Bandai Namco has a new developer message video available for Tales of Arise which features director Hirokazu Kagawa and art director Minoru Iwamoto. Kagawa starts by talking about the battle system and how the objective was to create “an action RPG that can be enjoyed by everybody.” Check it out below.
Among some of the new features are Counter Edge, which is meant to provide a satisfying counter-attack option; and and Boost Attack and Boost Strike which offer satisfying final moves for combos. Iwamoto then discusses improvements made to the facial expressions and body movements. The developer utilized high quality motion capture and facial capture, which provides more subtle details to the movement of eye-brows, mouths and so on.
Characters also have idle motions and unique movements in battle that help give them more personality. Overall, Tales of Arise definitely feels like a big step-up in visual quality compared to previous titles. It releases on September 10th worldwide for PS4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS5 and PC.