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One year anniversary for announcing Tales of Graces ƒ

T

The Praiseworthy

Member
For NA:

talesofgracesfna530.jpg


Seems like only yesterday when this happened and we all melted :p

And I can't believe when I saw the ( coming soon ) I thought of May - Sept for a release, silly me of course they meant ( coming soon after 13 months ) :p

anyway....

Let's just be grateful that we are getting this , I know I am!

I didn't have a classic JRPG experience since 2006... it have been 6 years now, and that's why I'm so dying to get my hands on this.

Not only because it's the classic JRPG experience that I've been waiting for this entire generation, but it's also so classic even in the background color of the menu "blue" !!! and the sound effects of the opening chests and finding items.... hell even the design of the characters screams out loud CLASSIC:

Tales%2Bof%2BGraces%2B579%2B2.jpg


So colorful :p

I've never been this excited for a game this way since a very long time... because I know it will offers me everything I've missed in the last 6 years and more, and I can't believe it's only 41 days away now!!

Who else is extremely excited for this like me?

Tales_of_Graces_F.jpg


Even the Box cover is beautiful to look at <3

new-tales-of-graces-f-screenshots-20110511052519621_640w.jpg

new-tales-of-graces-f-screenshots-20110511052454372_640w.jpg

tales-of-graces-f-20100915115617071_640w.jpg

new-tales-of-graces-f-screenshots-20110511052521512_640w.jpg


So charming <3


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcB_9HvoJLA

The English opening, gosh I've been a fan of BoA since 2003.... so that's mean I will be watching this opening almost every time I load the game like I did with TotA :p



and here is the ONLY english trailer we got for the game:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dP0XsM23j0



Oh yeah that reminds me, seriously Namco? only 41 days left for the release and you release only ONE trailer?

Ok you don't want to spend money on marketing this game we get it.... but at less you can build up some hype by releasing I don't know..... TRAILERS with a very good official website?

This is ridiculous, it's like they want to make an excuse later for not bringing Xillia to the west :\



anyway.... let's discuss this game and share our thoughts about it.
 
T

The Mana Legend

Banned
I am just giving it a chance because I am desperate for a classic-styled console JRPG, but in general I hate the series (mostly Team Symphonia stuff though), so I'm very skeptical.
 
I

InfiniteNine

Rolling Girl
Looking forward to this game! Heard some great things from some friends and that teaser site showed up when I was about to import it with Vesperia.

Thanks amazon for the $20 discount~!
 
C

Coxy

Member
were there no english screens? lol namco

I have it preordered but I'm not really hyped yet, hard to get excited based on how much namco has given us :(

fushi said:
Or you could just play Xenoblade to get your fix?
Click to expand...

really? fucking hell.
 
Glass Rebel

Glass Rebel

Member
I liked this anime before it turned to shit in the second season. The ending was pretty awesome though.

I've lost any interest in this game by now.
 
S

Sohter.Nura

Member
I'm dying to play this. Tales of Vesperia is probably one of my favorite games this generation, and I want another Tales fix!!
 
T

Torraz

Member
Seda said:
Most Tales games have a pretty significant story. I heard this one is a bit weaker in that department. The battle system is where it's at.
Click to expand...

I thought the story was more than fine. It wasn't ground breaking but what was there was very solid. Also bonus points for no unlikable characters (like that hammer kid in vesperia etc.).

Best battle system I've seen in a long while in jrpgs.

I might double dip, since I have the JP version, once it gets to around 20-30 bucks of local currency as I haven'T seen a 40$ amazon deal here in Europe.
 
S

Seda

Member
I still think it's odd that we only got the one smaller trailer. And there hasn't been a single english screenshot

Namco Bandai's site doesn't even show the boxart and still says release "2012". Heck, that trailer isn't even on the site.

StarCreator said:
When was it $40? My preorder was placed back on July 3, 2011 and mine is still showing as $59.96.
Click to expand...

It was $40 only for a short while after it was announced. Like around a day or so.
 
RPGCrazied

RPGCrazied

Member
I still don't understand why they announced this so freaking early, with nothing to show either. Hell, even now they don't have many things to show, and it comes out next month. Just a small english trailer and some offcam battle videos.

Still day 1. Everyone buy this game, I want Xillia too.
 
D

djtiesto

is beloved, despite what anyone might say
Really interested in the combat system, with all the good things I've heard about it. Also like the fact that it's a decent length (35-40 hours apparently) since one of my main complaints about many Tales games is how bloated they can be.
 
D

Dark Schala

Eloquent Princess
IntelliHeath said:
Question for importers.

Which tales is better? Between graces and xilias. Please explain why its better.

Thanks
Click to expand...
We nearly had a bloodbath when we discussed that last time. D:

I think it starts on this page? And continues into this page where people sort of argue.

Anyway, Xillia's battle system is called the DR-LMBS (Dual Raid Linear Motion Battle System). This means that its strength is the Link Arts system: this is where two characters can be linked together to unleash combos against enemies. There is a gauge in the left-hand corner of the screen which builds up every time you combo an enemy with different arts, different hits and with your partner. It usually hits little divisions in the bar with the X button will flash. This will cause you to use a Link Arte with your partner if you use appropriate Artes which will initiate the Link Arte. Um, regarding titles? Titles in this game are completely separate from costumes. Titles are basically in-game achievements which you can attain to increase your grade for the Grade Shop at the end. I don't like this implementation much, especially since Graces did it a TON better.

I wrote this for the GotY 2011 thread for Xillia:

Dark Schala said:
Tales of Xillia utilizes the DR-LMBS (Dual Raid-Linear Motion Battle System), and includes TP and AC in order for characters to carry out attacks. While I&#8217;ve expressed that TP is limiting in the past (and it still is), the Link Artes and Overlimit for Link Chains work very well. What&#8217;s problematic is the lack of flexibility introduced by TP and the lack of Link Artes for other partnerships other than Jude/Milla&#8217;s kind of prohibits the system from reaching its full potential. Regardless, DR-LMBS is very fun to play around with and it ends battle quite quickly on harder modes. I encourage players to play on harder modes to get full satisfaction out of the battle system. It isn&#8217;t as good as Graces&#8217; by a long shot, but it&#8217;s good enough.

The cast is great too, with Alvin, Jude and Leia being my favourites to play around with. Unfortunately, the areas aren&#8217;t as great as Graces&#8217; were (which followed the same &#8220;lack of world map&#8221; structure, and sometimes they&#8217;re kind of boring). Many parts of the narrative, town design, and character interaction make up for the between town parts. The music is also fantastic as well, with Milla&#8217;s battle themes, Jude's final two battle themes, the school outfit DLC battle theme, and the final battle theme standing out the most.
Click to expand...

There will be a time when the gauge fills up completely and you can chain Link Arts, again, by using appropriate Artes which will initiate the Link Artes. There are several problems here, as I've noted in a previous post:

Dark Schala said:
Not to mention that a lot of the Link Artes' distributions are imbalanced in favour of Jude/Milla. It makes sense, but limits how much the player can experiment with other characters in terms of party dynamics and synergy. At least with Graces, from what I've played with multiplayer, Graces seems to support party synergy to rack up combos (ie: managing your CC accordingly, taking turns to use appropriate artes, using artes that are strong against certain monsters, or to steal things, shifting styles for appropriate actions, etc). When you look at it, Graces' combat can be deep if you really want to get everything done in a battle.
Click to expand...

In terms of combat, which Aeana has already elaborated on with a great post, Tales of Graces' system is called the SS-LMBS (Style-Shift Linear Motion Battle System). It does exactly what it says: you shift styles (ex: regular attacks and Artes) in order to maintain combos and the raising of the Arles Gauge. SS works a little differently than normal Tales games, though. Asbel is a good example of demonstrating this: one of his styles is completely sheathed combat where he attacks the enemies with kicks and punches, and the other style is where he uses his sword for devastating Artes and combos.

My favourite part of Graces' combat system is that it penalizes the player for Free Running! :D I dislike Free Running a lot, and the Around-Step system is the perfect alternative to dodging attacks and catching enemies off-guard.

Here's my post about Graces:

Dark Schala said:
So if you've played a Tales game before, you'll know what you're in for... kind of. If you've only played Tales of Symphonia, newer Tales games aren't restricted to a 2D plane. If you've played Tales of the Abyss, Vesperia, or Symphonia 2, you'll already know that the entire battle field in modern Tales games is now in 3D and that you are able to free-run.

Any of the Tales games released in English, particularly the latter Team Symphonia ones, uses TP to utilize Artes. Graces isn't like that, though. It has its own brand of the battle system: SS-LMBS (Style-Shift Linear Motion Battle System), which shifts between A-Style (regular attacks) and B-Style (attacks with your weapon sheathed; ex: kicking, magic, etc). You shift between these styles during combat for better flow.

You do not use TP. You use CC instead. To execute any action at all, you use up CC, which regenerates itself if you dodge at the right time, using an attack that enemies are weak against, if you're idle and waiting for the CC gauge to replenish, and holding down the block button for a while to replenish it immediately. If you free run in this game too long, you are penalized 1 CC, so Free Run is not encouraged. The alternative is to use the game's around-step to avoid the enemy, which is essentially moving the player along different lines around the enemy to avoid attacks or attack it from another side.

Around-stepping the enemy is more advantageous than using Free Run because you can quickly move around the enemy's backside when it's, for example, blocking and attack it quickly. You can easily dodge attacks as well by side-stepping or quickly back-stepping. It's up to you, really.

A-style attacks aren't really regular attacks. They're several attacks arranged in a tree-formation. As you hit the button to execute A-style attacks, you can hold the stick in any direction while hitting the button to move through the tree, and the attacks are determined based on what you last performed on the tree branch. Each attack has its own special effect like strong against certain enemies, steal, etc. B-style attacks are the artes and magic spells. Honestly, the system is just really fun to play around with and it doesn't feel like you're doing the same things over and over.

Another aspect of battle is the Arles Gauge. Keep attacking and varying your attacks between B-Style and A-Style, and the gauge will fill up in your favour, resulting in an Arles Rise. During this, you'll have unlimited CC to chain attacks and use artes. You can also use hi-ougis/mystic artes in this mode. If the Arles Gauge fills up in your enemies' favour (Arles Break), they are harder to stagger, their attacks are a little stronger, and if you're fighting certain enemies, THEY can use their hi-ougis/mystic artes against you.

Speaking of Arles, you have access to something called the "Arles Pot". You can add food and books to this pot, and it essentially acts as a Gambit machine. The Arles Pot has its own energy base. You can combine items to make food, accessories, etc. it. After you make food, you put it in the Arles Pot and assign a gambit-like condition to it like "use Pizza when HP< 40%". When this condition is met, the food will be used automatically (and this will happen only once in battle). This will use up some of the Arles Pot's energy, and you refill those at shops. Do note that you can stick more than one food item in the pot. You can also stick books in there that will have certain effects like the Fleet Footed Grimoire which'll let you move faster in/out of battle, or the Hot Blooded Grimoire, which'll halve your stats in battle, but you'll get 2x XP.

All the systems pretty much work well in sync with each other... and very well to boot. Oh, and titles grant certain stat bonuses and will give you new skills if you level them up. They work way better than Titles in past Tales games.

And Graces has six difficulty settings: Easy, Normal, Second, Hard, Evil, Chaos. I generally play on Chaos mode. As you increase difficulty, the enemies get more HP and they hit harder. To unlock Chaos difficulty, you must play 300 battles on Evil difficulty... other difficulties are unlocked in this manner.
Click to expand...
Er, I guess I like Graces more, huh? :lol

It's just a lot better, and the title, battle, stamp, and arles pot systems work perfectly in synch with each other. Of course, I don't really play Tales games for the narrative... I play them moreso for the battle system. Graces' battle system is just plain fun. You'll get a lot out of taking the time to invest in the system.
 
A

Aeana

Member
Tales of Graces is a very cohesive, complete and nearly bulletproof (systems-wise) game. Xillia tries to change a lot all at once, and as a result, suffers in many areas.
 
L

Levyne

Banned
Looking forward to playing it. 40 dollar preorder!

Story and characters and premise look poor but maybe (hopefully) I will be surprised.
 
S

Seda

Member
Aeana said:
Tales of Graces is a very cohesive, complete and nearly bulletproof (systems-wise) game. Xillia tries to change a lot all at once, and as a result, suffers in many areas.
Click to expand...

I'll just have to see if it outshines my love for the FoFs in TotA.
 
A

Aeana

Member
Seda said:
I'll just have to see if it outshines my love for the FoFs in TotA.
Click to expand...

I didn't know people liked fields of fonons! That's generally quite an unpopular system amongst Tales fans. I hope you like Graces's stuff more, too.
 
C

chickdigger802

Banned
Aeana said:
I didn't know people liked fields of fonons! That's generally quite an unpopular system amongst Tales fans. I hope you like Graces's stuff more, too.
Click to expand...

I never was really bothered or even cared about them besides the ones that summon your own in which you can use for combo rotations.

Is this game more impressive in motion, because the screens look like an upscaled wii game (Which it is...), and it's a pretty huge step back from vesperia which has some of the better celshading of this gen imo.
 
C

cpp_is_king

Member
Damn that's awesome. Although TBH i'd pay $100 for it, so whatever. :) I played the Japanese version until about maybe 20% of the way into the game, but it just got too difficult for me to understand with only modest Japanese skill. I really liked it.
 
D

Dark Schala

Eloquent Princess
Aeana said:
I didn't know people liked fields of fonons! That's generally quite an unpopular system amongst Tales fans. I hope you like Graces's stuff more, too.
Click to expand...
There are some times when I like FoF, but for the most part it falls into the dislike system. It's such an inelegant system.

...I dislike Abyss's battle system a lot. Free running. >:|
 
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