Tales of Arise is the first new main entry in the Tales series since 2017. That was the Western release of Tales of Berseria but Japanese fans have been waiting even longer as of 2016. This release gap is one of the longest in the series. Did Tales of Arise live up to hyped expectations?
Reviews seem to be doing pretty good for this new Tales installment, but it is by no means a game-changer for the series or for RPGs. There are some things Bandai Namco could do to perhaps raise those scores through patches. Some of these ideas may be easy to add to the game while others could create a more complex station. That’s what DLC is for.
8 Add A Photo Mode
It’s a bit odd that this game did not launch with a photo mode. Most modern games tend to. They can’t all be as robust as Ghost of Tsushima’s which seems like the new industry standard. Tales of Arise doesn’t need much.
Even a way to freeze time to take a screenshot via the console’s internal menu would be good enough. Games have added photo mode support post-launch before like Final Fantasy 7 Remake so it’s not out of the realm of possibilities that this game will too.
7 Options To Get Rid Of Mini Map
If the developers don’t or can’t incorporate a photo mode easily into Tales of Arise with a patch then there is another option for them. It would be nice if they added a way to get rid of the mini-map in the corner of the screen instead.
There are so many lush landscapes and monuments in the game that it is a shame these shots can be ruined by that mini nap in the corner. One could cut around the minimap in a photo editor but that defeats the purpose a bit. Hopefully, one of these options, if not both, will be added in post-launch.
6 Add Back Co-Op
One of the best long-running features of this series has been co-op. Co-op only counted in battles so it was a co-op with an asterisk but it was still an option many fans were able to enjoy. Some fans may even buy this series just to play with a friend in co-op and thus may be disappointed to find out it has been removed in this game.
The plus side to this is that combat is much more fluid and dynamic now. There are certain skills, Boost Skills, that would make co-op hard to program around. It would still be nice to see co-op back at some point.
5 Better Zoom On Maps
The map in Tales of Arise is fairly good for an RPG. While it may be a bother to constantly have it in the corner, the minimap is useful. Even better yet is the bigger map one can get to if they push Square, on the PS5 version that is.
The downside to this is that the zoom-in option is not that detailed. It would be greater if players could zoom in more, along with getting a 3D model of the environment. That second wish seems a bit harder to pull off but it never hurts to ask for things however impossible they may be.
4 Preemptive Strikes
One of the features Tales of Arise was ahead of the curve on in RPGs was no random battles. The Tales series was not the first to do this but it jumped onto the trend fairly early. An element they haven’t incorporated, at least in this game, is preemptive strikes.
Some games allow players to get the upper hand in on an enemy if they are stricken in the field. When the game transitions into a battle arena, these enemies sometimes take damage or get stunned. A great example of this would be the Mario RPG games. Allowing Alphen to strike enemies in the field is the want here.
3 Increase Inventory Limits
The inventory limits in this series have never made sense. For example, the standard healing item is called an Apple Gel. Players can normally hold up to 15 of these at a time but that is it. Most RPGs, to bring up a game like Final Fantasy 7 again, allow for more quantities to be held like 99 potions.
15 then seems like an arbitrary number especially since items operate on cooldowns in battle. Having an infinite supply of Apple Gels isn’t going to make the game easier if players can’t spam them quickly in battle. This restriction then makes no sense and the limit would be nice to see increased.
2 More Flexibility In The Field
Alphen, or whoever the player is controlling, does not move incredibly well in the field. This is a stark contrast to how characters maneuver in combat. For example, there is an SP skill that can be unlocked for every character allowing them to double jump.
When this first unlocks it is only for combat. A simple thing like a double jump earlier in the game would have improved maneuverability so much in the field. There are a lot of invisible walls too like ledges that would be nice if they would allow players to jump off of them. Flexibility is the key to success.
1 Put Skits In The Background
Skits have been an iconic part of the series for decades now. Hitting the R1 button, for PS5 at least, will trigger extra dialogue. These are presented in manga-like panels and offer more context to the world. It’s a great way to learn about lore and characters in quick snippets.
Most of these Skits don’t have action in them. This means they would work just as well being played in the background while players ran around the world. There is dialogue like that in the game already. It’s theoretically not out of the realm of possibility for Bandai Namco to patch in an option to hear Skits rather than to watch them.