Tales of Graces ƒ |OT| Gracing the PS3 with the Best RPG Combat

The story should be skipped if you hate it (and you should).

Think like a Fighter in battle (it has parries, moves that move the character, autobeat lows, high hit-stun, etc)

Experiment with all characters, they all kick ass in fights.

Turn off the music in the catacombs.

Learn about the Arles Pot. It's insaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanely wild and fun.

Learn about comboin' to control the fight. A fight where the enemy controls you is a loss, one where you control them is victory.

Anything that refunds CC, adds to your CC gauge, or reduces the CC usage is extremely potent.

Enjoy!
 
imbask said:
picked up this game for cheap today, anything I should know before I get deeper into it (first tales game)?
Click to expand...

Try to play on the highest difficulty you can handle. You'll get more SP (to build up your titles faster) and EXP. It's worth it to unlock Evil and Chaos mode difficulties. Evil is unlocked by fighting 300 fights on Hard and Chaos is unlocked by fighting 200 fights on Evil.
 
Should I use Manual for my main character and auto / semi auto for the rest?

This is my first Tales game and I have no idea what I'm doing :P

Am about 2h in atm
 
Melhisedek said:
Should I use Manual for my main character and auto / semi auto for the rest?

This is my first Tales game and I have no idea what I'm doing :P

Am about 2h in atm
Click to expand...

Use Manual for you and Auto for every other character.

The difference here is that Semi-Auto doesn't let you whiff your attacks, it will make you automatically run to the enemy before attacking. Manual, on the other hand, lets you take full control of the character. Most people, including me, will recommend Manual, but you can use Semi-Auto if you don't feel comfortable with the battle system yet.
 
Never played any of the Tales game before so I downloaded this on PSN a few days ago. First thing I have to say is the story in the beginning is very painful and hard to get through, but it gets better once you're out of the child arc, but the voice acting is horrible.

The combat is very entertaining and is the only thing that keeps me playing. I wish they stopped switching my characters as often as they do, but overall I really enjoy the battle system.

I really dislike the pacing in this game. It's one minor cut scene after the other, and that's including skipping the optional ones. After the first 5 times, I've already stop hitting select when it appears. I walk for 10 seconds fight about 5 enemies, and then another cut scene. I would had prefer more open areas to roam which would at least allow me to play the game. I'm only at
Strath
right now, so hopefully it gets better.

One other thing is that after a few hours I had to up the difficulty, currently on hard but thinking on just setting it to the highest. The earlier enemies are so easy, the fights end rather quickly which doesn't allow you time to get use the mechanics. It also helps you get better at doing combos, and linking CC attacks. The extra experience doesn't hurt either.

I'll probably keep playing until I get bored of the combat. If any of the other Tales game are similar combat wise, but with a better story and world, then I would definitely have to check them out.
 
Of the Tales games I have played, I would say Graces f has the best combat plus gameplay mechanics (title system, and item management). It also has my least favorite story and characters.
 
Any tips on combat? I'm not sure if I'm doing it correctly... I spend my CP than block or sometimes evade and than mash X again. Most surely I'm doing it wrong but no idea :(

I've saved the prince so far and got almost killed by the Bryne I believe its his name
 
Melhisedek said:
Any tips on combat? I'm not sure if I'm doing it correctly... I spend my CP than block or sometimes evade and than mash X again. Most surely I'm doing it wrong but no idea :(

I've saved the prince so far and got almost killed by the Bryne I believe its his name
Click to expand...

You can string as many attacks as you want as long as you have the CP. Check the Artes menu to see the CP cost of each technique.

There are three ways of recharging your CP:
- Standing still, while guarding or not.
- Evading an enemy attack at the last moment.
- Striking every weakness of the enemy in a combo. Hold R1 to see the weaknessess below the enemy's HP, then check your Artes to see their properties and use the ones that match their stats.
 
Melhisedek said:
Any tips on combat? I'm not sure if I'm doing it correctly... I spend my CP than block or sometimes evade and than mash X again. Most surely I'm doing it wrong but no idea :(

I've saved the prince so far and got almost killed by the Bryne I believe its his name
Click to expand...

My tip is get to the main/adult arc. Like seriously the kids suck in combat. I guess Sophie is OK at that point though. You'll start to understand the battle system more once you get past the childhood arc.
 
I just got to adulthood last night. Now with B-artes and skills I begin to see the depth. I was scratching my head while playing as children "Is this the best gameplay people were talking about".

Fights are really fun, I go out of my way to fight anything :P We'll see about the story... So far only thing that is memorable and not in a good way.
When Asbel gets hit by his father
Didn't expect that tbh
 
Melhisedek said:
I just got to adulthood last night. Now with B-artes and skills I begin to see the depth. I was scratching my head while playing as children "Is this the best gameplay people were talking about".
Fights are really fun, I go out of my way to fight anything :P We'll see about the story... So far only thing that is memorable and not in a good way.
When Asbel gets hit by his father
Didn't expect that tbh
Click to expand...

I'M 15 hours in and the battle system hasn't gotten better
 
Graces battle system definitely takes a while to "get", but once it clicks, you might never want to go back to other ones.
For me, it clicked almost completely in chapter 4.
 
2 questions:

1.
Should I "max" all the titles? Like even after lvl 5. It takes a lot of SP to max the Title. What does it do? So far I've been picking and choosing what Titles to level but am thinking on putting it on auto.

2.
When I dualize, sometimes I get items that say "You can sell this for xxx gald" Is it ok to create and sell such items? Or should I save them for some other dualizing ?
 
Melhisedek said:
2 questions:

1.
Should I "max" all the titles? Like even after lvl 5. It takes a lot of SP to max the Title. What does it do? So far I've been picking and choosing what Titles to level but am thinking on putting it on auto.

2.
When I dualize, sometimes I get items that say "You can sell this for xxx gald" Is it ok to create and sell such items? Or should I save them for some other dualizing ?
Click to expand...

1.) I mastered all the titles and then when I had nothing more to master, I maxed them.

An example: Title 1 gives you 4% attack bonus when equipped, when maxed it gives you 8% attack bonus when equipped.

2.) You could use those items to dualize items that give even more money if you want to.
 
There are some titles that are unlocked after you master a bunch of titles. But those aren't worth your time unless you don't have any abilities left to learn.
I'd say leave it on manual and pursue the artes and abilities you like the most.
 
Hey guys I have some plot questions. I'm going to follow up each question with assumptions I made and you guys can correct me if I'm wrong and explain any missing pieces.

1.
How and why does Fodra lose it's ability to sustain life? The Fodra Queen in the Lineage and Legacies storyline blames this on humans. But from the main game, I was under the assumption that it was Lambda that sucks out the eleth from Fodra's core.

2.
If it was Lambda that sucks out the life from Fodra, when exactly does he get a chance to do this? It has always looked like Lambda was always under some sort of custody of the scientists on Fodra before being sent down to Ephinea, either under Cornell or Emeraude. Did Lambda absorb Fodra's eleth during some catastrophic experiment Emeraude ran on him or something? Or did he simply go rogue at one point and ran off to the Lastalia to grab all the eleth?

3.
What exactly is Ephinea in relation to Fodra? It appears to be a moon of Fodra. But did it always have humans while the Amarcians from Fodra simply moved in alongside the natives? Or did all humans on Ephinea originate from the Fodrans?

4.
The purpose of Ephinea's ring, Foselos, is to establish the aqua sphere around the planet. Was built by the Fodrans while they were colonizing the planet or was it built in response to quarantine Lambda?

5.
If indeed Ephinea's humans originate from Fodra, why did society regress technologically so quickly within a thousand years? Emeraude says she had been under her deep sleep for a thousand years while Lambda and Sophie made planetfall within the same timeframe. I'm assuming the catastrophe on Fodra perhaps hit the logistics and leadership of the colonizing Fodrans hard that they went all Fallout and Mad Max on each other but had the benefit of a healthy planet unlike Fodra that they can start all over again.
 
Think I'm almost finished the childrens intro, I'm enjoying the game. Guess I'm that starved of good JRPGs even the story seems okay. Wanting to get this completed before I start on Xillia.
 
so i started this, im at the time skip right now, and i finish tales of xilia like 2 months ago

the controls are weird, i really dont get how to execute these a and b artes
the blocking and parrying is better, but in general, i don't like it coming from xilia
(note that i probably still dont understand how to really control xilia even though i finish it)

the thing that gets me right now is that i cant teleport/skip to other towns, it's really slowing the game for me, and really offputting every time it tells me to go to point a to point b

edit:
and i just died while not saving for a good maybe 1 hour
fuck this game, im done, wont be playing this for a long time
 
well, i started playing it again

noticing that the equipment system seems to be weaker than xillia
when i was playing xillia, i kept upgrading my weapons and armour, but with graces, i'm not seeing that many options, just the shops (no drops), which seems boring to me
i can see that you can combine those attributes drops to your stuff, but that is so counter intuitive to me since you're eventually going to find a normal item that has better stats that you want to upgrade to, now i have a lot of those attribute drops sitting in my inventory

and there is no map for the towns/dungeons, this is the stupidest thing i've seen in the game
that tower part was fucking terrible to play, i had to google it and it seems a lot of people were complaining about it as well
the dialog clearly said 'close the north gate then open the south gate', but what you actually do is just open the south gate, fucking dumb
 
Anony said:
well, i started playing it again

noticing that the equipment system seems to be weaker than xillia
when i was playing xillia, i kept upgrading my weapons and armour, but with graces, i'm not seeing that many options, just the shops (no drops), which seems boring to me
i can see that you can combine those attributes drops to your stuff, but that is so counter intuitive to me since you're eventually going to find a normal item that has better stats that you want to upgrade to, now i have a lot of those attribute drops sitting in my inventory

and there is no map for the towns/dungeons, this is the stupidest thing i've seen in the game
that tower part was fucking terrible to play, i had to google it and it seems a lot of people were complaining about it as well
the dialog clearly said 'close the north gate then open the south gate', but what you actually do is just open the south gate, fucking dumb
Click to expand...

Later in the game you get the ability to warp between areas like in Xillia.

On the upgrade system: You can transmute gems off of the the stats of the weapon/armor you're using, and then fuse them into your new weapons and armor so you're not losing any progress. You can also just straight up equip those gems as a replacement for an accessory.

Not going to help you with that tower and maps in general. I was able to figure out even the tower without a map, but I'm good at mapping things out in my head. It was designed to be a bit of a labyrinth but if people don't like it people don't like it.
 
Anony said:
and there is no map for the towns/dungeons, this is the stupidest thing i've seen in the game
that tower part was fucking terrible to play, i had to google it and it seems a lot of people were complaining about it as well
the dialog clearly said 'close the north gate then open the south gate', but what you actually do is just open the south gate, fucking dumb
Click to expand...
Eh, none of the dungeons are that difficult (I didn't notice the absence of maps until I started playing Xillia lol) but I agree that Wallbridge is a vile place.
 
imo, these dungeons are meant to be for exploring, not puzzle solving
xillia had some nice locations to explore
graces right now is pretty bland
 
Ok I bought this for 15 bucks for PSN.
Before I start, can i have some tips please?
Are there missables?
What titles should I focus on? Should I master them all?
Last question, how many skills can a character equip?
 
Bold.

jagaman said:
Are there missables?
It's Tales of, so the answer is always yes.
What titles should I focus on? Should I master them all?
Focus on what goes with your play style, but it's good to start by unlocking artes.
Last question, how many skills can a character equip?
There's no limit, everything you unlock is always active, except for the bonuses you get by equipping titles.
Click to expand...
 
jagaman said:
Can you tell me the missables without spoiling
Click to expand...
Everything from the child arc.
Many optional scenes and skits, some are tied to titles.
Ann Inn request tied to a trophy. There is a character that will lose his handkerchief, and if you don't get it before entering the final dungeon it's lost forever.

Besides that, there's not much compared to other tales, it's a great improvement. There isn't even a missables guide to go along :P

jagaman said:
Takato?
Click to expand...
!!!
My secret identity!
 
So part of my PS3 backlog is Tales of Graces F. Going to be starting this game fresh in an attempt to get as many trophies as I can. I really enjoyed the past Tales games (besides Legendia) and I was wondering if this game can hold it's own against games like Destiny, Symphonia, Phantasia, Vesperia. I'm going to play Xillia next but since I don't hear great things about Graces I wanted to give it a shot first.
 
daveb234 said:
since I don't hear great things about Graces I wanted to give it a shot first.
Click to expand...

Played until Future Arc. Here's my two cents on it: the combat system is fun, title collection system to unlock new artes/benefits are nice, but the story is kind of cliche and lackluster (in my opinion).

You will find Absel and Sophie repeating the same thing over and over for much of the story.
 
MSMrRound said:
Played until Future Arc. Here's my two cents on it: the combat system is fun, title collection system to unlock new artes/benefits are nice, but the story is kind of cliche and lackluster (in my opinion).

You will find Absel and Sophie repeating the same thing over and over for much of the story.
Click to expand...

I finished the game last week and I agree with this pretty much. Though the story is cliche in Graces I found it more tolerable than Abyss and Vesperia where the story made me drop both games.
 
Whether Graces is your game is dependent on whether you prefer to breeze through fights and enjoy an epic story, or you really like to get in-depth with the mechanics.
 
This board is pretty much dead, but I need a few tips.
First of all, I still have problems with the timing of the combos. How can I improve? All I do is mash X. My main problem is mainly the analog stick. Going from LEFT+X and then change for instance to UP+X is problematic for me, because I don't know when to change the combination. It would have been better to map the artes on the buttons. Is it possible to map the A-artes to another combination?

Another thing is, I'm afraid to sell anything. And since I mess around with dualizing I don't have much money. What should I sell? Would schould I keep?
Also, is there a benefit in dualizing weapons or are the buyable weapon always better?
Last question, how do I keep an effect on a weapon if I want to upgrade it?
 
jagaman said:
This board is pretty much dead, but I need a few tips.
First of all, I still have problems with the timing of the combos. How can I improve? All I do is mash X. My main problem is mainly the analog stick. Going from LEFT+X and then change for instance to UP+X is problematic for me, because I don't know when to change the combination. It would have been better to map the artes on the buttons. Is it possible to map the A-artes to another combination?
Click to expand...
There's the problem. You need to push X only once, then tilt to a direction, press X again, and so on. If you mash it, it will ignore the direction you tilted. Try to push X when your character hits the enemy, or right before the attack animation is done. You can't change the mapping.

jagaman said:
Another thing is, I'm afraid to sell anything. And since I mess around with dualizing I don't have much money. What should I sell? Would schould I keep?
Also, is there a benefit in dualizing weapons or are the buyable weapon always better?
Last question, how do I keep an effect on a weapon if I want to upgrade it?
Click to expand...
Money making in this game comes from weapons and crystals.
Each quality you dualize your weapon to increases its selling value by a certain multiplier. You need to try each quality and make note of the price increases
or look a a faq
to see which are the best to invest. You can even get some titles for selling expensive weapons. When you're in the dualization screen, check if the game says you need an unknown item to dualize it. If it doesn't it's safe to sell.
As for the crystals, you can mix and match the abilities to increase their value.

The dualized weapons were always stronger for me.

By upgrade you mean adding shards or dualizing to a different weapon? You can keep the same abilities by putting the same shard, but dualizing gives you a whole new equipment so everytning will be lost.
 
I'm pretty sure you can mash X as long as the stick is in the position you want for the next arte when the animation for the current arte finishes. I mash X and just hold the stick in position for the next arte until its animation starts.

As for being able to tell where one move ends and the next begins--it's just familiarity with your character's moves. It looks chaotic at first but after playing for a bit, going over the A-arte tree once or twice, and keeping an eye on the text at the top that shows the artes everyone is using, you'll get it pretty quick.
 
soooo,
i got to the end where i thought it was the end, but nope, shit keeps dragging on
perfectly good place to end the story and they just had to continue with this non-sense
it's bad enough we had to go back and forth through multiple towns to get to another cut scene
this is why i hate playing jrpgs, the game HAS TO BE 60 FUCKING HOURS, let's just cram more useless filler shit in here to make it longer

i wish i hadn't played xillia before this, xillia has way better pacing, decent story that didnt drag on, and teleporting between locations
 
Anony said:
soooo,
i got to the end where i thought it was the end, but nope, shit keeps dragging on
perfectly good place to end the story and they just had to continue with this non-sense
it's bad enough we had to go back and forth through multiple towns to get to another cut scene
this is why i hate playing jrpgs, the game HAS TO BE 60 FUCKING HOURS, let's just cram more useless filler shit in here to make it longer

i wish i hadn't played xillia before this, xillia has way better pacing, decent story that didnt drag on, and teleporting between locations
Click to expand...

Where you at? While Graces isn't exactly perfectly paced I thought it was, on average, shorter than other Tales games (Abyss, Vesperia, Legendia, Hearts, even Symphonia probably).
 
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