My Playtime: 70+ Hours (Mostly 20 hours was dedicated to leveling up)
Genre: Hack and Slash RPG
My Rating: 4 out of 5 starsI'm not a big fan of the Tales series. I started to play "Tales of Symphonia" and I just couldn't get past the first hour. It was so boring. So, that game was sold and never thought of, again. Now, they re-released Tales of Abyss (ToA) for the 3DS. From the reviews I have read from Amazon, I thought I give this series one more try. Being on a handheld port, it held a great deal more appealing. Again, I was slightly tempted to give up at the start but determination was written all over my face this time. As the game neared the 10-hour mark, the story and characters convinced me I have a new keeper.
STORY: Luke von Fabre was kidnapped as a young child and because of this incident, he lived a very shelter life, never allowing to leave his home until his 20th birthday. Of course, a chance encounter changed everything. An assassin, Tear, showed up at the von Fabre's mansion to kill her brother, Van, who was Luke's teacher. Upon meeting, Tear and Luke created a hyperressonance and teleported them halfway across the country to enemy territory of Malkuth. As they traveled through the world, gathering friends and enemies alike, they discovered a more sinister plot was being moved into light and their world as they know it was about to change as "Armageddon" descended.
I'm not a big fan of military and political story lines (*cough* Final Fantasy XII *cough*). It is such a turn off and makes the game more complicated than necessary. However, it transcended the political plot to a more fantasy-like story. I don't want to give away any spoilers, but the truth behind their world was absolutely interesting and I definitely didn't see the plot twists that kept coming. The game will keep you on your toes. But the turn of events was basic story of ethics. When people abuse knowledge for their own gains, people's lives and the world have to suffer. At the start, it was a simple matter of preventing war, but when religion overshadowed the preciousness of life, the story began to turn heartwrenching at times. Be prepare for a couple of "sick" scenes. The explanations can become a little tedious with scientific words thrown around, but one can get the general gist.
Please be careful while going through the game. It was very easy to miss sidequests, recipes, titles, costumes, weapons and events. I highly suggest a guide. I went through it myself and missed a few things, which pissed me off, but I'm letting it go. I'm doing my best to do everything I currently can. I know that you need to play through a 2nd time to truly complete the game and get the hidden dungeon, but like I said before, I have a queue this long, and can't replay the game. If I run out of games (right), I'll play this game over.
CHARACTERS: You are allowed 4 in your main lineup. But in total, you get 6 characters. You can easily switch between them. But I kept Luke, Tear, Guy and Jade as my main lineup since they made my team more well rounded since, I'm more attack based than magic based.
The piece de resistance of ToA. The MEN in this game were amazing. Each one slightly different from one another but held huge amount of appeal. Our hero, Luke, was an a** at the start. Living a spoil, rich life, Luke didn't understand hardships and threw money around to exonerate himself from fault. When events happened that he caused, he did a complete 180. He changed but he wasn't my fav. Now, Guy . . . now, that's hotness. Out of all the playable characters, Guy had the best attacks. His attitude was very straightforward and very smooth with the ladies. But my favorite thing about Guy was his fear of being touched by women. There are a lot of scenes where they made fun of this. So cute. Kyahhh~ Colonel Jade was the oldest one in the group (in his early thirties). Obscenely smart and brilliant tactician, Jade was absolutely fantastic. I loved scenes with Jade. His tongue was razor sharp and he had this quick wit that made you laughed.
The ladies seemed to take the backseat. The girls did have a huge part of the plot, but I found that their presence was dimmed by the guys this time around. I almost forgot Mieu. Mieu is like a talking rabbit thing that shoots fire. Absolutely adorable. My fav quote from him was: "I love Master (Luke). He named me Thing." So sweet.
DUNGEON/BATTLE: Pretty basic. You have freedom to walk around the map and dungeons. Monsters are not visible at first. But as you walk, monsters will become visible and you can easily avoid it by running around it. Or you can run into it. Whatever floats your boat. Some are faster than you, so there were plenty of battles for you to face. The dungeons do have some puzzles that you have to solve. With the 3DS controls, it was difficult to get an accurate shot, but doable. Certain dungeons can be difficult to get lost in but everything can be passed through without too much problems.
You only control the hero. The others are computers that are set to whatever controls you want them to do. For me, it's pretty hack and slash, but limited to moving back and forth. I know there was a free form, where you moved freely, but I had a difficult time hitting enemies in that form. You set up shortcuts for your special attacks. Further in the game, you will receive an Overlimit bar that can be used to activate your strongest attack: Mystic Arte. So, basically hit your enemies and tossed gels to heal yourself. Expect to die often.
GRAPHICS: I was stunned actually. The animation and movement for a port were beautifully done. You can actually see the characters' expressions. The graphics were clean and sharp. No chibi figures here. There are some very short FMV dispersed throughout the game.
SOUND/BGM/VOICES: Nothing too memorable. But I love the voiceacting. They cast the voice actors perfectly.
SPOILERS - THE ENDING: I finally finished. Woo-hoo! I did die once. My fault. I should've known better to have everyone attack the final boss at once. They all got creamed when he performed his mystic artes. The second time around I was prepared. You will fight him about 3 time. By the third battle, you will become invincible and cannot get killed. It was a pretty simple battle. I was around level 78. The ending was okay. Nothing wow. Playing the game a second time has some huge benefits. There is a few more dungeons and secret titles you can earn. However, I don't have the time and I struggled to finish it near the end. I no longer have an interest. So, I'm currently playing Final Fantasy XIII-2 and Kid Icarus for the 3DS. So, no time. Was it worth it? Sure. Great characters. Interesting storyline. Drama. And more drama. Not a big fan of the battle controls. Great overall package.
If you like the Star Ocean series, this will probably good for you. The controls and story lines are pretty similar.
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