Tales of Arise is the latest in the long-running Tales franchise, a classic JRPG series that has been around since 1998. It follows a party of characters as they journey to free Dahna from oppressive Rena rule, with just enough sci-fi twists and high fantasy elements to create a unique story around this conflict. Nonetheless, it is a Tales game and that comes with a few expectations.
Tales of Arise did away with multiplayer for a bigger emphasis on story, yet it maintained the much-beloved skits. It’s a unique entry in the franchise, that’s for sure, but it’s one that takes the best of the series and builds on it. One other change is its overall length, at least depending on the playstyle.
How Long It Takes to Beat Tales of Arise
The Tales franchise has a history of putting out content-heavy, lengthy JRPGs. The same can be said of Tales of Arise, but it does fall on the shorter end of the spectrum. Whereas titles like Tales of Berseria and Vesperia require about 45 hours to beat the main story, Tales of Arise takes between 30-35 hours to beat. This includes a moderate completion rate of side quests in addition to the main story.
It stands to reason that completing all the side quests, finding all the skits, and more would add another 15-20 hours to the overall total, but to complete every single thing in the game would probably add even more than that. There are a total of 320 skits, 156 enemy types, and 70 side quests, and that's just the tip of the iceberg for much of Tales of Arise's content.
In fact, the replayability of Tales of Arise is quite high, and beating the game will unlock a New Game Plus mode. The story is so good that playing through it twice not only adds time, but it adds context. Without diving into spoiler territory, earlier events in the game take on a new meaning after the initial completion, and playing through them again in New Game Plus is more than worthwhile.
At the end of the day, the jury is still out on how long it takes to complete everything in Tales of Arise, but those looking for a content-heavy, story-focused JRPG need to look no further than the latest Tales entry. Its main story may fall short in terms of runtime to past games, but its quality meets or surpasses many older franchise entries.
Tales of Arise releases September 10 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.