Tales of Graces f Remastered Review – Review
About 20 years ago, one of the first games to make me fall in love with JRPGs as a genre was the incredible Tales of Symphonia for GameCube. Its lovable cast of characters and engaging combat made it one of my favorite games ever made. Because of this high water mark, I’ve struggled to explore the rest of the fan favorite Tales franchise, in part because of comparison to that game and worries that my love for Symphonia is tinged with nostalgia. However, with no nostalgia clouding my view, I can say that Tales of Graces f Remastered is worth your time if you are a JRPG lover with a Switch.
Tales of Graces f Remastered is in many ways set in a standard JRPG setting, with a number of local kingdoms vying for power and resources. Thrown into that is the protagonist Asbel, the son of the ruler of Lhant, who we first meet as a child in an extended prologue sequence. In this we also meet his brother and their childhood friend, Hubert and Cheria. Notably they also befriend Richard, a neighboring prince and Sophie, a mysterious girl with no memory. Several years following the prologue, events have been set in motion that will strain the bonds of this group of friends.
The story itself isn’t the driving force here – it’s good, but felt par for the JRPG course. What sets Tales of Graces f apart is the strength of its characterization. These characters are well written, not like a collection of tropes but individuals with complex motivations and a personal history that we get to see for the first chapter of the game, which leads to future events hitting hard. I found myself really caring for all of the members of the party, with characters that initially feel like they’re just there to give more combat options getting the same high quality treatment as the initial characters you met in the first chapter. I personally tended to like Sophie and latecomer Pascal the most, but Asbel and Hubert’s sibling relationship really resonated. Characters have long been a part of the appeal of the Tales series but I was impressed by the writing with all of them.
Another major highlight is the combat system. Tales of Graces f is an action RPG, and it’s really quite engaging. Rather than having any sort of MP system, the characters use CC (chain capacity points) and each action in battle takes some CC to use. This comes back quickly with a break in the action, so each battle is about timing, stepping back if need be to refill your CC and being mobile. It took a little getting used to for me but once it clicked it felt incredibly satisfying to play. Another highlight is the title system: you get different titles for each of the characters from gameplay, progressing the story, etc, and each of these titles both provide a stat buff while equipped and can be leveled through their own experience system to learn new abilities, impart further stat buffs, etc. This allows for an incredible amount of customization with choosing which title would make the most sense to learn first or which would be the best to have equipped. I tended to focus on multiple titles rather than mastering a few, but it’s really up to you what you want to do. There are even more systems involving crafting and automatically using cooked items that I flirted with but feel like I barely scratched the surface on. This leads to a really rich, developed system where you could easily get lost in its strategy.
The presentation is also fantastic. The existing game already looked good but the graphics were improved from the original release and look gorgeous on the Switch. The animated cutscenes were impressive, but the in-game 3D models were animated very well, too. There are small changes in motion or fluctuations of the eyes that really do a lot to add to the characterization. I also liked the music a lot, particularly with how it characterized the different places you go and how the battles felt. I played with the Japanese voice actors and all of them did an excellent job of portraying their characters well.
There are a couple of things that could turn you off from Tales of Graces f, the first being that it does take a good while to get started with the game. The first chapter is about 2-3 hours long, and while I personally enjoyed that opportunity to learn more about the characters, it does mean a bit of waiting for the main story beats to come into focus. This also applies to the combat, as well, as there is some combat in the first chapter in which the characters don’t have all their abilities yet, so it doesn’t feel as good to play as it eventually will. I think all of this works on a story and character level, but I get that “don’t worry, it gets good later” can be a hard ask. Additionally, the game is pretty linear with limited exploration, especially early on. There are some side quests and requests you can do but they’re pretty bare bones compared to the rest of the story. This leads to a relatively streamlined story experience, but I also found myself wanting larger maps, more places to explore, and more puzzles (one of the earliest chances I had I devoured a set of sliding block puzzles for the novelty). It might have also felt this way due to an optional destination icon, a new quality of life item that helped with some areas that were difficult to navigate but also lead to the feeling of linearity. If I was playing Tales of Graces f again, I might try playing both with the destination icon on and off, to see how that made exploration feel, but it defaults to being on.
All told, Tales of Graces f Remastered is an impressive game, with some of my favorite game characters and gameplay in some time. It looks and runs like a dream on the Switch, too, which made for a wonderful visual experience. Reportedly Bandai Namco is looking to remaster more of the Tales series, and after Graces f Remastered, I hope we’ll see those sooner rather than later.