Tales of the Abyss

so, anybody that frequents the chatbox knows that I somewhat recently obtained a copy of Tales of the Abyss. I've been meaning to do this for a while, but here I'm going to chronicle my ongoing thoughts of the game. Obviously, I have a bit of a back log, so I'll do my best to remember.

• Goddamn, this game is anime as shit. The lack of J-pop over the intro movie is conspicuous.
  
• Everyone that I've talked to this far has talked about the weather. I'm going to get stabbed to death.
  
• Yes, Guy, wouldn't want to be seen alone with a boy. That combined with your extreme phobia of women might give people the wrong impression.
  
• Speaking of Guy; Johnny Young Bosch needs to shut is fat fucking mouth.
  
• I hate Mieu.
  
• What the fuck!? Tear is Van's sister? What kind of crazy shenanigans were going on in that family?
  
• Speaking of shenanigans; what is the deal with Anise? She's like 12! Why is she an officer in the military? And Tear to! What is she..16?
  
• What crazy language are theses people speaking that "Fon" is pronounced "Phone?"
  
• Those ligers are riding harpies! This is no good!
  
• Fonons, vibrations, frequencies...is this game just an allegory for the String Theory?
  
• Shit, she has guns. Why can't I have guns?
  
• I fucking hate Mieu, goddamn it.
  
• This game isn't very difficult, but maybe that's just the Action-RPG veteran in me talking.
  
• You know, the whole "cute" thing with Tear...completely unnecessary.
  
• I want to fucking murder Mieu.
  
• Please of please let Ashe be Luke from the future so Luke has to eventually literally fight himself.

Overall impression thus far; positive. I'm about 10 hours deep and at the Zao Ruins.

The battle system is a tad simplistic. I would have preferred something more akin to Star Ocean 3, but the story is more compelling than that title, at least. So far, I can't say that I'm particularly fond of the main cast, Jad notwithstanding (even though his character portrait in the menu is a tad unnerving). Natalia is alright too. Wouldn't say I like her so much as her character is appropriate.

I'll address your observations point by point. XD

SoldierG65434-2 wrote:

• Goddamn, this game is anime as shit. The lack of J-pop over the intro movie is conspicuous

The opening movie actually WAS a J-pop song. XD They dubbed over the lyrics with the (far superior, in my opinion) electric guitar remix of the theme.

Quote :

• Everyone that I've talked to this far has talked about the weather. I'm going to get stabbed to death.

You'd think they would already know the weather, what with the score and all. ah, the blissful lives of NPCs.

Quote :

• Yes, Guy, wouldn't want to be seen alone with a boy. That combined with your extreme phobia of women might give people the wrong impression.

When you finally learn the reason Guy is terrified of women, you'll think the writers were assholes for playing his phobia for laughs the entire game.

Quote :

• Speaking of Guy; Johnny Young Bosch needs to shut is fat fucking mouth.

word

Quote :

• I hate Mieu.

word word

Quote :

• What the fuck!? Tear is Van's sister? What kind of crazy shenanigans were going on in that family?

Quite a few actually. you'll find out later. XD

Quote :

• Speaking of shenanigans; what is the deal with Anise? She's like 12! Why is she an officer in the military? And Tear to! What is she..16?

They work for a church that is a fantas allegory of the Catholic church. little girls are to the Lorelei what little boys are to the priests.

Quote :

• What crazy language are theses people speaking that "Fon" is pronounced "Phone?"

Ispanian

Quote :

• Those ligers are riding harpies! This is no good!

Monsters riding monsters? high tech sorcery!

Quote :

• Fonons, vibrations, frequencies...is this game just an allegory for the String Theory?

Perhaps. I'm actually impressed with the amount of thought they put into their not-science. it's very elaborate.

Quote :

• Shit, she has guns. Why can't I have guns?

Because there's only one member of your party cool enough for guns, and guns aren't cool enough for him.

Quote :

• I fucking hate Mieu, goddamn it.

Word Word word. Bastard winds up causing the deaths of hundreds of his tribe, and his punishment is to be a hero in a JRPG? well... I guess the punishment fits the crime.

Quote :

• This game isn't very difficult, but maybe that's just the Action-RPG veteran in me talking.

Could be. As a veteran myself I can't tell.

Quote :

• You know, the whole "cute" thing with Tear...completely unnecessary.

"I don't have time for your g*ddamn quirks" - Spike (buffy the vampire slayer)

Quote :

• I want to fucking murder Mieu.

At least you get to physically and emotionally abuse him as Luke for half the game. It's even played for laughs! huzzah.

Quote :

• Please of please let Ashe be Luke from the future so Luke has to eventually literally fight himself.

If you hate Luke, then the resolution to that particular plot point will be so, SO much sweeter.

Catlove wrote:

When you finally learn the reason Guy is terrified of women, you'll think the writers were assholes for playing his phobia for laughs the entire game.

I suspected as much, given his reaction to Legretta.

Anyway, played a little more today:

• Artes don't chain like I feel they should. This is somewhat mitigated by the artes that are combination of other artes, but still.
  
• Likewise, the Free Run ability nearly breaks the battle system, since enemies seem to only deal in straight lines.
  
• You know, the whole "Anise is a gold-digger" thing is kind of creepy, considering she's 12.
  
• Oh come on! Is it some kind of federal mandate that all JRPGs must have Axe-Beaks?
  
• Swapped out Tear for Natalia, making my battle party Luke, Guy, Jade, and Natalia. Figured a better healer would be more useful than a mediocre offensive caster and buffer.
  
• It's way to easy to stun-lock and be stun-locked in this game.
  
• I feel like they are trying to equate Scores to religion, but so far they just sound like fortune cookies. And having that mindset makes Legretta's speech at Dao Pass sound super crazy.
  
• You know, they don't pronounce "Ion" as "Ione."
  
• I feel like the organization that Tear and the God-Generals are in has the worst command structure ever. Nobody knows what hell anyone else is doing.
  
• Shit, my controller died...

SoldierG65434-2 wrote:

• What crazy language are theses people speaking that "Fon" is pronounced "Phone?"

It's funny you should ask that. If I'm not mistaken, Wendee Lee did the voice direction in Tales of the Abyss. And Wendee Lee is the English VA for Yoruichi, who pronounced Sui-Feng as "soy phone" in the dub.

In her defense, She dubbed the S.S. arc when the translators were still romanizing her name as "Soi Fon." It's not so much her as it was the translation team.

Yeah I know. I just thought it was funny how much the voice actors are shared. JYB (Ichigo) as Guy, Stephanie Sheh (Orihime) as Natalia, Liam O'Brien (Ukitake) as Dist, Terrence Stone (cat Yoruichi, Mayuri) as Grand Maestro Mohs, Jamieson Price (Chad) as Largo, Kate Higgins (Unohana, Nanao) as Arietta, and Cindy Robinson (Kuukaku) as Legretta, to name a few. It's like they roll as a crew.

But on topic, I still think Tales of the Abyss is probably my favorite game ever! ^_^ It has the best soundtrack for any of the Tales games, IMO.

It does seem to be the case that voice actors seem to work in blocks. Kirk Thronton (Jade), Johhny Young Bosch (Guy), and Yuri Lowenthal (Luke) all worked on Persona 4 for as Mooroka, Addachi, and Yosuke receptively.

Jamieson Price (Largo), Bosch, and Thorton also all worked on Ace Combat 5 as the Mission briefing voice, Grimm, and Thunderhead respectively.

Thunderhead is probably my favorite thing Thorton has done, slightly surprising Mooroka. But only slightly.

Anyway, my journey into the Abyss continues;

• I resent the fact that I have to spend so much money on just 5 more points to attack/defense.
  
• "Earn 50% more gald"! Shit, how long as that accessory been in my inventory?
  
• Battles are a lot less annoying now that Tear isn't there singing all the goddamn time.
  
• Luke is exceptionally well written. I really have to commend the writers, and the localization team in particular.
  
• Congratulations Van, your dastardly plan to make the hole in the ground that is Akzeriuth an even bigger hole went smashingly.
  
• I feel like everyone is being a little hard on Luke. Yeah, he was rash and overly trusting, but he was only doing what he though was right (albeit for selfish reasons).
  
• Okay, the revelation about Asch and Luke isn't nearly as good as Asch being evil future-Luke, but I'm still feeling it, even with the heavy handed foreshadowing.
  
• I'm digging the architectural style of the Qliphoth. It reminds me Vallen's Fortress in Threads of Fate, for some reason.

Did you ever finish Tales of the Abyss, or are you still working on it?

CaptainYoruichi wrote:

Did you ever finish Tales of the Abyss, or are you still working on it?

I'm still working on it. I stopped playing it for..some reason...and I just recently picked it back up.

And all I can say after picking it back up is this: I'm sure it was the hair, Luke.

But in all seriousness, it's rare that I play a JRPG where I, for the most part, can appreciate all the characters. I may find Anise annoying, but I don't find her invalid. The only character that should never have been in the game is Meiu. Seriously, fuck meiu.

Not only are they porting TotA for the 3DS, they are actually going to release it in the US.

Revealed in Nintendo Power.

I don't know if they are making any changes to it, but I don't care. I'm going to buy it and play it happily.

So I finally finished up Tales of the Abyss, so I'll post my final thoughts in the usual list form.

• "Earn 100% more Gald?" Shit, how long has that been in my inventory.
  
• Likewise, how long have I been sitting on those accessories that reduce TP cost?
  
• Guy is Souther. Both are blonde and have cross-based attacks. Hell, Rasing Pheonix is Tenshou Juji Ho.
  
• Yeah, this game really is not difficult. The only reason I ever lost a battle was because I was too stingy with items, which I really didn't need to be because I finished the game with over 400,000 Gald.
  
• Jesus Asch's death scene is fucking brutal! I'm amazed that they kept a T rating with that cutscene.
  
• That ending was super underwhelming. Things got trippy and then the credits. And then a cut-scene at the end that made no sense. Did I miss something along the way and just get the shit ending?
  

Overall, it was enjoyable. The thing that stuck out the most for me were how good the characters were. JRPGs are notorious for bad characters, but I came out liking everyone in this. To the point where none of them really stand out from the rest.

Tales of Symphonia is up next when I get the hankering for a JRPG again.

It was a point of confusion when the game originally came out, too. Was it Asch? Was it Luke? Was it some hybrid of Asch and Luke?

The majority of fans believe it's Luke, based on the fact that it was Tear rather than Natalia that went to him, and also because his scabbard was across his back in the same fashion that Luke always wore his scabbard.

I actually just finished the 3DS version, as it happens.

I just assumed it was some freaky hybrid of the two and that eventually his psyche will have to battle itself to see who gets to be the one in control.

Speaking of Tear, good thing I'm not deaf or I would have missed all of the canonz. Apparently they didn't feel like her "I love you" merited subtitles.

Is there any difference between the 3DS version and PS2 that's worth mentioning?

The 3DS version has far, far better load times. Other than that, and being in 3D, it's pretty much a straight port.