Tales of the Abyss Official Thread

[Rocca]

Well, it was shipped yesterday and arrived in stores for most earlier today. So far, it's been getting pretty good scores (averaged at an 85 this morning)

Reviews & Scores:
GameSpy 10/9/2006 4 out of 5 80.0%
GameSpot 10/10/2006 7.9 out of 10 79.0%
Games Radar 10/6/2006 8 out of 10 80.0%
GameDaily 10/10/2006 4 out of 5 80.0%
Games are Fun 3/4/2006 10 out of 10 100.0%
GotNext 5/5/2006 4.5 out of 5 90.0%
GameBrink 12/27/2005 90 out of 100 90.0%

I played this last year and it was good, but not without its share of problems. Annoyingly frequent load times and a little too much dialogue towards the end of the game. Gamespot also summarized it pretty well;

Tales of the Abyss has some charming character designs and nice-looking environments, but it's not without some rough spots. The characters aren't quite superdeformed, but they definitely aren't realistic, either. They are colorful and expressive, but also blocky and undetailed. The world itself is generic, with the usual creepy forests, desert wastelands, cavernous dungeons, and so on. When you're on the overworld map, the frame rate tends to drop, which is annoying if you're trying to get anywhere quickly. The game sounds a bit better than it looks, with voice work and nicely orchestrated music to accompany the rest of the game.

Even with the glut of similar role-playing games on the PlayStation 2, Tales of the Abyss is an entertaining experience throughout. The story isn't especially engaging, but the characters are, and the combat is simple but satisfying. The fact that the game is available at less-than-full retail price only sweetens the deal.

So who picked (or is thinking) of picking this up? It's a pretty dece JRPG and I bought it with tax for under $49 canadian, so it's already a sweet deal. And I think Cam Clarke is doing one of the voices again.

[Finch]

[requisite HOW MANY OF THESE HAVE THEY RELEASED, ROFFUL ROFFUL ROFFUL post]

Yeah. This one's waiting until i have the money. ): Too much this month. Too much.

[magnifiedplaid]

I'm debating whether or not to pick this game up today. I loved Tales of Symphonia but I didn't care for Tales of Legendia. Plus, I just picked up Baten Kaitos Origins yesterday and its pretty damn good so far. I don't think I have time for two JRPG's but I might pick it up today.

[Compass]

I still need to buy Legendia. And finish Phantasia. And start Symphonia. I need a watch that stops time.

[Finch]

I'll finish Legendia one day. The story was kind of awful. I wish it was just the character quests.

[magnifiedplaid]

Baten Kaitos Origins seems to be a very flawed experience to me, because I am having some trouble adjusting to the awful changes they made to the battle system. Basically Namco/TriCresendo/Monolith was able to avoid most of the cons of having a card based battle system in the first game, and they decided to implement those flaws into this second game... Despite how beautiful the game looks, its probably going back to the store in exchange for Tales of the Abyss.

[Finch]

): I was hoping you'd make a thread for it so i didn't have to go to bed guilty. Also, someone make one for Gurumin. It's coming out here. Please.

[Rocca]

I'm debating whether or not to pick this game up today. I loved Tales of Symphonia but I didn't care for Tales of Legendia. Plus, I just picked up Baten Kaitos Origins yesterday and its pretty damn good so far. I don't think I have time for two JRPG's but I might pick it up today.

Abyss is like a little better version than Symphonia. If you didn't like Legendia, you can still try Abyss because they aren't the same. Damn, Origins is good, that's another game I have to try.

[magnifiedplaid]

Abyss is like a little better version than Symphonia. If you didn't like Legendia, you can still try Abyss because they aren't the same. Damn, Origins is good, that's another game I have to try.

Well, at least I thought Origins was good when I first started playing it. I have noticed many flaws in the last couple hours though... I'll start an official thread in a little bit so I can give some more detailed impressions.

[Compass]

Also, someone make one for Gurumin. It's coming out here.

O_O @_@ ^_^