Tales of Arise: Beyond the Dawn Hands-On Impressions

The story in Beyond the Dawn takes place after the main story ends. The expansion will detect if you have a save file from the original Tales of Arise game, and based on that file, it will advance your progress to the level needed to enjoy Beyond the Dawn, along with letting you adjust the game settings to your play style. 

Shionne and Alphen are still the lead characters that you will be playing as in the Tales of Arise: Beyond the Dawn. One year has passed, and the Renan and Dahnan’s have joined forces to make a single planet, living harmoniously together. Unfortunately, even though they are all living together, the two races are still holding prejudices against each other. The Renans view Alphen as the destroyers of their rights, while the Dahna revere him as the hero who liberated them.

Alphen and Shionne witness this prejudice first-hand when they see a group of boys chasing a young girl because her father is a Renan lord and her mother a Dahnan slave. This mysterious girl, named Nazamil, has magical abilities, and the heroes take it upon themselves to protect her. To help them with this quest, they rejoin with four other characters from the first title. I won’t spoil who, but you will find out soon enough.

The game gives you a refresher on how the battle system works because even if you played the original game, it’s been a while since then. The Artes system is here once again, and it lets you assign up to three attacks to the Y, X, and A buttons on your controller. These powerful attacks complement your normal attacks, which you can string together to create combos.

The fantastical and beautiful visions from the base Tales of Arise game are here once again. There are impressive monsters to battle and cool-looking Artes to use while battling. There is a selection of new outfits to add to your wardrobe and new recipes to use with your characters when you visit campfires. The selection of this will vary depending on which version of the DLC you pick up. Either way, it’s always fun to customise your character’s wardrobe!

If you were a fan of the original Tales of Arise game, you are sure to enjoy the Beyond the Dawn DLC and interacting with the characters that you love in an all-new story arc!