Tales of Graces F

Tales of Graces F is Namco Bandai's latest game in the "Tales" series of RPGs to hit the United States. The original Tales of Graces was a 2009 Wii game, and this enhanced port adds tons of extras, including an extended prologue to the main quest. I suppose it is worth the wait for the "director’s cut" version of the game, as knowing that the PS3 port of Tales of Vesperia will never be localized is disheartening to say the least. For those not in the know, since the original Tales of Graces was released in japan in 2009, there Have been 2 other Tales games released with no word on if they will ever be localized. "Tales of Xillia" for the PS3 and "Tales of Innocence R" for the PSVita. If you have even a passing fancy towards the Tales series, nothing will convince Namco Bandai more than sales to release the newer ones stateside.

GRAPHICS

If you are familiar with Tales of Vesperia or Eternal Sonata, you are familiar with Tales of Graces F's graphical design and quality. Think of any anime you've ever seen and you get the idea. Rich and vibrant colors on an HD console these days seem to be far and few between, and something that is definitely always welcome. Textures are clean and smooth, backgrounds are crisp and clear, and pop ins are nonexistent. All in all the graphics are very well done for the anime style of the game. One nit-picky criticism, however, would be that occasionally you can be reminded that this was originally a game designed for the Wii. This can be through an enemy model's texture that you notice seems kind of blurry and out of place, or a tree that you notice just doesn't quite fit. This is a problem with the game that is not limited to just the graphics, sadly.

SOUND

The Tales series has not been known for its music since the PS2 game "Tales of Legendia"(perhaps the only positive thing about that game), and Tales of Graces F is no exception. With the exception of one or two songs, the music is not memorable in any way. The voice acting on the other hand ranges from decent to excellent. Almost the entire main cast is done superbly, with perhaps exception to the character "Pascal" who sounds like she comes straight from NIS's latest train wreck. Perhaps another nice aspect of the voice acting is with the exception of maybe two party members, most of the main cast is voiced by actors who aren't in everything. It's nice to get quality voice acting that isn't Johnny Yong Bosch and Yuri Lowenthal every now and then. Another nice touch not present in some Tales games is that the "Skits" that occur throughout the game, small character interactions peppered all over the game, are all voice acted. This was something missing in other games such as Tales of the Abyss and its 3DS remake, and that made the skits unwatchable.

STORY, CHARACTERS, AND SETTING

Asbel Lahnt is a young boy with a disapproving father who expects too much of him. One day he and his wimpy younger brother travel to Lahnt Hill looking for adventure when they run into a young girl with no memories. Some things happen and now you have to save the world. If you are at all familiar with anime or the JRPG genre there will be very few surprises for you. After an hour of play time you will know exactly what will happen, when it will happen, and who it will happen to. The whole caste is there too. You have your clueless male protagonist who wants to have his cake and eat it, and the cute childhood friend love interest who has blatantly obvious feelings for him that he has no clue about. You also have the intellectual nerd, the badass soldier, and the WACKY child prodigy. Lastly, the amnesiac who doesn't understand anything or remember anything that stays bland and uninteresting throughout the game. When a new character is first introduced you will know exactly what their personality will be, and how they will interact with the other characters. The world of Tales of Graces F is also pretty cookie cutter. You have your monarchy that Asbel comes from, complete with a king and the people trying to kill him. You have your democratic republic out in the dessert with a politician doing what he can to stay in power. You have your dictatorship up north in the mountains trying to keep an oppressed people from rebellion. They all don't really like each other, and they can go to war at any moment.

The over world is set up Pokemon style, with routes and mountain passes and ships to travel around the world rather than a giant sprawling single map. This works, but there is very little detail in these roads. Another example of the game showing its Wii roots, traveling from town to town is uneventful and filled with repeating patterns. Tales of Graces F seems self-aware of this, and to try to spice things up there are a variety of "discoveries" scattered throughout the world. These sometimes give you materials you need for fusing weapons and armor and are usually accompanied by a skit. While a nice touch, it does little to make travel any more engaging. Of course, these are all minor things here and there, but when added together they make the whole premise of the game seem uninspired and cliché.

GAME PLAY

This is where the game truly shines. Usually in JRPGs, the story and characters are what make the game, and the game play serves as a vehicle to power through them. Not the case in Tales of Graces F. The battle system is nothing short of fantastic. If you are familiar with the Tales series you would know that it employs and Action RPG battle System. Graces F is the first Tales game developed from "Team Destiny" since Tales of Destiny and it shows. Rather than keeping track of "magic points" or TP or whatever, the game employs something called the CC system. Basically, CC is a stat that replenishes quickly in real time and is needed to do anything. Attacking depletes your CC, with more powerful attacks costing more, and some attacks needing to be comboed in to. Dodging, a main feature of the battle system, also costs CC but if you dodge at just the right moment you are actually awarded with more CC. There are two main types of attacks, A-Artes and B-Artes. If you are familiar with fighting games, think of A-Artes as your normal attacks and B-Artes as your special or magic attacks. Combining the two and experimenting makes finding out combos an absolute thrill. The system of a whole, that emphasizes blocking, dodging, and combos makes the game feel almost like a fighting game.

FINAL SCORE

All in all, Tales of Graces F is more of a "video game" than any JRPG in recent memory. It is a game first and foremost, a story second. Honestly, that is kind of a refreshing change for the genre. The story is cliché and predictable, but it is made passable by superb voice acting and decent writing. Namco Bandai did a very good job in the localization. Not many JRPGs make grinding to level up fun, but in Graces F it is the main draw to the game. You will find yourself horrendously over leveled for almost every boss fight. This won't be from the game being overtly easy, but rather from realizing you aren't running from every enemy encounter. Hopefully Xillia and Innocence R will get localized someday so we can see if Namco Bandai continues down this "gameplay first" path.

Overall, Tales of Graces F gets an 8 out of 10

Any Criticism on how this review turned out would be greatly appreceated. I am currently gunning for a gig writing for an up and coming website

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