Tales of the Abyss Review by: deggle - 9.6/10
Mieuu~ It's a review master!So here is a review about one of my new favourite games and I have been binge playing this 24/7 only 3 hours of
sleep a night. This is game is the 8'th instalment of the Tales of series. it was first released in December 15, 2005 in Japan on the Playstation 2 then later had a re-make version on the 3ds (the one I am currently reviewing) released November 25, 2011 from Bandai Namco. Now let's move on from the information time for the fun stuff.
Preset: Welcome to Auldrant your name is Luke Fon Fabre a very sheltered boy you the nephew of the king of Baticul and the son of Duke Fabre. This world is made of special things called Fonons right now there is supposedly 6 but it seems there is a new one and you are a part of it. So join up with with another Seventh Fon Master Ion, Sociopath Jade, Princess Natalia and more friends while running away from evil religions and try to prevent a horrible war from occurring. I know you might be thinking "this is a dumb anime game I bet it's all friendship well it's not this story is dark as hell you have been warned)
Graphics 8: The graphics in this game are to be respected as the 3ds system likes to have icky head-ache graphics. But the new animations of all the characters and monsters alike were done awesomely. I really liked how the made the anime cut-scenes as it make everything look way clearer and much more life like. I mostly enjoyed the battle graphics in this game . As you know in the tales of game each character has a special square-pic of their face and in battles I like how they cringe when getting damaged or scowl when attacking a monster. Another good thing about the battle graphics was "Mystic Artes" Aka Special moves it shows a cool CG picture like this And then the animation of you attacking the enemy. I know this isn't too big but I still like seeing character's reactions whether a Skit or Event. Now let's get into skit graphics just like any other "tales of" You get all square-pics of the characters that are participating in the Skit talking about what is happening or what you the Player made them do.
Bads: Aha finally I got pretty deep in that didn't I but here it is HATING TIME. As you know moving this whole game to a new system and what not did drop the resolution a bit (i'm sorry) But luckily this game's art style was still nicely fixed to the 3DS system and then there is that horrible 3D slider the one thing that needs to die, it makes all and everything! I mean everything! Look disgusting and totally out of focus it will pain you in more ways than one *#Head-Aches4dayz* The world map may glitch sometimes due to lag and it might look weird but this is actually a big improvement from the old version.
Sound/Music 10: As you all know I'm a musically inclined so I prefer looking for good/bad things in this section.
Okay the voice acting of this game was really well picked out as each of everyone's voices fit their character so perfectly I just wish that the voice actors were the actual characters I mean even in the Victory After-math they worked so well conversing I mean even with a simple shout of a move it was just perfect. Now let's move onto Sound Effects this really isn't a big thing to get into but they actually turned the sound down for most effects which made my ears happy as in most games character's footsteps were the loudest thing it killed you but this game was different from pushing a box or smacking an enemy around all the sound effects were perfectly higher and lowered in the best areas. Battle Music *#life* The battle music in this game was just heart pumping and exhilarating this is what gets another great composition by Motoi Sakuraba this music got you so into the game and just made me listen to the soundtrack so many times I can't even count any more. if you want a game with great music you might want to play this one for sure.
Bads: *But it's a 10/10* Yea doesn't mean there isn't still something wrong with it the actual only thing about the Voice Acting/Sounds that annoyed me and tons of other players was the LACK of voices during skits I mean come on people! Really you'll have a big heart felt event oh wait there is a skit.....Dead flipping silence made so many fans angry with the dead silence the only reason we didn't skip the skits is because of it's fun comedy or big story line uncover if you are going to re-make a game please do it correctly next time please?
Addictiveness 10: My gosh was this game fun! A really fun thing that the Tales Series has is something called New Game+ which allows you too access the Grade Shop which allows you do go into harder game modes and gain extra exp and be able to do so much more than you were in the last game. And like most tales of games you won't get bored as easily as you think there are soo many Mini-Games to play and so many thing to do like Dragon Buster, Dungeon Crawler, Crate Clean-up, and so much more my favourite thing is the Colosseum where you train by fighting so many monsters and getting better at fighting monster with a balloon destroyer there is even a Cameo Battle you can access. Another one of my favourite things is the Title/Costume system it's pretty self-explanatory and titles can even give you a slight power-up in battle and costumes are even better the change the way your character looks and gives you cool battle power-ups. Another great thing about this is game is that this whole thing is filled with Side-Quests so you can't get bored so if you want a long and fun filled game here it is.
Bad: Actually there wasn't anything wrong with this section except is that they could have made some of the side-quests a bit easier to access and times in the game can be confusing to any player.
Depth 9: Alright as I have told you in the Addictiveness section this game offers you so much so won't get bored now so this game should take you about 60+ hours to complete normally for any player. And like I said this whole game is filled with tons of fun side-quests to complete that can unravel more of the story line or just give you some awesome information about a certain character. And also like I said you have the New Game+ to use to make this game even more longer and even more fun.
Difficulty 8: Okay I know there is difficulty mode in this game but even on normal mode this can be really difficult and the only real big change with making the game mode higher is that the bad guy's hp increases (x2 or more) And lot's of side-quest bosses can even more harder to beat than A-Story bosses and I say that because I know how hard the fights in this game were I mean you will have to grind at least ten levels in some places to actually be able to beat the boss without having 2 people die. So if you want a game with strong opponents and hard to follow story-line you might want to check this out.
Bads: Okay what I hated about this was the higher difficulties was fighting I mean I played the game on Ultimate and a normal monster's hp that used to be 1660 turned into 16,000 I was like WHAT!? and considering this is the first boss in the game and you are usually at lv.9 at this point the highest damage you can deal is 32 and guess what you still gain the same exp. So you might want to get Exp times10 or times2 if you want to be able to win this fight easily. So like I said low exp long and hour-long first boss battle not worth it to change to a higher mode I mean it's not like they are stronger it's just the obnoxious HP amount.
Story 9: Okay the story is actually a huge one as I said earlier this game usually takes 60+ hours this is why. You start off being told a story by Yulia herself about the legend of the Seventh Fonstone and what future it holds for the world of Auldrant and the Qliphoth that a Scion born of royal blood and scarlet red hair will be used as a weapon of destruction and then prosperity will be given to the land of Kimlasca. You Luke, are the Scion you just don't know about it. Later you are kidnapped by a mysterious women named Tear who is the sister of your sword teacher Van. But you were never allowed to leave the Manor in Baticul because you got amnesia and you weren't of age as well so with this new experience you go out into the world to prevent destruction and bring prosperity for everyone by stopping Yulia's Scores and false religion. And slowly learn about each character's background or do you really want to unravel depressing dark secrets and hate?
Conclusion: I have finally came to the end of this review and I hope you liked my input this game might seem like a dud or very interesting and look at this score how can you ignore those? So here is our pros and cons list
Pros: Soundtrack, Story Line, and Addictiveness
Cons: Graphics, occasional lag.
And the score tally is (Drum Roll)
9.6/10
Final Verdict: I'd really recommend this game to anyone and everyone as they will most likely enjoy playing in this wonderful story of Demise and War. I'm sure you really will enjoy every aspect and all of the fun characters and their backgrounds. Now it's your turn show me what you think reader!
Graphics
8 Sound
10 Addictive
10 Depth
9 Story
9 Difficulty
8
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