Tales of Arise

With an excellent story and cast and a reinvigorated combat system, Tales of Arise is the shot in the arm the long-running Tales RPG series needed to recapture its best moments.

Tales of Arise is a lengthy, beautiful RPG adventure, but has messy combat and uneven pacing on occasion.

There are missteps and a few bumps along the way, but this soft reboot of a long-running series emerges a triumph.

There's a lot to do in Tales of Arise – set up camp, hook some fish, help townsfolk with missions of varying importance, etc. The main plot is incredible, but the secondary stories you uncover are far more memorable

It takes a little time to warm up to Tales of Arise's main characters (ironic, when two of them wield the powers of hell itself), but once you're over that hump, you're left with a charming JRPG powered by a battle system that never slows down.

Whether this is the big Tales breakthrough or not is a matter that history will decide. This is a Tales game that hits the right spots for me, puts a lot of love into its cast and its action, and somehow manages to strike a balance between the old and the new.

Tales of Arise went above and beyond our expectations.

After nearly half a decade, Tales of Arise was worth the wait as a shining new example of what the series future may hold.

Tales of Arise is a tremendous step forward for a storied JRPG series and should be experienced by all fans of the genre.

Tales of Arise is an excellent JRPG that delivers just about everything you want from the genre: a rich story, intriguing characters, satisfying combat, and an endless amount of lore.