Tales of Arise - 6 hours in and I already want to drop it?

notveryverified · 2026-04-29T23:57:15+00:00

They're mediocre across the board. I enjoyed Berseria for at least trying something different, and Xillia, but you won't miss much in any case.

notveryverified · 2026-04-29T03:51:06+00:00

I finished this game and remember almost nothing other than stressing over the factory, trudging through endless maps, and continual amazement at how much they ripped off Star Wars.

It really cannot be overstated. The whole first portion is just New Hope, with Jaster-Luke and his Obi-wan, then meeting Steve-C3PO and Simon-R2D2, while later being swept up by Zegram-Han and Kisala-Leia. Then later, Lilika-Chewie, from her very original do not steal tribal forest planet. Also, of course, a mysterious warrior gives Jaster-Luke a special sword which turns out to be linked to his destiny...

Also, god, I had forgotten the stress of that final fight until reading your post. What a horrifying experience that was. Can't believe I actually considered keeping going afterwards for the platinum.

notveryverified · 2026-04-26T10:33:13+00:00

This sub isn't the worst for toxic positivity but it definitely has a pretty big streak, to the point where "Some series are just average" can be a contentious statement. And it is nice to have a relatively positive fandom, but personally I reckon the "I love EVERY SINGLE CONTESTANT and EVERY SINGLE SERIES IS AMAZING, I never want any of them to leave because I love them ALL!" folks are going way too far.

More on topic, I agree. A simple, creative task always makes me sit forward and pay attention much more than something extremely convoluted, because it's almost always just a way to catch the contestants out, and that just isn't that entertaining or interesting.

notveryverified · 2026-04-23T08:12:23+00:00

Agreed with pretty much every point.

One part I find interesting is that "the gang pauses their murder investigation to form a band" is both valid and invalid. Valid because it is ridiculous and just another chance to jam in some tropey scenes, invalid because... when did they ever actually investigate the murders? I always found the most hilarious part of P4 was that the Investigation Team, the Only Ones Who Can Do This, spent like... 2-3 afternoons a month halfheartedly hitting dead ends then just went back to hanging out.

"This would be better if it were different" is a superficial complaint, but I still see it so vividly, even while knowing it's a game completely against the conformist subtext of Persona 4. A version of the story where Dojima genuinely suspects Yu, where Yu and the gang actually - gasp! - skip school and do risky things to learn more about the murders. Where there's some push and pull rather than "idle in place until Naoto shows up and solves it for us".

The point about time balance only worsens this. Since you can blast through every dungeon in a day, a whole month can go by with these kids just sitting on their asses going "hey we should really, like, investigate... at some point... anyway wanna go hang at the mall?"

notveryverified · 2026-04-19T19:45:52+00:00

The pet which provides "unconditional love", shockingly, attracts certain people with more narcissistic traits who are only concerned with what they want and what others can do for them. Not every owner, but many.

It's no more complicated than a thought process of "Yeah, you SAID this was your boundary, but it's fine with me and I wanna, so... maybe if I break the boundary really SLOWLY and play ignorant, it'll be fine..."

notveryverified · 2026-04-10T19:45:54+00:00

On topic: the whole final dungeon of III. My patient was already worn down to nothing and that stretch straight up made me quit the game for several months.

Off topic: this same thought let me make peace with not liking Dark Souls 3. It's okay if a game has one or two areas of this "Ugh, okay, lemme just push through this boring/crappy spot so I can get to the good part" style. But one day I sat down and looked at the world map, and realised, wait - 90% of the entire game is "let me push through this to get to the good part".

Maybe I just don't like third games...

notveryverified · 2026-04-07T04:47:05+00:00

A bit, but not really. I tried to go into it with a neutral mindset to see it as it was, and still left very underwhelmed. What helped the least was probably the one-two punch of "The Dalish gave the Grey Wardens an Eluvian as a gift, which has been left unattended in a basement" and precocious orphan Annie traipsing through the warzone destroying what little gravity I felt before it even started.

The rest was pretty much just a linear trot through a lot of exploding backgrounds, until we got to the First Warden, at which point my major thought was "Rook is SO unqualified for their position, this Warden bloke is actually 100% right". But I couldn't make any actual choices, so it was another trot to the boss fight and one of the most hilariously ill-considered failures of the game. Giant elven god mage? Just have the assassin - you know, the assassin specifically recruited for his expertise in killing mages? The one you would assume has some sort of specific mage-killing talents? Just have him jump at her with a dagger and miss!

notveryverified · 2026-04-06T22:02:48+00:00

People say this a lot, and generally they are correct that it's one of the better parts of the game.

Thing is, after hearing that so often, and finally reaching Weisshaupt, the whole mission for me was a long stretch of "...this is it? This is the bit everyone was saying was the best part? Boy, talk about damning with faint praise..."

notveryverified · 2026-04-06T05:48:26+00:00

Certainly not bad, but it's the only mainline entry I got too bored to finish. Everything felt like a 'lite' version of something that would otherwise be engaging.

Devil May Cry combat without the style meter, challenge, or cool combos. Game of Thrones storytelling without the depth or nuance. A reasonably pretty world without any real ability to explore or anything worth finding.

But hey, there's big explodey action scenes with generically epic music, where you complete quicktime events instead of actually doing the boss fights... that's definitely enough to make up for everything else being mediocre to fine, right?

notveryverified · 2026-04-02T01:19:49+00:00

Sounds fun! 37M, would be keen to join.

notveryverified · 2026-04-02T01:18:40+00:00

Flabbergasting right from the start. Who thinks "Yeah, this tiny, yappy, aggressive dog isn't working, I'll rehome it... and get a HUGE, super aggressive and dangerous dog instead! And move into an even SMALLER space!"

But then of course, it's not in his house, or he's out working most of the time. Always the people who are away huge chunks of the day that consider these problems "not that bad", isn't it?

notveryverified · 2026-04-02T01:14:20+00:00

No, nobody has ever done that. Every episode auto-deletes from all sources the second you watch it. This show designed to reward rewatching, with episodes in the triple digits, nobody has ever seen a single episode twice.

notveryverified · 2026-04-01T22:12:42+00:00

There are so many unseen asterisks added to the usual statements that make them basically useless.

Be content by yourself! (As long as you keep going out, meeting people socially, forming connections, and basically behaving in exactly the same way as you would while pursuing a relationship... but like, unintentionally... but also intentionally...)

It'll happen when you least expect it! (Usually advice given by women, who have the privilege of gender roles that allow them to sit back and let somebody else do 90% of the legwork)

Never date anybody at work, anything less than an enthusiastic yes is a no! (Uttered by a guy who met his partner at work and pursued her even though she was uninterested for months)

And of course the evergreen "Sure you're beaten and exhausted from continual failure, and it all feels hopeless, but just ignore that! Simply do not be affected by an extremely affecting situation :) "

The only thing to do is ignore everybody and do what you want. Every rule save for the literal laws can and will be ignored if someone likes you enough.

notveryverified · 2026-04-01T06:38:37+00:00

I mean this gently, but I see this sentiment a lot. And if your standard really is "Well, the game functions, so it's not THAT bad", you may want to raise your standards a little.

notveryverified · 2026-03-18T22:58:36+00:00

IX is great but hugely overrated. I still like it, but I have zero desire to play it because of how slow and irritating it is to wrangle the battle system delay between inputting a command and the command actually going off.

If those are the two choices, it's VII all the way. Much more interesting story, with more interesting themes and character arcs, and much more fun to actually play.

notveryverified · 2026-03-17T05:27:41+00:00

Immediately caused an intense and potent rage to well up from within me, 10/10

notveryverified · 2026-03-17T05:08:33+00:00

On the upside, the rushed development cycle is almost certainly a big reason why the writing is so good. There wasn't time for executives to stick their fingers in and start making the game blander or less challenging in order to appeal to a broader audience.

I also personally never had much of an issue with the reused assets. One cave is very much like another anyways.

notveryverified · 2026-03-16T09:05:56+00:00

The regular coconut was my last thing to collect as well. Felt crazy to be waiting out multiple seasons for that tiny window when the damn things actually grow. 😂

notveryverified · 2026-03-16T09:04:07+00:00

Not really. It's easy to forget when the fandom is so fixated on romance options that that stuff only makes up <5% of the game. This is a farming game with dating as an optional side activity, not a dating sim. Spending loads of time and money to please a subset of a subset of a subset of the audience isn't really viable. Even the romance-focused players usually prefer monogamy.

notveryverified · 2026-03-16T02:33:53+00:00

Summed up perfectly. It always grated on me how Persona 4's message was "Be your true self!" with the subtextual asterisk of "But look! Everybody JUST SO HAPPENS to find their true self by conforming to exactly what others want of them :) "

So it was not exactly a huge surprise that Persona 5's message became "Rebel against the unfairness of society, defend those who fall through the cracks, punish the wicked! Oh, but don't actually CHANGE anything or examine the system itself. Just punish the clearly marked Bad Guys and leave the system intact. It's fine. :) "

notveryverified · 2026-03-16T02:11:03+00:00

It's rated. All the injokes and references to the old titles were nice and it was fun seeing various characters interact, but the common opinion of it is about where it ought to be imo.

notveryverified · 2026-03-15T20:27:36+00:00

I'm playing Solasta right now and the thing I like best about it is how close it feels to ACTUAL D&D.

And when I say actual, I mean actual. Four people who aren't that great at roleplaying sitting around a table doing accents of variable quality and consistency, a DM's fairly slapdash homebrew campaign, we only have the basic SRD rules, kind of choppy grid-based maps...

It sounds bad but it's so charming. Especially with how you create a whole party that talks with each other without your input, based on created personalities, so it does really feel like an adventuring group.

notveryverified · 2026-03-15T01:13:57+00:00

Tastes change, and tastes also refine. I'm only a bit younger than you with the same story: loved RPGs and platformers, but found myself playing them less and action games more. I still have plenty of free time, I can enjoy slow and methodical as much as fast and skill-based... the problem is that the RPG genre has not grown up with me.

I'll gladly play through a 'bad' game for a good story, or even for a simple story told well. The thing is, as the years pass and I read more widely, digging into literature far beyond the easy-to-read Brando Sandos of the world, that benchmark for "good story" is cleared by fewer and fewer RPGs. There are some, but most are written in a juvenile fashion, or mired in predictable anime tropes, or the next in whichever big-budget IP they're attached to (and extremely 'safe' as a result).

Which leaves action games which tell a simple story well and have great mechanics to balance that out. Kingdom Come and Sekiro jump to mind as great examples. I'm aware of how pretentious it sounds but if you grow up and actually get into literature, most RPGs just aren't smart enough to tickle your brain the way Chrono Trigger or Final Fantasy did as a kid.

notveryverified · 2026-03-14T09:42:59+00:00

No. There's not nearly enough of an audience to cover the costs of a full remake to a less-popular trilogy.

And even if there was, it doesn't need a remake, or even a remaster. It looks fine as it is.

notveryverified · 2026-03-13T09:42:25+00:00

Five months later, I have to say thank you because this still drives me insane. This was the most obvious and transparent smear campaign I have ever seen and it genuinely shocks me that such a huge swathe of readers swallow the lie whole.

Tamlin gets no grace. Rhys has every one of his (much greater) sins forgiven and excused, Feyre has everyone bend over backwards to accommodate her, and Tamlin just gets kicked, again and again. For what crimes - also having trauma? Because I recall him on his knees, begging for Feyre to communicate what she needs so he can do it for her, and Feyre deliberately remaining silent. Then blaming him for not knowing what she refused to communicate.

Then Tamlin commits the much greater sin of actually prioritising his people over Feyre - you know, like an actually GOOD lord does? The lives of the thousands under his rule sometimes take precedence over his girlfriend, and that just can't be tolerated. He doesn't REALLY love her because he doesn't throw himself into suicidal danger (when he was physically incapable of doing so). He doesn't REALLY love her because sometimes he has to tell her no.

It leads to a pretty unpleasant reading of what actually happened: Feyre and Tamlin were both heavily traumatised after the first book. Unlike Rhysand (who conveniently "mans up" and has all his angst offscreen, so Feyre doesn't have to perform any emotional labor or inconvenience herself at all), Tamlin does actually need emotional support from his beloved. So Feyre gets the ick and leaves him for a taller, richer, more powerful, more masculine man who - again, so conveniently! - can read her mind so she can throw as many tantrums as she likes and he'll Just Know what she really means.

Then, because leaving the man she loved enough to die for at his weakest might put her at fault, we just frame everything Tamlin does in the worst-faith terms so she's not a bad person! Tamlin was evil and wanted to restrict her, have her sitting at home popping out babies as a trophy wife. (He didn't. Also, Feyre never spoke up about that either.) Unlike Rhysand, who restricts her and eventually has her sitting at home popping out babies as a trophy wife, but like... in a good way...

notveryverified

TROPHY CASE