Tales of Arise Release Date Hinted at in New Update

In an interview with Japan's Weekly Famitsu (translated by Gematsu), Yusuke Tomizawa, series producer on Bandai Namco's Tales games, hinted that development on Tales of Arise is starting to wrap up. A specific release window was not mentioned, but more news regarding the game will be revealed in the near future. Until then, fans will have to wait patiently, but Tomizawa claims that the team is working to create a game that will please fans in Japan, as well as in the rest of the world. Goals like that often prove easier said than done, but fans should have an answer sooner, rather than later!

In the interview, Tomizawa also stated that the team is starting to recover from some of the chaos surrounding the coronavirus pandemic. It will likely be some time before the video game industry can truly determine the impact of the pandemic on game development. While most developers switched to working-from-home during the pandemic, this clearly led to a lot of complications, and a bit of a learning curve. The last year has seen a number of games pushed back, likely as a direct result of the pandemic. The video game industry can often be quite tight-lipped when it comes to development, however, so it will be interesting to see whether or not publishers and developers will speak about the impact in the future.

For those unfamiliar with the Tales franchise, games in the series typically take place in their own separate worlds, similar to Square Enix's Final Fantasy franchise. The series debuted in 1995 with Tales of Phantasia, which originally released on the Super Famicom in Japan. Since then, the series has appeared on countless platforms, and has been a staple of the JRPG genre. Tales of Arise marks the 17th main entry in the series, and little information has been revealed regarding the game, at this time. The title will feature protagonists Dahna and Shionne, a pair of characters from very different backgrounds that must travel the game's world together.

Tales of Arise will release on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. You can check out all of our previous coverage of the game right here.

Are you looking forward to playing Tales of Arise? What's your favorite entry in the series, thus far? Let us know in the comments or share your thoughts directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp to talk all things gaming!