Tales of Arise’s ending is necessarily complicated, and there’s a lot of unpacking players—alongside Alphen and the gang—must do. The early game does a swell job of setting up the conflict between Dahna and Rena, the Crown Contest, and the like, just to tear it all apart while throwing in Sci-Fi elements too. It’s done quite well, but it is a lot. Due to the nature of this article, there are MAJOR SPOILERS ahead.
Just a little bit before defeating the 5 Renan Lords on Dahna, the story begins slowly opening and unpacking everything it has set up. There’s a lot of twists and turns, and it can be hard to keep all the revelations straight. The general layout for the final hours of the game is this: board Alphen’s old ship to leave Dahna, head straight to Lenegis, and then end up fighting on Rena. But Tales of Arise makes it a bit more complicated than it sounds.
Understanding the Changing World of Tales of Arise – Alphen, Shionne, and Dohalim
The easiest way to understand the revelations in Tales of Arise is to see them through the eyes of each character. Alphen slowly gets his memory back and discovers that he was once and still is the Sovereign from 300 years ago—which only means he was a Dahnan kidnapped by Renans and used in some insane experiment—which is odd because the Crown Contest is meant to select a new Sovereign from Renan Lords in the modern era. While it seems like a political position of power, it was just a manipulation of Renans. He needs a Maiden, who he finds again in Shionne—the descendant of Nori—to complete a ritual, and later he discovers that ritual is meant to drain all the energy out of Dahna and give it to Rena.
As such, it’s one planet trying to kill another, with the party eventually learning the why of it. Rena and Dahna were once meant to be a single planet, but that failed. The Astral Energy of Rena became concentrated and formed its own sentience, becoming scared of its separation and desperately trying to bring the two planets together again. Dahna’s energy is found within its people and thus could never form its own sentience, even if it does maintain a lingering will.
Shionne has seen “Oblivion” consume Rena in her dreams, and so she sets out to kill the Renan Lords, obtain the Renas Alma, and kill herself before her thorns destroy humankind. What she learns is that the Thrones are inherited from Naori, and that she and Alphen must stop it. There are three methods they discover, which lead to the endgame of Tales of Arise.
Dohalim, in all of this, is the Renan representative of the matter. He reflects Renan culture, is knowledge about activities on Lenegis, and it is through his eyes that players discover the Sovereign is false and that no one on Lenegis has actually ever seen Rena. This foreshadows the reveal that the Great Astral Spirit of Rena has already killed and drained the planet dry, turning into a large mass of Hollowed entities.
Understanding the Changing World of Tales of Arise – Kisara, Rinwell, and Law
Kisara is hopeful for peace between Renans and Dahnans and believes coexistence can exist despite the obvious challenges when they beat Rena. But it gets more complicated than that because players learn that Renans are Dahnans. That’s it. That’s the twist. The original inhabitants of Rena are the Helganquil, who are an alien species players first meet as the Red Woman. The Helganquil kidnapped Dahnans who had access to Astral Artes – those left behind would become known as Dahnan Mages, represented by Rinwell—and “turned” them into Renans to facilitate the ritual that would transfer the energy from Dahna to Rena via Lenegis.
Rinwell and Law represent Dahnan attitudes toward Rena and how, seeing how both Renans and Dahnans act, seek forgiveness and coexistence before the barriers come down. Law fulfills this from a sheer personality point of view, while Rinwell is also the most connected to the spirit of Dahna. It shows her its intentions in a way, which is far less powerful than Rena, because it won’t override its people.
Tales of Arise: Three Ways to Stop The Great Astral Spirit of Rena
So, with all of this in mind, Lenegis sends a giant spike to Dahna to begin amassing more energy now that the Crown Contest is effectively over. Players travel to Lenegis, learn its secrets, attempt to go to Rena, learn the secrets of the Helganquil and about the destruction of Rena, and then go to where the energy transfer has created a massive flower on Rena to prevent the planet from destroying Dahna.
Players fight their way through to the end, defeat the Red Woman, and face off with Vholran – the still surviving fifth “Renan” lord and the second sovereign to Alphen, who is basically the opposite in terms of personality – and the ending has been reached. To this point, the players had discussed three ways they could defeat the Spirit and save Dahna.
The first was to take the Great Spirit into the Renas Alma and destroy it, thus dissipating the Spirit. This was the main goal and was almost obtained, until Vholran destroyed it so that the whole world would be destroyed. Thus, Shionne urges Alphen to proceed with the second plan—that is, to allow Shionne to take in the Great Spirit and destroy it herself, at the cost of her life. But, Alphen calls in the hail mary on the third plan which works, and that is to commune with the Dahnan spirit and use its strength to defeat Rena.
In an emotional ending, it works and the party finds themselves once again on Dahna. The newfound flowers suggest that the Dahna energy was able to take Rena unto itself and spread it just as the energy of Dahna is spread. Shionne is free from her curse, she is able to hug Rinwell, and finally, after much anticipation from fans, she and Alphen seal their romance with a kiss. It’s a beautiful ending, and one full of hope, connection, and human compassion when facing dark times.
Tales of Arise is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.