Tales of Graces f

( PS3 – JRPG – 2012 ) + TRAILER

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Time for a return to Tales series with Tales of Graces f which just so happens to be an upgraded port of the original Wii title. Aside from usual technical upgrades given the hardware differences an extensive epilogue was added as well. Is the game itself any good, though?

In what turns out to be a welcome surprise game starts out with a rather chunky prologue set during our characters' childhood. Asbel Lhant is the man out of the hour as he accompanies a visiting prince Richard to a nearby meadow only to come across this mysterious older looking amnesiac girl he dubs Sophie. Little could they know the three of them making a friendship pact under a tree would lead to so many unimaginable things. This childhood period ends with quite the downer as all of their lives are upended, and Asbel becoming estranged from his father on top of forsaking the hereditary position of Lord of Lhant in order to become a knight and protect everyone.

Oddest decision here is just how long it takes for story proper to begin in Tales of Graces. What I mean by that is far more of the narrative is dedicated to character relationships themselves as childhood friends re-unite under different circumstances and baggage of their own before any heavy punches come flying at you. And this works in a game where these ties are the most important devices upon which latter story is built upon. It goes hand-in-hand with one of the characters assuming the role of the antagonist threatening to plunge the world into chaos, and it falls on our party to save the day as well as their old friend. Story manages to both play it really safe given the genre filtered through the usual “power of friendship will save the day” you've come to expect all the while being entirely genuine about it.

Since I've brought them up I really should talk more about the characters because so much hinges on them.

None of them really break the mold in any specific way so you have your eccentric genius pulling double duty as zany comedic relief, more experienced and somewhat world weary knight who ends up being a mentor, stoic and mysterious girl herself who peels off more and more layers as story goes, etc. Easily the most important ones are Asbel, Richard and Sophie as there's a direct link between them without anything contrived such as tacked on romance. In my opinion Sophie takes a bit too long to, well, develop a personality beyond a stoic childlike brawler and Richard is spoilerific so I'll shut up. Asbel, though. He's easily the most fleshed out as a person who develops over 40+ hours you spend with him. At first you get this impression he's just a stubborn protagonist with abundance of confidence and some naivety, but then you see him after the time skip as he becomes a lot more nuanced and thoughtful. Asbel never loses his original makings and naturally grows from there. So much so the ending of the game only works out because he takes a gamble driven entirely by his nature and lessons he's learned.

World of Ephinea game takes place on is sadly a place I wish I could tell you better things about, but it really is your familiar JRPG at its finest. You'll trek across lands of grass, sand and ice in sequential order neatly taking boat rides whenever necessary to tackle matters of Valkines, crystal-like structures emitting Eleth which people of the world use as an energy source. In genre tradition “lore” here is basically whatever someone thought was cool and kitchen sink fantasy approach very much applies. If you thought there are going to be SF elements in this fantasy story... well. You get it by now, brother. I was taken aback by how suddenly some plot twists and developments occur later on and characters, who have lived here their entire lives, just accept it all casually. Oh, and Turtlez, traders extraordinaire wearing turtle costumes, are also in.

Alas, there is no conventional overworld in Tales of Graces f, not even after you unlock the customary end game transportation that lets you get anywhere, anytime. What you do have is a sort of compromise where areas between dungeons, towns, etc serve the same function meaning everything is connected in coherent fashion. I consider it a decent alternative as none of the zones are overly big or just plain fillers. Skits aka brief conversations between characters' 2D portraits, are littered everywhere and entirely up to you to activate or skip them, and random encounters aren't a thing as you can engage roaming enemy representations at your convenience. Since I'm on the matter of areas I have to point out my opinion on game's dungeons shifted dramatically as I approached the finale. Starting off as lightweight and progressing to “this feels just right” last few dungeons + epilogue's own inclusions, made me want to rush through them like a maniac. They simply take way too long and puzzles aren't that compelling so they become busywork instead.

As ever skits continue as a method of fleshing out bots you can't dedicate cutscenes to. Also, comedy.

There's some of that Wii DNA on display when it comes to proportions and scale overall.

With limited control over the camera action can get hectic. More often than not when it zooms out to encompass the entire battlefield.

Standout features for me were basically a take on crafting, abilities and cooking. Dualizing lets you create stuff from ingredients you come across, be it weapons, items you'll use for town request missions or just food outside of combat by mixing two items, and games it thankfully kind enough to indicate possible combinations you have. Eleth Mixer, using Eleth you can re-fill in towns or through other means, is how you create food during combat for healing and additional bonuses. You can also use it to generate practically any ingredient or curative provided you have the Eleth and RNG gods bless you. These two systems are not something I'd avoid as game is built with them in mind.

Titles aka primary means of character progression beyond basic levels, are worth discussing on their own, though. Each character has a veritable library of dozens of unlockable Titles with five ranks each. You acquire them through a variety of means; be it story progression, accumulating enough gold, getting poisoned over and over again, using certain Arts X number of times, etc and upgrade them with SP accumulated from battles. What do these Titles do for your characters? Well, since each character plays in their own particular way, like Malik's long range boomerang/sword/thing or Pascal's focus on chanting Artes, you can get a bunch of things even from shared Titles. Some will straight up unlock new attack abilities, very few grant new costumes, but most some form of stat bonuses. All of these stack. Meaning you want to master as many Titles as you can as quickly as you can to power up your characters on top of regular gear they can equip. What I ended up liking about the system is how straightforward it is and doesn't negate characters' uniqueness. Sure, spellcasters have some spells they share, but considering each character has unique ultimate attacks/weapons/approach to combat, they feel distinct.

For reasons only known to myself I always leave combat gameplay for the last, and in this case it's more of that familiar Tales territory of action party combat with four characters engaging in mayhem. Tales of Graces f does away with conventional mana system so next to HP you have Chain Capacity aka CC which is an ever fluctuating pool of points you use to power your A-Artes and B-Artes as primary means of attack. CC starting/maximum values are dependent on level and gear adjustments, and is replenished by guarding or artful dodging. It takes a certain level of acquired skill to stay on the offensive without hugging the guard button, especially as aforementioned two types of attacks can quickly drain your CC reserves given their cost. Taking into account enemies have weaknesses to attack properties these Artes have, be it damage type or status ailment, I'm trying to get across that button mashing with no sense for party cohesion or flow of action will do you little good. Eleth bar exists as well which, once filled, unlocks Eleth Burst mode removing any Artes cost and lets you unleash devastating Mystic Artes. Combat overall feels well put together and fact only boss bottles tend to go over half a minute speaks of its pace the best.

There's also items to use, Strategy menu to give your characters specific direction like focusing on healing or to use only B-Artes, not to mention you can control all the characters and not just Asbel, but combat itself is surprisingly straightforward. Where it somewhat stumbles are loose technical bits. Camera, for example, has trouble keeping the bird's eye view if action is spread out across the entire battlefield. Toward end game effects also become overbearing so you rely more on character audio cues over visuals firing off. Neither of these impacted the game THAT significantly for me, though. What could be a problem if you're coming from latter games where Free Movement became the norm is here you normally run in a straight line to your target while Free Movement is optional and has associated CC cost. I used it precisely twice.

Production would be a good way to end this review since this was originally a Wii title, and PS3 treatment certainly helped even if you can still tell it's a port. Art style itself does a lot of the heavy lifting here and ensures a timeless stylized look. Game also has a handful of fully produced anime scenes selling moments impossible to pull off in-engine. If you were looking to enjoy native Japanese voices that option is sadly absent, but English dub quality is on the level, with usual shenanigans, where even skits are entirely voiced so props for that. Melodrama included.