In a move few could have predicted, the two-year-old RPG Tales of Arise just got a teaser for a DLC titled Beyond the Dawn during September’s State of Play.
Bandai Namco has been silent regarding an all-new Tales entry of late, but alas, it was an expansion and not a sequel they had in the pipes, to be released on November 9, 2023.
The short teaser shows us some interesting implications regarding the story. In particular, we know when this DLC takes place in Tales of Arise’s core plot.
*Spoilers regarding the endgame, tread carefully!*
Tales of Arise ends on a definitive cadence, establishing a whole new status quo for the entire galaxy of the setting. It’s somewhat surprising, then, to see familiar locations in Beyond the Dawn’s trailer. The straggling capital of Mahaag Sar is one of the gathering points for the protagonists as shown in the trailer.
Not only are the buildings in the same locations as in the core game, but the geography around the field zones remains largely unchanged. This is because Dahna and Rena have merged into one planet through a peaceful and smooth transition, somehow. Much of Dahna’s topography remains as it was before as seen in the trailer’s Orbus Calaglia terrain around the familiar town of Ulzebek.
But we do know this expansion is set after the ending because of Alphen’s narration during the trailer. He says, “One year has passed since the great conflict between Dahna and Rena; and so, our journey continues.”
The trailer is saying the conflict between the two planets is finished and the merging between them has occurred a year prior, which was the ending of Tales of Arise, past tense.
So, while there are many familiar locations and identical outfits for characters implying a static status quo, this is indeed set decisively after the ending.
Whether or not the abundant use of shared assets indicates plot holes or weak writing is unknown at this time, but it’s certainly not going to alter the original ending, as far as we can currently deduce.
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Matthew Carmosino
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