A Backyard War

Well, it's been a while.  I've managed to sink my teeth pretty well into Tales of Graces f, and I've come to some early conclusions.


First, this game still has one of the earlier thresholds before letting your characters look like total badasses in combat.  As I've stated before, most RPGs make you slog through earning the right to cast a spell or using items and suchlike, maybe getting one flashy move or something for the first few hours (excluding dedicated grinding or other 'gamey' techniques).  Graces f rewards a smart player with all sorts of sublime deadliness right out of the gate.  I honestly haven't seen early-game moves this flashy--or effective--outside of Chrono Trigger (which still a while to get really going) or Chrono Cross (which has a bigger emphasis on flash compared to effectiveness).  It's pretty much button mashing with a few layers of complexity, but dang those mooks really go whirr in the blender here.


Second, the crafting system is simple, but pretty deep.  Tales games and The Harvest haven't really intersected all that well (especially Abyss, that system was crappy and obtuse), but here we've got ourselves a good bit of fun.  What makes things interesting is that the system includes recipes for all sorts of 'cashable' items, effectively knick-knacks you make from monster bits and sell off for a profit.  Another point is that there is a gradual improvement/tempering system for weapons and primary armor.  You take special materials called 'shards' and add them to a piece of gear, then you temper the piece in combat, then you combine two similar pieces (weapon/weapon or armor/armor) which results in gem you can equip for various effects, and you can take the original equipment and improve them further.  This can go on for about as long as you want, resulting in lots of special accessories and gear with stat-lines way above baseline.  Add all the other parts and you've got an system truly worthy of the craft-geek.


Finally, this game is just so, well, pretty.  I haven't really seen a game that showed off the PS3 compared to earlier--or even contemporary--platforms, and this game is a real gem.  I know its a remake of a Wii game, but Namco but their chance to update and polish this game to good use.  the backgrounds are lush, characters are agreeable to look at, and even the monsters are something to see.  Tales has a tradition of monsters that try to put novelty over visual appeal, and here they finally reached a good balance that I haven't really seen since Tales of Legendia, home of such craziness like gigantic, man-eating beds and turtles with intrinsic, incorporated artillery pieces in their shells.  I haven't found anything so wacky yet, but we shall see.


Why didn't they release a guide?  Oh well, The Harvest Never Rests.