Tales of Arise is the newest installment of the "Tales series" and is the story (I've had this tab open for weeks now) of the enslavement of one planet by another and the subsequent liberation of the former by the protagonist of the game.
Iam "Since he brought it up, Tales of Arise is an exercise in the exploration of the different types of tyranny. The first area you liberate is an 'overt tyranny' where the slaves are forced to labor under the rule of a brutal dictator. The second is a communist surveillance state where the citizenry is incentivized to act as informants to the state. The third is a seemingly meritocractic capitalist state but the lord of the land is aloof to the wellbeing of the public and has a toxic underling whose working behind the scenes to reinstate the oppressor class to it's previous state as rulers over the oppressed class. After you learn of the underling's plot it's revealed that the lord never really cared about equality or the oppressed class but, rather, was traumatized during the tournament to determine who would be the next lord when he was forced to kill his best friends. He just couldn't stand to hear their screams so he freed them to alleviate his guilt. The fourth is a technocratic autocracy where the denizens are forced to wear masks that strip them of their ability to think and speak. Great story. The 'Tales' series' world building and interpersonal character development is unparalleled and the title screen song is alway a bop."
by Hym Iam March 6, 2023