PlayStation Plus drops 100-hour Final Fantasy rival RPG at no additional cost

PlayStation Plus subscribers have a new RPG to play while they wait for the next Final Fantasy game, and it’s packed with over 100 hours of content.

Final Fantasy VII Revelation is coming next year, and that's really exciting. Finally, we’re going to see the end of Square Enix’s massive remake, which took one game for the PS1 and split it into three AAA releases.

In the meantime, though, there are a number of RPGs that fancy themselves as rivals to the legendary Final Fantasy series, and one of them is Tales of Arise.

Those who are yet to jump into Bandai Namco’s enormous RPG may be glad to hear you can experience the whole thing on PlayStation Plus as of this week, along with its DLC expansion as a bonus.

Tales of Arise launched in 2021 and was both developed and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment.

Its synopsis reads: “300 years of tyranny. A mysterious mask. Lost pain and memories. Wield the Blazing Sword and join a mysterious, untouchable girl to fight your oppressors. Experience a tale of liberation, featuring characters with next-gen graphical expressiveness!”

A free demo is available on Steam, so if you’re a PC player, you’re free to check that out - but you can find the whole game's Beyond the Dawn edition in the PlayStation Plus Extra library.

It's been available for just a few days for those within the UK, USA, and Japan due to PlayStation Plus' trialled phased rollout, although other regions may have had the game for slightly longer than that.

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What does Tales of Arise: Beyond the Dawn bring to the game?

Bandai Namco

The DLC introduces a new character to the cast through an epilogue taking place a year after the events of the main story.

It remarkably adds over 20 hours of gameplay to an already 70+ hour game, meaning if you do all of the exploration and side-quests, you’ll be playing through over 100 hours of content.

For a quick comparison, the first Final Fantasy VII remake takes over 85 hours to complete, whereas Fantasy Fantasy VII Rebirth is much longer, clocking in at 160 hours.

Depending on who you ask, that puts Tales of Arise in a good spot. As good as Final Fantasy VII Rebirth was, the general consensus from fans is it is the cheekiest of the remakes so far. It was already questionable for Square Enix to split its most iconic game into three parts, and it unfortunately made Rebirth feel like filler rather than the next great chapter.

At the end of the day though, we’re talking about separate IPs here. While Tales of Arise didn’t reach the highs of its RPG rival, it still went down well amongst players. Its Steam rating is Mostly Positive and it reviewed well at launch.

Now it’s yours to play at no additional cost with a subscription to PlayStation Plus Extra or Premium, though it goes on sale regularly if you’d rather add it to your library permanently.

READ MORE: Final Fantasy 7 Revelation confirms big change from previous two entries