It's no doubt that with the release of Tales of the Abyss for the Playstation 2 in fall of 2006 is a signal that this is the final Tales game for the Playstation 2 within the popular series. With Playstation 3 becoming the more dominant console system for Sony in 2007, it makes no sense that any future Tales game to be release on the Playstation 2. What next generation console will the next Tales game be release on? No one knows but for now let's take a look at the final Tales game for the Playstation 2.
STORY
A new war is coming to this land.
The clone wars end here and now.
Luke Fon Fabre is the son of a Duke of the Kingdom of Kimlasca-Lanvaldear. He has lost all memory of his childhood due to the shock of being kidnapped at such a young age. Since his rescue from his kidnappers, he has lived a shelter life inside his father's mansion never stepping foot outside the mansion compound. One day during a sword training session with swordmaster, Van, a mysterious woman by the name of Tear interrupted their training session by attempting to kill swordmaster, Van. Luke came to the defense of Van by dueling with Tear. The fight with Tear caused a strange hyperresonance that transported the two far away to the empire of Malkuth. Knowing that Luke was an innocent bystander in Tear's fight with Van, she decided to escort him back to the Kingdom of Kimlasca-Lanvaldear. During their trek through Malkuth, the duo was picked up by a military transport under the command of Colonel Jade. Jade explain to both Luke and Tear that the transport was on the way to Kimlasca as a peace treaty entourage under the banner of religious leader, Fon Master Ion, in hopes of preventing a possible war between Kimlasca and Malkuth. Ignorant of the world outside of the mansion, Luke asked Jade why there would be a possible war between the neighboring countries. Jade explained things to Luke in hopes of informing him that the world outside of the mansion is not so bliss and peaceful that war can't break out at any moment due to hate and prejudice. He also requested Luke's aid in convincing his uncle the King of Kimlasca into a peace treaty. Luke agreed to help Jade. Unfortunately even before the transport was able to make its way to Kimlasca, it was attacked by Knights from the Oracle of Lorelei led by the Six God Generals. It is unclear why the Oracle Knights wished to cause a war between the two kingdoms but Luke and his friends must make their way to Kimlasca to prevent a war from breaking out. As the group continues to make their long trek to reach Kimlasca, Luke finally found himself in a face to face confrontation with a God General by the name of Asch. To his surprise, Asch looks just like Luke. Who is Asch and why does he look exactly like Luke are questions that burns in Luke's mind on top of other questions of a possible war and an impending forecast that the world may end as the outlands may fall from the sky into the inner lands causing the death of everyone in the world. Luke must make a journey of self discovery and self worth as he struggles to help save the world of possible doom. The story of Tales of the Abyss takes a deep look into the impact of religion and its effect on people and the heated debate in the issue of cloning. This is a story that is sure to have you intrigue and involve on issues that practically mirrors real life. Are you ready for it?
I have to say that I really enjoy this story as it really is a twist from the usual rpg storylines. For those of you that are familiar with comic book storyline especially in the Spider-Man universe, the sub plot of Tales of the Abyss is almost a direct imitation of the Clone Saga from the Spider-Man comic book. I love how the story plays with our emotion on who to go with, Luke or his counter part, Asch. It reminds me so much about the Clone Saga back in the mid 90s from the Spider-Man comics. And history repeated itself for yours truly here as I didn't like the end result to the clone plotline. On the flipside of things, I found the sub plot base on saving the world a bit average and unbelievable. The idea of the people of the world following the Score as a religion that guide them in their way of life is okay. But it's the idea or plot of how the world of Auldrant is made up that comes off very unbelievable. You have the inner world or the underneath world where everything is made up of land and a sea of mud. Above this inner world are the outlands. The outlands act like another layer on top of the innerlands. The outlands are raised high above the sky of the inner world. The outlands consist of seas, oceans, lands, rivers, mountains, ect. The problem is how can you have seas, oceans, lands, mountains raised high above the sky of the first original land mass? This made no sense at all. The whole sub-plot of saving the outlands from falling down from the sky didn't come off too well in the story. But the good part is that it's not the heart and soul of the story. The heart and soul of the story is the controversy on just want makes a person a person that is deem worthy to have life. Does a clone that have the same blood and emotion of an original should have the same human rights as the original to live as a human being? That's where the conflict of the story is and where the debate of the story lies. It's this engaging part of the storytelling where you are actually conflicted in whether or not to agree with the view points of the characters in the story. As the story goes on and on, I found myself very engage into the story and even at times at odds with the political view points of the story. By the end of the story I have to say I totally disagree with the result of the story to the point where I was dissatisfied with the story ending. Despite the fact that I didn't get the ending that I wanted, I was very please with the story overall due to the fact that this is the first story where I was actively engage in the storyline that I cared about the result of the ending. And when a reader start to care about what happens in the end of the story than the story does its part in making it an entertaining story. From that stand point, the story does an excellent job in making things interesting for rpg gamers alike. This is by far one of the most unique rpg storyline introduce into the genre to date.
Score 9/10
CHARACTERS
Time of a team meeting.
There are a total of 6 main characters with some excellent supporting characters in this game.
The main 6 characters are Luke, Jade, Tear, Natalia, Guy, and Anise. Luke and Tear are the lead male and female characters. While Tales of the Abyss doesn't have Character Quests like in Tales of Legendia, the game does an outstanding job in developing each of these characters personality and background through out the story. Each character actually gets an equal amount of screen time as their character developments are intergraded as part of the overall storyline. What makes this cast of characters great is that you can actually feel the chemistry of these characters together. And with the excellent voice acting in this game, you can't help but fall in love with some of these characters. Their personalities really shine out in this game that you can't help but laugh and smile at them as they interact with one another. As great of a cast of characters they are, they aren't perfect though. The only weakness is the actual main hero himself, Luke. Luke comes off as the weakest character in this game as his personality comes off a bit whiney, annoying, and too plain as compare to the others. Part of the problem is due to the fact of who Luke is once the plots are revealed a bit more in the game. It's hard for gamers to take a strong liking to Luke when his counterpart is so much cooler and better than he is. The other characters don't have this problem because they don't have a counterpart for gamers to compare and choose. The relationship between Luke and Tear seem a bit way too force in the story as well. Is it really necessary to always make the lead male and female character to be a love couple? I think not. I really don't see any chemistry between Luke and Tear that make them a good couple nor do I see any signs of why someone like Tear would be in love with Luke other than being force to be in love with Luke due to the storyline. You just don't see the relationship between the two as more than just friends. Luke is a good character and he's developed excellently, it's just that he's not a leading hero material. His counterpart, Asch, comes off so much better. But the good part is that Luke is just a small part and only 1 part of the overall cast of characters in this game that his short coming won't hurt the cast of characters in this game overall. It's just that if there's a weakness in characters in this game than Luke would be it. Let's just say Luke isn't Ben Reilly for those that are Spider-Man fans out there. I found it hard to be rooting for Luke in this game.
Score: 9/10
GRAPHICS
I'm not the clone, you are!
Beautiful and colorful are the two words that best describe the visual graphics in this game. First when you look at the environments in this game, it's not as detailed and 3-D as you like and most of the overall environment designs are pretty simple basic models but there are certain background scenery where the artwork and designs of the background just really stand out. It's almost as if the developers made sure that certain areas were made to be used for screenshots capture to promote the games while other areas are left with less detail. Evidence of this is when you traveling through a town or city, everything looks normal that you don't notice anything much than all of a sudden you enter the one area of the city and than you just stop and say, "Wow this spot looks really good." And as your character stand in this one area that really stand out compare to the rest of the city, you realize it looks really good for a screen capture shot to help promote the game's graphics. This sort of makes the environmental graphics a little bit unbalance with certain areas looking really great while other areas looking a bit average only. Now in terms of the character models, they are somewhere between realistic and super deformed. They aren't exactly designed with the unique deformed look but they aren't really realistic in designs too. They have facial expression and certain features of their body are done nicely but at most time these characters look a bit blocky and non-detailed from the non close up view. Add into the fact that even though these characters are 3-D models, they don't look 3-D but more 2-D due to the simple anime designs of these characters. But despite some of the flaws of the graphical designs, the total package is really a beautiful, rich world and this is more due to the fact that the coloring in this game is outstanding to near perfection. It really is the color, the contrast, and the brightness of the game's visual that really make the overall graphic looking a lot better than it should as oppose to the actual design of the graphics.
Score: 8/10
MUSIC
Tear, sing the songs of the
Fonon.
The musical tracks in Tales of the Abyss are excellent but not outstanding as compare to Tales of Legendia. Each track is orchestrated perfectly whether it's during battles, walking out in the fields, exploring a new town and dungeon, or during key story moments. While these tracks are orchestrated excellently as a whole soundtrack, none of them really stand out as the one single track that will define this game as Tales of the Abyss. This is the missing piece in terms of musical presentation. If there were a couple of memorable tracks that would define this game down the road after you finished playing it than the musical scores could have been rated higher. In addition to the excellent music, the voice acting is equal to the task. This is by far one of the best professional voice acting casts in an rpg game to date. And for those that have played a lot of rpg games, you can clearly recognize some of the veteran voice actors behind these characters from their work in other rpg games. With such professional voice actors involved, you can understand why the voice acting in this game is excellent.
Score: 8/10
GAMEPLAY
Feel the power of thunder!
Developing stats with Capacity Cores.
Game Information
Genre: Action RPG
Publisher: Namco Bandia Games
Disc: 1 DVD Disc
Memory: 100 KB
Players: 1 Player Mode
Analog Control: Yes
Digital Control: Yes
Vibration Function: Yes
Rating: Teen
Release: October 2006
Like with previous Tales games, Tales of the Abyss is a mixture of tradition rpg and action rpg. The battle system is base on action while the rest of the gameplay is the staple traditional rpg elements. Let's look at the overall gameplay first. This game is an immense story driven rpg game. The story will have you traveling around the world visiting towns, cities, villages and interacting with their people to advance the story plot lines. The story is pretty linear so you won't have problems in figuring out where to go next. In the beginning things might be a bit hard at first as you travel out on the fields trying to find the location of the next dungeon or town due to the fact that you won't have the world map at the start of your adventure. But traveling becomes easier once you are able to acquire a world map. Each town has shops that will sell equipment, items, and ingredients for cooking. As you progress deeper into the game, you'll be able to acquire vehicles that will allow you to travel by sea and air. The dungeons themselves range in terms of difficulty depending on the sizes of the dungeon. Some dungeons are fairly simple to navigate while some will take time to clear as you will get lost in them. There are puzzle elements that may block your path as you explore the dungeons but these puzzles are usually solved by using the correct Mieu Action. Encounters with monsters aren't done base random encounters but by monster sprites popping around you as you trek through dungeons and on the fields. These monster sprites will start to chase you as you go closer to them. It's possible to avoid these monster sprites if you quick enough and smart enough to move out of the way. But if you get too close and the monster sprite touches your character sprite then you are brought into battle. From here the gameplay switches from traditional gameplay to an action one for the battle system. You will have up to 4 party members in combat base on a 2-D side to side action. The interesting thing here is that even though combat is base on a 2-D side to side action, the battle environment is in 3-D. In fact movement around this battle environment is done in a 3-D mode if you use the right Ad Skill. It's just that once you stop to fight an enemy, things switch back to 2-D mode. So you can say the battle system is a mixture of 3-D and 2-D action. Since this is an action battle system, you'll be using a combo of hack and slash movement for attacks as well as throwing out Artes as your special attacks and magic attacks. This is a 1 player game but with a multitap system up to 4 different players can each control a different fighter. Under a 1 player control mode, the gamer can only control 1 fighter while the AI controls the other 3 fighters, base on the strategy and condition settings that the gamer set the AI to play with. Unlike Tales of Legendia, Tales of Abyss does allow you to switch to different fighters during combat for manual control as you wish. For the most part the gameplay and battle system is very similar to previous Tales games for fans out there that familiar with the Tales Series. However Tales of the Abyss does incorporation some very new unique features in the game. Below is brief summary of these key features.
Mieu Actions: During your adventure, you'll befriend a Cheagle creature by the name of Mieu. Mieu will eventually join your party as a member but not as an active member that participate in battles. What Mieu can do to help you in your adventure is by removing obstacles and puzzles that may block your way during your exploration. Mieu have three special powers that can aid you. Mieu can breathe fire to burn branches & trees that block your way, he can destroy solid rocks or boulders, and he can lift you high up in the air so you can reach certain areas above the ground. These actions are known as the Mieu Actions that you can access by pressing the square button. Town Link System: One of the more realistic and new feature in this game is the TLS system known as the Town Link System. In the world of Auldrant all cities, towns, and villages are linked together in an economy that support one another. This mirrors the real life economy that is outside the video game world. Since each of the towns are connected to each other through trades and goods, the prices for goods in each town varies base on supply and demands. An example of this is the town of Engrave which supplies vegetables to all the other towns in Auldrant. Through the TLS system, vegetables prices are higher in the other towns compare to Engrave because those towns trade or buy their vegetables from Engrave. Again reflecting how the economy really works in real life. If Engrave is out of vegetables than all the other towns are out of vegetables too since Engrave is the one that supplies their goods to them. Now how this effect the gaming system is that as you start out on your journey you notice that the cost of equipment and goods are generally okay but as you travel further out into the world towards other cities you notice the price of goods starting to become quite high. You'll soon find out that level 20 equipment isn't nearly as cheap as it should be or can be. Having enough money to support your party can become a problem early on. To help lower the prices on goods the game provided each town with a point system that affects the TLS. By building up points of each town you in turn build up the status of the town in the TLS. Towns with high points in the TLS will offer goods for a much cheaper price and have more goods to offer in stock. You can raise a town points by doing sub events found in each town. Ensuring that you work on the TLS of each town will make your game much easier for you having enough supplies and good equipment to wear to fight against the enemies. You won't get far in this game wearing cheap equipment due to not having enough money to buy things because everything cost too much. Artes: In Tales of the Abyss, magic and special attacks are known as Artes. These are broken down into two groups, physical artes and fonic artes. Physical are the special attacks and fonics are magic attacks. Unlocking higher level artes is base on characters reaching certain levels, number of usage on the artes, and through sub events. In addition to physical and fonic artes, each character has their own special artes that does massive damage. These artes are known as Mystic Artes and they can only be activated when the characters are in an Over Limit state. Ad Skills: There are over 80 different skills that your characters can learn and acquire. The basic skills that all your party members can learn and acquire are achieved by simply reaching certain levels. The more advance and sophisticated skills can only be achieved if your party members are able to raise each of their individual parameter statistics to a certain number. This method actually helps you separate and grow your party members to the type of fighters you want them to be since some Ad Skills are only useful in situation that fit a particular fighter. The Ad Skill system is an excellent customizable way of allowing gamers to train each of their party members to their liking. Capacity Cores: As your characters level up each time, their parameter statistics also goes up. By equipping accessories such as Capacity Cores you can manipulate which statistics get the most gains as each Capacity Cores help boost certain statistics more. By using Capacity Cores to manipulate certain statistics you can develop your party members into reaching and unlocking certain Ad Skills faster. In fact the whole purpose of Capacity Cores is to help you plan ahead to develop which Ad Skills you want to have for your characters. Fon Slot Chambers: This is another new feature in this game. Chambers are devices or accessories that you can equip on artes. There are 4 different types of Chambers and each Chambers when equipped on a particular arte will add a bonus effect onto the arte. For example, equipping a Grass Chamber on the arte, Void Tempest, will give Void Tempest an added effect of being able to steal item from enemies with each usage. Chambers are actually a very cool and unique feature for this game. Cooking: A traditional feature in the Tales series so it's no surprise that the cooking feature is back. Not much has changed in the cooking feature either than its more simplified from before. You can find recipes as part of the storyline, from sub events, and just as an item lying around. Once you have the recipe you can cook as long as you have the ingredients required to make that recipe. All party members can cook but some will be able to master the recipe a bit faster than others. The result and effect of each cooking recipe varies base on what the cooking recipe does.
Over Limit: Over Limit is the state where a character can't be stunned or knockdown. But the real purpose of reaching Over Limit is being able to use each character special powerful mystic artes. The Over Limit gauge fills up when a character attack or is being attacked by an enemy. FOF: Fields of Fonons are round circle that appears during battle. We don't want to get into the full technical of FOF as that's what the instruction book is for but the short version is that each FOF comes in different elements as they appear on the battle field. The purpose of the FOF is that if artes are used while a character or enemy is on the circle and the artes have an element that matches the element of the FOF than a higher level artes will be unlocked and used instead of the basic arte. For example, using Swallow Fury on a FOF with fire element will turn the regular Swallow Fury into a higher level arte known as Shadow Fury instead. This is how you are able to unlock the higher level arte of some artes.
With all the new features added onto the already staple features of the Tales Series, Tales of the Abyss provides the most up to date, interactive, face pace, action rpg game yet featuring all elements of the rpg genre. You have elements of world exploration, numerous towns, puzzle solving, lots of dungeons, a balance monster encounter system, and a solid story; it's hard to find faults within the game play. Gameplay hours alone will be up in the 50+ hours and that's not including doing all the extra stuff. Trying to get near 90% completion of this game will net you nearly 90+ hours of gameplay alone which makes this game all the worth it in the long run. There was a lot of fun playing this game and that's what this game is all about. The only minor drawback with the gameplay is that the loading times for the games as you enter a new area, enter a battle, or enter a story scene takes too long. Of course this is due to the fact that the game is so huge in information that it does take a long time to load. I would highly recommend this game for those that are looking for a complete rpg gaming experience.
Score: 9/10
EXTRAS/REPLAY
The battle of the Tales vs Tales.
This game pretty much covers everything in terms of extras. You got your sub-events (mini side quests), your bonus dungeons, your mini games, and your coliseum tournaments. If you look at each of these extras individually they don't seem massive at all. The mini games are small and take little time to complete. The coliseum tournaments too are a bit scaled down and take little time to complete in both the regular and advance modes. The game offers only 2 small bonus dungeons that don't take too long to complete. The sub-events are really small events that are broken down into many parts that need to be completed at different stages of the game. What's impressive here is that if you combine all of these extras together, you would get over 40 hours of extra gameplay time. That's practically equal to the time spent on one single rpg game without any extras in it. Most of these hours that you spend on the extras comes from doing sub-events. There are over 100 sub events that are broken down into small parts. By doing these optional sub events you can unlock extra character titles, extra artes, extra recipes, extra weapons, and even unlock more story sub plots. So even though sub-events are optional stuff, it's a good idea to do them all just to get the total experience of what this game was meant to be.
A New Game+ mode is available for those that are looking to replay this game again. In addition to using your Grade Points to purchase starting bonus features that you can have in your New Game+ file, there are a few sub events, bonus dungeon, and Mystic Artes that can only be found and unlocked by replaying the game a second time around. This makes the replay trip all worth it in the end.
The best way to summed up the extras and replay value is a total complete package for you to experience. You really can't ask for anything more that this game hasn't already provided. It's not like there aren't any bonus dungeons, side quests, mini games, tournaments or even replay value that needs to be added here. And when you add everything you get everything.
Score: 10/10
The only thing that Tales of the Abyss managed to prove is that no matter what console system that a Tales game is released on, it will always deliver an outstanding rpg experience from beginning to end. You can expect no less with this game. After 90+ hours of an exhausting adventure but very gratifying adventure, I can finally say that this game was worth every dollar spent. In comparison with other Tales games such as Tales of Legendia and Tales of Symphonia, this game would rank as their equal so fans of both of those games won't have anything to fear. If you got time to play a massive long rpg game than I would highly recommend finding and buying Tales of the Abyss to add into your rpg collection of great games to own.
