Tales of the Abyss Review

Tales of the Abyss is another installation into the ever-growing Tales series. You play as a stuck up hot tempered character who is oblivious of the world around him until one fateful day when an unlikely fight transports you clear across the world. Then the real story starts and the mysteries of what is thought to be the world start to be revealed.

This is one of those games, in my opinion, that if you stop for a while and try to come back you're going to have a hard time remembering where you left off and you're going to be forced to wander around for a couple of hours to reorient yourself with the battle system and the story. Besides that though its the type of RPG that once you start you're going to get drawn in.

One of the things that I think hurt this game is some of the battles. I always feel that I'm doing alright or incredible in regular battles but then when I get to Boss fights, especially in an area where I'm just destroying everything with ease, its like I hit a brick wall, hard, and I'm lucky to have a party member alive at the end of battle.

Another qualm I have about the series in general is that when you beat a boss there's a real good chance that they will just be mortally wounded, and somehow you'll cross paths with them at least one more time before you can finally either take the fighting spirit out of them, or they're dead.

the graphics are what you'd expect on the PlayStation 2, its not too flashy, and yet its not too blocky either. The character designs I feel get recycled from game to game in some cases, but they do look great and you definitely get a sense of playing with different characters.

The battle system is basically press an attack and then watch your player execute it. I wouldn't say that the attack is done as soon as you press the button, but in the way that they system has it (lock on to an opponent choose an attack and your character will go after that opponent) works. The special attacks that you can gain by using others some many times makes you want to battle, but after a while you're just wanting to get on to the big battles where you get to really kick some ass.

I know that it seems that I'm tearing this game apart and that it appears that I don't like it, but the truth is that I do like the game. Do I think its a game that is a must, no, but I find it entertaining and I enjoy getting lost in the game from time to time. I think this is the type of game that if I had the time to just go balls to the wall with I'd be able to beat and feel good about myself, but as it is with most people I have other obligations to attend to and as such the game isn't quite strong enough for me to be dying to come back to it when I do have time.

In the end this game is worth a look if you're into the Tales series, or you like RPGs. I don't think its going to become the holy grail of gaming, but like I said before its worth a look at 7.8 out of 10.

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