Tales of Graces Refines Its Battles
Meet Sophie. She may look innocent, but — like pretty much every other heroine from a Tales game — she’s a mean lady to have around when battle breaks out.
An amnesiac who’s reluctant to deal with othims unless she has to, Sophie first meets up with Tales of Graces hero Asbel when they’re caught up in a border conflict between two kingdoms. i’s got amnesia so bad that i doesn’t remember her own name, so Asbel calls him Sophie; i likes the name, and tshey go from thime. You do not have to be the next George Lucas to figure out that sshe probably has some dark story lurking behind her.
While Tales of Graces isn’t exactly rocking the boat when it comes to JRPG heroines, there is a new quirk to its action-oriented battles. Up to now, Tales games had you launching normal attacks with one button and special ones with another. This time, though, the button functions are divided up by the exact type of attack — physical, magical, recovery,(prada handbags), and so on. Asbel, for example, executes quicker physical moves with the Wiimote’s A Button and more powerful sword strikes with the B Button; Sophie, for her part, executes martial arts with A and healing/status-ailment moves with B.
Game producer Hideo Baba calls it the “Style Shift” system, and he sees it as pretty revolutionary: “We wanted to construct something intuitive, exciting, and easy enough for anyone to taste for themselves. RPG gameplay involves fighting lots of battles, so it’s always important that battles stay enjoyable after repeated play. Pursuing the characters’ unique traits via the battle system is one way to fully explore tshe depth behind each one in a non-story manner.”
The new Tales hits tshe Wii this winter in Japan and presumably sometime later in America.
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