Tales of Arise - Beyond the Dawn Expansion Review

I had the opportunity to check out the base Tales of Arise game back in September of 2021. Fast-forward a couple of years, and now the Beyond the Dawn DLC, which is an expansion to that original story, is here adding more than 20 hours of game content. This includes new dungeons, boss fights, quests and an all-new story arc. If you haven’t beaten the base game, that’s okay! It is not required to enjoy Beyond the Dawn, if you don’t mind spoilers of how the original story ends that is.

Beyond the Dawn takes place after the events of the main story. The expansion detects if you have a save file from the original game and progresses your files' main story to make it easier for you to play, no matter how far you got into that game. It will also give you bonuses if you have played based on how far you got and extra if you have unlocked all of the in-game characters. After that, you are taken to the settings screen to select options like difficulty, language, and how much time you get in battle before you are attacked. 

One year has passed since the finale of the base game. The two worlds — Renan and Dahnan — have joined forces making a single planet with The Six all together. But this new world still has problems; even though they are living together, the two races haven’t forgotten the previous prejudices that they had against each other before. Alphen is being revered as a liberating hero by the Dahnan, but is seen as a destroyer of rights by the Renans. 

We witness a young girl with two different coloured eyes being chased by a group of three boys. What they don’t know is that she has some magical abilities: she is able to turn invisible and hide herself from her pursuers. Witnessing these events are Shionne and Alphen, who we know from the base Tales of Arise game. They are interested in this mysterious girl with heterochromia — with one blue eye and one green —  who is apparently the daughter of a Renan lord and a Dahnan slave at the same time. The duo want to speak with her, so you will see a star marked on your map that will count down as you get closer to her location.  

As you approach the spot, they find her surrounded by monsters that they need to dispatch first. Jumping into battle, we are refreshed on how the battle system works, as it has been a while since the game was originally released, and chances are you may not remember all the different things at work during combat. If you are playing with a controller, RB allows you to perform a normal attack. In the beginning, you can string three of these together, but as you level up and learn new skills, this number can be increased. Besides the standard attack, you can use special actions called Artes. When used, these moves will use part of your Artes gauge that is displayed on the screen. The Y, X, and A buttons can all have these special attacks assigned to them. These powerful attacks are useful against enemies who fly and are out of your reach or when the standard move doesn’t seem too effective. The bar will refill automatically but will restore slower when you are attacking. Once the battle is complete, you learn that the girl's name is Nazamil and that she will join your party as you head to the town of Niez.

While playing, you can set which of your characters is the team leader. This is the person you will be controlling in battle, the other members that you don’t actively control can be set to automatically attack on their own. However, you do have control over what type of strategy they follow. This can be changed at any point in time, even when you are in the middle of a battle, setting this makes it so that you don’t have to worry about what these party members are doing during a fight. The four base options are: Go all out against bosses, fight with moderation, focus on healing, or healing only. You can customise these further if you wish. For me, I found the fight with moderation and focus on healing options to be the best. I rely on my main character to attack, so being able to have another member keep us healthy was incredibly helpful. 

The Beyond the Dawn Expansion doesn’t only introduce a new story arc but lets you experience new challenges in a world that is familiar but evolved from the one that you had explored before. Of course, since this wouldn’t be a Tales of Arise title without a selection of cool new outfits and recipes to try out. The selection will differ depending on which version of the DLC you purchase, but either way, there are new costumes for both Alphen and Shionne, along with new food to make. Playing dress-up with the characters to make them your own is always a good time!

If you are a fan of the base Tales of Arise game, you will enjoy the Beyond the Dawn DLC. The beautiful, fantastical visuals and great music are here once again. I really appreciate that even if you didn’t complete the main game, you are still able to play this. Adding 20-plus hours and a new story arc that keeps the original characters and an evolved version of the world whose history you are already familiar with was nice. It felt very connected with the base game and introduced some interesting new characters to interact with. I didn’t feel like I was playing a totally different game that required me to learn a ton of new stuff. Though this means the story of the contrasting races is still here. This is a must-play for Tales of Arise fans, though if you weren’t a fan of the original game, then this will not change your mind especially if you were expecting this DLC to be totally different than the main game. Will you be able to help the residents of this new world get over the past issues they had with each other so that they can live in peace together?