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Bandai Namco has launched its Tales remaster project with resounding success. This isnt just some lazy port from Bandai Namco. No, in fact, I was stunned when I booted up the game for the first time with a long list of customizable gameplay options staring down at me. Tales of Graces f has been graced by an impressive collection of new convenience features, to say the least. Most surprising to me is the Grade Shop being accessible right from the start of a new game.The Grade Shop gives players a large selection of mutators that alter the game in various ways, and until now was reserved for new game plus. Want to get battles done with faster? Just toggle the double damage Grade on and prepare for some whirlwind fights involving fast-reflexes. A decent chunk of Grades fall into the handicap category: things like half-price shops, double experience gain, double drop rates, you get the gist. Hardcore players may shake scowl at the fact that every Grade is freely available right from the start, but theres nothing stopping anyone from ignoring it should they yearn for a purist run. Not to mention various Grade options can make the game significantly tougher, like trading all experience for money, for example."The Grade Shop gives the player a large selection of mutators that alter the game in various ways, and its available from the start for the first time."Of course, theres more new here than just a frontloaded and free Grade Shop. Enemy encounters can be toggled on or off, cutscenes and skits are finally skippable, theres destination icons and event indicators, regular battles have a retry option, Japanese voices arrive for the west, and so much more. And it wouldnt be a remaster without some amount of graphical touch-up. While small, the colors and textures have been enhanced for HDR and 4K monitors.Pretty much every convenience feature listed here can be toggled on or off, making the experience personalized to the tiniest detail. Want a vanilla OG experience? Ignore the Grade Shop and toggle all the new features off to have yourself a challenging, yet satisfying playthrough. The secret difficulty setting is still locked behind a completed save file, so that reward has been preserved from the original at least.But why invest yourself in a 15-year-old Tales game in the first place? Well, even A JRPG fan like myself questioned whether Graces held up over the years. I never got around to Graces and didnt know what to expect. Tales of Symphonia was a longtime favorite of mine and while I enjoyed Tales of Arise, it didnt quite have that witty writing and enjoyable plot structure that I loved in Symphonia. Im also fond of Abyss, and to a lesser extent Vesperia, but wasnt floored by either of them. Thats just some context of where Im coming from; someone who likes the series but doesnt quite love it until now.Tales of Graces f has unraveled my JRPG world and Im simply at a loss of how to express my current love affair with it. My expectations were sea-level, and I just got blasted sky-high with what Ive been experiencing. Anyway, onward to the rest of the review."Colors and textures have been enhanced for HDR and 4K monitors. The left side of the image is from the PS3 version, while the right is Remastered."After hearing such praise, youre probably expecting the games opening to rival The Empire Strikes Back or something. Sorry to disappoint, but the first hour of Tales of Graces is a slow burn, not the harmful kind though. The prologue chronicles the cast of characters in their childhood. Children will be children, and this game does a fine job of portraying how kids would behave in this games society. While I thoroughly respect the games childhood chapter, theres no denying the first hour lingers a tad too long on some scenes. Not to mention the child voices grate compared to their adult counterparts. That said, the pacing picks up considerably and glides at a consistent pace after the initial establishment. I implore players to give the narrative a chance. The first hour may seem trope-filled and somewhat dull, but the set-up and follow-through is nothing short of extraordinary. I just cant get over how well the cast is characterized and developed through the roller-coaster of a plot, but more on that later.One way the game characterizes the cast is through fully-voiced Skit events. Skits are a series staple featuring animated character banter ranging from heavy confessions to discussions on the local cuisine of the area. They do a great job characterizing the party members and showing different relationship dynamics.Thankfully, theres a consistent number of Skit events scattered through every town and field area; you never go 30 minutes without seeing a new one. Graces features some strong voice talent too, with Laura Bailey and Cassandra Lee Morris playing a couple of your party members. My only gripe with Skits are the random auto-advance without warning, causing me to skip dialogue occasionally. To the games credit, theres a way to view all 400 and something Skits, but it involves an obscure cat-feeding quest."Skits do a great job characterizing the party members and showing different relationship dynamics."Thats another thing I adore about this game. Theres just so much to do at any given point, and its all so rewarding and fun. Like other Tales games, you can control any party member while exploring on the field and in battle. This game goes further and adds a bunch of unique commentary when examining environmental points of interest with different characters. When Im not exploring each characters reactions to Asbels messy desk or the regional anomaly, Im trying to solve each towns unique treasure puzzle. These locked chests usually require some knowledge about the areas lore to open. Some are particularly clever, like having you look up an NPCs favorite monster and inputting its bestiary number in the chest lock.Theres even a trading card game that you can challenge characters with. Youll pick up cards of popular characters from the Tales series throughout your travels and play a game of guess the quote with NPCs throughout your journey. Its a neat little side game for hardcore series fans, but totally skippable for the rest of us. Speaking of NPCs, they typically give useful tips and tutorials early on, though they mainly supply regional lore and humorous anecdotes. Within each region and town you visit, theres a plethora of Inn requests, local Discoveries, Skits, and time-sensitive events. The game is jam-packed with engaging content every single step of the way."Within each region and town you visit, theres a plethora of Inn requests, local Discoveries, Skits, and time-sensitive events."The real meat and potatoes of the game, though, lies in its amazingly deep combat. This is by far my favorite battle system in the series. Combat seems almost too simple at the start, but it has a depth that Im still exploring 50 hours later. Most of that depth comes from the breathtaking Title system. Titles bestow passive buffs, new skills (or artes as this game terms it), and other unique affects to each character. You unlock Titles with every single action you take in the game. Think of The Elder Scrolls and its all-encompassing use-it-to-level-it-system and you have the right idea. Like to use Demon Fang a lot? Youll no doubt get rewarded with a Title related to that arte.In fact, each party member has, and Im not exaggerating here, hundreds upon hundreds of individualized Titles. Some are specifically tied to a characters story progression while others get unlocked by filling out the bestiary a certain amount or amassing a lot of money. Since this remaster includes the DLC content, we even get a bunch of costume-specific Titles for each character. Thats in addition to the various costume Titles you unlock through story progression. I wish more RPGs locked cosmetics within a skill or perk tree as this game does with its Titles. It just feels so rewarding and satisfying to unlock, especially because youre earning it through the core gameplay."Titles bestow passive buffs, new skills (or artes as this game terms it), and other unique affects to each character."I mostly prioritized learning new artes when assigning Titles but I quickly learned that levelling up existing arte attacks and stacking up passive buffs to things like critical chance can be much more helpful. This is because combat is legitimately challenging in Tales of Graces. Movement is restricted to a linear axis until you dodge, then you move to the left or right of your target momentarily shifting your position. Perfect Dodges are especially crucial considering how hard bosses can hit. I also like how emphasized weaknesses are in this game. If youre using a strike instead of a slice attack on a slime-like monster, youre going to do peanut damage. Likewise, each particular arte or attack is best suited for a unique enemy type. Battles begin by briefly flashing what monster category each enemy is, and you can assess opponents with the press of a button, making the whole process weakness system frictionless.Party member strategies function the same as other Tales games. When youre not controlling a party member, they behave based on orders you give them in the menus. I find the party AI to be adequate, and fine-tuning them based on a situation typically inches me closer to a victory. That said, the game supports 4-player local co-op for some particularly fun battles. Theres no online co-op support unfortunately, but considering the last couple Tales games didnt have co-op at all, Im not too surprised."Each particular arte or attack is best suited for a unique enemy type."Theres even more gameplay depth and customization with this games version of crafting, which is called Dualizing. Ive heard complaints that Dualizing is unnecessary complex, but its just yet another system to customize your experience with. Like the name suggests, Dualizing allows you to basically combine any consumable, food, equipment, accessory, crafting material, and more with one another. Dualizing equipment with a shard produces levelled-up versions of that equipment. Each shard bestows different buffs, so the combinations can get wild. Likewise, its possible to combine tempered equipments to produce powerful accessories.This doesnt even scratch the surface of Dualizing possibilities within Tales of Graces f. As you can imagine by now, the sheer amount of content stemming from the various systems guarantees hundreds of hours of playtime. I havent even mentioned the wonderful Eleth Mixer and its chance to produces items while on the field. Equipping the Eleth Mixer with Spellbooks confers yet more gameplay affects like converting duplicate enemy drops into Eleth energy.I said Id return to the story, and thats what Ill briefly attempt to do now. The blossoming relationship between Asbel and his friends is believably wholesome, making the twist of the knife hurt that much more when they grow apart and antagonize each other after the games time-skip. The camaraderie between the characters in the intro feels organic, forming a solid springboard for the rest of the story. I admit that I groaned a bit when Sophie was revealed to be an amnesiac who never ages, but the narrative follows through on traditional tropes with solid character development and engaging political machinations despite that. Its the execution that really matters, and in this, Tales of Graces truly excels despite all the well-trod tropes it happily uses."The camaraderie between the characters in the intro feels organic, forming a solid springboard for the rest of the story."Players who dont like the games narrative might still appreciate the understated presentation thereof. Scenes have time to breath, with mood-appropriate silences during key moments and scene music carrying over into urgent battles. Theres a deal of care put into the scene direction, as exemplified by the custom animation rigging for every little character interaction (and theres a lot). The lip synching isnt great and character faces look wooden at times, but considering this game ran off of Wii hardware when it first released, its still impressive. Tales of Graces is surprisingly well-written, capably integrating its characters, themes, and plot together to form a holistic RPG experience that I wont soon forget.The pacing of all the games interlocking systems in tandem with the well-written plot is snappy throughout too. You rarely feel like things are moving at a stagnant pace. You never feel like youre not improving your characters in some way or progressing the plot further. Its a constant stream of improvement and rewards with every step, not dissimilar to the ever-moving gameplay systems in Star Ocean 2: Second Story R from a few years back.Tales of Graces f Remastered is just fantastic all-round. It focuses on a character-rich story and a fun core combat loop without the need to do anything groundbreaking. A story like this has been seen before and the character archetypes are as old as time, but its what the game does with it all that makes it so amazing. Tales of Graces f is a genuine JRPG classic that exudes quality from every corner, and its remastered treatment makes it even easier to love.This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 5.
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