Could you imagine that after almost 15 years of being locked behind the Nintendo Wii and the PlayStation 3, the 12th mainline title in the historic Tales of series, Tales of Graces, would one day be legitimately playable on modern gaming hardware? I sure didn’t. But Tales of Graces f Remastered – the entry title into Bandai Namco Entertainment’s new Tales Remastered Project – proves that the company is serious about bringing its titular Japanese action role-playing series to the current era.

Tales of Graces f Remastered has some big shoes to fill after the disappointing Tales of Symphonia Remaster, which suffered from poor performance, a major graphical downhall, and frequent bugs and crashes, especially on the version released for Nintendo Switch. And fill them it did, delivering on all fronts. In the weekend I spent devouring the game, I can confidently say that it bursts at the seams with charm, pays tribute to the work of the late character designer Mutsumi Inomata, rips at the heart with its story, and offers an immensely creative, robust, and fluid combat system that never manages to become stale or repetitive throughout its 40–60 hour runtime.

Tales of Graces f Remastered is set in the engrossing fictional world of Ephinea, which blends the high fantasy of swords, shields, and magic, with the technological futurism of guns, grenades, and science-fiction. Ephinea is divided into three nations, Windsor, Strahta, and Fendal, each relying on one of three crystalline monoliths known as the Valkines Cryas to supply Eleth, the source of all life.

The game’s prologue begins as most JRPGs do, set in the peaceful, idyllic village of Lhant in the nation of Windor. Here, you are introduced to the game’s main protagonist, the classic leading hero Asbel Lhant, as well as some of the game’s other cast of endearing characters; Asbel’s youngest brother Hubert, and their best friend Cheria. One day, a fateful encounter with an amnesiac girl with extraordinary abilities, whom they later name Sophie, and Richard, the Prince of Windor, disrupt the children’s lives and tears them apart, putting in motion a threat that will one day jeopardise the fate of the world.

The remainder of the story follows Asbel several years after the events of his childhood. Now a knight in training, Asbel must reunite with his friends when war threatens his hometown—meeting new companions along the way such as the technical genius Pascal, and the rugged knight instructor Malik. Tales of Graces f Remastered is a game about connection and the radical importance of empathy and understanding. Its cast of lovable characters enables the game to touch on themes, ideas, and concepts typical of the Tales series with gravitas and decorum.

Whilst not as dark as more recent entries in the series, such as Tales of Berseria, or Tales of Arise, Tales of Graces f still manages to be thought-provoking. With Malik’s tragic backstory of loss, Asbel’s struggle with his noble obligations versus his desire to live on his own terms, Sophia’s childish naïveté, Hubert’s abandonment issues, and Richard’s possession by an unknown, sinister entity, ultimately begging the question: How far are you willing to go to help the people you love?

One of the main draws of the Tales games is their well-developed, nuanced, and intricate combat systems, and Tales of Graces f Remastered is no exception. The Style Shift Linear Motion Battle System (SS-LMBS for short), a real-time battle system that plays on the franchise’s iconic Linear Motion Battle System, allows for each of the seven total playable characters to have two distinct fighting styles that can be freely switched between in combat by using A-Artes and B-Artes. Artes, for those unfamiliar with the series, are named attacks, spells, and techniques.

In this game, all actions including A-Artes, B-Artes, free-running, evading, and quick-stepping consume Chain Capacity (CC)—a staple of the PlayStation 3 era of Tales games. Once the CC gauge (located in the bottom right of the character’s combat portrait) reaches zero, no more actions can be completed until enough is recovered to perform another.

The risk versus reward nature of Graces’ combat not only feels great to play but becomes mesmerising the more you do. And whilst the Chain Capacity mechanic may be challenging at first, you’ll be guided through it nicely and slowly. And as you gain new Artes, increase your CC gauge, and unlock new abilities, you’ll find yourself capable of performing long, high-octane combos that will leave even the best of players impressed.

New Artes can be unlocked with Titles, names and phrases that the player can equip that then allow them to learn new A-Artes, B-Artes, and further down the line even Mystic Artes—powerful ultimate attacks exclusive to each character that are triggered with a special animation that can deal high amounts of damage, or completely heal the party. Titles also have the added benefit of increasing the effectiveness of existing abilities, boosting the character’s stats and resistances, and even unlocking costumes. Throughout the game, you will unlock new Titles in an assortment of ways, such as after pivotal story moments, by executing actions consecutively, or by completing a specific amount of battles.

There is also the Dualizing mechanic, similar to the customisation feature present in other games in the series, which involves combining two items to create something new. Dualizing is integral to surviving the game’s harder difficulties and the notoriously tough post-game EX Dungeon, allowing the player to enhance weapons and armour with effects and status bonuses from special shards that drop from enemies, combining ingredients to create high-end food that can heal players in a pinch and increase their defensive and offensive capabilities, or creating valuable loot to sell.

In addition to that, there is the Eleth Mixer, which is similar to the Gambit System present in Final Fantasy XII, where certain actions such as consuming food in battle, evoking special effects like halving damage, or making much-needed items occur only when certain conditions are met such as a party member going down in combat or ending a battle with half health. Not much has been added to the Dualizing and Eleth Mixers beyond a revamp of their tutorials, which are significantly better than the base games which for the most part required the player to figure it out themselves.

There’s also a variety of side-quests, mini-games, and optional content to test your mettle against various foes. The Warrior’s Roost Collossuem available from chapter four onwards will test how you handle combat with only one character, whilst the Trails of Graces mode available from the main menu allows you to prepare a party and fight hordes of enemies in succession, bringing the rewards you earn into your main save.

Unfortunately, there are a couple of glaring problems that prevent Tales of Graces f Remastered from being a slam dunk. First of all, it suffers from significant pacing issues, with much of the prologue, second, and third acts being bogged down by unnecessary puzzles, blockades, overly-long dungeons, and gruelling backtracking. Not only does the slow start present an issue – reducing the combat system to its most barebones and not truly ramping up for the first three to four hours – but when the urgency of the story hits its zenith nearing the game’s end, it presents obstacles that slow you down. This issue is not helped by how the fast travel system works, which requires you to make multiple stops to reach a single destination rather than making it a quick A-to-B transition. It was frustrating and time-consuming in my first playthrough years ago, and is just as much of an annoyance this time around too.

Its portrayal of women is also questionable at times. There are several instances in which women are represented as being subservient to men, or in stereotypical maternal roles. There are also strange sexual implications made towards the game’s youngest cast member, Sophia, who is 14 years old, especially around her body and its “development”. Showcased throughout many of the game’s missable Skits, costumes, and post-battle dialogues. There are also multiple times in which men attempt to police women’s appearances, such as Hubert’s early interactions with Cheria shortly after he joins as a permanent companion.

And lastly, whilst the game can be played in either Japanese or English, the star-studded English cast frequently gives a below-average, mediocre performance. This is clearly an issue that was not fixed in the remaster and was prevalent in the PlayStation 3 version years ago. Bryce Papenbrook (Asbel), Cassandra Lee Morris (Sophie), Steve Staley (Hubert), Laura Bailey (Cheria), who is replaced by Alexis Tipton in newly voiced Skits and dialogue, Jamieson Price (Malik), and Kate Higgins (Pascal) are phenomenal actors in their own right, and whilst they do manage to bring life to these characters, they are never given the chance to show their true talents throughout the game.