Tales of Graces f Remastered review: A brilliant story about the benefits and pitfalls of friendship

Tales of Graces f Remastered is a beautiful remaster of arguably one of the best Tales games in the series, or at the very least, out of the ones I remember fondly. For my money, it’s up there with Tales of Vesperia, which likely won’t get a remaster, since it’s already received a quality update a few years back. However, I admit I was a little nervous.

After all, the Tales of Symphonia remaster was a little janky. Thankfully, that isn’t the case here.

It’s clear the team is taking this Year of Tales quite seriously because Tales of Graces f Remastered is a beautiful masterpiece. There’s no cut content, other than some of the DLC that was branded/licensed, from what I understand, and the presentation is exactly what I expected.

Now that the title has launched, should you pick it up? Let’s dive into that.

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What can players expect in Tales of Graces f Remastered?

Tales of Graces f Remastered, like all good Tales games, is a nice, lengthy affair that tells an enjoyable story and features memorable, and often very comical characters. Graces f is an updated version of the original Graces, from the PlayStation 3 version. The original version of Graces f added post-game content, taking place about six months, after the events of the main story.

The Grade Shop can really start your journey on the right foot (Image via Bandai Namco)

That “f” stands for future, and thus, we have the post-game Future Arc. It added a ton of story and dialogue, wrapping up pretty much everything from the main story in a nice, neat, bow. The remaster then added updated graphics, new secrets, costumes, and much more. It also comes with an absolute mountain of DLC, and even a solid amount of Grade to customize your playthrough.

For those unfamiliar, Grade is a currency used in the Grade Shop. You can access this before you start playing, to give yourself more exp, or any of the other incredibly useful — or challenge-inducing options within the Grade Shop itself.

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Tales of Graces f Remastered is a special RPG, that shows the trials and tribulations of friendship

There are plenty of somber moments to go with the comical ones (Image via Bandai Namco)

For the most part, the whole cast of Tales of Graces f Remastered are well-rounded, interesting characters. Seeing the interactions between the cast in the game’s various Skits is among my favorite things from any RPG franchise to date. However, the story itself is quite serious, even with comical breaks.

It’s all about Asbel Lhant, heir to the Lhant family, and what it means to be someone’s “friend”. I won’t spoil anything about the story, but Asbel’s journey, and what it means to be someone’s friend, even if perhaps you probably shouldn’t be, it’s all very well written.

It may not be the best story in the Tales franchise — for me, that’s probably Hearts or Vesperia — but Tales of Graces f Remastered is still a memorable, charming story. There were a lot of people who gave it grief when it came out, and I don’t think very much of that was warranted.

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Titles and Combat are the real heroes of Tales of Graces f Remastered

Combat is flexible and certainly a lot of fun (Image via Bandai Namco)

While the story is fun, Tales of Graces f also has a masterful combat system. For some players, it might feel a bit overwhelming, because you simply have so much you can do. The combo system is excellent, though I do still feel Asbel’s “drawn sword/sheathed sword” combat style can be clunky, and take some getting used to.

That said, I cannot say enough good about the combat itself. The way skills flow together, and how easily a battle can go from hopeless to a great victory, simply by slowing down and paying attention. Each character has plenty of skills, and they also have absolute mountains of Titles, which can further shape how they play.

There are so many ways you can get Titles, and they're all worth spending time with (Image via Bandai Namco)

As you achieve story milestones, certain combat objectives, and a wealth of other ways, you can start unlocking Titles for each character. They have 5 levels and grant a series of attacks, stats, or even costumes. It’s amazing how many ways you can unlock titles. You can use these to power up specific skills, increase healing/damage, and so much more.

I certainly noticed a difference while playing Tales of Graces f, while mastering the right Titles to improve where I thought a character could use it — such as Cheria’s healing. While some can argue about the story, the triumph that is this game’s combat system, cannot be contested.

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A few quality-of-life changes were added to make the game more accessible

Sometimes, it's just nice to know for sure you're going the right way (Image via Bandai Namco)

There are some changes in Tales of Graces f that I certainly think need to be called attention to. I’ve already talked about how the NG+ Grade Shop is accessible without beating the game, which is certainly required. However, it’s not as big as having an HUD reminder of where to go next, and an input that will call up your current story objective on screen, in case you forget.

That said, the other thing that I think is amazing, is that if a limited-time Skit/event is available near you, you’ll see it on the screen with a Red Hourglass. I can’t tell you how many Skits I’ve missed in a Tales game because I simply didn’t know they existed. These are changes I’m certainly a big fan of.

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The presentation of Tales of Graces f Remastered looked great, and played smooth

Skits have some fantastic art and voice acting, that's for sure (Image via Bandai Namco)

On PC, Tales of Graces f Remastered can go up to 120 FPS, which is what I ran it on — and it played perfectly the entire time. It can easily hit 60 fps as well, with that in mind. I only struggled on my laptop, and that’s because my laptop is a few years old by now, and not a “big gaming laptop”.

The graphics were great for being a Wii game turned PS3 game turned modern updated JRPG, as well. The Skit visuals looked so sharp, and the voice acting in them was more emotive than some of the other voice work in the game. I don’t really think that’s bad, and I don’t want you to think that the rest of the game sounds bad.

This part just stood out more to me. Both the Japanese and English voice casts for Tales of Graces f Remastered are solid, that’s for sure.

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Final thoughts

It's the little things that make this game so memorable (Image via Bandai Namco)

Tales of Graces f Remastered is an amazingly fun trip back through time. If you’re one of those people who already put hundreds of hours in, I can imagine not wanting to go back, though. After all, it’s not perfect. There is so much annoying backtracking, for example. You walk through the same paths so many times, and the map itself is pretty dated. This debuted on the Wii.

Nonetheless, I’m a huge fan of how this turned out. I love the story of friendship, and how the Tales series isn’t afraid to tackle serious issues in a way that makes sense.

The combat is incredible, and all the collections and side content is worth exploring. I just hope the rest of the upcoming Tales remasters/remakes keep this same energy.

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Tales of Graces f Remastered

If you missed out on this when it came out, it's definitely worth experiencing (Image via Sportskeeda and Bandai Namco)

• Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4/PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC
• Reviewed on: PC (Code provided by Bandai Namco)
• Release date: January 16, 2025
• Developer: TOSE
• Publisher: Bandai Namco