another PS3 J-RPG games review
yeah, lately we've been reviewing some great j-rpg games and some fighting game
starting from record of agarest war 2, persona 4 arena, and Dragon Dogma
and now we (Falost and I) are going to review Tales of Graces F
TALES OF GRACES F
Developer(s) Namco Tales Studio
Publisher(s) Namco Bandai Games
Producer(s) Hideo Baba
Artist(s) Mutsumi Inomata
Writer(s) Daisuke Kiga
Composer(s) Motoi Sakuraba
Hibiki Aoyama
Publisher(s) Namco Bandai Games
Producer(s) Hideo Baba
Artist(s) Mutsumi Inomata
Writer(s) Daisuke Kiga
Composer(s) Motoi Sakuraba
Hibiki Aoyama
BRIEF DESCRIPTION
Tales of Graces is a Japanese role-playing game released for the Wii on December 10, 2009 in Japan. It is developed by Namco Tales Studio and published by Namco Bandai Games. It is the twelfth core product of the Tales series. In Japan, the game was ported to the PlayStation 3 under the title Tales of Graces f and was released on December 2, 2010. The PlayStation 3 version was then localized for North America on March 13, 2012 and is slated for Europe on August 31, 2012.
The game takes place in a world known as Ephinea and follows Asbel Lhant. During his childhood, Asbel finds an amnesiac girl and witnesses her death. Seven years later, he is reunited with the girl who looks exactly like she did before her death. Its central theme is Mamoru Tsuyosa wo Shiru RPG (守る強さを知るRPG, lit. "RPG to Know the Strength to Protect")
Tales of Graces is a Japanese role-playing game released for the Wii on December 10, 2009 in Japan. It is developed by Namco Tales Studio and published by Namco Bandai Games. It is the twelfth core product of the Tales series. In Japan, the game was ported to the PlayStation 3 under the title Tales of Graces f and was released on December 2, 2010. The PlayStation 3 version was then localized for North America on March 13, 2012 and is slated for Europe on August 31, 2012.
The game takes place in a world known as Ephinea and follows Asbel Lhant. During his childhood, Asbel finds an amnesiac girl and witnesses her death. Seven years later, he is reunited with the girl who looks exactly like she did before her death. Its central theme is Mamoru Tsuyosa wo Shiru RPG (守る強さを知るRPG, lit. "RPG to Know the Strength to Protect")
REVIEW
OVERVIEW
The game is all about a brat who want to be a knight, amnesiac robot, and annoying prince which have met once during a childhood, and decided to be "best friend forever" by carving their name on some trees. this game has a added some new thing such as CC capacity, eleth mixer, and dualizing.
the main reason why I wanna review it is because of the begging and pleading we have done..
yeah, in order to get this game localized, we have to lower our pride and plead to namco bandai nonstop for a years..at first we want Tales of Vesperia to be imported on ps3 (english one), and got nothing... and then we plead again in order to get Tales of Xillia, but namco bandai gave us Tales of Graces F (at last... English tales game on ps3)..... and then they said that if tales of graces F sales are good, theyre going to localize Tales of xillia too...what a great way to secure your money -___-
from my statement above, it seems like this game is a measuring point for namco bandai to release the future tales game in north america and europe, and again we have some question for this game, such as did this game really worth all the pleading? did namco bandai give us one shitty game despite all of the pleading we have done? will this game satisfy your RPG need?
you will find your salvation in this review :) (I hope)
STORY
story is the main reason why people keep on playing RPG game, and tales series is quite well known for its awesome story especially Tales of the Abyss which is my personal favourite, but sadly this tales of graces F has the most flat and boring storyline among all RPG games which I have played on PS3. tales of graces f take "Friendship" as their main theme, this theme is great only if its executed correctly, and sadly this game didnt execute it correctly....... I cant describe the failness of the story with a word, you have to play the game yourself in order to feel it..
so for a story I would give 2.5 out of 5.0
Hmmm what can I say here? the main story is about saving a friend, and, like all RPG, still, saving the world from evil being, mostly : evil tyrant, the story extended from friendship pact between a son of a landlord, a amnesiac girl, and a prince, then move to bigger story where the are an evil force named lambda, that threaten the world and take over the protagonist's best friends body, and bla bla bla, and they managed to stop the evil-being-that-actually-not-evil-at-all, and in "f" version, one that released in PS3, they added future arc (that why I thought that F actually for future, not friendship), which called "lineage and legacies", it about 6 month after the main story ended, and the protagonist forced (by his mom) to find a wife ASAP, and new enemy appear, and bla-bla-bla, they live happily ever after, the end, the story is actually not too shabby, I believe it better than RPG that only focused on "MOE-factor" such neptunia series, hmmm, and actually, all RPG is all about saving the world and someone you love right? its good, but not epic, not as epic as abyss, but still enjoyable (well I admit it.. futsuu is the right word right?)
From me, its 3.5 out of 5
CHARACTER
the character in tales of graces f... its not really different from the previous "tales of" series... theres a comic relief character, serious character, annoying character etc etc... its great for a game to have such wide variety of character, but it will crumble down if the character interaction is bad. Luckily this game done it in a great way, the character interact with each other just fine and made the game a lot more interesting, and another thing why I keep on playing this game is the character is doing their job greatly!! what I mean is "a comic relief" character should enlighten the mood of other character and the player of this game, and yup.. the comic relief character of tales of graces F (Pascal) done it correctly, she never fails in making me laugh while playing this game, despite it boring storyline
so for a character ill give it 4.0 out of 5.0
The story revolves around your-everyday-male-protagonist-that-slow-in-understanding-woman-feeling, the male protagonist's little bro, a shy girl who loves the male protagonist, an ex-teacher of the protagonist, a protagonist best friend who also a prince (and later, a king), a amnesiac humanoid, a genius comical master engineer (mistress actually, but "mistress engineer" sound weird, right?), like tsundere lover, I love the stupid skit or after battle comedy, its not always Pascal (the engineer), but all characters have part in this big-comedy-stage, for example, here one of my favorite event of the game, enjoy!
I'll say its 4 of 5 too
yey we actually give the same score for the first time :)
finally come to an agreement
BATTLE SYSTEM
the battle system is another reason why I keep on playing this game. they implemented CC system which makes you think before you act. this CC will decrese if you attacking the enemy or casting some spell, and it can rise if you are guarding, evading, or attacking stunned enemy, so while battling your enemy you have to keep your eye on your CC rather than mashing button crazily.
another great thing about it battle system is, each character feels different. if you are playing as asbel, you can use your sheated sword attack(A artes) or unsheated sword attack (B artes), while hubert can attack using his dual blade (A artes) or his dual gun (B artes) etc etc. so if you are bored playing as asbel, you can try playing as other character and find that you have to use different strategy on using that character.
sadly theres one bad thing which I found about its battle system, and that is the stagger.
in this game one simple hit can make your character staggered and vulnerable to another attack, while the previous "tales of" games takes some hit before your character got staggered, but I think its not really a problem since it also add some strategic value while battling the enemy.
so for the battle system ill give it 4.5 out of 5.0
ART
the in game sprite in this game is quite fine, judging because of its imported from Wii, so I will not comment much about this, but theres one thing which is really really fail to me, and that is the animation.. the movement is very stiff and sometimes it out of it places especially during a battle animation... it makes you wonder who did the animation... well after searching it on the net (and watching the credit) I find out that J.C staff is responsible for its animation...
well no wonder its fail
its 3.5 out of 5.0
The worlds are simply cute and colorful, its not so bad actually, its sure does looks like a ps2 games, if I have to complain is the default design of characters, especially the male protagonist, and his little brother, and the anime-like scene is suck, I have to admit, butt in overall, its not too bad, some costumes are cute and some are cool, the main chara is too mainstream, but hey, its not fail, its still enjoyable, at least for me
its 3.5 out of 5 (its 7 out of 10, not too bad right? why tsundere_lover still give reasonable-fair score if the game is actually fail, according to him.... its mystery lol) (thats because I still respect this game :P)
MUSIC, SOUND EFFECT AND DUBBING
have nothing to object other than some character dub is fail
its 3.5 out of 5.0
its 3 out of 5
EXTRAS
this game has a lot of extras, starting from extra boss, costume, titles, arena, secret item, extra spell, but sadly not Extra dungeon (there's one!!). so 100% completion is imposible unless you are using some walkthrough. (or if you super lucky or super detailed person)
oh yeah this game also show some funny scene right after when you are done battling the enemy, I kinda like this thing, so I hope another tales series will have this one.
and for the re-playing experience, I think its depend on your first playthrough, if you miss some interesting quest and item, why dont you try not to miss it on your next playthrough?
so for extras its 4.5 out of 5.0, I'll give it 4.5 too
OVERALL
its a decent game, ill definetely recommend it to all RPG fans, even though the story is suck
so in my opinion Tales of Graces F is 4.0 out of 5.0
I'll say the story is not suck, but its standard, futsu da... from me (3.5 + 4 + 4.5 +3.5 +3+ 4,5) /6 = 3,8 = 4 out of 5, and you can grab the ost at http://www.gamemp3s.net (its one year old torrent, I hope its still running, somehow) , see ya guys and girls !!!
The game is all about a brat who want to be a knight, amnesiac robot, and annoying prince which have met once during a childhood, and decided to be "best friend forever" by carving their name on some trees. this game has a added some new thing such as CC capacity, eleth mixer, and dualizing.
the main reason why I wanna review it is because of the begging and pleading we have done..
yeah, in order to get this game localized, we have to lower our pride and plead to namco bandai nonstop for a years..at first we want Tales of Vesperia to be imported on ps3 (english one), and got nothing... and then we plead again in order to get Tales of Xillia, but namco bandai gave us Tales of Graces F (at last... English tales game on ps3)..... and then they said that if tales of graces F sales are good, theyre going to localize Tales of xillia too...what a great way to secure your money -___-
from my statement above, it seems like this game is a measuring point for namco bandai to release the future tales game in north america and europe, and again we have some question for this game, such as did this game really worth all the pleading? did namco bandai give us one shitty game despite all of the pleading we have done? will this game satisfy your RPG need?
you will find your salvation in this review :) (I hope)
STORY
story is the main reason why people keep on playing RPG game, and tales series is quite well known for its awesome story especially Tales of the Abyss which is my personal favourite, but sadly this tales of graces F has the most flat and boring storyline among all RPG games which I have played on PS3. tales of graces f take "Friendship" as their main theme, this theme is great only if its executed correctly, and sadly this game didnt execute it correctly....... I cant describe the failness of the story with a word, you have to play the game yourself in order to feel it..
so for a story I would give 2.5 out of 5.0
Hmmm what can I say here? the main story is about saving a friend, and, like all RPG, still, saving the world from evil being, mostly : evil tyrant, the story extended from friendship pact between a son of a landlord, a amnesiac girl, and a prince, then move to bigger story where the are an evil force named lambda, that threaten the world and take over the protagonist's best friends body, and bla bla bla, and they managed to stop the evil-being-that-actually-not-evil-at-all, and in "f" version, one that released in PS3, they added future arc (that why I thought that F actually for future, not friendship), which called "lineage and legacies", it about 6 month after the main story ended, and the protagonist forced (by his mom) to find a wife ASAP, and new enemy appear, and bla-bla-bla, they live happily ever after, the end, the story is actually not too shabby, I believe it better than RPG that only focused on "MOE-factor" such neptunia series, hmmm, and actually, all RPG is all about saving the world and someone you love right? its good, but not epic, not as epic as abyss, but still enjoyable (well I admit it.. futsuu is the right word right?)
From me, its 3.5 out of 5
CHARACTER
the character in tales of graces f... its not really different from the previous "tales of" series... theres a comic relief character, serious character, annoying character etc etc... its great for a game to have such wide variety of character, but it will crumble down if the character interaction is bad. Luckily this game done it in a great way, the character interact with each other just fine and made the game a lot more interesting, and another thing why I keep on playing this game is the character is doing their job greatly!! what I mean is "a comic relief" character should enlighten the mood of other character and the player of this game, and yup.. the comic relief character of tales of graces F (Pascal) done it correctly, she never fails in making me laugh while playing this game, despite it boring storyline
so for a character ill give it 4.0 out of 5.0
The story revolves around your-everyday-male-protagonist-that-slow-in-understanding-woman-feeling, the male protagonist's little bro, a shy girl who loves the male protagonist, an ex-teacher of the protagonist, a protagonist best friend who also a prince (and later, a king), a amnesiac humanoid, a genius comical master engineer (mistress actually, but "mistress engineer" sound weird, right?), like tsundere lover, I love the stupid skit or after battle comedy, its not always Pascal (the engineer), but all characters have part in this big-comedy-stage, for example, here one of my favorite event of the game, enjoy!
I'll say its 4 of 5 too
yey we actually give the same score for the first time :)
finally come to an agreement
BATTLE SYSTEM
the battle system is another reason why I keep on playing this game. they implemented CC system which makes you think before you act. this CC will decrese if you attacking the enemy or casting some spell, and it can rise if you are guarding, evading, or attacking stunned enemy, so while battling your enemy you have to keep your eye on your CC rather than mashing button crazily.
another great thing about it battle system is, each character feels different. if you are playing as asbel, you can use your sheated sword attack(A artes) or unsheated sword attack (B artes), while hubert can attack using his dual blade (A artes) or his dual gun (B artes) etc etc. so if you are bored playing as asbel, you can try playing as other character and find that you have to use different strategy on using that character.
sadly theres one bad thing which I found about its battle system, and that is the stagger.
 |
| INDIGNATION !!!! |
so for the battle system ill give it 4.5 out of 5.0
Its pretty much what tsundere_lover said, its also have Eleth Burst mode (oh yeah I forgot to mention that), like a super skill gauge, during EB period you can use any attack without consuming your CC, and you can unleash a "super" arte skills, and enemy team have EB gauge too, and whenever it maxed, the boss enemy chara able to unleash powerful attacks , and after the main story, in extra games, u got accel meter (u got the last boss power) for each character, and hey, tsundere_lover, they did have extra dungeon, the zhonecage, the game difficulty levels are divided from easy, moderate, hard, evil, chaos, and unknown, if u playing the game using easy from the start and going "chaos" or "evil" in last dungeon, thats simply suicide, since the enemy level multiplied, like lv46 enemy in easy are lv99 in chaos mode, but, if you using hardest difficulty from beginning (like me :)) since the exp, money, and other battle related things are also multiplied, the game is a lot easier, you have plenty of money, high level, and able to maximize all title, in one playthrough
(I didnt know that TT-TT, I guess I have to re-playing this game .. thanks for the info :) )
(I didnt know that TT-TT, I guess I have to re-playing this game .. thanks for the info :) )
and your not-in-active-battle-team character will get 100% share of xp and sp too
I'll say its 4.5 out of 5 (same score again yeay!!)ART
the in game sprite in this game is quite fine, judging because of its imported from Wii, so I will not comment much about this, but theres one thing which is really really fail to me, and that is the animation.. the movement is very stiff and sometimes it out of it places especially during a battle animation... it makes you wonder who did the animation... well after searching it on the net (and watching the credit) I find out that J.C staff is responsible for its animation...
well no wonder its fail
its 3.5 out of 5.0
 |
| Idol Costume! |
MUSIC, SOUND EFFECT AND DUBBING
have nothing to object other than some character dub is fail
its 3.5 out of 5.0
I dont think that its actually a failure, but some dialogue will be better if spoken in Japanese, why the hell they didnt have japanese language feature? one thing I love from NIS is they always provide at least two languages, and somehow since the anime-like-scenes are suck, even in the opening, if I want to enjoy the song, I will close my eyes and listen, since the song itself is good, but the opening animation is........ fail (INDEED!!!.... INDEEDNATION!!)
EXTRAS
this game has a lot of extras, starting from extra boss, costume, titles, arena, secret item, extra spell, but sadly not Extra dungeon (there's one!!). so 100% completion is imposible unless you are using some walkthrough. (or if you super lucky or super detailed person)
oh yeah this game also show some funny scene right after when you are done battling the enemy, I kinda like this thing, so I hope another tales series will have this one.
H??? what is he trying to say? the post battle mini skit? the skit? eitherway, its good, believe me
(battle mini skit :) isnt it a new thing in tales graces.. I guess? )
(battle mini skit :) isnt it a new thing in tales graces.. I guess? )
and for the re-playing experience, I think its depend on your first playthrough, if you miss some interesting quest and item, why dont you try not to miss it on your next playthrough?
so for extras its 4.5 out of 5.0, I'll give it 4.5 too
OVERALL
its a decent game, ill definetely recommend it to all RPG fans, even though the story is suck
so in my opinion Tales of Graces F is 4.0 out of 5.0
I'll say the story is not suck, but its standard, futsu da... from me (3.5 + 4 + 4.5 +3.5 +3+ 4,5) /6 = 3,8 = 4 out of 5, and you can grab the ost at http://www.gamemp3s.net (its one year old torrent, I hope its still running, somehow) , see ya guys and girls !!!
BUY THIS GAME!!!
HERE!!
HERE!!
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