Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

40 to 100 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Amazing"

RPGs usually have there fair share of problems, usually my problem with it is that most RPGs are turned based and don't really add a cherry on top of it, Tales of The Abyss in my opinion is a splendid game that everyone should play. It's battle system is very fun usually, as it keeps your heart pumping and keeps the time flowing. This is a game everyone should pick up, but despite it being so good, for you to enjoy the whole game it's really highly your opinion.

The Good: Fun battle system that keeps times flowing, Amazing character development on each character, Interesting story

The Bad (like bad when it comes to this game): Over-Dramatic scenes with cheesy music, Combat is fun but does get repetitive, You're not going to want to replay it.

Tales of the Abyss features a spoiled brat named Luke Fon Fabre the hero of the game and a kid who was never exposed to other places that much. After training with his Master, Van Grants, they're encountered by a women named Tear, and too make it even better she has Grants as her last name too so you know what that means....anyway she and Luke are all of the sudden in a valley, and they meet new friends as that its the start of there adventure, Characters you will meet along the way are Jade, a colonel of a opposing country of Luke's, Malkuth, Ion the Fon Master Guardian, and his guardian Anise. Along the way they also encounter Guy, a person you would already see at the introduction of the game but becomes playable here on, and when you go back to Baticul the town/city where Luke lives you meet Princess Natalia, the next in line to become Queen, engaged to Luke too......(and to make THINGS WORSE! THEY'RE ARE FREAKING COUSINS ISN'T THAT FREAKING GROSS) oh well that's monarchy and they don't even imply that in the game so oh well.

Lets talk about the cast first, it's quite a diverse one, Natalia at first will irritate your but sacks off in some way I don't know how....but she is actually a person to honor and is not a bad character and who her real father will add a impact on her character, Guy on the other hand has his character focused on that he's from another country and that something happened to him when he was young, Tear's development focuses on her relationship with Luke and the fact that there main enemy is her own brother, Luke's development is a giant impact on his personality and it's about changing who he really is, meaning no spoiled brats anymore, Anise and Ion don't really have that much and Jude's development focuses on the fact that he has connections to an antagonist like Tear and when you find out about his past, kind of wraps up his development. You also have Asch who is really only playable for two hours, and is introduced as an antagonist, a stubborn man who hates Luke, his development focuses on his relationship with Luke due to Asch being the real "Luke Fon Fabre". Overall the character development is absolutely amazing in this game despite Ion and Anise not having that much development (there development comes like so late in the game that's why). About how the game play its one of those games where you explore, defeat watch a scene go towns, you know how it works its quite generic but game play gets praise from me thanks to its battle system what's just so fluid and fun to play with, as its not those turn based kinds, as I feel there overused, this is the kind of a game where you have battle system where slice them up, keep on slashing there faces and doing awesome combos, your also allowed to make your computer controlled characters due certain actions only too, one of my main problems with the game play is not really the repetitiveness what is a bad thing but as much as the lack of strategy in boss fights, a bit more strategy what can you do, or how is the boss defeated could help like certain weak points or more versatile ways to command other characters to do crap for you, and another problem is that when you want a to make a computer controlled character give you item like a Life Bottle, and she's the last character alive and she's doing a spell and then she doesn't give you an item despite you commanding her too and five seconds later after you do it you die, that's just irritating so I had to redo the boss fight all over again....

Graphically the games looks okay, it has an anime style look but not such a one that is better then the classic Dragon Quest 8 a game released one year before it but its graphics are much nicer, so pretty much the graphics are good but not even close too godly. How they present scenes in the game is not exactly the best way to do it, it's one of those games where nearly all the cut scenes have chat boxes and that stuff and animations isn't that impressive either, not bad but not good either.

To rap this review up, this game is so good, one of the best RPGs I have played in a while, the story has interesting concepts and the gameplay is fun and fluid, though you have stuff you don't like to see then in there overall this game is splendid and every hardcore gamer should pick this up. It'll give you a fun 40 hours

Final Scores
Game play: 9.5/10
Story: 9/10
Graphics: 8/10
Presentation: 7.5/10
Lasting Appeal: 6.9/10
Overall: 9.5/10