Tales of Graces
is an action role-playing video game developed by Namco Tales Studio and published by Namco Bandai Games for the Wii. It was initially only released in Japan in December 2009. It is the twelfth main installment of the Tales series. The game was ported to the PlayStation 3 under the title and was released in Japan in December 2010. The PlayStation 3 version was localized and released in English in 2012. A remastered version, Tales of Graces f Remastered, was released for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Windows on January 17, 2025.
The game is set in the world of Ephinea and follows Asbel Lhant, who as a child befriends an amnesiac girl and witnesses her death before reuniting with her seven years later.
Tales of Graces and Tales of Graces f both received positive reception in Japan. The Wii version sold over 100,000 copies while the PS3 version sold 200,000 copies during their first week of release. The game was adapted into four manga collections, a novel series, and eight drama CDs. The English localization of Tales of Graces f received praise for the gameplay, with mixed reviews for its presentation.
Gameplay
Tales of Graces consists primarily of two major areas: the field map and a battle screen. The field map is a realistically scaled 3D environment traversed by foot, on which various skits between characters can be viewed that include animated character portraits, subtitles, and full voice acting. The battle screen is a 3D representation of an area, in which the player commands characters in battle against CPU-controlled enemies.During battle sequences, the game uses the Style Shift Linear Motion Battle System. Four characters are chosen to battle, with characters not controlled by the player being controlled by artificial intelligence with instructions set by the player beforehand. Chain Capacity denotes the number of skills and actions a character can perform, with usage reducing it, and it recharges over time. During battle, the player and enemy have an Eleth Gauge, which, when filled, grants unlimited CC and resistance to stunning. Each character has two skill systems: Assault Artes, which are predetermined combos, and Burst Artes, which can be mapped to specific inputs. Skill and attribute development are dependent on Titles and their levels. Titles are earned through story progression and completion of miscellaneous criteria during battle, and each have five levels that are advanced by completing battles.
Plot
The game takes place in the world of Ephinea, which is divided into the countries of Windor, Stratha, and Fendel. Each nation relies on energy known as "eleth", distributed throughout the world in the form of crystals known as "Cryas". The three "Valkines Cryas" are giant crystals which are the primary source of eleth for each nation.Asbel Lhant, Hubert Lhant, and Cheria Barnes are children from Lhant, a village in Windor, who one day befriend an amnesiac girl from outside their village, whom they name Sophie. Richard, the prince of Windor, visits Lhant and befriends the group. After Asbel and Sophie save Richard from an assassination attempt, Richard returns to Barona, Windor's capital city, inviting them to come visit. Asbel and Sophie secretly head to Barona soon after. Upon reuniting with Hubert and Cheria, the group enters the castle through a secret passage at Richard's instruction. They discover an unconscious Richard and are attacked by a powerful monster, and Sophie sacrifices herself to save them. Asbel awakens in Lhant and learns of Sophie's death and Hubert's political adoption into the Oswell family, done to secure Asbel's future as the Lord of Lhant. Distraught over Sophie's death and the political events at home, Asbel runs away and enrolls in Barona's knight academy, training under Captain Malik Caesar.
Seven years later, Asbel encounters Cheria and learns that his father has died defending Lhant from Fendel's invasion. They return to Lhant and unexpectedly encounter a revived Sophie, who has lost her memories. Fendel resumes the attach on Lhant but are stopped by Hubert, who arrives with Stratha's military. He reveals that Windor ordered Stratha to secure Lhant, and assumes the position of Lord after banishing Asbel from the village. After hearing rumors of Richard's death, the party investigates and finds him in the castle's secret passage. Richard tells them that his father was killed by his uncle, Cedric, who has assumed the throne. The party travels to meet Richard's ally in a neighboring city and encounter Pascal, a prodigy from the ancient Amarcian tribe of engineers, who joins them. As they travel, Richard begins to show signs of madness and has several violent outbursts. With the allied army, the party overthrows Cedric and Richard regains the throne.
Richard orders an invasion of Lhant to free it from Stratha's control, forcing the party to betray him. Recognizing Hubert's efforts to protect Lhant, they travel to Stratha with Malik to negotiate with the government and formally instate Hubert as the Lord of Lhant. The Strathan government agrees on the pretense that Pascal repairs Stratha's valkines, which is malfunctioning. Though they succeed, Richard arrives absorbs the valkines' eleth before fleeing. The party learns that Windor's valkines has also been absorbed, and plan to intercept Richard at the final valkines in Fendel. Hubert joins the party and they travel to Fendel, but they fail to stop Richard. They deduce that the Lastalia, the planet's core, is Richard's final target. The party finds him there and attempts to reason with him, but he mortally wounds Sophie before sealing the entrance in a massive cocoon-like barrier.
The party is unable to heal Sophie with magic or medicine, so Pascal suggests that they travel to Fodra, a nearby planet that Sophie originates from, to find a cure. After finding a space shuttle left behind by Pascal's ancestors, they travel to Fodra and meet Emeraude, the last remaining human there. Using advanced machinery, Sophie is healed and regains her memories, revealing that she is a biological humanoid that does not age, engineered by the people of Fodra to defeat Lambda. They also discover that Lambda is the monster that attacked them seven years prior and is possessing Richard. Emeraude helps the party bypass the barrier on the Lastalia, where they confront and defeat Richard. Emeraude betrays the party and attempts to absorb Lambda's power in order to restore Fodra, but fails to assume control and is killed in the process. Lambda begins to fuse with the Lastalia, allowing the party to see his memories and learn of his suffering at the hands of humanity on Fodra. Within the core of the planet, the party defeats the materialized Lambda; since he cannot be killed by normal means, Sophie intends to sacrifice herself once again to kill him. Instead, Asbel absorbs Lambda into his body, and convinces Lambda to let him show humanity's worth. Seeing the strength of Asbel's resolve, Lambda reluctantly agrees, to before falling into a deep sleep.
In the after-story Lineage and Legacies, the monster population has become an epidemic, forcing the party to reunite and investigate the cause. Hypothesizing that the eleth from Fodra is influencing the monsters, they travel there and discover that Fodra's core has reactivated and is sentient, seeking revenge on humans for Fodra's environmental decay. The party defeats Fodra's soldiers, the "Little Queens", and have the reawakened Lambda absorb Fodra's consciousness before he returns to his deep sleep in order to dispel Fodra's hatred, as Asbel had done for him. The party separates and returns to their daily lives, with Asbel proposing to Cheria and the pair adopting Sophie as their daughter. In the distant future, Sophie shares the story of the party's adventures with Asbel and Cheria's great-great-grandson.
Main characters
;Asbel LhantAsbel is the eldest son and successor to Aston Lhant, the Lord of the village Lhant. After Sophie's death and Hubert's adoption into the Oswell family, Asbel leaves for Barona, where he trains to become a knight in order to atone for his failure to protect Sophie. After the events of Tales of Graces, he assumes the position of Lord. In Lineage and Legacies, he marries Cheria and adopts Sophie into the Lhant family. Since his debut, Asbel has ranked third in the Tales character popularity polls.
The game's producer, Hideo Baba, wanted Asbel's story to portray the need to conform to social guidelines and expectations as one grows up. Through Asbel's conflict between choosing to succeed his father's Lordship or follow his dreams as a Knight, Baba wanted the players to understand the importance of protecting what is important to them and following through with their own path and dreams.
;Sophie
Sophie is an amnesiac girl whom Asbel, Hubert, Cheria, and Richard befriend. She is seemingly killed after protecting them from Lambda, but reappears seven years later to protect Asbel and Cheria when they are in danger. She is later revealed to be Protos Heis, a humanoid made of tiny particles that can act together or separately. Her death was her breaking up into particles that came to reside inside Asbel, Hubert, and Cheria to heal their wounds, causing them to possess mystical powers. During the events of Lineage and Legacies, Sophie expresses her fears of life after the death of her friends due to her immortality. To lessen her fears, Asbel formally adopts her into the Lhant family. After fusing with a Little Queen, Sophie ages to an adult and is able to express a greater variety of emotions. Since her debut, Sophie has ranked on the Tales character popularity polls. Sophie is a playable character in Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology 3.
;Hubert Oswell
Hubert is Asbel's younger brother, who is adopted into the Oswell family to secure Asbel's succession to Lord. Hubert resents Asbel for deserting Lhant, perceiving the act as spiteful to his sacrifice, and his parents for abandoning him. He overcomes his anger when he reunites with his family seven years later. Due to his capabilities, he is appointed the lieutenant of the Strahta military. Hubert ranked on the fifth Tales character popularity poll and fell from the rankings afterwards. He makes a cameo in Tales of Hearts R dressed as the Sony mascot Kuro.
;Cheria Barnes
Cheria is the granddaughter of Lhant's family butler, who was sickly as a child but is healed due to Sophie's powers. She is in love with Asbel, but treats him coldly after he leaves Lhant; however, she later reconciles with him after revealing her sorrow at him abandoning her. She later marries him after he proposes to her. Since her debut, Cheria has ranked on the Tales character popularity polls. Game Informer listed Cheria as one of the best characters in the Tales series. Cheria is a playable character in Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology 3 and Tales of the Heroes: Twin Brave.
;Richard
Richard is the prince of Windor, who befriends Asbel and Sophie after his visit to Lhant. Before meeting Asbel, Richard is distrustful of others due to them exploiting his status for their own gain and his uncle Cedric's attempts to murder him. When Cedric poisoned him and left him to die in the underground passage, Lambda saved his life by fusing with him. Seven years later, Lambda's influence causes Richard to become violent and attempt to destroy humanity by fusing with the Lastalia. After separating from Lambda, Richard is determined to atone for his crimes, causing him to become more popular with the people of the three countries. Since his debut, Richard has ranked on the Tales character popularity polls.
;Malik Caesar
Malik is Asbel's instructor at the knight academy, who is popular with women due to his maturity and gentlemanly demeanor. In the past, he was a revolutionary of Fendel who fought for the lower class. After the events of the game, he becomes Fendel's ambassador. Malik ranked on the fifth Tales character popularity poll and fell from the rankings since then. He makes a cameo in .hack//Links pre-order DVD.
;Pascal
Pascal is a prodigy of the Amarcians, a tribe of engineers, who is fascinated by mysterious technology and Sophie's origins. Since her debut, Pascal has ranked on the Tales character popularity polls. She makes a cameo in Tales of Hearts R dressed as Sony mascot Toro Inoue.
;Lambda
Lambda is an advanced lifeform created on Fodra, whose mistreatment by humans caused him to harbor hatred towards them. During the party's childhood, he resides inside Richard after he is injured by Sophie, saving his life. Seven years later, Lambda is reawakened when Richard is fatally wounded, healing him and manipulating him to achieve his goal of destroying humanity. After being defeated by the party, Lambda is absorbed by Asbel, who convinces him to give humans a chance. In Lineage and Legacies, he absorbs Fodra's consciousness to dissuade her hatred as Asbel did for him.
;Fodra
Fodra is a sentient desolated planet. A thousand years ago, Fodra began annihilating humanity with its personal army, the, to preserve its environment. Fodra's scientists shut down Fodra's core and relocate the surviving humans to Ephinea. In Lineage and Legacies, Fodra is reactivated and resumes its genocide; after being confronted by the party, it merges the remaining Little Queens to form. After the party defeats the Queen, Fodra's consciousness is absorbed by Lambda, who intends to dissuade its hatred. As the last Little Queen is dying, Sophie accepts her request to merge with it and watch over Fodra.