Tales of Graces f

[Momo]

I want my fucking Zelos Richard. They could've gone the lame route and went with Kratos but no, they knew that couldn't stand. He pulls it off like a fuckin boss.

[Crimson Red]

I still don't understand how to get any costumes. *sigh*

[Momo]

The earliest one you can get is Asbel's Yuri costume, as soon as you get to Sable Izole. You need at least 10 magic carta cards though, and you have to beat that guy in the minigame with a perfect score (he can't get any of them). After that you get a title for Asbel. Once that title reaches level 3, you can go to his status screen and change his costume from there. From there you can get Sophie's Patty costume (20 cards needed, medium difficulty) and Cheria's Rita costume (25 cards, hard difficulty), the last of which you should never take off her cause damn, it's good looking.

Other costumes can only be gotten when you're near the end of the main game. I'm not sure of the exact time, but once you have the ship you should be able to get them, though I myself have not found them all.

Also, I really like that you don't need to equip the title to use the costume. Little things like that are why this game owns.

[Renall]

That's not true at all. Hubert is versatile in all modes of play. All you need to do is have heavily dualized armor on him. Also, a little level grinding never hurt anyone. Considering the length of combos he can string together and how easy it is to get a weapon with 1000 attack for him, allowing enemies to hit you is difficult enough, even on chaos. And then if you have armor that is set up to bring him on par with the rest of the party, then you've got your problem solved. That's what I did anyway. ^^;;

I got Rolling Thunderbolt and his first infinite B-Arte string and it helped, but he still gets staggered far too easily at higher difficulties when I try to make use of his A-Artes. I wouldn't bother counting how somebody gets full-bore set up on a NG+ when in a first run because it isn't really all that fair. I can solo Vesperia on NG+ with Yuri using a 1-damage weapon in every random battle, that doesn't mean he's King Lockdown while you're still going through it. Likewise, Rita or Genis or Jade are a heck of a lot more impressive when you have their full spell repertoire from the outset. This seems especially true in Graces with needing to get everybody's A-Arte trees filled out.

Hubert seems good once you have all his Artes, but as yet I do not. Also it's not always the easiest thing to just dualize up some armor for him; I'm only now starting to be able to farm good +9/10 EVA shards at the tail end of the game.

Mostly I've just been playing as Asbel and spamming weaknesses. Haven't really found any character who has the same rhythm to me that Lloyd or Yuri did. I think Richard might, but lol Richard so I have to get to the Future Arc to find out for sure. Cheria's probably the most powerful character I've got but she's a bit dull to play even though she's exceptionally strong. Sophie might be what I'm looking for, I just haven't played as her very much.

Also regarding costumes, you can get most of the in-game costumes and late-game skits after you reach a particular dungeon location. I won't spoil anything but it's "Location Name: Center." As soon as you enter that area (it's not right before the final boss, like halfway through the final dungeon) you can get pretty much all non-postgame/Future Arc content, according to the guides. The costume quests might actually open as early as getting full access to the shuttle, which is basically right at the unlocking of the final dungeon anyway.

[Lord Raven]

Pascal, Malik, and Hubert are ridiculously fun to play as, as I've just found out... this game really really diversified its cast, I like it.

[Renall]

What do you... do... as Malik? I've pretty much exclusively used him as Obligatory Tales Magic-Bot spamming B-Artes from the back on AI control, which of course he does do pretty well. I honestly don't even know what his A-Artes do exactly.

[ShinKuma]

Malik the only thing I do when I play as him is B Artes. I like Sophie a great fighter who I can control and heal when I need to. Cheria is pretty fun also just adjesting to playing with a distant attacker. Asbel obviously is alright to use as is Hubert. I can't say too much on Pascal but she is somewhat ok to play as. I've sampled playing as everyone at Riot Peak and I don't think I'll like playing as Malik and Pascal that much.

[Orpheon]

Malik the only thing I do when I play as him is B Artes. I like Sophie a great fighter who I can control and heal when I need to. Cheria is pretty fun also just adjesting to playing with a distant attacker. Asbel obviously is alright to use as is Hubert. I can't say too much on Pascal but she is somewhat ok to play as. I've sampled playing as everyone at Riot Peak and I don't think I'll like playing as Malik and Pascal that much.

I only used Malik so I could get his Sonic Mount Adept title for the awesome MALIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIK BEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAM. I really only use them in battle to pull off their Accel Blast Caliburs, otherwise I usually play Asbel, Hubert, Sohpie, or even Cheria sometime. I've always preferred characters that are up in the enemies faces and just dish out a bunch of damage that way.

Now, as a little change of topic, regarding DLC. It seems likely that we WILL NOT be getting Idolm@ster, Geass, Miku, Toro, Or Xth Haseo costumes. I want my Dual Silver Gunner (Haseo) costume, dammit ;w; So, it's expected that this Tuesday will hold the last set of DLC costumes, which will be the Cameo costumes. Aftewards, it's unclear whether or not more DLC will be released, Namco never said anything about DLC skits or weapons coming over.

[Lord Raven]

What do you... do... as Malik? I've pretty much exclusively used him as Obligatory Tales Magic-Bot spamming B-Artes from the back on AI control, which of course he does do pretty well. I honestly don't even know what his A-Artes do exactly.

Basically, his A-Artes lock onto your enemy and they attack around that enemy. His A-Artes are very long-range, as well, so you can hit far away enemies with it.

It helps that if you do a 4-hit combo then use a spell, the spell has a heavily reduced charging time. So I use 4 A-Artes (they have a large blast radius) followed by a spell and it manages to do quite a lot. His problem is against Nova enemies (that is, when he's by himself so thats retarded), but if you pull out the right spell after a decent enough combo then you're fine. I honestly feel pretty comfortably using him, and he has decent HP.

[Orpheon]

Like predicted, the cameo costumes came out today, and they drained my PSN wallet down to 17 cents. I bought all of them except for Sophie's, since I don't really like her Anise costume with the long hair (I like the hair on the Patty costume better) and because I couldn't afford it. There were no attachments this week however, so I'm probably going to start getting those once I get some more money in my wallet, primarily the Peepit for Manlik Peepinator goodness.

I just started my second playthrough, and it feels good to be playing on Chaos, and at Level 41 with an Ice Coffin before even going to Strahta yet. Feels good man.

[ShinRPGamer]

Hey does anyone know if buying the DLC costumes on the JPSN will work on my NA copy? I have some money left over on my JPSN account and I have a good feeling Namco is not going to release all the DLC costumes outside of Japan. (I.E Sophie Miku or Toro Pascal.)

[ShinKuma]

I'm pretty sure most dlc is for whatever region it's sold. Some fool tried getting JP Disgaea 4 content for NA.

[ShinKuma]

What DLC costumes cannot be gotten in the game? Anyone know by chance?

[Orpheon]

What DLC costumes cannot be gotten in the game? Anyone know by chance?

From the Suit costumes up. The 2-costume packs towards the bottom of the Graces F DLC can be obtained in-game. So basically, every costume there from the Suits up and ending with the Cameos.

EDIT: And no, I don't mean swimsuits. I mean Hubert's Butler, Malik's Detective, and Asbel's Eyepatch+Suit.

Edited April 19, 2012 by DualSilverGunner

[Script]

Alternatively, any DLC costume that's standalone or $3.99.

[Renall]

Asbel-as-Hubert is pretty broken. Those B-Artes were clearly not supposed to be using a C. Atk stat that high.

[Tangerine]

Just picked this up today, bit late I suppose! I can't play it until work is way less busy though. Someone tell me how it is without spoilers :O!

I nominate you, shadow.

[eclipse]

Did you want bits of the non-spoilered story, the battle system, costumes, something else?

[Tangerine]

Eclipse is also acceptable :tangerine:.

Anything you feel like telling me is fine, as long as it doesn't spoil the story :O.

[Momo]

The game fuckin owns.

[1st Mate Bob]

Yanno, I picked this up and was really excited. Played it for a bit... and then it kind of fell apart for me.

I don't know if I just haven't gotten used to the new battle system or what. Something's off, though.

[nano]

Didn't they announce a Wii localisation ages ago? I'm still waiting on it since I don't have a PS3...

It halted the almost-complete fan translation too, which I was so eagerly waiting for.

Edited June 5, 2012 by nano

[Shiningbolt]

As far as I know, they did not announce a Wii localization. It was only announced at one point that the game would make it to the states/wherever you live that's not Japan without a specified console and, unfortunately, Namco wasn't willing to put their new content back into the Wii version of the game.remake for one.

I think it's really apparent by now that if you want to play Tales, you need a Sony console. Since every popular game seems to get an enhanced remake for a Playstation system.

[nano]

Yeah... I really want to try out the Tales games that are not Symphonia 1/2 and Innocence, but I don't have the console. I also have a pretty big line-up on Nintendo consoles already, so it's really weird to buy another console just for Tales.

[eclipse]

Storywise: It's a refreshing break from fighting off the religious figure du jour. Make sure to save before going off to unknown locations; I had to redo an especially stupid boss fight because I didn't take this advice.

Game play: The battle system relies on something called CC. Every single move, barring Mystic Artes, relies on it. Each weapon gives a CC range; the more, the better. You can also get a temporary CC raise in battle by filling the critical gauge (which you'll be introduced to in the battle tutorials). For A Artes (usually Asbel whacking things over the head), you'll move down a tree, starting from 1 CC moves to 4 CC moves (so you'll need a minimum of 10 to hit a full chain of moves). B Artes also take a chunk out of the CC gauge, and aren't seen in the beginning of the game. Casters can cut down their casting time by linking their A Artes into the spell they want (B Arte). You'll learn more Artes by equipping and learning them through titles. Overlimit is replaced by an Eleth gauge on the left; if it fills blue, your entire team gets the equivalent of it for a few seconds. Likewise, if it fills red, the enemy gets it. The Mystic Arte gauge is also shared, and when someone triggers it, the level of that gauge determines the power of the Arte. Each Arte has properties that have it deal additional damage (so if you're fighting a Reptile, and you use any Arte with the Reptile property, you'll do more damage); hit all enemy weak points and you'll get a bonus at the end of the battle. I think that's all of it? Tales of Graces has a kickass battle system, so have fun playing with it~!

Costumes: Due to the nature of titles in this game, once you "earn" a costume from its title, you can equip said costume to the character via the Status menu, and it will stick until you change your mind. I changed Asbel out of his bell bottoms as soon as I could.