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Hi-ougis, now called Mystic Artes, are also much easier to perform than in Tales of Symphonia. Characters have a lot of development, one even completely changes in personality, for a good reason. Each character has their own move set and plays quite differently from each other. The voice acting is excellent as well with popular voice actors such as Yuri Lowenthal, Johnny Yong Bosch, Kirk Thornton, and Liam O'Brien. 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. This time around, the opening theme song is actually kind of preserved. Instead of being completely chibi, the character models actually sport a more proportionate look, but their heads are still a bit big. Of course, some players may find all the techno-babble confusing and/or uninteresting.
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. The backgrounds are just as good as Tales of Symphonia, however, the locales don't seem to be as memorable. There are actually a few action scenes in Tales of the Abyss and they do not seem stiff at all. Many times the player will hear such things as "Could this be. through facial expressions.
Each character interacts with all the other members at least a few times. 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. 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: 9/10The story and characters are very good for Tales of the Abyss. Many of the unfortunate events in the game could actually be circumvented had the party members been more open with one another. 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. They are kind of fun to exploit when possible, though. Special attacks can be assigned to different combinations of the analog stick and the special attack button in the menus. As with Tales of Symphonia, players can use a normal attack or special attack (called artes).
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. 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. Most of this occurs through skits again. The story is actually quite interesting with a well-developed world. Nevermind" shortly being followed by "I knew it.". The only thing that hinders the score would be a couple of terrible glitches.
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: 8/10The music in Tales of the Abyss feels a bit generic without too many memorable tunes. Certain attacks, usually magic spells, leave behind little circles on the ground called Field of Fonons. Gameplay: 9/10Tales of the Abyss has a similar battle system to Tales of Symphonia, but with the addition of Free Run. There are only six playable characters with one other temporary playable character.
The main quest is lengthy and there are several sidequests and mini-games. 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. This is not without its benefits, however, because there is much wider range of character facial expressions this time around. 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: 8/10The graphics in Tales of the Abyss actually look like a downgrade from Tales of Symphonia. The Unison Attacks feature is now gone, but there is a new feature--the Field of Fonons. 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. A musical version of the Japanese song is played during the anime introduction.
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. 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. 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. 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. However, players can choose a higher difficulty mode if they deem the game too easy. 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.
Of course, it does get annoying how the characters are so secretive amongst each other, though, and communicate with each other with facades. 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. Instead of sporting a cel-shaded look, the character models have little detail and a bland look.
These problems disappear after another event, though. Characters also all have their own background story that gets unveiled a little at a time during the course of the game. Instead of completely relying on emotion bubbles, characters can show different emotions such as happiness, sadness, anger, etc.
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. In addition, the character's animation appears to be much more fluid compared to Tales of Symphonia. 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: 9/10Tales of the Abyss is probably one of the best of the few recently localized Tales games.
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. Tales of the Abyss is exactly what the Tales series needed to boost its brand name popularity in America. 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. 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. 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. 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. You won't regret it.
Anise, a money loving girl who wants to marry a nobleman. Here's what I thought about it.First of all, the music in this game is great. I can't say anymore without spoiling it for you.Overall, this is an EXCELLENT game. So if you don't like free run, then you can simply turn it off. Guy, Luke's servent (hehe) and has a phobia of women. I want to say what doesn't this game have. Of course some people say that this makes the game easy.
And finally Natalia, a princess who wants to fight. 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. 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. I give it a 5/5. Tear, a soldier who wants to kill her brother, but has a soft side to cute things (as do i ^^;). Tales of the Abyss came in October 2006. The song karma is remixed several times withing the game.
The first thing you notice is that the localization team KEPT the opening song for the game, karma. Even though I started with the Japanese version, I was NOT disappointed with the english version. It shows up in several scenes, and it's also a battle theme at one point. That's a first AND a plus.The story has a little bit of everything: politics, religion, science, prince and princesses, world destruction. 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. Jade, the best sarcastic colonel ever. The battle system used is the Free Run Linear Motion Battle System (FR-LMBS). 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.
Well, Free Run is an AD skill, and AD skills can be TURNED OFF. The gameplay is excellent. Spells and techs are good, and we even got a few more Mystic Artes than the Japanese version did. One you should definitley pick up.
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. 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. 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.
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. "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 lasts about 50 hours overall, and when you consider the sideusts the game could easily reach pretty close to 100 hours. 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 is all in 3D, and you're able to move in 3D on the battlefield. The game also introduces things like FOFs that make fighting a very fun experience to just mix and match you attacks and make combos. Overall this is my favorite of all the games in the series released in North America.
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