Is the story going to get better? (SPOILERS)

[Peelyboy]

This isn't me having a pop at the game or anyone who likes it but it just isn't clicking with me at all and I'm looking for (ideally spoiler free) advice on whether it gets better from here.

To give an idea of where I'm at and without saying too much, I've finished the 3rd region, gained the 5th and 6th party members and just picked up the ability to fish before a sort of psychological wall hit me that compelled me to write this.

At this point in the game, I just don't care about the story, or most of the characters. The 3rd location threatened to be interesting, with the potential for inter-party conflict between Alphen and Shoinne as their different end-goals briefly conflicted. Sadly, within no time at all the situation was resolved, conflict beyond a mild telling-off avoided, and the party was on their way.

The villains up to this point have had almost no screen time prior to being defeated. You meet main boss two about 20 minutes before beating them, so I ultimately don't care about beating them.

Additionally, from the world the intro cutscene sets up, it just makes absolutely no sense that the Renans can be overthrown in any real capacity by the Dahnans. This is supposed to be a civilisation with an unbelievable technological advantage over the Dahnans but in my current game they've been ousted from 3 regions by 2-5 people with the support of a small local resistance. I understand that Alphen wields the super-mega-awesome flame sword, but what about when the party leaves? What stops the Renans dropping troops into Orbus Calaglia the moment we're gone? Is there going to be a reason for why the Renans are allowing Dahna to be liberated?

Apologies that this went on longer than I anticipated but I want to like this game. I've enjoyed the previous Tales games I've played (Symphonia, Vesperia, Zestiria and Berseria) but this one currently just isn't doing it for me and I'm hoping for advice on whether I should push on.

[xHans]

Didnt read anything you said but no it does not get better. It starts off good but then falls off midway.

[alumlovescake]

I hated the story I thought it only got worse and worse and the DLC is no better. The only thing that made me continue going on was the skits and character interactions during sidequests and that

[Ogami]

The story is terrible, honestly one of the worst JRPG stories i ever played with absolute atrocious pacing.
The game is pretty and has a flashy combat system, thats pretty much all the good points about it.
If you want an engaging and believable world building/story and good characters stay FAR away from Arise.
Tales games never are particularly good in those categories but this was especially bad.

[Ivy in my Heart]

At the point of the story you're at, you won't experience any more changes that are going to help you enjoy it. At that chapter the character dynamics are firmly established, as is the level of detail of the lore and world building. The usual Tales of plot twist and emotional character moments are yet to come, but you won't enjoy them if you're not enjoying the story by now.

It's cool that you gave the game a fair shot for longer than many do. But I think it's justifiable to cut your losses and spend your gaming time with a game you like.

[SENMSL]

Originally posted by Peelyboy:

This isn't me having a pop at the game or anyone who likes it but it just isn't clicking with me at all and I'm looking for (ideally spoiler free) advice on whether it gets better from here.

To give an idea of where I'm at and without saying too much, I've finished the 3rd region, gained the 5th and 6th party members and just picked up the ability to fish before a sort of psychological wall hit me that compelled me to write this.

At this point in the game, I just don't care about the story, or most of the characters. The 3rd location threatened to be interesting, with the potential for inter-party conflict between Alphen and Shoinne as their different end-goals briefly conflicted. Sadly, within no time at all the situation was resolved, conflict beyond a mild telling-off avoided, and the party was on their way.

The villains up to this point have had almost no screen time prior to being defeated. You meet main boss two about 20 minutes before beating them, so I ultimately don't care about beating them.

Additionally, from the world the intro cutscene sets up, it just makes absolutely no sense that the Renans can be overthrown in any real capacity by the Dahnans. This is supposed to be a civilisation with an unbelievable technological advantage over the Dahnans but in my current game they've been ousted from 3 regions by 2-5 people with the support of a small local resistance. I understand that Alphen wields the super-mega-awesome flame sword, but what about when the party leaves? What stops the Renans dropping troops into Orbus Calaglia the moment we're gone? Is there going to be a reason for why the Renans are allowing Dahna to be liberated?

Apologies that this went on longer than I anticipated but I want to like this game. I've enjoyed the previous Tales games I've played (Symphonia, Vesperia, Zestiria and Berseria) but this one currently just isn't doing it for me and I'm hoping for advice on whether I should push on.

Nah, the story is completely different from ToB. However, for all the quality drops in story. I still suggest you should push until chapter 5, Me and Others. It's not about the institution. It's not about the constitution. But at least, it's a JRPG. The story gave too much ground to sales to general public, but it still made a stand at exactly where it was close to losing its identity as a JRPG.

[Sonico]

Honestly i've reached the later arc (Niez), and after a certain cutscene i just said "Ok no, i'm done".

The writing in this game is just bad. Other than the issue that you've stated, there's also characters making dumb decisions for the sake of the plot, which makes everything so forced.

[Eriahn]

I hated the story as much as I loved the combat and I loved the combat quite a bit, for what it's worth.

[ar2games]

It actually gets worse and the villains get less depth, the final boss goes from 0 to 100000 in the evil-O-meter.

Just enjoy the combat and skip the BS story.

[Dou B Jin]

Got this a few years ago and I stopped around the 3rd region. Don't remember why but by the time I was able to raise animals I just forgot about the game. The game looks visually great but something made me not really care about the game in the end. I also never finished Berseria but I remember the main characters motivation was super strong right off the bat while I can't really tell you what the main character is trying to do in this game.

I'm surprised to see the sentiment on the story. Didn't realize people disliked it this much judging from the discussion so far. Gonna try to finish the game this time around and see what people are talking about.