For me, I would use a carrying case for it to go into, but that's all. For my little brothers, we have the Nerf cases, which can save it's life. It's saved our DS's countless times, but you probably wouldn't need one, unless you are really scared of dropping it. There are some cases that you can put them in that you can just take them out when you want to play it though. That's what I would like, if it weren't for my little brothers. I wouldn't be able to have it without a protection.  Especially for such an expensive thing.

Another series I would recommend are the Megaman Star Force games. It's definitely sci-fi and has an interesting story. A lot of people don't really like it though. I thought they were great games.

I have no idea how I missed all of these responses.... I don't even remember reading some of this stuff....

Crazy Li :
Well, I'm on the fence about what you said on Tales of Abyss.  I mean, to me, it doesn't sound like the game is attributing things to magic, which might be okay in my mind.  For example, a game I used to play online is called Anarchy Online.  It's a vast MMORPG in which technology is so advanced that healing, attacking, and defending can all be done through nanotechnology and programming.  It probably appeals to a lot of gamers who like magic because of it, and yet the game has nothing to do with magic.  However, there are also games like Paper Mario in which magic is NOT mentioned (at least, not as far as I got into it), but which obviously has magic.  It's just subtle and attributed to spirituality or just the 'world's attributes'.  (Not sure how else to describe that.)  I guess, in other words, I'd have to know a bit more about how it works.

Do they really call the attacks 'spells' and such?  That puts me off a little because usually only magic games use that terminology, and yet by the sound of it, the 'attacks' and such are purely through use of the power of sound.  If this is the case and that is explained in the book or manual, I would consider it a safe game for me to play.  I'll have to look it up and read into it unless you want to tell me about more personally, since you've played and enjoy the game a great deal.  For example, can you tell me what the overall plot is?  If you don't want to, that's fine as I can easily look it up, but you might have a bit more insight than a review or wiki page.

patar4097 :  See above maybe? I did try Paper Mario and I didn't see a mention of magic in it, but to me, it was definitely full of magic.  Besides, Bowser is supposed to be a king of black magic or something, if I remember rightly.  Thanks for the suggestion though. I did give it a try, and the graphics do look awesome, but I don't think I could bring myself to play it.  Games don't have to mention magic to have magic in them.

mrfe :  I'd be terrified to drop mine!!!! O.o  Then again, I guess I'm more behind technology than I had realized.  The other day one of my students was tossing his phone from hand to hand, and in shock, I said "Stop that! You're going to drop your phone!"  He gave me this bizarre look, said "What, like this?" and tossed it up, removing his hands from catching it.  I gasped as I watched it bounce off the floor and he just laughed.  "Mrs. Singell, phones don't break that easy! It's got a protective case!"  I went on to mumble that protective case or not, there wasn't much of a layer to stop the jolt of a fall.  But all the other kids started laughing and talking about how many times they've dropped their phones.  It was a bit embarrassing for me.  I grew up being taught that cell phones and other small pieces of technology were fragile.  I guess that's not so much the case any more.

Rikloud :  I've actually been pretty curious about Megaman and considered them.  Can you tell me what you like about them?  I've never played them myself or even watched a video of them... but I see it has a large fan base which means it must be decent, right?  And I know it doesn't have magic in it.  Does it take a long time to beat?  From what I gather of screenshots, it's a scroller of sorts.  If that's true, what makes it unique from other scrollers or platformers?

Singelli : From what I recall, Tales doesn't use "spells". In Abyss particular (as most modern Tales games tend to also do), they use the term "Artes" for skills. It's an all-encompassing term for abilities that you can do whether they be attacks with your weapon or by utilizing the power of phonons.

It's hard to say if the game will work for you. There are two possible perspectives on it depending on which interpretation you choose to take.

From one end, you can call it safe due to the magic-equivalent being non-traditional and more of concentration of a certain type of energy. It would be like saying "I used fire because I focused the fire energy around me to create it!" as opposed to "I used fire for no real reason other than it just magically appeared!"

From a different end, you may call it an attempt to do something weird/unique and just call magic something else or try and BS some explanation to why there is magic in the world and perhaps that doesn't eliminate the problem for you.

Another thing to consider is that the world has its own pseudo-religion that has somewhat of a profit who can supposedly read special scripture enabling him to predict the future (though whether or not these predictions are 100% accurate, I won't spoil for you). I don't know if this would bother you or not.

As for more plot details, I can certainly divulge as much as you would like to know... just tell me how much you want me to say and how in-depth. If you do decide to play, I don't want to entirely ruin the story for you, so you'll hafta give me an idea of how far I should go with that. I guess just a general plot summary to start? There are some plot twists that I wouldn't want to ruin for you, but those are also the more interesting aspects of the story.

Get Fire Emblem Awakening and Pokémon Black 2, those are good RPGs. If you like plaforming, Get New Super Mario bros 2.

alsonic : Fire emblem awakening and pokemon black 2 have magic and she can't play games with magic.
Sigh.You are really going to miss out on Kid Icarus Uprising. You can always watch walkthroughs of it to see how good it is.

Singelli : The original Megaman series is mostly about a robot saving the world from a mad scientist. Battle Network Takes this concept to the Internet. Star Force is about a boy who meets an alien and they join forces to fight evil both from Earth and space.