Half-Ass Gaming Reviews: Tales of Graces F

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Let’s get right into it, shall we? Tales of Graces F follows our main protagonist, Asbel Lhant, a plucky young adventurer who discovers a mysterious girl with memory loss. He stumbles onto the prince of the kingdom and manages to save his life while earning his friendship. After a sworn pact to stay friends forever, the world is flipped upside down by an event which devastates, Asbel. He abandons his family and friends to train to be a Knight in service of the crown for seven years. However, this may have been a mistake that has crippled their relationships forever.

Asbel, starts off as an obnoxious and cocky little snot. He picks on the sickly girl who follows him around by his coat tail. He continually disobeys every order that his father has ever given him. He’s got a brother who loves him, but he just ends up picking fights with him all the time. The worst of it all is how he treats the young girl with amnesia, constantly badgering her with questions about her past when she obviously remembers nothing.

So it’s more than welcome to see Asbel get what’s coming to him for being a little brat. It’s just the seven years after he changes his ways, and becomes a noble… albeit whiny soldier that hurts the storyline. Just when Asbel has changed his ways of being a snot nosed punk, it looks like all of his friends have to go and take his place. Asbel is constantly disrespected, demeaned, and given the cold shoulder from nearly all of his buddies.

Pascal… the major reason to even play this game.

The sickly maiden has become strong and now uses Asbel leaving as an excuse to ignore him. His little brother has turned into a cold tactician and blames Asbel for something that the Lhant parents did. The prince on the other hand just turns into this schizophrenic dictator who literally tears people to ribbons. This is something that is a major downfall for the game. It focuses on using melodramatic sequences as its driving point.

Luckily it’s not all drooping shoulders and dark and twisted plot-lines. The zany and wacky anime style of the tales series is still intact. The skits system is still very much a part of the game, and it still has the characters interacting in a hilarious fashion. The main savior of comedy in the title would have to go to Pascal; this girl is the best part of playing Tales of Graces F. The often dreary and predictable storyline is made tolerable due to her dialogue.

So how does the gameplay itself fair you ask? Players are given a wide amount of tactical options to aid the hectic combat system. The mixture of button presses with contextual combat abilities really keeps conflict interesting. A bar charges over the faceplate of the character the player is controlling, this gives the player a set of moves to attack with. The bar in the lower left is used to activate critical hits. Players can even swap from A-Artes to B-Artes, which focuses on quick and powerful combination strikes.

The combat system is extremely deep with additional enhancements to invest in. Auras, staggers, and evasion counter-strikes are just the tip of the iceberg. This is without a doubt the best part of the game, and it is made more entertaining by an exhausting item combination system called “Dualize”. Players can find items from enemies and combine them into foods, equipment, and more. If utilized correctly, players can make some pretty strong weapons and armor combinations. It is tons of fun just to tinker with the system and see what powerful tool you can create.

When it comes to graphical power, Tales of Graces F is nowhere near pushing the limits. It has the visual of a glossed over Wii game. A lot of the character models look like anime dolls, with wide open eyes and plastic facial structures. The world itself is typical of the genre, but nothing really stands out as exactly artistic or exciting. The game will often set you free in a maze without a mini-map. So you can expect to get lost just trying to find an exit from a town.

The most particular issue with the design is how often you’ll see it. Asbel and Company will do a lot of backtracking in the storyline. This only serves to stretch out the length of the title, since there never seems to be a meaningful reason behind it. An example is a letter that Asbel is given to head to the next area, however one of his friends is kidnapped at this point of the game. You are forced to head in the direction of the delivery of the letter to rescue her, only to return back to the town to say that you saved her. It’s completely unnecessary and breaks up the pacing of the game.

The sound is also a mixed bag, with some pretty spotty voice-over and generic orchestral music. The voice acting for Asbel and his gang of friends is splendid when they are kids. It’s the time after they become adults that all is not well. Asbel, Cheria, and Malik never really sell their voices too well… they are simply tolerable. Pascal and Sophie are clearly the best of the bunch, with some hilarious dialogue between the both of them that could float the entire game. It is Richard who just destroys the ratio of the cast; he’s by far the worst voice you’ll hear. This is something to be sad about, as he is the main villain for the entire story.

When you get down to the bare facts of it all, Tales of Graces F is a moderately entertaining JRPG. If not for the fantastic and deep combat system, the game would be dragged down by the dramatic and generic plot. The first 10 hours are quite a struggle to get through, but once you’re over the hump you can truly bask in the combat system. Tales of Graces F receives a C from Half-Ass Gaming, it’s worth it if you love the combat… but don’t look for a rich storyline to accompany it.