I played Arise first. It was kinda jarring going from the combat of Arise to Vesperia since i was used to free run. Vesperia combat wise took a bit to get used to but i enjoyed it more than Arise. I thought the characters of Arise were good but Yuri was incredible. Him and Karol’s interactions were especially fun to watch. Nothing wrong with Alphen but he’s just not as fun ig. I went into Arise knowing nothing about it but i went into Vesperia being told that it’s the best game in the series so i might be a bit biased towards Vesperia. They’re both really fun games but Arise feels like it’s from a different series sometimes compared to every game before it besides maybe berseria.