TheTales of Arisedemo currently available on PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X uses an older build of the game, which led to several misconceptions regarding the battle system. We’re here to fix that, most notably using myown experience from the preview demo, and brand new gameplay of the final game published by Famitsu.
You can stagger bosses inTales of Arise’s battle system
I’ve seen several players discussing this, regarding how bosses in the demo can’t be staggered. I’m pretty sure bosses in the preview demo could be staggered though. It takes quite a lot of combo hits but you can do it. Attacking bosses at specific moments also seems to flinch and stagger them more easily.
You can see it happen at several times in the gameplay video published by our Japanese peers of 4Gamer included below. At the 16:14 mark for example. And while the stagger animation in itself is short, the boss takes a bit more time to restart moving and attacking.
Lastly, there’s a system that seems similar toTales of Vesperia’s Secret Missions. During the fight against the preview demo’s boss, if you use a Boost Attack at a precise moment, you can trigger a short cutscene. Which will end with the boss stunned for a long time. You can see it happen at the 16:35 timestamp mark of the 4Gamer gameplay video below. I couldn’t confirm when playing the boss fight myself whether you can do that multiple times per fight or not.
Moreover, keep in mind it took years for some players of the series to find out certain subtleties in past games. There might be a lot of deeper elements of theTales of Arisebattle system we’ll only notice months or even years after release.
You can dodge while in mid-air, and double jump
I’m not sure why the demo did not include these Skills, and I’ve seen many players particularly worried about this. TheTales of Arisepreview demo had a mid-air evasion Skill you could unlock. And the full game will even have a skill to unlock double jump.
In the demo, while in the air, you’re pretty much defenseless if a boss launches an attack. In the full game, you’ll be able to evade attacks in midair after learning the corresponding Skill. Characters will be able to double jump too. Producer Yusuke Tomizawa explains so as well at the 51:20 timestamp mark of the Famitsu gameplay video below. It’s from the final game, not a demo.
Note that at 51:55 timestamp mark we also got the see the Boost Strike between Alphen and Law for the first time. The stream also shows a level 27 boss fight starting 53:30. And the special Famitsu magazine weapon for Rinwell, which will be obtainable as a DLC code in the Famitsu magazine of the week of release. (releasing July 15, 2025).
Tales of Arisecharacter designer Minoru Iwamoto also handled the cover artwork for that issue of Famitsu Magazine. It features Alphen, Shionne, Rinwell, and her howl Fururu.
In any case, keep in mind there are several issues in the demo that are actually fixed in the final game.Tales of Ariseis coming to PC (Steam) PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X. There is no Switch version. The JRPG releases on September 9 in Japan, and September 10 worldwide. Which means that depending on your timezone you can play it as early as September 8 if you’re grabbing the Japanese version. That’s what I plan to do. You can always reach me on Twitter@A_iyane07to chat about Japanese stuff.
