Tales of Arise

Tales of Arise
Information
Game Systems	•PlayStation 4 •PlayStation 5 •Xbox One •Xbox Series X/S •Microsoft Windows (via Steam)
Character Designers	Minoru Iwamoto
Japanese Releases	PS4/PS5/XB1/XBXS September 9, 2021 Steam September 10, 2021
North American Releases	September 10, 2021
European Releases	September 10, 2021
Opening Theme	"HIBANA" by Kankaku Piero "Hello,Again" by Ayaka
Ending Theme	"Blue Moon" by Ayaka
Ratings	JP CERO: C (recommended 15+) NA ESRB: T (Teen, recommended 13+) EUR PEGI: 12 GER USK: 12

Tales of Arise (テイルズ オブ アライズ, Teiruzu obu Araizu^?) is an Original Title in the Tales series. It was announced on June 9, 2019, during Microsoft's E3 2019 presentation. First information regarding the game leaked on June 7, 2019, and quickly spread over the Internet. The game was initially announced with a release window set for 2020, but on June 25, 2020, it was announced that Tales of Arise would be released after 2020, but no specific date was provided. On April 21, 2021, it was announced that the game would be released on September 10, 2021. It is a first Original Title to have a simultaneous release across the world. Its characteristic genre translates to the "An RPG which heralds the heart's dawn" (心の黎明を告げるＲＰＧ, Kokoro no Reimei wo Tsugeru RPG^?)

Story

Setting

The inhabitants of the planet Dahna have always revered Rena, the planet in the sky, as a land of the righteous and divine. However, the stories passed down across the generations have distorted the truth for the people of Dahna. Rena subjugated Dahna for the past 300 years, pillaging the world beneath of its resources and its people of their dignity and freedom. After Rena enslaved Dahna, it divided it with "walls" and introduced the Five Lords as representatives of Rena to keep them in check.

Astral energy resides in all living things, which the Renans use Dahnan slave labor to harvest for the Crown Contest. Conventional knowledge is that only Renans are able to use this power in the form of astral artes and when used the user's eyes briefly glow in blue. The Blazing Sword is a powerful manifestation of the Fire master core that Shionne Imeris posesses, while the thorns are her curse that causes pain to whoever touches her.

Plot

The world of Dahna is enslaved by Rena, and one of those slaves is an amnesiac man who cannot feel pain and is known only as Iron Mask. One day in Orbus Calaglia, a train carrying a Renan woman named Shionne Imeris is attacked by the Crimson Crows, leading to a series of events that birth the Blazing Sword, a powerful weapon born from Shionne's stolen master core that horrifically burns its user. Iron Mask is the only one who can wield due to inability to feel pain, and even then, only with Shionne's healing artes to support him. The pair are able to end the rule of Lord Balseph, with Iron Mask remembering his name, Alphen, in the process. With this newfound power, Alphen wishes to free the other Dahnas from their masters, and Shionne joins as she has her own reasons for defeating the Five Lords.

They head next to Cyslodia after Rinwell, a member of the Silver Swords, pleads for their help, joined by Zephyr, the leader of the Crimson Crows. Rather than the pure backbreaking labor that marked Calaglia, Cyslodia's rule is enforced by the Bureau of Civil Observation, known colloquially as the Snake Eyes, where Dahnans are rewarded for providing adverse information about each other. One of the members of the Snake Eyes is Zephyr's son, Law, and upon discovering this fact, Zephyr refuses to fight. He is captured and taken to the capital, Cysloden, with the group following with the intent to rescue him. There, the group links up with the Silver Swords only for their base to be attacked and Zephyr's public execution to be moved up. Zephyr uses his last words prior to his execution to stir up the populace, causing Law to have a change of heart to rescue him. Unfortunately, the leader of the Silver Swords is actually the Cyslodian lord Ganabelt Valkyris in disguise, and he fatally backstabs Zephyr. Enraged by Zephyr's death, the group storms the Riville Prison Tower and defeat Ganabelt, freeing Cyslodia.

Rinwell and Law join Alphen and Shionne in traveling to the next realm, Elde Menancia. In stark contrast to the previous lands, Menancia appears to be a place where the Dahnans are not oppressed. Under the rule of Dohalim il Qaras, the Dahnans are more or less free to live as their please, and they appear to have good relations with the Renans. This supposed utopia is only the veneer however, as the guard captain Kisara finds out: elements within the Renans have secretly been experimenting on the Dahnas using Fruits of Helgan, which inflict the Hollowing on Dahnas and irrevocably turn them into a silver-like substance after draining them of their astral energy. A coup breaks out, where Renans who are dissatisfied with Dohalim refusing to participate in the Crown Contest and with his attempts to treat Dahnans are more than slaves try to overthrow their lord. The leader of the coup is stopped by the group, while Dohalim dismantles the production facilities for the fruits, and a coalition of Dahnans and Renans who believe in racial cooperation ultimately stabilize the situation on their own. Dohalim resigns his position as lord, and he and Kisara decide to travel with the group to end the atrocities of the Crown Contest.

Within Mahag Saar capital of Niez, the group discovers that the local lord Almeidrea Kaineris was driven out by the Dark Wings, the local resistance organization. They come into conflict with the Dark Wings, as the group objects to the indiscriminate nature of the Dark Wings' tactics that deemed the local populace as acceptable collateral damage as well as their leader, Dedyme, setting himself up as another despot, while the Dark Wings cannot trust a group that also consists of Renans as well as has a leader who could threaten Dedyme's prominence. The second in command, Baephon, gives them a tip to Almeidrea's location, but it is a wild goose chase due to Dedyme's distrust. Dedyme, meanwhile, has captured Almeidrea and set her up for a public execution. When the event occurs, however, the frenzy and bloodlust combines with the Fruits of Helgan secretly added to the food supply to the mass hollowfication of most of the Dark Wings and Niez's population. While seeming repentant while at stake, Almeidrea instead proves to have orchestrated the entire affair to collect their astral energy. At the same time, Rinwell realizes that Almeidrea is the lord who slaughtered the Mages, Dahnans capable of using astral artes, and left her as the only survivor. She attempts to strike Almeidrea down, but Law prevents her from acting solely for revenge. Almeidrea then leaves for her personal ship Mobile Fortress Gradia, with the group giving chase. They infiltrate the ship and ultimately best her in battle, but they are interruped by the final lord, Vholran Igniseri.

Vholran kills Almeidrea before being confronted by Alphen, and the resulting clash causes Alphen's true power to awaken, destroying the final remnants of his mask and returning all of his memories. Vholran takes the opportunity to kidnap Shionne, and the destruction of the mask returns Alphen's sense of pain, which causes Shionne to despair when Alphen proves unable to withstand her thorns. Vholran uses his powers to sink the ship, and the party washes ashore at Thistlym, where Alphen explains his past. Three hundred years ago, he was a Dahnan test subject who was kidnapped and engineered to play the role of Sovereign in the Spirit Summoning Ceremony alongside Naori Imeris, the Maiden. The ceremony went wrong, however, and destroyed much of Lenegis. The memory is a pain to Alphen, but after some encouragement, he resolves to go to Pelegion to rescue Shionne and defeat Vholran. They storm the city, whose populace has been so broken that all they do is pray until they hollow. Within Saxleoh Temple, they find Shionne trapped in her own despair, but Alphen manages to get through to her by managing to hug her even with his renewed sense of pain. They then confront Vholran, who reveals his own power as a Sovereign but is ultimately defeated.

The group claims the final master core at that point to form the Renas Alma in order to free Shionne of her thorns, but they do not react with each other. They are then surprised by the Red Woman, who forcibly activates not only Alphen's Sovereign powers but also Shionne's Maiden powers to draw the energy from the five master cores into her own Dark master core to create the Renas Alma. She then absconds with it, leaving the group to pick up the pieces in the aftermath.

The party stays in Pelegion for a few months to help the town get back onto its feet and also figure out, what to do next. Suddenly, a massive structure is launched from Rena to Dahna, and it begins to draw astral energy and transfer it to Rena through Lenegis. They travel to the structure and manage to shut it down. There, they make their first contact with Dahna's Will, the sentience of Dahna's astral energy when enough of it concentrates. After this, Alphen decides they travel to Lenegis, but there's no ship for them to use, until Rinwell points out that Alphen must have used a ship to escape from Lenegis three centuries ago. Glimpsing to his memories, he does recall a site where he supposedly landed, and the party travel there.

After making their way through fire caves, they find the ship Alphen used. Dohalim takes it upon himself to get the ship running, and the party rests. All this time, however, Shionne has been acting distant, which has made everyone, especially Alphen and Rinwell, to worry for her. The following night, Shionne tries to take the ship alone to Lenegis, but Alphen catches her in the act. Raising her gun, she swears she will shoot him if he tries to stop her. Alphen approaches her, and Shionne, realizing she has been falling in love with Alphen, cannot bring herself to shoot him, and she collapses. After recovering, she reveals the whole truth: her thorns have been with her since she was born, and she was always having visions of her thorns destroying everything in their wake. Unwilling to let everything be destroyed, Shionne dedicated herself to find a way to rid herself from them, even by killing herself if need be. But no matter how much she tried, the thorns would not let her die. Eventually, she discovered that with the help of Renas Alma, she can free herself from her thorns, but the method will mean she will also die. Shionne was willing to pay that price if it meant everything else will live on, but the party disagrees with that. Alphen claims they will find another way to save her, claiming that Shionne's death will be a last resort. With a newfound confidence, the party travel to Lenegis.

On Lenegis, they decide to seek out the Forbidden Zone, one of the few locations left that may hold secrets. The populace of Lenegis is distracted during this period, as to fire the structure, Lenegis's shape was changed, and this disrupted the existing city. The party travels through the residential area, meeting and gathering information from people who know Dohalim while masking their true intent. These people include Fahria, who loved Tarnigen but had to live with him being killed by Dohalim during the Crown Contest. They manage to make their way to the Forbidden Zone, which is opened through Alphen's Sovereign powers. Within the Zone, they are confronted by Fahria, who has been enthralled by a Red Woman and wields a master core-like stone and summons a zeugle to deal with them. They knock her out before she can burn herself out wielding more power than she can handle and leave her to their mutual friend Avakhir, who followed them.

The Forbidden Zone is a wealth of information. It reveals the extent of the Crown Contest's artificiality, which was only ever designed to find replacements for the Spirit Channeling Ceremony. Dahna's will also shows them scenes from the past to give them more historical context for the failed Spirit Channeling Ceremony, including Naori's discovery of Rena's Great Astral Spirit and its desire to consume all. It gives Naori's actions additional context via allowing her words to reach the future. She attempted to stop the ceremony by sealing away the Dark astral energy, but with no other options, she had to seal it inside herself, forming the thorns that plague Shionne. The group then decides to retrieve the Renas Alma in order to seal away the Dark astral energy inside of it.

Within the depths of the Forbidden Zone, the group discovers the Renas Alma, Vholran, and an artificial Maiden chamber attempting to enact a new Spirit Channeling Ceremony. The Red Woman reveals herself as a group of people as well as their true forms, attempting to protect the ceremony. One more Red Woman steals away the Renas Alma, and the ceremony chambers collapses. The group chooses to follow the Red Woman to Rena. Unfortunately, their ship is waylaid by the Red Women, who throw them off course and seal away their controls. In space, they also discover the true fate of Rena: a planet that has been hollowed out and continues to draw energy from Dahna. They are rescued by another starship: the Daeq Faezol and its Overseer, Hevrekt-35.

Hevrekt-35 reveals to them more information about the world. They are a member of the Helganquil and names the Red Women as fellow members of their race. The Helganquil are Rena's true natives but are subservient to Rena's Great Astral Spirit, who commands them to gather all astral energy to sate its unending hunger. The Daeq Faezol is a starship who drifted far enough from the Great Astral Spirit's control for Hevrekt-34 to regain their senses. Hevrekt-35 and the group argue over the path forward: Hevrekt-35 wants to eradicate the Great Astral Spirit's core in order to diffuse its energy enough to prevent its reformation, which would kill Shionne in the process. The party desires to use the Renas Alma to contain the Great Astral Spirit, using its functionality in order to suppress the Spirit's sentience without killing Shionne. Eventually, Hevrekt-35 agrees to the plan and restores their starship.

The group land on Rena and discover it to be a vast pool of hollow silver, its land and life already stolen by the Great Astral Spirit. Traversing the entirety of Rena to its core, they confront the Great Spirit, only to find what is essentially a massive beast who wishes to do nothing but preserve its own life. After a fierce battle, they manage to retrieve the Renas Alma and attempt to perform the ceremony to seal the Great Spirit away. Unfortunately, at the final moment, Vholan interferes in an attempt to take what he views to be his place as ruler of all, while Shionne attempts to seal with Great Spirit within herself. Alphen defeats Vholran in a duel, and in one final nihilistic act, Vholran destroys the Renas Alma. Faced with what seems to be the inevitability of killing Shionne to end the Great Spirit's threat, Alphen then realizes the path to Dahna is still open. He calls upon the piece of Dahna in everyone to summon Dahna's will in order to save not just Shionne but also Rena itself. With their combined power, Dahna's will responds, coalescing inside the Blazing Sword and meeting with the Great Spirit's core. Dahna and Rena then fuse into a single stable planet, intermingled with the astral energy of both, with the party safely back to live on the new planet.

In the aftermath, life continues on, eventually culminating in Alphen's and Shionne's wedding.

Characters

Protagonists

Alphen

Shionne

Rinwell

Hootle

Law

Kisara

Dohalim il Qaras

• Alphen (アルフェン, Arufen^?) - A mask-wearing man from Dahna who has lost his memories as well as his capability to feel pain. Borrowing the blazing sword from Shionne just after meeting her, he fights for his freedom from Rena.
• Shionne Vymer Imeris Daymore (シオン, Shion^?) - A young woman from Rena who brings the curse of thorns to whoever touches her. With an ulterior motive of her own, she allies herself with Alphen and fights against her own people.
• Rinwell (リンウェル, Rinweru^?) - Appearing before Alphen and Shionne before collapsing, she is on a journey to appeal to Cyclodia's resistance. Despite her Dahnan blood she is able to use astral artes that are only available to Renans.
• Hootle (フルル, Fururu^?) - A Dahnan baby owl that travels together with Rinwell. He is close to her heart.
• Law (ロウ, Rou^?) - A young Dahnan man from Calaglia who works in Renan police force known colloquially as the Bureau of Civil Observation also known as Snake Eyes. He confronts Alphen and his group when they arrive to Cyslodia.
• Kisara (キサラ, Kisara^?) - A Dahnan woman believing in the coexistence between Rena and Dahna, she boasts the highest physical abilities in a squad composed of Dahnans. Serving under Dohalim, Kisara uses equipment crafted by Renans.
• Dohalim il Qaras (テュオハリム, Tyoharimu^?) - An eccentric man from Rena who shows friendship towards Dahna, he is well versed in all kinds of art, including music, poetry, and antiques.

Antagonists

• Balseph (ビエゾ, Biezo^?) - A Renan lord who controls Dahnan slaves in Calaglia, collecting fire astral energy and driving his slaves to the bone. While on the outside he appears to care for his fellow countrymen, in truth he is an impatient man desperate to become better than other generals.
• Ganabelt Valkyris (ガナベルト・ファルキリス, Ganaberuto Falkirisu^?) - The Renan lord in Cyslodia, who collects light astral energy. His rule is marked by the distrust he sows among the Dahnan populace, encouraging them to betray each other for monetary gain.
• Vholran Igniseri (ヴォルラーン・アングサリ, Voruran Angusari^?) - A swordsman clad in black, wielding a katana radiating with blue energy, who overcomes Alphen and co. His eyes seem to be searching for something, and he looks at both human and monsters as if looking at worthless pebbles. He is the Lord of Ganath Haros, and owner of the master core of Water.

Supporting Characters

• Zephyr (ジルファ, Jirufa^?) - A bright and respected resistance leader of a Dahnan group called the Crimson Crows centered in Calaglia, he works towards overthrowing Balseph. In battle he is a supporting member, fighting with his body against Dahna's oppressors and zeugles.

Gameplay

Field Gameplay

In the field characters can obtain a variety of items from chests, plants, and other objects of interest. By expending CP (short for Cure Points) it is possible to perform various actions in the field that can yield rewards for the party. A new feature for the series is swimming, allowing characters to swim through shallow water. The player is able able to perform a jump with a press of a button, allowing for even more varied exploration as well as puzzle-solving in dungeons.

Battle Gameplay

The game is said to utilize updated Linear Motion Battle System with Dynamic Action features. Three ground and three aerial artes can be set. However using simultaneous button presses it is possible to set three more ground and three more aerial artes, allowing to use twelve artes at once. Similar to Tales of Zestiria, healing and support artes come with a twist: they require CP, forcing to player to strategize and not spam these type of spells. Traditional post-battle victory quotes happening still on the battlefield are replaced with post-battle field chats in form of gab windows.

Character Development

During the progress of the story, characters acquire a variety of titles, with each title having attached five nodes. Each node can grant a new arte, skill, or a permanent parameter increase.

Release Overview

In addition to the base game, Tales of Arise has various bundled with additional bonuses for additional cost depending on region. Some bonuses are exclusive to certain retailers.

In the Japanese region, there is:

• Figure Edition is a physical release that includes a 18cm figurine featuring Shionne and Alphen
• Premium Edition is a physical release that includes a steelbook case, an artbook, a physical soundtrack, metal pin badges, stickers, acrylic figures, and postcards
• Collector's Edition is physical release that combines the bonuses from both Figure and Premium Editions
• Deluxe Sound Edition is a digital release that includes a pack of previous battle themes
• Deluxe Costume Edition is a digital release that includes the Costume Premium Pack as well as swimsuit, school, and kimono costumes
• Ultimate Edition is a digital release the combines bonuses from both Deluxe Editions
• Steam Deluxe Edition is a digital release that includes the Costume Premium Pack, Item Premium Pack, and Travel Premium Pack
• Steam Ultimate Edition is a digital release that adds to the Steam Deluxe Edition with a Collaboration Costume Pack as well as swimsuit, school, and kimono costumes

In the North American region, there is:

• Deluxe Edition is a digital release that includes the Premium Travel Pack, Adventurer's Pack, Premium Item Pack, and Premium Costume Pack downloadable content
• Ultimate Edition is a digital release that includes the bonuses of the Deluxe Edition but adds the Collaboration Costume Pack as well as swimsuit, school, and kimono costumes
• Collector's Edition is a physical release that includes a steelbook case, a physical soundtrack, an 18cm figurine featuring Shionne and Alphen, and a 64-page artbook

Tales of Arise Demo Version

A playable demo was released on August 18, 2021. It allows the player to explore Elde Menancia and interact with various gameplay features such as skits and cooking. The six playable characters are able to be used to demonstrate their various fighting styles and are even capable of learning new artes during the demo. Completing the demo allows the player to obtain a Vacation Hootle Doll in the full release of the game.

Tales of Arise: Beyond the Dawn

On September 14, 2023, during PlayStation's State of Play livestream the downloadable content expansion titled Tales of Arise: Beyond the Dawn (テイルズ オブ アライズ ビヨンド ザ ドーン, Teiruzu obu Araizu Biyondo za Doon^?) was announced. The story takes place one year after the events of the game, featuring a new character, Nazamil, a girl being ostracized for having Dahnan and Renan blood, and being the daughter of a Lord.

Trivia

Confirmed English Voice Actors

• Ben Lepley
• Chris Hackney

External Links

• [JP] Tales of Arise (Official Website)
• [JP] Official Twitter Account
• [EN] Tales of Arise (Official American Website)
• [EN] Tales of Arise (Official European Website)
• Official English Twitter Account