Tales of Graces

Tales of Graces (テイルズ オブ グレイセス) 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. No western release has been announced as of yet, although a trademark has been filed in Europe.

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 (Project MelFes) and externally by Alfa System, respectively.

Characters

 * Asbel Lhant - An 18-year-old knight from the Lhant Territory in the country of Windol 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 Windol, he enjoys peace. Asbel and Richard share a very strong bond. He wields a rapier.

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

In the remote region of Windol 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 eighth 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.

Tales of Graces ƒ
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), 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.

Presentation
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 System
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.

Aliases
Aliases are similar to the titles from previous games and offer status bonuses to the user. Aliases are different from titles, because they allow characters to learn new artes, skills, and Blast Calibers. Aliases are acquired in many different ways, some by story scenes, using artes a certain amount, and other certain conditions.

Groovy Chat
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 Content
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.

Development
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.