Just going to post this since my it will be easier for me to let things out. For sixty dollars that I spend of tales of arise, I feel like I was ripped off or scammed because how of a shitty of a game I played. I am a tales fan because of the incredible combat system and how fun to explore route of how one attacks chain to another. Putting unique play style of it fits for the player. Arise just threw all of that idea away and made it god awfully boring.
First of all, out of all the stats they added in, penetration is the worst of the worst. Reason is because that stat just work if it feels like it. The idea of what the penetration stat is that the higher the number, the likely of you stunning the enemies. The more times you hit and higher chance youâll get a hit stun but this is where the bullshit start. This only applies to small enemies or minions. Any bosses you encounter means jackshit so no matter what stat you have on penetration, even at max out, bosses will not move dick. They just freely hit you because they can. Next is that thereâs no indication when will the enemies start to stagger. There isnât a bar, meter, timer, or any voice lines that tells they are close to a stagger state. You just keep hitting away and hope this attack will soon stagger them.
Remember when I said the previous tales games that doing combos is great? Yeah, this piece of shot doesnât. Because of the penetration stats, most of your moves are impractical. Some of your artes donât lift the enemy up until you reach them into stagger state but on bosses, you might as well lebron James that shit out because remember, bosses never ever will be in a stagger state, so thereâs no chance of you combo bosses in the air. You know what else that is pointless, aerial artes. Since you canât launch bosses in the air, why the hell aerial artes exist? Try short hopping and using it you most likely miss or just hit the enemy for mediocre damage. You wanna keep dive kicking as law? Be my guess. Youâll die after the 3rd kick. The game rely on you to use artes that output the most damage rather than doing combo attacks. Do you know what I was doing the whole game? Using alphen reigning slash. Yeah, thatâs the only arte Iâve been using. Time to time for his fire artes but thatâs it. You canât stagger bosses, you canât combo, and you canât use majority of your artes. The best thing is spam only one move and Iâm done. It does a lot of damage within one hit, so I ask. Why the hell is the point of the other artes?
I said this before when I touch the demo, what is point of having variety of boost strikes when they all mechanically do the same? People told me is that it removes repetition. Oh itâs not anything different what Iâve been doing like spamming reigning slash. You donât fully control which boost strikes you want. I heard that some are elementals which is a start. I wanted to put effort onto get the best damage output but I experiment it, had hypothesis on how to control it, failed and itâs just a theory, then I finally hulk smash my brain. YOU CANT FKING CONTROL WHICH BOOST STRIKES YOU WANT. Since you canât control it, no point trying to make the best damage output you can make.
Speaking about not controlling things, letâs talk about how the game doesnât tell you jack. First is you canât tell when the small enemies will stagger. There is also a mechanic where your character go into a awaken form. You need to perfect evade or guard to get it. When it happens, your character have free uses of artes they can use. They can also commuted to using mystic if they want. One problem, how will I know I go into that form? Thereâs no indication on when youâll go into a awaken form. You wonât know it so you just mindless dodging until you get it. Thing is, it just happen at times you wonât know and also you canât control when you want to activate it. IF THERE ANYTHING ELSE I CANT CONTROL??
Every enemies including bosses have certain weakness and you can exploit it by using boost attacks. Use shionne for flying, law for armor enemies, rinwell to stop enemies casting artes, dohalim to stop movement, kisara to block enemies from rushing, and alphen just to make enemies to stop. Good assets but Iâll tell you. Itâs a pile shit as well. Yes it does stop the enemy but itâs only temporary. It doesnât quite seal their abilities. I face slimes and they tend to use a lot of magic artes so logically you use rinwell. It was only a temporary setback since they are going to cast another one and I am getting water artes up my ass! Using law on armor enemies? They just got their shield back. Using alphen? The one people keep telling me to keep using it. It does down an enemy. FOR ONLY 3seconds. Even if you use it, it isnât even guaranteed you knock them down. So what now? Am I winning the Darwin Award next?
âBut hey, you can do combo on ariseâ you mean my 100 hit combo on law that used on a golem and never ever use that combo ever again because itâs completely pointless on bosses? Yeah, the idea of good on paper, but not in action. Plus you are restricted of how many artes you can equip especially in the beginning so donât tell me that those are considered âcomboâ you are hitting one fking button.
I donât care about tales stories. I donât even care about stories in general in any video games. I play for the gameplay. If you really want me to invest into a story, the gameplay got to get me interested at first. Then the process of how I like the character and we moved on. So far, the gameplay didnât impress me one bit so why the fuck should I care about any story arise have shown. For the romantic ending? Fking symphonia 2 did it way better.
Iâm conclusion, I give this game a -50/10 not touching this game ever again and I want my 60 dollar back. My friend was generous to let me borrow ghost of tsushima and it was the most satisfying and calming experience ever. Best remedies after touching shit for so long, I began to appreciate hit stuns a lot more now. Tl;dr arise fking sucks. Get ghost of Tsushima instead. Worth 60 bucks.
