Originally I had this game on 3DS, where I've got a documented 252 hours on it. So about 4 playthroughs of the game. I loved this game to BITS and could not get enough of it, I had wanted to 100% it--but while trying to get all the entries in the collector's book I got burn out and stepped away from the game.

Now maybe a decade later I revisited the game to see how I enjoyed the game after all these years. and you know what??

It STILL slaps.

This time around I might've played on a Totally Legit PS2 in order to share the experience with a friend--but the only real difference was two side quests that had different requirements between the versions. The 3DS version didn't really ADD or edit anything about the game.

But this GAME... It still means so much to me. I love the story despite its contrivances, I love all of the main cast despite them having some anime nonsense (SO many of the main characters go through the anime patented "I have important information that I would share but just won't Because™" and only half of them are given a solid reason on why they didn't say anything). There's SO much technobabble most would say its absurd but I love it as it makes it feel like Auldrant is its OWN world and not just a cutout standee for the story to exist on. (And also helps to sympathize with Luke because every time he's like "WHAT are you talking about" I'm right there with him being like "they have to be making words up in order to try and confuse me")

And while I could just go through and talk about every scene and narrative beat... I think I'll just say I appreciate Luke. I appreciate the risk they took with him, making your protagonist such an insufferable and self centered person is bound to turn people off from the game. And I understand people who quit before the game punches Luke in the teeth for being a prick--but the foundation it builds and the pay off of Luke's character. It's cemented him as one of my favorites to him go from low key depressed and lashing out at people to shattering his reality and perceptions of himself and the world around him forcing him to change followed up by his spiral into high key clinical depression and struggling with his place in the world, what meaning does life have.

Also the sidequests are GOOD. I like getting the little cutscenes of character interaction and lore. None of them feel like waste, though some of the SKITS on the other hand... some of those you'll have the characters say in a cut scene "We need to go into town." to be followed up by a skit of the characters saying "Town is right over there. We need to get there as quick as possible." and you're like "...yeah I know. We just talked about this."

The games BIGGEST failing though is the absolute hard ON it has for the monarchy. None of the nobles get the comeuppance they deserve and get away with instigating the main conflict because the game places the responsibility for their actions on predeterminalism over holding them accountable for not even trying to deny fate. This is my campaign against Duke Fabre. All my homies HATE Duke Fabre and Guy should've gotten to kill him, or at least beaten him to near death.

Man, I really wanted a sequel to this. Luke and Asch combined would have been god-tier.

I'm so tempted to get the 3DS remaster of this just so I could re-experience it (and hopefully like it as much as I did playing this in high school).

Side-note: my memories of getting my brother to play this (and thus re-experiencing it in a way as I watched his playthrough) and getting my friends hooked on the theme song Karma by Bump of Chicken (despite them not having played the game) are so beautifully vivid in my head.

Novamente mais um Tales of incrível, já joguei o Phantasia, Destiny e Eternia, tava esperando um jogo incrível e foi exatamente isso que ele foi.

No começo o protagonista é bem chato, porém tem bastante justificativa do motivo dele ser desse jeito, muda bastante depois de um tempo.

Teve até que bastante revelações durante o jogo, além de muita desgraça acontecendo na história. A história que é sobre guerra, confiança exagerada na religião daquele mundo e até ética humana.

Esse jogo fez eu me divertir bastante, chorar muito e até refletir sobre a vida, ele é incrível.

Ah, Tales of the Abyss. I'll readily admit I wrote this game off far too early on. I made it about halfway through the first act, had had enough of how irritating the main cast seemed and how aimless the plot felt, and abandoned it for the longest time.

But that was a mistake. First impressions were certainly not indicative of what the game would become over the course of the nearly 40 hours I spent with it. Luke went from insufferable arse to lovable hero. And I likewise became equally attached to all of his fellow main cast members (Anise less so, but she's still decently tolerable).

In what I would describe as a very natural progression (something that's often hit or miss in JRPGs), each character came into their own, evolving from personified tropes to memorable comrades, however cliche that may sound to say so. Guy and Jade are favorites for me, with Guy being the ever-faithful best friend with an interesting arc of his own, and Jade being an unfailingly sarcastic jackass in the best possible way.

Additionally, the main plot is also well done. RPG plots tend to not always match the quality of character interactions, letting a focus on one overshadow the other, but Abyss largely avoids this imbalance. The main plot progresses very nicely (relatively minor pacing issues in some parts of the adventure aside) and ultimately reaches a (mostly) satisfying conclusion.

My only nitpick with the story is how the fonon lore pervades everything. That's not inherently bad, but so much terminology is thrown at the player in the early hours that you feel as confused as Luke does hearing it for the first time, and many times after that. Perhaps that was intentional, to reflect Luke's confusion; perhaps not. Either way, it's a small gripe, regardless.

As far as visuals and audio go, there's a fair amount to like in Abyss, especially given how it's not far from being 20 years old at this point. Colors are vibrant, characters look decent - not much else to say, either positive or negative. The world and models are also helped to look a bit sharper on the smaller 3DS screen as well. Abyss's music also impresses, with the standard battle and boss themes being personal favorites out of the score (pun absolutely intended :p).

Gameplay-wise, Abyss is perhaps a little more mixed. The world is often tedious to navigate because of the frustratingly slow run speed as well as how disorienting location placement seems at times. Only by the game's end did I finally start to get a good sense of where everything was, but by then I already had unlocked fast travel to go exactly where I needed to, so it was rather pointless. Dungeons are also somewhat lackluster, yet I can't even complain about this. I prefer solutions to be simple if it means I don't waste time running around in circles because the answer is too obscure. I don't play RPGs to spend hours running around a bunch of hallways and rooms. The action is generally at the forefront, which is ideal.

Beyond those issues, the combat (Tales' trademark linear-motion battle system) is a joy. Simple enough to learn, yet sufficiently complex for those who want to reach its skill ceiling. I was quite partial to controlling Guy through most of the game as his speed in battles was preferable to Luke's overall higher attack power. The casters and Anise didn't appeal to me, so I hardly ever made use of them. I'm sure they have their fans though. Just not for me. Unga bunga sword swinging is more my speed in Tales.

One area that RPGs can flub up quite easily is enemy quality and difficulty balancing (the newest entry in the series, Arise, is a good example of this), but Abyss stays quite steady, if on the easier side of things. Most enemies and bosses don't feel like HP sponges, nor do they typically have attacks or abilities that feel unfair. Bosses especially have pleasantly brief, yet engaging fights, never overstaying their welcome.

Overall, Abyss was a joy to complete, and a very pleasant surprise for me, as I went from being indifferent to it to outright loving it. It was the first Tales game I played, though I finished Arise earlier this year before coming back and completing Abyss. Where Arise sparked my interest in Tales, Abyss truly made me a fan of the series.