Final Fantasy... Dragon Quest... Behind these two titanic RPG sagas, there is a multitude of series, no less deserving, which have lived somewhat in the shadow of these sacred monsters that have been overhyped for decades. Fortunately, since the democratization of the Internet, many outsiders have had the opportunity to come to light and shine in the spotlight of the general public.
Among these games, and for its 25 years of existence, the Action RPG series Tales of returns to the front of the stage for the highly anticipated Tales of Arise.
Before I start talking to you about the game itself, I must warn you: my only encounter with the saga was on Tales of Vesperia on Xbox One 2 months ago. So don't expect a comparison or even an evolution compared to previous games in the series.
Now that this is clarified, let's see together what Bandai Namco's latest baby has in the belly...
You play as a slave of the Dahnian people nicknamed Iron Mask because of the mask that completely covers your face. The reason ? You ignore it just like your real name since the protagonist is struck by a mysterious amnesia.
The only thing you know is that you are a slave of the Reniens, a people who have invaded the planet which has become the scene of an ignoble tournament between the 5 Reniens lords who each reign over a piece of territory and work by force until to death Dahnian slaves for 300 years to amass a type of mystical resource.
Your meeting with Shionne, a Reniene who seeks for mysterious reasons to eliminate the Renian lords and who is affected by an equally mysterious curse of thorns causing serious injuries to anyone who touches her, will change everything for her and for you. Because you see, you are also insensitive to anything, and again you don't know why, but this very strange combination will make you the only person who can wield the flaming sword, a physical representation of the power of fire. buried in it.
Your quest will begin with the liberation of the people of your region dominated by the hellish heat of the eternal flames and over which the lord rules with an iron fist. After you learn that your name is Alphen, the game will take you on a relatively classic epic (with blatant nods to Avatar: the Last Airbender or even Utena), even if the game does not fall into the ease of the script routine with the same loops reproduced over and over again. And for that, we can only congratulate the people behind the story who avoided the pitfalls brilliantly to maintain the player's interest over time.
Good... They could also have made efforts on the 6 characters of your group and their classes which have absolutely nothing original. We thus have the sword fighter, the timid magician, the sniper who serves as a healer in her spare time, the impetuous bare-knuckle fighter, the paladin guard and a stick fighter.
Don't expect any more details on the storyline or character development, I don't like spoilers, even though right off the bat the game shamelessly does so in its intro credits. But if you want to discuss it in private, you can contact me on the discord of the site.
The gameplay is another story, since there is a lot to talk about.
Since we are dealing with an Action RPG, the fights are in real time. Well almost, since you will move through environments until you encounter enemies. From there, the game switches almost instantly to the combat phase during which you find yourself in what I call the combat ring. In fact, you have the freedom to move around as you see fit during the fights within the limits of this circular ring. You move in real time, you attack in real time, you dodge in real time, you throw arcana in real time for a very arcade result sprinkled with a hint of strategy, since you can embody any member of your team during fights (3 are controlled by the game when you are not playing them, the other 2 are in passive support), call on your allies in support, combine attacks, etc. The combat system is very complete and gets richer as you level up, learn skills, meet new team members. The result on the screen gives what I call a beautiful mess. Sometimes a little too much, since it happens to have a little trouble reading the action when spells, techniques fuse in all directions. Which is quite annoying when situations are critical, especially if, like me, you prefer the sword style of Alphen whose health consumption is specific to his special attacks.
However, everything remains very successful and dynamic.
But Tales of Arise is not, like the other opuses of the saga, only fights since the series highlights the relationships between the protagonists, via sketches, cooking and camping. And even if the environments are relatively symptomatic of the Final Fantasy XIII syndrome, they could not be more sublime to admire thanks to a rather mature anime style of the most beautiful effect. We certainly do not have the bright colors of a Tales of Vesperia, but these slightly more mature color tones stick well with one of the main themes of the game: slavery and the human condition.
Subject, which the game has no shame to approach from many angles.
After, Tales of Arise is not perfect. At least not on Xbox One, the version on which the game was tested. There are freezes, not bad and not frequent either, but which can sometimes be violently linked for a few seconds, problems with delayed loading of objects (mainly NPCs), a configuration of keys on the controller not particularly intuitive whether in fights as in the many menus, and some other minimal stuff like a so-called "tense" progression. Understand by this that you will always be short of experience, money and items to update your equipment, calmly face new threats or buy precious potions, the fights bringing in almost nothing in this area apart from experience and skill points.
But the game itself is fun to play. Much more enjoyable than Tales of Vesperia and its stiff and slow fights.
The best of the Tales of? Hard to say for me since I haven't touched any other opus in the Bandai Namco series, but reasonably a very good Action-RPG in September 2021.
- Xbox (Xbox One tested version)
- PlayStation
- Steam
