Andromeda's JRPG Review: Tales of the Abyss

[Andromeda]

I’m starting up something that I have wanted to do for a while, but I just did not take the time to sit down and do it. Well, technically I do not have the time for it now either, but that is beside the point. What this is will be me reviewing games I’ve played, but they are only going to be RPGs. For those that do not know, I’m a big fan of RPGs, specially Japanese RPGs or JRPGs. So I’m not going to be making a review that compares it to all of the games in existence. I am not really even going to be comparing them to other RPGs too heavily unless it is a franchise or series. What I am going to do is give you all the points that make the game interesting and provide reasons for you to check it out. As I said I enjoy RPGs, so there has not been a RPG that I did not like, so its unlikely I’m going to tell not to play it. If you enjoy RPGs, this will help you pick your next game to check out perhaps. And one last thing, I’m not going to be reviewing any Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest games. There may be some others I do not as well, not because I do not like them, but because I want to get lesser known titles their chance in the light. Which may sound like a contradiction given the first game I’m going to review.

The first game is as the title says, Tales of the Abyss. It is the last game to be released in the Tales series not including the Tales of the World, which is more a spinoff than a main game of the series. This game comes from Namco Bandai and is the second Tales game on the Playstation 2. I picked this as my first game to review because of a certain bias. I love the game. It’s a personal favorite of mine that did not come Square.

The story of Abyss follows the adventures of Luke fon Fabre, an amnesic noble, who ends up getting caught between an assassin come to kill Luke’s sword master. In his attempt to prevent the female assassin from taking his’ master life Luke steps in the way. The result sends both him and the woman half way around the world. Thus his adventures begin as he meets a wide range of people from villagers to enemy royalty in an effort to get back home.

Abyss uses a device that I’ve seen done in several RPGs before it. In order to naturally explain the game mechanics, everything is taught to Luke by the others in his party. You see as I said Luke is an amnesic, though that is not quite accurate. Luke has forgotten his childhood memories due to him being kidnap and thus knows nothing about real world. So everything from how to shop to how fonons work are explained to him and thus to the player. It works, but it does seem a little funny at times that Luke is so ignorant of the world that he does not understand anything. It is pretty apparent that it is just a device, but at least it blends into the story.

As much as Luke is a device for explaining the game, he is also one of my most enjoyable characters in any RPG. Now I do love Jade and I will explain why later, but Luke is different from other main characters. What I love about Luke is that he is a jerk. He is not a nice guy to anyone and while he might be innocent and all there is no hiding that he thinks that he is better than everyone else. He is blunt and down right rude to just about everyone that he meets. Luke does have some redeeming qualities and eventually you will probably hate him for another reason, but he is a refreshing change from silent heroes or too idealistic. Plus, he beats up on the annoying token mascot animal that you find in anime, which wins me points.

As with the other Tales games, Abyss is an action RPG fore going the need to take turns for an all-out fight in a field. When you start it will feel just like any other action RPG, but as you advance through the game you come to realize the depth in the combat system. Now, you do not have to explore deeply into the combat to win, but it does certainly make your life that much easier. You have your standard attack to just swing your weapon, but from there you can launch skills that are hotkeyed to buttons on your controller. You can have up to eight skills hotkey with four of them being allies skills. This is what makes it better most other action RPGs. For others in the genre you are stuck hoping that your allies will work with you or manually telling them everything to do. However, with Abyss if you need healed you can tell them to heal you. If you want them to use a spell that will help you, you can order them to begin casting.

This leads me to the next point about the depth of the combat. Skills (Artes) and spells do not simply attack enemies, but they gather fonons (Abyss name for magic) in the battlefield. Once enough gather you can use them with your own artes to create new more powerful versions. Further the rabbit hole goes with the ability for you to recover from being thrown, if you hold the guard at the right you can recover from attacks soon, and even power up attacks. It can often feel more like a fighting game with the number of things that you can do in battle to protect yourself aside from just guarding and strengthening yourself. You can even find techniques people have made in order to deal far more damage then in a normal chain. Abyss combat is some of the most deep I have ever seen in a RPG.

The amount of customization in Abyss is somewhat limited. Every character will learn their own artes, but they also have a list of additional skills (AD skills) that they can learn as well that are bases on stats. There are few the each character cannot learn, but overall everyone can eventually have them all. However, first playthroughs and early games each character will be unique in how they can be customized. The AD skills are gained through stats bonuses that are gained when the character levels. This adds another level of customization, though fairly limited. The other control you have is over the strength of your artes. Each arte has four slots that increase the strength of a specific area of the arte such as power or TP consumption. However, these leave your control fairly limited.

This is an anime style game like the other Tales games. So you will receive anime cutscenes throughout the game. All of the characters have that anime style as well as the story some times. Anime and games always seems to mix well for me, so long as it is not a game based on an anime. The characters models are detailed managing to keep their anime likenesses. The environments will go from being beautiful to a little plain at times. It retains that anime feel, so do not expect high quality textures, but it works well for the game.

The music is not something that I pay a great deal of attention to unless it is very memorable. Abyss does not have that much in terms of a score that you remember, but the game revolves around music and heavily uses music terms throughout. So the things that are often memorable as Tear’s songs that she signs through the game. They do not seem to mean a lot, but her final song is definitely the one from the game that makes me go back again to listen. The only other song that got stuck in my head was the splash movie from Bump of the Chicken. Yes, that is the name of the band, its an odd name, but its an enjoyable song. The English game version just got the instrumental while the Japanese game version got vocals as well. Some did not seem like the vocals, but I found myself listening to it frequently.

The story of Abyss will take you roughly 50 hour to complete for the first time. There is plenty of material that is opened up for you in a second playthrough making it with your while to play again. As you play through the game you will have heavy religious references layered throughout as well as the previously mentioned musical references. Much of the story plays around religion and its affect on the world. It is not always so heavily in your face, but it is not something that you can ignore. One other story telling method that Abyss has that may frustrate some is the character’s ability to stop just when things are getting interesting. You find that they will say or act as though they know something or have an idea about what is happen, but when asked they will say they are not ready to talk about it. It almost become comical the number of times it happens. Everything is eventually explained though, even if it is takes an hour more to find out.

The one heavy failing in the game is the load times. I found myself avoid overworld battles completely as there are twenty second waits after battles finish to return you back to the overworld. It will take almost 30 seconds to save a game and going to between cutscenes are often long. This is the only heavy negative to the game.

I find myself playing a lot of RPGs recent for their uniqueness or quirkiness. So that is going to be another factor I bring up in a RPG that is often the reason to play the game as well. For Tales of the Abyss there is nothing really unique that other Japanese RPGs do not do already. If the RPG can have the characters change clothes then you have to have a swimsuit or maid outfit. Abyss takes the swimsuit, but also has an homage to the power rangers as well as a variety of other wardrobe changes. The power rangers is weird enough, but some of the side characters and villains fall in the odd and quirky category as well helping boost its quirkiness above the token swimsuit.

One of the fun factors for Abyss is that it can be a multiplayer game, battles only. However, having played through with three others it is apparent that the game was not tested to be a multiplayer game. There are numerous times when characters from the cutscene are placed in the party rather than the characters that we have been playing with causing confusing and slowing down the fight as we scramble to sort things out. The other failing is the explaining how to target your party members for healing. This is something that is never explained and requires you to try and fail until you figure out. Just pray that you figure it out before your allies die.

Reason to Play:

I will include this part for every game, as there is always one reason I find that the game was enjoyable to play even in its mediocrity. The reason to play Tales of the Abyss is characters and dialogue. It is for this reason alone that I replayed the game a second time after I just beaten it. One of the best characters in the game is Jade, who has some of the funniest lines and in general an enjoyable part of the game. Jade is the reason to play this game.

Tales of the Abyss was one of the best RPGs that I played from the year of 2006. It might not always be kind to those playing for multiplayer and the way it tells it story might be frustrating at times, but there is plenty to be found in the game. The story is long and deep with them not content to simply use the standard terms we come to know in RPGs. The combat goes as deep as you make it offering something for those that just want something fun and something challenging for those looking for something different.

Story – 9/10 – It is a religious story and you might feel like you have seen it before, but it will provide you with an epic adventure that distinguishes itself.
Combat System – 9.5/10 – A deep combat system that makes it more than just spamming the “X” button, however not telling you how to heal your allies or use other characters leaves you in the dark about the other non-melee characters.
Customization – 6/10 – The control you have is limited to improve artes and a pool of universal skills.
Graphics – 7/10 – It’s an anime genre RPG, the style works for the game, but its load times are terrible.
Characters – 9.5/10 – There is a unique cast of characters and Jade is reason enough to play the game, though you might find yourself hating Luke at times.
Uniqueness/Quirkiness – 5/10 – It is not a unique RPG with the only real quirky parts in that makes all JRPGs a JRPG, the ability to change costumes.

Overall – 9/10 (Not an average)