Tales of Graces f review: The latest “Tales” doesn’t disappoint

NOTE: This is a review of a game in progress. Chris and Co. have put in around 35 hours into the game, which means they’re probably at the halfway point or so. Still, if major media outlets can review the game without finishing it, then so can we!

I’ve made no secret of my love of the Tales series on this site in the past. So you might think that this review is going to be a five-star endeavor, full of glowing praise and endless superlatives about the quintessential RPG of our generation.

You would be wrong.

That’s not to say that it’s Graces’ fault. The game suffers from many of the same problems that other Tales games have: a sometimes too-wordy story, typical anime tropes, lackluster music. But like many other offerings in the series, the battle system comes through in a big way.

In fact, I’ll go a little further: Tales of Graces features the best battle system of any RPG ever made.

How’s that for an opening argument?

Initial criticism

Let’s get the negatives out of the way first.

Music

Motoi Sakuraba has been doing music for the Tales series for forever. Phantasia was his first entry in the series back in 1999, and he’s also done work for titles like Star Ocean and Valkyrie Profile along the way. Sakuraba has a distinct style that works well in moderation, but when you hear his music in a variety of games, that synth-heavy sound gets old in a hurry. Graces is no exception. There’s a few good tracks here, but nothing really stands out — and it’s very telling that we switched to one of the retro battle themes in the game early on.

Dat Anime

Look, we get it. Tales looks like something out of an anime story, with the usual annoying young female (and male — I’m looking at you, Karol and Genis) characters to boot. Graces doesn’t really have a typical moe character if you ignore the way Sophie looks, but some people will still be turned off by the visual style. Personally, I think the game looks fine.

Story

Tales games typically have lackluster stories that drag on at certain points, and Graces fits right in with that description. We’ve seen the “nations at war until they’re forced to unite under a WORLDWIDE THREAT” bit before. However, another Tales staple is that the cast of characters usually makes up for this, and again Graces fits the mold. Character development and party interaction go a long way toward making this 60-plus-hour endeavor enjoyable.

Now, with that out of the way: THE BATTLE SYSTEM.

Graces’ strongest feature: The battle system

The main reason I’ve always enjoyed Tales game is that the battle systems are active and feature a sort of hybrid style that blends together RPGs and fighting games. Then Symphonia came along and added four-player co-op to boot. Then Abyss added Free Run, which allowed the player to run anywhere in the battlefield instead of being stuck on 2D planes in a 3D arena. Graces makes the final step in this evolution by creating a system that forces the player to fight with skill, because button mashing (a complaint I’ve seen about other games in the series) simply won’t work here.

The CC system, which takes the place of TP in other Tales games to regulate your skill and magic usage, makes everything that much better. It constantly refills over time as long as you’re not attacking, so dodging and blocking in between your attack strings becomes more useful than ever. Dodging is fluid and fast, allowing for 90-degree rotations around enemies in addition to the usual backstep. As your amount of CC increases, you can unleash long, Arte-filled combos to exploit an enemy’s weakness before going on the defensive.

In short, the system is fun. It’s hard to see how someone would choose a turn-based, menu-heavy system over this with a straight face. And the game gives you a ton of incentive to keep fighting with its customization. You’ll collect dozens of titles for each character, all of which come with passive skills, stat increases and new abilities. You can choose to focus on completing each title one at a time or flutter between several different ones to get the boosts you want. Then there’s the equipment tempering and gem systems, which allow you to customize equipment, use that equipment in a few fights, then forge it together to make stat-boosting gems — and again, the possibilities there are entirely up to you.

I’ve gone this far without mentioning a lot about the game (and also being limited by not having finished it yet). The characters offer a wide range of fighting abilities, from Cheria’s healing to Asbel’s main character swordsman. The voice acting is inconsistent — some performances are very good (Malik and Pascal come to mind) while others deliver some lines without much impact (I’m looking at you, Richard). It’s a little disappointing that the overworld is really just a bunch of linked locations and not an explorable map, but Vesperia kinda went in that direction already anyway. Parts of the game are hilarious, especially some of the interactions after a battle is over.

Review summary

But none of that matters as much as the battle system. Simply put, if you’ve enjoyed a Tales game in the past, be it one of the 3D games like Abyss or the 2D games like Destiny, you won’t regret this purchase in the slightest. If you’ve enjoyed a fighting game, you might just find yourself hooked too. And if you’re a Tales fan already? Well, you shouldn’t even need to read this to know what’s up. Pick it up immediately.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars