Tales of the Abyss for PlayStation 2 Reviews by Gamers

like when you were younger...

[++]a hybrid of valkyrie profile, early Final Fantasy, and the Tales style.

[+/-]you can count on Namco for aesthetic and grace, however seems they teamed up with Bandai for some reason. Bandai gives this a very Anime TV Series/manga dialogues, colorlful both in design and in banter (think N64)xx

[+]this Tales story,however, is quite epic, and efficient enough not to embarass the player completely. like other Tales games, the story if of cosmic proportions about mystic artes and the salvation/destruction of worlds / universes. about half of the characters are strange and interesting like those of FF7. the music is mostly old folklore or anime heavy metal.

[++]combat is fantastic, the graphics are fluid and technical. like valkyrie profile 2/FF XII you can control one character fully with auto/semi-auto/ menu commanded party (4 max party).
average battles last about 30 seconds!

[++]SWORDS! and Magic. and Spears. and Bow & Arrows. and Armor.

[-] knowing how to perform combos/ magic most effectively while fighting is kind of a toss up, and can be confusing to orchestrate in real-time.

[-] has the feel of free-roaming world map, although is very directive,
and becomes linear.

[+/-] unlike many RPG's , this game really doesn't have a lot of sidequests or really that many secrets or hidden items (although it seems that they are everywhere)

[+] YOU CAN TURN OFF THE BATTLE VOICES IN THE OPTIONS MENU

i had to quit after 25/40 hours due to the slow fade of the story's content.
may seem like there are more - than +, but that is because these are the only real flaws. i'm 26 and very critical of games. . . and this game fired me up and had me addicted.

This game has a spectacular storyline and may extra quests so that you dont have to fallow the storyline just to have fun. The best thing about the game is the battle system. The game has a great free move around battle system. You can also find many items that allow you to do alot more in the game then what you can start with. one item allows you to change the character when roming around freely. after a cupple of minutes youll find yourself hooked to this game.

I love that the characters were given facial expressions. They were so cute! In fact, the whole first 3-4 hours of the game was filled with cute-ness. It left me scratching my head a bit, wondering if the developers wanted to see how many times a player would go "Awwww" before quitting the game.

At first, a lot of what was going on wasn't very clear, fonons and seventh fonist resonance made no sense at all to me. But, it didn't make any sense to the main character either, so I didn't feel too bad. The story and character development really draw you in. I actually found myself wondering what was going to happen to Malkuth while I was doing my thanksgiving grocery shopping. Even though I found a couple of the characters down-right annoying, it didn't deter me from enjoying the plot.

Getting around is a different story. I often found myself lost on the world map. Thinking that if only I had a map to pull up and look at I would have an easier time finding things. When I finally got one, it bordered on doing just the opposite. The map was so nondescript and you position marker would often get covered up by the cross hairs marking the city/dungeon you had selected.

After finally getting to wherever you had to go (which for me was after a stop or two at places I wasn't supposed to visit yet) you had to run from screen to screen...to screen...to screen...well, you get the point. It's no wonder Luke has 6-pack abs with all the tedious running he does! The worst of it was you had to wait for a load screen between each different section you ran to.

Battling at first was just mashing the x button. But the new skills you learn keep battles pretty entertaining. Usually towards the end of a game I try to find a way to automate the battles as much as possible since they are so monotonous. As an added bonus, if you feel the fights are too easy, you can always turn the difficulty up, or down, whenever you want.

This is a long game. But well worth the effort you put into it.

This is probably one of the longest RPG games I've played in a while. Just when I thought I beat the end boss it keeps on going. There is a lot to do, a lot of places to visit, a variety of equipment. The skits between the characters inject a nice bit of comedy into the game. They also are useful guides on what to do or where to go next. The battle system is real time, meaning you run about the battle field and attack on the fly rather than a turn based system. It isn't difficult and even those that are used to turn based should find it easy to manage. You can pause during battles to figure out a strategy so it's not a frantic system. Encounters aren't random, avatars of enemies show up on screen and you'll battle if you touch them, so you can avoid fighting if you want. There's a somewhat fair variety of monsters, although it would have been nice if there were more. There are multiple side missions apart from the main, so you don't need to stick to the main mission for a good part of the game. Equipment you wear is limited to a weapon, armor, accessory, and headpiece. It would have been nice if you can equip more than one accessory, as there's a number of cool items you find during your travels. There are also a lot of skills called Artes, that you can evoke during battle, think of them as power attacks. There are also other skills that are constant, such as increased combos or defense moves. There are also Capacity Cores that augment your attack and defense abilities. Overall a very enjoyable and long game, definitely worth it.

THE GOOD
Long game.
Lots of places to visit.
Skits and dialog.
Lots of equipment.
Lots of Skills.
Easy battle system.
Storyline.

THE BAD
Nothing notable.

THE UGLY
Nothing notable.

Here's a short review:

If you like RPG's for not only the graphics and game play, but for story as well, you'll enjoy this installment of Tales.

Granted, like most long stories, it starts off slow, but gradually you begin to understand what's going on and will enjoy the twist and movement of the plot. This game has a story that is a little more adult than previous Tales games, but if you enjoyed Tales of Symphonia, you'll like this.

Where to start, if you haven't played this yet and you are an RPG fan, it is a crime for you not to get this.
That being said, I had roughly 90 hours of play-through first run. This isn't short.

The characters are cool, they are very well made, not boring or steriotypical. The main protagonist is not like many others.

Overall 10 out of 10, I would talk about the combat, but I could go on for a very long time. Also it is not true, if you set all your characters to auto, Bosses will maim you.

first, this game ROCKS!! Just like other Tales games... heh but it has anime scenes is what I dont like because during anime scenes show NO Subtitles! NOTHING! So, you have been warned about no subtitles during anime scenes if you are deaf or hard of hearing. You'd need a person to interpret it for you to understand what they were saying.

but about the rests like battles, story line are great!

Pretty good game. The battle system is always fun to do on the Tales games and the story line keeps you interested. However, be prepared for a lot of movies and the game doesn't really get good for a few hours. Stick with it. I'm sure you won't be sorry.

Overall though very good game
My Rating: 9/10

There's a lot to love and learn about this game, ranging from the characters themselves to the combat system to cooking, etc. I'll put it this way: I loved the game enough that I went and bought my own copy. I wish I had been able to buy the copy from GameFly, but I count myself lucky that I was able to get my hands on a copy of my own.

This game has some great aspects (nice voices and gameplay. A good story) but is also very time taking if you choice to play on Hard. I would suggest renting it, but if you like it then I would buy it (really suck you in that much).

Great game, Beautiful Story, Great Character Development, Battle System was great. Out of a series of Great Games this is by far the best Tales of Game.
I highly Recommend it to anyone who is a RPG Fan.

The last game i played was tales of legendia, it was good. This title has a few changes, such as 3d battle mode and 3d chars mostly. I have to say that i love tales series cause of the battle system and yet i still satisfied with it. However, for this series, i do not like the idea of making the char 3d. I think it screw up the graph a bit, i mean hey i like old style. Remember when you can press the select button to listen what the chars have to say? in this title, the voice muted and the graph seems lame. I'm not sure if my speaker messing up or something wrong with my ps2. Backtracking always a problem or annoyed us, i didn't see any major backtracking so far in this series. The voice acting also improved. If you play tales of legendia before, you shouldn't have any difficulties with the control. They pretty similar to each other. Other then all that, it is a good game and i would given perfect. Highly recommended to rent out, i might even purchase this title for myself.

This really is one of the tightest rpgs of the year the game's plot isnt simple to figure out and the controls arnt bad ether the bosses are actully hard enough to make u really take ur time and work towards lvling up this is off subject but the weapons are also really cool longing as u progress there are also over 100 for each character the special attcks are awsome and it isnt repeating the same thing over and over agian the grapchics are anime/cartoon style and i like it some people might be turned off by that if ur looking for great grapchics and weird game story thats the new xenosaga if ur looking for different grapchis and awsome story line that takes a long time to unravile rent this game/buy

The thing to understand about the tales series are these key points:

1) They're among the best adventures ever made, period. The depth of the story line and twists are incredible; if they were books, they'd be best sellers.

The stories can be very deep. This story is about what it means for a person to be alive, the subsequent struggle between destiny and free will, and how some are would kill millions of people and sacrifice themselves over differences of opinion on this question.

2) They're not "games" -- they're interactive adventures, with something for everybody. This adds to one of the more amazing parts of this game -- it's multiplayer!

3) These aren't traditional RPG's -- the fighting is awesome. Expect intense Street Fighter-type fighting with multiple people, weapons, items, and magic. If you don't like warrior-style fighting, you can be a "magician" or a healer. During the most major battles of the game, turn up the volume and listen; your characters and the enemy will argue over the deep philosophical differences they're fighting over, while you're hacking the enemy to bits!

Obviously, enjoying a game of this magnitude requires refined tastes. Do you have them?

Man, Namco stepped it up after their last game, which was kinda disappointing. However, that doesn't mean this game is excellent. The story, at times, is interesting, but then there are times when predicting the plot twists isn't difficult when it really should be. The battle system is really fun, but it can turn into a button masher very easily(not different from many other Tales games). Also, backtracking can be frustrating(however, nothing compared to ToL's amount of backtracking...yuck). The graphics are so nice, but there will be those who don't enjoy the cartoonish/animeish influences. The loading can be a bit annoying since the length of a battle is sometimes shorter than how long it takes to load in and out of that same battle. Another big improvement from ToL is in the soundtrack department; some of the music is very catchy and none of it is annoying, unlike that other game. Replay value is amazing in this game; there are so many things to do that you can have hundreds of hours invested into this game before you've done everything.

7/10

everything is perfect about it. the only problem are the boss battles. you gotta lvl up a bit and get items to keep alive or revive

This game has the best gameplay, out of all the tales games, so far.

Tales of the Abyss is a fun and awsome game, the Characters are good/funny and Story great, some monsters are cute and some are not, the battles are fun but when it comes to boss battles, they suck and are hard like I had to wait night and day ( and half a year ) to beat ( and/ or kill ) the first boss... yea but it might be me. Anyway the game is fun and give it a try.

I like this game as I like all of the Tales series games. I like how it holds you to one line of attack too (unless you hold L2 to move freely) because it makes the battles a little tighter than some previous Tales games. It also has a slightly more "realistic" feel to the graphics than some of the previous Tales games which causes you to be more drawn into the story. Although, because of the more realistic feel to the game, some of the jokes don't play well and come across to me as "off color" when I know if it were more cartoonish then they would be funny. Other than that, I love this game.

First of all, i'd like to say that when this game was first announced, i was very excited. i loved Tales of Destiny 2, and after tales of legendia bombed i was thrilled to see another Tales in production for PS2...and i was not let down one bit!

This game shines the brightest out of any tales yet (even probably tales of symphonia for GC). first of all, the voice acting is well done and the characters are interesting. the main character is a noble snob and his personally is refreshing from the stereotypical 'nice guy' who wants to save the world and the girl. second, the graphics are GREAT for a Tales game. the environments are fully explorable, the towns are expansive and well done, and the battle graphics are pretty good too. mind you, this in nothing compared to Final Fantasy XII, but they're still fun. Also, the battle system is the best part of this game! it's so fast paced and exciting with real time battles with four allies. you can even have a friend join you and they can control a character too! trust me, some bosses are alot less annoying when you have someone sitting neext to you with a brain, as the NPC's arent always the smartest. but overall, this game is very very enjoyable. the story is good, and there's even quirky optional events where the characters talk amongst themselves about non-linear things, and can be amusing. i'd give this game a 10, but the graphics arent strong enough for that rating since i'm playing FF12 with this game lol. dont rent this title, buy it

This installment of the Tales series brings a slew of new features and innovations such as a 3D battleground, customizable growth for each character and an almost entirely voiced script. However, it still falls short overall because of some drastic flaws.

Ignoring the story, which is pretty standard RPG fare, you're left with the meat and potatoes of gameplay. The battle system here never got too tiresome or repetitive-which is fortunate because you spend so much time running from place to place seeking information. I don't mean like a normal game where you advance from new place to new place and the story unfolds with a healthy mix of combat and new text. I mean you will spend giant chunks of time running around from town to town pushing the story on and wondering why the developers chose to make you revist the same places hundreds of times instead of condensing and smoothing out the story. To make matters worse the story is frequently halted by these pop up textual interludes where the characters pictures will carry on a conversation reiterating everything you just found out in the plot. This problem may have resolved itself if I cared about the story, but if you've played many RPG's before you can almost always guess what's about to happen and the game's "message" is sometimes painfully transparent.

Another thing that struck me was the HIDEOUS world map animation. This looks like it was ported straight from an early PS1 title. Imagine Final Fantasy 7 but less imaginative and more deformed. The game will block you off from areas it doesn't want you to get to with the most IRRITATING little animations. My airship was hit with a "barrage", it ran into a snowstorm, "windy conditions" and heavy mist. Give me a break.
This title is certainly worth a once over though and it only improves if you have someone else to play with as it features 2 players in combat, and pretty solid voice acting. But don't expect to be blown away- this title get's a solid 5 out of ten.

I'd like to start this review with the negative because overall that's how i see this game, but I'll try to include the bright points at the end, to be fair.
An RPG lives and dies on the battle system and this one is unlike any I've played before. You can actually set EVERY CHARACTER TO A.I. and just watch the battles! I know, you're probably thinking that's great for the random fights, but surely to beat the bosses you have to control at least one character. NOPE! As long as you heal and revive from time to time, there is no reason at all to even bother learning how to fight. In fact, since you are limited when in control to how many attacks you can set at once and can only control one character per controller anyway, you are BETTER OFF letting the computer do the work.
Even worse than the laissez-faire fighting is the rediculous amount of dialogue. Not just the spoken dialogue which itself sometimes drags on, but the 400 or more optional unspoken "skits" which cannot be sped through if you choose to watch one and NEVER add to the story. Many times the skits merely repeat the information from the spoken dialogue heard moments before. And for as much dialogue as you have to sit through, you'd think you'd be treated to some great anime seqences like in the opening movie. You'd be wrong. There was probably more anime in that opening than the whole remainder of the game combined, possibly even including the ending sequence.
OK, on the plus side, my favorite part of the game was the characters. Not that they were particularly unique for the genre (arrogant young hero, musically magical heroine, beautiful princess who happens to be an skilled archer, you get the idea), but almost every character, including the bad guys turns out to be something different than they appear, and kudos to the writers for finding so many ways to make that happen without it getting dull.
Also good work dungeon designers for not getting repetitive.

How this game has such a high review score is a mystery to me. The gameplay is slow and unsteady, the character and game art is sub-par, the voice acting is amateur most of the time and the storyline is impossible to be interested in. My rating is a one. I played the game for 20 minutes (I actually wanted to stop after 5, but gave it a chance to get better) and returned it to Gamefly immediately. This is probably the worst RPG I have ever played on any system and I am a huge, massive RPG fan.

I played this game for an hour and a half and it was so slow I was literally falling asleep. I realize some good games have a slow start up, but this game was ridiculous.