This article is part of a directory: Tales of Arise Complete Guide & Walkthrough
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While Tales of Arise tells a darker story than previous games in the franchise, it succeeds in staying true to the original games with its colorful, high fantasy action and abundance of quips for the main characters to deliver. Throughout their play-through, fans will discover several references to previous games, as they explore the twin planets of Dahna and Rena.

Related: Tales of Arise Shows How Final Fantasy 16's Western Influences Can Definitely Work

There are 6 party members each with their own unique story and fighting style in Tales of Arise. As well as different attacks and weaponry, each character also has an innate perk that will boost their strongest attacks during combat. It is worth learning how to use the innate perk of each character, but some are easier to trigger than others.

6 Dolahim- Rod Extension

Dolahim Faces Down An Enemy With His Staff in Tales Of Arise

Dolahim is the lord of Elde Menancia, the area with the most side-quests in the game, and an incredibly useful party member. Capable of staying at the back to provide healing support or wading into combat with his staff, Dolahim makes a great all-around support character. His most useful arte's include regeneration, heal, and negative gate, which will gather all hostiles into a single spot where they can be easily hit by Alphen or Law. While most of these abilities are defensive, Dolahim can also deal out powerful attacks with his staff.

The innate perk for this character is called Rod Extension and will increase the length of Dolahim's staff whenever he performs a perfect evade. Since it requires precise timing this ability can be quite difficult to utilize. When Dolahim's staff is at full extension, he will be able to hit targets from much further away, making him very good at removing flying enemies.

5 Shinonne - Sniper Blast

Shionne Heals Party Members And Wields A Rifle In Tales Of Arise

The first character to join Alphen on his quest is quite possibly the best support character in the game. Shionne is the perfect compliment to Alphen, capable of keeping him alive while he attacks priority targets with his flaming sword. This party member is capable of attacking but her low defense makes her aggressive abilities difficult to use.

Related: Tales of Arise: How Alphen and Shionne Complement One Another

If players hold the button to throw a bomb they can release it again to make it explode more strongly. If positioned correctly, these bombs can do significant damage, especially when detonated properly. The one drawback of this ability is that placing the bombs can be difficult in hectic combat situations without leaving Shionne vulnerable to attack.

4 Law - Awakening

Law Is A Powerful Martial Artist From Tales Of Arise

Tales of Arise doesn't have any multiplayer features like some of the previous entries in the series. Instead, the developers focused on increasing the number of interactions between party members including the new Boost Strike which allows multiple characters to combine their power and unleash devastating attacks.

The only weapon that Law needs are his fists and feet. This skilled martial artist has very weak defensive capabilities but makes up for it with some of the most powerful attacks in the game. Law's Awakening perk makes his attacks get progressively better the longer he avoids getting hit. If players can keep evading enemy attacks, Law's aura will change color to signify his more 'awakened' state, with stronger attacks. This perk is powerful but requires a high level of skill to make the most of it.

3 Kisara - Guard Ignition

Kisara From Tales Of Arise Is A Dahnan Soldier.

For most of the characters in Tale of Arise, the player's only way of avoiding damage is to evade enemy attacks. Kisara is the only party member who can use a shield and her innate perk, Guard Ignition, allows her to use it aggressively as well as defensively. There are 21 different shield and mace combinations that can be found for the noble Dahnan soldier.

Instead of dodging, Kisara can block enemy attacks and her innate perk allows her to execute stronger versions of particular attacks after successfully blocking. Executing an arte immediately after a successful block will cause Kisara to have a golden glow and she delivers a stronger special attack. This perk is only compatible with certain artes and players will need to read the description of each of their abilities to determine if they are "made stronger by guarding."

Arte's That Are Improved By This Innate Perk

  • Lion's Howl
  • Tiger Blade
  • Rolling Thunder

2 Alphen - Flaming Edge

Alphen Unleashing A Powerful Fire Attack In Tales Of Arise

Alphen is the first character players will control in Tales of Arise. His backstory is shrouded in mystery and he is introduced as having both Amnesia and the inability to feel pain. Alphen's resistance to pain makes sense given his innate perk allows him to sacrifice small amounts of health for devastating flaming attacks.

At the expense of a small amount of HP, players can hold ^/ Y, □/x or ◌/b after performing particular artes in order to imbue their attacks with fire damage. Although other party members like Shionne will have to dedicate more of their Cure Points towards healing Alphen, he makes up for it with some of the strongest artes in the game. Once players have leveled up this perk, they can also hold the respective button for longer to exchange more HP and receive even stronger attacks and abilities.

Best Attacks And The Artes That Trigger Them

  • Rising Phoenix - Rising Wyvern
  • Infernal Torrent - Flaming Edge
  • Searing Gale - Hurricane Thrust
  • Rending Flash - Sword Rain: Alpha

1 Rinwell - Magic Charging

Rinwell Casts Cross Blades In Tales Of Arise

Just like Alphen, the magician Rinwell has one of the most complex innate perks in the game, which is the ability to charge her spells instead of casting them. This ability is incredibly powerful as it can be used to cast higher-level artes without unlocking them.

Related: Tales of Arise: How Rinwell and Law Complement One Another

While casting a spell, players can hold the arte button to delay casting it and press R1 to save it for later. Spells that are stored in this way will be charged and activated after Rinwell's next attack allowing the player to set up combos. Casting the same spell as the one currently charged can cause the two to combine into a higher-level spell, including abilities that Rinwell has yet to learn. Players will lose their stored spell if they are interrupted by an enemy attack.

Spell Combos That Work With This Innate Perk

  • Cast Rising Strike twice to activate Windblade and three times to cast Cyclone
  • Cast Spread followed by a charged Cross Blade For Malestrom
  • Freeze Lancer followed by charged Holy Lance will create Shooting Star
  • Burning Strike followed by a charged Divine Saber will create Meteor Storm.

Tales of Arise was released on September 9, 2021, and is available on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.

MORE: Tales of Arise Complete Guide - Weapons, Collectibles & Key Story Beats