Tales of Graces NA release announced! [Archive] - Giant in the Playground Forums

Zevox

2011-02-02, 10:27 PM

Holy crap. Via a site called "A Tale of Two Richards (http://www.ataleoftworichards.com/)," Namco today announced that Tales of Graces F will be brought over to North America. Nothing in the way of specific information, but it's coming.

As a big fan of Tales of Symphonia, Vesperia, and the Abyss: hell yes! I was beginning to fear the Tales series was doomed not to make it outside Japan for a good while now, so this is very welcome news. The main question I have now is, what system will it be for? The announcement specifically says "Tales of Graces F," which is the enhanced PS3 port of the game, so PS3 seems most likely... but I don't have a PS3. I don't suppose it'd be too much to hope that they'd release a Wii version, since the game was originally a Wii exclusive? Or perhaps it'll be a 3DS port, since we know they're doing a 3DS port of Tales of the Abyss?

...if not, then damn, this might be the game that makes me get a PS3. And I was figuring only Persona 5 or the system dropping to very cheap prices once the PS4 is released would do that.

Zevox

Illieas

2011-02-03, 01:25 AM

from the looks of it Ps3 only. Wii version was buggy apparently but the site does say tale of two richards so it might mean both...

I am excited. I haven't had a good jrpg experience on a console since vesperia.

Zevox

2011-02-03, 01:35 AM

from the looks of it Ps3 only. Wii version was buggy apparently but the site does say tale of two richards so it might mean both...
Apparently the "tale of two Richards" name is a reference to the storyline of the game (the site was up prior to the announcement, with a blurred logo to tease people who found it). Don't know specifically what, as I haven't looked that up (spoilers and all), but that's what I read on the site I learned this from.

Zevox

Teutonic Knight

2011-02-03, 03:15 AM

Zevox

2011-02-03, 12:27 PM

I agree, this would make me want to get a PS3. Whether I will or not, time will tell. Until then I look forward to 3DS TotA, which I know for sure I will get. Which again is strange because the 3DS is only 50 less than PS3.
Unfortunately I don't think it's yet been confirmed whether the 3DS Tales of the Abyss will be making it outside Japan. Of course that's not unusual at this point, since the game doesn't so much as have a release date for Japan as yet, but given the Tales series has skipped over giving us several games (the DS games Tales of Hearts and Tales of Innocence, the PS3 port of Vesperia, the PS2 port of Symphonia - and that in spite of Symphonia being the best-selling Tales game), it wouldn't surprise me if they don't.

Actually, I half wonder if they'll be using Graces' sales to determine whether it's worth bringing the series to the west anymore. Maybe I'm just being paranoid there, but it wouldn't surprise me too much if that were the case.

Zevox

Comet

2011-02-03, 12:54 PM

Zevox

2011-02-03, 01:06 PM

Hmm, wonder if I should try getting back into the Tales series with this game.

I've only played Phantasia and Symphonia. Phantasia I loved (this was the SNES version, as much difference as that makes), Symphonia I liked in the end but found some elements, specifically the slower parts of the story and the lazy graphics, quite lacking.

YouTube tells me that the graphics have gotten a bit better, but I'm still not quite comfotable with the style. Usually I'm okay with cartoony graphics, but for some reason this style is just a bit too much.

For those more familiar wit the rest of the series, what would you say are the best points of the various games on average? Is it the combat, the characters, the story, the music or what? I've personally found that the music and the story have been my favourite parts of Phantasia and Symphonia. If this game can nail both, I'll probably get it despite my grumblings about the graphics.
I've only played three games of the series, but the strongest points I'd say are story and characters, especially in Vesperia and the Abyss. Frankly those have the strongest writing and characters I've seen in video games outside the Shin Megami Tensei series.

After that, the combat. In Vesperia and Abyss it's pretty similar to what you'll recall from Symphonia, with some tweaks to it and extra features here and there. Overall fairly simple, but quite fun. Though I did hear that Graces' system is a bigger departure from the series norm than usual, but I haven't actually seen it in action, so I may be misinformed.

Honestly, I can't speak about the music, as I rarely notice the music in any video game. Must be a personal taste thing, because unless it's something exceptionally striking, such as Persona 4's battle theme or the varied music of The World Ends With You, I just don't notice it.

Zevox

Comet

2011-02-03, 01:18 PM

I've only played three games of the series, but the strongest points I'd say are story and characters, especially in Vesperia and the Abyss. Frankly those have the strongest writing and characters I've seen in video games outside the Shin Megami Tensei series.

This alone makes me a happy camper. I should probably grab a copy of both Vesperia and the Abyss some day, but for now I'll just hope that Graces can keep up that quality.

Airk

2011-02-03, 02:33 PM

Actually, I half wonder if they'll be using Graces' sales to determine whether it's worth bringing the series to the west anymore. Maybe I'm just being paranoid there, but it wouldn't surprise me too much if that were the case.

OF COURSE THEY ARE. Seriously. How could you think anything else? There's been a huge string of excuses from the US Tales fans for why every Tales Game post-Abyss (Which did "okay") has sold like ass over here, and now it's time for the internet to put its money where its mouth is. If you think Namco is going to localize another Tales game this decade if Graces does poorly, I'd like to make a friendly wager with you. ;)

For those more familiar wit the rest of the series, what would you say are the best points of the various games on average? Is it the combat, the characters, the story, the music or what? I've personally found that the music and the story have been my favourite parts of Phantasia and Symphonia. If this game can nail both, I'll probably get it despite my grumblings about the graphics.

Well, I have even less collective experience with the series than Zevox, but I can hit a few things:

Lots of people really like the combat. And it's hard to argue with them. It's easy enough to pick up and learn, but you can do some pretty fun stuff with it. Characters tend to be fairly distinct, and generally pretty well balanced (No one is ever consigned permanently to the back row for sucking.). And, well, it's a whole heck of a lot better than the "Press A to win" stereotype that a lot of people associate with JRPGs.

Tales games also run strong on their characters. Sometimes the designs are a little screwy, but the characters always have character, and are generally, if not especially creative, at least refreshingly well done takes on their tropes. Overally, Tales characters tend to have more charisma than most RPG characters.

Tales stories are a mixed bag; Some are very well crafted, some clearly fall apart under their own weight. While they usually work while you are playing the game, you may find yourself looking back and saying "WTF? That was actually really stupid now that I think about it."

Music has generally been done by the same one or two composers for the past many years, so there's definitely a unified feel, and each game tends to have a couple of standout tracks. I'm not super qualified to judge, but overall I'd give the Tales games I've played a B+ to an A- in this area.

Cieyrin

2011-02-03, 03:27 PM

A new Tales for PS3?!?! :smallbiggrin:

I've played a good many of the Tales and they've each had something new and fun to play with them. This isn't to say there aren't something annoying in some of them (I'm looking at you, Legendia) but over all, they're probably the RPG series that I lovingly follow. I've played Tales of Destiny, Symphonia, Legendia and Abyss, so I think I have a little cred to back me up.

Now, a couple comments:

Lots of people really like the combat. And it's hard to argue with them. It's easy enough to pick up and learn, but you can do some pretty fun stuff with it. Characters tend to be fairly distinct, and generally pretty well balanced (No one is ever consigned permanently to the back row for sucking.). And, well, it's a whole heck of a lot better than the "Press A to win" stereotype that a lot of people associate with JRPGs.

Quite true, the combat has evolved from the 2D fighter hybrids into true 3D quite well and its the right balance of strategy and tactics that makes the games more than button mashing. Having not played Vesperia due to lacking a console besides a PS3, I can't say whether they've improved the casting, as that's the part that tends to bug me the most that I tend to leave to NPCs. I'll be rightly impressed if they make it more than stand there, charge and release.

Tales games also run strong on their characters. Sometimes the designs are a little screwy, but the characters always have character, and are generally, if not especially creative, at least refreshingly well done takes on their tropes. Overally, Tales characters tend to have more charisma than most RPG characters.

That is the thing I love about the Tales series, is characters are generally well fleshed out and not easily forgettable. From Lloyd and Collete's dumbest pair of chief protagonists EVER to Senel's devotion to his adoptive sister and mixed relationship with Chloe to Luke's naivete, each character is refined so they're not just guys with swords or fists beating monsters across the countryside for an unclear plot line.

Tales stories are a mixed bag; Some are very well crafted, some clearly fall apart under their own weight. While they usually work while you are playing the game, you may find yourself looking back and saying "WTF? That was actually really stupid now that I think about it."

This, right here, is the issue with Legendia's story presentation. It could have been much better and I guess they experimented and failed miserably. All in all, though, the plot is generally well put together with the occasional faux paus that I can forgive. Tales games are worthwhile to play and are generally fun despite plot holes and blunders.

Mirrinus

2011-02-03, 03:36 PM

Gosh, if you thought Lloyd was dumb, you really should avoid Tales of Destiny / Tales of Destiny 2...

Cieyrin

2011-02-03, 03:40 PM

Gosh, if you thought Lloyd was dumb, you really should avoid Tales of Destiny / Tales of Destiny 2...

I did play the first Tales of Destiny, though my memory of it is kind of vague and there was another of years between that and Symphonia and the other two. All I recall from Destiny was the lulzy Space Invaders minigame, one of antagonists joining the party and then betraying and taking some of my best stuff and getting stuck in the final area and not being able to find anything online to help me get out of it. It doesn't help that I borrowed the game from a friend who I haven't seen in years, so there's not much chance of reliving the game currently. :smallyuk:

Zevox

2011-02-03, 03:59 PM

This alone makes me a happy camper. I should probably grab a copy of both Vesperia and the Abyss some day, but for now I'll just hope that Graces can keep up that quality.
You and me both.

Just a note though, getting ahold of at least Tales of the Abyss won't be easy. It is pretty hard to find offline these days, and is usually quite pricey online. I only got it because my parents were lucky and found one used at a local Gamestop, so they purchased it for me as a Christmas gift. Best you can probably hope for is that the 3DS remake gets brought over. Don't know if Vesperia is similar or not - hopefully it shouldn't be, since it's only a couple of years old.

OF COURSE THEY ARE. Seriously. How could you think anything else? There's been a huge string of excuses from the US Tales fans for why every Tales Game post-Abyss (Which did "okay") has sold like ass over here, and now it's time for the internet to put its money where its mouth is. If you think Namco is going to localize another Tales game this decade if Graces does poorly, I'd like to make a friendly wager with you. ;)
Sorry, I'm not familiar with the company's sales numbers, marketing decisions, etc. I just play the games.

Here's hoping Graces does well, then. I know they're already working on the next game, Tales of Xillia, which will be a PS3 exclusive. If they bring that over too it'll certainly make me a lot happier about getting a PS3 (assuming I wind up having to do that to play Graces).

Zevox

Airk

2011-02-03, 04:30 PM

Just a note though, getting ahold of at least Tales of the Abyss won't be easy. It is pretty hard to find offline these days, and is usually quite pricey online. I only got it because my parents were lucky and found one used at a local Gamestop, so they purchased it for me as a Christmas gift. Best you can probably hope for is that the 3DS remake gets brought over. Don't know if Vesperia is similar or not - hopefully it shouldn't be, since it's only a couple of years old.

Vesperia is pretty easy to get ($27 on Amazon) unless you want the Collector's Edition ($220 on Amazon. :P )

Abyss isn't that hard to get if you're prepared to pay, essentially, full retail. (Less for a used copy). Again, this is just me being lazy and using Amazon as a standard, because, frankly, if you can't buy from amazon, something is weird. ;)

Sorry, I'm not familiar with the company's sales numbers, marketing decisions, etc. I just play the games.

Well, let's just say they didn't stop localizing Tales games just to piss you off. Not saying you thought that's why, just saying that it doesn't sound like you gave it any thought.

If they bring that over too it'll certainly make me a lot happier about getting a PS3 (assuming I wind up having to do that to play Graces).

Considering that what they have the logo for up on the page is actually "Tales of Graces F" which is the title of the PS3 release and NOT the Wii game, expect this to be PS3 exclusive.

Zevox

2011-02-03, 04:43 PM

Abyss isn't that hard to get if you're prepared to pay, essentially, full retail. (Less for a used copy). Again, this is just me being lazy and using Amazon as a standard, because, frankly, if you can't buy from amazon, something is weird. ;)
Really? When last I checked Amazon - which was just a few months ago, actually - the cheapest one they were selling was pushing $100. For some reason the prices have really come down recently then. Huh. Well, should it make it much easier to get ahold of then.

Well, let's just say they didn't stop localizing Tales games just to piss you off. Not saying you thought that's why, just saying that it doesn't sound like you gave it any thought.
I figured low sales may be the reason, but it's not like I know how low they were, or how many games had sales problems, etc.

Considering that what they have the logo for up on the page is actually "Tales of Graces F" which is the title of the PS3 release and NOT the Wii game, expect this to be PS3 exclusive.
I kinda figure as much, yeah. Just holding onto a little hope since they don't mention anything about systems on that page. It'd be nice for this not to be a $360 game for me, you know?

Zevox

Airk

2011-02-03, 04:54 PM

Really? When last I checked Amazon - which was just a few months ago, actually - the cheapest one they were selling was pushing $100. For some reason the prices have really come down recently then. Huh. Well, should it make it much easier to get ahold of then.

Yeah. I noticed the price drop when I was talking to someone about it before christmas. It used to be like $95+, but they must've found some more somewhere or something.

I kinda figure as much, yeah. Just holding onto a little hope since they don't mention anything about systems on that page. It'd be nice for this not to be a $360 game for me, you know?

Likewise, but I'm screwed either way since I don't have a Wii. :P Actually, I'm holding out for a PS3 price cut. It's due. Momentum from the slim is gone, Amazon was doing tons of gift card deals for buying the PS3 over the holidays (still a little cranky I missed the $75 gift card free with PS3 deal. x.x ) and so on, so honestly, I'm expecting a price cut on the PS3 hardware sometime... hopefully before Graces F comes out.

Eliirae

2011-02-03, 05:23 PM

From my understanding, Abyss and Vesperia both barely sold over 100k copies (if they even reached 100k)

However, I think that's mostly due to the fact that Namco does. not. advertise. I have not seen any advertisements at all for those games. The only way anybody would know about them is if they followed the news in Japan, went to a game store and saw it just sitting there on the shelf, or had a friend who follows everything Namco does tell them about it.

I'm hoping Graces sells well, seeing as how it's the PS3 and all, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

Cieyrin

2011-02-03, 05:32 PM

Eliirae

2011-02-03, 05:38 PM

Namco used to advertise, as I became aware of many of the Tales through ads back when Dragon Magazine was still alive, as well as Official Playstation Magazine, back when I was still subscribed to them.

I meant more along the lines of maybe a short TV Commercial, or something the vast majority of gamers would see, instead of in a magazine that only has a small following.

Of course, I'm not much of a magazine person anymore, so maybe those magazines were big, and I just didn't know it.

Cieyrin

2011-02-03, 05:46 PM

Airk

2011-02-04, 09:47 AM

I meant more along the lines of maybe a short TV Commercial, or something the vast majority of gamers would see, instead of in a magazine that only has a small following.

Of course, I'm not much of a magazine person anymore, so maybe those magazines were big, and I just didn't know it.

Yeah. In the Abyss era, basically nobody did TV advertising. Like, I guess there had been one or two games that got TV commercials at that point, but the number was tiny, and it was definitely unusual.

I can't find any meaningful sales numbers on either Abyss or ToV for the US, except that Vesperia moved 33k copies in its first 4 days, which doesn't sound too hot for a 'big release'. All the other numbers I can find for them are for Japan, which is pretty irrelevant to a localization discussion.

I hope Graces does well, but truthfully, I don't really expect it to sell particularly well. JPRGs are niche games these days.

Zevox

2011-02-04, 01:55 PM

I hope Graces does well, but truthfully, I don't really expect it to sell particularly well. JPRGs are niche games these days.
A sad truth, outside Japan at least. That's probably why so many moved to handhelds rather than consoles this generation - cheaper to make that way, so the lower sales aren't necessarily a problem.

Zevox

Airk

2011-02-04, 02:18 PM

A sad truth, outside Japan at least. That's probably why so many moved to handhelds rather than consoles this generation - cheaper to make that way, so the lower sales aren't necessarily a problem.

Zevox

Yup. Though with the next generation of handhelds coming down the pipe with their shiny graphics, I expect the handheld space to be less of a refuge in times to come.

(Aside: These games wouldn't cost so darn much to make if Japanese developers just understood the idea of a 'toolkit'. FFS, the Vesperia engine creates gorgeous anime styled art. It still looks great to me now. Don't build a whole different game engine each time, just reuse the graphical engine from your past game plus a few tweaks. You can write a whole new one every 3 games or so as you learn some lessons. I think this may have finally sunk in with Square Enix, but Namco is behind the curve.)

Cieyrin

2011-02-04, 03:33 PM

(Aside: These games wouldn't cost so darn much to make if Japanese developers just understood the idea of a 'toolkit'. FFS, the Vesperia engine creates gorgeous anime styled art. It still looks great to me now. Don't build a whole different game engine each time, just reuse the graphical engine from your past game plus a few tweaks. You can write a whole new one every 3 games or so as you learn some lessons. I think this may have finally sunk in with Square Enix, but Namco is behind the curve.)

That does explain a lot of things, now that you mention it...

Airk

2011-02-04, 04:06 PM

That does explain a lot of things, now that you mention it...

Yeah; Apparently this idea is fairly foreign to Japanese developers, however. Though Square/Enix did mention that they intend to use the FF13 "toolset" for subsequent games, so hopefully that'll work out for them. There seems to be a lack of...evolution in the Japanese game developers though. They seem very set in their ways and not much interested in even trying to adopt ideas from western studios. (And believe me, there are plenty of ideas I don't WANT them to adopt, but c'mon. Nobody these days plays JRPGs because of the totally awesome shiny bump mapped graphics. Stop bleeding out your hearts, souls, and development budgets building a new engine every freakin' time.)

Also, on a positive note, it looks like Wii owners MAY not be left out in the cold on this one: Siliconera on ToGF (http://www.siliconera.com/2011/02/04/all-of-those-requests-influenced-namco-bandais-decision-to-localize-tales-of-graces-f/)

Zevox

2011-02-04, 11:24 PM

Yup. Though with the next generation of handhelds coming down the pipe with their shiny graphics, I expect the handheld space to be less of a refuge in times to come.
:smallfrown:

Also, on a positive note, it looks like Wii owners MAY not be left out in the cold on this one: Siliconera on ToGF (http://www.siliconera.com/2011/02/04/all-of-those-requests-influenced-namco-bandais-decision-to-localize-tales-of-graces-f/)
Good to hear it's at least a possibility. We'll see if it pans out, though.

Zevox

Moonshadow

2011-02-05, 10:11 AM

Zevox

2011-02-05, 01:11 PM

Least you guys got Abyss and stuff >_> The last Tales game we saw in Australia was Symphonia 2, I believe, and the last one before that was Vesperia Xbox >_>

I still want them to bring out the english version of Vesperia for the PS3, but it's too much to ask, methinks.
:smallconfused: Er, Abyss is older than Vesperia or Symphonia 2, and nobody outside Japan got the PS3 port of Vesperia either. If you got Vesperia and Symphonia 2, you're probably pretty much in the same boat as the rest of the not-Japan world.

Zevox

Moonshadow

2011-02-06, 04:01 PM

Except you guys got all the old awesome Tales games. I think the only one we got that you didn't was Eternity while you guys got Abyss and Destiny and all that jazz.

Ryuho Tsugu

2011-02-06, 10:26 PM

We got Eternia, only it was renamed Destiny II. And then an actual Destiny II came out...

Airk

2011-02-07, 09:35 AM

We got Eternia, only it was renamed Destiny II. And then an actual Destiny II came out...

And things got confusing... ;)

Cieyrin

2011-02-07, 05:27 PM

And things got confusing... ;)

They tried to not confuse by calling them 2 and II. Totally different, really! :smallbiggrin:

Knaight

2011-02-07, 10:33 PM

After that, the combat. In Vesperia and Abyss it's pretty similar to what you'll recall from Symphonia, with some tweaks to it and extra features here and there. Overall fairly simple, but quite fun. Though I did hear that Graces' system is a bigger departure from the series norm than usual, but I haven't actually seen it in action, so I may be misinformed.

Graces' looks as if it will be using the Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of a New World system. Which is awesome, as that is an incredibly fun combat system, particularly if you have multiple people playing (because the computer hates cooperation, and can and will kill either Marta or Emil if you don't personally control them. Frequently.)

Airk

2011-02-07, 11:48 PM

Graces' looks as if it will be using the Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of a New World system. Which is awesome, as that is an incredibly fun combat system, particularly if you have multiple people playing (because the computer hates cooperation, and can and will kill either Marta or Emil if you don't personally control them. Frequently.)

While I don't know anything about the ToS:DoNW system, I am TOLD that the ToG system is actually different (better!) than any of the previous games.

That said, Tales as a rule has an awesome battle system, especially for co-op, sooo...

Eliirae

2011-02-08, 12:34 AM

Graces' looks as if it will be using the Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of a New World system. Which is awesome, as that is an incredibly fun combat system, particularly if you have multiple people playing (because the computer hates cooperation, and can and will kill either Marta or Emil if you don't personally control them. Frequently.)

It doesn't use the elemental system DotNW had, it uses CC (chain capacity)

Knaight

2011-02-09, 10:35 AM

It doesn't use the elemental system DotNW had, it uses CC (chain capacity)

No, but it looks as if it keeps the free 3d movement and has similar skills, which is pretty close. The question is if they will keep characters with fighting styles as optimal as it was for me. (I played DotNW with my younger brother. Emil is easily his best character, and Marta is easily my best character. It works out well).

As far as Namco's business model is concerned, failure of sales is largely their fault. They barely even advertise in magazines and such, have little online presence other than fan created stuff, and keep making games exclusive to one console without consistency. If they actually advertised, and either picked a console or made games for several consoles they would be doing far better, as is people either purchase their games as impulse buys (I started with Dawn of a New World, because I saw it for 10 dollars in a discount bin and thought it looked interesting), or on reputation among communities.

Eliirae

2011-02-09, 12:04 PM

No, but it looks as if it keeps the free 3d movement and has similar skills, which is pretty close. The question is if they will keep characters with fighting styles as optimal as it was for me. (I played DotNW with my younger brother. Emil is easily his best character, and Marta is easily my best character. It works out well).

Ah. The free 3d movement thing is a bit new to the series, I believe. Abyss, Vesperia and DotNW have it. Graces kind of has it, but they've made an effort to make it as useless as possible so that you'll use the new sidestep system.

As far as character fighting styles go, each team has their own unique style, and they usually have their main characters stay more or less the same when it comes to fighting in order for people to easily get into the flow of things. Since you said you started with DotNW then the combat system of Graces might be a bit different (as it will be for most of us who've only played Team Symphonia titles). There is, however, a character that can fight in melee and has the single target healing spells, like Marta. Asbel is also probably the closest to Emile you're going to get.

Knaight

2011-02-09, 12:20 PM

As far as character fighting styles go, each team has their own unique style, and they usually have their main characters stay more or less the same when it comes to fighting in order for people to easily get into the flow of things.

The main characters case is true, but there are differences. Looking at just Lloyd and Emil: Lloyd has faster attacks and is far more ground based than Emil. Then every character has some very different styles.

Airk

2011-02-09, 12:48 PM

No, but it looks as if it keeps the free 3d movement and has similar skills, which is pretty close.

Uh, depending on what you mean by "skills" you've probably just described every Tales battle system going back at least as far as Abyss, so that's not exactly indicative of "being the same as the ToS:DoNW system"

The question is if they will keep characters with fighting styles as optimal as it was for me. (I played DotNW with my younger brother. Emil is easily his best character, and Marta is easily my best character. It works out well).

They won't "keep" any fighting styles, but I'm sure you'll be able to find one that works for you.

As far as Namco's business model is concerned, failure of sales is largely their fault. They barely even advertise in magazines and such, have little online presence other than fan created stuff, and keep making games exclusive to one console without consistency. If they actually advertised, and either picked a console or made games for several consoles they would be doing far better, as is people either purchase their games as impulse buys (I started with Dawn of a New World, because I saw it for 10 dollars in a discount bin and thought it looked interesting), or on reputation among communities.

No one is saying they've been clever about it, but they're also selling to a niche market here.

Ah. The free 3d movement thing is a bit new to the series, I believe. Abyss, Vesperia and DotNW have it. Graces kind of has it, but they've made an effort to make it as useless as possible so that you'll use the new sidestep system.

How useless is it? Honestly, Free Run was too good in Abyss, but kinda crummy in Vesperia - to the point where I was annoyed with the lack of other movement options. (Having to spend a bunch of skill points to have a decent backstep didn't help.)

Come to that, the Vesperia system was fun when you were on the offense, but pretty rotten in terms of defensive options, since they nerfed free run, nerfed backstep, and nerfed magic guard.

Knaight

2011-02-09, 12:52 PM

Uh, depending on what you mean by "skills" you've probably just described every Tales battle system going back at least as far as Abyss, so that's not exactly indicative of "being the same as the ToS:DoNW system"

In DoNW they were Artes, and its not as much that Graces appears to have them as that the skills/artes/whatever other term used appear to be closer to DonW than Vesperia or Abyss.

Eliirae

2011-02-09, 01:53 PM

How useless is it? Honestly, Free Run was too good in Abyss, but kinda crummy in Vesperia - to the point where I was annoyed with the lack of other movement options. (Having to spend a bunch of skill points to have a decent backstep didn't help.)

While you're free running your CC drains down quickly. Then when it hits 0 your character starts moving very slow.

Just what I've heard, but judging from all the videos I've seen where nobody uses free run, I'd say that's a good estimate.

Zevox

2011-02-09, 02:06 PM

In DoNW they were Artes, and its not as much that Graces appears to have them as that the skills/artes/whatever other term used appear to be closer to DonW than Vesperia or Abyss.
Artes and skills are two different things in Tales games. Artes are your attacks. Skills are more passive abilities, granting bonuses to things like running speed, block damage reduction, casting time, or special effects like allowing you to perform your mystic arte. I don't recall if Symphonia 2 had skills, but it would surprise me if it didn't, since both Abyss and Vesperia did, and Symphonia 2 was released around the same time as Vesperia.

Zevox

Mirrinus

2011-02-09, 02:18 PM

With all this talk about artes, perhaps it's best to just see for yourself what ToG's artes look like. These are from ToG, not ToGF, so there will be additions. Still:

Asbel (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmXPtAZG3XU)

Asbel looks to be quite unique with his whole switching between sword drawn and sword sheathed gimmick.

Hubert (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06aEXvSQ2RE)

Hubert just has the most awesome weapon ever. Not too many gun users in the Tales series (most were from Innocence), so he's got that going for him.

Malik (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uf5kA0qOwZk)

Despite his appearance, Malik is much more of an offensive spellcaster, and his weapon is actually ranged, since he throws the sword like a boomerang. He has a lot of unique spells, focusing on targetting the enemy.

Cheria (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xancnh4PMQY)

Your standard Tales staff chick, although the throwing knives differentiate her from Ange, who also used knives. She gets Indignation in ToGF. She specializes in slower, but wide ranged, healing spells.

Pascal (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnOca04YUyc)

Another offensive mage, but what separates her from Malik is that her spells are area-based, and many are centered on her rather than her enemy.

Sorry, I haven't found the videos for Sophie and Richard yet.