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. 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.

Characters

 * Asbel Lhant - An 18-year-old knight in training from the Lhant territory in the country of Windor. He initially desires to become a royal knight of Windor to fulfill his desire of protecting others. However, after his father's death, he is called back to Lhant to assume his inherited role as its lord, in spite of the sour thoughts of locals who view him as someone who turned his back on their needs.
 * Sophie - A mysterious girl without memories. She was named by Asbel, after the sopheria flower that she had taken a liking to. She values her friendship with Asbel, wanting to protect him from any dangers that arise.
 * Hubert Oswell - Asbel's younger brother who was adopted into a prominent military family in the rival country of Strahta. 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 Strahta'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 knight academy. 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 country of Windor, who has the respect of its citizens. Asbel and Richard share a very strong bond.

Plot
Tales of Graces takes place on a planet known as Ephinea. Ephinea relies on large obelisk monuments known as Valkines Cryas to supply them with Eleth. Eleth is the source of life for the people of Ephinea. There are three Valkines Cryas on Ephinea, Gloandi in Windor, Duplemar in Strahta, and Forbrannir in Fendel. Each produces a spcific type of Eleth, based on the elements of wind, water, and fire, repectively.

Childhood's End
Tales of Graces opens with a young Asbel and a young Hubert standing at the foot of Lhant Hill. Asbel, as always, wishes to go exploring, while his younger brother Hubert is terrified of getting in trouble. The two journey up to the meadow at the peak, where they discover a Mysterious Girl. Asbel and Hubert believe the Mysterious Girl has amnesia, so they decide to take her to town to see if anyone remembers who she is.

Upon arriving in Lhant the three kids meet a very unhappy Cheria. Cheria scolds Asbel for leaving her behind while he and Hubert were out exploring, and begins to feel jealous that Asbel had been hanging out with the Mysterious Girl. Asbel explains that he and Hubert found the Mysterious Girl on Llahnt Hill, and that she has no memories of who she is or where she comes from. Cheria suggests that they go talk to her grandfather, Frederic, because if anyone in Lhant knows who this girl is, it would be him.

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.

Titles
Titles offer status bonuses to the user. Titles primarily 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.

Dualizing
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 Mixer
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 halving 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 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. 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.

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.