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One of finest RPGs I have ever played

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: December 24, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I have played many RPGs, from the original Dragon Warrior to FFXII and there are only a handful of games that left their mark. This is the best RPG I have played since Star Ocean: Till the End of Time.

> The graphics are little rugged but the overall bright anime presentation helps you emerge yourself in the world. The personality of each character along with their interactions will keep you entertained and will make you laugh once in while.
> This plays a little faster than SOTET so you can find yourself button mashing. You can assign basic button combos to perform special moves and string them to make powerful attacks. You can use anyone out of your party, so you are not limited to the main character which is primarily a melee fighter.
> The story is fairly rich; having a good vs. evil plot but having enough twists to keep you guessing. The also does a good job in giving each character a solid history and how they intertwine with the others.
> Unlike other games that require you to take several hours building your characters, the majority of the gameplay will be along with the story and almost feels like you are playing a movie. Your whole party gains experience so it is easy to switch party combinations on the fly. The games have multiple sidequests including an ultimate battle and "collect them all" recipes, costumes, etc. You also earn points when you play and get to spend them for a new game (includes keeping your old items & x2 Exp). Promotes replay and may be required for some sidequests.

I have beaten the game once (~80 hours: Spent extra time to reach the extra towns & dungeons); I'm closing it out a second time and plan to run through it again with the guide. The lively story with the interactive gameplay is what really makes this thing a hit.

Kiddy but fun.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: February 27, 2008
Author: Amazon User

A cutesy little game that was surprisingly well written. Some of the retreading is a bit annoying, as the sidequests will consume enormous amounts of "go this place, watch cutscene, go that place" but the additional information and pathos is its own reward. Where this game also shines, for an action RPG is that is has a really fun battle mechanism.

Amazing!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: March 16, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Honestly I was surprised by this game. I've played Tales of... games in the past, namely the original Phantasia and semi-recent Symphonia, and while I enjoyed them, I wouldn't say they were brilliant.

However Tales of the Abyss amazed me with a good story that wasn't completely obvious from the beginning, brilliant characterization (all the characters were really memorable, even a good majority of the npcs that only have a few speaking roles).

Speaking of, the voice acting is amazing par the course for the Tales of series, and only those who for some reason consider Japanese voice acting to be inherently superior will prefer it to the English localization.

The game is fairly long and gives you reason to play through it many times. Sometimes you must trigger a certain quest to trigger later quests, which by itself might warrant a second playthrough, but there is a bunch of content only available in subsequent playthroughs.

The battle system is very interactive, it's action-based rather than turn based, and with the Free Run ability it feels like you truly have control of the characters in the fight. (Free Run allows you to run anywhere on the screen, not restricted to certain planes of movement).

I'd highly recommend this game to anyone who enjoys RPGs, though to the incredibly conservative RPG player it may not be their cup of tea.

SUPER GAME ... LOADS OF FUN!!!!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: July 25, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Thanks for such great service. Item was well packed and shipped quickly. I will be back!

Great Update to the Tales game series

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: August 02, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I am a fan of the Tales series (tales of Symphonia on GC) and this is a great update to the series. The battle system is the first great update. In the GC game you were only able to focus on one player at a time, even though most of the time you play with a team of four and its a 2 player game. In Abyss the camera pans to the players that you are using, not just Player one. The fighting controls are basically the same but elements are added in this game such as Fire and Wind. Abilities are upgradeable also. Beyond the battle system, the storyline is a bit confusing and hard to follow at first, (kind of like the Harry Potter series if you only saw the movies) but the more you learn the easier it gets. The CG animation are worth the effort of getting though the game and the games' characters are complex, fun and interesting.
This is a must have for any RPG fan, young and old. You will enjoy it more with 2 players. Great game.

Tales of the Abyss

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: August 12, 2008
Author: Amazon User

"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 is all in 3D, and you're able to move in 3D on the battlefield. 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 also introduces things like FOFs that make fighting a very fun experience to just mix and match you attacks and make combos. 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. The game lasts about 50 hours overall, and when you consider the sideusts the game could easily reach pretty close to 100 hours. Overall this is my favorite of all the games in the series released in North America.

If you like Tales you'll like this

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: August 19, 2008
Author: Amazon User

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. 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. 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.

Another great game from Namco Tales Studios!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: August 20, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Tales of the Abyss came in October 2006. Even though I started with the Japanese version, I was NOT disappointed with the english version. Here's what I thought about it.

First of all, the music in this game is great! The first thing you notice is that the localization team KEPT the opening song for the game, karma. 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. The song karma is remixed several times withing the game. It shows up in several scenes, and it's also a battle theme at one point.

The gameplay is excellent. The battle system used is the Free Run Linear Motion Battle System (FR-LMBS). 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. Of course some people say that this makes the game easy. Well, Free Run is an AD skill, and AD skills can be TURNED OFF! So if you don't like free run, then you can simply turn it off. Spells and techs are good, and we even got a few more Mystic Artes than the Japanese version did. That's a first AND a plus!

The story has a little bit of everything: politics, religion, science, prince and princesses, world destruction. I want to say what doesn't this game have? 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. 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. Tear, a soldier who wants to kill her brother, but has a soft side to cute things (as do i ^^;). Guy, Luke's servent (hehe) and has a phobia of women. Jade, the best sarcastic colonel ever. Anise, a money loving girl who wants to marry a nobleman. And finally Natalia, a princess who wants to fight. I can't say anymore without spoiling it for you.

Overall, this is an EXCELLENT game! One you should definitley pick up. I give it a 5/5.

Tales of the Abyss: an excellent game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: August 30, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Tales of the Abyss is exactly what the Tales series needed to boost its brand name popularity in America. 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. 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! 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. 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. 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. You won't regret it.

Poor

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: June 16, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This game has poor graphics. The storyline, dialog, and voice acting are all very lame. The music is unremarkable. The gameplay, while fast paced, I found mundane.

This game is a hybrid of sorts between an adventure game with JRPG cliches and a fighting game such as Street Fighter or King of Fighters. The fighting game aspect is really like a poorly made fighting game, though. It features gameplay from both adventure games and fighting games, but excels at neither. Tales of Legendia has this same problem.

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