Tales of Graces f Remastered Overview – A Spirited Journey Players Enviornment

Tales of Graces is a kind of video games that has a little bit of an extended historical past – and a notable one as a result of its authentic Wii model by no means made it to abroad audiences, and a later PlayStation 3 port was localized two years after its authentic launch in Japan.

Whereas Bandai Namco has made a commendable effort since then, what with getting out the newer Tales of Come up worldwide on a number of platforms, there’s nonetheless a variety of room for these older video games to return again round and attain a more moderen viewers.

That’s the place Tales of Graces f Remastered is available in. Almost 13 years after its launch on PS3 within the West, a brand new redux is making its option to fashionable platforms in a giant approach as a remaster that isn’t only a primary port. With that in thoughts, I used to be eager to take a look at simply how properly Tales of Graces f holds up – not simply from its authentic state as a Tales of collection recreation, however the way it’s been tailored to up to date sensibilities.

Tales of Graces f is framed by a simple story that delves into the lifetime of Asbel Lhant, a younger man who values his mates and their safety following the occasions of a tragedy throughout his childhood.

Graces f wastes no time introducing Asbel, his brother Hubert, a prince named Richard, and a mysterious lady named Sophie – the latter of whom seemingly sacrifices herself within the opening hours and pushes Asbel to go away residence and practice to be a knight.

All of this culminates in a seven-year time skip that sees Asbel correctly educated, however returns to his homeland following but extra tragedy. There are many political motivations available, and though Asbel finally reunites with Richard, issues aren’t as righteous as they appear.

Whereas the story in Graces f begins sluggish, it does ease into itself because it goes alongside. Lots of the characters and beats are considerably cliché – resembling Asbel himself and his quest to guard his family members, nevertheless, the thriller behind the antagonist and different characters, in addition to coping with the theme of loss stay sturdy all through.

The same old Tales of collection skits and facet quests are right here too, and do properly sufficient to indicate extra of the characters and their rising relationships with one another.

The place Tales of Graces f actually shines, nevertheless, is with its battle system and gameplay components. Whereas Asbel and mates spend a variety of time operating round a 3D world map, the precise battles happen on a transition display and play out with as much as 4 characters directly.

Graces f makes use of what’s referred to as Chain Capability or CC, and it units up the variety of actions that may be carried out earlier than needing to recharge. Asbel could be straight managed, or left to the sport’s AI like the opposite celebration members – though they are often given set technique parameters resembling specializing in attacking, defending, or someplace in-between.

The depth of the battle system comes right down to ability techniques – Assault Artes, or combos, and Burst Artes that may be swapped round to most popular management kinds. Moreover, a component, referred to as the Eleth Gauge, fills up throughout fight and offers Asbel a type of “powered up” state for a restricted time the place he can use limitless CC to deal out some large harm. In fact, the enemy can use theirs too so it is a matter of being cautious.

All of that is very intuitive and provides up a enjoyable, however usually difficult little bit of gameplay. I used to be particularly shocked by the boss battles – a lot of which require crucial pondering and might’t be button mashed to dying. It makes up a bit for the typically flat dungeon and map design, which is clearly stretching the restrictions of the unique {hardware} it was created for.

That is additional wrapped up and amplified by plenty of quality-of-life options launched for Tales of Graces f’s remaster. From the soar, the collection’ famed Grade Store is obtainable, which lets gamers customise their expertise just like options present in a typical New Sport+ run.

That is useful as a result of it permits for issues like elevated velocity on the sector, bonus expertise, and extra for individuals who might have performed Graces f up to now, or simply need a extra snug time enjoying the sport on the entire.

The event workforce has additionally added a map locator, so it’s simple to see the place to go subsequent along with tapping a button to verify the present targets. There’s additionally an autosave function, the power to show off encounters, and different accessibility options resembling in-combat subtitles that deliver Graces f Remastered as much as fashionable sensibilities.

 It wouldn’t be a remaster with out some enhancements in visible high quality, and Graces f has that in spades. The visible constancy and coloration grading have been cleaned up, providing a brighter, cleaner picture than the PS3 model had. Menus, textual content, and animated cutscenes additionally look sharper, and every thing ran at a strong clip throughout my play time on PlayStation 5 Professional.

Tales of Graces f Remaster is finally a strong effort to deliver the sport to fashionable platforms. The addition of quality-of-life updates, together with cleaned-up visuals, breathe some life into what is really probably the most gratifying fight techniques within the collection.

Whereas the story and characters is likely to be a bit too on the nostril and never for everybody, the themes of the narrative have loads of impression on their very own and make Tales of Graces f a worthy journey.

TechRaptor reviewed Tales of Graces f Remastered on PlayStation 5 with a code supplied by the writer over roughly 42 hours of gameplay – all screenshots have been taken in the course of the course of evaluation.