The good
The character designs are pretty good. With a lot of JPRG character designs are basically fan service, to a point it’s even ridiculous to look at (Looking at you, Xenoblade Chronicles 2), the characters from Tales of Arise are pretty great (saved some small parts, like, um, uh, the back of Kisara).
The game looks good – it is not breaking any record, but gorgeous in its own rights.
The bad
Tales has always been a budget series, and while Tales of arise might have a bigger budget than previous entries, it is still not an AAA production. And that shows in places. You see pretty repetitive enemies from place to place. A different color and a new name, and you’re done. This also clear that the game has more loading screens than it should, even with the current gen (Xbox Series X and PS5) versions. This is somewhat understandable as they share same design with previous gen consoles, but it was quite sad to see the limitations.
The voice acting is a hit or miss, i.e. inconsistent. Some actors sounds great and convincing, some, not so much.
Repetitive enemies designs. New area = almost same enemies with different colors.
Performance on boss battles – especially after Dohalim suffer badly. This was not covered by Digital Foundry analysis here, but trust me, I’ve seen it with my own eyes (And suffers from it)
The Ugly
It is one of the worst, if not the worst game when it comes to stability. And I played Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt at release on PS4, and XCOM 2 both on PS4 and Xbox Series X, that says something about it. I played (or rather, am playing) the game on Xbox Series X, and it crashes in almost every session. It does not work with Quick Resume (i.e. it should be disabled).
Mini annoyances
There are upgraded versions of equipment, but if a character is equipping that base version, it can’t be upgraded! You have to unequip that then craft the upgrade. Why?
