I picked up this game 3 years ago not knowing aboutr how much Hate this game has towards it and it is actually my favorite Tales game by a long shot lol I don't understand why so many people do not like it literally the customization is fucking amazing
Some people have certain "expectations" for what a Tales game should be. Tales of Graces took some risks and tried some different things that put people off. I think it's a silly reason to dismiss it but people are like that unfortunately.
Graces F is one of my favorite tales because of the battle system, which had two things that i loved: The Defense mechanics and the intro (to me at least) to the removal of TP. It allowed the battle to flow way more freely in my opinion. The Future Arc is also beautiful in my opinion. It had a more grown and cryptic feel to it as well as far as graces goes. Oh, Pascal is also one of my favorite video game characters of all time.
I do not think friendship is heavy applyed in the game. Actually, If was not the friendship intervention, the game would be F**King depression! If Asbel and friends didnt met Sophie, theyre lives would be catastrofic. Asbel would be in war with his Brother, Cheria would be dead. Richard would be the mad King and Malik in eternal depression because he thinks he is alone since he never Will have peace about his past. Pascal would be in an eternal Quest that would never have a develop arc with her Lineage tribe and sister... Sophie story is fantastic either, an humanoid created to Destroy and Control worlds and wars and let her have conscient and choice to do stuff. Its Very pleasing and interesting! Friendship WAS necessary. I could compare with FF IX with the friendship aproach. Learning How the war affect the World and the origins of their World. Its fantastic!!!
I personally think zesteria has the absolute best "Don't go to this area" mechanic I've ever seen in any game. There's nothing more badass to me than having the final boss just standing there in an area waiting for you to square up.
People hate this game ? I bought a PS3 just for this game Now I wasn't the biggest fan of the story but this game easily had the best battle system of all the Tales games in my opinion... Watching this makes me wanna play this again Vesperia is my personal favorite Tales game though.
When I found out people hated this game I was baffled because Graces f is my favorite tales game, specially when it comes to combat and titles. I enjoyed the story, the characters, I didn't mind the child arc, the soundtrack may not be the best but mad dance is awesome Imo, unlike the newest tales games (except hearts r) most of the party members are fun to use, the cameo weapons, cards and fights were a nice touch. I think I'm gonna stop here because if keep going with the things I like I'll never stop.
ToGF have a simple story, it is not complex but it do its work in an amazing way: its a charming story about feelings of love, bond and will, and at least I really was able to felt all of that stuff. The end and the way the characters grow up and find answers about how they should think and live, its really well done, as a student of psychology I was very glad to see that the development of the characters made perfect sense and was logical. I love the story and characters in a different way I would love a complex story and darker characters, is that simple I guess. The combat system is just AMAZING, I care more about story and characters than what I care about gameplay but holy fuck this game made wanted to play and play and play, I WANTED to do everything manually because it was FUN. ToGF its one of my favorite games~
karanus010 That's interesting that you took your psychology lessons into consideration when playing the game. I only took one course of that so the information didn't remain too relevant for me.
Its just automatic, When it doesnt make sense it could be fun as well but when the writer make characters that could actually be real it just feel better for me because it is more easy to understand and connect with them because maybe you even know someone like them or even you are like some of them. The children arc was kinda boring but it explains why the characters get to be what you see in the main arc. It makes senses and even shock you because all characters just become like the opposite of what they were as kids, and this stuff helps you to understand their motivations, problems, desires, fears, traumas and feelings, and also how this factors and how your childhood can guide your adulthood, which is the natural progress of the humans. I loved the characters. Long live to pascal ewe/!
As much as I didn't like the main story for the game, the Future Arc was really good. The writing was better and they added a whole new combat mechanic. Visually, I love the art style of the game. The landscapes and character designs are super solid. As for the characters themselves, until the future arc the only character I really liked was Pascal. When the Future Arc started, I instantly liked the characters more. I feel like they gave them more personality. All in all, I think it's a good game I just like other Tales games more.
I probably say that the friendship in graces isn't in the levels of yu gi oh because of all the friendship talk that Graces did, they always did identify friendship as a concept that motivated their actions and not a factor that physically helped them in their times of need(like yu gi oh's heart of the cards).
HJR1711 ^ THIS. also the original japanese yugioh is sooooooooooooo much better. I tell people this all the goddamn time why does no one listen? The dub censors all of the good parts and turns a show geared towards teenagers into a show for children. It just pisses me off what 4kids did to it, and i get that they arent around anymore but they still don't seem to have done anything better with the script. UGH.
Abyss was my first Tales game, but it never really stuck for me despite its acclaim from my friends. Graces was my next one, and of the limited Tales games I've played, it's remained one of my favorites. The worst thing I could say about it is that after playing the whole thing, I couldn't imagine having experienced the story without Lineage and Legacies, but we never got the original Wii version in English so that's not a problem I'd ever encounter.
have you guys played Tales of Symphonia Dawn of the New World? It was my 1st and got me into the series, so I love it ^^ (that and I got to befriend monsters and evolve them) I especially loved how I was on Emil's side for the game since I never played the 1st Symphonia with Llyod as the main characterI was hoping to hear you're opinion on it ^^
I've only played three games in the tales series, but if its one thing I've learned from playing all the games in a specific series is that you can't expect every game to be perfect or even expect every game to exceed to match the level of some of your favorite games in the series. it just doesn't work like that, unfortunately there will always be a game in any series that may be your least favorite but we can't focus on why we don't like one game over other games in the series. I know some of the other tales games that get a lot of flack is tales of legendia and tales of symphonia II but I feel confident that there is at least one thing in the game that is at least likable, but there are probably people who actually enjoy those games. Its like your guest said before taste is subjective. I can't give any opinions on how i feel about tales of graces f since I haven't played it but where this game falls when it comes to what games I like and don't like is irrelevant, I guarantee I'll find something to like about this game regardless.
I LOVE this game, and i'm still playing it since 3 years...well just to do some fights to remember the characters i guess...but, i miss them so much...i miss Asbel, Cheria, Sophie, Pascal, Hubert and Malik all together...
Well, two of my favourite JRPG series have simple stories: Lunar and Grandia. When i replayed those recently i realised that for me characters are even more important than a complex story. If i don`t care for the characters i play, i lose interest in the game, even if the plot is amazing. Of cause a complex plot as let`s say Xenogears brings the game to the next level, but good characters are a necessity for every JRPG.
+DesMondesBlut Interestingly enough, both series were made by Game Arts. Now I do agree with you on a personal level, I also value characters more than story. That being said it's also a preference. I know some people that can't get into something unless the story is great, even if they like the characters. It also depends on what the author is going for as one story might be a character study and the other might be a commentary on society. I may value characters moreso than the actual story, but I still enjoy a good story and I'd probably be interested in seeing a commentary on society regardless. That being said the character study is more likely than not, going to strike a chord with me more effectively than the social commentary. No rights or wrongs here, it's just different ways of writing for different types of people. That's why I hesitate to agree that good characters are a necessity for every JRPG. It really depends on what the writer is going for.
I just finished Tales of Graces last night. This was my first Tales game. I was introduced to it by some video series on The Escapist where people rapidly crack jokes over videogame cutscenes (usually the opening scene), and I wondered for years how this would turn out. I noticed this video a while back when I was stuck, looking for the solution to navigating this one labyrinthine dungeon with multiple floors (turns out there was this one doorway I couldn't even see that was obscured by the camera's positioning), and decided to wait until I finished the main campaign before coming here, partly to avoid possible spoilers, but also because I wanted as fresh, clean, and unbiased of a full impression on the game as I could possibly get. I'm gonna go through the trials and the epilogue, then head right into Tales of Xillia!
Once, I was in the middle of a boss fight, and the game froze for an hour. I decided to wait and it unfroze, the boss one shots me, and my entire party was wiped out. I think it was the fight against the Lambda robot.
The game never froze on me during my two full playthroughs of it. Your disc might be dirty or maybe a little scratched up. That or you just ran into some seriously bad luck because this is literally the only time I have ever even heard of the game freezing on anyone.
Ok here is my advice for those people who are experiencing slowdown in Tales games.If you have a Physical version then the time it takes the PS3 to read the data from the disc and executes it at random times the game will slow down to a point where you think the game is going to crash.To counter the slowdown for some strange reason the Digital version is better especially when the game is installed.I have pretty much done all I can with every Tales game up to this point with the Physical version so loading up the Tales games in Digital form for the first time I was quite shocked to discover that the games I tested being Tales Of Symphonia Chronicles,Tales of Graces F and lastly Tales of Xillia all ran super smooth with no slowdown whatsoever on a Samsung 1tb 5400rpm hard drive. If any Tales fan or if there is anyone hoping to get into the Tales series for the first time NAMCO is currently as of 05/07/2017 to 19/07/2017 is having a sale so now is the time to buy them.
still haven't played Xillia 2 but I have to confirm that slowdowns are present in Xillia 1, they're not frequent but they can happen some times in chaotic battles but they don't bother me that much
***** How many artes can you equip to each character? Is there an item like the artes sphere in Xillia 1 & 2 increasing the number of artes you can do?
Yusuke Urameshi In Tales of Graces there are 2 different kinds of artes, A - Artes and B - Artes. A - Artes for the X button are static and can't be switched around, but you have 4 different branches of attacks, one when not moving, one moving forward, one moving left and one moving right. B - Artes you can customize the artes for the circle button but only 4 of them. You can also do shortcuts on the right analog stick as per usual.
***** Thanks man and it's because of your reviews and videos why I bought & now playing tales of graces f. I played before xillia 1 & 2 and loved them. But Graces f my third favorite.
Just recently played this because I was bored and had never played the tales series. Played xillia first. Then Graces. I am glad I found your video I didn't understand the hate. It had a lot of strengths along with some very adorable moments from sophie and pascal. The only trope that really bothered me was the Cheria and Asbel pretending they didnt care about each other over and over and over. That's so overused and it made both their characters boring for me. I focused primarily (apparently I'm not the only one) on Malik and Pascal both of which had interesting qualities and some backstory that explained them. Enjoyed the discussion as well as the comments here. Nice job.
I don’t mind the game seeing has I’ve had multiple save files on it because I feel like this game has a much more replay factor than other games. I still have yet to unlock all the titles for all characters, I still need to beat the rockgagong, and the bonus dungeon. I also loved the inclusion of the A artes and the B artes and I love how they continued to added those throughout the series with Zesteria and Berseria added it as well
I don't think Zestiria or Berseria handled it as well as Graces f did though. Berseria fared better than Zestiria at least where the combat was kind of a mess. Berseria streamlined a lot of the issues that Zestiria had but it ended up not being as fun as Graces f.
emmanuel mosley I dont think it's strange to love the cast, I think they're a very likeable bunch. Not my favorite cast in the Tales series but still really good.
Really enjoyed the discussion, even though having never played any tales games. But I remedied that this afternoon bought 4 of them for $25, so we will see if this game is over hated seeing as I have no previous experience with any tales game.
***** Yes tales of Graces F, bundled with Tales of Xillia for $15 in the Playstation store. And Tales of Symphonia Chronicles which is also 2 games for $10 in the same Bandai Namco sale. I usually prefer to buy my games in Physical format, but having never played any of the tales games. EBgames wants like $20-29.99 per game used even with Graces F and was not going to risk over $100 having never played a single game in the series.
Oh I forgot to ask if you could tweet that out, I have no followers gaming related on twitter. In the off chance some of your followers don't know of the sale and perhaps like me never played a tales game.
I love Tales of Graces. Having nearly played all the Tales games, this one is the top 10 for me in the Tales list. I love it more than Xillia’s which people seem to favor more. This isn’t my first Tales either since I’ve started playing since Symphonia, then went through till Berseria. They’re all great games in their own way. The story, although not the strongest point in the game, makes up with its combat, characters, side contents, and even the future arc which had a slightly better story than the main. The whole friendship thing is corny, but I love it because I get to make fun of it all the time. It’s a great game, and Tales game.
This is such an amazing entry, the story made me happy and i loved the halfway point when you "beat" the big bad then bam you are in space then bam another planet... Reminded me of ff3\6 when you "beat" kefka but that was just the beginning lol
Call me biased but Tales Of Graces F was my first in the series and I will never say anything bad about it.It was THE game for me that got me into the series and now I own a majority of the Soundtracks and most importantly the games.I even imported a US PS2 for Tales Of The Abyss and Tales Of Legendia since I live in the UK and ever since 2013 it has been one heck of an incredible journey and I have learned a lot about the lore of the franchise during these last 3 years.
Getting into a high level area as a level 5 chump or ssomething like that and getting stomped by them is something I actually love to do, fight them and see what I can do against them, and later on coming back and defeating them. Also, one of my biggest complains in Graces F is actually the title system, more specifically the humongous amount of points necesarry for each level, in fact I actually got the DLC that doubles the points obtained to be manegable, wich I later discovered it to be a grade shop items and I was essentially dumbfounded with it...
Can't say I relate, I don't like that sort of thing at all, but hey if that;s what you enjoy more power to you. Also you do realize that if you raise the difficulty you earn more points right? It's supposed to be a risk/ reward type of system in that respect. Either way I wasn't bothered by the points needed. Titles you get early on in the game require very little points and as the game went on you get better titles that require more points, it was pretty balanced even if you didn't take measures to try and get more than normal.
A lot of content in the main and post game, hard but fun battle system to learn, coming from Vesperia with such a toxic character like Rita to a cheerful and crazy girl like Pascal, fun interaction between the characters. Overhated game asf.
Coming from an obsessive Type-Moon/Fate fanatic, after watching 2 episodes I didn't want to bother with it. Stick to watching the new Fate/Stay Night Unlimited Blade Works series that is currently airing, I wouldn't bother with the Kaleid shit.
Kalied is only if you want to watch a loli-funny spin off with the characters you love, dont seek deep story or dark aura in there because its not the point of Kaleid. I loved kalleid tho, But I just wanted to watch some fate--funny-loli shit xD Also the fights are amazing, there is even an Archer Ilya! o3o/
i know i come 3 years late to the party,but i honestly liked the story and fights in some parts of kaleid.its really not something for anyone who wants consistant quality tho,as around half the series is pretty bad
Never knew Graces was being hated on. I played the Wii version (yes, I speak Japanese), have beaten it at least twice and now grinding for completion. The game is amazing! Although I couldn't care as much for the main plot as I did with other Tales of titles, but the combat is, as you said, AMAZING!
***** What I found weird about the plot in Graces is that the narrative didn't convey the sense of urgency I had in other titles. Asbel is striving to save Richard, that's the main point, and there's a war going on between two countries. The war, that would give a better snese of urgency, was left as a sub plot, and as for Richard, the more you see him getting twisted, the less you care for saving him (at least that's how I felt when playing the game). The main plot isn't bad. It's standard. Sub plots and siddequests are where this game shine, narrative-wise. Another narrative element I really enoyed was the aggregation of the title system to the story, when only Sophie, Asbel, Hubert and Cherria can damage Ramuda-created enemies with skills they gained based on Sophie's powers, and how later on Pascal manages to create a device that gives her and Malik similar powers. That part was brilliant! So, yeah. The only issue I have with this game's plot is how the main part isn't as engaging as the sub plots, but even so it's not a bad story! Also, just to complement your video, in Japan, the Wii version was full of bugs, but later on Namco re-released the game with all the bugs fixed - except one, that I experienced, where the BGM gets screwed up when battling, but it rarely happens anymore. Oh, and as you said, it may have been developped to attend to a younger audience, but not much younger, as the game doesn't have Hiragana option or Furigana for most of the time (long story short - Kanji = complicated/adult writting, Furigana = Hiragana that goes on top of Kanji, so you can read; Hiragana = basic writting, grade school level). So, it isn't made for the same public Nintendo was aiming for with the Wii, but it is more appealing to younger audiences, just not that young.
I actually really loved this game and was one of my favorite games from that year. I thought the character development was great and at times intense and I enjoyed the battle system over others in the series because of how fast paced it was. Definitely doesnt deserve as much hate as it gets but thats just my opinion
Wait did I hear him say that Pascal's voice actress is the same as saber from the fate series saber is one of my favorite female anime characters of all time so if I heard that right then wow two characters I like being voiced by the same person that's awesome.
2 Important questions. I am currently playing "Tales of the Abyss" on the 3DS. Would you say the ps2 version is more enjoyable? because i feel like i want to play it on the big screen. And question 2, What do you think is a better game? Xillia, or Xillia 2. I have already beat Xillia. Im wondering how much you enjoyed it compared to the first.
Lu Bu Well the 3DS and PS2 version are mostly the same based on what I've seen, although the PS2 does have some glitches which the 3DS version doesn't have. They're not too common and I was still able to beat the game twice so if you feel like you really want to play it on the big screen, sure. As for Xillia 2, I saw it as an extension to Xillia 1 rather than a sequel so I don't see them as 2 different games but rather 1 huge game that I very much enjoyed.
Lu Bu If you really hate playing it on your 3DS then yeah go for the PS2 version. Like I said it does have some glitches but if you play the game normally they shouldn't be much of an issue.
this is the first tales of game i played, since i have finished abyss, vesperia, symphonia, xillia and hearts r, but graces f is still my favorite i just cant get enough of the combat skits and titles
No, I feel the hate is entirely justified. My reasons why is, when I was a Sophomore in Highschool, I needed a really good time consuming rpg. This was it and I was grateful it did it's job. However, I grew up playing a lot more adult games where characters were fully realized, meaning they break away from cliched things. 1. I'm fine that it was a Wii Port, however, they could have employed more side continent to where the game was less linear. 2. It started with pretty good world building ideas, but drops the ideas of the crisis's almost the moment you pick up on it. As in "Well, here in this glacier this Creis will blow up." So they use a plot device over a solution, which is very undermining and lazy. Children's game or not, I've played games intended for younger audiences with a more imaginative plot that never had to over expodise(big word for to go into exposition that would prattle on) itself to make any logical conclusion. 3. The Characters were all highschool anime tropes. There was nothing unique there to where everything was predictable even before the events acctully happen. The only characters who mostly broke away from the childish tropes were Malik, and Pascal, yes, she was overly humorous and that worked for her simply because she was the least politically involved character. She was there for comic reief and broke away from many tropes, aside from being her own Einstein. Malik was good enough to where you didn't need exposition to understand him, he'd reckon to get shit done responsibly as compared to the party going into emotional woes. 4. The game is artificially extended by the logic of not stopping a threat because a character was your friend before declaring war on everyone. As the party, you've fought, and killed countless enemies, practically covered in blood, and simply because he was your friend, you refuse to kill him simply because of your past? You choose irresponsibility to allow him to commit genocide? Super... 5. It is all excused. 6. The Final Boss was pretty much Giygas. 7. Real Villain was a character who was already killed off even before the final confrontation. 8. No one ever suspects Sophie is different until after healing fails. Remember, she exploded in the beginning. No one questions this for long, but the moment if you question she is not human Asbel goes batshit angry. 9. Though the battle system was somewhat creative, it felt absurdly clunky, Like Xenosaga 2 clunky. As in "It is more of a concept than something fun." 10. F Arc furthers the idea of Excusing Richard of the genocide and war on humanity. I could keep going. I really could.
Pascal isn't even unique. She's no different from any other "comedic" relief character (she wasn't funny at all, just a spaz). I could hardly tell a difference from her and Rikku from FFX. The game was fun, though. It was no work of art, but it served its purpose as entertainment. Vesperia had its characters, Abyss had its plot, and Graces had its gameplay.
I have a soft spot for this game. The magician's (Cheria) combat was some of my favorite in the series, being able to basically solo the rock gagan. But I'm really a sucker for dark stories. And oh man, losing a friend because they got in over their heads. Living with their failures for years eating away at them. I mean Tales games never shy away from such topics, but this game in particular made me feel the despair. And I love that.
I like graces but I feel like its to simplistic the combat is basically attack with arts block/dodge and use arts again I honestly feel the fof changes in abyss give it more depth than graces its fun just not very complex to me
This this the 1st tales of game that’s made me want to 100% complete it and at the beginning I didn’t know how everything worked and I was like why can no one heal/ heal that’s well that’s I was oooooh I need to lvl my titles to make them a healer and I loved thats it’s not my favorite game but it’s just fun to play
This was my very first ever tales game and literally the one game that that got me into the series and other RPGs at the time I just loved the concept and gameplay so how could I ever hate such a game, and like they said it's an easy simple to play through story like what more do u want from a game? I wanna enjoy it and have a nice time not suffer to compete it, but then again it might be because of what he said for a younger Audience beacuse I was around 11-13 years old when I played this I don't remember and at that age it was the greatest game ever made for me and still is, and even after I played so many other tales games this is defenatly my second or third favorite one after vesperia, first is defenatly always best and this was a perfect first game for me to get into the series x)
I'm going to get this game very soon, because Asbel is such an awesome design. It'll be my first Tales game. And I watched the child arc, and well, him not knowing how friendship ends, that can be written off as a childish heart not knowing how to deal with the loss of a close friend, so I can get passed that.
magma743 I think maybe from an outsider's point of view it may seem mostly positive, but within the fanbase it's quite conflicted. I've heard several complaints about this game, and while I do agree with some *cough*friendship*cough*, a lot I find to be either very relative and personal which isn't fair to hold against the game, or just flat out ridiculous.
I used to love it too, but the more I play it, the more its negative aspects bug me. Let me elaborate: - Evasion and Accuracy While the idea of these stats being very useful is by no means bad, I hate how they implemented it. Basically, if your accuracy is too low, your combos will suck. If your evasion is too low, you might as well not even bother trying to evade. This leads to enemies getting in cheap shots and forcing the player to go for evasion. - Eleth breaks Always either completely broken or utterly stupid. Getting big combos on your enemies often triggers a break (even when their gauge is basically empty) and then they can just buttfuck your entire team with one MA. On the other hand, if you manage to get an eleth break, it's gonna be the other way around. Except for the early game. - Titles Both the best part and the worst part about Graces. Yes, I like the system and think it's very innovative. BUT, at the same time, I absolutely hate it. Grinding for SP is extremely tedious after a while, as is looking for extra titles. I realise that you don't have to get optional titles, especially on lower difficulties, but since the stat boosts obtained through Levels are fairly low, and since evasion and accuracy are so important, I "forced" myself to get more titles so I could have a better experience. - The Story One cliché after another. - The Characters More clichés. Characters don't have to be super deep, but they weren't even trying at all. - Cheap mechanics Think Emeraude. Think Nova. - Ridiculous RNG Enemies getting crits whenever they need them, the player needing crits when they can't get them. Very annoying, though I suppose that's not just Graces. - Dualizing Even with the costs quartered, it's still way too expensive in the late game. Maybe that's just me though. - Puzzle Dungeons This IS completely personal. I absolutely hate dungeons like Wallbridge or Arcadia Garden. I do still like and enjoy the game and I strongly recommend playing it, I just can't love it anymore. Even though I'd agree that Graces probably has more going for it than, say, Xillia, I actually prefer Xillia right now (haven't played Xillia 2). Also, the game costs only like 10 bucks right now (20 if you wanna get Symphonia with it), so this is really more of a rant than actual criticism. The original game *was* for the Wii, so yeah, basically just venting my frustration. Thank you for reading this.
The only things that accuracy and evasion affect is staggering. How quickly you can get out of a stagger and how long you the staggering effect with remain on an enemy. The effect that these stats have is not really all that important to begin with and even then it was scaled properly with these stats in mind making your complaint invalid. This is untrue, eleth breaks don't suddenly happen when the meter is empty, this simply does not happen. Neither are the Eleth bursts/breaks as overpwered as you make them out to be. You can still evade enemy attacks from enemies and it doesn't last long enough or activate frequently enough for the player to abuse it. Except evasion and accuracy are NOT that important, like at all, therefore this complain is not valid. If you grinded for titles to the point of tedium then it was entirely your fault as the game did not in any way force your hand. Did you even watch the video? We addressed the writing in the game in a fair amount of detail as to why it is the way it is. Not to mention the word "cliche" is just a useless buzzword that adds nothing to the conversation. To be blunt I am honestly pissed you would insinuate that they weren't trying at all with the characters Who are you to say that? I am not saying the characters are great or anything, but its clear that time and effort was put into them. I feel especially strongly about this after having reviewered Star Ocean 5 which had the most hollow fucking characters I have seen in a long time. THOSE were characters where they didn't even try, in Graces they clearly did. I could list a series of personality traits for each character in the party in Graces, I struggle to come up with ANY for Star Ocean 5. So dont tell me they didn't try because that's a load of shit. You cant just say the game is cheap and name some bosses as if that substantiates your claim in any way because it simply doesn't. I've beaten the game twice and the game did not in any way favor crits for enemies over the player. You're making shit up. I wasnt bothered by the costs of dualizing but to be honest I didnt bother with it all that much, mostly towards the end of the game. I like puzzle dungeons but if you dont thats fine. I think you seriously need to re-think some of what you wrote here because it's incredibly misguided. I came off as hostile in this because I've been arguing with people over this game for years now, hearing the same bullshit arguments time and time again as people completely misrepresent the game and to see someone who supposedly likes the game spew the same shit? Sorry man but I am not putting up with that line of bs.
This was my third Tales game and I absolutely loved it. I don't like Asbel much, mostly because of his voice and the way he thinks sometimes, but he definitely developed, and they made sure to show that, which is good. And it's notable that other than Sophie and arguably Richard, the other characters are just there to support him, which is good. I can understand people not liking the battle system, because it is vastly different, really, but I think they nailed it. I almost didn't like playing Xillia after because of that. Really fun game, and, honestly, solid as well, especially in the endgame.
+Mike Shark I thought Asbel was okay, he doesn't compare to other main character's in the series but he's not one of the worst either. I love the battle system it's honestly one of my favorites out of any action RPG and it even blows away most other action games.
+ShintaiReviews +ShintaiReviews I agree. I think they should make more games with this kind of battle system, or at the very least, the title system; they're both phenomenal. Another thing I forgot to mention is the childhood arc. Honestly, while I don't quite like how long it takes, I really like how it's written and the way it introduces the characters. And with a story like this game's, a childhood arc was pretty much necessary. You guys mentioned this, but the way it is now has a greater effect on a player because not only have they known Asbel, Cheria, Hubert, Richard, and Sophie (?) from the beginning (or at least they think they have), you'll get to learn what everyone is like after the time skip, and often, why. For some reason, though I hated the arc at the time, I love the parts where Asbel, Richard, and Sophie write their names and when Asbel is waiting outside the passage before he decides to go through. Regardless of everything being slow there, I really liked the arc for story reasons alone.
Mike Shark I firmly believe the arc would be better recieved if the combat in it was as good as the adult arc. That's the main reason why people don't like it, you mash X to win and it's boring, the adult arc opens up the combat and makes the game an absolute blast to play. If it didn't take so long for the combat to evolve, that arc would probably be more fondly received. I do agree that story-wise it works great and the game benefits greatly from it as a foundation for the rest of the story.
***** Ah, right, you mentioned that. Eh, that is true, though many games start off just as slow, even in other Tales games, but I see your point. I chose to look past it.
It is actually more underrated as of late from my observations, but I partly blame that on the lack of people who primarily used Hubert on release though that may just be what I noticed.
Well i never got the hate for this game ok the story plot and characters aren't the best there is pascal ofc wich i reallt love but in my opinion garces f had the best battle system in tales games especially in the epilogue part it became my fav tales battle system + it helped the tales series become more popular wich people should praise it only for that reason
***** Yeah even if you don't like the game, I think it should at least be given some respect for reviving interest in the series over here in the west.
i still play this games and now i'm on chapter 6, so far the games is ok, but the story is so klise. even until now i dont really know what is the eleth, valkryas, or anything mentioned on this game. but i'm still playing this game, hope on progress i will understand thr story, at least i try hard to understand
"the story is so klise" wait, what? Did you mean cliche? Did you even watch the video? We already addressed that complaint as not being valid. Also if you're having trouble understanding the story, wouldn't that mean it's actually not that cliche? If the story was so cliche than you would have no problems understanding it.
Do you remember the giant colored crystals? Those are Valkines and they supply Eleth. Eleth is the source of life for the people of the world. The different Valkines supply different kinds of Eleth based on the different elements, Fire, Wind and Water.
Shintai so eleth is some energy that need for nature on the world, like electricity, source for all kingdom on this world to still live. so richard want to absorb the eleth because he want to destroy the world. i mean possesed richard with lambda in his body. asbel and his friend objective is to stop richard. hmm so i know the story. now i'm on the beginnig of chapter 6 after sophie is lose her sight.
well the issue i see alot with this game is people hate on the theme of the game while is friendship i really didnt bother me all that much as i thought it would
does anyone else hate the games difficulty? on normal difficulty teammates still get wiped out in seconds, bosses are like one touch kill, Mystic Arts wipeout party, hit stun, stagger and item freeze end with stupid death.
I don't understand why I would be under level. The game got really hard when I got to Fodra the robot girls just destroy us and everything since that too. Kind of just been playing easy after that because I can't win the normal enemies Now I'm in the second half of the game with a party in the 60s.
Oh I really do think this is incredibly frustrating. I never been under level before. the other Tales games I would be able walk in circles with automatic combat go 10 or 20 level well I was watching TV
Minato Hiashi I dunno what the problem is. I beat the game on moderate difficulty and I thought that was just right and I only had a few boss fights here and there that gave me trouble. Most of the game I thought the challenge was just right, not too hard and not too easy. Without me physically being there and seeing your game I am not sure how I can help.
Graces f is hands down my favorite tales game. Best combat in the series, love the story and characters, love everything about it. The game's biggest flaw is that it hasn't been remastered and ported to 'modern' consoles/pc yet lol. Xillia is my number 2 and Symphonia my number 3.
... I didn't even know this game was hated. I just knew this was the game that brought back the Tales series after it stopped coming to the West for so long. So I bought 3 copies to support the series.
Battle system is great, so much content, a very good cast of characters and crazy item crafts systems. All that makes up for the mediocre story in my opinion. And I would never hate on a game for being mediocre in the first place. This game is definitely better anyway.
***** Definitely. Even if I think the friendship theme has been overdone, I still appreciate the characters' motivations. I think out of all Tales parties, this one seemed the most like a happy family to me. And to be honest, I don't know of any story where the main character *talks* the final boss into stopping. A very interesting twist. And with the Future Arc every lingering problems I had with the ending were completely resolved (Except for Hubert and Pascal. Man up already lil' bro! lol)
People doesn't that the tales are for the anime fans that why i think people hate the story because it was too much cliche anime story but still it was enjoyable story
zetamangads I am an anime fan aswell, I've seen over 300 anime in my life and the cliches didn't bother me (mostly) because it doesn't matter if something has a cliche in it or not, what matters is how competent the writing is.
***** yeah graces story was weak and people were mixed tales anime fans love it while tales non-anime fans expected a serious story like final fantasy or the shin megami tensei
I respect your opinion, but even though Tales of Graces was my first tales game, I didn't like the game much. I prefer tales games that are similar to tales of symphonia and Abyss. I can see why people love the game though. :)
I think the biggest complaint I have with this game is besides Pascal a few moments from other characters everyone feels like they're gonna shit out a sope opera all the time. This comes especially from Asbel, who I think is constipated most of the time.
I never had any complaints about Pascal. She's actually my favorite character in the game. What I meant to say is that she felt like the only one having any fun in the main story with very few moments from other characters. I'm sorry if I confused you.
Bryan Suminski I see what you're saying now. That being said I dont really see why its a problem the characters balance it out during skits. The skits are really funny, I think it would be overkill if they acted like that during the main story aswell so I cant really agree with you in this regard.
I know this is an old comment, but as a Vita owner, this is patently false. Nintendo may not have given it enough of a push, but Sony has been basically refusing to acknowledge that the Vita even existed for years, which is a pity because the Vita it's still pretty awesome due to 3rd party developers and PSPlus. I mean, at least Nintendo continued releasing high end first party games for it long after Sony stopped doing so for the Vita.
I did get the platinum trophy for Graces f, actually. It's not that hard to get, it just takes a long time. The only things to watch out for are beating certain bosses in 60 seconds, but that's very manageable when fighting them on easy. The other trophies are mostly collecting titles and other stuff. Not that big of a deal. Most titles can be gotten easily, and you don't need all of them, just 80 - 90 % of each character. I think I had maybe 150 hours at the end, but I generally take my time and dawdle. 20 hours of that time were probably just the game running while I ate or watched TV, or something. It's definitely not as hard as e.g. Star Ocean 4, Catherine, or Persona 4 Arena. Getting all 900 battle trophies in Star Ocean 4 does not only take an absurd amount of time, you also need to finish the game at least 3 times, including on its highest difficulty, and you need to beat the Ethereal Queen within 10 minutes with Lymle for one of the trophies, which is almost impossible because she negates almost all of her attacks.
I never hated it, funny thing is I was actually obssessed with that game (preordered and did over 40,000 encounters literally before I platinumed it), because at that time not many Tales games had released yet on PS3 other than the Vesperia import which I also have. Then Xillia eventually came and it was meh until Xillia 2 came out, and that was just a badass game.
Ah, Graces f. My feelings for this game are quite complex, simply because I feel the game specializes at doing some things exceedingly well (combat, various systems), and others average (story) or plain poorly (pacing, music, characters). For me, I was just coming off Xillia when I started playing Graces f, so the transition was rather rocky, to say the least. My biggest gripe (no, not the childhood arc) was the characters themselves. Compared to those in Xillia, I found them much less endearing, and failed to connect with them anywhere near the same level. At least, for the first 20-25 hours or so. At some point I did finally start liking them, especially in Lineages and Legacies, which was actually probably my favorite part of the game. All this can probably be attributed to the game itself. I had to be really, really patient with the game before it started paying off. 25 hours in is when I actually started to enjoy myself, and by the end, I thought the game was pretty damn good. This game had a truly bizarre progression for me that I never really felt with any other game, but I'm glad I stuck with it. Overall, it's a good game, but probably misunderstood by a sizable chunk of the Tales community.
MGSmiech It definitely didn't take that long for me to get into the game personally, it was mostly the childhood arc that bugged me, I also didn't feel the game had bad pacing I thought it was pretty eventful and I thought the characters were likeable way before 20 or so hours into the game, but hey you cant predict these sorts of things, people react to things differently. Either way I think describing the game as misunderstood is pretty apt.
One of my favorites in the series. Just try to forget Richard and all of the main cast are strong for me and Pascal is one of the best girls in the series.
@@DanielSantosAnalysis escha & logy was great, but I do think the tales games have more substance. Sometimes I get sick of atelier when I play them too much. Tales for me has the right amount of funny, happy, sad and dark moments. Have you played berseria? I didn't realise that this video is older until I finished watching 😅
@@g-alicenine I agree, I prefer the Tales games overall. Yes I've beaten Berseria. it has one of my favorite stories and cast of characters in the entire Tales series.
Looking to sell my ps3 Japanese import collection, I have games like Tales of xillia 2 (Japanese collectors edition), Tales Vesperia (The Best), Tales of graces f (The best), I also have Dream C Club Zero as well. all are used but it excellent edition.
Yes. It is overhated just like Tales of Legendia. Just finished Graces today so my thoughts are pretty fresh about the game. At first, it started out with the child story and that kinda threw me off. Honestly, the game didn't feel like a 'tales of' game until after Richard starts going psycho due to lambda taking over. Another thing that felt different was the attack system, needing to charge up to attack. Took me a while to get used to. Having been used to the hack n slash combat of the previous games. Overall the combat is friggin good once you get used to the charge up step. You mentioned the Title system. Hell yeah, that was addicting. I must of spent about 10 levels just mastering a bunch of titles and the Dualizing crafting system. It reminds me of the Atelier Iris/Mana Khemia crafting system, where you can literally spend hours just crafting and have fun. Legacy and Lineage felt like the real final of the game. Without L&L, Graces would of felt half complete, like Tales of Symphonia 2 ending.
I actually loved most of the characters in Graces. Some of them rank very high among my favorite Tales characters. That would be Pascal and Emeraude. Pascal is enough said but Emmeraude, the amount of ham and chewing the scenery her actress shows off in a certain scene was enough to make her one of my favorite villains. She along with Grand Maestro Mohs when he goes insane (plus the legendary Dist the Rose) are probably some of the funniest villains in the Tales series.
I prefer more thoughtful and interesting villains like Vaan and Mithos, but I do agree that Emeraude is very entertaining as an over the top wacko type of villain.
Yeah, Mithos and Van are the kind of guys who are way more balanced and better written. (Even though Van's treatment of Luke after he used him, was cruel and made him slightly unsympathetic in that respect.) Emeraude, on the other hand, could have been much better written. She tortured Lambda because she wanted Cornell to be interested in her, a very shallow reason. She was also obviously evil when you first meet her because she's trying to interfere with Asbel's little friendship circle by reprograming Sophie to be a bomb. But despite all this, hearing a villain in the Tales series go "Bow down to your goddess" and "I will be the beautiful heroine of this tale" is hilarious and narcissistic in the best way. Her battle is also loads of fun and one of the most challenging in the main game.
Well Van mistreating Luke had to do with how little respect he had for him. Luke didn't know how to think for himself and only listened to what Van said and while that was useful for Van and his plans it was something that repulsed him as it reminded him of how humanity is chained to The Score. Sure it makes him unsympathetic but it's perfectly in-line with his characterization. I think Emearaude proves that you don't always need a deep or complex villain, you can have a super sexy and over the top evil one and it works really well in it's own right, especially the sexy part.
Yeah I do agree that all the stuff Van does makes total sense. Its just precisely that stuff that makes me not like that part of his character. I think its because I'm one of the people with sympathy for Luke because he was a technically a child. The one thing that suprises me is that when Van is colder to Luke later on in the game, Luke isn't really that traumatized by it. I thought he would be more because Van basically was his father in place of his own.Haha and yeah I can't deny that Emeraude has a great design (and awesome boss music.) Makes me sad she didn't stick around until the end. I would have much rather had that battle with her in the Lastalia
I think the idea is that by that time Luke has done a lot of growing up and while he hasn't gotten over what happened he learned to not cling to Van so tightly as he used to so his words don't have the same effect anymore. This is also thematically in-line with the idea of free will. Luke not being affected by Van so deeply anymore represents Luke finally embracing his freedom of choice and not being beholden to what chained him down.
The it’s definitely fun the combat alone what makes its addictive with the titles system The real reason why I love tales series is the gameplay and the characters and graces f dose it very well
it seems most the people who hate on this game is the cause of the friendship theme which is expected when you pick up this game when the creator bases the these games around on a theme i just feel that flack this game gets itsnt that fair if based of that simple factor
TheDmdmaster The theme gets obnoxious from time to time but honestly it isn't *that* bad and certainly doesn't outweigh the rest of the things that make it great.
@@DanielSantosAnalysis I like that I was never lost in Graces, although the scale of the world did feel a bit cramped. I've been binging the series for the first time, so it's been interesting to see what's changed and stayed the same. Started with Vesperia>Graces>Xillia1 and now playing Berseria.
@@DanielSantosAnalysis Glad you said that because I've really liked the story so far. I'm not very good at fighting games/character action so the combat does't bother me too much, although that does seem like something Graces nailed and a shame they never built on.
@@Ya_Mosura My favorite stories in the series are Abyss and Berseria, and there's a big power gap compared to the rest, which isnt a knock on the rest of the series, but rather a testament to how good the writing is in those two in particular.
I picked up this game 3 years ago not knowing aboutr how much Hate this game has towards it and it is actually my favorite Tales game by a long shot lol I don't understand why so many people do not like it literally the customization is fucking amazing
Some people have certain "expectations" for what a Tales game should be. Tales of Graces took some risks and tried some different things that put people off. I think it's a silly reason to dismiss it but people are like that unfortunately.
Shintai Team Destiny games seem to always get the shaft compared to Team Symphonia games.
same here. this game is freakin amazing
It’s SUPER weird seeing you as a Tales fan, HWYM hope everything is still going okay with you
Graces F is one of my favorite tales because of the battle system, which had two things that i loved: The Defense mechanics and the intro (to me at least) to the removal of TP. It allowed the battle to flow way more freely in my opinion.
The Future Arc is also beautiful in my opinion. It had a more grown and cryptic feel to it as well as far as graces goes.
Oh, Pascal is also one of my favorite video game characters of all time.
Capothekid the battle is good, but the story..hmmm...
If pascal wasn’t in the game , the game wouldn’t be half as good
Into the wall of mayhem!
I do not think friendship is heavy applyed in the game. Actually, If was not the friendship intervention, the game would be F**King depression! If Asbel and friends didnt met Sophie, theyre lives would be catastrofic. Asbel would be in war with his Brother, Cheria would be dead. Richard would be the mad King and Malik in eternal depression because he thinks he is alone since he never Will have peace about his past. Pascal would be in an eternal Quest that would never have a develop arc with her Lineage tribe and sister... Sophie story is fantastic either, an humanoid created to Destroy and Control worlds and wars and let her have conscient and choice to do stuff. Its Very pleasing and interesting!
Friendship WAS necessary. I could compare with FF IX with the friendship aproach. Learning How the war affect the World and the origins of their World. Its fantastic!!!
I personally think zesteria has the absolute best "Don't go to this area" mechanic I've ever seen in any game. There's nothing more badass to me than having the final boss just standing there in an area waiting for you to square up.
People hate this game ? I bought a PS3 just for this game
Now I wasn't the biggest fan of the story but this game easily had the best battle system of all the Tales games in my opinion...
Watching this makes me wanna play this again
Vesperia is my personal favorite Tales game though.
***** For sure my favorite battle system of any Tales game it is amazing and so in depth
It still does :D
When I found out people hated this game I was baffled because Graces f is my favorite tales game, specially when it comes to combat and titles. I enjoyed the story, the characters, I didn't mind the child arc, the soundtrack may not be the best but mad dance is awesome Imo, unlike the newest tales games (except hearts r) most of the party members are fun to use, the cameo weapons, cards and fights were a nice touch.
I think I'm gonna stop here because if keep going with the things I like I'll never stop.
ToGF have a simple story, it is not complex but it do its work in an amazing way: its a charming story about feelings of love, bond and will, and at least I really was able to felt all of that stuff. The end and the way the characters grow up and find answers about how they should think and live, its really well done, as a student of psychology I was very glad to see that the development of the characters made perfect sense and was logical. I love the story and characters in a different way I would love a complex story and darker characters, is that simple I guess. The combat system is just AMAZING, I care more about story and characters than what I care about gameplay but holy fuck this game made wanted to play and play and play, I WANTED to do everything manually because it was FUN.
ToGF its one of my favorite games~
karanus010 That's interesting that you took your psychology lessons into consideration when playing the game. I only took one course of that so the information didn't remain too relevant for me.
Its just automatic, When it doesnt make sense it could be fun as well but when the writer make characters that could actually be real it just feel better for me because it is more easy to understand and connect with them because maybe you even know someone like them or even you are like some of them.
The children arc was kinda boring but it explains why the characters get to be what you see in the main arc. It makes senses and even shock you because all characters just become like the opposite of what they were as kids, and this stuff helps you to understand their motivations, problems, desires, fears, traumas and feelings, and also how this factors and how your childhood can guide your adulthood, which is the natural progress of the humans.
I loved the characters. Long live to pascal ewe/!
As much as I didn't like the main story for the game, the Future Arc was really good. The writing was better and they added a whole new combat mechanic. Visually, I love the art style of the game. The landscapes and character designs are super solid. As for the characters themselves, until the future arc the only character I really liked was Pascal. When the Future Arc started, I instantly liked the characters more. I feel like they gave them more personality. All in all, I think it's a good game I just like other Tales games more.
***** I still enjoyed the main story but I'd agree the epilogue was better written.
Only problem I had with Graces was the whole friendship theme. It was like some yugioh heart of the cards crap.
ShadowElite08 Oh god, yes, the friendship shit was obnoxious.
I probably say that the friendship in graces isn't in the levels of yu gi oh because of all the friendship talk that Graces did, they always did identify friendship as a concept that motivated their actions and not a factor that physically helped them in their times of need(like yu gi oh's heart of the cards).
Don't. Mock. The heart of the cards
HJR1711 ^ THIS. also the original japanese yugioh is sooooooooooooo much better. I tell people this all the goddamn time why does no one listen? The dub censors all of the good parts and turns a show geared towards teenagers into a show for children. It just pisses me off what 4kids did to it, and i get that they arent around anymore but they still don't seem to have done anything better with the script. UGH.
Trust me I know. I have most of the sub episodes of yugioh on my pc.
graces f deserves a sequel
Destined Star
Arguably, Graces' sequel is Graces f's Lineages and Legacies Arc.
For me, this has one of the best RPG combat systems out there... up with Star Ocean 3, Grandia, and the Shadow Hearts series.
26:52 is that Lust Sin from Blazblue?
EpicAnimeRequiem Sure is, I love the OST of the Bazblue series.
I think another thing was that the protagonist Asbel was followed after Yuri who is far more popular in the west.
Abyss was my first Tales game, but it never really stuck for me despite its acclaim from my friends. Graces was my next one, and of the limited Tales games I've played, it's remained one of my favorites. The worst thing I could say about it is that after playing the whole thing, I couldn't imagine having experienced the story without Lineage and Legacies, but we never got the original Wii version in English so that's not a problem I'd ever encounter.
have you guys played Tales of Symphonia Dawn of the New World? It was my 1st and got me into the series, so I love it ^^ (that and I got to befriend monsters and evolve them) I especially loved how I was on Emil's side for the game since I never played the 1st Symphonia with Llyod as the main characterI was hoping to hear you're opinion on it ^^
No offense, if you like the game so much that's fine but it's one of the few Tales games I outright dislike
none taken. everyone has different tastes. ^^
I've only played three games in the tales series, but if its one thing I've learned from playing all the games in a specific series is that you can't expect every game to be perfect or even expect every game to exceed to match the level of some of your favorite games in the series. it just doesn't work like that, unfortunately there will always be a game in any series that may be your least favorite but we can't focus on why we don't like one game over other games in the series. I know some of the other tales games that get a lot of flack is tales of legendia and tales of symphonia II but I feel confident that there is at least one thing in the game that is at least likable, but there are probably people who actually enjoy those games. Its like your guest said before taste is subjective. I can't give any opinions on how i feel about tales of graces f since I haven't played it but where this game falls when it comes to what games I like and don't like is irrelevant, I guarantee I'll find something to like about this game regardless.
I wish more people had this positive outlook, it's so very refreshing, thank you for the enlightening comment.
It was my first Tales of Game. I put so much hours into it. I love it!
How can you say that you love it ? YOU DONT HAVE HEART :(
NarukamiGclip Yu But I found a new heart. (Dream Drop Distance)
I LOVE this game, and i'm still playing it since 3 years...well just to do some fights to remember the characters i guess...but, i miss them so much...i miss Asbel, Cheria, Sophie, Pascal, Hubert and Malik all together...
Well, two of my favourite JRPG series have simple stories: Lunar and Grandia.
When i replayed those recently i realised that for me characters are even more important than a complex story. If i don`t care for the characters i play, i lose interest in the game, even if the plot is amazing. Of cause a complex plot as let`s say Xenogears brings the game to the next level, but good characters are a necessity for every JRPG.
+DesMondesBlut Interestingly enough, both series were made by Game Arts.
Now I do agree with you on a personal level, I also value characters more than story. That being said it's also a preference. I know some people that can't get into something unless the story is great, even if they like the characters. It also depends on what the author is going for as one story might be a character study and the other might be a commentary on society. I may value characters moreso than the actual story, but I still enjoy a good story and I'd probably be interested in seeing a commentary on society regardless. That being said the character study is more likely than not, going to strike a chord with me more effectively than the social commentary. No rights or wrongs here, it's just different ways of writing for different types of people. That's why I hesitate to agree that good characters are a necessity for every JRPG. It really depends on what the writer is going for.
hey shintai can you give ma a link to the fan su ??? (the guy the solo'ed the final boss) channel.
Great video! One thing I love about Graces F was the victory quotes. They were my favorite out of the whole series.
***** Yeah I would agree with that, they were pretty much the best.
The one where all the guys state an extremly long version of their imtroduction was amazing
I’d say tales of grace f is probably one of my favorite tales game next to vesperia
I just finished Tales of Graces last night. This was my first Tales game. I was introduced to it by some video series on The Escapist where people rapidly crack jokes over videogame cutscenes (usually the opening scene), and I wondered for years how this would turn out. I noticed this video a while back when I was stuck, looking for the solution to navigating this one labyrinthine dungeon with multiple floors (turns out there was this one doorway I couldn't even see that was obscured by the camera's positioning), and decided to wait until I finished the main campaign before coming here, partly to avoid possible spoilers, but also because I wanted as fresh, clean, and unbiased of a full impression on the game as I could possibly get.
I'm gonna go through the trials and the epilogue, then head right into Tales of Xillia!
Cool, Xillia 1 and 2 together is a pretty great experience.
Once, I was in the middle of a boss fight, and the game froze for an hour. I decided to wait and it unfroze, the boss one shots me, and my entire party was wiped out. I think it was the fight against the Lambda robot.
The game never froze on me during my two full playthroughs of it. Your disc might be dirty or maybe a little scratched up. That or you just ran into some seriously bad luck because this is literally the only time I have ever even heard of the game freezing on anyone.
Got it many years ago. Gave up many times. Yesterday I tried again but just got to play 10 minutes till got bored. I hate the battle system
Ok here is my advice for those people who are experiencing slowdown in Tales games.If you have a Physical version then the time it takes the PS3 to read the data from the disc and executes it at random times the game will slow down to a point where you think the game is going to crash.To counter the slowdown for some strange reason the Digital version is better especially when the game is installed.I have pretty much done all I can with every Tales game up to this point with the Physical version so loading up the Tales games in Digital form for the first time I was quite shocked to discover that the games I tested being Tales Of Symphonia Chronicles,Tales of Graces F and lastly Tales of Xillia all ran super smooth with no slowdown whatsoever on a Samsung 1tb 5400rpm hard drive.
If any Tales fan or if there is anyone hoping to get into the Tales series for the first time NAMCO is currently as of 05/07/2017 to 19/07/2017 is having a sale so now is the time to buy them.
If I want Xillia should I finish Graces F? Like as far as the story will I be spoiled playing X if I haven't finished GF?
+Jay Bates you probably bought it already but they are completely unrelated as far as the story goes
The majority of Tales of games take place in different universes or planets, no need to play any of the other games in any order.
who the heck hates this game
still haven't played Xillia 2 but I have to confirm that slowdowns are present in Xillia 1, they're not frequent but they can happen some times in chaotic battles but they don't bother me that much
***** How many artes can you equip to each character? Is there an item like the artes sphere in Xillia 1 & 2 increasing the number of artes you can do?
Yusuke Urameshi In Tales of Graces there are 2 different kinds of artes, A - Artes and B - Artes. A - Artes for the X button are static and can't be switched around, but you have 4 different branches of attacks, one when not moving, one moving forward, one moving left and one moving right. B - Artes you can customize the artes for the circle button but only 4 of them. You can also do shortcuts on the right analog stick as per usual.
***** Thanks man and it's because of your reviews and videos why I bought & now playing tales of graces f. I played before xillia 1 & 2 and loved them. But Graces f my third favorite.
Yusuke Urameshi Awesome! I am always happy to hear I inspired others to play great games. =)
***** You deserve it man thanks
***** One Last question what is the benefit of mastering a title completely after Level 5?
Just recently played this because I was bored and had never played the tales series.
Played xillia first. Then Graces. I am glad I found your video I didn't understand the hate. It had a lot of strengths along with some very adorable moments from sophie and pascal.
The only trope that really bothered me was the Cheria and Asbel pretending they didnt care about each other over and over and over. That's so overused and it made both their characters boring for me. I focused primarily (apparently I'm not the only one) on Malik and Pascal both of which had interesting qualities and some backstory that explained them.
Enjoyed the discussion as well as the comments here. Nice job.
I don’t mind the game seeing has I’ve had multiple save files on it because I feel like this game has a much more replay factor than other games. I still have yet to unlock all the titles for all characters, I still need to beat the rockgagong, and the bonus dungeon. I also loved the inclusion of the A artes and the B artes and I love how they continued to added those throughout the series with Zesteria and Berseria added it as well
I don't think Zestiria or Berseria handled it as well as Graces f did though. Berseria fared better than Zestiria at least where the combat was kind of a mess. Berseria streamlined a lot of the issues that Zestiria had but it ended up not being as fun as Graces f.
This was my first Tales and is my favorite! I love everything about this cheesy friendship game! ^w^
Great video!!! Me personally graces f is my favorite tales of game( partially because of being my first). And yet strangely I loved the cast.
emmanuel mosley I dont think it's strange to love the cast, I think they're a very likeable bunch. Not my favorite cast in the Tales series but still really good.
Really enjoyed the discussion, even though having never played any tales games. But I remedied that this afternoon bought 4 of them for $25, so we will see if this game is over hated seeing as I have no previous experience with any tales game.
Dave Mckee 4 of them for $25? That's definitely a steal.
***** Yes tales of Graces F, bundled with Tales of Xillia for $15 in the Playstation store. And Tales of Symphonia Chronicles which is also 2 games for $10 in the same Bandai Namco sale. I usually prefer to buy my games in Physical format, but having never played any of the tales games.
EBgames wants like $20-29.99 per game used even with Graces F and was not going to risk over $100 having never played a single game in the series.
Oh I forgot to ask if you could tweet that out, I have no followers gaming related on twitter.
In the off chance some of your followers don't know of the sale and perhaps like me never played a tales game.
Dave Mckee Is it a PSN sale?
***** Yes it is, it is under weekly deals it is called the " Bandai Namco Sale"
I love Tales of Graces. Having nearly played all the Tales games, this one is the top 10 for me in the Tales list. I love it more than Xillia’s which people seem to favor more. This isn’t my first Tales either since I’ve started playing since Symphonia, then went through till Berseria. They’re all great games in their own way. The story, although not the strongest point in the game, makes up with its combat, characters, side contents, and even the future arc which had a slightly better story than the main. The whole friendship thing is corny, but I love it because I get to make fun of it all the time. It’s a great game, and Tales game.
This is such an amazing entry, the story made me happy and i loved the halfway point when you "beat" the big bad then bam you are in space then bam another planet... Reminded me of ff3\6 when you "beat" kefka but that was just the beginning lol
Call me biased but Tales Of Graces F was my first in the series and I will never say anything bad about it.It was THE game for me that got me into the series and now I own a majority of the Soundtracks and most importantly the games.I even imported a US PS2 for Tales Of The Abyss and Tales Of Legendia since I live in the UK and ever since 2013 it has been one heck of an incredible journey and I have learned a lot about the lore of the franchise during these last 3 years.
Lust Sin II in the background...Now I'm picturing Jin Kisaragi in a Tales game.
+Ninja07Keaton That would be pretty awesome.
***** Indeed, but for now we'll have to settle for him confronting the Black Beast in the next(final) BlazBlue.
Can you link me to the combo video channel?
***** Here you go, this guy makes some great combo videos.Tales of Graces ƒ: Richard 4 {Asbel Solo/NIND/Chaos Mode}
Much thanks to you good sir I love these type of videos.
***** He makes a lot of Vesperia ones aswell, primarily playing as Flynn which is cool.
Getting into a high level area as a level 5 chump or ssomething like that and getting stomped by them is something I actually love to do, fight them and see what I can do against them, and later on coming back and defeating them.
Also, one of my biggest complains in Graces F is actually the title system, more specifically the humongous amount of points necesarry for each level, in fact I actually got the DLC that doubles the points obtained to be manegable, wich I later discovered it to be a grade shop items and I was essentially dumbfounded with it...
Can't say I relate, I don't like that sort of thing at all, but hey if that;s what you enjoy more power to you.
Also you do realize that if you raise the difficulty you earn more points right? It's supposed to be a risk/ reward type of system in that respect. Either way I wasn't bothered by the points needed. Titles you get early on in the game require very little points and as the game went on you get better titles that require more points, it was pretty balanced even if you didn't take measures to try and get more than normal.
A lot of content in the main and post game, hard but fun battle system to learn, coming from Vesperia with such a toxic character like Rita to a cheerful and crazy girl like Pascal, fun interaction between the characters.
Overhated game asf.
Shintai you like the Fate series. Can you tell me if Fate/kaleid worth a watch? Or is just loli filled crap?
Coming from an obsessive Type-Moon/Fate fanatic, after watching 2 episodes I didn't want to bother with it. Stick to watching the new Fate/Stay Night Unlimited Blade Works series that is currently airing, I wouldn't bother with the Kaleid shit.
Kalied is only if you want to watch a loli-funny spin off with the characters you love, dont seek deep story or dark aura in there because its not the point of Kaleid. I loved kalleid tho, But I just wanted to watch some fate--funny-loli shit xD Also the fights are amazing, there is even an Archer Ilya! o3o/
i know i come 3 years late to the party,but i honestly liked the story and fights in some parts of kaleid.its really not something for anyone who wants consistant quality tho,as around half the series is pretty bad
Never knew Graces was being hated on. I played the Wii version (yes, I speak Japanese), have beaten it at least twice and now grinding for completion.
The game is amazing! Although I couldn't care as much for the main plot as I did with other Tales of titles, but the combat is, as you said, AMAZING!
+TwilightWolf032 The main plot is kind of standard, but I think the likable characters makes up for it.
*****
What I found weird about the plot in Graces is that the narrative didn't convey the sense of urgency I had in other titles. Asbel is striving to save Richard, that's the main point, and there's a war going on between two countries. The war, that would give a better snese of urgency, was left as a sub plot, and as for Richard, the more you see him getting twisted, the less you care for saving him (at least that's how I felt when playing the game).
The main plot isn't bad. It's standard. Sub plots and siddequests are where this game shine, narrative-wise. Another narrative element I really enoyed was the aggregation of the title system to the story, when only Sophie, Asbel, Hubert and Cherria can damage Ramuda-created enemies with skills they gained based on Sophie's powers, and how later on Pascal manages to create a device that gives her and Malik similar powers. That part was brilliant!
So, yeah. The only issue I have with this game's plot is how the main part isn't as engaging as the sub plots, but even so it's not a bad story!
Also, just to complement your video, in Japan, the Wii version was full of bugs, but later on Namco re-released the game with all the bugs fixed - except one, that I experienced, where the BGM gets screwed up when battling, but it rarely happens anymore. Oh, and as you said, it may have been developped to attend to a younger audience, but not much younger, as the game doesn't have Hiragana option or Furigana for most of the time (long story short - Kanji = complicated/adult writting, Furigana = Hiragana that goes on top of Kanji, so you can read; Hiragana = basic writting, grade school level). So, it isn't made for the same public Nintendo was aiming for with the Wii, but it is more appealing to younger audiences, just not that young.
I loved Tales of Graces f, it's what got me into the Tales series in the first place. It holds a special place in my heart.
I actually really loved this game and was one of my favorite games from that year. I thought the character development was great and at times intense and I enjoyed the battle system over others in the series because of how fast paced it was. Definitely doesnt deserve as much hate as it gets but thats just my opinion
It's cool that some people don't like it but I do feel the hate it gets at times is pretty undeserved.
Wait, is Tales of Vesperia coming to the ps3 in the States?
ClassicKrusty No, why would you think that?
I thought u guys said it of course.=) oh well..
ClassicKrusty You probably misunderstood us, we didn't say anything like that, sorry.
Wait did I hear him say that Pascal's voice actress is the same as saber from the fate series saber is one of my favorite female anime characters of all time so if I heard that right then wow two characters I like being voiced by the same person that's awesome.
Tristen Childers Saber is easily best girl.
Shintai replyed to my comment oh my god it's nice to share options with someone as awesome as you saber is the greatest.
Tristen Childers Lol thanks for the praise, but I don't think I am that great. XD
Gotta love Saber though, one of my most favorite characters.
2 Important questions. I am currently playing "Tales of the Abyss" on the 3DS. Would you say the ps2 version is more enjoyable? because i feel like i want to play it on the big screen. And question 2, What do you think is a better game? Xillia, or Xillia 2. I have already beat Xillia. Im wondering how much you enjoyed it compared to the first.
Lu Bu Well the 3DS and PS2 version are mostly the same based on what I've seen, although the PS2 does have some glitches which the 3DS version doesn't have. They're not too common and I was still able to beat the game twice so if you feel like you really want to play it on the big screen, sure. As for Xillia 2, I saw it as an extension to Xillia 1 rather than a sequel so I don't see them as 2 different games but rather 1 huge game that I very much enjoyed.
***** i feel like the 3ds version is more pixely.
Lu Bu If you really hate playing it on your 3DS then yeah go for the PS2 version. Like I said it does have some glitches but if you play the game normally they shouldn't be much of an issue.
Thank you =)
I just picked this up recently and yeah heard a ton of hate on it but I've always wanted to check it out!
Good video!
Don't listen to the haters, it has its issues but the game is great.
kids and friendship... in one of the deepest, hardest, most complex battle systems ever
this is the first tales of game i played, since i have finished abyss, vesperia, symphonia, xillia and hearts r, but graces f is still my favorite i just cant get enough of the combat skits and titles
I like Asbel.
Hope he will get a Cameo in one of the Future games ( together with Lambda )
Top Review. Love Graces f
No, I feel the hate is entirely justified.
My reasons why is, when I was a Sophomore in Highschool, I needed a really good time consuming rpg. This was it and I was grateful it did it's job. However, I grew up playing a lot more adult games where characters were fully realized, meaning they break away from cliched things.
1. I'm fine that it was a Wii Port, however, they could have employed more side continent to where the game was less linear.
2. It started with pretty good world building ideas, but drops the ideas of the crisis's almost the moment you pick up on it. As in "Well, here in this glacier this Creis will blow up." So they use a plot device over a solution, which is very undermining and lazy. Children's game or not, I've played games intended for younger audiences with a more imaginative plot that never had to over expodise(big word for to go into exposition that would prattle on) itself to make any logical conclusion.
3. The Characters were all highschool anime tropes. There was nothing unique there to where everything was predictable even before the events acctully happen. The only characters who mostly broke away from the childish tropes were Malik, and Pascal, yes, she was overly humorous and that worked for her simply because she was the least politically involved character. She was there for comic reief and broke away from many tropes, aside from being her own Einstein.
Malik was good enough to where you didn't need exposition to understand him, he'd reckon to get shit done responsibly as compared to the party going into emotional woes.
4. The game is artificially extended by the logic of not stopping a threat because a character was your friend before declaring war on everyone.
As the party, you've fought, and killed countless enemies, practically covered in blood, and simply because he was your friend, you refuse to kill him simply because of your past? You choose irresponsibility to allow him to commit genocide? Super...
5. It is all excused.
6. The Final Boss was pretty much Giygas.
7. Real Villain was a character who was already killed off even before the final confrontation.
8. No one ever suspects Sophie is different until after healing fails. Remember, she exploded in the beginning. No one questions this for long, but the moment if you question she is not human Asbel goes batshit angry.
9. Though the battle system was somewhat creative, it felt absurdly clunky, Like Xenosaga 2 clunky.
As in "It is more of a concept than something fun."
10. F Arc furthers the idea of Excusing Richard of the genocide and war on humanity.
I could keep going. I really could.
Pascal isn't even unique. She's no different from any other "comedic" relief character (she wasn't funny at all, just a spaz). I could hardly tell a difference from her and Rikku from FFX.
The game was fun, though. It was no work of art, but it served its purpose as entertainment. Vesperia had its characters, Abyss had its plot, and Graces had its gameplay.
I have a soft spot for this game. The magician's (Cheria) combat was some of my favorite in the series, being able to basically solo the rock gagan. But I'm really a sucker for dark stories. And oh man, losing a friend because they got in over their heads. Living with their failures for years eating away at them. I mean Tales games never shy away from such topics, but this game in particular made me feel the despair. And I love that.
I like graces but I feel like its to simplistic the combat is basically attack with arts block/dodge and use arts again I honestly feel the fof changes in abyss give it more depth than graces its fun just not very complex to me
This this the 1st tales of game that’s made me want to 100% complete it and at the beginning I didn’t know how everything worked and I was like why can no one heal/ heal that’s well that’s I was oooooh I need to lvl my titles to make them a healer and I loved thats it’s not my favorite game but it’s just fun to play
I have two plats on this game. For some reason the eu version installed anothers set sooo
This was my very first ever tales game and literally the one game that that got me into the series and other RPGs at the time I just loved the concept and gameplay so how could I ever hate such a game, and like they said it's an easy simple to play through story like what more do u want from a game? I wanna enjoy it and have a nice time not suffer to compete it, but then again it might be because of what he said for a younger Audience beacuse I was around 11-13 years old when I played this I don't remember and at that age it was the greatest game ever made for me and still is, and even after I played so many other tales games this is defenatly my second or third favorite one after vesperia, first is defenatly always best and this was a perfect first game for me to get into the series x)
I'm going to get this game very soon, because Asbel is such an awesome design. It'll be my first Tales game. And I watched the child arc, and well, him not knowing how friendship ends, that can be written off as a childish heart not knowing how to deal with the loss of a close friend, so I can get passed that.
magma743 Well I hope you enjoy it! I agree that Asbel has a pretty awesome design.
I've heard mostly positive stuff on this game opposed to hate, which is why I couldn't resist watching this.
magma743 I think maybe from an outsider's point of view it may seem mostly positive, but within the fanbase it's quite conflicted. I've heard several complaints about this game, and while I do agree with some *cough*friendship*cough*, a lot I find to be either very relative and personal which isn't fair to hold against the game, or just flat out ridiculous.
I don't know how Tales is set up, but I guess at the end of the day it's a game. And as long as it's fun and not a broken mess, then it's good, right?
magma743 Graces is most certainly fun and is definitely not a broken mess. =)
I used to love it too, but the more I play it, the more its negative aspects bug me. Let me elaborate:
- Evasion and Accuracy
While the idea of these stats being very useful is by no means bad, I hate how they implemented it. Basically, if your accuracy is too low, your combos will suck. If your evasion is too low, you might as well not even bother trying to evade. This leads to enemies getting in cheap shots and forcing the player to go for evasion.
- Eleth breaks
Always either completely broken or utterly stupid. Getting big combos on your enemies often triggers a break (even when their gauge is basically empty) and then they can just buttfuck your entire team with one MA. On the other hand, if you manage to get an eleth break, it's gonna be the other way around. Except for the early game.
- Titles
Both the best part and the worst part about Graces. Yes, I like the system and think it's very innovative. BUT, at the same time, I absolutely hate it. Grinding for SP is extremely tedious after a while, as is looking for extra titles. I realise that you don't have to get optional titles, especially on lower difficulties, but since the stat boosts obtained through Levels are fairly low, and since evasion and accuracy are so important, I "forced" myself to get more titles so I could have a better experience.
- The Story
One cliché after another.
- The Characters
More clichés. Characters don't have to be super deep, but they weren't even trying at all.
- Cheap mechanics
Think Emeraude. Think Nova.
- Ridiculous RNG
Enemies getting crits whenever they need them, the player needing crits when they can't get them. Very annoying, though I suppose that's not just Graces.
- Dualizing
Even with the costs quartered, it's still way too expensive in the late game. Maybe that's just me though.
- Puzzle Dungeons
This IS completely personal. I absolutely hate dungeons like Wallbridge or Arcadia Garden.
I do still like and enjoy the game and I strongly recommend playing it, I just can't love it anymore. Even though I'd agree that Graces probably has more going for it than, say, Xillia, I actually prefer Xillia right now (haven't played Xillia 2). Also, the game costs only like 10 bucks right now (20 if you wanna get Symphonia with it), so this is really more of a rant than actual criticism. The original game *was* for the Wii, so yeah, basically just venting my frustration. Thank you for reading this.
The only things that accuracy and evasion affect is staggering. How quickly you can get out of a stagger and how long you the staggering effect with remain on an enemy. The effect that these stats have is not really all that important to begin with and even then it was scaled properly with these stats in mind making your complaint invalid.
This is untrue, eleth breaks don't suddenly happen when the meter is empty, this simply does not happen. Neither are the Eleth bursts/breaks as overpwered as you make them out to be. You can still evade enemy attacks from enemies and it doesn't last long enough or activate frequently enough for the player to abuse it.
Except evasion and accuracy are NOT that important, like at all, therefore this complain is not valid. If you grinded for titles to the point of tedium then it was entirely your fault as the game did not in any way force your hand.
Did you even watch the video? We addressed the writing in the game in a fair amount of detail as to why it is the way it is. Not to mention the word "cliche" is just a useless buzzword that adds nothing to the conversation. To be blunt I am honestly pissed you would insinuate that they weren't trying at all with the characters Who are you to say that? I am not saying the characters are great or anything, but its clear that time and effort was put into them. I feel especially strongly about this after having reviewered Star Ocean 5 which had the most hollow fucking characters I have seen in a long time. THOSE were characters where they didn't even try, in Graces they clearly did. I could list a series of personality traits for each character in the party in Graces, I struggle to come up with ANY for Star Ocean 5. So dont tell me they didn't try because that's a load of shit.
You cant just say the game is cheap and name some bosses as if that substantiates your claim in any way because it simply doesn't.
I've beaten the game twice and the game did not in any way favor crits for enemies over the player. You're making shit up.
I wasnt bothered by the costs of dualizing but to be honest I didnt bother with it all that much, mostly towards the end of the game.
I like puzzle dungeons but if you dont thats fine.
I think you seriously need to re-think some of what you wrote here because it's incredibly misguided. I came off as hostile in this because I've been arguing with people over this game for years now, hearing the same bullshit arguments time and time again as people completely misrepresent the game and to see someone who supposedly likes the game spew the same shit? Sorry man but I am not putting up with that line of bs.
Shintai at least i try to finish this game.
This was the first tales of game and I love it! I'm a massive fan of the series and this is the game that started it! Even my brother loves it!!!
+charliebearcub Great to hear, I am starting to see more comments like yours of people taking a liking to the game. It's very good to see. =)
This was my third Tales game and I absolutely loved it. I don't like Asbel much, mostly because of his voice and the way he thinks sometimes, but he definitely developed, and they made sure to show that, which is good. And it's notable that other than Sophie and arguably Richard, the other characters are just there to support him, which is good. I can understand people not liking the battle system, because it is vastly different, really, but I think they nailed it. I almost didn't like playing Xillia after because of that. Really fun game, and, honestly, solid as well, especially in the endgame.
+Mike Shark I thought Asbel was okay, he doesn't compare to other main character's in the series but he's not one of the worst either.
I love the battle system it's honestly one of my favorites out of any action RPG and it even blows away most other action games.
+ShintaiReviews +ShintaiReviews I agree. I think they should make more games with this kind of battle system, or at the very least, the title system; they're both phenomenal.
Another thing I forgot to mention is the childhood arc. Honestly, while I don't quite like how long it takes, I really like how it's written and the way it introduces the characters. And with a story like this game's, a childhood arc was pretty much necessary. You guys mentioned this, but the way it is now has a greater effect on a player because not only have they known Asbel, Cheria, Hubert, Richard, and Sophie (?) from the beginning (or at least they think they have), you'll get to learn what everyone is like after the time skip, and often, why. For some reason, though I hated the arc at the time, I love the parts where Asbel, Richard, and Sophie write their names and when Asbel is waiting outside the passage before he decides to go through. Regardless of everything being slow there, I really liked the arc for story reasons alone.
Mike Shark I firmly believe the arc would be better recieved if the combat in it was as good as the adult arc. That's the main reason why people don't like it, you mash X to win and it's boring, the adult arc opens up the combat and makes the game an absolute blast to play. If it didn't take so long for the combat to evolve, that arc would probably be more fondly received. I do agree that story-wise it works great and the game benefits greatly from it as a foundation for the rest of the story.
*****
Ah, right, you mentioned that. Eh, that is true, though many games start off just as slow, even in other Tales games, but I see your point. I chose to look past it.
It is actually more underrated as of late from my observations, but I partly blame that on the lack of people who primarily used Hubert on release though that may just be what I noticed.
Zachary LaFave Asbel & Richard, especially Hubert, and surprisingly Malik are all craptons of fun to play to me
Well i never got the hate for this game ok the story plot and characters aren't the best there is pascal ofc wich i reallt love but in my opinion garces f had the best battle system in tales games especially in the epilogue part it became my fav tales battle system + it helped the tales series become more popular wich people should praise it only for that reason
***** Yeah even if you don't like the game, I think it should at least be given some respect for reviving interest in the series over here in the west.
Still my favorite.
No dual audio
i still play this games and now i'm on chapter 6, so far the games is ok, but the story is so klise. even until now i dont really know what is the eleth, valkryas, or anything mentioned on this game. but i'm still playing this game, hope on progress i will understand thr story, at least i try hard to understand
"the story is so klise" wait, what? Did you mean cliche? Did you even watch the video? We already addressed that complaint as not being valid. Also if you're having trouble understanding the story, wouldn't that mean it's actually not that cliche? If the story was so cliche than you would have no problems understanding it.
Shintai i mean cliche. sorry typo.but i try to understand since i playing this game.
Shintai could you tell me what is the eleth, valkines on this series?
Do you remember the giant colored crystals? Those are Valkines and they supply Eleth. Eleth is the source of life for the people of the world. The different Valkines supply different kinds of Eleth based on the different elements, Fire, Wind and Water.
Shintai so eleth is some energy that need for nature on the world, like electricity, source for all kingdom on this world to still live. so richard want to absorb the eleth because he want to destroy the world. i mean possesed richard with lambda in his body. asbel and his friend objective is to stop richard. hmm so i know the story. now i'm on the beginnig of chapter 6 after sophie is lose her sight.
One thing I regret is not really understanding the eleth system in this game.
jlwest23 The good thing about it though is that it can be as simple or as complex as you want which I think is in the game's favor.
But now I am stuck on the Cress and Stahn coliseum fight in Xillia 2.
well the issue i see alot with this game is people hate on the theme of the game while is friendship i really didnt bother me all that much as i thought it would
Kody Tyree It's a generic theme but it's fitting for something aimed at a younger audience.
Great video and i totally agree!
Btw when is the next wernakama vid coming up?
does anyone else hate the games difficulty? on normal difficulty teammates still get wiped out in seconds, bosses are like one touch kill, Mystic Arts wipeout party, hit stun, stagger and item freeze end with stupid death.
I never had it that bad, you sound severely under-leveled.
I don't understand why I would be under level. The game got really hard when I got to Fodra the robot girls just destroy us and everything since that too. Kind of just been playing easy after that because I can't win the normal enemies Now I'm in the second half of the game with a party in the 60s.
If the 60s to low I don't know how to get better EXP right now
Oh I really do think this is incredibly frustrating. I never been under level before. the other Tales games I would be able walk in circles with automatic combat go 10 or 20 level well I was watching TV
Minato Hiashi I dunno what the problem is. I beat the game on moderate difficulty and I thought that was just right and I only had a few boss fights here and there that gave me trouble. Most of the game I thought the challenge was just right, not too hard and not too easy. Without me physically being there and seeing your game I am not sure how I can help.
Graces f is hands down my favorite tales game. Best combat in the series, love the story and characters, love everything about it. The game's biggest flaw is that it hasn't been remastered and ported to 'modern' consoles/pc yet lol.
Xillia is my number 2 and Symphonia my number 3.
Still waiting for TOV for the ps3 -_- FUCK just put it in sub
... I didn't even know this game was hated. I just knew this was the game that brought back the Tales series after it stopped coming to the West for so long. So I bought 3 copies to support the series.
Loved the intro for graces f so beautiful
Battle system is great, so much content, a very good cast of characters and crazy item crafts systems.
All that makes up for the mediocre story in my opinion. And I would never hate on a game for being mediocre in the first place. This game is definitely better anyway.
Yourson Isold I think the likable cast of characters makes up for the story in regards to the writing.
*****
Definitely. Even if I think the friendship theme has been overdone, I still appreciate the characters' motivations. I think out of all Tales parties, this one seemed the most like a happy family to me.
And to be honest, I don't know of any story where the main character *talks* the final boss into stopping. A very interesting twist.
And with the Future Arc every lingering problems I had with the ending were completely resolved (Except for Hubert and Pascal. Man up already lil' bro! lol)
I think ToG has a pretty well balanced story and i love all the characters. the combat system is pretty fun. overall a damn good game.
I dont hate this game but this game is more of a guilty pleasure of mine...
There's no reason to feel guilty over enjoying a good game.
People doesn't that the tales are for the anime fans that why i think people hate the story because it was too much cliche anime story but still it was enjoyable story
zetamangads I am an anime fan aswell, I've seen over 300 anime in my life and the cliches didn't bother me (mostly) because it doesn't matter if something has a cliche in it or not, what matters is how competent the writing is.
***** yeah graces story was weak and people were mixed tales anime fans love it while tales non-anime fans expected a serious story like final fantasy or the shin megami tensei
I didnt even know people didnt like it it was my first tales game I like that mixer thing making items and healing mid battle outta nowhere so good
I respect your opinion, but even though Tales of Graces was my first tales game, I didn't like the game much. I prefer tales games that are similar to tales of symphonia and Abyss. I can see why people love the game though. :)
+Zeldablade7 Hey it's not going to be for everyone, that's cool.
I think the biggest complaint I have with this game is besides Pascal a few moments from other characters everyone feels like they're gonna shit out a sope opera all the time. This comes especially from Asbel, who I think is constipated most of the time.
You lost me when you cited Pascal as a complaint.
I never had any complaints about Pascal. She's actually my favorite character in the game. What I meant to say is that she felt like the only one having any fun in the main story with very few moments from other characters. I'm sorry if I confused you.
Bryan Suminski I see what you're saying now. That being said I dont really see why its a problem the characters balance it out during skits. The skits are really funny, I think it would be overkill if they acted like that during the main story aswell so I cant really agree with you in this regard.
I think Vita is criminally underrated because it has a healthier support than wii u.
I know this is an old comment, but as a Vita owner, this is patently false. Nintendo may not have given it enough of a push, but Sony has been basically refusing to acknowledge that the Vita even existed for years, which is a pity because the Vita it's still pretty awesome due to 3rd party developers and PSPlus.
I mean, at least Nintendo continued releasing high end first party games for it long after Sony stopped doing so for the Vita.
the wiiu is way underrated in my opinion
I did get the platinum trophy for Graces f, actually. It's not that hard to get, it just takes a long time. The only things to watch out for are beating certain bosses in 60 seconds, but that's very manageable when fighting them on easy. The other trophies are mostly collecting titles and other stuff. Not that big of a deal. Most titles can be gotten easily, and you don't need all of them, just 80 - 90 % of each character. I think I had maybe 150 hours at the end, but I generally take my time and dawdle. 20 hours of that time were probably just the game running while I ate or watched TV, or something.
It's definitely not as hard as e.g. Star Ocean 4, Catherine, or Persona 4 Arena. Getting all 900 battle trophies in Star Ocean 4 does not only take an absurd amount of time, you also need to finish the game at least 3 times, including on its highest difficulty, and you need to beat the Ethereal Queen within 10 minutes with Lymle for one of the trophies, which is almost impossible because she negates almost all of her attacks.
I never hated it, funny thing is I was actually obssessed with that game (preordered and did over 40,000 encounters literally before I platinumed it), because at that time not many Tales games had released yet on PS3 other than the Vesperia import which I also have. Then Xillia eventually came and it was meh until Xillia 2 came out, and that was just a badass game.
Ah, Graces f. My feelings for this game are quite complex, simply because I feel the game specializes at doing some things exceedingly well (combat, various systems), and others average (story) or plain poorly (pacing, music, characters). For me, I was just coming off Xillia when I started playing Graces f, so the transition was rather rocky, to say the least. My biggest gripe (no, not the childhood arc) was the characters themselves. Compared to those in Xillia, I found them much less endearing, and failed to connect with them anywhere near the same level. At least, for the first 20-25 hours or so. At some point I did finally start liking them, especially in Lineages and Legacies, which was actually probably my favorite part of the game. All this can probably be attributed to the game itself. I had to be really, really patient with the game before it started paying off. 25 hours in is when I actually started to enjoy myself, and by the end, I thought the game was pretty damn good. This game had a truly bizarre progression for me that I never really felt with any other game, but I'm glad I stuck with it. Overall, it's a good game, but probably misunderstood by a sizable chunk of the Tales community.
MGSmiech It definitely didn't take that long for me to get into the game personally, it was mostly the childhood arc that bugged me, I also didn't feel the game had bad pacing I thought it was pretty eventful and I thought the characters were likeable way before 20 or so hours into the game, but hey you cant predict these sorts of things, people react to things differently. Either way I think describing the game as misunderstood is pretty apt.
Badass background music dude. Love the Ys series
+Sancho1824 The Ys series is responsible for some of the absolute best music in all of gaming.
+ShintaiReviews Damn right. I listen to the soundtrack all the time while driving. Xenoblade Chronicles has some great stuff too.
Sancho1824 I agree, I barely played that game sadly, but I've given a few tracks from that a listen and they are pretty awesome.
One of my favorites in the series. Just try to forget Richard and all of the main cast are strong for me and Pascal is one of the best girls in the series.
Agree on the lighter simple storylines. Tbh I prefer games like that, it's why I also really like the atelier games. Tales games make me happy.
I really liked Atelier Iris 1 and 2 on the PS2, the only other one I played after that was Escha & Logy which I also liked.
@@DanielSantosAnalysis escha & logy was great, but I do think the tales games have more substance. Sometimes I get sick of atelier when I play them too much.
Tales for me has the right amount of funny, happy, sad and dark moments.
Have you played berseria?
I didn't realise that this video is older until I finished watching 😅
@@g-alicenine I agree, I prefer the Tales games overall.
Yes I've beaten Berseria. it has one of my favorite stories and cast of characters in the entire Tales series.
@@DanielSantosAnalysis agreed, amazing game
I like graces f and xillia 1&2 the same they were all good games
Looking to sell my ps3 Japanese import collection, I have games like Tales of xillia 2 (Japanese collectors edition), Tales Vesperia (The Best), Tales of graces f (The best), I also have Dream C Club Zero as well. all are used but it excellent edition.
Yes. It is overhated just like Tales of Legendia.
Just finished Graces today so my thoughts are pretty fresh about the game.
At first, it started out with the child story and that kinda threw me off. Honestly, the game didn't feel like a 'tales of' game until after Richard starts going psycho due to lambda taking over.
Another thing that felt different was the attack system, needing to charge up to attack. Took me a while to get used to. Having been used to the hack n slash combat of the previous games. Overall the combat is friggin good once you get used to the charge up step.
You mentioned the Title system. Hell yeah, that was addicting. I must of spent about 10 levels just mastering a bunch of titles and the Dualizing crafting system. It reminds me of the Atelier Iris/Mana Khemia crafting system, where you can literally spend hours just crafting and have fun.
Legacy and Lineage felt like the real final of the game. Without L&L, Graces would of felt half complete, like Tales of Symphonia 2 ending.
I actually loved most of the characters in Graces. Some of them rank very high among my favorite Tales characters. That would be Pascal and Emeraude. Pascal is enough said but Emmeraude, the amount of ham and chewing the scenery her actress shows off in a certain scene was enough to make her one of my favorite villains. She along with Grand Maestro Mohs when he goes insane (plus the legendary Dist the Rose) are probably some of the funniest villains in the Tales series.
I prefer more thoughtful and interesting villains like Vaan and Mithos, but I do agree that Emeraude is very entertaining as an over the top wacko type of villain.
Yeah, Mithos and Van are the kind of guys who are way more balanced and better written. (Even though Van's treatment of Luke after he used him, was cruel and made him slightly unsympathetic in that respect.) Emeraude, on the other hand, could have been much better written. She tortured Lambda because she wanted Cornell to be interested in her, a very shallow reason. She was also obviously evil when you first meet her because she's trying to interfere with Asbel's little friendship circle by reprograming Sophie to be a bomb. But despite all this, hearing a villain in the Tales series go "Bow down to your goddess" and "I will be the beautiful heroine of this tale" is hilarious and narcissistic in the best way. Her battle is also loads of fun and one of the most challenging in the main game.
Well Van mistreating Luke had to do with how little respect he had for him. Luke didn't know how to think for himself and only listened to what Van said and while that was useful for Van and his plans it was something that repulsed him as it reminded him of how humanity is chained to The Score. Sure it makes him unsympathetic but it's perfectly in-line with his characterization.
I think Emearaude proves that you don't always need a deep or complex villain, you can have a super sexy and over the top evil one and it works really well in it's own right, especially the sexy part.
Yeah I do agree that all the stuff Van does makes total sense. Its just precisely that stuff that makes me not like that part of his character. I think its because I'm one of the people with sympathy for Luke because he was a technically a child. The one thing that suprises me is that when Van is colder to Luke later on in the game, Luke isn't really that traumatized by it. I thought he would be more because Van basically was his father in place of his own.Haha and yeah I can't deny that Emeraude has a great design (and awesome boss music.) Makes me sad she didn't stick around until the end. I would have much rather had that battle with her in the Lastalia
I think the idea is that by that time Luke has done a lot of growing up and while he hasn't gotten over what happened he learned to not cling to Van so tightly as he used to so his words don't have the same effect anymore. This is also thematically in-line with the idea of free will. Luke not being affected by Van so deeply anymore represents Luke finally embracing his freedom of choice and not being beholden to what chained him down.
Such a fun game. Loved the visuals, the characters, the story, and the characters.
i personal enjoyed just navigating through the menus it just feels realy good more so in graces then in other tales games
TheDmdmaster I didn't think about until now, but I think you're right, the menus have a certain charm to them.
The it’s definitely fun the combat alone what makes its addictive with the titles system
The real reason why I love tales series is the gameplay and the characters and graces f dose it very well
it seems most the people who hate on this game is the cause of the friendship theme which is expected when you pick up this game when the creator bases the these games around on a theme i just feel that flack this game gets itsnt that fair if based of that simple factor
TheDmdmaster The theme gets obnoxious from time to time but honestly it isn't *that* bad and certainly doesn't outweigh the rest of the things that make it great.
Just started to play this game for the 1st time ever, and I just gotta say that I really like it so far🙏🏽🔥
Playing Graces right after Vesperia, I felt the way the game pushed you along was a godsend.
While I do miss the world map of Vesperia, Graces's world design felt very refreshing at the time.
@@DanielSantosAnalysis I like that I was never lost in Graces, although the scale of the world did feel a bit cramped. I've been binging the series for the first time, so it's been interesting to see what's changed and stayed the same. Started with Vesperia>Graces>Xillia1 and now playing Berseria.
@@Ya_Mosura I wasn't big on the combat in Berseria, but the wonderful story and characters made that game one of my favorites in the series.
@@DanielSantosAnalysis Glad you said that because I've really liked the story so far. I'm not very good at fighting games/character action so the combat does't bother me too much, although that does seem like something Graces nailed and a shame they never built on.
@@Ya_Mosura My favorite stories in the series are Abyss and Berseria, and there's a big power gap compared to the rest, which isnt a knock on the rest of the series, but rather a testament to how good the writing is in those two in particular.