TAILS OF IRON XBOX GAME PASS FREE

This combat sundae is already expansive and wonderful to engage with (there were many moments where I said, “Cool!” out loud, to no one but my dog) and they’ve topped it with the cherry of flashy combo moves between two characters which looks more like something out of Guilty Gear Xrd instead of an RPG. (You can also open up the menu during battle and switch out any character you’d like, or even change out what Arte a character has equipped, so letting us use all of their abilities at once just saves us the hassle of manually switching them out.) And while you can only have four of the six characters in battle at a time, you can still use all six of their skills at any time. Or, if you run into a shielded enemy, Law’s ability can break through that shield, opening the enemy up for damage. For instance, Rinwell the mage has an interruption ability that not only stops an enemy from casting a spell but steals it, allowing Rinwell to cast it during that fight.

On top of that, Alphen has a risk-reward mechanic of expending his health in order to strengthen his attacks.Īnother of Arise’s clever new additions is that all six characters come with a special skill mapped to the D-pad that is used to counteract anything an enemy can do. Using Artes and perfect dodges will build a meter that puts your character in an overdrive state that gives you a costless use of Artes and access to a Mystic Arte, a kind of finishing move.

TAILS OF IRON XBOX GAME PASS FREE

The classical and rock-inspired music during fights goes along well with this, making it all feel exciting.Īrise continues to use the free camera that debuted in Berseria, which makes the use of Artes, or special moves, much easier to aim in the midst of a fight. For instance, the perfect dodge mechanic gives you a second of slow-motion after an enemy’s attack and teleports you into range for a counterattack. While Arise maintains the familiar circular arena, actual movement and attacks feel more fluid than before, more like a combination of traditional Tales combat and a character-action game like Devil May Cry or Bayonetta. One area where it really shines is in how much better combat feels than in previous Tales games. But other than that, Arise seems very well polished. I also caught the occasional typo in the subtitles, or noticed a character would say a word that was not what was written in the subtitle. For instance, sometimes the lip synching is off – I couldn’t tell if it was a timing thing or they just never animated the characters to sync with the English voice acting. If I had to find one thing to complain about, it’s the small but frequent localization issues. The world is massive, too, and exploring all of its regions takes around 50 hours. The painted, almost watercolor look really makes Arise stand out from previous entries and the art direction makes everything easy to understand. Simply put, this is a tale too heartbreaking to miss, or to forget.

Its tragic story of broken people fighting on the wrong side of history makes it utterly compelling, and its well-tuned combat more than makes up for its lack of interesting environments. Tales of Berseria is a surprisingly strong showing for this long-running series.

Tails of iron xbox game pass