Many Japanese role-playing games boast unprecedented realism thanks to modern development tools that are capable of building dragons scale-by-scale. But not everyone thrives on a strict diet of grit and grime. I, for one, occasionally break away and indulge the urge to jump into bright, busy JRPGs that check off every anime cliche ever devised.
These are the JRPGs that actively make me seek battles because it just feels good to leap a metre off the ground and punch an eagle in the face. These are the JRPGs that make me wonder why the protagonist wears a heavy, half-broken mask that probably screws with his peripheral vision. (Then I tell myself that my dumb anime son can do whatever he wants.) These are among my favourite kinds of JRPGs, and Bandai Namco's Tales of Arise keeps good company with them.