Bandai Namco's 2021 action RPG Tales of Arise arrives on Nintendo Switch 2 today as the Beyond the Dawn Edition, marking the seventeenth main entry in the long-running Tales series’ first appearance on a Nintendo platform. The package bundles the original Dahna-spanning adventure with the post-game Beyond the Dawn expansion and is sold as a Game-Key Card priced at $49.99 — physical box, digital install — letting Switch 2 owners pick up an RPG that has otherwise lived on PlayStation, Xbox and PC for nearly five years.
The base game still follows Alphen, the slave-mask-wearing protagonist with no memory of pain, and Shionne, a Renan noblewoman cursed so that anyone who touches her gets shocked, as they assemble a six-strong party and try to free the planet Dahna from three centuries of Rena occupation. The Linear Motion Battle System — the series’ real-time, action-oriented combat with juggle combos and Boost Strikes — is preserved as-is for the Switch 2 build.
The Beyond the Dawn expansion, originally released as paid DLC for the other platforms in 2023, picks up roughly a year after Arise’s main story. Alphen and Shionne discover a mysterious Renan girl named Nazamil and begin to investigate how Dahna and Rena are healing — or failing to heal — from generations of occupation. Bandai Namco pegs the new content at over 20 hours of additional gameplay across new dungeons, sub-quests and bonus character chapters.
What is actually different on Switch 2
The Beyond the Dawn Edition is a Game-Key Card release, which means the cartridge functions as a license token while the full install downloads to internal storage on first boot. Early reviews from Nintendo Life and RPG Site peg the Switch 2 version as a competent but not flawless port: handheld mode runs at a reduced internal resolution with dynamic scaling, while docked play targets 60fps in most field areas with occasional dips during heavy particle effects in boss fights. Image quality docked is closer to the PS5 version than the Steam Deck verified build, but cutscene fidelity and shadow distance see modest trims relative to PS5.
Tales of Arise launched in 2021 to “Very Positive” Steam reviews and went on to sell more than 3 million copies within its first year, easily outpacing previous Tales entries on debut. Bandai Namco has spent the last 18 months porting back-catalogue titles to Switch 2, with Tales of Symphonia HD, Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition and now Arise filling out the platform’s JRPG lineup ahead of the publisher’s next original entry, codenamed Project Lily, still slated for 2027.
The Beyond the Dawn Edition is available now physically and digitally on Nintendo Switch 2. The original game and its expansion remain available on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam, where the base game has typically been heavily discounted during seasonal sales.
