Tales of the Abyss
Charm, great writing and interesting characters. What more can one ask?
Tags: Tales of the Abyss Categories: PS2 Reviews, Reviews
Posted by Craig "American Idle" Hansen on Jan 17th, 2007
| Title | Players | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Tales of the Abyss (title page) | 1 | ||
| Developer | Publisher | Genre | Online |
| Role-Playing (Action) | No | ||
Another year, another Tales RPG from Namco-Bandai. Fortunately for PS2 gamers, this one is a bit fresher than average and benefits from a solid story, witty writing and charming characters. The tale starts off with Luke, a spoiled brat who has – naturally – amnesia and is trying to put the mystery of his past back together. Raised by a royal family, he’s had every advantage but no exposure to the outside world, and thus very little in the way of manners or diplomacy.
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During a training session, however, Luke comes into contact with a woman named Tear, who is out to assassinate his trainer. She fails but in the confusion Luke and Tear are transported to an entirely different part of the world, deep in enemy territory, forcing Luke to learn how to get along with other people for the first time in his young life.
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It’s not an easy transition and his mistakes and bumbling make for an entertaining ride, even though he is largely unlikable and annoying through much of the first half of the game. The idea of an rude amnesiac has been an RPG staple for more than one generation of RPG tales. It goes back at least as far as Xenogears and Grandia II, in recent memory, and probably a lot further if one were to stop and think of examples for more than a few seconds.
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King Solomon once wrote, in the book of Lamentations, that, “there is nothing new under the sun.” That’s true of Tales of the Abyss, but as one quickly learns, the value of a tale is not often found so much in a completely unique plot or set of circumstances, but in the style and charm with which a tale is told, or at least retold.
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That’s where Tales of the Abyss shines. The game is home to charming character who, although not immediately likeable, come to endear themselves by virtue of their actions within the game, their wit, and their fun personalities. The benefit also from sharply-written dialog that helps matters along, not to mention interesting character designs. While it’s not entirely certain that Tales of the Abyss will be Namco-Bandai’s final bow for the series on PS2, it certainly makes for an adequate candidate for that honor.
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The combat system is solid; while action-based, it is easy to master without sacrificing depth and stays engaging throughout without becoming too much of a task. The maps have plenty of hidden passages and secret rooms to be discovered, which add to the variety. And the game is simply fun to play, the most important quality that most reviewers fail to mention, all too often.
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Graphically, the game is not bleeding the next-gen edges and clearly belongs in the PS2 era, but there’s nothing wrong with that, necessarily. By offering a lengthy, intriguing quest that can add up to over 50 hours of gameplay, it is also not a lightweight title.
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While the game doesn’t measure up to the standard set by Final Fantasy XII, that isn’t the most direct competition to Tales of the Abyss. As more of a mildly-throwback RPG, however, Tales of the Abyss is a solid entrant that’s both fun and entertaining. Any RPG lover with his or her salt will be happy to add this one to their collection while waiting for the flood of PS3-generation RPGs to actually begin.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
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+ Great writing, sharp dialog, charming characters with rough edges. + Solid example of PS2 RPG graphics, if not an example of bleeding-edge into the next-gen. + Easy to use, yet still deep, action RPG combat system. |
8.2 |
| What Doesn't | |
| – Highly overused premise. | |
| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| Tales of the Abyss won’t be going toe-to-toe with Final Fantasy XII any time soon, but is a fun and entertaining tale in its own right. | |
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Tags: Tales of the Abyss
Posted by Craig "American Idle" Hansen on Jan 17th, 2007 and is filed under PS2 Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
