Sword Machine Review: Tales of the Abyss

The eighth title in Namco’s Tales of main series (though only the 5th to make it to North America), Tales of the Abyss marked the series’ final entry on 6th generation hardware and the reunion of Namco Tales Studio’s ‘Team Symphonia.’ With improved 3D cell-shaded graphics, an enhanced battle system, and a deeper story, Tales of the Abyss set out to outdo Tales of Symphonia, its spiritual predecessor, and celebrate the series’ growth after 10 years of titles in Japan.

Story: A-

Tales of the Abyss, though incorporating an overarching plot that will inevitably decide the fate of the world, is really a story about Luke fon Fabre, the game’s protagonist. Luke, the son of a duke and nephew of the King of the Kingdom of Kimlasca-Lanvaldear, has lived for seven years in the confines of his father’s manor. Though he remembers nothing beyond those seven years, he is told that he was kidnapped by the neighboring Malkuth Empire when he was 10, and though he was eventually rescued, he suffered amnesia due to the trauma. Despite this, Luke lives a carefree, pampered life, and as a result is very arrogant and tends to be quite whiny when he doesn’t get his way.

Early on, Luke encounters a beautiful young woman named Tear, who sneaks into his mansion to assassinate his sword teacher and general of the church’s private army. Their meeting creates a rare phenomenon known as “hyper-resonance,” and transports the two to a distant, unknown location. Wanting only to return home, Luke is brought face-to-face with some of the harsher truths of the world around him, and ultimately discovers that everything is not how it had appeared.

ToA’s story is told in normal JRPG tradition, with the majority of the story following the protagonist as he travels the world, meets companions and enemies, and ultimately confronts the evil that threatens to destroy the world. That being said, the game has several twists and revelations that are anything but traditional, and will genuinely surprise many. Additionally, the game’s characters are far from generic cutouts, each with his or her own motivations, pasts, and quirks. From the gynophobic ladies-man to the precocious 12 year old gold-digger, Tales of the Abyss manages to introduce a cast that is well-balanced and interesting, if only too sarcastic (seriously, I’ve never played a game with such a consistently sarcastic cast before, and I doubt I will ever see one again).

However, perhaps my main complaint with the cast is the protagonist himself. For his background and motivations, he is very consistent in his character, and often quite believable. However, he is also incredibly frustrating. He is arrogant, ignorant, and rude for about half of the game, and then depressed, hesitant, and generally a complete weenie for the other half. At heart, it is clear that he generally has good intentions, but his attitude is often so annoying that it is legitimately difficult to find much to like about him other than how he handles in battle.

Additionally, the romantic interests that exist between several of the characters are full of potential and deserved so much more attention than they received. They are touched upon, but so much less that they should have been and ultimately feel unsatisfying. This, unfortunately, is common in many JRPGs, but is extra noticeable in ToA because of its strong cast.

Overall, Tales of the Abyss manages a new take on stereotypical RPG plots, offering characters worth caring about, and intense moments of truly engaging storytelling. Only the high level of frustration over the main character, and the utter failure to explore some truly legitimate romantic potential hold the otherwise solid story back from greatness.

Visuals: B

Art direction in Tales of the Abyss is good. It won’t win any awards, but fans of Kousuke Fujishima’s designs will likely appreciate much of the art. The character designs are generally cool, and a few of the characters are downright awesome (Tear and Sync have especially slick designs, while Anise’s Tokunaga doll and Dist’s floating chair are really cool ideas). Architecture is nothing special, but overall fitting with the game’s ambiance.

Now, let’s talk about graphics in Tales of the Abyss.

For a game built on an improved existing engine (Symphonia’s) and debuting at the end of the PlayStation 2’s life cycle, the game looks surprisingly plain. The character models are quite faithful to Kousuke Fujishima’s designs, and look fantastic in some cutscenes, but they won’t ever make you say “wow.” That is not to say that the graphics are bad by any stretch, but for a Tales of game (generally known for its bright and varied locales) much of the world feels lifeless and surprisingly drab.

These complaints are, as any Tales of fan would tell you, not that big of a deal, and certainly wouldn’t be a make it or break it point for the overall experience. Where the game’s visuals really suffer, however, is in the technical aspect. Long load times (even in some menus), drops in framerate, and the occasional graphical glitch are simply too frequent to ignore, especially for such a drab-looking game on a platform so established. Really, what was the excuse here?

At the end of the day, these complaints will not destroy the experience for any but the incredibly picky. Most will accept the visual and technical shortcomings early on, and won’t give them a second thought as they play though the game’s 60+ hours of content.

Music & Sound: A-

Series staple soundtrack composer, Motoi Sakuraba returns for Tales of the Abyss, and though the soundtrack is not his best work, it is pleasant to listen to and generally adds to the atmosphere. Though there isn’t really anything spectacular about this particular soundtrack, there is really nothing to complain about either.

English voice acting for the North American version of the game is, on the other hand, extremely good. The cast is exceptionally well chosen and is able to maintain their characters very convincingly throughout the entirety of the game. Tear comes off as a bit colder than perhaps she needed to, but still delivers a very convincing performance. Unfortunately, I haven’t played the game in Japanese, so I can’t compare very well to the original voice cast.

Unfortunately, the voice acting utterly fails when it comes to Tales of Abyss’ skits. For those unfamiliar with the Tales of series, “skits” are kind of like optional cutscenes. After certain events, the player may be prompted to push a button (select in Abyss) to initiate dialogue between characters utilizing animated character portraits. These skits generally explore the development in characters’ personalities, inner thoughts, and group interactions, without forcing it down your throat. The Japanese versions of these games have these skits fully (or at least mostly) voice acted, allowing the player to feel even further connected. The North American version of Tales of the Abyss, unfortunately, leaves these skits silent. This problem is compounded by the extremely tiny and difficult to read text that accompanies them. I often wondered if Namco Bandai actually didn’t want the player to watch the skits.

Overall the soundtrack is good and the voice acting is superb, but the lack of voiced skits hurts the overall experience. North American fans of the series are used to getting less than their Japanese counterparts, so I suppose we should be happy that Namco Bandai left the skits in the game period, but it’s still a disappointment.

Gameplay: A+

Tales of the Abyss, as with the vast majority of the Tales of games, is pure bliss to play.

First off, the little elements that make up everything but the battles is straightforward and should be instantly familiar to nearly everyone familiar with JRPGs. The movement between locations, the control of the vehicles, the menu navigation, and all of the other little points that make up the gameplay are handled traditionally, but smoothly, with nothing feeling awkward or out of place.

Where the Tales of series, and thus Tales of the Abyss, sets itself truly apart is in the combat.

Battles generally take place when your party encounters an enemy on either the world map or within a dungeon, eliminating random battles. Your party begins the battle in a formation that you are free to preset at any time via the menu system (unless you are caught by surprise, which will randomize your active party members and mess with your formation), and from there you are given complete control of your party’s leader, though you are free to switch between characters at any time, even during battle. Your other allies will act according to their set AI commands, which also can be changed at any time. Alternatively, each character can be set to their own controller, allowing up to 3 of your friends to participate in battles in real time.

The battle field is completely 3D, and the introduction of the “free run” system allows your characters to maneuver around enemies, dodge attacks, and launch strategic assaults. If that is too much thinking, you can always just rush in swinging your sword maniacally and hope that you kill your enemy before it kills you. The additional combat skills, including special moves, magic spells, combo hits, overlimits, and various other battle abilities give the battle system incredible depth, and unlockable insane difficulty levels will grant the incredibly hardcore plenty of challenge to fully explore all that the battle system has to offer.

Basically, Tales of the Abyss takes everything that the series has done with battles up to it, combines the best that the series has to offer, adds brand new elements, and improves on absolutely everything.

Unfortunately, Tales of the Abyss has one major gameplay drawback that many players will inevitably encounter: backtracking like you wouldn’t believe. On your initial run through many of the dungeons, you will be in awe at how large they are and how much exploration freedom they offer. This will not be your reaction the second time you are forced to visit them. And yes, you will be required to revisit many of the game’s dungeons. By the time you do, you will thankfully have high enough levels to make short work of the majority of the enemies, but it does little to prevent the inevitable sense of monotony that will set in on your second run through the volcano level (or what have you).

Overall: A-

Tales of the Abyss is a fantastic experience that really has been the pinnacle of its series so far. With a varied and interesting cast, a solid storyline, and engaging battles, it is little wonder that so many Tales of fans consider it the best Tales of to date.

However, the game does so much right that it makes its few shortcomings all the more disappointing. Poor load times, ruined skits, a frustrating protagonist, and an over-abundance of backtracking take their toll on the game, preventing it from being the be all and end all for the Tales of series.

Tales of Symphonia was a revolution for the Tales of series, and though I think that Tales of the Abyss is an overall better game (and it remains one of my favorite PS2 RPGs of all time), it just doesn’t have that initial “wow” factor that made ToS so likeable. However, ToA showed what the Tales Studio can really do, and our hopes are high for what Team Symphonia has in store for us with the upcoming Tales of Vesperia.


Check out our review criteria and scoring breakdown for more information.