One of the most influential titles in Tales, and probably one of the worst because it introduced an incredibly stagnant and linear playstyle to Tales that's still being used to this day, that has been more watered down with each and every installment after it. It doesn't help that it also suffers from some really poor writing for the story and characters. Not a game im terribly thrilled with.
Tales of Graces is a playable game, and that's the most I can say about it. The story is lackluster, the battle style difficult and not intuitive at all, the characters and their situations are not engaging at best and often more frustrating than anything else. I have never hated a protagonist more than I hate Asbel. The absolutely shoehorned in romances and the entire final portion of the game somehow were even MORE disappointing.
Graces is criminally underrated within the series. The story is cliche, but whatever. What we're REALLY here for is a) the best battle system in any Tales game hands down, and b) Asbel and Richard's relationship. I don't even have to write the fanfic. It's all there, dudes. This game literally has a whole epilogue where they try to convince you Asbel is straight and it still failed.
ALSO, Sophie is my beautiful daughter and Cheria is a sweetheart. Pascal is questionable at first but she gets really good as the game goes on. Malik is alright. TBH I liked Hubert as a kid but as an adult I think he plays the devil's advocate on Reddit.
BUT LIKE THE GAMEPLAY????? It's so good. I adored the battle system. So underrated, this game slams, we love Graces in this house,
ALSO, Sophie is my beautiful daughter and Cheria is a sweetheart. Pascal is questionable at first but she gets really good as the game goes on. Malik is alright. TBH I liked Hubert as a kid but as an adult I think he plays the devil's advocate on Reddit.
BUT LIKE THE GAMEPLAY????? It's so good. I adored the battle system. So underrated, this game slams, we love Graces in this house,
I personally maintain this is still easily my favorite gameplay in the whole series. It took the CC from Destiny Remake and added even more options and actually made every character fun (Destiny R had a few not so fun characters).
The story and characters were 'OK'. Got the job done, nothing to write home, but entertained enough.
The story and characters were 'OK'. Got the job done, nothing to write home, but entertained enough.
One of the worst starts a JRPG's ever had wherein you spend several hours before it even lets you pretend to start playing it for real. Surprisingly short main story, a fairly standard issue plot with a few fun twists and turns, and a combat system with good ideas that unfortunately very quickly devolves into spamming super-effective moves; and yet, somehow, it's still the best modern CC Tales game. Formerly straightest game in the series