Sacred Symbols+, Episode 141: Tales of Arise Spoilercast and Review Discussion
Added 2021-11-27 17:00:07 +0000 UTCSince its origin in 1995, the Tales series has been a consistent fan favorite of JRPG lovers. Unfortunately, the series never seemed to reach the mainstream appeal of titles like Final Fantasy. Now in 2021, it's clear Bandai Namco and the Tales team were ready to push the series to new heights with the release of Tales of Arise. With a much larger budget and marketing push, the title became the fastest-selling Tales game ever, with over a million copies sold in less than a week. With all eyes on Tales, we knew it was a game we needed to discuss. Enjoy!
Comments
I've been waiting awhile to listen to this episode, but it took me longer to beat Arise than I thought. Overall, I found this a good but disappointing game. One that has good characters, and fantastic presentation, but is held back by bad story telling, and awkward pacing. Good: -Top of the line presentation. In terms of level/monster design, graphical fidelity, art direction, and so forth, this game brought game. -Good main characters that get a good amount of presence in the story (aka, the main character isn't the only one driving the story). The Bad/Meh: -The combat was serviceable, but not good. It was very button mashy, with only a small bone tossed to strategy in the forms of using certain special attacks to interrupt enemies/make vulnerable. -The story is extremely heavy handed and blunt like an 80s children's PSA. And it's presentation was underwhelming, relying way too much on the optional motion comic segments, which is mostly repeating info. -The game's pacing is off. It feels like this was an 80+ hour JRPG they decided to cut down to a 40 hour one mid way through production. So, the Dahna/lords section of the story feels well paced (mostly), but the story quickly rushes through the Lenegis & Rena sections of the game which feel like they should have each been comparable in length, but are like (combined) ten hours. -Sort of a sub point to the two proceeding points, but WHAT THE F#%K IS WITH THE ANIME SCENES! They are not bad, but they are so randomly sprinkled though out the story that it is just confusing. There is no consistency to their use. Hell, I forgot they were a part of the game as there is a gap between seeing them for like half the game (from intro sequence to the 4th Lord's introduction). Overall, I enjoyed the game, but found it disappointing to other JRPGs I've played recently like Xenoblade 1[remake] & 2, Ni No Kuni (1[remake] & 2).
NinjaDC
2022-01-22 01:02:52 +0000 UTCI beat the last boss in all bath towels. That's how I was feeling about taking the game seriously by the end.
Aaron
2022-01-06 06:13:57 +0000 UTCSuch disrespect, right off the rip - Micah's SS+ debut was actually in June 2020! Guys - terrific discussion and love this trio. Looking forward to more JRPG spoilercasts in the future!
Giovanni D'Amico
2021-12-01 13:38:21 +0000 UTCWe need more Micah. I am grateful for her contributions and growing presence on LSM. Good job everyone!
Tonys_Always_Write
2021-12-01 03:36:52 +0000 UTCDustin certainly missed something critical about the combat. The game is incredibly easy and no grinding is required. Not saying that to try and be mean so I hope it doesn't come across that way! Gald is very hard to come by at the start but you find all the items you need by exploring in the dungeon, after a few hours, you can just sell weapons and armor and you're all set. I absolutely loved the game, its my 2nd favorite tales game behind Symphonia which the story seems heavily inspired by as it shares a lot of similar themes. Great podcast everyone!
TheMuff1nMon
2021-11-30 19:34:14 +0000 UTCI’ve never played a JRPG game and never will, but I enjoyed this episode. I was curious about this combination of the 3 of you and it was quite entertaining! Looking forward to Micah’s CoD Vanguard review.
Fernando
2021-11-30 05:18:17 +0000 UTCThe whole issue with gald is way overblown tbh. You can sell your armor and food and fish and monster parts because honestly a lot of the early game monster parts are useless late game. The ranching mechanism also lets you accumulate lots of gald. You should really only be using high end consumables for boss fights or Mini boss fights if you're dying versus regular spawn creatures you got problems. Fyi I played on hard all the way and never had an issue
Wayde
2021-11-29 00:13:41 +0000 UTCMinor feedback - Can you guys take like 3 minutes at the start of these spoiler casts to paint the picture of the game? Like a high level overview of what the story is about, what the gameplay is like, what style of game it is? I know most people come into these having played the game but for those who haven’t it would give great context for the rest of the show.
JustAnotherDean
2021-11-28 17:33:56 +0000 UTCLoved the spoiler cast! Thanks for reading my letter <3
Tacoyaki
2021-11-28 17:29:21 +0000 UTCEnjoyed the pod, but I don’t think I played the same game the team seemed to play
Jeffery Carlson
2021-11-28 14:41:15 +0000 UTCI hated Law but he had a few laugh out loud lines and Dohalim is a bro.
Kevin Myers
2021-11-28 03:09:51 +0000 UTCProbably another good example of the live event being a benefit to the team. It sounded like Micah was jumping into a conversation with friends rather than overthinking “the debut”. I don’t care about Tales but listened to see how it went. Very well.
Jeremy Craves
2021-11-28 01:42:50 +0000 UTCGlad to hear from Micah. My only criticism is that tin foil Dustin is the best Dustin.
JD
2021-11-27 23:40:14 +0000 UTCHelpful tip for those struggling with bosses. Focus on Alphen’s skill nodes that let you spend more HP to charge up his artes more. Also get the ones that boost elemental attacks when near death. Then on bosses, have full health, charge attacks until you are at 1 HP (and thus near death), and you will punch through bosses really fast. Life bottles are cheap. Don’t be afraid to let Alphen die looking for openings.
Chase M
2021-11-27 23:26:57 +0000 UTCGreat conversation! Appreciate y'all covering my question!
MrMilk
2021-11-27 21:39:22 +0000 UTCNever played any of these games, but still a great pod lol
Michael Hedrick
2021-11-27 21:25:06 +0000 UTCI didn’t rock the bathing suits but I had Law in the full blown farmer outfit haha.
Cristian R
2021-11-27 20:58:04 +0000 UTCBeen waiting for this one!!! Is there gonna be a video?
Shawn
2021-11-27 19:14:25 +0000 UTC
