Tales of Arise: Beyond the Dawn Edition review for Nintendo Switch 2
System: Switch 2
Release date: May 22, 2026
Developer: Bandai Namco
Publisher: Bandai Namco
Two planets hurl together through the cosmos, entangled in a three hundred years’ long war with the planet Rena ruling over Dahna and its people. Dahna’s resources are mined and pillaged to benefit the ruling Renans, and the Dahnan people are subjugated and treated as work slaves. Two people born on different worlds decide to change fate and create a new path – and after doing so, the journey continues onward with the mysterious young Nazamil. Born of both Renan and Dahnan blood, Nazamil’s introduction leads the party down a new path of adventure and intrigues.
With over a dozen mainline games spanning the course of over thirty years, Bandai Namco’s Tales of series has a long and storied history. With many spin-offs, mobile games, and remasters, the Tales series has evolved quite a lot since the launch of Tales of Phantasia in 1995. From the SNES to Nintendo Switch 2, fans of the games have long been able immerse themselves in colorful, almost anime-like worlds with incredible casts of characters and heartfelt narrative-driven adventures. Like most Tales games, Arise is a completely standalone experience that can be enjoyed by anyone and is newcomer friendly entirely with no narrative ties to previous franchise entries.
Tales of Arise first graced us in 2021, with its Beyond the Dawn DLC hitting most platforms in 2023. Now three years later, Nintendo Switch 2 sees the entire cumulative experience in one package. First focusing on the main campaign story, we follow first Alphen, an amnesiac that mysteriously cannot feel pain. Soon, we are also joined by the beautiful but cold Shionne, a woman cursed to hurt anyone that touches her. The duo have a unique synergy: where Alphen can push himself through great harm to himself to accomplish great feats, Shionne can heal that harm with her powers. Together, they embark to liberate the oppressed planet of Dahna, falling into no shortage of twists and turns as the plot advances.
Fighting your way to liberation can be quite fun and rewarding in Arise. Combat is particularly fast-paced when compared to other titles, and sometimes feels like a fighting game as you string together combo attacks and dodge incoming strikes. Characters are able to work together for “Boost Attacks” which have specific bonuses when used by specific characters or on specific enemies. Shionne’s boost attack in particular quickly became a personal favorite against aerial enemies, as it seems to introduce them to the concept of gravity and plasters them directly to the floor, allowing Alphen and company to swoop in for a quick beatdown. I found myself stringing combos together, then coming in with a Boost Attack for every situation, and that kept combat feeling rewarding as the game progressed.
Characters can change weapons, armor, and accessories throughout the game. These equipment items give bonuses to stats across the board, with accessories being a little more flavorful – adding extra damage to elements and attacks, decreasing characters’ gained Aggro through fights, and other various boons. Many of these items can be crafted and even upgraded rather than found throughout the world, and armor can be bought at vendors as you traverse the planets. Back to crafting – this is a fun experience that makes use of the items and ore spots that players find while exploring, so make sure you visit every single shiny spot you see to stock up on valuable materials and resources. Many of these spots will have useful things, like gels for healing and ingredients for Cooking, which is a staple system in Tales titles.
While Arise is a game that simply begs to be explored, I do still have the same exact gripe that I had at the original release: the map system, quest markers, and navigation as a whole can be incredibly frustrating. There were many times I found myself struggling to figure out where to go next and how to get there. But navigation aside, exploration is very much rewarding with a wealth of materials for both crafting and cooking, and accessories and other items to be collected, upgraded, and equipped.
As players advance through the story, the party expands. All new allies bring something unique: a new Boost Attack for one, but more importantly than the mechanical is the narrative. Rinwell (who has a very cute companion owl, Hootle) is a powerful spell caster that can destroy enemies in combat, but her attitude and sarcastic demeanor add flavor to the story that I found absolutely endearing. Law, a martial artist, leans into the “combat feels like a fighting game” part, with aggressive close combat that keeps you on the offensive. Law comes across as aloof, but is actually quite witty and observant. Kisara changes up fights by drawing enemy attention, but she also functions as an amazing cook for the party. Dohalim, on the other hand is an incredible hybrid character that can function as a healer as well as a physical combatant or spell caster.
All of the characters have deeply immersive character development. We have backstories with emotional pasts that are well worth the time to explore further. Like in other Tales games, we have the return of Skits that can occur after cutscenes. These do a great job at showing who you’re really traveling with – the banter is sometimes fun and light, but at other times there are heavier revelations that reveal motivations for each person, as well as their interests and even the traumatic events of their pasts that allow them to keep moving forward.
What unites the party is their wish for the co-existence of both Dahnans and Renans despite the deep wounds they carry. Oppression, isolation, guilt, loss, prejudice – all of these hurts are reasons that many people choose not to engage with others. Gradually, though, the characters find healing for themselves while journeying alongside one another. They don’t at first unite because of trust or shared purpose, but personal grudges and motivations that lead them to fight the current system. Alphen wants to clear the mysteries about himself. Shionne wants to break her curse and heal from her emotional isolation. Rinwell is dead set in fighting Renan persecution. Law has guilt and anger at his father. Kisara struggles to balance duty with morality, and Dohalim is trying to change himself to be more compassionate within a system that rewarded cold and calculated cruelty.
On paper, these people are outright messes. There’s a tension early on that can at times feel like they’ll be at each other’s throats, and at times fights will break out – but each realizes slowly that they aren’t fighting each other. They’re fighting a prejudice that they’ve been steeped in their entire lives. They begin to understand that each is suffering in a different form, and that while the causes may differ, together they can work to relieve and liberate others from that same kind of suffering.
And that’s what makes this Tale one worth embarking on: the party stops seeing one another as simply “Renan” or “Dahnan” and start to awaken to seeing others as people. The smaller moments we get, especially in the skits, show arguments, misunderstandings, vulnerability, and grief alongside the light humor and everyday conversations. These are the moments that make these characters believable. They aren’t just one-trick personalities, but people who’ve survived something, realized how that survival shaped them, and decided that liberation is the key to healing. While that liberation isn’t going to magically resolve 300 years of trauma, it will set the stage for that spiral of suffering to finally come to an end. Those who come after them will benefit, while those who remain with the remnants of that oppression can slowly begin to heal.
Beyond the Dawn content will shift from liberation to rebuilding. A year after the base game, the found family that we’ve built is thrust into a more introspective tale. Nazamil becomes our central figure, born from both Renan and Dahnan blood. There’s a lot of hatred from both sides toward the girl due to this heritage, showing that prejudice is still alive among those trying to resettle the newly-liberated worlds. We are still exploring heavy traumatic themes, but at a much slower pace. Here we see broken people helping broken people — the scars we’ve healed in our party can help close the open wounds of others.
Tales of Arise Beyond the Dawn Edition is an emotional roller coaster through and through. While you can access this content from the main title screen at any time, I highly recommend first completing the base story before moving into it. Going through the content in order will make the payoff complete, and the slower pacing of Beyond the Dawn feels a lot better after the war is won.
On Nintendo Switch 2, the game runs incredibly fluid. The colorful world absolutely pops in both handheld mode and on my 4K TV in docked mode. While I played most of the game in handheld, I absolutely recommend docked as much as possible for how much it looks like you’re playing through an animated movie rather than just a video game. The cinematic cutscenes land incredibly well no matter what you choose, but I am personally a sucker for seeing everything in amazing detail when possible, and Nintendo Switch 2 can deliver.
At its heart, Tales of Arise is a story about wounded people learning how to stop perpetuating the same pain that shaped them. It’s recognizing that fear, prejudice, and anger are often inherited from the systems surrounding us, and that healing begins when we choose to see one another as human beings instead of enemies. In an increasingly polarized world where we are seeing more and more people at one another’s throats, I found myself reflecting on my own assumptions, my own reactions, and the ways people can unintentionally lash out from unresolved hurt. The game constantly asks the player to pause before judging others too quickly. It asks difficult questions about forgiveness, compassion, and whether people shaped by inherited cruelty can still choose kindness. More importantly, it argues that patience with one another matters, especially in divided times.
In a world that is increasingly driven by outrage, conflict, and the pressure to immediately see others as irredeemable, this story is incredibly relevant. The party members come from backgrounds that taught them to fear, resent, or even hate one another, yet they slowly learn that people are often more complicated, and more capable of change, than the systems around them would have them believe. Watching that growth unfold became one of the most emotionally rewarding parts of the entire experience.
That is what ultimately stayed with me after the credits rolled. Beyond the flashy combat, beautiful visuals, and exciting boss fights lies a story about empathy, healing, and learning to work alongside others despite the wounds we carry. And honestly? That’s a lesson worth learning.
Tales of Arise is an incredibly strong entry in the Tales series, and this version boasts an adventure that can easily push 60 hours with all DLC content included. While the Beyond the Dawn content pushes the narrative experience and does an amazing job at showing what happens after the main story concludes, it may not give too much new to returning players that missed out the first time as far as mechanical differences, but is sure to delight anyone that loves the story. This is very much a complete experience that feels most at home as a singular cohesive experience, so whether you’re diving in for the first time or returning for another romp, Tales of Arise: Beyond the Dawn Edition won’t disappoint.
Tales of Arise: Beyond the Dawn Edition copy provided by the publisher for the purposes of this review.
