Fans hoping for a Tales of Arise anime are in for some disappointing news.
In a new interview with Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu, which was translated by Siliconera, Tales series producer Yusuke Tomizawa shot down requests for an anime series based on Tales of Arise. "Since so much of Tales of Arise was created around the basis of it being a game, such as the story and overall experience," Tomizawa said, finally plainly stating, "We have no intentions to tell that same story through an animated adaptation."
Numerous other entries in Bandai Namco's long-running Tales series have been adapted into anime series, despite also presumably being designed as games first, namely the beloved Gamecube classic Tales of Symphonia and 2005's Tales of the Abyss, which is now being released for free through the official Tales series YouTube channel. The last mainline Tales games to be adapted into a full-length anime series were Tales of Zestiria and Tales of Berseria, which were originally released for the Sony PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 and Windows PCs in 2015 and 2016, respectively. The two games' stories were both featured in Tales of Zestiria X, a 26-episode series that aired in 2016. Tales of Luminaria: The Fateful Crossroad, a CG anime based on one of the series' mobile spinoffs, is currently airing in Japan and is being simulcast by Funimation.
Tales of Arise is the latest game in the action-RPG series and was released in 2021. The game received positive reviews for its substantial overhauling of the series' traditional gameplay and its lovable cast of characters, and was awarded RPG of the Year at The Game Awards 2021. The story of the game focuses on Alphen, an amnesiac man who is incapable of feeling pain and whose face is covered by an iron mask that cannot be removed. After meeting a mysterious woman named Shionne, who is cursed to inflict pain on anyone she touches, Alphen becomes embroiled in the battle between two worlds.
Notably, the game featured cutscenes created by Ufotable, the animation studio that is best known for producing the anime adaptation of Koyoharu Gotouge's Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba. Ufotable recently released a new animated short based on the game, which led to fan speculation that a full anime adaptation was in the works.
Tales of Arise is now available for Windows PCs, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S. A selection of the Tales anime series are now officially available for streaming from YouTube.
Source: Famitsu, via Siliconera
