Video Games : Tales of the Abyss

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from: Namco

: Tales of the Abyss

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Amazon Maximum Age: 20 years
Amazon Minimum Age: 144 months
Binding: Video Game
Brand: Namco
EAN: 0722674100519
ESRB Age Rating: Teen
Label: Namco
Manufacturer: Namco
Platform: PlayStation2
Publisher: Namco
Release Date: October 10, 2006
Sales Rank: 863
Studio: Namco

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Product Description:
In Tales Of The Abyss, you'll enter the life of Luke fon Fabre, sole heir to a family of aristocrats. He was kidnapped seven years ago, and the shock left him with no memories of his life before. For his own protection since his return, he has been confined to a quiet, boring life within the family's residence, learning little of the world beyond the palace walls. Luke is suddenly thrust into the outside world, caught in the workings of the Order of Lorelei, keepers of the prophecy known as the Score. No longer in the shelter of the palace, Luke must get along in the confusing and often hostile world. He knows nothing about those who might be his friends, or those who already are his enemies.



Customer Reviews
Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars - Probably the Best Tales Game on the PS2
Gameplay: 9/10

Tales of the Abyss has a similar battle system to Tales of Symphonia, but with the addition of Free Run. Free Run allows players to move their characters completely in 3D, so they can circle around enemies and run all over the battlefield to evade attacks or reach an enemy's unguarded area. This new ability actually makes the game much easier, however, and many enemies, even difficult bosses, can be easily defeated by having a character lure an enemy around and another character spamming magic attacks at the enemy. However, players can choose a higher difficulty mode if they deem the game too easy. An annoying thing to note about the battles is that there are invisible walls that prevent the player from wandering too far from the enemies which may feel unnatural. There are only six playable characters with one other temporary playable character. Each character has their own move set and plays quite differently from each other. Unlike Tales of Symphonia, however, each character, even the healer and mage, have a good balance of melee and magical attacks so that they are all plausible choices for the player to control. As with Tales of Symphonia, players can use a normal attack or special attack (called artes). Special attacks can be assigned to different combinations of the analog stick and the special attack button in the menus. Overlimit mode can now be activated with a press of a button so players can strategically use it to their advantage--build it up during normal, easy battles and saving them for harder bosses. Hi-ougis, now called Mystic Artes, are also much easier to perform than in Tales of Symphonia. The Unison Attacks feature is now gone, but there is a new feature--the Field of Fonons. Certain attacks, usually magic spells, leave behind little circles on the ground called Field of Fonons. If the same element (color) of attacks is used frequently in an area, the circle will grow larger and allow for players to deliver stronger element-based attacks by performing artes within the circle. Fields of Fonons are quite unreliable because the circles do not stay on the field for long and are difficult to build up to a high level. They are kind of fun to exploit when possible, though. Another gameplay enhancement would be the inclusion of capacity cores that characters can equip which changes the stats that character will gain upon leveling up. One thing to note is that there are some really annoying glitches in the game such as prolonged load times (the load times are pretty long normally) and the disappearance of the music on the World Map after a certain event in the game. These problems disappear after another event, though. Another problem with the game is that there is a whole lot of backtracking and revisiting old dungeons and towns rather than seeing new ones.

Graphics: 8/10

The graphics in Tales of the Abyss actually look like a downgrade from Tales of Symphonia. Instead of sporting a cel-shaded look, the character models have little detail and a bland look. Only the first three fingers of the main characters are articulate and the players can easily see the last two fingers melded together during cutscenes. Instead of being completely chibi, the character models actually sport a more proportionate look, but their heads are still a bit big. This is not without its benefits, however, because there is much wider range of character facial expressions this time around. Instead of completely relying on emotion bubbles, characters can show different emotions such as happiness, sadness, anger, etc. through facial expressions. In addition, the character's animation appears to be much more fluid compared to Tales of Symphonia. There are actually a few action scenes in Tales of the Abyss and they do not seem stiff at all. The backgrounds are just as good as Tales of Symphonia, however, the locales don't seem to be as memorable. Like in Tales of Symphonia, there are character costumes that change their look in and outside of battles as well weapon appearance changes based on the currently equipped weapon.

Story/Characters: 9/10

The story and characters are very good for Tales of the Abyss. Characters have a lot of development, one even completely changes in personality, for a good reason. The characters also seem to form a bond amongst themselves and there is much more character interaction within the group as a whole this time around, probably because there are less characters in the party, so more development and interaction can be spread amongst them. Each character interacts with all the other members at least a few times. Most of this occurs through skits again. Each character has their own unique little quirk that makes them memorable such as Tear's love of cute things, Guy's fear of women, Jade's sarcasm, etc. Characters also all have their own background story that gets unveiled a little at a time during the course of the game. Of course, it does get annoying how the characters are so secretive amongst each other, though, and communicate with each other with facades. Many times the player will hear such things as "Could this be... Nevermind" shortly being followed by "I knew it!". Many of the unfortunate events in the game could actually be circumvented had the party members been more open with one another. The story is actually quite interesting with a well-developed world. Almost every imaginary part of the world such as the technology and scientific laws are well explained and quite believable rather than simply explaining things with RPG magic. Of course, some players may find all the techno-babble confusing and/or uninteresting. The story also provides events and situations that some people may consider to be very emotional yet at the same time provide other events that are playful and funny.

Sound/Music: 8/10

The music in Tales of the Abyss feels a bit generic without too many memorable tunes. There are a good variety of themes, however and a few of them are exceptionally good such as Tear's Fonic Hymns and musical variations of the theme song, Karma, by Bump of Chicken. This time around, the opening theme song is actually kind of preserved. A musical version of the Japanese song is played during the anime introduction. The voice acting is excellent as well with popular voice actors such as Yuri Lowenthal, Johnny Yong Bosch, Kirk Thornton, and Liam O'Brien. All of the voices of the main cast fit very well with the characters and emotional scenes are further enhanced by good voice acting.

Overall: 9/10

Tales of the Abyss is probably one of the best of the few recently localized Tales games. With a great story, well-developed and memorable characters, and a fun fast-paced battle system, Tales of the Abyss gets an almost perfect score. The only thing that hinders the score would be a couple of terrible glitches. The main quest is lengthy and there are several sidequests and mini-games.


Rating: 5 out of 5 stars - Tales of the Abyss: an excellent game
Tales of the Abyss is exactly what the Tales series needed to boost its brand name popularity in America. A unique, innovative battle system combines with hours of memorable gameplay to create a wonderful experience, enhanced by the New Game Plus features available should the player choose to play the game more than once.

Although the graphics may initially put off gamers who prefer the more smooth, photorealistic look of the Final Fantasy games, the backgrounds are remarkably in-depth and fun to look at, and the characters, while more based in an "anime-style" look in the Tales tradition, are incredibly expressive. It's not the best-looking game out there, but it's pleasing to look at as you wander through the myriad dungeons and towns as the plot unfurls.

And what a plot to unfurl! Tales of the Abyss has a complex, moving plot driven by incredibly human characters who make mistakes and suffer the consequences but are also capable of breathtaking moments of heroism and bravery at the hands of the player.

I'll admit, though, I'm biased towards this game because of the battle system. Once the Free Run battle skill is learned (within the first few battles), it becomes a three-dimensional, real-time battle that's easy to pick up and fun to play in. Plus, with multiple difficulty levels and three AI settings for character control (Manual, Semi-Auto, and Auto), the player can customize the game for their own personal comfort or challenge.

If you're a fan of meaty plots with plenty of comedy and tragedy mixed together expertly and well-localized (or if you're just a fan of real-time battle systems), try Tales of the Abyss. You won't regret it.


Rating: 5 out of 5 stars - Another great game from Namco Tales Studios!
Tales of the Abyss came in October 2006. Even though I started with the Japanese version, I was NOT disappointed with the english version. Here's what I thought about it.

First of all, the music in this game is great! The first thing you notice is that the localization team KEPT the opening song for the game, karma. This is the first in the series, as the other Tales games brought to the US have had the opening songs chagned to something not as good. The song karma is remixed several times withing the game. It shows up in several scenes, and it's also a battle theme at one point.

The gameplay is excellent. The battle system used is the Free Run Linear Motion Battle System (FR-LMBS). After playing this game, it's kinda hard going back to other games since you don't have the option of traveling anywhere you want across the battlefield. Of course some people say that this makes the game easy. Well, Free Run is an AD skill, and AD skills can be TURNED OFF! So if you don't like free run, then you can simply turn it off. Spells and techs are good, and we even got a few more Mystic Artes than the Japanese version did. That's a first AND a plus!

The story has a little bit of everything: politics, religion, science, prince and princesses, world destruction. I want to say what doesn't this game have? The story starts of kinda slow, but if you give it time it will pick up and become very exciting.

The characters are so far, one of the best. Luke is a bitchy little aristocrat who doesn't know anything about the world around him, but that changes throughout the progress of the game. Tear, a soldier who wants to kill her brother, but has a soft side to cute things (as do i ^^;). Guy, Luke's servent (hehe) and has a phobia of women. Jade, the best sarcastic colonel ever. Anise, a money loving girl who wants to marry a nobleman. And finally Natalia, a princess who wants to fight. I can't say anymore without spoiling it for you.

Overall, this is an EXCELLENT game! One you should definitley pick up. I give it a 5/5.


Rating: 4 out of 5 stars - If you like Tales you'll like this
With Tales of Legendia being a disappointment to many, this game was a return to form for the Tales of Series. If you liked Tales of Symphonia, everything will be familiar: the art style, music, and gameplay that made many new fans of the series. Interestingly, the games protagonist is the prince of a Kingdom who due to a kidnapping when he was young has been kept inside the palace with only a servant as company. The game really begins when there is a attack on the palace and he and one of the attackers are teleported faraway and are forced to rely on each other to make it back home.


Rating: 4 out of 5 stars - Tales of the Abyss
"Tales of the Abyss" is another game in the series for the PlayStation 2, made by those who made "Tales of Symphonia".

Because of that, it shares many similarites to that in how it plays. The game is all in 3D, and you're able to move in 3D on the battlefield. This adds a lot to the game, but also makes it a little easier as well, as it's not a difficult task to just go around an enemy. The game also introduces things like FOFs that make fighting a very fun experience to just mix and match you attacks and make combos. There are also various difficulty modes that can be switched to make the game either harder for those that want a challenge.

There's a large amount of voice acting in the game, tons of sidequests, and the story is nice as well with interesting characters. The game lasts about 50 hours overall, and when you consider the sideusts the game could easily reach pretty close to 100 hours. Overall this is my favorite of all the games in the series released in North America.

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