Leading up to the release of Tales of Arise, many fans wondered how the title would be compared to other games, and what sort of story would unfold in the world of the Dahnans and Renans. The story of Alphen and Shionne begins as a story of liberation, but as it evolves and truths are revealed, their tale feels familiar. With Alphen's memories returning and Shionne opening herself to her friends, the new title makes itself home with Tales of Berseria and Zestiria by setting itself up as another story discussing coexistence and the importance of the past affecting the future.
As these three titles are part of an ongoing JRPG series, some similarities are to be expected. Tales of Arise notably takes huge gameplay inspiration from Tales of Zestiria with a more Berseria-like control scheme, but the connections go further than that. With how Arise swerves into exploring the impact of the Renans' control over Dahna, it almost feels as if the game serves as the third installment to Zestiria and its prequel Berseria; taking the themes of both and wrapping them up with a nice bow.
Coexistence and The History of Renans, Dahnans, and Seraphim
When players meet Alphen at the start of Tales of Arise, he's known as the Iron Mask with no name or face. The story focuses on the liberation of Dahna more than who Alphen is, and players are told to overlook it. Instead, the main conversation turns to the Dahnans' prejudice against Shionne as a Renan. What starts off with people refusing to work with Shionne turns into a conversation about how there may be hope for the Renans and Dahnans to coexist peacefully. Alphen begins fighting for the idea, not unlike how Sorey from Tales of Zestiria. Sorey fought for coexistence between humans and the Seraphim, as he had grown up with Seraph Mikleo by his side.
History does play a part, as the game makes it obvious there's more to understand of the world with the introduction of Rinwell early on. When Rinwell recognizes 300-year-old ruins, she rambles about them similar to how Sorey and Mikleo would talk about the ruins of their world. This is an interesting mix, as Rinwell is a history buff with a love for books like Sorey, who seeks to get stronger at her magic and artes like Mikleo.
As Tales of Arise progresses, the party talks about the relevance of the past between their twin worlds more, especially as Alphen is revealed to be the failed Sovereign of 300 years ago - like how Sorey and Mikleo's pasts lead the plot of their game. Alphen's past doesn't just bring back themes of Tales of Zestiria, it also resembles the story of Velvet Crowe more than Shionne's.
Shionne, Velvet, and Mistaken Identities
When Tales of Arise begins, Shionne isn't very open, and seemingly wants to use Alphen's abilities to best Dahna's Lords. With the way she acts, she comes off just like Velvet from Tales of Berseria, who sought to use a morally questionable means to her ends. The new story is similar to how Velvet tried to ignore her party members as she sought revenge for her dead brother. Also like Velvet and Laphicet, Shionne grows attached to the party as the game progresses.
Interestingly, Alphen mistakes Shionne for one of her ancestors, as a bit of a twist to how Velvet saw her late brother in Phi. Alphen's lack of feeling pain draws in Shionne and her curse, almost like how Phi's compass tied him to Velvet at the start.
Where Tales of Arise uses these themes in a similar manner, it also uses them in different ways; shedding new light onto the concepts fans knew before. It asks questions about how the past affects the future in ways Zestiria didn't get to, and explores bonds similar to Berseria. Even the game seems aware of this, as the Seraphim siblings Edna and Eizen are a secret boss in Arise. Combined with how Arise's gameplay takes the best of Zestiria and Berseria's additions to the Tales formula, fans of the two older titles are sure to be satisfied with what the newest one brings to the table.
Tales of Arise is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.