Tales of Arise is a bit of a departure from the series in that the upcoming title doesn’t feature any multiplayer elements. According to producer Producer Yusuke Tomizawa, the game is designed to be a standalone experience where only one person “enjoys the drama.”
“So this game is really a standalone game where one person really enjoys the drama and the overall story of the game, we don’t really have any plans currently for a multiplayer mode,” Tomizawa told IGN. “But on the other side, we did put a lot of focus on how the characters work together and how they cooperate in the battle and how that plays out in game mechanics.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Tomizawa revealed that the development team debated between an open world and linear approach, eventually choosing the latter.
We actually did debate whether to go with an open world concept or a linear concept. This was something in the early stages we really had a back and forth debate about. We actually ran tests simulating both situations and ultimately, we came to the decision that, as we mentioned, for reasons that we want the players to focus, we went with the linear option. We thought this was the best way for players to really enjoy what Tales of Arise is all about. Again, the story, character development, all that good stuff, we thought that was the best way to deliver that gameplay to the player.
Tales of Arise will release on September 10th.
[Source: IGN]