Tales of Arise is the newest chapter of the popular Tales series of JRPGs, but many elements about the game still remain fully unknown.
In order to know more, Twinfinite attended a preview event at Bandai Namco Entertainment’s headquarters in Shinagawa, Tokyo, and Producer Yusuke Tomizawa provided a few more details about the title.
Tomizawa-san mentioned that while this is a JRPG, the team aimed to achieve really exhilarating action battles.
He stressed on the fact that the whole art direction, from characters to environments, is handled by Minoru Iwamoto. This is quite new for the series, and it has the goal to have the whole world feel more unified in its looks.
While the team is using Unreal Engine 4 for the game, they’re not just using the engine’s visuals as-is, but they’re doing their best to add the essence and feel of the Tales series to them. That is something that takes time.
One of the relevant elements of the world of Tales of Arise is Astral Energy, which permeates everything. Someone utilizing that energy is called “Astral Arts.”
People from Rena have been using to use Astral Arts for a long time. Shionne is one of them and she can use Astral Arts to heal. When she does so, her eyes glow blue.
On the other hand, Alphen can’t use Astral Arts but he can use the Torch Flame Sword that Shionne herself gives him.
The sword is tremendously powerful, so much that it burns the hand that wields it. While Alphen doesn’t feel any pain he isn’t immortal, and he still receives severe physical damage.
That’s when Shionne’s healing power comes into play, as she can repair that damage before Alphen’s body reaches its limits. He would not survive without her, creating a dramatic element in the game’s story.
During the following Q&A session, Tomizawa-san mentioned that while this is a brand new world with brand new characters, he teased that there might be cameos from past Tales characters, embracing the traditions of the Tales family so that users can enjoy them.
Speaking of platforms, the team isn’t thinking about porting the game to Nintendo Switch at the moment as they’re spending a long time to combine the visuals of the Unreal Engine 4 and the Tales aesthetics, which is why the game is coming to PS4, Xbox One, and Steam.
While so far we have seen only Shionne and Alphen, Tomizawa-san mentioned that he’d really like to include the battle system of traditional Tales titles where party members can be dynamically switched. The team is aiming to establish a battle system that is immersive and dramatic.
The latest trailer features something that appears to be a combo attack, and the developers want to develop a great battle system involving party members and we should wait for upcoming reveals.
The team is confident that those who love action battles will enjoy the game, as they have focused on creating a solid action-based, dramatic, and responsive system.
Minoru Iwamoto is taking care of pretty much every aspect of the presentation, from costumes to buildings, and the team hopes that this consistency of the artwork will be visible to the users.
Interestingly, the title sounds definitely different from previous games of the series, many of which ended in “ia.” Tomizawa-san explained that the team is intentionally using a different sound in order to communicate a departure from the past. The reason for that is that they’re challenging many new things while creating Tales of Arise. The word “Arise” also represents the new experiences the developers want to provide to the users.
If you want to see more, you can enjoy the latest trailer, the previous trailer in English, some screenshots and artwork, the first batch of images and the original announcement trailer.
Tales of Arise will release for PS4, Xbox One, and PC in 2020.
