Gameplay? Aces. Narrative? Poor

[Seisachtheia]

I wanted to review this game as I finished it up but found myself in the weird position of wanting to give it a thumbs up and a thumbs down. I figured I'd post my thoughts to the board in case others have as strong opinions as I do.

Firstly, combat. Love it, no notes. Everything about the combat feels incredibly well thought out and balanced. The only enemy I actually had a tough time with in the game was the bladehorn boar boss; yet there were many bosses that felt awesome to fight as a back and forth test of skill. I love that the game has a relatively low skill floor ( hardly put any thought into dualizing, and really only used it for inn requests, and I didn't really try to hit weaknesses on enemies or go for big combos, like 15 or 20 hits max) yet a great skill ceiling for players that really want to push the game to its heights. I could say more, but yeah, great combat, fun implementation, excellent balancing.

Secondly, the narrative and characters...worst I've seen in the series with the possible exception of the two games I couldn't be bothered to finish. Characters are bland and uninteresting, their motivations are either insanely basic or make no sense, the lore/narrative is a mess and incredibly lazy. There's legitimately a moment in the game I felt like I missed something because there's a big reveal and...it's just ignored and glossed over...I would think a reveal like that would garner some reaction but nope.

Anyway. I thought I'd throw my two cents into the discussion thread for any who are looking at the forum to decide if they should get the game and if anyone else has this bipolar reaction to the game. Would I recommend it for the combat? Absolutely, turn your brain off, ignore the characters and motivations and have a blast. Would I recommend it for the story? Not even once.

[Keytee Tamira]

Tales of Arise story is much worse, tho.

While Tales of Graces is a good classic story about power of friendship. Most western gamers seem to hate such plots tho.

[rad rat ray]

Originally posted by Keytee Tamira:

Tales of Arise story is much worse, tho.

While Tales of Graces is a good classic story about power of friendship. Most western gamers seem to hate such plots tho.

graces f's story isn't told particularly well either, but you are probably right that arise's is worse

[Seisachtheia]

Originally posted by Keytee Tamira:

Tales of Arise story is much worse, tho.

While Tales of Graces is a good classic story about power of friendship. Most western gamers seem to hate such plots tho.

I have to disagree that Arise is worse, at the very least Arise gave its big reveal moment some presentation and people reacted to it, a very similar moment happens in Graces and the characters literally just...ignore it.

Also, I disagree that Graces is a "good classic story about the power of friendship", Symphonia is a story about the power of friendship and is far more compelling than Graces even though it uses some of the same tropes. In Graces its literally an excuse for the entire cast to be stupid.