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.