Yesterday was the big day: the reveal of Tales of Arise’s skits.
Early on, some people worried Arise wouldn’t have skits at all, but skits are in – with a new format.
Traditional Tales skits have used 2D portraits of the characters’ faces, with their expressions changing and the portraits moving around or otherwise changing as the conversation progresses.
In Arise, they instead use the characters’ 3D models, but not like a regular scene. Instead, it almost resembles a comic book, with new panels appearing for each part of the skit.
It’s an interesting result reminiscent of some of the scenes in Scarlet Nexus (at least from what I saw in the demo), and I’m not sure how I feel about it. On one hand, it lets costumes and attachments appear and should allow for more expressive scenes. On the other hand, it looks very different and lacks the simplicity of the old skits.
I can’t exactly find the words to explain what feels off about the new skits to me, but I hope they win me over when I actually see them in action.
According to the official description, published here by Gematsu, the skits will show your current location in the game, as well as the time of day.
Meanwhile, the “Lifestyle Features” trailer shows off several other new mechanics as well.
Cooking and fishing are both highlighted, along with some sort of farming system that looks like you’ll manage livestock to get more ingredients for cooking. I’m not sure how that will work out – maybe the party eventually has a home base, like in Tales of Berseria.
Setting up camp to cook and talk to party members also seems like a big feature, as well.
Tales of Arise will be out on September 10, less than two months away! Meanwhile, the next few months are now packed with even more games I’m looking forward to, so it’s going to be a busy time indeed.
How do you feel about the new skit format for Tales of Arise and the other activities shown here?
