Tales of Graces
Information
Game Systems	Nintendo Wii PlayStation 3
Developers	Namco Tales Studio
Publishers	Bandai Namco Games
Character Designers	Mutsumi Inomata
Composers	Motoi Sakuraba Hibiki Aoyama
Japanese Releases	Wii December 10, 2009 PS3  December 2, 2010
North American Releases	PS3  March 13, 2012
European Releases	PS3  Summer 2012
Opening Theme	Mamoritai ~White wishes~ by BoA
Ratings	CERO: B (recommended 12+) ESRB: T (Teen 13+)

Tales of Graces (テイルズ オブ グレイセス, Teiruzu obu Gureisesu^?) is the 12th main title in the Tales series for the Nintendo Wii and PlayStation 3. The first information was revealed in a leaked scan of the Weekly Shounen Jump magazine in Japan on April 2, 2009. The character designer for this game is Mutsumi Inomata, despite early rumors that a new artist may be involved in this game. The game was released December 10, 2009 in Japan. A trademark had been filed for the Wii version in Europe in 2009.^[1] On February 2, 2011, Namco Bandai announced an English language localization for the PlayStation 3 version of the game. Namco Bandai has also confirmed that the game will be heading to European territories in 2012. ^[2]

Tales of Graces was codenamed officially as Tales of Ten during development, referring to this as the 10th main game produced by Namco Tales Studio. This excludes the mothership titles Tales of Legendia and Tales of Innocence from the count, since these games were developed internally by Namco through Project MelFes, and externally by Alfa System, respectively.

Contents 1 Characters 2 Plot 3 Story 4 Tales of Graces ƒ 5 Gameplay 5.1 Presentation 5.2 Battle System 5.3 Titles 5.4 Dualizing 5.5 Eleth Mixer 5.6 Groovy Chat 5.7 Downloadable Content 6 Development 7 Version History 8 Cover Gallery 9 References 10 External Links

CharactersEdit

• Asbel Lhant - An 18-year-old knight from the Lhant Territory in the country of Windor who takes over the role of Frontier Lord after his deceased father.
• Sophie - A mysterious girl without memories. She was named by Asbel, after the flower closophie with which she had taken a liking to. She values her friendship with Asbel, wanting to protect him from any dangers that arise.
• Hubert Ozwell - Asbel's younger brother by a year. Though he was quiet and obedient in his childhood, he has been disciplining his own nature to have persevering strength. He currently holds the rank of Major in Strata's military.
• Cheria Barnes - The granddaughter of the butler working for the Lhant house. Once sickly at a young age, she grew up to become a fine young woman, skilled in healing artes. She has strong feelings for Asbel, though is too shy to acknowledge it.
• Pascal - A genius technician Asbel meets along the course of his journey. She often uses onomatopoeia to describe things, leaving many confused at her energetic words.
• Malik Caesars - Asbel's instructor from the knights' school. The eldest of the group, he is frank and composed at all times, being a veteran soldier. Asbel looks up to Malik as his "ideal self".
• Richard - The Prince of the Frontier Kingdom of Windol, a man who has the respect of the citizens of Windor, he enjoys peace. Asbel and Richard share a very strong bond. He wields a rapier.

PlotEdit

Tales of Graces takes place in a planet known as Ephinea. The people of Ephinea use a substance called Cryas which is composed of another substance called Eleth which has allowed civilizations on the planet to flourish. On Efinea there are three kingdoms--Windor, Strahta, and Fendel--who are competing for dominance of the planet.

In the remote region of Windor lies the city of Lhant. The eldest son of the feudal lord Aston, Asbel, is a bright and cheerful boy who spent his childhood like any other carefree boy does: enjoy everyday together with his irreplaceable friends. After an unknown incident occurs, a strong determination awoke within him which led him to enlist himself in a knight's academy in the capital.

Graces takes place seven years after the incident. In his eighteenth year, Asbel has grown up and established himself as a fine knight. However, at the death of his father, Aston, he gives up his dream to become a knight and takes over his father's position of a feudal lord.

StoryEdit

The game starts with the main characters as children. Asbel travels with his brother Hubert to a flower meadow near Lhant. There, they meet a mysterious girl who they eventually name Sophie after the Sopheria flowers she was found by. Upon returning to the city and meeting up with Cheria, Asbel is scolded by his father Lord Aston for wandering outside the city. The party then meets up with a kid named Richard. Eventually, it is revealed that Richard is the Prince of Windor. Hubert leaves Asbel at this point, as he is entrusted to Lord Oswell of Strahta. Asbel and Sophie fend off an assassin named Bryce and help Richard return to town. Asbel is grounded by Aston and the prince leaves to return to the capital, Barona.

Asbel breaks out of his room with the help of Sophie and travels to Barona. He runs into Cheria, Hubert, and Lord Aston. He meets Richard once and tries to sneak into the castle for a second meeting, but he encounters an incapacitated Richard and a powerful creature. Asbel, Hubert, and Sophie are all injured by the creature. Sophie eventually defeats the creature but at the cost of her life. Upon returning to Lhant, Asbel runs away from home to become a knight and find the strength to protect his friends.

The game jumps seven years into the future. Asbel is sent on his first mission as a knight cadet with his instructor Malik. Asbel gains the use of a strange power during the mission and uses it to defeat an unusual monster. Asbel returns to Barona and meets Cheria again. Asbel learns that his father Lord Aston died in battle against Fendel, and he travels back to Lhant to figure out what to do.

Asbel and Cheria end up engaging Fendelian forces, who have powerful war machines. When Asbel is about to be killed, Sophie returns and helps destroy the machines. She looks the same but seems to have amnesia. Asbel thereafter becomes the Lord of Lhant and launches an attack against Fendel. The Fendelians attack while Asbel is away however, and Asbel hurries back to find his brother Hubert leading a Strahtan military force. The Fendelians are driven out, but Hubert ousts his brother as the Lord of Lhant and exiles Asbel. Asbel and Sophie begin traveling when knights appear to attack them. Asbel realizes that there is trouble in Barona, and eventually finds a wounded Richard. The king, Richard's father has been poisoned by Duke Cedric and Richard barely escaped with his life. The party escapes Barona.

The party travels to Gralsyde, meeting a quirky girl known as Pascal. The team meets with Duke Dalen and leads the army to retake Barona. While assaulting the fortress of Wallbridge, Richard is seemingly killed by a soldier. He revives almost instantly, but he gains a sudden sadistic and vengeful streak. The party fights Malik who is in charge of the defenders. The party wins and Richard nearly orders the execution of Malik and other prisoners, but Asbel manages to make him reconsider.

The party assaults Barona and defeats Cedric. Richard personally kills Cedric against Asbel's cries. Afterwards, Asbel is sent to negotiate with the Strahtans in Lhant to make them leave peacefully. Richard attacks the area anyways, and faces off the party. Sophie narrowly defeats Richard, and the party is forced to flee to Strahta for answers. Asbel wonders why his childhood friend would suddenly start attacking him.

Tales of Graces ƒEdit

The game was also ported to the PlayStation 3 console under the name Tales of Graces ƒ (テイルズ オブ グレイセス エフ, Teiruzu obu Gureisesu Efu^?), released on December 2, 2010, nearly a year after the original Wii release. The ƒ symbol that is used in the title refers to the word "future", which emphasizes its newly added post-game content. The game includes an additional story arc which takes place six months after the end of the original story and will solve the remaining mysteries of the game featuring a script three quarters as long as the original story line.

Other additional contents include additional new story scenes within the original story, improved high definition graphics, new game secrets, new character costumes and new Blast Calibers. The game features new costumes and those from the Wii version. Tales of Graces ƒ also added the Data Install feature to game to cut the load times for speedier play for 4.5 GB.

GameplayEdit

PresentationEdit

Tales of Graces features a fully traversable overworld in which all fields and towns are scaled proportionately with the character models, similar to the area design in Tales of Hearts. All dungeons, towns, and other locations are connected with detailed location geometry instead of a traditional world map. Enemy groups are visible on field and dungeon areas with distinct shapes.

Battle SystemEdit

The battle system used for Tales of Graces is the Style Shift Linear Motion Battle System, commonly abbreviated as SS-LMBS. In this system, characters have two different fighting styles to choose from. The artes of either style are set to both the A and B buttons, and the player is able to switch freely between the styles in battle. Characters are also able to sidestep in increments of a 360-degree circle around the enemy, providing reduced damage and other bonuses if the sidestepping action is timed correctly.

In battle, players attack using a modification of the Chain Capacity system first introduced with the PlayStation 2 remake of Tales of Destiny. The free run maneuver which originated in Tales of the Abyss is renewed in this game, but it is limited by draining CC while it is active.

TitlesEdit

Titles offer status bonuses to the user. Titles allow characters to learn new artes and mastery skills. Titles are acquired in many different ways, some by story scenes, using artes a certain amount, and other certain conditions.

DualizingEdit

Dualizing is the main form of customization in Tales of Graces. Dualizing involves combining two items to form one better item. Weapons and armor can be dualized with shards dropped by enemies to improve them as well as with special crystals to change them to unique weapons. Food ingredients can be dualized into full-party healing dishes. Finally, loot dropped from enemies can be dualized into more valuable loot, which can sometimes be dualized again into even more valuable loot.

Eleth MixerEdit

The Eleth Mixer is an improved version of the cooking system that has appeared in earlier games. The Eleth Mixer can be used during battle to heal characters and enhance their powers. The Eleth Mixer naturally grows each time it produces or cooks something. There are 3 different types of items which can be set in the Eleth Mixer:

• Books offer special effects on the field or in battle. These include having damage, increasing item drop quality, boosting movement speed, improving the Eleth Mixer, and more.

• Food items can be set to the mixer to cook them. Ingredients are not required, the only requirement is that the dish must have been cooked through dualizing at least once. Dishes are cooked during or after battle depending on the conditions specific to that dish.

• All consumable items, loot, and special crystals can be set to the Eleth Mixer to make them. Each item can be made as long as at least one of the item was in the inventory before. Each item has a set chance and cost of being produced by the Eleth Mixer; rarer and more valuable items have a lower chance and require more Eleth. This system can be used to counteract the high price of gels and other recovery items.

Groovy ChatEdit

The "Groovy Chat" is an advanced skit system which is similar to the chat style introduced in Tales of Destiny 2, with the full body character portraits being shown with more movements and emotional poses. Unlike most skits, these chat events tend to appear frequently when the player is near a save point or at certain objects. The Groovy Chat system includes various pop-up "cut-in" images at set points during the chat, which can be anything from super-deformed chibi faces to mystic arte-quality images.

Downloadable ContentEdit

Like the Playstation 3 port of Tales of Vesperia, DLC is available for both versions of Tales of Graces. A majority of the DLC for the Wii version included extra Aliases for extra character costumes. Tales of Graces ƒ includes more DLC such as new costumes, attachments, items, weapons, and icons. On February 10, 2012, Namco Bandai confirmed that the Tales of Destiny and Tales of Destiny 2 costumes will be coming to the U.S and Canada as GameStop's exclusive pre-order incentive.

DevelopmentEdit

At the Tales of 2008 Press Conference it was announced that a mothership title was in development for the Wii, though at the time no other details were given. At the Nintendo Autumn 2008 Conference, a trailer for the game was shown, but not to the public. The pre-order DVD for Tales of Hearts would contain the trailer for the game that was shown earlier that year. At Jump Festa 2009, the game was referred to by the codename "Tales of Ten", and was announced to have been in development for nearly two years. The voice work was almost complete, it would have a world similar to medieval Europe and that it would be formally revealed in spring, though no other details were given. In early April it was first unveiled in Jump with the title Tales of Graces. In the April 10th issue of gaming magazine Famitsu, it was reported that the game was 30% complete. On December 10th, 2009, the game was released in Japan.

In July 2010, a port for PlayStation 3 known as Tales of Graces ƒ was announced in the weekly Shonen Jump. A couple of days later an official site was put up on the internet with an official teaser trailer. In October 2010 an extended trailer was shown at the Tokyo Game Show, the trailer showed new gameplay elements, new blast caliber's for Asbel and Sophie, and new costumes only in the PlayStation 3 port. The game was released in Japan on December 2, 2010, almost a year after the Wii version release.

Version HistoryEdit

Game Title	System	Catalog Number	Release Date	Region
Tales of Graces テイルズ オブ グレイセス	Nintendo Wii	-	September 25, 2009	Japan (TGS 2009 Demo)
Tales of Graces テイルズ オブ グレイセス	Nintendo Wii	RVL-S-WNTG RVL-STGJ-0A-0 RVL-STGJ-0A-1 -	December 10, 2009 December 10, 2009 February 6, 2010 March 24, 2011	Japan ("Special Pack") Japan (original release) Japan (bugfix release) Japan ("Minna no Osusume Selection")
Tales of Graces ƒ テイルズ オブ グレイセス エフ	PlayStation 3 (PlayStation Store)	-	September 16, 2010 October 7, 2010	Japan (TGS 2010 Demo) Japan
Tales of Graces ƒ テイルズ オブ グレイセス エフ	PlayStation 3	BLAS-50285 BLJS-10093 BLJS-10093 BLUS-30903	December 2, 2010 December 2, 2010 December 3, 2010 March 13, 2012	Asia Japan Japan ("Windol-kokuou Shinsho Package") North America

Cover GalleryEdit

Nintendo Wii Cover (JP)  Nintendo Wii 'Special Pack' Bundle (JP)  PlayStation 3 Cover (JP)

ReferencesEdit

1. ↑ Tales of Graces European Trademark Filed (2009) Retrieved on 2009-10-13.
2. ↑ Tales of Graces F To Be Told In Europe In 2012, Tales of the Abyss Confirmed (2011) Retrieved on 2011-5-11.

External LinksEdit

• [JP] Tales of Graces (Official Website)
• [JP] Tales Channel (Tales Series Official Website)
• [NA] Tales of Graces (Official Website)