Tales of Graces/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • And the Fandom Rejoiced: The US release.
  • Non Sequitur Scene: Frederic's Mystic Arte "Butler Bomber" makes no sense. Why? Because the dead Aston Lhant appears out of nowhere and joins in to kick your butt.
  • Character Tiers: While there's thankfully no hideous imbalance, a lot of players prefer a party of Asbel, Sophie, Hubert, and Cheria for the fact that that particular team is very diverse. (Plus, Sophie and Cheria are the healers) It's not that the other characters you don't really see much of (Pascal, Malik, and Richard especially in f where he becomes the seventh party member.) are bad, just that the higher difficulties are Nintendo Hard and once you find something that works, you WANT to stick with it.
    • This exists for solo videos; though. Cheria, Sophie, and Hubert outclass everyone though, simply because they are the most flexible characters.
  • Complete Monster: Cedric, from what little we see of him anyway. He tried to have his eleven year old nephew killed and eventually killed his own brother and started a civil war to gain the throne.
  • Crowning Moment of Funny: The event in which the characters do a play. Hubert as the evil queen included!
    • When Pascal first meets Sophie, Sophie throws her into the screen.
  • Crowning Music of Awesome: It's a Sakuraba soundtrack, after all. Although there are a few expies from other works. What Appeared In Eternity's End sounds like a celtic remix of The Trial, and Life's Cry sounds very similar to Unrestrained struggle.
  • Die for Our Ship: Cheria, for Asbel/Sophie and/or Asbel/Richard.
  • Excuse Plot: The Bonus Dungeon. It doesn't even try to take itself seriously.
  • Fan-Preferred Couple: Asbel/Sophie or Asbel/Richard.
  • Fan Yay: Malik got pretty popular on Bara Genre Image Boards in celebration for the games international release.
  • Foe Yay: Sophie and Lambda. She is completely obsessed with him and screams his name a lot. Of course, she is sort of programmed this way, since her sole purpose of creation is to defeat Lambda.
  • Fridge Brilliance: A minor one with two post-battle skits. One has Asbel, Cheria, and Pascal complaining about Strahta's heat, and another has Asbel, Cheria, and Hubert complaining about Fendel's cold. Why not involve the same characters? Because Hubert was raised in Strahta and is used to the heat, while Pascal lives in Fendel and is used to the cold (Asbel and Cheria, being from a temperate region, have cause to complain about both extreme climates).
  • Fridge Horror: Sophie has to watch Asbel's lineage for all eternity, meaning she will continuously watch people die as she remains the same. Sure, she came to terms with it, but who's not to say she will hold up for so long?
  • Game Breaker: A particular set-up for Hubert allows him to one-shot the strongest enemy in the game, netting enough experience for as many as thirty level-ups. Note that said enemy respawns.
    • He got nerfed. Big time. You can still pull off the One-Hit Kill combo, but Rockgagan no longer gives you any experience points. (You get a Trophy, but that's it.)
    • In the original version of the game, probably as the result of a technical oversight, Hadoumeppuu, was capable of murdering every motherfucker on the screen while being cheaper and stronger than his final arte and, just like said final arte (Kyokkorenge), it destroyed Nova barriers. One fan-translator [dead link] referred to (jokingly) it as "Cheapass Infinite Fiery Rape Range Attack" for a very good reason. It was toned down in the rerelease.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: Well, remember that translation patch of Tales of Hearts that renamed Kohak into Amber? Well, that's her name in F.
  • Ho Yay: Richard's crush on Asbel, Asbel's admiration for Malik, Pascal's fascination with Sophie. Lambda!Richard is also pretty much Yandere for Asbel.
  • Internet Backdraft / I Knew It!: There was some annoyance when Tales of Graces F was announced, mostly because they essentially purchased a beta version. In all honesty, people didn't know what to think, since normally, it's the "Beta version" that gets released overseas. Many people were simply happy just that they got the game period, And the Fandom Rejoiced when it was announced it was the Play Station 3 version coming out.
  • Memetic Badass: You can't spell "Hubert" without "uber."
  • Memetic Mutation: Pascal's drill-trailer.
    • Somebody has finally taken that to its logical extreme.
    • There's going to be a lot of trouble between her and Raine when they star in the inevitable Crossover game.
    • Malik is also known as a King Troll or Manlik.
    • "Mamorenakatta..."
    • Richard's slashing frenzy has also become rather popular.
    • "TOMODACHIIIIIIIIIIII"[1] (spoilers).
    • Richard himself is a walking meme. He also has by far the most Fan Nicknames; such as Flag Prince, Princess or Tiger Festival; which is actually used in-game.
    • Because of the game's opening song being owned by Avex Entertainment, videos of the opening theme tended to have the audio muted by YouTube. This has led to a fad where the opening is posted, but dubbed over with the openings from other Tales games.
  • Mondegreen: Goes into narm territory, as the coup de gras following a dramatic one liner is ruined by the name "Blue Earth" sounding like "Blue Ass" in Japanese. Fortunately fixed for the English release.
    • INSTANT BALLS!
  • Moral Event Horizon: Emeraude ripped out Lambda's soul for the sake of researching his "true form". You bitch.
    • Cedric as well. He repeatedly tried to murder his twelve-year-old nephew.
  • Most Annoying Sound: The desert thieves will never stop repeating "I'll run you through!".
  • Narm: TOMODACHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII! HUARGH
    • This scene got re-recorded for Tales of Graces f, sadly. The new version makes it clearer that this is the moment where Lambda takes over Richard completely.
  • Never Live It Down: Cheria gets captured once, and even then she actively tries to escape on her own. Yet for a lot of Cheria haters, this is enough to demote her to a Damsel Scrappy or a Faux Action Girl.
  • Power-Up Letdown: The Disc One Final Boss's mystic arte is... him lighting his sword on fire and slashing twice.
  • Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Sophie was the most despised character before the game was released, because a lot of people disliked her design, dislike the loli characters in the Tales (series), or wanted Cheria to be the heroine. After the game was released, she became one of the most popular characters in the game.
  • Silliness Switch: The bonus dungeon doesn't even try to take itself seriously...and in ƒ, they turn it on with the skits.
  • Spotlight-Stealing Squad: While still not in Kyle and Reala's level, it's very clear that the more further you play the game the lesser you'll see any other character besides Asbel, Sophie and Richard to be on the main spotlight.
    • This actually leaks into the character interactions. In one skit, Pascal is shown to be jealous of the fact that despite all her best efforts, she can't crack into the clique of Asbel, Sophie and Richard.
    • Although you can spot arcs where someone else jumps into the spotlight - everyone jumps in and out of focus. Early in the game, it's focused on Asbel, Sophie, Richard, and Cheria. Then Asbel and Hubert. Then Pascal and Malik get their time in the sun when the party goes to Fendel.
  • Strangled by the Red String: Asbel and Cheria as the Official Couple. Funnily enough, both the pro- and anti- sides of this pairing have reasons to argue this trope:
    • The anti side argue that the pairing comes out of nowhere right at the end, and the game spends a lot more time telling you they can work as a couple than showing it. This side also tends to praise the Future arc for giving the pairing more focus and development.
    • The pro side argue that the pairing was developed just fine in the original story if you read between the lines, but accuse the Future Arc of pandering to the Anti Side by beating you over the head with the pairing, as both characters switch dramatically from shy underplay to outright declarations of affection.
  • Spiritual Successor: Artistically and musically, this game has much in common with Tales of the Abyss as opposed to other Tales (series) titles.
  • Subbing Versus Dubbing: A variant. The actual English cast has been fairly well received. It's just that the arte name translations have been met with much criticism for being lacklustre compared to previous titles and for having some pretty poor grammatical structure (spaces are notably absent in a lot of Asbel's moves).
    • One of Malik's artes is Sonic Mount. Can you say, "Awkward"?
    • The game is also bound to suffer a bit of regional wording confusion. Hubert's first Mystic Arte was translated as "Broadside Waltz", which to many Americans would bring to mind the idea of a ship cannon bombardment; which is a pretty Badass comparison. In England, however, "Broadside" is a popular beer.
  • That One Boss: Any boss who summons mooks, but especially Kurt. Damn you Kurt...
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Once Cheria developed superpowers and got more than a little pissed that she had to wait seven years for her Love Interest to return before gradually becoming part of a quest to save the world after he did, she had loads of room to develop as a character.
  • Trapped by Mountain Lions: The kidnapping subplot.
  • Unfortunate Names: Bailey.
  • Vocal Dissonance: Despite this being a game that spares no effort to clobber you over the head with the fact that Asbel is a lord with noble blood who is aristocratic, Asbel's voice actors make no audible effort to sound like it... in either language.
  • What an Idiot!: Releasing this game between New Super Mario Bros. Wii and Final Fantasy XIII may be one of the smartest thing that Bamco ever done.
    • And the American release date is a couple weeks after Mass Effect 3. Face Palm
      • That last one isn't as bad as it sounds, as both games cater to rather different audiences . . . though if you've reserved both you will probably still be killing Reapers when this game drops.
    • Also, just a few weeks later in the U.S., the better received Xenoblade Chronicles was released. It's as if Namco has no idea about the release dates here.
    • Cheria also gets kidnapped and tries to break out the front door of the cabin she's being held in...when there's a window right there next to her that's surely not guarded. Then again though, granted, she'd still get caught cause of the guards right outside the cabin.
  • Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Lambda
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  1. ↑ FRIEEEENNNNNNNNDDD!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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