Tales of Arise has seen significant critical acclaim since the newest entry in the long-running JRPG franchise released last September. The game has already become the fastest-selling in the nearly 30-year-old series, and it saw multiple nominations for annual awards, even claiming Best RPG at the 2021 Game Awards. Now, with the popular RPG nearing the five-month anniversary of its release, Bandai Namco has released a stunning new trailer to introduce fans to the game's darker world – and it sets a high bar.
Tales of Arise serves as the newest entry in one of the JRPG genre's classic franchises. Since the release of Tales of Phantasia on the Super Famicom in 1995, the series has spanned seventeen main series entries across every console generation since the mid-90s, as well as a plethora of spinoff titles centered around the many stories featured within each individual game. Arise sought to change up the formula, mixing many of the franchise's classic elements with a darker, intenser storyline, and recently paired with renowned animation studio Ufotable to produce a brand-new animated trailer.
Tales of Arise's Animated Trailer Shows Off the World
The stylish animated trailer, after some gorgeous scenery shots, introduces the audience to the world of Dahna and the Astral Energy that sustains the planet which is being drained by the people of the futuristic society of Rena. The trailer gives a glimpse into many of the game's main characters with each getting a brief moment to show off their personal flair as well as introducing the game's primary antagonist Vholran, left nameless in the trailer. The animation is reminiscent of many of studio Ufotable's more well-known works with the Japanese animation studio having previously worked on anime like Fate/Stay Night and Demon Slayer.
The trailer saw many of the game's fans speculating whether Tales of Arise may be set to receive an anime adaptation in the near future. The Tales series has received anime adaptations several times in the past and recent Bandai Namco RPG Scarlet Nexus also received an anime shortly following its release in June of this year. Ufotable and the Tales franchise also have history with one another as the studio has created animated cutscenes for every Tales game since 2011's Tales of Xillia, alongside producing anime adaptations of Tales of Symphonia and Zestiria.
The massive success of Tales of Arise has led to plenty of speculation about the future of the Tales franchise and how Arise's popularity may affect it. A survey distributed by Bandai Namco in November suggested the possibility of some older Tales of games being remastered, including many of the franchise's more obscure titles like Tales of Destiny and Tales of Rebirth. With Tales of Arise setting franchise records and seeing multiple accolades, the future looks bright for one of the JRPG genre's mainstays.
Tales of Arise is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S