Tales of Arise is a few months away from release, so it's time to take a look at the game's opening cinematic. Bandai Namco just released the game's opener, and like many JRPGs and anime, the two-minute trailer introduces each of the game's main characters and shows them slicing a bunch of monsters to a bangin’ soundtrack.
Main protagonists Alphen and Shionne take up most of the trailer's screen time. From several brief flashes of violence and fire, you get a sense of Dahna's subjugation of the planet Rena through both character's eyes and how it led them to join forces to change the world.
But alongside Alphen and Shionne come four other characters (six if you include Hootie the owl). Rinwell is a dark-haired astral artes user with Danhan blood and an adorable owl friend, Law is a young Danhan fighter who works in the Renan police force, and Kisara is a Danhan paladin with the highest physical combat characteristics of the entire party–hence the full plate mail.
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And then there's Dohalim il Qaras, the Renan aristocrat who's schooled in art, music, poetry, and antiquities–because what adventuring party would be complete without a bard?
The rest of the trailer features the team fighting some scary monsters and Alphen taking on a dark figure who will likely turn out to be the game's big bad. Or possibly one of the big bads, depending on whether or not you eventually wind up killing a god or something.
If you're looking for a sense of what to expect in Tales of Arise, Dave recently did a preview of the game where he praised the new combat mechanics where you can run outside of a 2D fighting plane as well as dodge and counter enemy attacks. "The Tales team has finally buckled down and ironed out the kinks of their previous systems, and it's excellent thus far,” he wrote.
Tales of Arise arrives September 10 for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam.
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