Recent reviews by Just Mythic

Most JRPGs rely on it as a fallback in case the gameplay or visuals fail somehow.

Like Symphonia, parts of Phantasia, and Rebirth before it, Arise also follows with "racism bad" as a starter for Alphen and Shionne's quest to beat up the kid friendly, Dark Souls bosses/Lords of Cinder five elemental based Renan Lords to free the planet of Dahna of three centuries' worth of slavery. Bonus, you also get some romance in there for extra motivational measure because it's so damn adorable to watch develop and unfold (it's well earned). Mind you, said average story does falter a bit in the second half of the game (it almost gave me Xenogears flashbacks) with quite a bit of exposition dumps as well as being slightly rushed in getting you to the final area of the game without tying up some of its loose ends. However, if you're invested enough in the characters to see how the cast fares in the end, it's worth it. Even if you do pick up on knowing where the story beats will go eventually, it shouldn't mar your experience. Side note: YMMV with the final boss, I personally didn't like how it was done, but the result was satisfactory in the end I suppose.

Ngl, I was initially baffled I had a dedicated jump button or even an "evasion" button at all in a Tales game. Enemies appear on the map and in front of you (no random fights), combat is very anime flashy and bright, very fast paced with the stressed mechanics of dodging/counterattacking or "Counter Edge", even being outright required in some important battles. Beware, this has much tankier enemies than previous Tales games, especially the bosses whom you cannot stagger and later in the final area. CP or "Cure Points" acts as your healing pool and casted buffs such as Lionheart, Guardian Field, Steel, and Concentrate, so you can't attrition the enemy to death. Arise expects you to play well and do your best in evading incoming damage.

As it is in Tales tradition, there's party skits, cooking, in Arise' case the obligatory hot springs cutscene, post-game EX dungeon for higher level grinding, and cameo fights from other Tales characters. Like modern Tales games such as Vesperia (fusion of old and new), Zestiria and Berseria, you can craft new weapons with enemy loot drops. Once you've acquired a new weapon, you can use that appearance as a weapon skin if you choose too without having to change out your current one (this is new).
Learning new skills/artes is either tied to completing subquests, overall artes proficiency categories (no longer tied to individual usage anymore), and character titles. Earning money is done through selling dropped enemy loot, completing subquests, or finding it in treasure bags/chests, not through simply harassing the local wildlife in battle. Items are expensive, especially for CP restorative items. Orange Gels don't normally sell for 3000 some Gald in previous games. EDIT: I forgot to mention that unlike previous Tales games, there is no internal way to play co-op with others unless it's through modding.

EDIT2: in some previous Tales games, there used to be a "Grade shop" you could spend your accumulated Grade from fights or minigames into NG+ activators for the next playthrough. This one instead has collectible artifacts related to other Bandai Namco games that stand in for those carryovers, such as items, weapons/armor/accessories, titles, etc. Some of them can be toggled, such as doing 1 damage to enemies for arte exhibition purposes.

Music's a bop, although I think there's some audio imbalance during cutscenes as sometimes it swells up too loud (I did this on 30/100 BGM volume and it was still loud). Could be me, could be the internal levels somehow, I'm not sure. Enjoy some Flame of Hope at least.

Even on a sale, they're priced a bit high, especially the $28 Battle BGM pack (which should've been unlockable somehow on your own). What's sadder is how the costume packs come with extra skills linked to titles you cannot earn on your own in the base game. There's also P2W ones that jumpstart your early beginnings in the game that make you pretty OP initially, but peter out quickly. Only get them on a very heavy sale, at least half off or more.

Yes, this game is geared towards newcomers to the series. Go play this on a discounted price, you'll like it. Personally I couldn't stop seeing Final Fantasy 4 parallels, but I'm weird.

Y'know, people have done this song and same-y dance before, you're only picking this up for the high modding capabilities of turning this into anything but Fallout. You know the drill: ignore Creation Club, install Buffout 4, do what you will. Have fun with the mods~!

1983 Cold War espionage where the goal is to get in, steal/photograph the goods, ghost out before they catch on. Simple right? Going loud is an option but very discouraged as open combat is quite hard, so only do so if you're very confident or you got caught doing your job (or forced in some story bits).

Also expect BETRAYAL!!! at any time as characters you recruit from various backgrounds *can* be sleeper agents brainwashed to turn on you during missions unless *you* know about it and have the right tools, facilities, and facility upgrades to counter it. And because you expect betrayal at any time, you need to move house if the danger exposes your location and agents.

Would I recommend this game for turnbased stealth enthusiasts? Cold War history nerds? Conspiracy theorists who also like guns ? Okay I'm not sure about that last one, but yes, give this game a spin.

Great game done RIGHT! The open-world zombie survival game you really wanted that also has a manageable base with facility upgrades, random misfortunes, and scavenging for stuff. Persistent world feature caught me off guard, but it was still fun knowing the world goes on without you. And a bonus! zombie references everywhere in this world. Have fun finding them c:

The only glaring gripe I have for this game is that if you have a partner tagging along with you (from your base, not a story mission), you can't exchange items or anything really while they're standing a foot away from you outside of combat.

I would love to see some multiplayer similar to what Left4Dead has done, with friends or something "taking over" a random non-storybased character from your base that isn't injured, on an optional side mission, and/or past a certain community population (like 10 to 16 people or something).

Otherwise this is an awesome game, go buy it if DayZ or Nether isn't to your particular taste.