Tales of Graces F confirmed for US release

[EddieA]

Hopefully, this won't signal the end of the world, but Namco Bandai is teasing the announcement of a US release for Tales of Graces F for PS3.  I really didn't think this would happen, but I'm very happy to be wrong

[EddieA]

It's official.  There are no details yet, but Tales of Graces F is coming to North American "soon"

[CeeKay]

"soon"

[Kevin Grey]

That's awesome.  I hope they bring over the 3DS port of Tales of the Abyss too.  That's still my favorite Tales game. 

[jersoc]

Joyful.

Vesperia was so good.

[Azhag]

F the PS3! Bring it to the 360 like Vesperia.

[Dante Rising]

Great news! I'm still disappointed that Tales of Vesperia sold so poorly.

[EddieA]

The game isn't coming until 2012

[jersoc]

totally got this for 40 before amazon changed it.

[EddieA]

Gametrailers has the first English video of the game, along with a detailed explanation of the battle system and other parts of the game.

[EddieA]

The release date has finally been announced - March 13.  Tales games have a habit of coming out at bad times, but this seems pretty safe.  It's a week after Mass Effect 3, but I think the audiences for the two games are different enough that Graces' sales won't be too affected.

[Dante Rising]

The release date has finally been announced - March 13.  Tales games have a habit of coming out at bad times, but this seems pretty safe.  It's a week after Mass Effect 3, but I think the audiences for the two games are different enough that Graces' sales won't be too affected.

I'm definitely in. Any news on a 360 release, or is this PS3 only?

[EddieA]

The release date has finally been announced - March 13.  Tales games have a habit of coming out at bad times, but this seems pretty safe.  It's a week after Mass Effect 3, but I think the audiences for the two games are different enough that Graces' sales won't be too affected.

I'm definitely in. Any news on a 360 release, or is this PS3 only?

PS3 only.  There was a Wii version, but it was only released in Japan.

[EddieA]

Here's a new video showing off some battles and co-op gameplay.  After all the waiting, it's hard to believe the game is only a few days away  

[EddieA]

Here's a very nice launch trailer.

[Purge]

Looks like Eternal Sonata.

[jersoc]

Picked this up, well actually UPS delivered it.

I played up until you become an adult. So far I'm enjoying it. The combat is pretty great. the moves seem simple enough to pull off just by using the left stick and depending what you do with it. So like left to right will do something different than up and down or at a down left angle. You can easily see the moves in the artes menu. The challenge comes by chaining the artes to keep the combo, just like other tales. You have a certain ammount CC(not sure what it stands for) but it's basically kind of like mana. As you do more powerful artes they cost more CC. You can get more CC from weapons and I think as you level up titles. Blocking or standing still will regen your CC along with defeating an enemy. You learn different moves and passive skills by leveling your titles. You can switch between titles anytime you want.

Sometimes you'll get a tech challenge thing, such as kill all the enemies within X seconds. Doing this will net you some extra SP. These will keep chaining so long as you keep completing them. And of course the rewards get better and better.

The skits have been hilarious so far. I've always enjoyed the writing in tales games even if the stories are a bit cliche. The voice acting has been pretty good except for the leads dad is very monotone and shows no emotion when his character should be yelling. Since I'm only about 3-3.5 hours in I'm not sure how well the story will be as it sort of just kicked off. But from what I read the story is fairly cliche.

You have the ability to combine items too. So far I haven't gotten much past healing items

[Dante Rising]

In Japan this was one of the highest rated Tales games ever. Hope it lives up to the hype.

[Devil]

IN!

[EddieA]

jersoc's comments sum up my experience pretty well.  Other than the battle system, there's nothing really new here, but it's all really well done.  The graphics look great, the music is catchy, the characters are cliched but amusing, and the writing is sharp.

[Bullwinkle]

I'm trying to decide between this and Tales of Vesperia.

I may not bother with either, and Vesperia is certianly cheaper.

Can anyone who has tried both compare and contrast?



EDIT: Well, I just found Vesperia for $15 (and free shipping) on NewEgg, but I'm still curious about the comparison.

[jersoc]

Vesperia was a lot of fun too. It'll take you about 50'ish hours depending how many side quests and stuff you do.
So i'm sure you can pick up graces on the cheap after that. however, this is namco and a tales game, expect a low print. so if you're interest and want to play graces don't wait too long.

[Devil]

Is there a guide for this game?

[EddieA]

Is there a guide for this game?

Unfortunately, there's no guide.

[Devil]

How can that be!?!?

[jersoc]

got pascal the other day. she totally makes this game worth playing. so many awesome skits and battle cries.

[Turtle]

Heya, anyone been playing this? And for those that have it, anyone tried the co-op?

I'm thinking about grabbing it as a co-op game for the house to play. I live with housemates that are all JRPG fans and all the reviews I've read are generally positive despite the game's generic nature.

A big element a few reviews mention is the co-op, which sounds fun.

[The Grue]

I bought it, but have yet to play it because I've been too involved in Xenoblade.

[faide]

I can't comment on the co-op, but if it is like tales of Veseperia you can probably have friends control characters in the fight scenes.  I'm 10 hours in and considering trading it / selling it though.  It's fairly bland and generic so far.  Nothing about it is compelling me to want to come back and play it.

[jersoc]

Heya, anyone been playing this? And for those that have it, anyone tried the co-op?

I'm thinking about grabbing it as a co-op game for the house to play. I live with housemates that are all JRPG fans and all the reviews I've read are generally positive despite the game's generic nature.

A big element a few reviews mention is the co-op, which sounds fun.

i finished it a while back, never did coop though.

[Turtle]

Thanks for the comments. I think I'll skip this one and wait for it to drop in price sometime in the future.

[Gratch]

Spent a couple hours with this today and came away fairly unimpressed.  The cell shading looks ok, but the character movement is stiff and awkward and everything seems pretty bland overall.  The story is one massive JRPG cliche, made worse by the fact that I'm playing as a group of bratty 11 year olds and what is apparently a KOS-MOS clone. Not exactly compelling stuff...hoping it gets better once it hits adulthood.

Combat looks like it could have potential, but I can't really figure it out.  From what I can tell, X starts the attack then you put in the directional inputs as you go.  Is that right?  Or am I supposed to be hitting X again each time I put in a direction with the LS?  I don't have the hang of the system, so it just all feels like button-mashing right now.

Seems like this one could be good, but it certainly doesn't make much of a first impression.

[EddieA]

Combat looks like it could have potential, but I can't really figure it out.  From what I can tell, X starts the attack then you put in the directional inputs as you go.  Is that right?  Or am I supposed to be hitting X again each time I put in a direction with the LS?  I don't have the hang of the system, so it just all feels like button-mashing right now.

Take a look at your arte tree in the menu.  The first column shows you the first attack you'll do, which is the same for any directional input.  The second column shows the second move you'll do, which is modified by which direction you move the stick.  The same is true for the third and fourth columns.  Each attack is useful against different kinds of enemies, which you can check in the arte descriptions and the enemy descriptions.  There are a lot to remember, so I just check the arte tree when I enter an area and pick out a few that will be useful against that area's enemies.  Button-mashing works too, at least until you gain the ability to use B-artes.

As for the story, there are indeed major changes once you finish the childhood portion.  I really enjoyed the childhood portion of the game, but the game really takes off that part ends.

[Gratch]

Combat looks like it could have potential, but I can't really figure it out.  From what I can tell, X starts the attack then you put in the directional inputs as you go.  Is that right?  Or am I supposed to be hitting X again each time I put in a direction with the LS?  I don't have the hang of the system, so it just all feels like button-mashing right now.

Take a look at your arte tree in the menu.  The first column shows you the first attack you'll do, which is the same for any directional input.  The second column shows the second move you'll do, which is modified by which direction you move the stick.  The same is true for the third and fourth columns.  Each attack is useful against different kinds of enemies, which you can check in the arte descriptions and the enemy descriptions.  There are a lot to remember, so I just check the arte tree when I enter an area and pick out a few that will be useful against that area's enemies.  Button-mashing works too, at least until you gain the ability to use B-artes.

I'm confused on where "first attack", "second attack" begin and end.  In other words, when am I supposed to input the directional commands on the LS?  Is there an indication I'm supposed to be seeing in the combat animation?  Does it have to do with the numbers below my character portrait?  All I'm seeing now is that I hit X and my dude starts wildly swinging at the enemy, and I can't really figure out where my input comes into play.

I'm sure I'm missing something blindingly obvious here.   

[EddieA]

The number below the character portrait is your CC.  Each attack takes a certain amount of CC, and when you use them up, you can no longer attack.  You can restore CC in a few ways, but I do it mostly by blocking with square.  Holding down the square button will allow you to block attacks, while pushing square and a direction will allow you to dodge.  Both will quickly restore your CC.  In the arte grid/tree, the arte in the first column uses up 1 point, the ones in the second column use 2, etc.  The attacks chain and use CC cumulatively, i.e. if you do an attack from column 1, then one from column 2, then one from column 3, you'll use up 6 CC.  The directions at the left show you how to do the attack corresponding to each skill.  For instance, if you wanted to perform a chain of the three artes across the top row, you'd leave the stick alone and hit X three times.  If you wanted to do the three artes in the second row, you'd hold the stick down and hit X three times.  I usually just memorize a few attack patterns that are effective against enemies in the area I'm in, as memorizing the whole grid (especially for all the characters) is just too much.

A nice thing about the Tales series is that they scale nicely.  You can get by with button-mashing and some grinding, you can learn just the basics of the combat system, or you can go all out and master it.  The Tales battle systems tend to be rather complicated, but you don't need to learn everything to get through the games.

[Gratch]

So I finally figured out why I've been having so much trouble figuring out the combat system in this game.  Somehow my combat setting had gotten switched to "Auto", which meant that my character was on total auto-pilot, and none of the buttons I was furiously mashing on were having the slightest effect on his actions.  The reason I was feeling like my inputs weren't having any effect...is because they weren't!

Spent the better part of 2 1/2 hours playing this way and damn near gave up today.  Switched back to the "Semi-Auto" setting as a last-ditch this afternoon.  Now I'm having a blast with it! 

[EddieA]

So I finally figured out why I've been having so much trouble figuring out the combat system in this game.  Somehow my combat setting had gotten switched to "Auto", which meant that my character was on total auto-pilot, and none of the buttons I was furiously mashing on were having the slightest effect on his actions.  The reason I was feeling like my inputs weren't having any effect...is because they weren't!

Spent the better part of 2 1/2 hours playing this way and damn near gave up today.  Switched back to the "Semi-Auto" setting as a last-ditch this afternoon.  Now I'm having a blast with it! 

I probably should have thought of that before going through my long-winded explanation   A few hours into the game, you'll be able to buy or find a "manual" manual that allows you to switch to manual mode, which will give you full control over your character.

[The Grue]

After beating FFXIII-2 (loved it), decided to take the shrink wrap off this one and give it a go.  So glad I did, because I am thoroughly enjoying it.  Story has been very interesting so far and I really like the combat system in the game.  Also really love the art style in the game as it feels like I'm playing a cartoon.  That's going to make Ni no Kuni all the sweeter as that cartoon will be a Studio Ghibli cartoon.