Tales of Graces



Tales of Graces is the twelfth mothership game in the Tales (series), and was released in Japan for the Wii on December 10, 2009.

Asbel Lhant, the eldest son of the Lhant feudal family, used to be a normal, cheerful kid who spent his days playing around and going on reckless adventures with his friends. That was until the day, an event that robbed him of his innocence and awoke within him a strong desire to gain enough power to protect everyone around him, including everyone who would be under his rule.

With this goal in mind he moves away from home, joining the military and working his way up through the ranks to become a dedicated and respected young knight. However, on the brink of his graduation he receives some devastating news: his father has died. Giving up his dream and quitting the military, Asbel returns home to take his father's place and finds not only a heavier burden of responsibility than he ever imagined, but that the friendships he once held so dear have shattered in his absence.

Though the game was scored highly by critical publications, Graces was criticized by some for having a number of bugs, some of which made it impossible to continue playing the game. As the Wii does not allow easy patching, Namco Bandai announced a recall and free disc swap (via mail) to anyone who had already bought the game.

An Updated Rerelease for the PlayStation 3 called Tales of Graces f was released in December 2010. The game includes the usual array of upgrades like new skits, scenes, abilities and Mystic Artes. By far the biggest addition is an epilogue story called "Lineage and Legacies", which features a script three-quarters the length of the original story's and adds as a fully-playable character. The party also gains an Overlimit-like ability called "Accelerate Mode", which grants unique powers to each character and gives them access to a powerful Finishing Move.

Tales of Graces F was released in North America in March 2012, with an European release confirmed for later in 2012.

This game provided examples of:

 * Abandoned Laboratory: Humanoid Research Laboratory. Also Eleth Research Laboratory in the Future arc.
 * Action Girl: Sophie is a Lightning Bruiser who uses no weapons whatsoever aside from her gauntlets which can shoot Frickin' Laser Beams, Pascal has several strike artes and magic artes, and Cheria is the game's resident Combat Medic.
 * All Your Powers Combined:.
 * Armor-Piercing Question: Just before the final battle, the Big Bad tells the party he's gonna kill all humans because Humans Are Bastards. Asbel responds with "And Then What??"
 * Artificial Brilliance: People have reported this where certain bosses go right for Cheria or Sophie during fights.
 * Hilariously doubles as Artificial Stupidity in the case of Sophie, since she's the kind of healer that is stronger than most of the characters.
 * Not really, she falls just as easily as anyone else when chased by a boss or multiple enemies, especially on harder difficulties. Regardless, it still prevents her from casting healing spell, which the real annoyance.
 * Artificial Stupidity: Cheria normally keeps her distance with healing artes. Sophie meanwhile will try to heal someone when she's within melee range of most enemies.
 * As You Know: Invokes the trope name in the Eleth Mixer tutorial.
 * Awesome Moment of Crowning:
 * Badass Adorable: Asbel in the prologue. He's definitely way more Badass than any kid that age should be, to the point where
 * Sophie. She's small, cute, and the strongest member of your group until
 * Baleful Polymorph: In F, there is an NPC who gives Titles away that allow any playable character to transform into any of the other 6, allowing for teams of Four Sophies, Cheria's, etc. Provided you have created the Special Dolls for each character (6 of each doll so every character can get the titles.)
 * This is the main way of playing as  outside of Lineage and Legacies. Apparently the Developers thought of that too and give you one of his doll for free in the Final Dungeon.
 * Bishonen: Richard, Asbel, and Hubert.
 * Bloodless Carnage: Richard's Berserk Button gets pushed early in the game by a Mook, and he proceeds to throw him on the table and slash him about nineteen or so times. He then calmly walks away leaving the dead mook on the table...with no sign of injury.
 * Not to mention that after, Pascal comments about how much (non-existent) blood there was from the wound.
 * Body Surf: 's modus operandi (that is, if didn't keep showing up to kill him).
 * Boom Stick: Pascal's Weapon of Choice.
 * Bonus Boss: Where to even start?! There's all the bosses of the Zhonecage, including the traditional Tales (series) cameo battles, and the three legendary dragons you have to beat to unlock Floor 10. Then there's the final boss of the Zhonecage, . Beat him, and the Final Boss of the normal story gets a new name and a huge stat-boost. Rockgagan takes up half the screen, comes with a twenty-minute time limit, disables Blast Calibers and is generally so tough that most players use a cheap One-Hit Kill method. Tales of Graces f not only adds more bonus bosses (such as ) but buffs the existing bonus bosses by doing things like, oh, giving a second Blast Caliber that he can use to counter any item usage if he's under 5% health.
 * Brick Joke: If Malik uses his Eternal Serenade Mystic Arte to finish off the Final Boss, he will say that it will be the final time he uses that technique. If you use it again in the PlayStation 3-exclusive epilogue, Sophie will call him out on it.
 * The Cameo:
 * Three costumes based on Tales of Vesperia characters' outfits - Asbel gets Yuri, Sophie gets Patty, and Cheria gets Rita.
 * Asbel also gets a Haseo costume.
 * You can see the drums from Taiko Drum Master in the.
 * Cool Old Guy: Malik
 * Commissar Cap: Cheria's BoA costume.
 * The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: In the Magic Carta minigame, the computer's cursor moves with near-instant speed and perfect accuracy whereas you are limited by a much slower cursor. On the "Hard" difficulty, the computer's reflexes are raised to inhuman levels and success becomes a Luck-Based Mission.
 * Contractual Boss Immunity: Averted with the final boss in F, where you can petrify them. Of course it doesn't last forever - the boss is still damn hard.
 * Though it is a very small chance, Rockgagong can be instantly killed by an arte with the "Chance of One-Hit Kill" property.
 * Cosplay: Cheria can get a costume based on one of South Korean pop artist BoA's stage outfits.
 * What about Sophie's Hatsune Miku costume?
 * Or the Idolmaster DLC pack, featuring stage outfits for the girls?
 * Creepy Child: Especially when you see what he's turned into. Also,
 * Curtains Match the Window: Hubert, Sophie, and Richard during his childhood.
 * Cute Mute: Psi.
 * Dead All Along:
 * Dead Little Sister: for the seven year time skip.
 * Death Is a Sad Thing: The sidequest.
 * Mentioned when
 * The Dev Team Thinks of Everything: By using New Game+ and the Baleful Polymorph titles, you can use artes and characters that you shouldn't have at certain points of the game. Two characters are given new quotes for their Mystic Artes if used before the epilogue chapter "Lineage and Legacies", as certain events have not yet transpired:, and.
 * If Malik uses his Lv.3 Mystic Arte to finish off the Final Boss of the Main Story, he claims that it will be the final time he uses that technique. Of course, he can continue to use it in the epilogue chapter introduced in the Updated Rerelease, at which point Sophie calls him out on it (and he responds with stone-faced Blatant Lies).
 * You can unlock a bonus skit called "Enough With The Water!" if you spend too long jumping in and out of the water canals in the Seaside Cavern, in which Cheria complains about your nonsensical actions and lack of progress.
 * Dirty Coward: Raymond Oswell. What does he do when he's caught by his superior?
 * Damsel in Distress: Happens to Cheria, once. Briefly.
 * Downloadable Content: As with Tales of Vesperia's PlayStation 3 port, new costumes are available for download.
 * Dynamic Loading: The game loads the battles before you actually get into them, so the transition between the overworld/dungeon and a battle is usually less than half a second. This is most noticeable when enemies respawn when using a Dark Bottle. Though the enemies respawn on the map almost instantly, you can't actually fight them until they're completely filled in.
 * Easy Mode Mockery: Playing through the game on Easy lets you progress through the story as normal, but you won't earn any bonus experience for your levels or your titles. There's also no trophy for completing the game on Easy.
 * Elegant Gothic Lolita: One of Sophie's costumes, which makes her look a lot like Amy.
 * Evil Is Not a Toy: absorbs Lambda on purpose in order to try and control its power. This results in Lambda rejecting  body by making it explode from the inside out. A very good stress reliever after the lovely   puts up before this.
 * The Evil Prince:
 * Expy: There's a reason why Asbel is getting the Fan Nickname Spinsbel. Takahiro Sakurai being his voice actor doesn't help his case.
 * And his little brother is voiced by Takahiro Mizushima and has a brocon. Wow, Namco, subtle.
 * The parallels don't stop there. Richard is very flamboyant, has Mismatched Eyes, is a prince and has a questionable relationship with Suzaku's AU-twin. Sophie has also been described as a "purple-haired C.C.".
 * It seems Namco sees the resemblance, and gave us all costumes for it. Asbel as Suzaku, Richard as Zero, Cheria as Kallen, and Sophie as C.C.
 * Am I the only one who thinks that Cornell visually resembles Hohenheim from Fullmetal Alchemist?
 * Or that Richard's form looks an awful lot like Ulquiorra's second Resureccion form? And he's even voiced by Daisuke Namikawa...
 * Xtreme Kool Letterz: The Turtlez talk like this.
 * Eyes Always Shut: Bryce.
 * Fake Difficulty: The fight with Rockgagong. Not only is he one of the toughest Bonus Bosses since the Spiral Draco, but the fight disables Mystic Artes and comes with a twenty-minute time limit.
 * Five-Man Band:
 * During the prologue:
 * The Hero: Asbel
 * The Lancer: Cheria
 * The Big Guy: Sophie
 * The Smart Guy: Hubert
 * The Chick: Richard
 * Later, the roles are swapped around:
 * The Hero: Asbel
 * The Lancer: Malik
 * The Big Guy: Sophie
 * The Smart Guy: Pascal
 * The Chick: Cheria
 * Sixth Ranger: Hubert (Although this is replaced with in f)
 * Foreshadowing: You can notice quite a bit...
 * When you first see Richard in the adult arc,  You can also spot instances where  . Especially during his famous slashing rampage.
 * During one of the last skits of the Childhood arc, Hubert mentions that he won't always be around to correct Asbel..
 * If you go to the second floor of the inn in Gralesyde, you'll find a map. Look at it with Malik, and he'll note that none of Fendel's towns are on it.
 * Funny Background Event: The party just finished searching around Bathus Citadel, only to realize they can't find the material they need. They have a serious discussion about what to do next and--hey, whats Pascal doing running around in the background?
 * Gag Boobs: Pascal accuses Cheria of stuffing her bra. Cheria denies this.
 * Adding that to the fact that Cheria uses knives to fight, and that she briefly mentions "perfection and elegance" in her victory poses...doesn't this accusation reminds you of someone?
 * Game Breaking Bug: The original Wii game basically implodes on itself on repeat playthroughs. As a result, it was recalled.
 * To put this in perspective: 'Tales of' games tend to have a few minor glitches here and there that can be avoided if you're aware of them, or actually required you to have a guide to replicate them; but never any really serious, unavoidable bugs to the point of causing the music in the game to loop a few seconds at high speed for the rest of the fight. It's so far the only game in the series to have had a recall (and hopefully the last).
 * Gang Up on the Human: For some reason, the enemies seem to enjoy going after whoever the player is controlling more so than anyone else.
 * Ghost City:
 * Giant Purple Bat with Electric-Pink Pompadour From Nowhere
 * Glass Cannon: Hubert. Pascal also might counts with her low HP, but her defense is much higher.
 * Cheria also qualifies; though her attack is low, she has the highest critical rate and stuns the best with her A-Artes.
 * Guide Dang It: Try finding some of those titles/sidequests without a guide.
 * To get Sophie's Lv.3 Mystic Arte, you have to give a bunch of plushies to an Ill Girl in Fendel. However, you have to Dualise three of them using "Cashable" ingredients, items that the game explicitly tells you that you can sell for a nice sum.
 * Good luck finding all of the skits; many of them are in places one would never think to go back to, or in random locations you would otherwise never visit again once you get halfway through the final dungeon.
 * Heir Club for Men: The Lhant lordship (unfortunately for Kerri).
 * Heroes Prefer Swords: Everyone you know is using guns, gun-sticks, swordgunsticks, gloves, gloveguns, magic, magic swords, magic atlatl-swords... but you just have to be the purist, don't you, Asbel?
 * Heroic Sacrifice:
 * Hopeless Boss Fight:.
 * Ill Girl: Cheria starts off as this but she gets better. You can also run across one in Fendel and you are rewarded by giving her plushies to keep her company,
 * Improbable Weapon User: Half of the characters (Asbel, Sophie, Richard, and Cheria) all have pretty normal weapons. Then there are Malik and Pascal, who use a Boomerang Sword and some sort of hybrid between a rifle and a pole weapon, respectively. Not too improbable... Then there's Hubert, who uses a Darth Maul-style bladed weapon which can separate into a pair of handguns. But Wait! There's More!. For one of his Blast Calibers, the weapon's bladed form can apparently bend slightly in the middle, and he can then use it as a sort of energy-bow and go Quincy-style with a barrage of Frickin' Laser Beams.
 * Innocent Flower Girl: Sophie in that she's named after a flower and is associated with them, although personality-wise she averts pretty much everything else associated with this trope.
 * I Want Grandkids: Kerri to Asbel in "Lineage and Legacies". Justified, in order to continue the Lhant family line.
 * I Will Definitely Protect You: This game's main theme, to be more precisely Sophie's vow to protect Asbel and her other friends.
 * James Bondage: Frederick. Seems to run in the family.
 * Could've used a roadroller.
 * Kleptomaniac Hero: A particularly bad case. At one point, you pass through a very poor town in Fendel. The houses are in terrible shape and you see two children (one of which is sick) picking up Cryas shards outside in the cold. The party feels bad for them and Sophie gives them some Cryas shards. Then you can rifle through their cupboards and steal their food.
 * Laughing Mad: Bryce. Apparently seven years ago had done so much for him.
 * Lightning Bruiser: Sophie.
 * Limit Break: Apparently, "Blast Caliber" is what we're calling them this week.
 * Disillusion: Blast Caliber was used in some versions of Tales of Destiny.
 * Lonely Rich Kid: Richard. Asbel was his first friend.
 * Magic Knight: Richard
 * Male Gaze: During one subevent in the F Arc, Malik and Victoria end up in their swimsuits. Victoria's suit is a very skimpy bikini, and the camera spends quite a bit of time focused on it.
 * Mauve Shirt: Raymond Oswell
 * Maybe Ever After:
 * A Minor Kidroduction: The first couple hours focuses on the cast as kids, before the Time Skip to the main part of the story.
 * Mismatched Eyes: Richard,.
 * Mood Whiplash: The end of the prologue.
 * JUST the end of the prologue? The WHOLE GAME is littered with moments of severe solemnity only to be followed by some silliness or a hilarious skit. One notable example is towards the end of the game where you're trying to retrieve something to save a failing humanoid whose only wish is to continue living. Yea.
 * More Dakka (Lambda's Shooting Stars spam See here or here No?)
 * : and 's relationship.
 * Multicolored Hair: Pascal.
 * Mysterious Waif: Sophie.
 * Mythology Gag: In Strahta, you can talk to someone who talks about monsters, and one of them mentioned is a Quickie. Pascal even says that one of those things would come in handy while using her artes.
 * One of Hubert's first weapons has this description: "Short wooden swords used for practice. Two times the sword equals two times the power, right?"
 * All of the new weapons in the Lineage and Legacies chapter are references to other Tales (series) games.
 * An early skit in Lineage and Legacies has Asbel looking over prospective candidates for marriage. The two profiles he reads are "Anise Tatlin" and "Nanaly Fletcher".
 * Named After Somebody Famous: The Amarcians are all named after famous scientists and mathematicians (Pascal, Poisson, Fourier, Fermat, Gauss...).
 * Nice Hat: Richard wears one during his childhood.
 * Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: If you kill the Bonus Boss, the final boss will become stronger.
 * Nintendo Hard: On any difficulty above simple, this game quickly becomes this. You have to more or less adapt to the new LMBS or die in most Tales (series) games...and this is NO exception.
 * Noodle People
 * Now Where Was I Going Again?: Averted. Holding down a button when not in battle will tell you your next objective.
 * Obvious Beta: The Wii version came with numerous Game Breaking Bugs.
 * Obstructive Bureaucrat: When you meet her, Poisson is the nicest, cutest, bubbliest Obstructive Bureaucrat you'll ever meet.
 * Older Than They Look: Malik Malik Malik Malik Malik Malik Malik MALIK. He's 40, believe it or not.
 * Pascal is 22, by the way.
 * Omnicidal Maniac: Absolutely Annihilated Trope. effectively spouts the same cliched garbage about how the world is full of pain and suffering and that the only way it can be fixed is by killing everything that lives on it.  of all people is the one who points out how pathetic this plan is by highlighting how it solves nothing, doesn't do anything to fix the issues that people have and ultimately doesn't even benefit the one enacting it in the long-run..
 * One-Winged Angel:
 * Our Dragons Are Different: There are the three elemental dragons you can fight located in each of the capital cities' Cryas, then there is Solomon, located in the Bonus Dungeon and is the strongest Bonus Boss in the game.
 * Parental Abandonment: Asbel's father dies after the prologue, Cheria was raised by her grandfather, Richard's, Sophie.
 * Power Gives You Wings: One of Sophie's attacks. She spontaneously grows glowing wings of doom that damage the enemy.
 * Power Perversion Potential: has already inspired much fan art and doujinshi. The Ho Yay does not help one bit.
 * Precision-Guided Boomerang: Malik with his boomerang sword.
 * Precursors: The Amarcians.
 * Prolonged Prologue: Nothing that could reasonably be called the main plot starts until roughly the end of chapter 2 and start of chapter 3 -- Chapter 1 is more obviously a prologue, being a fairly lengthy sequence featuring several of the main characters as children, but even the bulk of chapter 2 is devoted to setting the scene again after the Time Skip. Most of what you earn in the prologue doesn't carry over to the main story, either. Thankfully, repeat playthroughs give you the option of skipping the prologue entirely for a measly 10 GRADE.
 * Rapunzel Hair: Sophie
 * Red Eye Take Warning
 * Reasonable Authority Figure: President Paradine is one of the most reasonable in recent memory.
 * It's implied the chancellor of Fendel becomes one; however President Paradine plays more of a role.
 * Red Mage: Cheria. Her spell repertoire covers healing, team buffing and offense. Her melee abilities are tricky to master, but offer a very good balance of range and mobility because she can move directly after attacking (as opposed to other ranged characters who have a significant delay).
 * Pascal and Hubert. Pascal is able to deal damage with her weapons, buff allies, deal damage with melee-range spells, and even gets a healing spell. Hubert meanwhile deals damage with his weapons, learns some magic (including a healing spell) and deals ranged damage with his guns.
 * Red Oni, Blue Oni: Asbel and Hubert, although the lines can get really blurry at times.
 * Rightful King Returns
 * Right in Front of Me: Asbel breaks into Richard's room before he finds out that Richard is a prince.
 * Rule of Cool: Malik's boomerangs.
 * Running Gag: As usual, there's a number of running gags through the victory scenes. The most notable is Asbel attempting to lead a cheer of "Together, we will never lose!", only to have it ruined every single time.
 * Say My Name: "ASBEEEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
 * "SOPHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
 * And at the end of the game,
 * Scarf of Asskicking: Pascal
 * Sealed Evil in a Can:
 * Shipper on Deck: A lot of characters of Asbel/Cheria. Which makes is all the more annoying when you consider...
 * Shout-Out: An entire page of these both to earlier Tales games and other Namco Bandai works could be dedicated to these, but for now:
 * Asbel references Lupin the Third in one of his victory quotes. ("Once again, I have cut a worthless object.")
 * In the arena's upper lobby (where you sign up and run into a Turtlez merchant), you learn that something is a secret to everyone.
 * The Curseproof Title's Flavor Text reads "Because everyday is a terrible day to have a curse".
 * One of Hubert's dualize-only weapons is called Voltekka, which is said to grow stronger the louder you scream.
 * During the hide and seek sidequest at Wallbridge, there are kids dressed as Anise, Presea, Katz, and possibly Patty.
 * It's mentioned in a skit that Hubert got the inspiration for his dualblade weapon style from a comic book series he loved as a kid called Troll Caliber. "Strahtan military secrets" indeed.
 * You can dualize plushies of both Estelle and The Prince.
 * Also from Vesperia, there's a Ba'ul plushie too.
 * One of Pascal's Trinity Bit incantations is "Red, blue, green, unlock!"
 * Smug Snake: Raymond Oswell
 * Squee: Cheria during the play.
 * Squishy Wizard: Cheria is your classic example. Malik is interesting in that he has the worst physical defense, but incredibly high HP. Pascal is mostly an aversion, boasting a superb defensive score that complements her melee spellcasting, but having fairly low HP.
 * Stance System: Every playable character switches between two different sets of artes: "A"-type and "B"-type. For example, Hubert uses melee attacks for his A-artes and ranged attacks for his B-artes.
 * Asbel has a more traditional stance system, switching between having his sword sheathed (A-artes) and drawn (B-artes). The act of drawing his sword temporarily increases his defenses, while sheathing it restores some HP.
 * Standard Female Grab Area: Raymond grabs Cheria by one arm and she suddenly forgets that she can fight. Of course, you have to rescue her.
 * Stoic Spectacles: Hubert. He just loves pushin' 'em up to his face.
 * Summon Magic: Pascal's Blast Calibers.
 * Super Team: The Terma Ten are trying really hard to personificate this trope, but then you find out WHO makes up the team.
 * : and  at the end of the game.  thinks that he and  are this, but theirs is a case of.
 * Team Mom: Cheria. Asbel even lampshades it at some point.
 * This Is a Drill: Pascal has one.
 * Those Two Guys: In Lineage and Legacies, Malik and have taken on a highly conspiratorial bent with each other (at least in the skits).
 * Timed Mission: The Rockgagong battle is this. You have 20 minutes to beat him or else you instantly die.
 * Time Skip: There's a Time Skip of seven years after the prologue.
 * Trailers Always Spoil: The TGS Trailer has spoiled that
 * Irritatingly, a spoiler can be found on the first page of the game's instruction manual. It features artwork with
 * Said spoiler is now found on the cover in the PlayStation 3 version, as well as the cover to the PlayStation 3 version's instruction booklet.
 * Not as relevant, but if you got the Pre-Order bonus pack for Tales of Graces f, it came with a Theme for the PlayStation 3's XMB, featuring character portraits. Interestingly has the same spoiler - Probably more of an Interface Spoiler.
 * True Final Boss:
 * Also, as mentioned above,
 * Tsundere: Hubert could be considered a male version, making for quite an interesting subversion of the trope.
 * Cheria is a type B Tsundere.
 * Updated Rerelease.
 * Uptight Loves Wild: Hubert and Pascal fit into this dynamic.
 * In terms of friendship (or more), Pascal and Cheria or Poisson fit this.
 * Violation of Common Sense:  To be fair, this is an Easter-egg.
 * Pascal sounds like this on paper. All of her spells are centered on herself, which means her spells (with casting times!) are all melee attacks, while her standard attacks are ranged.
 * Who Wants to Live Forever?: The major theme of Lineage and Legacies in f.
 * The Wise Prince: Asbel in a nutshell.
 * Wolverine Claws: Bryce's Weapon of Choice. Sophie can equip them as well.
 * You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Hubert
 * Zettai Ryouiki: Cheria has a B Rank.
 * The Wise Prince: Asbel in a nutshell.
 * Wolverine Claws: Bryce's Weapon of Choice. Sophie can equip them as well.
 * You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Hubert
 * Zettai Ryouiki: Cheria has a B Rank.