You can't be kidding, but Flanoir is the only one approaching "alive" of the ones you mentioned. Meltokio is a perfect example of a largely vacant town, while Baticul actually seems like it's bustling. Keterburg is another great example of this.

I'm mainly talking architecture-wise in regards to the towns. Abyss is full of boring-looking, browny type towns (to me anyway).

Wow, looks like we're polar opposites on the towns. ToS had rather a rather stale-looking world, probably because they had to split their attention between Sylvarant and T'ethealla. Simply the number of residents, animated buildings and various things you can do with them really makes ToA shine in this area.

Symphonia had about two, maybe three towns/cities in both of the worlds combined that were really spectacular. I think the thing with Abyss was that there was more interaction with things in the cities that makes them more appealing. I would have never imagined going on a sidequest just because I accidentally interacted with a flyer on a bulletin board.

I just started this last night after a long debate between this or Legendia, and so far I'm liking it. Since I finally beat Symphonia after a 2-year break I was looking for more Tales action. Obviously I'm not too far in yet, but I do have two big issues with it.

- No jumping in battle unless you're doing one of the attacks that makes you jump? Please tell me there's an AD Skill that fixes this later. It's a bit hard to get used to since I always took flying leaps at the enemies in Symphonia.

- Good lord, battle load times are ridiculous. Everything just freezes for 10 seconds or so before a boss, and post-battle loading can take as long as 20 seconds. Considering 45 seconds is a long random battle in a Tales game, that's absurd.

I'm enjoying the game immensely aside from those two things.

To jump in semi-manual mode, you have to hold the guard button then press up I believe. In manual, you just press up.

Yeah, not to mention that there's several AD-Skills that let you increase your mobility so much that when you start playing through again (if you didn't transfer over your skills with the Grade Shop) you feel like a brick.

Wait till you get to unknown mode

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I think ToA had more emphasis on the ruin areas than the towns.

The load times in this game were so bad that I made it a rule to dodge all battles on the world map. ;) They're not too bad in dungeons.

You know, I never even thought to look at that. I just assumed it would start me off in manual mode, but apparently not since that required the Technical Ring. I can jump again, huzzah!

If you cheated, then there wouldn't be a problem. But if you didn't cheat, you would realize that it was tough time when you fight boss

Cheating? You mean leveling in dungeons, and maps and not the "I'm going to glitch any moment now" world map?

Uh, huh? Like most Tales games, I went through it regularly fighting every dungeon enemy I could (and not worrying about leveling). A few of the bosses were irritating but on the whole, it wasn't a difficult game.

Gonna go to bed quick, so maybe you guys can help me.

What is the name of the track that plays during the Luke vs. fight? I got a torrent of the OST, and DLed some tracks from the sections the scene should be in, but haven't had much luck. Don't tell me it's not even on the OST : /

There are a few tracks that are missing from the OST (including, oddly enough, the one track that plays during the majority of the dungeons). There is a chance that the track you're looking for is on the fourth disk. It's hard to remember. The music in the game wasn't exactly memorable.

The name of the track is "The Meaning of Birth". I've got it here if you want it, and if anyone has a higher quality one, please let me know.

Oh, and yes, a good portion of the music in this game is forgettable, just like ToS.

Ha! Fourth disk! I totally called it!

I actually thought ToS's music was more effective in the game. I'm not saying it was brilliant music by any means but it held slightly more weight. I haven't found a Tales score that I've liked yet.

My feelings on ToS's music are much the same as those I have for the locales: boring, sometimes irritating and ultimately forgettable. In ToA's case, the areas are much more interesting than Symphonia's (though that really isn't all that great of an accomplishment) and the music as well. Still the same thing as the previous game, mostly throwaway tracks with some interesting things present.

A lot of the music for ToS and ToA felt like something cranked out of an RPG soundtrack generator. It's difficult to blame the composers because for the most part, they're writing music to archetypes.

"Here! Write music for a generic desert town! And then write music for a generic snow town! And don't forget the music for the generic peaceful village where you just KNOW things are gonna go to hell!"

Fortunately for ToA, it had a world more interesting than what they were able to muster for ToS.

You, my friend, are a fucking genius. That's essentially what the vast majority of the music in both titles sounds like. But why not blame them? Are they not like Sakimoto over at SE, or Uematsu in previous years? Unless the environment over at Namco discourages creativity or is rather strict about what kind of music is needed, it essentially falls of them.

Jesus, just bringing down that hammer tonight. For each of those there wasn't a single memorable note in the music that played in both games, and they had locations that matched your descriptions to boot.

I think that's the large part of the reason why more of the music caught my attention than if it been little more than ToS 2. Again, Symphonia may have fared better if they didn't have to focus on two worlds.

Well, the Tales series (aside from Legendia) has a very specific sound, whether I like it or not. Also, the music is written very quickly on what appears to be a limited budget. There's often a reason why gigantic RPG soundtracks suffer in quality (especially when one composer is forced to write over a hundred pieces).

In the case of this particular series, two men do the majority of the work. My guess is that since they've got a system down that appears to be working, they don't want to disrupt it. Admittedly, it DOES work but just barely. It's effectively sonic wallpaper.

Thanks a bunch of the track!!

P.S. The music in both games are pretty forgettable, but ToS had a few tracks that were good, so I like that OST more.

Edit: The Summon boss battle in ToS was very cool, I thought :3

I think my favorite ToS track was the one that played when you fought any angelic being. "Beat the Angel", I think it was called. ;)

Not because it was anything special (it wasn't) but because it sounded very different from any other battle theme in the game. It stood out.

I don't agre with you. The more worlds there are, the more place we can go and the more secrets we can find out. That is the reason that i like the To series.

Reading through this topic makes me glad to see I'm not the only one who was angry about the overworld map. It was so slow it was practically unbearable. Still, I love Tales of the Abyss and I think it is a superb RPG. I finally beat it recently and I'm sad to see it end. The ending left something to be desired in me and I wish some of it could have been different, but the journey there was nice either way. One thing that truly pissed me off about the game overall was:



I liked that and I thought it made Guy even more unique. Poooor Guy...