Tales of Arise has been a critical as well as commercial success, having shipped over 1 million copies in under a week. It also managed to set a new record for concurrent players on Steam for the entire Tales of series. Now, Bandai Namco Entertainment has announced a crossover DLC that will be adding two popular anime characters as a boss fight in Tales of Arise.
Cameo Battles in the Tales of series mainly consist of boss fights against characters from previous games. This fight also generally includes music from that particular title, adding to the fan-service, and it usually unlocks as a side quest after players have beaten the main story. Such battles are already present in Tales of Arise, and judging by this new announcement, fans can expect more surprise guests in the future.
Bandai Namco Entertainment has just announced that the Sword Art Online Collaboration Pack will be coming to Tales of Arise on October 7. This DLC adds a fight against Kirito and Asuna from Sword Art Online, and also includes some other bonuses. Players can unlock new outfits for Alphen, Shionne, and Law, in addition to getting Kirito’s weapons. A new Mystic Arte will also be added to the game. A video accompanies this announcement with gameplay footage from the fight. As seen in the beginning of the trailer, both Kirito and Asuna are level 98, and fans can expect this to be the hardest fight in the entire game.
Thankfully, Tales of Arise gives players some unique artifacts that may be used to gain an advantage in this battle. All of the new animations and moves look spectacular, and the video serves as a great example of the quality of the visual effects from Tales of Arise. It ends with showcasing the new Mystic Arte that features Alphen, Kirito, and Asuna.
Mystic Artes in Tales of Arise can only be executed by going into Over Limit. It will be interesting to see if this new arte is difficult to execute, as the second Mystic Arte requires players to use a combo of 5 different moves and holding down 2 buttons immediately afterwards.
Recent games in the Tales of series have not received more content after release, with Tales of Zestiria being an exception. Bandai Namco Entertainment also publishes the Sword Art Online games, but fans would probably hope for more crossover events with different publishers in the future.
Tales of Arise is now available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.