Tales of Arise Beyond the Dawn Review – A beautiful but basic epilogue

thesixthaxis.com:

When Tales of Arise dropped in 2021, producer Yusuke Tomizawa confirmed at the time that the game would not be getting any story expansions via DLC or updates. That seemed like a fine deal, at the time – Tales games aren’t exactly known for getting post-launch expansions, and it had a pretty satisfying narrative conclusion that left a smile on my face. Sure, the ramifications of the ending left some big ideas unexplored, but they felt more like inconsequential background details when compared to the character-driven drama that was really pushing things along. Despite a satisfying conclusion and promises of no DLC continuation, a massive post-game DLC has now arrived for Tales of Arise called Beyond the Dawn, and while it’s nice to be able to return to this world and these characters, I’m still not fully convinced we needed to.

Spoiler Warning: If you’ve not finished Tales of Arise, you should probably stop reading here, as we discuss the main game’s ending and where this DLC continues on from it.

It all seemed to have ended so well for Alphen and his crew of oddballs defeat the Great Spirit of Rena, and in doing so caused the twin planets of Rena and Dahna to merge into one. Beyond the Dawn picks up a year after this ending, and makes it clear that things have not gone as smoothly as everyone would have hoped when two worlds became one.

Sure, Alphen and Shionne got married and get to explore the lands as they see fit, but they’ve ended up being tasked with sealing the various mysterious mausoleums that have popped up across the land. They’re ancient structures that, if left unsealed, will continue to make it impossible for Rena and Dahna’s planetary energy to truly fuse. In the middle of this quest, they end up