Tales of Arise was revealed during Xbox's press conference this month at E3, and since Yusuke Tomizawa is the producer of the Tales Of series, we asked him about what's new with this entry in the series when we talked to him in LA last week.

"As you can see in the trailer, one of the biggest changes from the previous title is the graphics," he explained. "Actually the graphics and the visuals have been so evolved, and we need to keep the Tales Of series style [...] but on the other hand we introduced Unreal Engine 4 into Tales of Arise, which makes the graphics more realistic."

We also hear from Tomizawa that the team will "improve more the battle system so that users can enjoy more intuitive controls and the feeling, the achievement. So yeah, we actually cannot talk a lot about the battle system now, but please stay tuned."

As for the series as a whole - due to celebrate it's 25th anniversary next year - Tomizawa reflects fondly on what's come before, with the enduring popularity of the characters being a noteworthy point in all of the games:

"I believe the Tales Of series really matches with the era of the RPG series, and matches with the demand from the RPG universe. Regardless of the changes in each title, I believe the characters are really attractive in all the titles, so we need to retain that core [...] of the series in Tales of Arise."

Tomizawa also shared that the game has become more popular in the West, which has subsequently impacted the franchise itself.

"I believe we have more influence from the Western users who are now playing Tales Of series," he said. "So for example, as you can see the main character's appearance, he is in armour for the first time in the series, and the art style - we are aiming for a kind of unity [between] the world and art direction in the world environments and character and appearances. So we want to have the characters stand really naturally in the world of Tales of Arise [...] so yeah, actually, it really affects us."

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