I don't know if developers these days have become lazy, or just plain greedy. There are few games this gen (and last) that i can confidently call a complete game. And Tales of grace is definitely one of those utterly complete game. Definitely a must buy for any rpg fanatic.
The game grew on me tremendously. I mostly disliked the characters in the first 10 hours, but they develop quite a lot. Over the course of the game's 60+ hours, you'll be presented with 400 character skits that get more and more amusing as you go. There are some bad cliches and groan-worthy moments, but by the end it's mostly a very good experience. The battle system is one of the best of all time, and the character stat development is in the hands of the player to a very large degree. Gaining levels from experience is, at best, a third of your potential growth. You'll have to discover new titles and develop weapons and armor through the crafting system to really get the most out of your team. The game features six difficulty levels to make sure you're always challenged, and an awesome "new game +" system where you're given points for how well you did in your last game, and you can use those to buy buffs that can even alter the rules of the game. For example, you can make it so that you and the monsters all do 10x more damage to each other. Again, the game just gets better as you go. The more time and effort you put into the game, the more you will find that you can get out of it.
A Jrpg with a great combat system that could be a true gem in the genre, but falls short in the story department and is weakened by the impressive amount of backtracking during the campaign.
Despite its engaging combat, Tales of Graces f fails to distinguish itself from so many other JRPGs that have the exact same elements and handle them much better.
This is my game of the year so far, one that I bought with out looking into beforehand, the game is near enough perfect, from its graphics, soundtrack, characters and story everything about it just amazed me. The game took me at least 60 hours to complete meaning you definitely get your money's worth
I would give this game 7.5 but that is not an option.
1. The plot/characters
I only liked the plot in the beginning and the end. Its very lacking and repeats the same events over and over. For example.
Asbel obsesses over protecting his friends all the time. I only liked one character named Hubert. the rest was copy paste form other tales of games. We all know the formula. There is the old "veteran" guy, the emotionless loli, the white knight main character and his childhood friend.
2. Battle system
This is were this game shines. I only played 3 tales of games. Abyss, Graces F and Xillia.
This game got the best battle system by far. Its deep and fast paced. In the Epilogue of the game. It surprisingly gets even better with the introduction of new mechanics.
3. Dualize
I always liked gathering different equipment but the game forced me to use the "Dualize system" its an system that lets you fuse "shards" to power up your gear. It can also fuse ingredients to create food. So yeah. There is not much gear overall. You have to fuse those shards in your equipment, then fuse both equipments to create a "gem" a gem is an equipment that boost stats. So if your Shard got an attack property your gem gets attack.
Its possible to fuse those gems as well to create a better one.
I got 70 hours in this game because the combat was very addicting. played it on the moderate difficulty. Mobs were easy to beat and the bosses were challenging.
If you crave a new Tales of game or just a JRPG you should get this one.
Tales of Graces is one of the more differentiating games in the lineup of The Tales of series. It removes a lot of combat elements that have always been present in the series, like the old artes-chains and the complete removal of a mana gauge. That's right, every art in the game is free.
How does this new battle system compare to the rest of the series? Actually, I think this game has some, if not the most fun combat experiences in the series. The removal of mana makes it so the game is much more resistant in throwing new artes in your face, but the artes you do get are flashy and fun, not to mention that you can chain certain artes into each other if you acquire the right skills. You don't have normal attacks in this game: every single move is basically an Arte, and the combat seems the most varied in the series because of this. Due to the nature of how strong these elements make you, some enemies have an obscene amount of health in he late game, and I felt personally no enemy has a fair chance because of all the options the game gives you, so a lot of them also appear to have rather cheap attacks to actually give you a challenge. Having an enemy use their mystic arte more than five times in a battle, if not more is rather hard to deal with. Should not be a problem though, as this is the easiest game I have played in the series, and I have played 6 so far. Still, it's a rather fun game that does a lot of interesting things with the series, and stands on its own in that regard: it's combat is very distinguishing in the series.
Now, for some negatives: While the fighting and any element/mechanic that is directly connected to the combat is great, I can't say that for the rest of the elements of the game. It's characters, while not boring or even bad, don't stand out compared to other RPG's. I think there was a total of two characters who I had not already seen in other stories, and they are really not that important to the story. Again, they are not bad characters at all, I have just already seen them, and other than in their combat styles,I find no real interest in them. The main character looks and feels great to play as, but nothing about him differentiates him from any other typical RPG hero. And that is generally the cast summed up, they don't stand out. They have rather funny conversations, none of them leave an impact on the story as a whole, and are just a group of friends traveling to save the world, none of them affect the plot :/
The story and moral are also basically standard JRPG tropes, and they are not unique. Not bad, but other stories have done these stories, and have done them with unique characters or untypical elements. The only part where this game trumps other JRPG's is with it's combat. This might especially get monotonous boring since this is pretty much the longest Tales game f we just look at story events, excluding Tales of the Abyss. And when you take the extra story arc you get after the game with Graces 'F', you have a really, really long RPG with the only stand out element being the combat, which might get to easy when you get used to it. But the game is still worth playing, if only partially, because of those cool and flashy battles. If you enjoy stylish, fluent combat with lots of options, then Tales of Graces is one of the best games you can chose to fill this need.
The game just copypaste itself again and again and again. The most of the dungeons are extremely annoying: 2-3 designed rooms wildly combined and repeated in a very dumb way. No world map. Instead of this they story forces us to visit the same locations hundreds of times. It looks like the developer was just too lazy to put there an appropriate amount of game-content.
I pre-ordered this game even though there was no dual audio. After 20 hours put into the game, I must say I shouldn't have bought the game. There is no open map / world so you're always going in a linear path with no where to explore. At least in Final fantasy X's case it was done beautifully but in this game, you can't even grind or do anything beside walking and walking with occasional boring skit. You need to go in town and come back to have monsters reappear. Don't get me started on the VA. At least the game play and music isn't bad. Overall I can't put myself to finish this game. I gave up after 34 hours.
SummaryIn this newest title, the feelings such as "preserving one's faith", "saving their precious ones" and the destiny of raising the storm between three countries which form the setting, are portrayed. The PS3 version shows the story more in depth having many new elements including a "Lineage to the Future Episode&qu...