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Tales Of Graces F Remastered Review: Getting Its Day In The 2025 Sun
By Jon ToyadVerified|January 16, 2025|1 Comment
Platform(s): PlayStation 5 (version reviewed), PS4, PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series, Xbox One
Genre: Late 2000s-era JRPG, Anime, Fantasy
The Tales Of series are a slew of Bandai Namco-made Japanese role-playing games with a huge emphasis on real-time action combat loaded with special moves called Artes as well as fantasy anime storylines that somehow bring in scifi elements into the mix. Tales Of Graces back on the Wii was no different, but it focuses more on its character Asbel and how he hangs onto the vestiges of his childhood while making amends for his past decision to abandon his friends to be a knight after a personal tragedy. It’s a bit more personal and intimate narrative-wise.
While not as bombastic as previous Tales titles like Tales of the Abyss and Tales of Vesperia, or even a technical marvel like Tales of Arise, Tales of Graces has its fans due to its characters, Dualize item-making system, and combination of nuanced combat and storyline. It also helped that the game got an English re-release in 2013 for the PlayStation 3 with the odd subtitle “F” at the end.
So does this remaster do it justice? Well, it does make one of the less-appreciated Tales Of JRPG a new lease of life, with a fair price tag given its new additions.
To recap: Tales Of Graces starts us off with playing as children: brothers Asbel and Hubert wander off to a restricted part of the forest of their hometown, when they come across a mysterious girl with amnesia. They named her Sophie and she ends up being Asbel’s protector through a series of events. After a tragedy happens, Asbel runs off and becomes a knight, with him returning to his hometown of Lhant seven years later. Naturally, loads of tension and awkwardness happen as Asbel assumes everything is the same as it was when lots have changed. Thus begins a journey of self-discovery, mending past mistakes, and a looming scifi threat.
While the childhood portions of the game takes a while to resolve, Tales of Graces does get going after the 5-hour mark. See, it needed to establish its “past” storyline so that players can relate better to Asbel’s plight alongside his other childhood friends Cheria and Prince/King Richard, his brother Hubert, and lost girl Sophie. Aiding him as well include his former mentor Malik and nutjob runes explorer Pascal who also has her own secrets involving the world’s history. I do admire how focused and intimate the story here is compared to past (and future) Tales games, where it balances drama, whimsy, and humour well. If anything, Tales of Graces’ reputation hinges on how its casts interact with each other from the start up until the epilogue chapters; you’re in for a lovely 40-hour ride here that pays off in dividends.
And I didn’t get to the other great bit of this remaster: the combat. You control any one person in a team of four, beating up enemies in a battlefield in real-time. While initially you are locked onto enemies and can only move forward or backwards, you can hold the L2 (PlayStation 5 controls) and move freely in 3D on the field, selecting targets with R1. Pressing an attack button and a direction will make you pull off special moves called Artes that uses up CC; you can build it back up with regular attacks.
The game devolves to who can unleash Artes first and without fail, all while blocking and dodging enemy attacks. There are also powerful spell Artes you can cast, but these take casting time and leave you vulnerable, so you need other party members to protect you. Your attacks determine whether you build up the red or blue bar, which have their own benefits and drawbacks you can exploit in the heat of the fight. Battles are fast and frenetic, even the ones with bosses and villains of the story, with only a few encounters being hit points sponges even if you perfectly dodge their attacks for passive bonuses.
You can also power up your characters & get more equipment with the Dualizer system. You combine two items and get a new one out of it without sacrificing anything, though it really depends on the criteria and type of items. Not only can you make custom equipment, but also power up existing ones for a bit until you find a substantially better weapon once you have the cash for it. You even have a special Elixir that generates items and bonuses for you if you equip specific ones, then just go on your merry way as it uses up special resources over time for said freebies. Combine all that, and you have a seamless and surprisingly deep bunch of systems to enhance your gameplay & create the ultimate one-hit kill team to power through the story.
For those who have finished the 2012 PlayStation 3 version, there’s a lot to admire in this remake. The graphical touch-ups and remastering look decent and sharp, with the game running solid at 60fps on PlayStation 5 just fine. You get a new dash that lets you run faster on the overworld and in dungeons, making exploration go by quicker. If you get defeated in regular battles, there’s an option that lets you retry immediately, so no need to load your save and walk all over to the arena again.
You can also play through a Graces Battle mode at the main menu to play through different enemy/boss fights and get rewards out of it; just load up your save and you use that party to tackle these short challenges. These range from easy mob fights to having three tough bosses ganging up on you, where you have to play it smart lest you get overwhelmed by their crowd control spells.
The Grade Shop, which is a Tales Of option that lets you buy modifiers to make the game easier/harder/go by faster before you start a new game, is available right from the get-go. You don’t need to complete the game to access it straight away, and you will get a few points to spend to modify your experience. And if you feel like speeding up your game by making everyone deal double (or five times) the damage and boosting everyone’s critical rate up is “cheating”, you can just opt out of using Grade modifiers and just play the RPG au naturel.
There are some nitpicks in this remaster: the English dub is unfortunately still the same as it was back in 2012. While it’s not the worst I’ve heard, half the performances from major characters like Richard, Asbel, and Cheria feel phoned-in and lack direction. With the exception of Pascal (who is a delight to watch and listen to), you’re better off just switching it to Japanese. And the first few hours can be a slog if you’re playing it regularly without any Grade Shop buffs.
Tales Of Graces F is an underrated gem that goes back to basics in the action RPG department while delivering a heartfelt tale. The remaster preserves all these aspects while offering optional quality-of-life changes (and ways to speed up the process), not to mention a graphical upgrade that justifies its price tag.
It’s not on the level of Tales of the Abyss and Tales of Vesperia, but being a level down a tier from greatness isn’t such a bad deal. I’d still play this over Tales of Arise any day of the week, just because Tales of Graces F isn’t trying too hard and rolls with the whimsical punches. It graces us with its ability to just deliver a solid JRPG experience with some much-needed touch-ups.
Review copy provided by publisher.
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All eyes on Xbox Developer Direct 2025 - Twentytwo13
January 18, 2025 at 8:23 am
[…] Tales of Graces F Remastered is a re-release of a 2009 Japanese-exclusive Nintendo Wii role-playing game (that was ported to PlayStation 3 in 2013 with an English dub) that focuses on a more personal tale of a noble’s child who fled responsibility to become a knight, and the emotional consequences of that choice. Don’t worry, as this Tales of game still has the action-packed trademark, real-time battle, arena-style combat with special moves galore and lots to do. There is even a game modifier option in the form of the Grade Shop that lets you adjust parameters for a faster or easier/harder challenge when you start up this version for the first time. […]