Jun 172019
At Microsoft’s E3 press conference, the next mainline Tales game was announced.
Since then, more details about Tales of Arise have been revealed (as well as the awesome art pictured here).
In an interview with Famitsu, translated here by Abyssal Chronicles, producer Yusuke Tomizawa answered questions about Tales of Arise.
Tales of Arise is aiming for a unique watercolor graphics style using Unreal Engine 4, as well as realistic character movements and expressions. They’re trying to increase immersion in many ways, including with more intimidating monster designs.
(Although he also suggests there might still be a mascot character, so here’s hoping its not as annoying as Bienfu or Teepo.)
Meanwhile, in an interview with Game Informer, Tomizawa clarified a few points that might have had fans worried.
Tales of Arise is not open world, but instead has a similar structure to past Tales games. And while the short glimpses of combat made fans concerned the gameplay would be dramatically different, the core formula of the Linear Motion Battle System will be intact.
And yes, there will be party members. I don’t know why people jumped to the conclusion that the two characters shown in the trailer would be the only playable characters, but the interview also confirms that Tales of Arise should have the sort of party size you’d expect from the series.
June 15-16 was also the Tales festival, where we got an extended trailer.
Following the trailer, the producer updated his blog with more information, which has been translated here by Abyssal Chronicles.
In it, he discusses the main characters, Alphen and Shionne. Alphen is a slave from Dahna, while Shionne is a woman from Rena who meets Alphen while on the run. Shionne suffers from a curse where anyone she touches feels pain, and she ends up working with Alphen because they unlock a special power when they’re together.
That’s all the new information we have about Tales of Arise. I’m pretty excited about it, and I can’t wait to learn more. The world/story setup sounds like it has a lot of potential.
What do you think about Tales of Arise so far?