Tales of Arise is a criticism of the narrow human perspective & a love letter to all who struggle with their individuality in the form of a video game


‘’Only living for the sake of dying is no better than being a slave’’

This quote sums up what Arise covers thematically & its a story that’s best described as eloquent & unbiased in its portrayal of slavery, racism, & how it uses its premise as a backbone to tell a tale about what it means to be a slave & what it means to be free figuratively. Are we free of slavery if we aren’t wrapped in chains, being ordered around, & tortured over the slightest mistakes? When can we tell if we’re free or chained down by worldly trivial desires? The answer is simple: The change that we desire & aspire to achieve, can only happen within us & we are the ones who decide that ourselves. Instead of staying in our comfort zone, doing what’s expected of us, & roaming randomly in life, making an effort to achieve self discovery, no matter how scary the truth is, is what decides the value of our lives & whether we are chained by this phenomenon called ‘’destiny’’. This message is very simple on paper, but the way Arise presents it is nothing short of special since it actively goes out of its way to show the hardships of trying to break free of the chains of destiny that binds us as much as it shows how rewarding it is to free your heart of its darkness by achieving connections & holding onto them. There are various plot points in the story that show how hard achieving connections is & how narrow minded the human perspective is even from the mcs’ pov & how as a consequence of that, hatred & conflict are everlasting. Alphen fights the lords not knowing that each of them hold a philosophy and much like him, are fighting for people they cherish & ideals they champion. That sort of contrast & the exploration of said contrast creates an intricate narrative that forces the cast into a corner, causing them to question what they initially believed to be right, & undergo a change in their individuality to cope with the challenges presented against them. Dohalim accepts that self loathing may be the easy way to go about your conflicts, but facing said conflicts head on & seeking the truth is far more rewarding than it could ever be. Law realizes that his purpose in life & his Father’s dying words both of which he struggled to uncover so much, could be solved by merely finding someone you can love & taking care of them, & chose to be his own person instead of endlessly agonising over becoming what his father wanted him to become. Rinwell, upon seeing what hatred caused dedyme to do to his own people, realized that indulging in hatred will only breed more and more hatred, until she herself gets consumed by it, & it’s better to walk down the path of life carrying your hatred and using it as your strength instead of allowing it to define you. The best showcase of the theme of individuality & connection mentioned before is none other than Alphen’s dynamic with Shionne, & how they both pulled each other out of their darkness & brightened each others’ lives. The deepest, most fragile, & vulnerable bonds we have, are the ones that cut us the most & cause us the most amount of pain cause of how loosely tied they are to our identity, but it’s because of that, that we risk everything we have to protect them & bottle up our emotions to keep them from cracking down. That kind of bond, that kind of intimacy, is what’s shared between Shionne and Alphen. A bond formed through acceptance, undiluted love, & loyal affection, results in what’s one of the most human representations of connection & how we view them. Connections & love are necessities in our lives, we form bonds to feel complete, to feel needed, to feel loved & wanted, & to feel understood. But at the same time, losing that bond means losing what gave us hope & the ability to live, so the idea of attaining said love, only to lose it, drives us insane with trust issues & anxieties. We wish bonds weren’t needed so we wouldn’t have to feel so regretful about having them & the possibility of losing them, or not attaining them at all. It’s a complex, intricate emotion, yet it’s perfectly captured in this scene where Shionne, a character who’s been closed off & disconnected the entire series, buckles up under the weight of her regrets & sadness over her fleeting bonds. Breaking down in tears, Shionne confesses her rawest feelings with the honest belief that they’ll be rejected, only for Alphen to give her what she deeply yearned for yet rejected cause of a lack of a sense of self worth. This scene impacted me on a personal level & left me speechless since I, on a day to day basis, struggle with the same thoughts, regrets, & depression, so to see such an insecure part of myself represented in media…it breaks my heart but gives me a sense of comfort. Ironically enough, Alphen never truly understood the weight of being able to hold Shionne's hands & how much it means to both of them until he regained his sense. of pain, which puts an emphasis on the idea of connection & communication. It's strange how in a game about slavery, i felt a sensation of liberty & inner peace that I yearned for for so long, & it was fulfilling

hi it's phil back for the game reviews for watchmojo.com i got another review for the- for you this time and this time it's gonna be called dra KEN gard not dragonguard that's dra KEN gard it's rated m for mature it's only for playstation 2 keep in mind this is a one player game there's no online possibilities there is the possibility of toning down the blood but god knows nobody tones down the blood so just forget about that.

this game is a mix of devils may cry action rpg where you have to constantly get your character's hp as we call it health power and magical power up as levels go up now keep in mind that this was made by ubisoft which is a very renowned company for games like this. now this is also offers you a great animations in terms of japanese animation and also effects in between scenes cinematics are a may zing uhh if i don't know if you're a fan of final fantasy or if you know these japanese animation kind of settings but this will offer you the same setting or maybe even more. i was very surprised with the outcome of the ps2 can offer on this game. nevertheless, i would consider you probably umm playing the first title before playing the second because i did not play the first title before and i was a little confused, nevertheless at the beginning of the game you get a little prologue of what previous game offered. now if you go into details into the game there is weapons you can accumulate, items, like any rpg game the idea is to constantly get your levels up so that your strength goes up so that obviously the game becomes easier and you're stronger.

now this was based in ... a magical world where ... you as a character ... named legna with your dragon end up taking over uhh the world and uhh trying to save different destinations with they're called keys, there's a total about six keys to take care of and they all have certain foes to fight to be able to take care of those keys. now, this is the kind of game where you get to the part where you think you're finishing it but there's always a little loop that makes you go on and on! now it's a total of twelve chapters and at the tenth chapter you think it's over but it's not. that's the beauty of the game.

now this is obviously like i've always said the best part of the show where i give mmmy opinion on dra KEN gard not dragonguard remember people there's dragons in this game but it's called dra KEN gard anyways let's just leave it at that. now all i have to say is ummm if you remember our legend i will repeat it again: 9 to 10 was a purchase where you keep the game because it's a-mazing. a 8 to 7 where it's a late rental fee because umm you think you can finish the game in one rental but then you realize that you have to rent it a second time so you end up renting it for seven days just to make sure. and the other one was 5 to 6 where... forget about it. you rent it uhhh maybe for one day and then you put it away and you never look at it again. just joking. nevertheless, i will place this game in 7 to 8 because it's very close to 9 to 10 but it's all seen before. umm very confusing because it gives you a lot of opportunities and a lot of side track missions and stuff like that that i don't really think that follows through the game. now a lot of people will maybe have a different opinion on this than me but i still think that the japanese factor thing of games are getting overwhelming, i mean for sony playstation 2 you can see 25 japanese animation titles come out while there's only one north american coming out at that time. i don't know if it's sony playstation is really more based or powerful in japan, god knows. but go on the website see for yourself, it's all written in japanese. i finished it in 56 hours the game was established to be finished in 85 hours, so it's up to you do your best to finish it but again i repeat myself: remember: it's just a game!

Very fun srpg, but dated in some aspects. Level design is good but often very gimmicky. Grinding is required to an extent and is tedious to do so, fortunately you can beat the game without having a ton of leveled units. For this reason as well recruited units are worthless. Healing also gives low experience, making healers hard to level. Fortunately the rest of the game is great. The writing and story is funny and entertaining. The gameplay is a lot of fun, while being a little dated, it still holds up.