"Even if you don't like RPGs, this game more than deserves a spot on your shelf"

Tales of the Abyss (ToA) is the latest installment in what I consider to be the most under-appreciated video game series out there. Ever since I finished Tales of Symphonia on April 2, 2005, I've learned to love the Tales series and everything about it. Tales of the Abyss is that game I've been waiting for that is just like ToS, and ToA is that game and is worth the wait. No, some parts aren't perfect, but there are more than enough positive things to say about it that quickly balance out the negatives.

STORY

You start off this memorable tale by hearing of a prophecy known as the Score that promises prosperity to the world if it is fulfilled. (Sheesh...first the Chosen, then the Merines, and now the Score? The Tales series sure loves its prophecies, doesn't it?) The Score speaks of a young man with red hair who will help fulfill the Score. Then you get some more details, and then the game begins.

When the games begins, you're introduced to a 17 year old noble by the name of Luke fon Fabre, and guess what? He has red hair! I think I see where this is going. Anyway, Luke is suffering from amnesia. He was kidnapped and returned 7 years ago and lost all his memories of what happened before then. Because of this, his parents have confined him to the manor where his only fun and excitement comes from sword practicing with his master, Van.

As the story opens up, Luke is about to start practicing with Van until a mysterious woman named Tear shows up and tries to kill him. But then a strange reaction occurs between Luke and Tear and the two of them get transported far away. Luke immediately demands to be taken home, and the story unfolds from there.

The Tales series hasn't always been known for its great stories, but it is known (by those who played it) for having great characters, and ToA more than gets the job done here. All the characters are very well developed, and some are a bit different than you'd expect. For instance, Luke isn't the typical "I want to save the world! I want to destroy evil!" hero that a lot of characters are; instead, he's very whiny when you meet him and he never stops complaining, and going on an adventure seems like the last thing you want to do. Then you have Tear who isn't the typical female lead who's blonde and frail. (Sorry Colette, Shirley and Mint) And all the other characters who join your party later on all have something very likeable about them. I'd be amazed if there were too many characters at all who you didn't like by the time you finished the game.

But that doesn't just go for the protagonists; the bad guys are pretty likable. I'd say all the villains in ToA are well developed and have valid reasons for being against you, especially the one at the end.

The plot to ToA overall good and the characters are very easy to like. However, there were a few problems I had with the story. Sometimes the story gets very formulaic (Go from point 1 to point 2 to get an item needed to advance. Take the item and return to point 1, then go to point 3 to get it to work, etc.) And the story unfortunatley has points when it looks like it has a ton of potential, but it ends up going to waste.

But don't let those parts discourage you. While the story has its downsides, you'll get over it because of the characters taking part in it. The characters, good and bad, are very easy to like and it's fun to watch them interacting with each other.

GAMEPLAY

The game play in ToA is addicting and fun. You control one character on screen as you guide them through towns, dungeons, the overworld, and all those parts in between. And like a lot of other RPGs, there are puzzles that you need to solve in order to continue. Now, remember how in ToS you had to solve a puzzle practically every single dungeon? Well, ToA manages to make the puzzles here a lot fewer and are a lot less tedious. The puzzles in ToA are nowhere near as frequent or boring as they were in ToS, so there's a plus right there.

And also like in ToS, you have lots of skits that can be seen throughout the game. These skits don't affect the plot at all or anything like that, but they do allow you to watch some casual conversations with the characters to develop them more. And if you don't want to watch them, you simply don't trigger them. Easy as that.

Well, that about sums it up for gameplay. Not much else to talk about here...wait, hold on! Yes, there is! Time to move on to what made me fall in love with ToS. The...

BATTLE SYSTEM

The battles in Tales of the Abyss take place in real time, so no more sitting and waiting for your turn to come to attack. You can control one of up to four characters in battle as you clash blades with the enemy. But if you've got a few friends over, ToA also has a multiplayer option that allows for more than one person to fight. If you played ToS and you tried the multiplayer, then you'd remember that it didn't work out so well because the camera only followed the character in slot 1. Well, rest assured, that problem has been fixed. If you're playing with two or more people, then the camera catches in the action in a way that you can easily see all the characters being controlled.

But there's more to the battle system than just the multiplayer and the no turns part. During the game you get several skills that get better as you use them. In addition to that, there's the return of Overlimit Bars, but now you can go into Over Limit whenever you want. When that happens, you can perform a certain move and perform a Mystic Arte then, which is basically a Hi-Ougi and does massive amounts of damage to any unfortunate enemy caught in your path.

And then there's my favorite part of it all, the Fields of Fonons, or FoF's. When an attack of a certain element is performed, a ring known as a Field of Fonons appears on the battlefield. Heading into the circle and performing a certain move (depending on the FoF) allows you to do a more devastating attack for more damage.

Another great part about ToA's battle system is how you're really allowed to use Free-Run. Early in the game, you can pretty much only run left and right, but once you acquire the Free-Run ability (Which doesn't take too long at all) you are free to move on any spot on the battle field you want. This makes the battle field more 3D and gives you much more freedom, which overall makes the battles more fun.

So far, I've only listed positive stuff about the battles. You must be thinking, "Well, there's gotta be a few drawbacks, right?" Unfortunately, yes, there are. ToA can quickly become a button masher, especially during the regular battles. And occasionally the game crashes, which gets annoying.

But other than the occasional crash and the button mashing, the battle system in ToA is very satisfying. If you don't like it, I'd like to hear what battle systems you do like.

GRAPHICS

Okay, I think I've covered the game play enough; now to talk about how pretty the game is. ToA tries to make an anime-esque atmosphere, and it succeeds pretty well at it. While there are a ton of noticeable "jaggies" over the course of the game, the game still looks nice. The character models look pretty realistic, and the backgrounds and the environments all look great.

In battle, when a character does a special move, all the moves look well done and animated. The special attacks look great and the magic (particularly the more advanced spells) look absolutely incredible.

Throughout the game you also see a few anime cutscenes and FMVs, and those look equally impressive.

The character models may be a bit awkward and there are way too many jagged edges on the characters and things in the backgrounds, but the graphics are still very good. The graphics to this game really make you feel like you could be watching an anime cartoon or something like that. Well done.

SOUND

I'll start off with the music here. To be honest, I was a bit unimpressed with the music at first. But as the game started rolling, I learned to like it more and more and it became fun to listen to. The battle tracks all sound good and any other background tracks. Unfortunately, some of the music isn't very memorable, but it's still great to listen to while you play it.

Then there's the voice acting, and I was surprised with how good it ended up being. The characters all have voices that sound the way you'd imagine their characters to sound. With the exception of Ion (He is one of the most gender confused characters I've ever seen), all the characters have voices that fit them perfectly. The best part is that the voice acting actually sounds natural. Instead of sounding like the characters' voices were separately done in a recording booth, it sounds more like the characters are actually having a conversation with each other instead of having audio clips of what they're saying played over at the right time. The voice actors did a good job.

LENGTH

A single playthrough of ToA without doing ANY sidequests will take you at least 50 hours on your first try, which is great. But if that weren't good enough, there are plenty of side quests and extra unlockables you can acquire that will add much more time to the clock. In fact, it would take you at least two playthroughs to get everything you can, so it'll take you at least 100 hours to get a perfect game. And the Grade Shop also makes for some great replay value when you finish the game but still have plenty of things left to do before you've completed everything.

PROS

+ Great characters
+ Good story
+ Good music
+ Excellent and natural sounding voice acting
+ Graphics are nice
+ Amazing Battle System
+ Long length

CONS

- Game occasionally crashes
- Story has a bit of wasted potential
- Lots of jagged edges in the graphics
- Annoying loading times

CLOSING NOTES

I don't care whether you're a fan of RPGs or not. Even if you don't like the series, you should still like this game. There are so many good qualities about it that it's hard to find anything about that would seriously ruin the experience. The characters are all great and the plot is gripping and will have you wondering what it will all come down to. The music is fine and the voice acting is superb. The graphics are colorful and the battle system could very possibly be the best I've seen in any RPG. Before its release in the US, I heard that ToA was supposed to take everything ToS did right and completely blow it out of the water. Well, in terms of battles and characters, it does.

I can't see any reason why you shouldn't like this game. Ultimately, the most disappointing part about this game is the fact that it has to end. But this is without a doubt one of the best games I've ever played and will be a game I'll remember for a long time.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 12/26/06