Replaying this game for the first time since 2020/21 and I grew to appreciate things more but also find more flaws than I did originally. Character writing is still a highlight here as the main cast is very likeable besides 1 character, although it does have weak villains. I found the pacing to be worse than Symphonia when I first played it and playing them back to back again I still noticed it. Gameplay is fun but doesn't get that fast paced but still enjoyable. I can see why people call this the best Tales game but it just isn't the best for me. Still a great game nonetheless!

A lot of JRPGs fail at the most obvious, but most central driving force behind your investment into a story: characters.

Who is our cast? What are their motivations, flaws, aspirations? Not every game has to be Macbeth, but if you're promised a good story, you should be rewarded with something more substantial than your average shonen manga.

It's a long story but it has tremendous payoffs. However- oh shit this has an entire video game, with sword and magic and healing and a giant puppet golem. There's a great big story about an ancient ever-present and governing prophecy, a huge conspiracy created by the planet itself, and all sorts of good themes like the meaning of self and the limits and definitions of humanity. You'll love the part they go to the resort spa!

The game is pretty tight, it improves on a lot of areas of previous entries to make a once clunky game into a responsive fast spectacle. Additions and gimmicks became a somewhat solidified part of series staples like tangible overlimit and elementally altered artes. Continuations of traditions like mini-games, coliseum cameos, and additional costumes are carried out at their nearly complete form compared to modern standards.

This is the ~50 hour jrpg you should just please PLEASE force yourself to the 10 hour mark to let it sink its claws into you.

I know that objectively this game is perhaps a bit too jank both narratively and technically to objectively warrant a 5/5, but fuck that! I loved this game! I’m JRPG trash and I can’t be objective here! Like, yeah, the graphics aren’t great. I’ve gotten the impression that the 3DS version looks a lot better than the initial PS2 in terms of not being weirdly blurry and having less overworld slowdown, though there was still some of that, I think.

I feel like the battle system is a little jank even in the context of me having a little trouble with Tales inputs anyway… I am sure I had trouble with up artes being interpreted as me wanting to jump in Vesperia on the Switch too, so I don’t think it’s necessarily a 3DS problem or an Abyss problem specifically. But it still didn’t feel super great, especially when I was trying to use the honestly pretty fun FOF system. It was fun to experiment but I also feel like the initial difficulty curve made me kind of frustrated at the beginning.

I also think the audio balancing on the anime cutscenes was kind of bad, and the fact that there weren’t subtitles made it even worse… I also feel like the autoplay on the very last cutscene was super bad! The text boxes didn’t even complete! What the heck! Also a lot of the sidequests have really interesting plot material but are really easy to miss, and even while carefully following a guide I missed a few windows for completion.

And yet! Despite these things I think this game was great! I kind of understand why the plot and cast are kind of divisive, there’s a lot of technobabble and I think that while it’s not doing anything nobody’s ever seen before the writers took a lot of risks with the way the cast is presented. I actually really liked the worldbuilding a lot and I think those risks paid off, but I can kind of understand why people might be turned off how intentionally kind of frustrating the cast can be. Personally, I liked that our party is a group of deeply flawed people, especially Luke! Damn, his character arc is so good!

But I think one of the things I like best about this game is that even though it’s a really well written game about Luke’s journey of growth, repentance, and eventual self-actualization, I feel like the game does an excellent job of making sure none of the party members get the short end of the development stick or wind up feeling like they’re irrelevant to the plot or just along for the ride. Everyone’s stake in the journey is very clear, and they all have well defined relationships with each other and with the antagonist team (who I also really like as a villain enthusiast). I feel like this game does a better job of balancing its cast than even some games I’d consider objectively more solid, and it just makes me happy to find a JRPG cast I liked so much. Yeah, the plot spins its wheels at times, but I think it does a fantastic job of sticking the landing and feeling really satisfying. Like, I knew a lot of the plot and character beats going in from my friends chatting about it and I was still deeply invested and really engrossed.

So yeah! I wasn’t expecting this game to worm its way into my heart as much as it did, but I loved it! What a good experience! Also the soundtrack is actually real good and solid!!!

Per un motivo o per l'altro dopo l'esperienza dei due Xillia, nonostante l'impatto che ha lasciato su di me il primo capitolo della storia di Milla Maxwell & co. ho perso per strada questa saga di JRPG.
Con un 3DS da consumare e i generali commenti positivi che Tales of the Abyss ha tra i fan, mi sono attrezzato per tornare finalmente dove ho lasciato un pezzo di cuore.

L'impatto iniziale non è stato dei migliori: l'impressione generale che lascia e, ripensando anche agli altri due capitoli che ho giocato, che lasciano i Tales of è quella di una saga con un tono parecchio anime. Un conto è interfacciarmi con questo a 17/18 anni, un conto è oggi, a 27 anni, finiti gli studi e parte della macchina produttiva mondiale in mezzo ai boomer per 9 ore al giorno.
Il tono è quantomeno uno a cui ho dovuto riabituarmi, soprattutto su alcuni personaggi come Luke (in particolare il primo Luke) e Anise. Mi rendo assolutamente conto che nel primo atto Luke è scritto come una faccia da culo di proposito, ma in alcuni casi secondo me si è calcata troppo la mano, tanto che l'evoluzione del personaggio diventa telefonata fin dalle prime ore (non nelle modalità ma nel fine).

Detto questo non starò qui a fare il bastian contrario e dire che la scrittura dei personaggi sia di basso livello, anzi.
Di fatto questo era l'aspetto che più mi mancava di Tales of, perché ancora oggi di Xillia porto con me le personalità del party.
Ciò che fa bene Tales of the Abyss è dare incessantemente voce ai suoi personaggi, il rateo cutscene/gameplay è praticamente 1:1, se non di più considerando la quantità smisurata di dialoghi opzionali. Non tutti i dialoghi sono fondamentali ma tutti i dialoghi contribuiscono alla modellazione delle personalità dei compagni di viaggio, ed è per la volontà di fare questo passo in più, così come per il lavoro degli ottimi doppiatori (giocato in inglese) che voglio sottolineare la qualità di questo aspetto.
Parlando dei personaggi quindi posso dire che non ce n'è uno che non abbia apprezzato.
Tra i miei preferiti parto da Anise: comprendo che i personaggi bambini siano facilmente detestabili, e, come dicevo, pure per me Anise è inizialmente difficile da mandare giù, anche perché per tutto il primo atto la sua unica caratteristica è, scherzosamente o meno, voler sposare un uomo facoltoso, cosa che è particolarmente disagiante vista la sua età. Una volta rivelata la sua situazione familiare però, è diventata per me un personaggio molto interessante, riflettendo sul come agisca da ragazzina. In parte mi ha ricordato Yuffie, un personaggio "fastidioso" ma che nella sua ingenuità, a causa dell'amore che ha per le sue radici, agisce puerilmente per proteggerle.
Tear ha la caratteristica di essere il più imperscrutabile dei personaggi del party: raramente aperta a raccontare cosa prova o cosa pensa, è la ragazza che più deve mettere in gioco i suoi sentimenti e ciò in cui crede durante la trama, oltre a dover soffrire fisicamente, il tutto con grande stoicismo. Forse non è il più narrativamente mutevole dei personaggi ma quello che ho ammirato di più a livello di carisma.
Jade è il vero MVP di Tales of the Abyss, tanto da dover essere nerfato all'inizio della trama. L'ironia, il sarcasmo e il pragmatismo sono le cose che più mi hanno colpito di Jade. In particolare nelle battute finali la sua freddezza e la sua capacità di fare la scelta anche difficile e dura, a scapito di persone a cui veramente vuole bene, mi hanno sorpreso. Spesso, in questo tipo di narrazioni, affiora sempre l'idea che la via più nobile è quella dove si possono salvare capra e cavoli e dove si è gentili (ne avevo parlato per quanto riguarda Atelier Lulua), qui, per quanto poi magari non si rispecchi veramente nei fatti, le scelte e i ragionamenti di Jade non vengono inquadrati mai come negativi.

Ma il mio aspetto preferito riguardante i personaggi rimane la loro gestione, quanto parlano e quanto interagiscono tra loro. Di ogni personaggio esiste una relazione tangibile con tutti gli altri, non solo col protagonista e non solo in gruppetti.
Ci tengo anche a dire che Natalia e Guy non sono per niente personaggi minori e di fatto è una questione di mera preferenza. Guy è un ottimo best buddy, che non ha paura di dire senza peli sulla lingua quello che pensa per il bene dei suoi amici e Natalia è affascinante nelle sue insicurezze e nel modo in cui le combatte. Certo, di questi due personaggi non mi piacciono alcuni aspetti: di Guy la sua fobia delle donne, che è giustificata abbastanza male e gestita, di nuovo, in modo molto "anime" e di Natalia la sua backstory, che mi sembra cada un po' dal cielo e buttata nel minestrone che è la trama di Tales of the Abyss.

Parlando della trama infatti, mi sono ritrovato di fronte al più classico dei casini narrativi jrpgistici. In particolare, la necessità di inserire meccanismi e lore personalmente incomprensibili così prepotentemente nella narrazione principale non è stata vincente nel agganciare il mio interesse. La presenza di Luke che nel primo atto spesso dichiara come non ci stia capendo nulla sembra quasi un'ammissione di colpa degli sviluppatori.
La voglia di buttare così tanti elementi nella trama principale mi sembra abbia annacquato molte delle buone idee. Un esempio è appunto la backstory di Natalia, o il tradimento di un personaggio gestito secondo me male nella reazione del party. Questi sono elementi "cucinati" a metà che non colpiscono come altri e danno la sensazione di lungaggine.

A tal proposito l'elemento che ho sofferto di più di quest'opera è la gestione del ritmo e del tempo del giocatore. Dopo un primo atto classicamente introduttivo e giustamente lento, con un finale sorprendente, dal secondo atto letteralmente la maggior parte del tempo è spesa in viaggi principalmente da una città già visitata all'altra. La media è di qualcosa come 4 spostamenti con cutscene di esposizione seguita da forse un dungeon o una boss fight. Mi rendo conto che l'idea fosse quella di creare una trama complessa anche molto politica, e sicuramente questo obiettivo è stato centrato, tuttavia mi chiedo se si potesse fare in diverso modo.
Spostarsi nella world map è noioso, si poteva tranquillamente passare da una cutscene all'altra, tagliare, rendere disponibile da subito il viaggio rapido...
Tales of the Abyss è un JRPG di 40/50 ore che pesa come se ne durasse quasi il doppio.

Purtroppo la mia esperienza si è aggravata non avendo apprezzato molto nemmeno il gameplay.
Ho trovato il combat system acerbo, con delle buone idee, come il Field of Fonons, che alla fine dei conti servono a poco. I combattimenti sono stati per me una questione di button mashing, fughe con corsa libera e gestione delle risorse.
Anche per la parte ruolistica mi sento di fare lo stesso discorso. Le camere che permettono lo sviluppo di caratteristiche specifiche e la possibilità di sviluppare liberamente le arti singole sono buone idee ma non ne ho trovato un effetto tangibile nel gameplay e gli equipaggiamenti scalano e basta a esclusione di alcuni accessori.

Ho apprezzato invece molto la progettazione dei dungeon: mai inutilmente lunghi e con enigmi della perfetta difficoltà, quella della leggera frustrazione ma mai tale da guardare una guida.
I dungeon poi, come anche le città, sono tutti molto distinti ed esteticamente piacevoli, nessuna sensazione di corridoi anonimi né nella presentazione, né nel gameplay insomma.

Volevo chiudere parlando dell'ottima scrittura attorno ai temi di Tales of the Abyss.
Tornano spesso, con diversi personaggi, stimoli a riflessioni sull'identità (Asch, Natalia, Synch) sulla redenzione (Jade) sull'amor proprio (Natalia)... C'è un'originale (per il genere) pensiero non anti-religioso ma solo anti-ecclesiastico (con Mohs, Anise e Tear).
Luke, il protagonista, nel suo arco di evoluzione, racchiude un po' tutti i temi sopracitati e, nonostante mi sia lamentato della sua scrittura nel primo atto migliora molto successivamente. Ho sentito spesso dire che dopo il suo cambiamento Luke diventa un classico protagonista da Tales of ma io credo sia molto più affascinante: fino alla fine del terzo atto Luke non completa il suo arco narrativo ma deve risolvere altri problemi psicologici dopo che gli è crollato il mondo addosso, per diventare la miglior versione di sé stesso.
Luke e il party sono contrapposti agli Oracle Knights, compreso Asch, per la loro capacità di cambiare, per aver superato i loro traumi, un passo alla volta.

Ma la contrapposizione più importante e l'insegnamento più a me caro di questo gioco è quella che riguarda l'interpretazione del sacrificio. A scapito poi di un piano di cui, onestamente, trovo un po' di fallacie logiche, la contrapposizione sottile e fortemente tematica tra Van e il party è quella che vede il sacrificio come massimo atto eroico contro invece la volontà di vivere sbagliando e cercando un modo, lottando.

La miglior celebrazione della vita è vivere.

Even though I would consider myself to be an avid fan of the series, I somehow never got around to playing this one, which is kind of surprising, considering how much this game gets hyped up within the fanbase, and I gotta say, after beating it, I'm pretty disappointed.
Even though the series has a lot of games, I feel that most of them do a really good job of standing on their own, having some sort of unique gameplay elements or different progression systems/gameplay loops, but this one really doesn't do anything to stand on its own. The very few things that this game does to even remotely stand out are so extremely shallow and vague that it's more of an accident when it happens, rather than an actual mechanic the game is designed around.
I would even go so far as to say this game does absolutely nothing to justify playing it literally over any other game in the series. It feels so bad to be playing a game and the whole time I'm thinking, "I could just replay Vesperia."
The pacing of the gameplay is equally as rough, with there being so much backtracking having to travel across the world map just to talk to people. I rolled credits with less than 40 hours yet I feel like this game took literally forever with just how much of a slog to play through a lot of the times.
Which is kind of a shame because admittedly, the story/overall narrative, as well as the characters, are absolutely wonderful this time around. The narrative is so beautifully thematic and there are a plethora of interesting scenes and character moments that I genuinely was very invested in, and that's something I do feel like this game does fantastically. In fact, that's the main thing that kept me playing honestly, and I can't take that away. But when the gameplay is for the most part boring, character progression is boring, customization is shallow, and a lot the mechanics might as well not even exist, then it's hard to recommend this game to anyone unless they are interested in the top tier narrative.

Let me set the stage: you’re me, it’s, like, mid-2012. The only 3DS games you have are Kid Icarus Uprising and Fire Emblem: Awakening because you got the 3DS early because you thought the next Pokémon game after ‘HeartGold and SoulSilver Versions’ was gonna be on the new console. It wasn’t, and you should’ve learned back then there would never be any use trying to predict what the next Pokémon game would be. You’re also into anime, and your interest in JRPGs is skyrocketing, especially after said ‘Fire Emblem’ game and you’re looking for your next fix. Enter Tales of the Abyss. It’s a port of a PS2 game but you don’t know that. It’s part of a hugely successful series but it’s only hugely successful in Japan and only one game comes out in the west about twice a decade. You also don’t know that. You buy it pre-owned from GameStop because that’s how you buy every fucking game ever. But you knew that. This game would activate something in your brain that would never turn off, but it’s also something that wouldn’t click for a while, too.

I have a bit of a soft spot for this one because it was what got me into the ‘Tales’ series in the first place. This series would soon become monumental for me, both as an enjoyer of games and a writer of stories, as some of my biggest original fiction projects are very plainly inspired by some of the stories that make up the titular tales. However, I did get this game in a time where I was very bad at games. Especially JRPGs, I was undisciplined in properly leveling and growing characters, and really impatient about discovering where to even go. It wouldn’t be until years later, while struggling with Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition, that I would finally rewire my brain in a way that would allow me to conquer any RPG I set my mind to. Back in the day, after getting stuck on one of the fairly early bosses in this game, I discovered that this game has a full anime adaptation. “Oh, well, I’m playing this game only for its story, so…” I’ve watched that anime a few times, and still regard its opening and ending songs as top brass. I have a real soft spot for this one.

Though, I haven’t experienced Tales of the Abyss in either game or anime form for quite a while. After beating Tales of Berseria earlier this year, I was really into the groove, and wanted to not only try new installments in this series that intrigued me, but also finally roll the credits on a couple of a others that sat on the shelf for a long time. After getting back into ‘Abyss’ and meeting all of the characters once again, I absolutely fell back in love.

Before I get into anything else, let’s talk about how weird it is that this is on the 3DS. It wouldn’t be the last PS2 game to get a 3DS port but in a time where Nintendo was putting only their flagship N64 games onto this little engine that could, it’s kind of wild that Namco Bandai would spring ahead a generation and put this game on this console in 2011. I’ve often regarded the 3DS as a bad piece of hardware in my reviews, because it is! Some of its best titles run like dog-shit-ass and this game is no different. It utilizes the touch screen extremely well (every JRPG should have a second screen with the world map on it, lol), and being able to set abilities to the touch screen in battles is also a very good idea! It’s a good port because it utilizes its new home well, but there were more than a couple moments of slow-down, textures acting oddly, etc. Battles run smoothly, and only when intense artes are constantly being cast during late game bosses does it ever get rickety. During cutscenes and story moments, there are only some moments of text boxes appearing in the wrong areas every now and then.

At the end of the day, they are just minor technical flaws that most don’t account for in their rating of a video game, and I only do because I like to think about all of the factors that make a version of a game perfect. In this medium where games are constantly updated, ported, remade, and remastered, I often find that the technical aspects of every version of a game are pretty important to consider. If a new version of this game comes out (extremely possible after ‘Vesperia’ and ‘Symphonia’ recently got the treatment), I’d buy it in an instant (and even a new console if I needed to).

However, while this 3DS port is touchy, technically, this game’s design is hit after hit. Combat is really fun in this game. After Tales of Berseria’s absolutely lightning-smooth combat blew me away, I was still excited to go back to something simpler, and I did end up appreciating it a lot. Having simple neutral moves streamlines the combat without making it feel any less intense, and while I can really appreciate the fully-customizable move strings in ‘Berseria’, this game’s combat had a real easy rhythm that made it always feel satisfying within its own bounds. Leveling felt really well-plotted and balanced, and I never encountered an area with oddly-high monsters or a boss that felt unfair or impossible. Some great scenario-plotting by the designers here, really.

A big improvement from other titles is the dungeon design, which was a huge weak point in ‘Berseria’ in particular. While some dungeons had very middlinh puzzles that just were not tantalizing, ‘Tales’ dungeons never really felt like they were about the puzzles, and a lot of the times they feel almost like a formality. Because then you have dungeons in this game like the Absorption Gate, which at one point during it splits your party into three groups, having you switch between them to let each group progress through the dungeon, testing to see if you’ve been splitting your play-time between different characters up until this point (I did! For the first time in this series). It really felt well in-tune of other aspects of the series’ overall design ideas and it was a real high point for me, gameplay-wise.

Something I will say was, coming fresh off a different ‘Tales’ playthrough, I attempted this game’s Hard Mode, thinking myself up to the challenge. Unfortunately it was absolutely miserable. It not only makes battles difficult but it also affects how much gold and experience you collect with each fight, so you’ll be grinding more just to buy more items to get through the tougher battles. Absolutely struggled with it, and once I switched to Normal I was having a fun time, finally. Less of a Hard Mode or more of a ‘Not Fun’ Mode, in my opinion and I cannot imagine a fan of this game finding it an enjoyable challenge in the slightest.

One of the best thing this game does, though, is respect the player’s time. You know those moments in RPG games where they’re like “ah, shit we gotta go back to this location we’ve been before!” and they make you walk back through all that square footage of game to where the characters want to go? Well, this game just puts you where it wants you to be sometimes. I know. There were multiple times where a string of story events would take you back and forth between familiar towns and the game’s scenario just has a really good sense what to breeze over. Sometimes it worried me, especially when it gives you those “do you want to just go back now?” prompts. I usually decline those in games in order to grind along the way, but I would just let the game streamline things for me and still I never fell behind, level-wise. Just gives you the juicy morsels, so this isn’t anywhere near becoming those walking simulators that 3D RPGs risk becoming during similar moments. Tales of the Abyss’ world is small, with about only a dozen cities and towns that make up the entire planet, and you’ll go to each town about a dozen times or more, and before (and even after) they introduce fast travel, the game will very often transport you themselves and it was such a breath of fresh air, let me tell you.

The story picks up fast and thanks to what I’ve mentioned so far, it very rarely slows down. I found myself giving long play sessions to this title because I was just constantly engaged in the story and never bored of the gameplay. A story that really stands out, starring Luke fon Fabre, the son of a duke with only twelve years worth of memories, devoted to his sword teacher, Vandesdelca Grants (cool ass fucking name). Luke fawns over Van so much and it’s the crux of the entite protagonist/antagonist relationship, and while the game picks up fast, I wish we did get a little more prologue where we really see how Van grooms Luke to eventually obey him when the time would come. Luke, still, is an insanely good protagonist. A unique one, too, because while most anime protagonists are scruffy, talented, chosen ones, Luke is literally a huge brat, insufferable and unsympathetic for hours of game time, and is quite literally the opposite of a chosen one.

I just find it really ballsy and worthwhile to make your main character a gullible, pathetic moron, and then also make him have a panic attack when he kills someone for the first time. A moment that the game does not breeze over, because something this game handles very well is the weight of death and violence. Besides all the guilt that we watch Luke bear, I’ve never seen a fantasy game (outside of the actual war sims like Fire Emblem (though, even then, only the best Fire Emblem titles do this correctly)) handle and translate the violence of war like this one. There’s a certain fully-animated cutscene that depicts just a battle between two countries that involves zero characters that we know, but it feels so real, and the game makes you witness all the violence that the humans of this world inflict on each other in a gutteral fight for survival and for country. Eventually, every character has a heavy weight they have to carry, usually revolving around a death (or countless deaths, plural) that they were somewhat responsible for.

The growth that Luke goes through, and the bonds that he forms with people who didn’t believe in him at all upon interacting with him for the first time, is worth it enough for me. Couple that with an amazing story and a battle system that is in depth, but not overbearing in the slightest, and you have one of the best JRPGs I’ve ever played. One that conquers a hardware that holds it back slightly. This is easily one of the best games on this system and I will definitely be trying the PS2 version to see how it differs, and if there ends up being enough quality-of-life changes in this port to make up for its slight technical stutters. Though, despite it all, this is one of my greatests.

I have so much to say about this game, but I think I'll summarize my thoughts here & I'll make sure to keep spoilers out of it. Here goes;

This game is absolutely phenomenal. In regards to the easier things, the gameplay is really easy to get behind and get used to, and I didn't have much trouble, if any, during the game. Sometimes it was hard to know where I was supposed to go, and it's easy to get lost on the world map in the early parts of the game, but I think those things are easy to get around, especially once you get used to it. Fights were fun, a mix of old-style rpg fighting & free style, which I really enjoyed.

In regards to story... I don't know what I'm supposed to say or how I'm supposed to say it. I absolutely loved the characters, and I don't think any of them felt static in any regard. Every party member (and even the antagonists!) had separate character arcs and, though some of them were short and could have been explored more, felt satisfying and I really enjoyed getting to know each and every one of them.

...yes, this does include Luke. At the beginning of the game he is horrible, snotty, and a Grade-A Asshole, in all honesty, but I still found myself loving that part of him. He was earnest and kind in unexpected ways, and he was someone I could relate to even at his worst. Emphasis on "worst," because he gets better. So much better. If you stopped playing because you couldn't stand Luke... trust me when I say he is one of my favorite characters in any video game ever. I cannot explain how much him and his character arc means to me.

The plot itself feels as though it goes a little quick at some places, but I definitely loved it all the same. It felt like I could never put it down— I just wanted to see what happened next at every single turn. The symbolism and the themes are just so.... they're so good. I love this game a lot, and I can't recommend it enough.

I can see the appeal here, but large parts of the game were just a huge chore for me.

The plot is chugging along with some weird pacing, I felt barely any escalation over the course of the game and the way everything about the story is structured is bizarre and off-putting.

The lore barely matters and remains incomprehensible and foggy.

The cast is fine, but every character except Tear is unlikable or cringeworthy in one way or another. And yes, I know Luke is supposed to be unlikeable in the beginning. But some spoilerish parts about his behavior just irked me all the way through.

I just... I don't like Tales of the Abyss. I mean, I do not hate it either, but I really do not feel like I needed to experience this game. At all.