Tales of Graces started as a Japan exclusive on the Nintendo Wii back in late 2009, then made its international debut on the PlayStation 3 a few years later. Now, just over 15 years after the original release, new and old fans alike can experience it on modern platforms. Tose and Bandai Namco have released a new and improved way to experience this JRPG in Tales of Graces f Remastered.
It’s The Journey…
Tales of Graces f Remastered is a very standard JRPG in terms of setting and plot. You can go into it expecting swords and magic, a little nefarious political maneuvering in the background, a few twists you’ll probably see coming, and an escalating problem that we have to save the world from with the power of friendship. This comes complete with a somewhat hot-blooded protagonist who never gives up on his beliefs, as standard.
That said, Tales of Graces is a great example of how it’s sometimes the moments shared along the journey that make it great, rather than the journey itself. One of the key themes of the story is the bonds between people, particularly friendship, so it feels appropriate that this is where it shines brightest.
The story opens with a prologue focusing on Asbel’s childhood, which is when he and his friends meet a mysterious young girl without any memories. He names her Sophie, and they spend time together, trying to recover her memories. She lacks what most would consider basic knowledge and common sense, which does lead to some amusing moments like kicking down doors to open them, along with more serious discussions on life. Not that Asbel has common sense himself at that point; he once swore revenge on a different door (and got it years later).
Asbel, Sophie, and another friend, Richard, swear a pact, saying their friendship can never be broken. As you may expect, this is where everything starts to go wrong.
The part of the story focusing on their childhood is quite short. It works well to establish some important relationships, fears, and motivations for the characters involved in the events during that time.
Time Skip
After a seven-year time skip, we see Asbel has matured quite a lot. He used to be somewhat of a brat, but now he’s polite and defers to people if needed, even if he’s still somewhat brash and doesn’t think his comments through at times. We soon start to reunite with everyone from childhood, some of whom have matured in rather unexpected ways. Some new friends are also introduced, who easily fit into the new dynamic.
Due to the circumstances of their parting, there’s quite a lot of tension between certain characters, and seeing them work through it slowly and grow was enjoyable. The relationship between Asbel and his brother Hubert was particularly interesting, and Hubert’s reasons for acting the way he does felt believable. Seeing Asbel haunted by his past to an extent and his friend Cheria’s disapproval made for a good conflict too. Richard has changed the most, leading to him working against them. Unveiling why and its effects is perhaps one of the most engaging parts of the story.
I mentioned that Tales of Graces feels fairly typical for a JRPG in terms of the story and Asbel’s idealism is a major example of this. While I enjoyed seeing the groups’ bonds explored, there were points where it was frustrating how Asbel wouldn’t even consider anything but the perfect outcome where the power of friendship wins. It makes sense for his character and other characters did argue the point occasionally, but I couldn’t help but think of how many people likely died due to his naive decisions throughout the game.
The story proceeds much as you’d expect, with problems escalating until there’s a significant threat. I did feel like the story came to an end without tying certain things up nicely. Fortunately this is somewhat solved, as Tales of Graces f Remastered includes the Lineage & Legacies DLC, which acts as an epilogue. It resolves many of the personal issues which were brought up in the main story and I felt it nicely closed the story.
Whilst the story isn’t particularly memorable, one particularly strong aspect of Tales of Graces f Remastered is the presence of a lot of moments between characters. Many of these are in the main story, but there are also over 400 skits in this version of the game. Skits are bonus conversations that can be found and unlocked. The skits help to flesh out the characters quite a bit, whether it’s showing scenes from Malik’s past or just little jokes like teasing Cheria about her crush on Asbel or vice versa. The game adds to this further by having quite a lot of brief dialogues at the end of battles.
What’s A Style Shift Linear Motion Battle System?
The Style Shift Linear Motion Battle System is as complex as it sounds. Battles in Tales of Graces f Remastered can be chaotic and rely on both skill and planning.
The basic idea of how it works is that your controlled character moves in a straight line toward and away from the targeted enemy. You can also dodge left and right to circle the enemy. Until I got used to it, this didn’t feel very flexible. Even after completing the game, there are still elements that I feel are awkward, such as only being able to change the target to whichever enemy is closest (while limited to that straight line and circle connected to the current target) unless I want to open a menu.
Asbel uses two types of attacks, A-Artes and B-Artes. The former with sword drawn and the latter sheathed, so they’re difficult to combo, presumably on purpose leading to the need to back off at times and shift. These have different advantages around knockback and health regeneration, among other things. You can also use the D-pad to change to other characters mid-battle, who all have different types of attack, such as Hubert using short and long-distance attacks. Whoever isn’t being controlled at the time can be issued orders, which in my case was usually asking Sophie or Cheria to heal.
There are a lot of little details. As well as the standards such as enemy attributes, there are bonuses for hitting every weakness an enemy has. Dodging with the correct timing can regenerate CC, the power for your skills. Challenges are sometimes set at the start of battles such as getting a certain type of chain attack, defeating multiple enemies at once, winning within so many seconds, and so on. This combat system is incredibly in-depth, which isn’t something I typically expect from a JRPG. It even adds a new mechanic in the post-game.
While the battle system is a little awkward, I found it incredibly satisfying to use all these little details to my advantage. And I did need to. While your experience may vary depending on difficulty and other settings, certain points did have some notable difficulty spikes. I tested out all difficulty modes, and even on easy mode I still needed to at least make use of dodging and guarding to survive. On hard mode, I needed to use every advantage I could get.
It doesn’t end on the battlefield either. There’s a crafting system and equipment that can be upgraded or created to fit certain situations, and there are plenty of items to make which come in handy during the more difficult battles. Beyond that, there’s an extensive system where you can earn titles through progress or performance which allows you to learn and upgrade skills/attributes, as well as giving an additional bonus for whichever you have equipped at the time. A-Artes skills can be set in the menu too, each with different ranges, attributes, and so on.
Exploring Thoroughly
I’d recommend that you take your time with Tales of Graces f Remastered and explore everything. There are plenty of side quests, extra skits, attractions, and other optional content to discover. In towns, wandering into a random house may lead you to an extra quest. Wandering off the beaten path in dungeons may end up with you finding a shiny new piece of equipment. In one example, I doubled back after finishing an area and came across an incredibly strong optional boss to challenge.
Towns are fairly small areas, but there are quite a few of them. Some do reuse certain design elements, but they look quite distinct in most ways. The areas between them aren’t huge either, and felt about right to me in terms of giving a feeling of traveling a distance through monster-infested lands, without feeling too long.
Dungeons felt about right too, not being too long. Even the late-game ones didn’t feel like they dragged on, which is a common issue with JRPGs. That said, it’s worth noting that while the early and mid-game puzzles are fairly easy, the late-game puzzles do get more complex. It changes from the level of pushing a few tiles into the right order to systems of switches and platforms that affect things on different floors. I don’t want to see another sphere blocking my way for a long time!
Shiny New Graphics
As you’d expect, Tales of Graces f Remastered comes with improved graphics. While it’s certainly clear that this was originally an older game, I do think it looks good in most ways. The models look fairly detailed considering the need to fit in, and the environments are perhaps a little basic but still hold up.
With that said, I did feel that the color balance was off at times. Sometimes the environments looked more dull than I would’ve expected, almost like there was a filter over the screen. There are also 13 short animated scenes throughout the story, some parts of which are undetailed by modern standards and some had that same washed out look.
English and Japanese audio are included and quite a lot of the dialogue is voiced. I played through using the Japanese audio and felt like it was all fitting, though there was nothing that stood out here too much. The music was also nice enough, but not particularly memorable.
It’s Not Just Remastered
While the most obvious change in Tales of Graces f Remastered is the remastered graphics, there are quite a few changes in this version.
Perhaps the most notable is the Grade Shop being available from the first playthrough, with enough points to get everything. This was originally only available in New Game+ and gave you points earned throughout your playthrough. It still does that too, but now you get the option from the start.
This can significantly affect your playthrough, as you can spend these points to activate boosts like major experience, SP, item drop, and damage multipliers. An extra 1000 Max HP can be picked up, along with activating maximum speed in the field. There are quite a few options here. Most of them become available as on/off sliders in the menu if you choose them which is convenient, but some are permanent. As a note, if you’ve played before, you’ll notice a few options missing. They require a playthrough first, like inheriting titles from the previous playthrough, so it makes sense.
The remastered version includes over 80 pieces of DLC from the original, though it doesn’t include ones from other licensed properties. This includes some extra skits, costumes, titles, items, and more.
Quite a few convenience features are now included. A destination icon (which can be turned off if you wish) is the most helpful I found. I feel it strikes a good balance of pointing the way, without being too helpful by showing where you need to go to solve puzzles or anything along those lines. It also points out time-limited events with an icon, which could have been easy to miss before. Aside from that, you can now retry battles, turn encounters off, click through chats, and some accessibility changes were made, among other improvements.
It really does feel like they’ve gone the extra mile with Tales of Graces f Remastered, rather than just improving the graphics and saying that’s enough. Having so much flexibility is wonderful, though I can see some people perhaps causing themselves problems by giving into the temptation of turning on the 2x and 5x experience multipliers and accidentally leveling up too much. Luckily, with the ability to change difficulty and turn sliders on and off on the fly, it shouldn’t become too much of an issue.
Verdict
While Tales of Graces f Remastered won’t win any awards for its typical plot about an ever-growing threat, its tale of friendship and the moments between characters just might. It’s an excellent remaster of a JRPG with surprisingly engaging combat, and well worth playing.
TALES OF GRACES F REMASTERED IS RECOMMENDED
If you are looking for more JRPGs, you might want to check out our review of Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana.
Many thanks go to Bandai Namco for a PS5 review code for Tales of Graces f Remastered.

A gamer since the days of Amstrad and DOS and someone who has dabbled in a variety of professions. He enjoys a wide variety of genres, but has been focusing on visual novels and virtual reality in recent years. Head Editor of NookGaming. Follow him and the website on @NookSite.