If you're into the classic Tales games, you're going to notice right away that this doesn't quite feel like the Tales game you're used to.

The battle mechanics in this game are quite different from chaining basic attacks into arte attacks at the end. While some of the older games did have elemental attritubes on artes, this game takes it to the next level. There are no longer basic attacks, rather, any attack you do is an "arte" attack. Most attacks in the game come with some type of elemental attritube(even non-elemental is an attritbute) which gives you an upperhand against your enemies. Aside from elements, most attacks are strong against certain types of enemy classes like flying and demi-human. If thats not enough, most attacks also confer some type of status affliction aswell. Applying debuffs to enemies allows you to inflict status effects easier, and vice versa. Using the right elemental or anti-class attacks deal bonus damage. Expose all the enemies weakness and you deal even more damage. It starts to feel like a lot to juggle and I often find myself grinding in areas that allow me to setup easy combo's that Velvet, the main character, has a good aresenal of elements and anti class attacks for and rushing through areas where she's underequipped to dominate.

One change I like a lot, however, is how it feels to be in towns and areas grinding monsters. In the older games, camera's often took a fixed position and followed the character from that angle throughout. You didn't quite have the ability to look around and enjoy the scenary. However, the camera in this games follows the character from behind and allows you to pan around and enjoy looking at everything. This for me is a welcome change.

The last thing I want to talk about is the characters. This games cast, at least early on, is a band of misfits who are pretty much anti-heroes. This isn't so bad, and most of the cast is pretty likeable in fact, but the one character who I think they just went to far with is Velvet. I just feel like she tries to hard to be a badass. She's hellbent on vengance and it's almost unbearable witnessing it. I want vengance for what happens early on(no spoilers bro bro), but I felt they could have taken a different angle with her character.

There's a lot more to say about this game, and the good outweighs the bad. The combat is more complex than some previous "Tales" titles but it's actually quite fun once you get the hang of it. The game does a good job of rewarding your time spent mastering it by allowing you to feel like a monster slaying badass. I recommend this game to anyone who likes a good jrpg, and anyone who likes the "Tales" series.