The development of Tales of Arise, the seventeenth mainline entry in the long-running Tales of series, almost resulted in the game being its own standalone title rather than a part of the franchise. In a roundtable discussion with Denfaminicogamer, the game’s producer Yusuke Tomizawa and director Hirokazu Kagawa revealed that when development began, Bandai Namco intended for the game to be its own original IP, with the “Arise” portion of the name chosen at the start but the “Tales of” portion not yet decided on. This was due to the game’s goal of being more innovative than past entries in the series, leading to uncertainty about whether it should be attached to the Tales of name and become a mainline entry.
