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New Tales of Graces f English Screenshots

Dark Schala

Eloquent Princess
damnit. so it's a typical power of friendship story without anything that might make it enjoyable?
Well... the genre of the game is "RPG to know the strength to protect", and the theme of friendship is heavily emphasized in the game to emphasize the genre.

The characters didn't really irritate me outside of mamoru mamoru mamoru. *shrug* I played the game for the battle and ability system, and I had a ton of fun with it. But I don't really pay much attention to the narrative in a game unless it's Persona/SMT, a VN, or Suikoden, so I usually pay attention to how fun the systems are instead.

How does Graces compare to Vesperia? I thought Vesperia was good but could have been better.
Plot: Vesperia > Graces
Battle system: Graces >>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Vesperia
 

Jubern

Member
Depends what you're looking at. Vesperia definitely has the better story, characters and world setting.

But gameplay in Graces is leaps and bounds better. Really fresh and fun battle system, better growth system, more user friendly with almost no timed quest (and a quest log to boot)...
 

kayos90

Tragic victim of fan death
If yall don't like the OT i'll be extremely sad. Working my butt off for this. Especially with my limited Photoshopping skills.
 

TEJ

Member
I don't see the problem really. Vesperia is often lauded as the best in the series. Graces has a high pedestal to aim for.

i thought that tales of rebirth was lauded more as the crown jewel of the franchise

i'd love to play a version of it in english one day.
 

Goli

Member
If yall don't like the OT i'll be extremely sad. Working my butt off for this. Especially with my limited Photoshopping skills.

As long as it's informative and well written, I don't care about the rest.
Overly prettified and exaggerated OTs are overrated!
Of course, if it is informative and well written and super pretty, it just makes it all the more better.
 

mintylurb

Member
Well... the genre of the game is "RPG to know the strength to protect", and the theme of friendship is heavily emphasized in the game to emphasize the genre.

The characters didn't really irritate me outside of mamoru mamoru mamoru. *shrug* I played the game for the battle and ability system, and I had a ton of fun with it. But I don't really pay much attention to the narrative in a game unless it's Persona/SMT, a VN, or Suikoden, so I usually pay attention to how fun the systems are instead.


Plot: Vesperia > Graces
Battle system: Graces >>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Vesperia

I just couldn't get into Vesperia and stopped around 5-6 hours into it.. Hopefully Graces' supposedly better battle system will keep me interested long enough to finish it. Mang, I haven't finished a jrpg probably since tales of abyss..
 

vall03

Member
hmmm... speaking of Rebirth, I find it ironic that the cameo characters here are from Tales games that have never been localized, lol
 

Dark Schala

Eloquent Princess
i thought that tales of rebirth was lauded more as the crown jewel of the franchise

i'd love to play a version of it in english one day.
Tales of Rebirth has the worst narrative in the series, but it has the best 2D LMBS next to ToDr.

Seriously. Rebirth's story is lol.

I just couldn't get into Vesperia and stopped around 5-6 hours into it.. Hopefully Graces' supposedly better battle system will keep me interest long enough to finish it. Mang, I haven't finished a jrpg probably since tales of abyss..
Well, um... I've already made clear how I feel about Abyss in various threads, but Graces' battle system is pretty stellar. It carried me through the game, and levelling up titles became a little addictive after a while, especially if you're chasing after the trophies for that.

Goli said:
As long as it's informative and well written, I don't care about the rest.
Overly prettified and exaggerated OTs are overrated!
Of course, if it is informative and well written and super pretty, it just makes it all the more better.
Psst... kayos is currently going crazy. :lol
 

TEJ

Member
Tales of Rebirth has the worst narrative in the series, but it has the best 2D LMBS next to ToDr.

Seriously. Rebirth's story is lol.

I know about what the villain does and it sounds gloriously stupid. I froth at the idea of how many absurd scenarios it created.

I should mention that absurdity is my favorite kind of comedy, intentional or not.
 

kayos90

Tragic victim of fan death
I guess it's not a hot topic but yall know that you can have 4 of any character you want in battle right? Having 4 Hubert use Accel Mode. Sooo amazing.
 
I guess it's not a hot topic but yall know that you can have 4 of any character you want in battle right? Having 4 Hubert use Accel Mode. Sooo amazing.

Great in theory, but takes so long to actually make it possible. God, trying to get all the items is what made me quit the future arc for a bit. :[
 

kayos90

Tragic victim of fan death
Great in theory, but takes so long to actually make it possible. God, trying to get all the items is what made me quit the future arc for a bit. :[

It doesn't take long to make. It only took me a few hours of farming. Not even 5 hours.
 

Jubern

Member
Combat wise? Yes. Most definitely. Extra wise? Not so much....

Like I said earlier, things like (almost) no timed quests is a blessing considering the series record. And then I'd argue than a lot of the game systems are simply better (cooking, growth).

It kinda lacks in extra content compared to the likes of Abyss or Vesperia PS3, but the dungeons are worse too, but there's no denying Graces is better in almost every other gampley-related way.
 

kayos90

Tragic victim of fan death
Like I said earlier, things like (almost) no timed quests is a blessing considering the series record. And then I'd argue than a lot of the game systems are simply better (cooking, growth).

It kinda lacks in extra content compared to the likes of Abyss or Vesperia PS3, but the dungeons are worse too, but there's no denying Graces is better in almost every other gampley-related way.

You mean combat-related, right? Gameplay-related includes other things besides combat. rofl.
 

NeededSleep

Member
So i was sitting there looking at this and said out loud, "Wow lmain character looks like he is wearing an Elvis jacket." The GF comes in and says "Ewww why are they making creepy Justin Bieber games".....

cannot unsee! /cry

justin-bieber.jpg
 

kayos90

Tragic victim of fan death
And Graces is great in a lot of non-combat ways. lmao.

Not all of them. Everything that ties into combat are well-done. The dolls, Titles, transition into battle. Rofl.


are the dungeon designs good? I thought the puzzles in ToS were too vague, and disliked how vesperia had none of them

It's not a straight line.... so... yeah.
 

KingK

Member
How do the characters in Graces compare to those in Symphonia? I can deal with a mediocre story if the characters are likable enough. I mean, Symphonia's story wasn't anything to write home about (though I did really enjoy it), but the characters were really fun and interesting, imo.
 

kayos90

Tragic victim of fan death
How do the characters in Graces compare to those in Symphonia? I can deal with a mediocre story if the characters are likable enough. I mean, Symphonia's story wasn't anything to write home about (though I did really enjoy it), but the characters were really fun and interesting, imo.

Uh... I would say that Graces has a more cohesive cast but I feel like the cast is stronger in Symphonia. if that makes sense to you.
 

Dark Schala

Eloquent Princess
that is a biggie, abyss has some completely moronic quest timing
There are some timed quests, though. Some for titles (iirc, there might a few timed ones for titles, but the rest are just events for characters), some to get something for an inn request/sidequest (and you'll need it for the Gentleman Defeated trophy), etc. There are times when you might want to backtrack to Lhant or something to do those quests to get titles.

So if you're shooting for these trophies:
- Get 20 titles for character X (every character has this trophy)
- Get 50 titles for character X (see above)
- Get 100 titles for character X (see above)
- Gentleman Defeated!

...try to look at a sidequest faq...
 
Actually, I wonder, have they said (probably not) about which theme song they are gonna use?

The original one (probably not), the English version (maybe) or an instrumental version? Or are they going to forget all of that and just use some instrumental music?
 

kayos90

Tragic victim of fan death
Actually, I wonder, have they said (probably not) about which theme song they are gonna use?

The original one (probably not), the English version (maybe) or an instrumental version? Or are they going to forget all of that and just use some instrumental music?

English version of the original song. It's in the trailer too.
 

kayos90

Tragic victim of fan death
Oh, probably didn't even realize it when I watched it.



How could you not like Sophie?

Uh... she feels flat to me. I'm not inclined to like characters that are flat. I like dynamic ones. AKA, I would love her if she developed like Eureka. But... yeah.
 

Zabuza

Banned
I don't know if anyone here has the platinum for the JP version of this game, but for those who have played it, what would you rate the difficulty to platinum this.

I'm guessing that 100 percenting the game will get you the plat, but I'm not sure. About how long would it take?
 

Aeana

Member
Uh... she feels flat to me. I'm not inclined to like characters that are flat. I like dynamic ones. AKA, I would love her if she developed like Eureka. But... yeah.

She's certainly flat for a reason.
But I also don't like her. She creeps me out.


...平気
 

kayos90

Tragic victim of fan death
I don't know if anyone here has the platinum for the JP version of this game, but for those who have played it, what would you rate the difficulty to platinum this.

I'm guessing that 100 percenting the game will get you the plat, but I'm not sure. About how long would it take?

I think it's more tedious and harder than Vesperia. Others have said otherwise though...
 

KingK

Member
Yes. Everyone that you can control falls under neutral or like for me. Sophie is the only one that I didn't like.

Alright sounds good, thanks. Likable characters are way more important than good/coherent plots in long JRPGs like this to me. How is the world in this game? Any nice towns/environments? I haven't seen many screenshots of anything outside of battle. (sorry for the barrage of questions, btw. lol)

My birthday is in the beginning of April, so I'm pretty sure I'll be able to land this game as a birthday present from my sister then, because she'll probably want to borrow it after I finish lol.
 

kayos90

Tragic victim of fan death
Alright sounds good, thanks. Likable characters are way more important than good/coherent plots in long JRPGs like this to me. How is the world in this game? Any nice towns/environments? I haven't seen many screenshots of anything outside of battle. (sorry for the barrage of questions, btw. lol)

My birthday is in the beginning of April, so I'm pretty sure I'll be able to land this game as a birthday present from my sister then, because she'll probably want to borrow it after I finish lol.

Rofl, dude, read my review here: http://kayos90.blogspot.com/2012/03/tales-of-grace-f-import-review.html

It answers almost all your questions.
 
I think it's more tedious and harder than Vesperia. Others have said otherwise though...

Depends. I think the only tedious ones to get would be maxing the Eleth Pot energy and defeating the Gentlemen. The titles one should come as you play through the game, defeating bosses in a minute isn't that hard when you can smash them in Easy and fight them for real, and the beating the game in harder difficulties just involves beating the final boss in different difficulties.
 

kiryogi

Banned
Man so much Vesperia love. . . All I can say is that it was a stepping stone in the HD era towards greatness for Xillia. . . Like Symphonia was to Abyss.
 

Dark Schala

Eloquent Princess
Sophie's supposed to be a flat character. But with that said, I was quite indifferent towards her.

I don't know if anyone here has the platinum for the JP version of this game, but for those who have played it, what would you rate the difficulty to platinum this.

I'm guessing that 100 percenting the game will get you the plat, but I'm not sure. About how long would it take?
Have you tried to plat/get 1000G in Vesperia? Luckily, it isn't hellish like that, and it doesn't have shitty secret missions! It's way easier! It takes about 80-140 hours, and I'd rate the plat a 5-6/10. It just takes a while, like every other RPG plat outside of Last Rebellion.

I'll spoiler the text just in case people don't want to see this:

There are a few 'beat X in 1 minute!' trophies, and these are mostly for bosses which I would consider as spoilers. There is a reason why I unlocked Chaos difficulty early on. When you play on Chaos, you get used to attacking faster and you get stronger since you get more XP, SP, and Gald, so bringing the difficulty down to Easy, Normal, or Second would make these trophies ridiculously easy to get. I'd usually get the trophy on those difficulties first, reset and do the boss on Chaos to reap the SP/XP rewards.

Um. Gentleman Defeated! is the hardest trophy since you need to do all the Inn Requests (and thus you need to pay attention to some of the timed events like the handkerchief event) and get some drops to synthesize weapons/items.

The Zone Cage trophy isn't hard, and the cameo battle trophy isn't hard. The "beat Rock Gagan" trophy is one I'd advise doing after Future Arc, but it's possible to do beforehand if you grind.

The get 20/50/100 aliases trophies aren't difficult, but again--do the sidequests and go for some of the timed events to get the Titles you need.

There are trophies for clearing the game on various modes like Second, Hard, Evil, and Chaos. But all you have to do is just beat the final boss on those difficulty modes, not play through the game on those modes, so it's easy!

The 9999 points in the Arles Pot is easier than it sounds. Just keep using it and it'll get up there. It takes hours of grinding, though.

Because I enjoyed the game quite a bit, I didn't feel like the plat was much of a chore despite being a bit of a grind. I had lots of fun doing it. I remember complaining a lot while I was doing FFXIII's plat, lol.
 

Aeana

Member
Man so much Vesperia love. . . All I can say is that it was a stepping stone in the HD era towards greatness for Xillia. . . Like Symphonia was to Abyss.

I disagree with that so strongly. Xillia is the game that feels like a stepping stone between the established Tales formula and something new. It's so half-baked in every way. They'll get it in the next game, hopefully.
 
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