Tales of Graces on demo display at the Tokyo Game Show.

Tales of Vesperia at last saw PS3 release a couple of weeks back. Until later this year when Namco Bandai will inevitably announce three new Tales title, the series spotlight is now squarely on the Wii, whose Tales of Graces just happened to see its playable debut at the Tokyo Game Show.

Namco Bandai offered TGS-goers two demos: a scenario demo and a battle demo. Both demos set players up with a party consisting of Asbel, Malik, Hubert, and Pascal and focused primarily on combat. The battle demo was just a dungeon crawl sequence set in caves and occasionally leading you outside into small beach areas. The scenario demo was set in a forest and mountain area and included a couple of cinema sequences.

I wanted to see some story sequences in addition to combat, so I selected the scenario demo for myself.

The scenario demo began with a dialogue skit in which the characters welcomed players to the game's TGS demo. You're told that beasts have attacked a nearby city, and you end up heading out for an investigation. This basically amounts to a linear trot through a mountainous field, ending in a quick (as in just a couple of hits -- I was surprised) boss fight.

The typical Tales series rules apply with Graces as far as gameplay is concerned. You can see your enemies in advance and can choose to engage or evade. As a nice touch, the transitions to battle in Graces are instantaneous. I mean seriously instantaneous -- the game just switches into into the battle field faster than you can say Vesperia.

During combat, you make use of yet another one of those Linear Motion Battle system variations. The battles in Graces take place in full 3D space, but at any given time, you're engaging a single enemy and move back and forth on a straight line with that enemy. You can easily switch both targets and your currently controlled character on the fly via the shoulder buttons and d-pad.

For attacks, you use two attack buttons. Combine these with your left analogue stick motions, and you end up with a variety of different moves. You can also press Y to do an evade move (formally known as an "Around Step") that brings you to the back of your foe. I'm no Tales series expert, but I'm pretty sure we've seen much of this before.

This particular variant on the LMBS system is formally named Style Shift LMBS. Each character has two combat styles, and you're required to switch between these based off the situation. In my short play time, I wasn't actually able to put this system to use.

Other systems present in the game are the Chain Capper system and Technical Bonus system. Chain Capper, which was used in Tales of Destiny, allows you to continue comboing attacks together until your character's Chain Capper value runs out. The technical bonus system asks that you achieve certain goals in battle -- things like clear the battle in under 20 seconds. Do this, and you get bonuses at the end of battle.

After fighting a good number of battles, I made it through to the city and the demo switched to a lengthy real time cinema showing the city under attack. There were some major story developments here as Sophie, the heroine with the long purple hair, stood up to protect the other characters who'd been surrounded by enemies. The demo cut off here, bringing me back to a dialogue skit. The characters suggested that I buy the full game in order to see the rest.

As Namco Bandai listed Graces as 80% complete, the wait for the final version presumably won't be too far off. My first impression after the 15 minute TGS demo was that Tales of Graces is a Tales game. If you're into the series, you'll probably like what you see here.