Great game, but it didn't do everything right. Still, this is likely my favorite from this series.

The good:

+ The story was captivating and unpredictable most of the time
+ New battle mechanics focused on dodging, combos and flashy moves
+ I love long games and this one sure is - took me 150 hours to do everything
+ Fishing mini game is great: all of the fish are animated and different in size depending on their weight
+ Interesting title system to power up your characters
+ Cooking system is better than ever
+ New mascot is actually awesome (I didn't like Katz)
+ All characters have lots of skills, weapons and feel unique to play
+ Enemy weak spot mechanic
+ Over 300 fully voiced skits

The bad:

- english translation isn't the best, there's a good amount of grammar errors
- some areas/parts of the story truly feel either rushed or not nearly expanded upon, compared to the rest
- impossible to play as Shionne in the beginning. Why? Because you have Alphen as the only "tank" and guess what? On max difficulty he keeps dying. That doesn't happen with Shionne AI for the most part. So you could say, that you are forced to play as Alphen till you get a full party.
- the AI itself isn't good at dodging (it's crap compared to Berseria anyway). This WILL be a problem in some boss fights. Good example is Law. Don't be surprised if Law AI will keep dying even if you have "best gear" on him. In fact, there is a boss fight in secret endgame dungeon where your AI will just keep dying to the boss over and over, doesn't matter what level they are or what gear they use.
- you never end up unlocking a skip-arte-into-dodge skill in a game that is mostly based around dodging.
- later in the game, you will always use those special team moves to finish off enemies, it could get pretty old
- speaking of getting old, endgame battles can feel daunting. Especially if there's 3 different types of enemies: you need to break armor for one, stop the arte casting of another and stop the dodging of yet another. And somehow the devs were unable to make the AI do at least SOME of that. So what happens is: you target one, use skill, target another, use skill, target another bla bla. And FINALLY you target the enemy that you want to attack. The cycling between each enemy type back and forth is very annoying in this game.
- 70 side quests, but most of them require you to gather 5 bear asses
- not much endgame content and not a lot of reasons to play NG+
- only 156 enemy types. Tales of fans are used to 256 or at least 200+. That and there's a big amount of reskins
- mystic artes felt weak damage wise (I understand why, but still...)
- AI strategy settings are lacking

What Tales of Berseria (previous title) did better:

- competent AI
- respawnable herbs
- more fighting, less targeting
- strong mystic artes, can wipe all enemies, while those special team moves in Arise, sometimes don't even kill all
- less, but better side quests
- AI strategy settings are much MUCH better

Great game, but it didn't do everything right. Still, this is likely my favorite from this series. [b]The good:[/b] + The story was captivating and unpredictable most of the time + New battle mechanics focused on dodging, combos and flashy moves + I love long games and this one sure is - took me 150 hours to do everything + Fishing mini game is great: all of the fish are animated and different in size depending on their weight + Interesting title system to power up your characters + Cooking system is better than ever + New mascot is actually awesome (I didn't like Katz) + All characters have lots of skills, weapons and feel unique to play + Enemy weak spot mechanic + Over 300 fully voiced skits [b]The bad:[/b] - english translation isn't the best, there's a good amount of grammar errors - some areas/parts of the story truly feel either rushed or not nearly expanded upon, compared to the rest - impossible to play as Shionne in the beginning. Why? Because you have Alphen as the only "tank" and guess what? On max difficulty he keeps dying. That doesn't happen with Shionne AI for the most part. So you could say, that you are forced to play as Alphen till you get a full party. - the AI itself isn't good at dodging (it's crap compared to Berseria anyway). This WILL be a problem in some boss fights. Good example is Law. Don't be surprised if Law AI will keep dying even if you have "best gear" on him. In fact, there is a boss fight in secret endgame dungeon where your AI will just keep dying to the boss over and over, doesn't matter what level they are or what gear they use. - you never end up unlocking a skip-arte-into-dodge skill in a game that is mostly based around dodging. - later in the game, you will always use those [i]special team moves[/i] to finish off enemies, it could get pretty old - speaking of getting old, endgame battles can feel daunting. Especially if there's 3 different types of enemies: you need to break armor for one, stop the arte casting of another and stop the dodging of yet another. And somehow the devs were unable to make the AI do at least SOME of that. So what happens is: you target one, use skill, target another, use skill, target another bla bla. And FINALLY you target the enemy that you want to attack. The cycling between each enemy type back and forth is very annoying in this game. - 70 side quests, but most of them require you to gather 5 bear asses - not much endgame content and not a lot of reasons to play NG+ - only 156 enemy types. Tales of fans are used to 256 or at least 200+. That and there's a big amount of reskins - mystic artes felt weak damage wise (I understand why, but still...) - AI strategy settings are lacking What [b]Tales of Berseria[/b] (previous title) did better: - competent AI - respawnable herbs - more fighting, less targeting - strong mystic artes, can wipe all enemies, while those [i]special team moves[/i] in Arise, sometimes don't even kill all - less, but better side quests - AI strategy settings are much MUCH better