Archview #53: Tales of Graces F

 Probably my favorite Tales of game...

 I've no idea as to why we got this game. Namco was never too fond of localizing 'Tales of' games, and we usually got the first iteration of the game, instead of the enhanced sequel. This time, however, Namco skipped on the Wii Version(Wii players everywhere, like me, cried a little) and after the HD port to PS3 came out, they decided to bring that version overseas(Wii players who also had a PS3, like me, celebrated).
 In Tales of Graces you take control of Asbel Lhant, son to the Lord of Lhant, alongside his very cliched party members. You have you veteran with the mysterious and tragic past, the childhood friend who the main character sees as a sister, the mysterious waif who is obviously not human, the crazy but impossibly smart engineer, the villain who is always one step ahead or arrives slightly after the party, in search of a certain collection of items, etc. To be fair, there are some sparks of originality, like how the childhood friend reacts when Asbel returns from his seven years of training, and the relationship between Asbel and his brother Hubert, heck, his brother might be the most interesting member of the cast. You see, the first 4-5 hours of the game are spent in the "Childhood chapter", were you get to know Asbel, Hubert and a couple of other characters. Some may scorn at how long this part is, as the battle system is pretty limited at this time, but I actually liked how you get to know the cast as children and how they changed in seven years.

 As with other Tales of JRPGs, it does away with combat by turns. Instead, when you touch an enemy while exploring, you initiate a battle. In battle, you and three of your party members(Controlled by the AI) are confined to an area, where you can move towards or away from an enemy, you can also use free movement or sidesteps to move to the sides, but these cost CC. CC is the new mechanic introduced to the battle system, and it's used for attacking and sidestepping. This gauge has a set maximum per character, that can be increased or decreased depending on the equipment you are wearing, and every action for every character has a different CC cost. You can restore this meter by staying still or be sidestepping right as you are hit, evading the attack and restoring a bigger amount of CC. As for this new system, I'm alright with it. It's certainly different, since there's no TP(MP in the 'Tales of' games), so you'll never run out of mana, but sometimes I found it a bit boring to stay still as I awaited the CC to recharge.
 Something that I found very cool was that every character has two different Arte styles. A-Artes are performed with the X button, and are, usually, the basic physical attacks for every character. The Circle button, however, performs B-Artes, and these change from character to character. Asbel, for example, unsheathes his sword and can't flinch for a couple of seconds, pressing X again unsheathes the sword and heals him a bit. Hubert instead has Gun artes as his circle attacks, which are a mix of spells and instant attacks, etc. It certainly makes every character feel different. Titles also return, obviously, but now there are hundreds of them, and they can be leveled up too. Leveling them up grants you new Artes or permanent stat boosts, so it's in your best interest to master as many as you can.

 Other gameplay features include Dualizing, in any store of any town, you can, by paying a small fee, combine two different items to produce a new one. These can be sold at stores for money, or sometimes you may have to dualize new item for Inn requests(more on this later). You can also imbue weapons and equipment with Shards from fallen enemies, and thus enhance their attributes. Then there's the Mixer. Inside the Mixer you can put a certain amount of items, and the Mixer will sometimes produce one the items inside, as you walk around. Every now and then, after an item is created, the amount of slots in the mixer will increase. You can also put inside Books that grant passive effects, or Food that is used during a battle, once, to heal you. You will learn to like the mixer, you are not forced to use it, but it can be handy.
 As with every modern 'Tales of' game, Skits return. Skits are little scenes, played with 2D cut-outs of the characters, that have them interacting with each other, usually with funny results. They really do help on deepening the characters, and are completely optional. Depending on your tastes, you may be surprised yo know that there is no world map. Every town, dungeon and road are connected, if you can't reach it by foot, there's a port that can take you there, but otherwise, no world map. Near the end of the game you gain access to free travel, though, and you can choose any place, from a list, to revisit. Speaking of travelling, it starts very linear, with many invisible walls preventing you from backtracking or exploring, as Asbel mutters something alongside "There's no time for this now", and it can grow a bit annoying when you want to go back.

 Finishing the game, that should last around 50 hours, unlocks Lineages and Legacies, a completely new epilogue that wasn't included in the Wii-version. Something I really liked is that this chapter deals with different themes and issues than the main game, so it actually feels like something new. There's also new dungeons that try different things, like splitting the party, which is kinda nice, although the very last dungeon is on the tedious side. There's also a new seventh playable character, and the Skits he is involved in are hilarious. This chapter should last around 10 hours, it's nothing special, but it's a nice expansion to the main story.
 The game also has many sidequests and Inn-requests. Inn requests are requests, obviously, that can be found on every Inn in the game, and they task you with fetching items, usually found by dualizing other items. Sidequests, however, are usually triggered by stepping over Stars that are hovering over places, more than a couple of these can be missed if you don't trigger them in a certain time frame. There's also a Trials of Graces mode, where you can take your party and challenge certain battles. They reward you with items that you can take on your game.
 Graphically, it shows that it used to be a Wii game. There are new textures, sure, but they are still very simple. Character models have some sharpish edges, and saying that they look from a PS2 game wouldn't be too far off. Still, it is a pretty game, it's not a technical marvel, but it's a very bright and colorful game, it is pretty. The music is very fitting for the genre, while the only song that may get stuck on your head is the fantastic localized intro song, the rest of the score is alright, nothing special, but not bad. Voice acting for the main characters is pretty good, but the rest of the cast are not as good, passable at worst.

 All in all, it's a very meaty game, there's plenty to do, and plenty to see. It's presentation may not be the sharpest, but I'm the kind of guy that doesn't measure a game by it's presentation, and the game as a whole is more than a sum of it's parts. Ah! It has to be mentioned that I came around a game-stopping glitch, and many others came across it, where a scene with a certain buttler would get stuck as he game into scene. It can be fixed by deleting and reinstalling the game, but it was still pretty annoying and a bit scary, heh.
 8 out of 10.