[PS2] Tales of The Abyss

I didn't know it was coming out so soon. I've heard of the game, but aside from the title, I don't know a single thing about it. There's other games I really want right now, so I won't be getting it anytime soon anyway.

I did see an ad though in a magazine and I liked the artstyle. The only reason I didn't get Tales of Legendia was because everyone said it wasn't as good as Tales of Symphonia. I'd like to hear opinions of Abyss as well before deciding whether to get it or not.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Miles

If you liked Tales of Symphonia you will definitely love this game.

Honest? I'd definitely be picking this up then if that's the case. ToS is awesome.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Ouch! I don't dig those long loading times and long saves that people are mentioning now, even if it's as good or better than ToS. It reminds me of the hideous long saving time in Digimon World 3 >_>

Why wouldn't the game be on GCN like ToS? :(

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Or Namco. Maybe they didn't want to make a game for the GCN. I dunno why though. Didn't ToS sell a lot on the GCN? I love that game.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

The PS2 version had new attacks, 1 or 2 more anime scenes, a working casino and new costumes, but from what I read about it, it was hampered by long loading times. Fans preferred the GCN version.

I bet if they made another game for the GCN, people would go ape over it. I know I would.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Bah, hello. Everyone says this is a cool game, yet this poor thread is on the 2nd page. You'd think it'd be on the first page.

And no, I love FFXII!! I read many comments (not here, but elsewhere) from people who, after playing this game, concluded that FFXII sucks. I never knew you had to like only one game and not both. Both games are so vastle different that it's stupid to compare them in the first place.

I posted thoughts/opinions on my playthroughs in my journal, but nobody is replying, so I guess I should just post here in this thread that everyone has abandoned. Maybe I'll have better luck.

Reposts from my journal!

Entry #1

My little sister was upset because she couldn't play until a 'certain item' was found, according to the manual.

Now that she can play, she's upset again 'cause she's not learning new techs (she plays Tear) while I got two already. In ToS, most techs were learned after doing earlier techs 50 times, but she hasn't gotten any so far.

I love how the in-game characters are capable of displaying more emotion than in ToS. Some of these expressions are damn priceless. I'm happy the game is just as funny as ToS. Makes me wish the skits were voiced now. Lots of the ones in ToS were hilarious.

Mieu: "But I'm a boy!"
Luke: "You sure don't sound like one."

Their conversations are the best! Can't stand the little bugger myself.

"Luke...called me a...thing...38 times..."

The overworld map isn't -that- hideous as people say (rotating is slow, but still doable, although the environment is crummy), but sometimes it takes around 5-10 seconds just to start a battle. It doesn't happen all the time though, thank goodness.

Entry #2

I saved in the Pass on the way to that city that I can't spell or pronounce. It starts with 'A' though!

Spoiler:

I am disappointed that Luke has not kicked Mieu in a while. Dammit!

Ion's constant "I'm sorry everyone" is annoying. I hated Colette for that same reason!! Once is enough already! Sheesh!

Abyss is quite the opposite of FFXII. FFXII hardly had any cutscenes, as opposed to Abyss' constant scenes every few screens, and FFXII hardly had any voice acting, as opposed to Abyss' voice acting in virtually every scene.

I saw my first anime cutscene after the trip down the Abandoned Factory. Damn, it was cool, and it actually had the characters in it!! Although I do love Symphonia's scenes as well, only the ending featured the characters, and even then, it only showed two of them! Bah! Does Abyss have more anime scenes than Symphonia? I wasn't expecting to see one so soon in Abyss. Asch(sp?) looks a lot cooler in the scene than in-game

Speaking of Asch, the Records menu shows a HUGE spoiler : /

P.S. Oh, and Dist, especially when he's angry, sounds like Arkana from Yu-Gi-Oh! somewhat. I wonder if he has the same voice actor.

P.P.S. Is there any way to DL those cutscenes?

Entry #3

Okay, I take it back. Although the world map still isn't that bad, it seems to be taking longer and longer now just to start a battle, and to exit a battle. Expect a longer wait if it's a boss battle. Man, I miss the fast loading times of the ToS.

SPOILERS! At the Springs. Don't read if you're not there yet!

Spoiler:

I'm at the part now where Llo...er, Luke, and Tear meet up with Guy at the Springs. Lots of plot twists have sprung up already, and I still am confused about the whole Fonstones and Fon Artes and all the other Fon related words thing. Everything the characters said when explaining it all goes over my head. I think I'll just stay clueless like Luke.

Speaking of which, he looked cooler when he had longer hair, and ugh, I hope he doesn't end up all nice and loving to everyone now. I like it better when heroes have faults. Oh, and remember when I said I didn't think it was right for them to go attacking the Ligers (it's not their fault)? Well, I didn't think it was right that everyone blamed Luke for what happened at Akzeriuth. It was partly his fault, but not entirely his fault. I mean, he hadn't had any freedom for seven frickin' years, and they treat him as garbage for not knowing anything. That's pretty low, if you ask me, not to mention the fact Asch doesn't treat them much different and they all listen to him. I mean, WTF?

I'm like, probably the only person who thinks so anyway :D

OTHER NEWS

To celebrate my uh, purchase of ToTA, I made an avatar/sig. It's Tales of Symphonia themed, actually, but who cares. ToS is a great game.
I'd make a ToTA chain if I actually had some pics.

Oh, yeah, can someone send me an MP3 the theme song to ToTA opening? The one with and without the lyrics? Thanks.

The music isn't as great as ToS, not that ToS had great music anyway. However, ToS had some really good tracks, like the Summon boss battle and the battle theme in Thetehalla or whatever the hell it's called. I haven't heard any music in ToTA that topped those yet.

There's a new Tales game coming to PSP that features characters from past Tales game. Damn, I saw Symphonia characters in screenshots. Looks awesome, but I don't want a PSP.

Oh!!! Is there any formal costumes in this game like in ToS? I loved those!

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

If you liked the voice acting in Tales of Symphonia, the voice acting in Tales of the Abyss won't bother you at all. I love the voice acting in both games. Same goes for FFXII. I'm impressed that more people are putting forth a greater emphasis in voice acting these days.

FELIPE NO

Of course, I'd prefer if the cutscenes weren't at Youtube, what with the crappy quality and all. I'm sure there must be high quality versions floating around somewhere, the opening in particular.

...I happen to like both ToS' and ToTA's voice acting...but apparently it appears I am the only one.

Really, I'd rather have a character who has issues (and has a reason for it) than someone who acts too nice all the time. I loved it when Luke was kicking Mieu around, due to my dislike for cute fuzzy woodland creatures.

P.S. I am now heading to the Capital of Malkuth. The waitress mini-game is fun!

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

It could be just me, but I'm not overly fond of most of the cities/towns/villages/hovels I've encountered so far. They don't impress me as much as ToS's cities, such as Flanoir, Meltokio, Sybak and Palmacosta. The only ones I like so far are Ketersberg(sp?) and Grand Chokma(sp?).

Right now I'm in the Zao Ruins for the second time.

There's a scene in the game that's bugging me, and it's probably just an oversight, but when I went to Ketersberg...

Spoiler:

Nephry(sp?) asked Luke to talk to her alone. Mieu apparently tags along in the back and I can only asssume he eavesdropped on the conversation. Then later, in one of the skits, Luke asks Mieu about his thoughts on that conversation as if Mieu was there all along when there was no indication as such. Hmmmmm...am I missing something here?

My sister went to the FAQs and stuff and found out that we missed a ton of sidequests/items. Dammit. We even missed the Sword Dancer. Bah!

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

Spoiler:

I saw the scene where Jade confronts Luke, but there is no indication (that I saw) that Luke knew Mieu was following him. So when he talks to Mieu about it in the skit after that, I was just going, "huh?" Oh well, it's not that important anyway. Maybe he knew but just never said anything about it.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

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.

Spoiler:

Asche

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 : /

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

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

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Ha, I always choose the main character no matter what usually, so it was 99% Llo...Luke for me. I did try Guy out and yes, he's a lot faster and Center was awesome, but Luke isn't terrible by any means. Some of his moves resemble Lloyd's, so I was fine with that, since aside from playing Kratos and Zelos for a bit, I was exclusively Lloyd, haha. I loved playing with him. When I played with my sister, she was begging me to play someone else one time XD My sister played Guy in our first game, but refused to let me play him in our second, so I couldn't play him even if I wanted to.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Kuhazan

But I'm 40 hours in... and so far I liked Tales of Symphonia better

Wow, I'm no longer the only one. Everyone I know says Abyss is better. Abyss is good and all, but Symphonia has better characters, is funnier and there isn't any stupid cutesy annoying animal in it. It's something I'd rather play more than once as well. I also liked the towns and such more. I love Abyss' Free Run though.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?