Tales of Graces F

Games

100+ hours later on Tales of Graces F and …

April 24, 2012

I am still playing it and looking to spend more hours :) on it. I’ve been amazed by this game since I got it last month; not having XBOX360 nor ability to read Japanese prevented me from playing Tales of Vesperia so I am overly excited about Tales of Graces F since last time I played a Tales game was back on Playstation One: Tales of Eternia.

I finished my first play through without any guides and managed to finish the optional future arc but I skipped to the optional dungeon. As a newbie to Tales battle system, I started with Hard difficulty but switched to Moderate after few encounters because I got owned really bad :) . On my second play-through, I started with Hard then Evil and finally Chaos which I am able to handle quite easily including bosses. I switched to easy to get the under 60 seconds boss trophies though ^^;; since I am hoping to get all trophies on my second play-through.

As for the battle system, I think it’s pretty standard of a Tales games but note that my only reference is Tales of Eternia. Few things that’s pretty similar such as real time battle (2D vs 3D), cooking and skills (Artes). One thing that I really like is Eleth Mixer which allows you to cook food during/post battles, generate items and many more so two thumbs up for Namco Bandai for inventing this.

In my first play-through, I controlled Asbel up until the final dungeon then I switched to Cheria during the final dungeon and future arc. I found that Cheria is pretty interesting to play as because I originally thought she’s an offensive mage type but it turned out that she’s a physical damage dealer using her A artes. Her B artes such as Divine Saber and Indignation are great but casting time is pretty long even after CC-3 or CC-4 especially for Indignation so they are not worth it so most of the time I just use Ethereal Rift.

At 60% of my second play-through, I switched to Malik and got frustrated because his B-artes cast time is just terrible and I died a lot because his defense is bad. I still think he has a potential after I get some more titles for his A-artes and B-artes.

Who’s you favourite character and least favourite to main ? what’s your team setup ? my favourite character to main is Cheria; throwing knives is fun after all :) . My team usually consists of Asbel, Hubert, Sophie and Cheria. Sophie and Cheria are my main healer while Hubert is my back up healer in case of emergency. My least favourite to main is Malik and Hubert as they die so easily and can’t take couple hits at all especially in Chaos mode >.<.

Updated

Tips and tricks

  • I got annoyed by magic carta game in Hard mode difficulty. Despite having to pause for each quote and google the character name, I was still not quick enough >.<. So what I did is just when the game is about to start, I took a photo with my cellphone so that I can find the quote, google the character and locate the character. It’s kinda cheap and lame but I completed hard more in 1 attempt ^^.

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  • http://www.marthaurion.com/ marthaurion

    My experience with 

    • http://www.marthaurion.com/ marthaurion

      woops…didnt finish that. My experience with the Tales series was Tales of Symphonia 1 and 2, as well as Tales of Innocence and Tales of the Abyss. Coming from that, the CC battle system was a shocker. I’m so used to playing conservative with B-based moves because of the TP system that it took me quite a while to adapt.

      As for characters, I think Hubert is fun just because of how quickly he can switch, but I agree that he’s kind of frail. Richard is also entertaining in Future Arc as sort of a version of Kratos Aurion from Symphonia. For the most part, I stick with Asbel or Cheria, though. Cheria’s kind of a pain to learn lol

      And the Hard difficulty Magic Carta was a super-nuisance for me as well. Took me probably 15 or so tries to get it right (I have pretty good memory, so I was able to remember the quotes after getting them wrong a few times).

      • http://www.sakuafk.com Saku

        I really enjoy the CC system which is a great change from TP-based system. I was in the same situation when I was playing Tales of Destiny or Eternia. I was very conservative and relied on gel to restore my TP.

        In Tales of Graces F, I was able to go artes crazy all the time ^^ which probably why I am not bored yet with this game. I am glad that more RPGs are moving on from having MP to cast spells.

        I am at the last dungeon on my second playthrough and planning to use Richard in future arc :) sooo can’t wait.

        Yah lol, Cheria was a pain to learn but after I got the hang of it and more titles, she is just as great as Asbel except she’s fragile.

        Dang , you must have a really good memory lol. Easy and normal took couple tries for me.

        • http://www.marthaurion.com/ marthaurion

          Yeah…CC system is definitely cool in that regard.

          Even with good memory, it’s still a pain to win without making a mistake. It might have helped that I knew the characters from Vesperia and Symphonia.

          • http://www.sakuafk.com Saku

            Playing previous Tales games definitely helps. How many play-through so far ? are you getting platinum trophy assuming you are on ps3?

          • http://www.marthaurion.com/ marthaurion

            On my second playthrough. Haven’t been paying attention to trophies, really.

  • http://hoshikudaki.lagrange-points.net/ Kurotsuki

    I’ve only completed the main story so far. Tried the future arc thing, but rage quit when I died in the first dungeon while controlling Malik, Cheria and Hubert. I basically can’t use them. Malik casting takes too long, etc. ;_; . So far I only really controlled Asbel, it took me a long time to master him, and now that I’ve done so, I don’t feel like learning to master the other characters. That being said, I rather enjoyed the game. It was my first “tales of…” game and I’ll see it that its not my last. Although I could use to have a not dubbed version. The prologue part made me want to slash my wrist at times because of how corny and cheesy the dub was. 

    • http://www.sakuafk.com Saku

      lol yah Malik casting just takes too long and I got frustrated by him in multiple occasions. Not to mention, he is so squishy and in Chaos, he got one-shotted really easily.

      If you ever get bored with Asbel, I would recommend Cheria. Even though she is a healer and has some offensive artes, she is not an offensive mage. Her throwing knives does pretty good damage and combo.

      Speaking of future arc, I just finished my second play-through and about to start my future arc ^^. I played too much lol.

      As far as dubs go, I think we all can agree that it sucks in general

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