Retro Encounter Final Thoughts: Tales of Graces f

Michael Sollosi

Tales titles are typically reliable RPG comfort food. You go on a journey for a few dozen hours, get to know a group of quirky anime teenagers, and save the world while navigating a world full of color and made-up nonsense words that explain the setting’s unification of technology and magic. Tales of Graces f is “another one of those” in some ways, but a standout RPG of its era in others. 

Tales RPGs typically have fast-paced action combat full of tricks and combos and layered skill customization and crafting systems that yield valuable rewards. Tales of Graces f streamlines these series staples while offering remarkable breadth and depth. Crafting, cooking, and shop management are all managed by the same system now, but it’s also how you get most of the best items and equipment. Combat is governed mostly by just two buttons, but the rapidly-replenishing battle resources make these some of the most fast-paced fights in the series. Governing skills and stat bonuses with arbitrary “titles” seems easy enough, until players notice the vast board of unlocks for each character. 

From a story perspective, I think Tales of Graces f is average for its series, and there are a few other annoyances holding the game back from elite status, like cumbersome travel and relatively few environments to explore. But, overall, this is a solid RPG that’s more rewarding the more time you invest into its systemic minutiae, from gunblade combos to crafted colognes.

Paul Skevington

I think that one of the reasons Retro Encounter exists is to encourage us to reexamine older titles, often discovering new facets to games we might not have thought about in some time. On this occasion, I played Tales of Graces f only a few weeks ago, but even so, listening to the opinions of my fellow panellists enriched my memories of the experience.

My perspective is one of someone who has played only one Tales game which I eventually bounced off. It is a viewpoint that I believe helped me to assess this game for much of its target audience: those who never played it. For me, Graces used its disco-booted foot to kick open a doorway into a lineage of titles that I’m now eager to experience, likely starting with Tales of Arise and working my way backwards. Hearing the other contributors analyse Graces and placing it into position in their own personal canons gave me a greater sense of the historicity of Graces, which is important when looking at an entry in a series with so much time and mythos behind it. It also led me to the conclusion that I need to revisit the multiplayer aspect of these titles to get the complete experience.

Graces is one of those games which is indisputably worth talking about, and I’m delighted we did.

Wes Iliff

I adore the Tales series. Not only does it feature wonderful casts and entertaining combat, but for me it’s always been about the multiplayer. Joining up with a friend or three and adventuring through these worlds, coordinating combat, and picking our favorite characters is a blast and can connect you further to these games. So playing Tales of Graces F, one of my lesser faves, entirely on my own for the first time was something of a trial by fire for the game.

While the game didn’t win me over in any major way, playing through with others and talking through it made some differences in how I felt about elements of the game, especially the cast. Some characters, like Cheria and Malik, rose in my estimation as I understood their perspectives better and truly came to appreciate them. Others, like Asbel and his father, fell further down my list as the elements that threw me off the first time around were given more focus and voice. Tales of Graces F excels during combat, offering a unique system within the series. It’s just a shame it’s wrapped up in one of my least favorite casts and stories in the series.

Zach Wilkerson

Tales of Graces f has been a fascinating experience for me. On one hand, the story is remarkably bad. We’re talking every collection of JRPG tropes this side of Final Fantasy IV, but done poorly. There are good moments, but the pacing and focus makes everything just slightly worse than it should be.

On the other hand Tales of Graces f is an excellent experience. The cast? Delightful from top to bottom by the end outside of Asbel. Wholesome and goofy and everything in between. I just enjoy spending time with them.

But really it all boils down to the combat, which is just a delight for me, especially because I got to play through it with my partner. Playing on a higher difficulty made it a blast to figure out how to dive into every encounter, balance our moves, and ultimately work together to take down the enemy. Truly, it’s my new favorite co-op experience. The depth of the combat experience, and the different ways we had to approach it to take down our foes, was an absolute joy. For that reason alone Tales of Graces f is worth your time, especially if you can do it with a friend.