Tales of Graces f Remastered review

Video games have been remade and remastered since the very beginning of our beloved hobby. The first video game I ever played as a tiny child was actually a remaster. Super Mario All Stars on the SNES was a bundling of four NES Mario games with shiny new graphics, and was the perfect way for a smaller version of me to get to play those great games on his new console. With more and more remasters these days though, it can be a little baffling when a less exciting entry in a series gets a no nonsense upgrade. Tales of Graces f Remastered is one such case of this, but I suppose if you missed this decent entry in a wonderful series then now’s your time to shine.

Originally a Wii game released in 2009, Tales of Graces was remade and given its lower case f (as well as a huge bonus chapter and other extras) when it was brought to the PS5 three years later. Now back again for a modern audience, Tales of Graces f Remastered will feel familiar to fans of the series whether they’ve played it before or not.

We’re introduced to our cast firstly as children. Asbel and Hubert are brothers who live in a small village called Lhant, and on an adventure one day meet an amnesiac girl called Sophie. After taking her in and trying to learn more about her, they meet with the young prince of a nearby kingdom and befriend him. This all sounds nice and twee, but unfortunately ends up anything but. A monster attacks these new friends when they try to meet up, and Sophie sacrifices herself to save them. This leads to Asbel running away from home, Hubert being adopted into a noble family and their childhood being lost.

We then fast forward seven years into the future, where everyone is more than a little different. They’re all brought together though in a fight against the baddies, including Sophie who isn’t dead and hasn’t really aged. Now reunited they head off on a globe trotting adventure collecting colourful allies along the way. Even back in 2012 when I first played the game it felt like a very by the numbers JRPG story, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t enjoyable.

More of an issue than the story of Tales of Graces f are the characters themselves, who it would be an understatement to call one dimensional. Every single party member you gather is a walking cliche, from the love interest who never quite plucks up the courage to tell Asbel her feelings, to the grizzled older warrior and the wacky comic relief character. It’s especially difficult comparing them to the wonderful cast of Tales of Arise we got a few years ago, which while not exactly fair, this is where my mind instantly goes when thinking about the Tales series.

Whereas the narrative side of Tales of Graces f may not be much to write home about, the combat is still great fun. Like all Tales games it features active action packed combat, which revolves around using your Chain Capacity (CC) to unleash powerful weapon based and magic based attacks. With a slowly expanding and customisable combo tree you’ll be able to figure out uses for all of your sword flurries, and when combined with more exciting burst attacks you’ll be unstoppable. Even by modern standards this game has wonderful combat, and after dozens of hours I still loved every battle because of it.

The combat has a nice amount of depth too, thanks to all sorts of mechanics like status conditions and in-battle cooking that are introduced at a wonderful pace. The way you improve your characters throughout the game is interesting too, involving gaining new titles which as you rank them up grant stat boosts and new abilities. Titles are earned through story progression or feats in battle, and it always feels good to gain a new one. It’s more engaging than just standard levelling up to upgrade your characters, and I appreciate how the titles themselves relate to each party member specifically.

When you’re outside of battle you’ll spend your time exploring fairly empty environments. Dungeons are mazes of winding corridors that aren’t a whole lot of fun to navigate, and without the newly added objective marker I reckon they’d have frustrated me to no end. Thankfully the Tales series staple of being able to physically avoid enemies is present while you’re searching for hidden treasures, and while this might be commonplace nowadays in RPGs, it wasn’t a given back in 2009.

Other than added markers and somewhat improved visuals, this remaster of Tales of Graces f mainly just adds more quality of life features. Auto saves, the ability to turn off encounters, and a sprint button, are all definitely appreciated, but if you’re expecting more substantial additions you’ll be disappointed.

I’ve mentioned quite a few issues I have with Tales of Graces f Remastered already, but as a sum of its parts it’s a very enjoyable game. It’s a throwback to a time when JRPGs were just simple fun, and despite making me roll my eyes occasionally I rather enjoyed the light-hearted moments between the characters.

Tales of Graces f Remastered might not be the most ground-breaking RPG by modern standards, but for the combat alone it’s worth playing. As long as you don’t go in expecting deep characters or a twisting and turning narrative, you’ll have a good time on this cliché packed adventure.