Maybe “annual updates” should be the proper name for these at this point…
Stream Updates
Internet Issues and 60 fps
Last time I wrote this blog I was going through a terrible internet experience with my ISP. I am glad to finally report that Spectrum seems to have finally pulled their head out of their asses and fixed whatever the underlying problem was!
The internet issues finally being fixed have also allowed me to finally begin with experimenting on streaming in 60 fps rather than our usual 30 fps. We’ve done this now with Judgment (Remastered) and Tales of Arise and it seems to have been received pretty well. One of the main reasons I typically do not like streaming in 60 fps is that it technically requires double the processing power as well as nearly double the upload as well to support it. This isn’t a problem on its own, but it can affect people that are watching on mobile or on slower internet connections where they may not be able to support the increased bandwidth demand. This would normally be solved by twitch, but because they don’t like to offer quality options consistently it creates further problems every time we go live. This is the main reason I tend to stick to 30 fps; if Twitch one day finally decides to offer all quality options permanently to all affiliates then I would happily transition to 60 fps for the long haul.
Discord restructuring
I’ve finally updated the Discord to now be a Community Server. This now lets us have additional extra features such as rule screening, announcement channels, and other background features. I’ve also re-organized the channels a bit more for better consistency.
If you are first joining the Discord you still need to authenticate with either Roll.EXE or speak with one of the moderators; otherwise you will only see a single channel on the Discord. This is unfortunately for security reasons as it easily prevents several types of petty attacks; however with the community server upgrade it should now be easier than ever to quickly get access to the entire Discord without delay.
I will continue posting Discord events for future streaming dates, since this seems to have been accepted pretty positively by everyone.
Expanded range of emotes
We’ve come a long way from when emotes were first released and now we have quite a considerable amount of emotes to choose from.
I’ve also filled in the rest of the follower emotes at the request of one of you. Thank you to everyone who has subscribed to support the channel!
Throughout this year we have played through Judgment (Remastered), Lost Judgment, Tales of Arise, and now Soul Hackers 2 at the request of you. Please keep sending me game suggestions in the Discord; I do actually check all of them!
Express Review: Tales of Arise
Express review is a format I want to try after completing games, especially the ones that take me entire months to fully finish. I’m not a game reviewer but I hope this offers the opinion of someone who has actually played the entirety of a game and really dug deep into its contents, rather than someone who may have only played a couple of hours and only scratched the surface of a game.
Keep in mind that everything written here is entirely my opinion; you may get an entirely different point of view depending on what it is you value more!
Story
Tales of Arise is another entry into the well known Tales series by the Bandai Namco Studios, and its only natural that this is one of the games I would immediately pre-order upon its announcement (and I don’t pre-order very often at all!).
For me, a Tales game has a big advantage in storytelling over all else. As is typical of this series, the story is incredibly long and confusing for almost the entire game; I really did not begin to make sense of the bigger struggle of what we were trying to accomplish until we were about 85% through the games main story. Overall though, while the story did have a few surprises it didn’t have anything too crazy off the beaten path and was relatively weak; you pretty much know what you are getting into. While the story isn’t going to be your primary factor in this game, I still felt like each of the characters had their own well fleshed out personalities and I definitely enjoyed the journey with the entire team.
Gameplay
What the game may lack for in story it makes up for in combat by a long shot. As expected of a Tales title, the combat is engaging and incredibly fun; its almost becomes second nature figuring out how different attacks chain together to get higher combos. It is absolutely complete chaos in the beginning, but mysteriously it evolves into a sort of “coordinated chaos” once you get your head into the system.
That being said, there were definitely times in some boss battles where the chaos became so overwhelming that it was a little challenging to follow along with the boss attacks and everything that was happening. For these times I’m definitely glad that I was able to switch to other characters whose combat style let me hang back and reassess the situation with a better view. My strong recommendation if you are going to jump into this game is: get acquainted with every characters combat style. You could bulldoze through the entire game as Alphen, but you’ll have a much better time if you get your feet wet with the other characters as well and freely switch between them. Veterans of Tales games may have the opinion that the combat has been simplified, but I still think the system has enough depth to keep me entertained even through a replay of the game.
You are also getting your money’s worth in regards to content in this game; in my playthrough I almost reached 100 hours with hardly any grinding whatsoever.
Graphics
Graphics is another element this game completely blows out of the water. This is easily one of the prettiest Tales games that has ever been developed; everything has incredible texture and fidelity and was beautiful to look at. The game didn’t sacrifice performance for this either; the entire game ran at a solid 60 fps with absolutely no hiccups at any point. I played this game on the PS5 and the game even gives you additional options in order to prioritize graphic fidelity or performance, but I never felt like I had to compromise on either of those things.
The music too was a joy to listen to; although it is the typical Tales music you expect, it is a solid experience right along with the game (and you can tell they really went hard on the orchestra this time).
Verdict
Keeping everything into account, do I think you should buy this game? I’m going to give the most annoying answer out there: It depends.
If you know what a Tales game is or even if you are just starting out in a Tales game for the first time, this game is fantastic; it gives you all the elements of a Tales game that you would expect and you certainly won’t be disappointing. However the game has a big downside…
The DLC.
The fucking DLC man.
DLC in Tales game are no surprise, but its clear this company has stuck their head so far up their ass if they expect people to actually buy all the DLC. I did buy some DLC in this game (maybe about half), and together with the game’s cost that easily broke the $120 barrier. Its even worse when you consider that some gameplay elements were clearly designed around you needing some of the DLC items; you quickly run out of gald if you want to further upgrade your gear, and your only options are to grind it out, suck it up, or buy the straight up pay to win gald DLC that they sell you.
The insane amount of DLC and its expense significantly holds this game back; I would highly recommend you only buy this game on Steam for PC if you possibly can (and maybe even wait for a sale) to help offset the ridiculous cost and ensure you don’t have the game stuck on a console for years to come. If you buy it on PS5 like I did, you’re going to get a fantastic experience sure; but your wallet is going to hate you.
Let me know if I should continue these “express reviews” in the future and if you got something out of it!