Tales of Graces f Remastered Review: The Perfect Way To Honor 30 Years Of Tales

Tales of Graces f Remastered from the collaborative minds of Tose and Bandai Namco is the latest remastered version of the original 2009 game, Tales of Graces. Originally released as a Wii game, Tales of Graces was locked behind lower-resolution graphics and limited accessibility, which eventually led to its first remastered port to the PS3, Tales of Graces f. Now that even that port has become outdated, Tales of Graces f is coming to modern consoles, yet again, with numerous quality-of-life improvements and most DLC content, all of which make this remaster the ideal way to play.

Tales of Graces f Remastered

Action RPG

Adventure

JRPG

Released: January 17, 2025
ESRB: T For Teen // Fantasy Violence, Mild Language, Mild Suggestive Themes
Developer(s): Tose
Publisher(s): Bandai Namco Entertainment
Franchise: Tales of
Platform(s): PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC

Tales of Graces f Remastered tells the story of Asbel Lhant, a stubborn child with a knack for trouble who is determined to prove he’s more than just the next Lord of Lhant. After stumbling upon a mysterious girl without any memories in a flower garden and narrowly helping a prince escape an attempt on his life, Asbel forms a friendship pact that’s sworn to last forever. Unfortunately, after a series of tragic events and a significant time jump, Asbel learns that everything is not as simple as it once seemed, as he bands together with old friends to save his home.

Lively Characters Bring An Otherwise Lacking Plot To Life

Despite Containing A Predictable Story, Graces f Remastered Is Saved By The Uniqueness Of Its Characters

While exploring the world of Ephinea, players will help Asbel build a party to save his home in a time of political warfare. With regions of the country in a power struggle, Asbel will have to decide what’s most important to him and ultimately let go of past mistakes. Despite that the story of Tales of Graces f has been largely regarded as one of the weaker stories in the Tales franchise, it’s still nothing to disregard. The plot is certainly predictable, and some may even find it a bit juvenile, but there’s still plenty to keep you engaged from beginning to end.

Most notably, the characters of Tales of Graces f Remastered do a lot to make up for any areas where the story itself may be lacking. Throughout the game, players can witness several mandatory scenes and optional skits that only serve to provide personality to the party and their interactions with each other. The main cast of characters, including Asbel, Cheria, Richard, Sophie, Hubert, Malik, and Pascal are so unique that even though the final party is smaller than most Tales games, you hardly notice.

The varied personalities and battle styles of each character are distinct and memorable, making you eager to continue the adventure alongside them. Pascal, in particular, serves as a bit of comic relief among an otherwise serious and often melancholic group, and it's this unique distinction that makes her all the more enjoyable. That being said, if the story and characters still don’t seem to be pulling you in, don’t write Tales of Graces f Remastered off just yet as it still offers some of the most incredible gameplay in the franchise.

Fantastic Gameplay Is Made Even Better With New Customizations

Tales of Graces f Remastered Offers Players The Opportunity To Control Every Inch Of Battle

What Tales of Graces f Remastered lacks in story, it makes up for in fun gameplay and complex battle mechanics. With real-time combat that occurs during small-stage open-world encounters, players are tasked with learning the two primary types of attacks. In Tales of Graces f Remastered, these attacks are known as A-Arte or physical attacks and B-Arte or Magic Attacks, and per some of the quality of life changes, players can customize battles like never before. This includes custom button mapping as well as toggling party members into manual or auto modes, where you can also adjust their focus in battle, primary attack type, and more.

This on-the-fly customization, alongside the ability to change titles, which influences a party member's abilities, means the party can be altered to take advantage of their strengths and weaknesses, with characters like Cheria being an obvious healer and Asbel being better suited for close combat. Furthermore, those who were previously unable to enjoy the Lineage and Legacies additional content will now receive it as part of this remaster and thus have the chance to utilize Accel Mode, which adds even more unique effects to party members and their abilities.

Notable Changes Make This Remaster The Best Way To Play

Many Of The Quality Of Life Changes Aren't Just Accommodating, They're Necessary

As for the QOL improvements, which will be the most influential factor when deciding whether to purchase yet another remastered port of this game, players will be pleased to know that they are present in every aspect of gameplay. Concerning battles, aside from the customization additions mentioned above, players also have the option to retry failed encounters or even toggle them off completely. While story-driven battles simply can't be avoided, you will at least now have the option of preventing repetitive encounters with enemies while traversing Ephinea, something that is often easily overlooked in games like this.

On the note of exploration, the destination tracker is another major addition that feels necessary, even featuring an hourglass icon for time-sensitive objectives. In a game without fast travel, knowing where you’re going is essential unless you’re keen on spending half an hour wandering lost on enemy-littered paths. That being said, it's not exactly a perfect fix. While there is a marker on-screen at all times leading you in the right direction, it doesn’t seem to account for anything that may be obstructing that route, which means you'll still experience the occasional frustrated detour.

Still, the map is relatively easy to learn, so combining that with the ability to toggle off encounters and increase your speed makes getting lost a bit less of a headache than it was previously. As for some other minor quality-of-life changes, Graces f also now offers an autosave feature, although it feels a bit pointless as save points are plentiful, and often I found that my recent manual save was more accurate than the last autosave, so I simply didn't take advantage of this feature.

Young Asbel, Cheria, Sophie, and Hubery interacting in Tales of Graces f Remastered

Scenes and skits are also skippable now as part of this remaster, but unless you're completing a speedrun or replaying for the tenth time, I find it hard to see another use for this, as it essentially results in skipping the entire story, which would be a shame as it features wonderful voice acting by notable legends like Bryce Papenbrook and Laura Bailey. The last feature, and one which may interest returning players specifically, is that the Grade Shop is now available on an initial playthrough.

For newcomers, the Grade Shop is a store available before beginning the game in which players can purchase various features that will affect their game, such as increased EXP from battles, a bonus to max HP, etc. The majority of these will be effective immediately, and while most can be toggled on and off at any point, not all of them can, and they will drastically affect gameplay. So, while returning players may appreciate the change, newcomers may want to avoid too many changes so they can experience Tales of Graces f Remastered as initially intended.

Final Thoughts & Review Score

Screen Rant Gives Tales of Graces f Remastered 8/10

Overall, Tales of Graces f Remastered is a great remastered port that brings a classic title to modern consoles while featuring necessary enhancements that make it worth returning to. Newcomers will be in for a heartwarming tale coupled with fascinating gameplay, while returning players will be able to experience the story of Graces f the way they were always meant to.

Although many could argue that Graces f didn’t need yet another remaster, the quality of life changes in this particular version as well as the included additional content make Tales of Graces f Remastered the best and only way to play through Asbel’s story and is a great way to kick off the 2025 celebratory year of 30 years of Tales games.