Tales of Arise: I Can't Get Enough Of This Demo! | Backlog Battle

I know that Tales of Arise is a mere few weeks away, but that doesn't stop me from playing the demo again and again and again and again and again and again and again and ...

Well, you get the picture! In this video, I delve deep into the combat system, address some of the comments I had in my previous demo impressions video, and so much more! So go watch my further impressions of the demo or - as I'd like to call it - Tales of Arise Demo Impressions, Part 2, Electric Boogaloo!

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#TalesOfArise #BandaiNamco

[princesslukeia]

Played the demo 3 times so far & didn’t want it to end!! I’m not surprised that I had fun since I always have fun with tales games but this one definitely has something special. Everything felt familiar & somehow new at the same time & I was amazed at everything in the demo. Dohalim & Rinwell are pretty fun to play but I might stick with Shionne or bounce between the 3. I like that her style & I really like being able to heal everyone when needed since she can do both. Can’t wait to finally get my hands on the game!

[missvalerie]

I absolutely love the demo. Already pre-purchased the game. A good belated birthday present to myself.

[llllumin]

I bought the collector edition not because I wanted the goodies, but I wanted to thank the developers for this. Medieval Fantasy and Group Adventure are the two main things that I am super hyped for in JRPG games. Unlike western RPGs which are mostly individualistic and have a main-character-centric/solo battle system, this game will definitely give me a wonderful journey together with friends. Knowing that they will fight together with you in the battle almost feels like you are multi-playing together with 3 other real-life people/friends.

[xleaselife]

It's just so much fun, right?? Each of the different characters honestly remind me of the different Monster Hunter weapons. Vastly different playstyles, each with their own built-in gimmicks. It's SO satisfying to play. I seriously cannot wait for this to come out.

Also, apparently I am just like everyone else, because Kisara is SO my favourite.

[BoliLelly]

Can`t wait to get Arise soon! My bros birthday is on the same day.

[dennisbergkamp]

I feel like I understand the gameplay a little better thanks to this, I appreciate the breakdown. For me personally, this game went from “I’ll definitely check it out when it’s on sale” to day one purchase. The gameplay is fantastic, easily the best Tales has ever felt

[thunder_yeg]

I'm eagerly count down the days till September 10th

[HybridAngelZero]

I've really enjoyed this demo a ton. My fave to use so far has been Alphen, though I had a surprising amount of fun playing as Rinwell, too.
Also, I mentioned this on Discord, but one of the things that helped me with the combat was moving standard attack from L1(LB) to X(A). It felt more like what I'm used to from the Tales games. Huge kudos to the devs for having fully remappable controls, even in a demo :D

[ArkAynJoel]

I adore counter-based characters/weapons in games so Kisara in theory is my favourite character. However, I also had just as much fun with Dohalim and Law, with Alphen/Shionne/Rinwell trailing not far behind! I'm amazed that each character is so fun to play when in previous games I've stuck to maybe 1 or 2 characters. I played the demo twice and was blown away by how much depth the combat system has after investigating the field guide, but then decided to stop myself from playing anymore because my hype levels are already maxed out 😅

I am counting down the days until Arise! 😁
Great video as always Alex!

[soulechelon]

Only played the demo once so far as I've been too busy with other things, but yeah - it's awesome. Waiting for my next paycheck to come in before I purchase. I haven't looked forward to something like this in a long time.

[golong]

Played the demo three times, and I still feel like I don't really understand the battle system and I'm just button mashing. I'm new to Tales games, and I don't think this demo has done a very good job welcoming newbies. Having said that, I've had a blast playing the demo, it's a lot of fun and a feast for the eyes! I've had enough fun and intrigued enough to pick it up when it comes out!

[seanbcusack]

definitely looking forward to it. too many backlogs to play any demos, and there are other games ahead of this, but i'm definitely excited for it. also, i'm one of those folks that generally plays with an faq open, so by the time i get to it, i'm sure a bunch of folks will have figured out all the missables so i can platinum it with one or minimum playthroughs. :-)

[llamaking]

Enjoyed the demo but im not going to over play it, happy to wait for the full release. Im not a fan of some real time combat games but the tales series (along with sword art online) are the two franchises that i seem to come back for more every time. Its a shame that they dont remaster some of the older tales games, would definately re buy them!

[Ultimabuster]

Played the Demo with Alphen, Law and Rinwell so far. It was easiest with Rinwell, but that may be because i'm a little bit more into the battle system now than i was at the beginning, so i don't know. Only thing i know is that Rinwell is a LOT of fun to play as. Tomorrow i try out Shionne, and after that Kisara and Dohalim for last.
Can't wait to play the full game... the wait is so painful, but at least we have the demo

[Road_to_Dawn]

I 100% back what you said when you advised playing as Kisara. I love how deliberate her attacks are, while still being able to smoothly combo together. I've only played as Kisara and Rinwell so far. Of the two, I think I prefer playing as Kisara for gameplay, although Rinwell's by far my favorite design and personality-wise. When the full game comes out, I'm planning on using every character and seeing who I like the best of all of them. That's one of my favorite things about the Tales series, how you can play as any character you like!

My first thought when I booted up the demo was how gorgeous the game is! People kept talking about how good the graphics are but I never really got that feel just from looking at screenshots and videos on YouTube, until I finally got to see it firsthand. Unfortunately, there's a lot of pop-in (at least on the PS4 version), but I've heard that that's because the demo was from an earlier build from a few months ago and that pop-in has been greatly reduced in the final game. That's not really a thing that bothers me, I have a very high tolerance for performance and display issues, but I still thought I'd mention that!

I was also really skeptical about the new look of the skits at first too. When I first saw them on YouTube, I thought they looked just like frozen pictures with the mouths moving way too smoothly, and I thought it looked really creepy and I kinda hated it. But playing it for myself, I could see how the characters in the pictures still moved slightly and were just locked to a key pose, and it changed from something I hated to something I loved. It's basically a motion comic book.

Speaking of skits, I loved that I had the option to rewatch them at the campsite, as well as watch any unlocked cinematics! I wish more Tales games had this feature, because it is AMAZING. So many times I've found skits that were just so funny I wished I could rewatch them (the "Teach me about bazongas!" one from Xillia comes to mind) Fantastic little QoL feature.

The fact that CP only replenishes when you stay at an inn or when you camp out gives you more incentive to let your characters rest, on top of being able to cook when you camp. It's a smart balancing feature, very reminiscent of FF15, when you had to camp or go to an inn to receive your EXP.

The controls were pretty unusual for a Tales game, what with the way it defaulted to having three of the face buttons all mapped to different artes while your default attack was on R1. I decided to just roll with it instead of remapping it, and I was surprised at how quickly got used to it. On a similar topic, being able to dash around the field with R2 is a freaking godsend. I've been playing Tales of Berseria lately, and I really, really miss having a dash to speed up my movement while I'm exploring a dungeon. This'll be even more helpful considering the apparently larger size of a lot of Arise's areas.

So nice to hear the game will be fully voiced! I didn't mind the voiceless cutscenes, but I'd be lying if I said they didn't take me out of it a bit. Also, as I was watching the cutscenes, I couldn't help but notice how only Alphen and Shionne took part in the story. It seems to me that the area they picked for the demo is from REALLY early in the game, and we won't have the other four party members at this point in the full game, much less at level 25. I'm also 100% sure that each of the chests in the area won't just contain primary weapons for each character lol. They did a good job of keeping story details out of this demo so we'd still be getting to experience everything fresh for the full game!

[JickAudio]

I absolutely love playing as Law. He’s simple but satisfying to combo with. He’ll be my first hand to hand character in a long while after Senel. I missed out on Jude, but I really did want to play.

[darwins.]

Have the demo downloaded on my PS4 but haven't had the time to play it. From what I've been seeing this game looks really good. If it's anything like Tales of Berseria then I'm sold!

[Suzakuux]

Some of those complaints about the combat system sounds like they're coming from people new to the series. Auto-run has been a thing in the series for as long as I can remember; that's why they have settings for semi-auto and manual. Also the complaint about multi-hit artes? But those are some of the best parts of the Tales combat system! Lol especially some of the later ones and mystic artes - special attacks that fill the screen with effects and damage numbers.
Tales sure is a different style of action RPG than others. It isn't alone though, Star Ocean has a similar combat system, along with a few other smaller games.

Not that these complaints/criticisms are wrong, but I feel like there is a subset of people who have a mindset that every game in a specific genre needs to play the same and if it deviates from it, then it's "bad" when it's just trying to be it's own thing.

[momarbeye]

I really enjoyed this demo, my favs are Alphen and Law
I think this game have the potential to be one of the best tales of games, I hope it will turn out great anyway

[Sairento-kun]

Suprisly, first time I love mage the most, casting in Arise seems so funny and her voice lines like "Blah Blah Blah... And magic!" are cute! XD. Rinwell for the win!. Can't wait for full release :b