VideoGame Great Tales Of Game, But With Flaws
I originally got this game for the PS2 because I kept hearing of people saying that Abyss was the best Tales of game at the time. And I was, fortunately, not disappointed.
The story is actually rather heavy, focusing on the meaning of one's birth, how everyone had a right to it - it felt a bit more realistic in dealing with that, compared to Symphonia, which sounded a bit hypocritical at times when talking about this. Though the story can become a tad too dark at times as well, particularly toward the end of the 2nd Arc.
The characters are lovely. I cannot think of any one in the party I do not like - except, maybe, for Tear. That might be because she feels like a Mary Sue to me... But I absolutely love Luke, even in the beginning, when he's a Jerkass or later, when he's developed into a better person. He is a wonderful main character, who goes through an arc practically the entire game. After one gets past the somewhat long 'introduction' phase that feels like it takes up majority of the 1st Arc, before one reaches Akzeruth.
Game-length is great, the story isn't too long and there are a good chunk of sidequests to fulfill to prolong the game if one wants.
Unfortunately, the game suffers from a few things. The 3rd Arc of the game, while short, is not very interestingly executed. What happens is interesting, but majority of it is simply cutscene after cutscene, with you having to backtrack to various places you've already been to.
Finally, the Romantic Plot Tumor of Luke and Tear is obnoxious. Despite playing the game several times by now, I still never saw their romance as one that would work out in the long run, the player is repeatedly forced to interact with Tear to continue the plot (similar to Yuna) and, as the game proceeds, it just gets more and more obvious with shoving those two into my face in romantic scenes that lack romance, as they act nothing but awkward around each other. And moments of Did I Just Say That Out Loud? does not make it more appealing to me, only more awkward.
The 3DS port was decent, though I feel like the touch screen was not implemented well to take over the duty of the R3 Stick. I found it clunky to have to remove my hand to tap the touch screen, particularly during battles.
VideoGame One of the most well thought out and creative stories I've seen in a JRPG ever (or any media for that matter).
When I started Abyss, I'd only played Tales of Xillia and Berseria prior. Xillia was my first Tales and the story I thought was incredibly solid for the most part. Berseria’s story then proceeded to blow Xillia out of the water for me with its’ grey morality and anti hero cast. I didn’t think any Tales plot could top Berseria after that, but Abyss proved me wrong and I’m glad.
The gameplay is a bit dated, it’s hard traversing the world map if you don’t have a friend to lead you through it, it’s easy to get lost. Luckily this gets fixed in the 2nd Act where you’ll have all areas marked on your world map to guide you. You also get fast travelling in the 3rd Act. The combat is a bit basic but overall still pretty fun. If you’re good at swapping party members mid fight you can get long combos going, and comboing into artes and Mystic Artes for big damage is always fun. Free Run makes it easy to keep your party alive and get out of the way of deadly attacks.
But the main draw of Abyss is without a doubt, the story. The world building is top notch and ridiculously detailed to the point where you can read the libraries in the games’ actual world to learn more details about it and better understand how the world works. The plot's super well thought out and establishes/foreshadows everything it needs to prior to big reveals, the characters are very realistic and flawed (but still likable), the villains are fleshed out in creative and unique ways that I wish more stories did (I.E. using their desire to want to destroy the score that’s a unique problem that only exists in their world as a motivation for their goals, instead of just the usual nihilistic/sympathetic reasons that you see from most villains in these realistic kinds of stories), their parallels/connections with ALL of the party members (not just a few), and its’ really interesting takes and deconstructions on big themes that you see in JRPG's such as the role of a Kid Hero (Luke is 7 years old mentally and the game constantly shows the issues of how someone like that would interact with adults and how being the chosen one/making mistakes can affect them).
Luke's development is also a great example of why the plot is so well done. One of the main messages of Abyss is about people and their flaws, and how they can work to better themselves. Luke after he resolves to better himself goes from wanting to atone for his mistakes, to trying to find self worth in himself as a clone of someone else. He really pulls the plot along as a compelling protagonist that has a lot of depth and layers to him as the story goes on, and his development is very well paced. His resolve by the end of the story and seeing how far he comes really made the story THAT much more satisfying to me, as most JRPG protagonists tend to be either too idealistic/shonen or too broody/edgy, but Luke felt like a great balance while still being heavily flawed as a person.
Overall, Abyss is an amazing game I'm glad to have played.