can chew without fully resolving everything meaningfully. Ultimately, Arise is yet a bog-standard Tales of kind of story, but is elevated by its immaculate and utterly dazzling presentation. There was some legitimate effort to make Arise feel more mature, but there is no escaping the cheesy anime nature of Tales as it gradually defaults to its all-too-familiar feel. It’s hard to cite specific examples, but it’s definitely a case of “you know it when you see it”.
The artists took full advantage of Unreal Engine 4 to create one of the most stylish anime games available today. They developed a unique shader that replicates the texture of hand-drawn art, giving the game a beautiful, painterly watercolour look. The visuals combine the typical Tales anime character designs with dramatic lighting, cinematic depth-of-field effects, and rich environmental textures. As a result, Arise captures the feeling of an illustration in motion, setting it apart from its predecessors.
Though the costume designs can feel a bit busy and ostentatious at times, the main characters shine with detailed, expressive looks that work beautifully in both exploration and cinematic cutscenes. The artists blended anime style with a striking sense of realism by incorporating lifelike fabric textures into armour, capes, and clothing. Even the interface design sports clean menus and hand-drawn character portraits during the series’ signature skit conversations. The combat visuals are impressively lively, flooding the screen with particle effects, bursts of magic, and flashes of light. These striking effects make cooperative special attacks feel powerful without cluttering the player’s view.
Arise updates the franchise’s signature Tekken-like action-RPG formula with full 3D movement and even adds jumping. Players control one character in real-time within a free-roaming arena while three AI allies offer support. The system focuses on chaining standard attacks into special techniques called Artes. Unlike older entries that used a finite mana pool, Arise uses an automatically recharging Core Gauge to limit continuous action. This change fosters a steady rhythm of attacking and dodging, while pressuring players to treat their resources more like a stamina meter than a mana pool. It’s a solid system that makes Arise feel more action-packed and fluid than any other Tales entry so far.
Juggling the boost attacks, guard breaks, combos, and launchers is a lot to take in at first. Arise can get pretty technical for an action RPG and often times feels like it has more in common with a full-on fighting game than anything. Even at 30fps on Nintendo Switch 2, it’s still impressive and feels fluent and smooth. Outside of combat, the gameplay balances exploration with party management. The sprawling, interconnected zones are festooned with materials to gather, cooking ingredients to find, and hidden treasure chests to open. There’s a complex cooking mechanic for meals that provide temporary stat boosts, along with classic, manga-style skits. These optional conversations help deepen character relationships and unlock new skill trees, letting players customise stats and learn new Artes.
The combat is some of the best in the action RPG genre, but the balance in the final third of the game tends to bloat enemy HP. Battles tend to get tedious due to the constant wailing on ineffectual foes who don’t know when to quit. Thankfully, Arise has an excellent fishing mini-game focusing on Kisara, the party’s tanky babe. Throughout the adventure, fishing spots are scattered across the game’s diverse regions, each boasting its own unique aquatic ecosystem. To reel in a catch, players must experiment with different combinations of fishing rods and specialised lures, which can be earned by completing side quests, conquering training ground challenges, or reaching specific fishing milestones. It’s about as fleshed out as the fishing from Final Fantasy XV, which was easily its most thought-out feature. No matter what, it always feels like there are things to see and do, and the fishing is a much-needed reprieve from all the brutal combat.
Regretfully, the Beyond the Dawn DLC module is not seamlessly integrated into the core game and is separate from the main game save data. The expansion automatically scales the party to a set starting level and provides a standardised pool of skills, weapons, and money to ensure a specific balance. While the expansion features the same fast-paced fighting-game-inspired combat system as the base game, it introduces fresh challenges through new enemy types and massive boss fights.
There are brand-new dungeons packed with elite monsters, gathering rare materials to craft high-tier weapons, but ultimately, Beyond the Dawn serves as an emotional and mechanical wrap-up, giving fans a deeper look at the consequences of the main story’s climax. It’s not really necessary, but it showcases some of the best and most challenging battles in the entire package.
