“An ambitious game that grapples with tough questions”

TALES OF ARISE is a resplendent JRPG with fantastic characters

- STEVE N MESSNER

From the very first cutscene, Tales of Arise makes it obvious that it’s a JRPG that’s grim and serious. Sure, most RPGs involve some kind of nefarious villain who is up to no good, but Tales of Arise opens with a kid in a slave labor camp about to be whipped before a mysterious man in an iron mask intervenes and takes that beating on his behalf. What follows is an entire game about an enslaved planet rising up to fight back against the extraterrestrial humans who have oppressed them for three centuries. It’s not exactly fun stuff, but that’s what makes it good.

Tales of Arise is an ambitious game that grapples with tough questions even when it sometimes fails to find meaningful answers to them. There’s an earnest honesty to it that I just don’t find in a lot of other JRPGs.