Picking the best party in a JRPG is always a tough task, when each party member typically has their own individual benefits. Tales of Arise is no exception, providing six options that must be narrowed down to four. Furthermore, there is a reasonable degree of tactical and strategic discretion to get the best out of your party, which can make all the difference during those tough encounters. We’ve considered different choices and tried to cover all of the main considerations when it comes to making your selections.
Here’s everything you need to know about the Tales of Arise best party and best strategy setup.
- RELATED: Tales of Arise review (spoiler-free)
What is the Tales of Arise best party?
Once all six playable characters unlocked, you have a decision to make. The best party in Tales of Arise really depends on the situation, and there’s not a one-size-fits-all approach. Each character has their own unique strengths and weaknesses, so it’s worth tinkering your team accordingly. We’ve narrowed it down to three broad categories, with a different party for each challenge.
Remember, you can also change your party mid-battle. This can be done using a shortcut, and is also possible via the menu.
All-Rounder best party
Party: Alphen, Shionne, Rinwell, Kisara
Control: Alphen
This party balances close-range damage dealing with healing and long-range attacks. Law is a bigger damage dealer than Kisara, but Kisara’s higher HP and defensive ability make her a far more reliable team-mate. Law is fixed in your party for a long time, so you’ll have probably noticed how prone he is to being killed.
Alphen is the best character to control, since his Blazing Sword can be activated manually whenever required. Shionne and Rinwell should keep their distance and attack from afar, with Kisara providing additional melee damage without the tendency to be defeated as often.
The time to use this team is for general dungeon crawling and exploration. Kisara’s presence should ensure you don’t eat up your CP quite as much, meaning you won’t have to burn through those costly items.
This leaves Dohalim and Law on the sidelines to use their boost attacks when necessary. If Shionne ends up KO’d, you should swap Dohalim in for Rinwell or Kisara and revive her immediately.
Best party for bosses and Gigants
Party: Alphen, Shionne, Rinwell, Dohalim
Control: Alphen
It’s always pretty obvious when a boss is approaching. Either there’s a specific warning, or a convenient energy pool to heal your HP beforehand. Swapping in Dohalim gives you another healer for these trickier battles, especially those with mystic artes. He can also resurrect, making it far less likely that you’ll need to waste Life Bottles on Shionne when she is the sole healer.
Shionne and Dohalim alongside Alphen can reap some further benefits. The gradual healing of Healing Circle and Regenerate are perfect combinations with the Blazing Sword. Using these on Alphen gives him an opportunity to unleash his powerful Flaming Edge extensions whilst literally getting healed in the process. Dohalim’s Fairy Circle is also handy for this, but unfortunately only comes with DLC.
Law and Kisara are relegated this time, but Rinwell is still the best party member to complete the team. Her offensive artes will nearly always be able to hit the enemy’s weak point, and her ranged attacks make her less likely to be KO’d.
The only downside of this party that CP can be eaten up faster with two healers. You should always have some Orange Gels to hand, but the best way around this is to ensure your strategy setup compliments the dual healers so they are not going to use support artes at the same time – this is only worthwhile in emergency situations.
Best party for bosses at a significantly higher level
Party: Kisara, Shionne, Rinwell, Dohalim
Control: Kisara
This is the most conservative party, reserved specifically for those punishing encounters that are simply beyond you with normal methods. If you are taking on the likes of Mantis, Sylph or Undine at a significantly lower level, then this team is probably your best shot.
Kisara should be equipped with an accessory that increases Aggro, and she should be controlled manually to draw the enemy’s attention. Block whilst your other party members attack from range with their artes and boost attacks when available. Kisara will regularly enter Overlimit with this method, giving her an opportunity to spam Guardian Field and get back to full health herself before using a mystic arte. Otherwise, you’ve still got the two healers on hand to keep her afloat.
Obviously you’ll need plenty of CP items in your inventory for this to work, which comes with the territory of tackling these high-level foes. Most of the time, the dungeons leading up to boss battles basically ensure you’ll be at a decent level to take them on, but there are a small handful who can be fought well before your party has reached a comparable level.
It’s not pretty, but it might just work.
Don’t use Law until late-game
It’s a bit harsh that I’ve left Law out altogether, but his all-action approach is simply a liability far too often. He regularly gets KO’d leading to a waste of CP, Life Bottles or both.
This is a shame because Law is a very high damage-dealer, and dishes out more punishment than Kisara. As such, I would generally recommend putting Law in your party if you are controlling him manually. Test him out in the Viscint Training Grounds and see if you can get used to his style. Unfortunately, when controlling Law and leaving Alphen down to the AI, then Alphen is the one who regularly falls. Not as much as Law, but nonetheless having them both in the same team always seems to be a recipe for KOs.
For me, this all changed in the final hours of the game. Once Law has a fairly full skill menu, he can activate his Awakening perk easily, and regularly enters Overlimit without taking much damage. He basically becomes a mystic arte machine. At this point (I’m talking final dungeon and post-game), he is finally worth swapping in and the damage output makes up for his cavalier approach. I’d still keep Dohalim around for bosses, but Kisara should be condemned to the bench.
What is the best Tales of Arise strategy setup?
You can change your strategy in the menu, where you can either pick from a list of predetermined strategies or customise them yourself. Generally, the existing strategies are fairly self-explanatory and will do the business for the most part. On the other hand, when it comes to boss battles, you’re more likely to require an approach that has been carefully crafted. Here are some of the main things to look out for in the strategy menu, with some tips of how to construct the best strategy in Tales of Arise.
Use KO recovery artes when allies are KO’d
This is an obvious one, since you’re always better off saving your items until you really need them. Ensure your tactics are set to use revival artes whenever an ally is KO’d. Set this at the top of the list with no limits, because revival artes should trump anything else. A lot of the existing strategies have this built in already.
Ailment removal artes
Like revivals, status ailments should be a high priority and I suggest putting it second in the list. These recovery artes don’t take long to cast, and it’ll prevent annoying situations where you are paralysed or poisoned. I would probably set this underneath your healing rules, but set it with a low CP threshold. These don’t crop up that often, but it’s definitely worth having it built in for the times in need.
When to use Life Bottles
It’s important to use Life Bottles, but this should only be set in your strategy for when there’s at least two KO’d allies. If you set it to one KO’d ally, then your teammates will end up splurging these unnecessarily.
Setting a Life Bottle requirement for boss battles is handy, as it’s crucial to get yourself back in business as quickly as possible. You can also set a condition for a minimum number in your inventory, and I would suggest around 3. Once you get down to your final few, you should use them a bit more carefully. These cost 1,000 Gald a pop and money can get tight pretty quick, so it’s good to have these conditions in place to avoid overuse.
Keep away from enemy
This one is a double-edged sword, because you cannot tailor it to specific characters. Selecting ‘own HP’ as a condition means each individual character will act depending on their own situation, but this is not perfect. Ideally you want Shioone and Rinwell keeping distance at all times, but your melee teammate willing to fight at close-quarters for a bit longer.
The good news is that Shionne and Rinwell are relatively good at staying out of the way, especially if you disable any artes that aren’t ranged. As such, whilst it’s tempting to put this in your strategy you can actually get away with leaving this alone, or setting it in combination with healing strategy.
If you have a condition to keep away from enemies when own health is under 50%, and also have a condition below that Shionne should use First Aid when an ally’s health is under 50%, then you should end up with your melee companion (Law, Kisara, Dohalim sometimes) getting out of the way when they start getting into trouble. You lose damage output with this method, which is why you might want to experiment with this and potentially omitting it. ‘Own HP under 25%’ is probably the best bet long-term if you want to avoid going back and forth into the strategy menu.
Healing artes
I like using specific healing artes for specific times. First Aid for allies under 50% is a good setup, because it’ll keep people topped on HP without blasting through excessive CP. If you also have buffs set, this increases healing power allowing you to keep your allies topped up.
When health is below 25%, you should turn to some more potent abilities. This will depend on what you have available, but Healing Circle will likely be your next option, with some more powerful magic like Revitalise in the latter part of the game. Revitalise eats up serious CP, so this is worth setting for situations where multiple characters are under 25%, with mid-tier artes like Regenerate and Healing Circle for the 25%-50% mark.
Don’t set a rule for CP recovery items
It’s far better to use these manually, or you can end up completely wasting these expensive items. The preferable strategy here is to simply keep an eye on CP and use these items pre-emptively. If you can see your CP is getting low when a boss is still on half-health, it’s obvious you are going to need one later on so you should use it sooner rather than later.
Having an automatic rule will never be a watertight strategy and can result in needless item use. For instance, if your strategy is set to toss an Orange Gel when CP is low, it has a nasty habit of happening just before a boss or tough enemy is defeated where you could have held out. Best to rely on your own timings, and get used to glancing regularly at your CP gauge. Orange Gels cost a whopping 3,000 Gald and money will quickly look tight if you are expending these too much.
Other specific artes and buffs
Other than the main tactical inputs, characters can be ordered to use specific artes. It’s best to ignore offensive artes here and focus on the buffs instead (offensive artes will be covered below). These rules can be really handy to keep buffs active. Again, it’s probably best for bosses rather than general dungeon crawling since you’ll end up unnecessarily blitzing through your CP.
In particular, artes like Sharpness, Concentrate and Steel should be used regularly. Set these artes with a low CP threshold (eg, 25% or more remaining) so they will be kept active most of the time but won’t leave you come unstuck during emergencies.
Disable unnecessary Artes
This isn’t exactly a strategy issue, but it’s another invaluable tip for boss battles. You can enter the menu and manually scroll through the available artes for each AI character. If the boss has an elemental weakness, turn off all offensive artes except for the ones that will hit it. This is useful for all arte-based attackers, but is especially crucial for Rinwell. It’s far easier to do this than tinker with specific artes within your customised strategy.
You can do this mid-battle, giving you a chance to check the boss’s weakness with L1 before entering the menu and disabling the unnecessary artes.
Hopefully these tips for the Tales of Arise best party and best strategy are helpful. Check out our other tips and guides below:
