Tales Of Graces F is far from my first rodeo in terms of experience with the long and rather prosperous franchise. I've dabbled with Symphonia and Abyss the most before finishing this, along with going through the demos of Vesperia on 360 many years ago, and Arise on Steam around the middle of last year, yet this was the first time I ever managed to finish a game in the series. Really, I could've done any of those games mentioned prior, but I chose Graces since A) not that many people talk about it, and the ones that do generalize it in a way that, while informative, doesn't really do much for me, and B) I wanted to do more checks with RPCS3, and this game was on dock since getting that Playable status in 2020 which, to say now, is well warranted. I upscaled this to 1080p and it looks and ran pretty well overall, with very few visual errors cropping up, and while I experienced slowdown and audio desyncs during skit cutscenes, both weren't exactly common enough to become a bother, and I figure were just a result of again, upscaling. As you can tell from the score, my (rather extensive) time with the game was a comfortable one.
Now I've done more research within the series than actually playing them, and from what I can gather the good games fall under two categories: Exceptional story with adequate-good combat, and decent-good story with great combat, Graces F typically falling under the latter... which is something I find myself agreeing with, but like I said, I feel as though the generalization this game usually gets is rather unfair. Now obviously I ain't gonna act like it's secretly a masterpiece of storytelling, nor am I gonna say it's wholly original with its themes of trauma, bonds and friendships, and the reinvigoration of resolve - Kingdom Hearts is a very easy comparison to make, but truthfully some parts in the story also gave me flashbacks to my playthrough and remembrance of Breath Of Fire III, as well as some bits of Persona 3 and Final Fantasy IX - but the way it does express its themes and unfolds along did get me by surprise every now and then, and more importantly, has little to no dips in quality for a majority of my time playing with it. Yea, it's "predictable", but really I'm more than willing to take something like that yet still find good and worthwhile things within it, than experience something that tries to tell something bold, even if it isn't the first stab at it, but ultimately fails for numerous reasons, leaving me in misery. One way is that, instead of the story immediately starting, you actually have a, depending on how much you do 3-5 hour prologue with half of the crew being children, and then having a seven-year timeskip kick off the main adventure as it takes Asbel, Hubert, Sophie, Cheria, Richard, Captain Malik, and Pascal all over the world and then some. It does a decent job settling in the key players, as well as giving off motivation and backstory as to why and how characters act the way they are in the main arc, with a newly added new epilogue of sorts that runs for an additional 8-12 hours depending on how much you do that also has some cool shit in it.
That being said, one major issue I have with the story, and one that's my biggest problem in the whole game, is the pacing. Again, first time I ever finished a Tales game so I dunno how it usually fairs in this department, but I found that the way Graces F delivers important story details or character building to be rather hit and miss. It's rather common that there's a lay of bread crumbs and hooks of exposition done to entice future story moments, have multiple of those pop off back-to-back... and then immediately go back to the bread crumb approach, leaving all the cool stuff behind until they're relevant again. It's pretty jarring at points, and it makes the early game drag pretty badly since you're pretty much backtracking the same few zones that you already did in that prologue, multiple times, with the combat (more on this in a bit) just barely unfolding and letting you go nuts with what you want to do. I don't want to say it's a "gets good in X hours" case since I've come to realize JRPGs, especially modern ones, have slow starts, but I would be lying if I said it didn't take until a specific dungeon about 10-12 hours in, Wallbridge Ruins, for me to become fully settled in with the game, so YMMV. Another major issue is with the new epilogue in question. Lineage & Legacies. It's not awful, far from it actually! But man, you can tell this was sort of added on with a budget, cause while again the story for it DOES have its cool moments, some of it I also just zoned out on due to disinterest, and it doesn't help this is where the gameplay side takes a bit of a nosedive. I only used DLCs that have minimal impact on what I do within the main game, but in the epilogue, I used up all of it just to have it over with already. To compare it to something again, it's like Persona 3 FES' The Answer: Cool story beats, great additional dynamics with the cast, but mundane gameplay that doesn't change too much and can lead to easy burnout, which means it's better to watch it on Youtube than actually experience it, or even ignored entirely since the main story's already more than conclusive. Other than that though, I don't any other sort of big issue available... well maybe one in particular, but more on that later.
Presentation wise, it still looks pretty good even without the upscale applied. That 'port' moniker on Backloggd isn't an error, this was originally a Wii game and certainly shows itself in texture work at parts being rather scuffed, along with some of the more flashier applications of HD JRPGs not being applied much here, but this is a case where art direction and general look of a game does a good job from making the visuals up to par. Each locale you travel in has their own sense of flair to them, and while dungeon layouts can be underwhelming (more on this later), usually they do tend to stand out from one another in any sort of way possible. I wish some of the highroads can be more distinct in their layout though, as I can barely recall as to what has what or where leads to where, which is especially bad in the starting region.
And now, the cast. I gotta be honest, I actually wasn't expecting to like this cast as much as I do, they did a really good job at giving the feeling they're just a bunch of ragtag misfits that have previous bonding before, that only gets stronger as the story goes along. Cheria, though, easily ended up as my least favorite regardless. You know in RPGs there's always that one, maybe two characters that inexplicably gets the short end of the Character Development Stick? Well, Cheria's pretty much the culprit for this game. Her LACK of arc was my other major issue in the story, cause while everyone else at least gets something on display, Cheria gets little to nothing, to the point that as I'm typing it out, I'm struggling to remember what she even went through other than "she's bitter towards Asbel, her uber-crush, due to the events in the prologue, but they reconciled and made up so it's all good". I also don't like how they made her the One Joke Pony for most of the skits, usually involving either the crush or being the straight-edge caretaker of the group, and while they're not bad, even being hilarious at points, it unfortunately emphasizes my feelings that she's rather boilerplate in terms of depth and personality since again, the others at least get more to jump off of for jokes and banters. Fine character, but could've been handled way better.
Thankfully though, she's the only one I felt any sort of friction towards, cause the rest are good to great. I like how Malik ended up as the Cool Uncle archetype, having his own set of baggage that parallels and bridges in the themes of the game, so that he can set the others in the right path, while also making sure to join in on the fun when the time calls for it. Hubert, essentially being a mix of this Dril tweet and doing the INTJ stares, also has some really good bits in development as well, learning to be not a hardass all the time and relax, as well as opening up his feelings when it's necessary. Pascal... is probably my favorite. I genuinely thought I wasn't gonna like her at all and say she's a comic relief that's used badly and in uncomfortable manners, and while I don't at all like her whole shtick with Sophie, not only does it rarely appear, not only did Namco Tales Studio make sure it doesn't cause constant tonal whiplash within the story or skits, but she also has Other Jokes available! Unironically quirky in both the literal definition of the word, as well as the Internet's newly shaped derogatory meaning, she operates in her own world while still end up being a good contributor and mechanical source to the dynamic. That just leaves Sophie, Richard, and Asbel, who're the focal trio of the game's story. With Sophie being a mystery to unravel, she treads the line of being someone completely new and alien to the prospects of humanity and understanding their place in the world, while also not being infantized to a rather obnoxious degree, being an inverse of Richard who has experienced those things, but usually in a way that demoralized him and caused him to develop distrust with anyone he isn't fully aware of. Typically a lot of the story revelations revolves around these two, and a majority of them feel earned without coming across as too eyebrow-raising or hackish. Asbel's naivety and Just Wanting To Do Right is pretty much the throughline for this ordeal, and while this does cause him to land into hot waters and forcing to learn how to get a better handle of not only himself, but the reality and cruxes that await him, he at least still holds true to what he believes in. Again, didn't really expect to like him as much as I do, and while I don't think he'll be at the top of my favorite Tales protag list when I get more into the series, I am willing to say he's one of the better leads during this generation of RPG games.
Now, FINALLY, is the gameplay side of things, starting off with the combat. While I VERY much wish they didn't have the training wheels on so rigidly, I will say that once they fully let you go, it becomes a great toolbox to go through. How it works is that you have CC, or Chain Capacity, available that determines your actions, be it from regular attacks with the X button, categorized as Attack Artes, or special moves with the Circle button, categorized as Burst Artes. These CCs have a set minimum and maximum amount available, increasing with each new weapon bought or made with dualizing - this game's equivalent to alchemy, which is also a way to create crystals you equip that can buff you up in any sort of way, including increasing the min or max CC. Getting these CCs in combat involves utilizing dodges, combo mixtures, and blocking up to the point of obtaining a red aura. It sounds complicated, but once you get a fair number of battles in, it becomes easier and easier to wrap around. My general tip is to practice out how dodges and guarding works, as well as to swap out Titles - the way in which you not only get stat increases, but also unlock these Artes to begin with - when needed, usually after getting the 3rd-5th rank, it'll be the difference maker in surviving the later battles. I started out on the Normal difficulty, then bumped it up to Moderate, and it really got me to appreciate how the mechanics all work together. This was the first, and so far only, Tales game where I wanted to try out every character possible instead of sticking with just the main character, simply because the way they handled was that good to me. I might suck shit at Cheria due to being a physical fighter while she's a support-oriented spellcaster, but seeing her spells work in action still invigorated me to try out how she works and what I could do to synergize with party comps.
Two other aspects of the gameplay, are the Eleth Mixer and Eleth Burst/Break. The former is general use, allowing you to make things outside of battle when walking around, or activating dishes you made beforehand via cooking when conditions are met (say, a KOed party member or having a status ailment as some examples), the capacity and overall slots being upgradeable the more you use it in various ways. The simplest way I can describe the latter is that it's a "Go ham" mode, giving you unlimited Arte usage and not being susceptible to being stunned while active, as well as the ability to do this game's version of a character's special move, Mystic Artes, which is dependent on the current level it's on. As you can imagine, this is something the enemy also has access to, as well as the fact it doesn't make you wholly invincible while active so managing yourself and party when it activates for them, and making sure to back off when the risk is getting back up, is a high necessity in coming out on top of battles. To reiterate, this is something you start to get a good grasp on once you're playing and getting a hold of what's going on.
As far as problems with gameplay goes... I guess the dungeons could've been a little better. They're very adequate, but since these typically aren't the best parts of an RPG, I guess them being adequate is at least fine enough. Upgrading the Eleth Mixer is weird though, it takes an abnormally long time for both the capacity and especially the slots to ever actually increase, which can feel limiting to a degree. A couple of stinkers in the boss department, a similar (yet in fairness, nowhere near as egregious) problem to KH2 where a majority of it can just button mash your way to victory if you aren't on a higher difficulty mode that actually has you THINK shit, yet can also be thrown into the opposite end where battles end up getting rather repetitive and monotonous by late game due to the abundance of them, even when using the Holy Bottle which decreases the spawns a fair bit. All that said, I must reiterate the combat itself is loads of fun, and if nothing else, I recommend playing the game just for this aspect alone.
I did a majority of side activities in Graces F thanks to a GameFAQs guide I used on the side, and while granted some of it was uhhhh dumb, it was at least a rather relaxing experience to go through. It reminded me that sometimes, it really is good to just play an RPG, or any game in general, that's simply... good. I like going through a masterpiece kino essential 10/10 media as much as others, but sometimes you just want to kick back, relax, have a fun time, maybe get a little annoyed, and cool off from a hectic period, and if you ask me? Graces F does a satisfying job in fulfilling that role. Like I said, this was the first Tales game I ever finished, and all things considered, it was a nice stake to make in regards to getting into the franchise finally.
Now I've done more research within the series than actually playing them, and from what I can gather the good games fall under two categories: Exceptional story with adequate-good combat, and decent-good story with great combat, Graces F typically falling under the latter... which is something I find myself agreeing with, but like I said, I feel as though the generalization this game usually gets is rather unfair. Now obviously I ain't gonna act like it's secretly a masterpiece of storytelling, nor am I gonna say it's wholly original with its themes of trauma, bonds and friendships, and the reinvigoration of resolve - Kingdom Hearts is a very easy comparison to make, but truthfully some parts in the story also gave me flashbacks to my playthrough and remembrance of Breath Of Fire III, as well as some bits of Persona 3 and Final Fantasy IX - but the way it does express its themes and unfolds along did get me by surprise every now and then, and more importantly, has little to no dips in quality for a majority of my time playing with it. Yea, it's "predictable", but really I'm more than willing to take something like that yet still find good and worthwhile things within it, than experience something that tries to tell something bold, even if it isn't the first stab at it, but ultimately fails for numerous reasons, leaving me in misery. One way is that, instead of the story immediately starting, you actually have a, depending on how much you do 3-5 hour prologue with half of the crew being children, and then having a seven-year timeskip kick off the main adventure as it takes Asbel, Hubert, Sophie, Cheria, Richard, Captain Malik, and Pascal all over the world and then some. It does a decent job settling in the key players, as well as giving off motivation and backstory as to why and how characters act the way they are in the main arc, with a newly added new epilogue of sorts that runs for an additional 8-12 hours depending on how much you do that also has some cool shit in it.
That being said, one major issue I have with the story, and one that's my biggest problem in the whole game, is the pacing. Again, first time I ever finished a Tales game so I dunno how it usually fairs in this department, but I found that the way Graces F delivers important story details or character building to be rather hit and miss. It's rather common that there's a lay of bread crumbs and hooks of exposition done to entice future story moments, have multiple of those pop off back-to-back... and then immediately go back to the bread crumb approach, leaving all the cool stuff behind until they're relevant again. It's pretty jarring at points, and it makes the early game drag pretty badly since you're pretty much backtracking the same few zones that you already did in that prologue, multiple times, with the combat (more on this in a bit) just barely unfolding and letting you go nuts with what you want to do. I don't want to say it's a "gets good in X hours" case since I've come to realize JRPGs, especially modern ones, have slow starts, but I would be lying if I said it didn't take until a specific dungeon about 10-12 hours in, Wallbridge Ruins, for me to become fully settled in with the game, so YMMV. Another major issue is with the new epilogue in question. Lineage & Legacies. It's not awful, far from it actually! But man, you can tell this was sort of added on with a budget, cause while again the story for it DOES have its cool moments, some of it I also just zoned out on due to disinterest, and it doesn't help this is where the gameplay side takes a bit of a nosedive. I only used DLCs that have minimal impact on what I do within the main game, but in the epilogue, I used up all of it just to have it over with already. To compare it to something again, it's like Persona 3 FES' The Answer: Cool story beats, great additional dynamics with the cast, but mundane gameplay that doesn't change too much and can lead to easy burnout, which means it's better to watch it on Youtube than actually experience it, or even ignored entirely since the main story's already more than conclusive. Other than that though, I don't any other sort of big issue available... well maybe one in particular, but more on that later.
Presentation wise, it still looks pretty good even without the upscale applied. That 'port' moniker on Backloggd isn't an error, this was originally a Wii game and certainly shows itself in texture work at parts being rather scuffed, along with some of the more flashier applications of HD JRPGs not being applied much here, but this is a case where art direction and general look of a game does a good job from making the visuals up to par. Each locale you travel in has their own sense of flair to them, and while dungeon layouts can be underwhelming (more on this later), usually they do tend to stand out from one another in any sort of way possible. I wish some of the highroads can be more distinct in their layout though, as I can barely recall as to what has what or where leads to where, which is especially bad in the starting region.
And now, the cast. I gotta be honest, I actually wasn't expecting to like this cast as much as I do, they did a really good job at giving the feeling they're just a bunch of ragtag misfits that have previous bonding before, that only gets stronger as the story goes along. Cheria, though, easily ended up as my least favorite regardless. You know in RPGs there's always that one, maybe two characters that inexplicably gets the short end of the Character Development Stick? Well, Cheria's pretty much the culprit for this game. Her LACK of arc was my other major issue in the story, cause while everyone else at least gets something on display, Cheria gets little to nothing, to the point that as I'm typing it out, I'm struggling to remember what she even went through other than "she's bitter towards Asbel, her uber-crush, due to the events in the prologue, but they reconciled and made up so it's all good". I also don't like how they made her the One Joke Pony for most of the skits, usually involving either the crush or being the straight-edge caretaker of the group, and while they're not bad, even being hilarious at points, it unfortunately emphasizes my feelings that she's rather boilerplate in terms of depth and personality since again, the others at least get more to jump off of for jokes and banters. Fine character, but could've been handled way better.
Thankfully though, she's the only one I felt any sort of friction towards, cause the rest are good to great. I like how Malik ended up as the Cool Uncle archetype, having his own set of baggage that parallels and bridges in the themes of the game, so that he can set the others in the right path, while also making sure to join in on the fun when the time calls for it. Hubert, essentially being a mix of this Dril tweet and doing the INTJ stares, also has some really good bits in development as well, learning to be not a hardass all the time and relax, as well as opening up his feelings when it's necessary. Pascal... is probably my favorite. I genuinely thought I wasn't gonna like her at all and say she's a comic relief that's used badly and in uncomfortable manners, and while I don't at all like her whole shtick with Sophie, not only does it rarely appear, not only did Namco Tales Studio make sure it doesn't cause constant tonal whiplash within the story or skits, but she also has Other Jokes available! Unironically quirky in both the literal definition of the word, as well as the Internet's newly shaped derogatory meaning, she operates in her own world while still end up being a good contributor and mechanical source to the dynamic. That just leaves Sophie, Richard, and Asbel, who're the focal trio of the game's story. With Sophie being a mystery to unravel, she treads the line of being someone completely new and alien to the prospects of humanity and understanding their place in the world, while also not being infantized to a rather obnoxious degree, being an inverse of Richard who has experienced those things, but usually in a way that demoralized him and caused him to develop distrust with anyone he isn't fully aware of. Typically a lot of the story revelations revolves around these two, and a majority of them feel earned without coming across as too eyebrow-raising or hackish. Asbel's naivety and Just Wanting To Do Right is pretty much the throughline for this ordeal, and while this does cause him to land into hot waters and forcing to learn how to get a better handle of not only himself, but the reality and cruxes that await him, he at least still holds true to what he believes in. Again, didn't really expect to like him as much as I do, and while I don't think he'll be at the top of my favorite Tales protag list when I get more into the series, I am willing to say he's one of the better leads during this generation of RPG games.
Now, FINALLY, is the gameplay side of things, starting off with the combat. While I VERY much wish they didn't have the training wheels on so rigidly, I will say that once they fully let you go, it becomes a great toolbox to go through. How it works is that you have CC, or Chain Capacity, available that determines your actions, be it from regular attacks with the X button, categorized as Attack Artes, or special moves with the Circle button, categorized as Burst Artes. These CCs have a set minimum and maximum amount available, increasing with each new weapon bought or made with dualizing - this game's equivalent to alchemy, which is also a way to create crystals you equip that can buff you up in any sort of way, including increasing the min or max CC. Getting these CCs in combat involves utilizing dodges, combo mixtures, and blocking up to the point of obtaining a red aura. It sounds complicated, but once you get a fair number of battles in, it becomes easier and easier to wrap around. My general tip is to practice out how dodges and guarding works, as well as to swap out Titles - the way in which you not only get stat increases, but also unlock these Artes to begin with - when needed, usually after getting the 3rd-5th rank, it'll be the difference maker in surviving the later battles. I started out on the Normal difficulty, then bumped it up to Moderate, and it really got me to appreciate how the mechanics all work together. This was the first, and so far only, Tales game where I wanted to try out every character possible instead of sticking with just the main character, simply because the way they handled was that good to me. I might suck shit at Cheria due to being a physical fighter while she's a support-oriented spellcaster, but seeing her spells work in action still invigorated me to try out how she works and what I could do to synergize with party comps.
Two other aspects of the gameplay, are the Eleth Mixer and Eleth Burst/Break. The former is general use, allowing you to make things outside of battle when walking around, or activating dishes you made beforehand via cooking when conditions are met (say, a KOed party member or having a status ailment as some examples), the capacity and overall slots being upgradeable the more you use it in various ways. The simplest way I can describe the latter is that it's a "Go ham" mode, giving you unlimited Arte usage and not being susceptible to being stunned while active, as well as the ability to do this game's version of a character's special move, Mystic Artes, which is dependent on the current level it's on. As you can imagine, this is something the enemy also has access to, as well as the fact it doesn't make you wholly invincible while active so managing yourself and party when it activates for them, and making sure to back off when the risk is getting back up, is a high necessity in coming out on top of battles. To reiterate, this is something you start to get a good grasp on once you're playing and getting a hold of what's going on.
As far as problems with gameplay goes... I guess the dungeons could've been a little better. They're very adequate, but since these typically aren't the best parts of an RPG, I guess them being adequate is at least fine enough. Upgrading the Eleth Mixer is weird though, it takes an abnormally long time for both the capacity and especially the slots to ever actually increase, which can feel limiting to a degree. A couple of stinkers in the boss department, a similar (yet in fairness, nowhere near as egregious) problem to KH2 where a majority of it can just button mash your way to victory if you aren't on a higher difficulty mode that actually has you THINK shit, yet can also be thrown into the opposite end where battles end up getting rather repetitive and monotonous by late game due to the abundance of them, even when using the Holy Bottle which decreases the spawns a fair bit. All that said, I must reiterate the combat itself is loads of fun, and if nothing else, I recommend playing the game just for this aspect alone.
I did a majority of side activities in Graces F thanks to a GameFAQs guide I used on the side, and while granted some of it was uhhhh dumb, it was at least a rather relaxing experience to go through. It reminded me that sometimes, it really is good to just play an RPG, or any game in general, that's simply... good. I like going through a masterpiece kino essential 10/10 media as much as others, but sometimes you just want to kick back, relax, have a fun time, maybe get a little annoyed, and cool off from a hectic period, and if you ask me? Graces F does a satisfying job in fulfilling that role. Like I said, this was the first Tales game I ever finished, and all things considered, it was a nice stake to make in regards to getting into the franchise finally.