Current Events > Raxis finally plays Tales of the Abyss (spoilers)

(+) Yeah! (+)

Hey all! Just finished a playthrough of Radiant Dawn Exalted, and since Steam seems to make my computer blue screen occasionally, I thought it'd be a good time to FINALLY play a game that's been on my backlog for quite some time.

I've played Tales of Phantasia, Eternia, Vesperia, and Berseria. Of them, Berseria is my favorite (it's one of the few games that's ever made me cry multiple times), and I liked Phantasia and Eternia a lot. Strangely, I've never finished Eternia, I always get kinda bored by the time I hit Disc 3 (which is weird because that's basically the end of the game). Maybe someday.

As for Vesperia, I found it badly overrated and it's a rare game I just have zero motivation to finish. I've heard a LOT of good things about this one, and I'm eager to finally start.

I'm mostly unspoiled... except for the rather massive spoiler that the main guy is a clone of the big bad, so yeah...

Anyways, let's get it on!

enjoy your time on this game still one of my fav game but do know it tends to drag on bits in the game but i did enjoy it never the less

by far my fave tales of game and top 5 JRPGS period

Abyss >= Vesperia > Symphonia > Rest

Jeff_AKA_Snoopy posted...

Abyss >= Vesperia > Symphonia > Rest

abyss >berseria > symphonia > the rest

The prophecy girl's voice was very familiar.

Lol, damn, I don't blame Luke for being antsy if he doesn't come of age until 20!

Yuri Lowenthal and Johnny Yong Bosch in leading roles, Michael McConnohie, that's how you know this was a game made in the 2000's, lol

Luke: Whaaaaat, you can't go search for your leader, you have to train ME :(

I heard Luke starts off the game a spoiled brat, but I underestimated how much of one he'd be!

Combat is pretty standard Tales right now. I felt Vesperia really dipped into overcomplexity as the game went on, we'll see how Abyss does.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/1/1fa04179.jpg

At least I'm not alone in all these proper nouns going over my head :)

Rando NPC trying to extort me out of 24000!

The overworld is a bit offputing, the sky's green and the land is a kind of sickly lime tint.

Let's GOOOOOOOOOO

I love this game. Tag fo sho.

Metal_Gear_Raxis posted...

I heard Luke starts off the game a spoiled brat, but I underestimated how much of one he'd be!

It's like The Lion King, if the first act weren't over in like a couple of minutes, lol.

abyss is goated only bad thing about it is the fuckass timings for the sidequests
i have them mostly memorized by now but I know you're going to probably miss a fat chunk of them (and likely already missed a few triggers)

GrandCross6 posted...

abyss is goated only bad thing about it is the fuckass timings for the sidequests
i have them mostly memorized by now but I know you're going to probably miss a fat chunk of them (and likely already missed a few triggers)

yeah that shit can be annoying some one should link him a spoiler free guide

GrandCross6 posted...

i have them mostly memorized by now but I know you're going to probably miss a fat chunk of them (and likely already missed a few triggers)

Ugh, I hate it when you have to have a guide book open to not miss things :(

GrandCross6 posted...

abyss is goated only bad thing about it is the fuckass timings for the sidequests
i have them mostly memorized by now but I know you're going to probably miss a fat chunk of them (and likely already missed a few triggers)

You won't have to worry about most of it anyway because most of the sidequests are locked behind NG+ anyway lmao

Garioshi posted...

You won't have to worry about most of it anyway because most of the sidequests are locked behind NG+ anyway lmao

that's not true, only a few of them are post game
majority of them are accessible first run through
whats ng+ only is things like the extra mystic artes added to the north american versions

Hope you enjoy it more than I did, I hated it. The characters just kept me annoyed and pissed off to the point where I got to the endgame and couldn't force myself to finish it.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/d/de2cf46e.jpg

God damn, Tear! XD

Abyss is one of my favorite Tales game, Luke is absolutely one of the worst characters for a while on purpose though

Luke is annoying as hell and one of my least-fave Tales protagonists ever.

Shotgunnova posted...

Luke is annoying as hell and one of my least-fave Tales protagonists ever.

i love him for his character development which only works because of how he acts at first

Abyss is my favorite Tales of. Luke's character growth and redemption is good. Dude goes through a lot.

Luke is the worst protag

We need more Yuri, Velvet and Milla, not Luke

I'm not against pop but I think I like the instrumental version of the opening more. I don't want early 2000s localizers to think they're right but just saying

Sidequests aside, Abyss is fantastic game.

I've tried to get through Abyss twice and stopped partway.

It's really good, but for some reason handheld games can't capture my attention anymore.

Luke is the best protag in terms of growth.

Abyss is one of my favorite Tales of games. Yeah, Luke is spoiled brat at the beginning. I honestly found him hilarious, so I didn't mind. I know some people hate him, though.

Luke does spoiled in an endearing way, he's just genuinely such a dope that he comes across as incredibly sheltered rather than bratty.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/7/76f0cf6e.jpg

Neptune!?

Based on your opinions of Berseria and Vesperia, I have a feeling you're gonna *love* Abyss. (I, too, loved Berseria and found Vesperia to be massively overrated.) My favorite is Symphonia for nostalgia reasons, but Abyss is a *very* close second, and I'd probably call it the best game in the series. You're in for a treat~

Btw, don't worry about that spoiler. I won't say more except that things get *complicated*~

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/b/b0d0a4ad.jpg

Man, Luke just can't keep his nose clean, can he?

Eeeeyyy, Jameison Price. This game is just a who's who of big voice actors from the mid 2000's lol.

I wondered how this game was going to handle Jade being lvl 45. I was thinking he'd just be unavailable for a large part of the game.

Metal_Gear_Raxis posted...

Eeeeyyy, Jameison Price. This game is just a who's who of big voice actors from the mid 2000's lol.

I wondered how this game was going to handle Jade being lvl 45. I was thinking he'd just be unavailable for a large part of the game.

The part before he gets nerfed is my favorite part of the game.

Here we are walking around on foot, fighting relatively balanced enemies, when up strolls this guy in his mountain-sized hovercraft, who then hops out, introduces himself and proceeds to steal the last kill and every other kill in the whole dungeon, and the actual boss fight that is (probably?) impossible for you to actually defeat at all is literally just about distracting it long enough for him to one-shot it.

Jade Curtiss is just that much better than you, and the most infuriating thing is that he's not even a dick about it.

This and so many other things in the game are made magical by the fact that your own player character is an asshole.

Jade's pretty great. Just imagine how fun the adventure would have been if Luke fell into an open manhole and died, letting Jade be the main protag for the other 99%.

Yeah Jade should have been the MC

Or Guy

jade is fun in dose but if he was the MC game would be meh imo luke to me was a good protag showing his character growth from a whinny kid to someone who tries to be better plus him being a sheltered kid seeing the outside world works great as a stand in for us players who are new to the world of abyss

Guy is just the overflow from Jade tbh. Like, they got to a point where they were like this one character has too much dialog and too much stuff going on, so they made Guy.

Sync and Ion having the same VA is incredibly sus.

Also, there's Liam O'brien in all his hammy glory, lol.

Guy's pretty great.

Really digging all this political intrigue :)

Tag

Jude and Guy were great! Luke was okay. All of the other main characters of the cast were a mixture of infuriating and awful.

foxhound101 posted...

Jude and Guy were great! Luke was okay. All of the other main characters of the cast were a mixture of infuriating and awful.

that's it's charm one thing i like about abyss is the cast is a crew of assholes in many ways and mostly dumb as well when you sit down and think about certain plot points. it's fun to play shitty or crappy characters in a genre full of overly goody too shoes types
and drakengard 1 is the top one for best worst cast of party i ever played and still not cast for me ever beat that crew

abyss is so great because it's completely willing to throw together a bunch of asshole characters on teh surface who don't really like each other at all for a decent portion of the game. it's also something i love about the original persona 3

Equipment's so expensive in this game, I'm constantly going broke upgrading gear T_T

Metal_Gear_Raxis posted...

Equipment's so expensive in this game, I'm constantly going broke upgrading gear T_T

*Comfort* dont worry you will be rich by games end

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/8/8585d81d.jpg

Yup, I do believe Anice will be a permanent fixture of my party. Though I also suspect her doll will give me nightmares.

Completed the Arietta fight, it's kinda wild how nobody pointed out how creepy and dilapidated the supposed vacation home was after only 7 years abandoned.

Metal_Gear_Raxis posted...

Completed the Arietta fight, it's kinda wild how nobody pointed out how creepy and dilapidated the supposed vacation home was after only 7 years abandoned.

Congrats on passing the single biggest brick wall in the game. Arietta is an absolute NIGHTMARE on higher difficulties and can require 3-4 hours of grinding just to not deal 1 damage to her on every single hit.

Garioshi posted...

Congrats on passing the single biggest brick wall in the game. Arietta is an absolute NIGHTMARE on higher difficulties and can require 3-4 hours of grinding just to not deal 1 damage to her on every single hit.

I'm just playing on Normal, like a weenie :')

TAG

This is definitely in my holy trinity of Tales games.

The biggest pros: very compelling story/themes, amazing characters/development, my favorite opening cinematic, and the Field of Fonons gameplay mechanic is extremely fun.

I was going to replay it myself but my 3DS copy only has a save midway through and I wanted to do NG+.