A Worth playing addition to the Tales Of Series, you will definitely enjoy this game~
Genre: RPG-Action
Developer: Namco
System: Playstation 2
Total Score: 90
Value Score: 9/10
• Story: 9/10
o The Storyline for Tales of the Abyss starts out slow, but as you move on in the game, the true plot unfolds, though the storyline begins abit slow in the beginning, when it does catch up, it will definitely keep the player in contact with the game, though there are some moments in the game where the storyline could become weak, the overall result of the storyline especially in the 2nd half of the game makes it worthwhile overall. Though one can say if this game was turned into a full fledged anime (not the currently existing anime), there would be a lot of fillers, as there are A LOT of side-quests and storyline scenes that do not make a big impact in the main storyline overall.
• Characters: 8/10
o Though technically not the character line up one would expect from a RPG like the tales series, the game still provides a decent group of main characters, though at first one would assume the characters aren't developed as well as other RPG games, once you go through the game, your mind will get changed, although some of the characters mostly the npcs are bland, along with some of the villains, majority of the characters and how they react to each other throughout the storyline makes up for it.
• GamePlay: 8/10
o Though not as fluid as Star Ocean Till the End of time, or the other tales series, this game still delivers a decent gameplay system. Namco tried to introduce free-movement (similar to Star Ocean Till the End of Time's battle system), its not as solid as its competitor. Despite this fact, the gameplay mechanics seem pretty solid, the menu systems are nicely organized as well. Pretty much, if you played another Tales series game or Star Ocean, you will love the gameplay.
• Graphics: 8/10
o One of the main aspects of a game would be the graphics, though the graphics of Tales of the Abyss isn't as good as other RPG games such as Star Ocean, Namco still provided a decent graphical design to the environments and characters. Despite the fact that the game might not be graphically superior to its rivals, the game still provides decent framework and each pixel is well made, there are no graphical issues at all like most other RPG games usually would have due to a glitch. The Cinematics in this game is like all other Tales series game, anime based.
• Sound: 10/10
o The voice over cast in this game is simply incredible, each character's voice artist fits well with their character, unlike Star Ocean till the End of Time, where some of the voices on the characters did not match that character's personality, along with that if there's a high volume song playing in the background, you can still understand/hear the character speaking unlike Star Ocean. Attacking sounds, grunts, and in-battle voices all have been made perfectly well.
• Music: 10/10
o One of the most important aspects of a RPG game is the OST. The OST made for this game is from one of the most famous music composers, he also made the OSTs for Star Ocean and other Tales series as well. So for all the fans out there, the music to this game shouldn't be something new, as you might hear similar tunes or chimes in each of the songs. The Battle music in the game is well done as well.
• Length: 9/10
o Storyline wise length, the game will take you about 40-45 hours that is if you look at each scene and search for the items during the events in the storyline. There's about 10-15 hours of worth of sidequests in this game, which will probably take you some time to complete due to the huge size of the world map.
• Replay Value: 9/10
o This game has what most RPGs lack but like many other games that will be coming out after this one will have is New Game+, a feature which enables you to play the game all over again with special conditions that you can use as a advantage for your second playthrough, though most of the game in the 2nd playthrough should be the same, you can unlock a dungeon which is only accessible after beating game once, and you can unlock constumes for your characters as well.
• Player Value: 9/10
o I'll personally give this game a 9 out of 10, really liked the gameplay, music, and the voice acting, the storyline was a bit slow at first, but it picked up, though there were parts where the heroes went a bit off of the main storyline and onto something that wasn't really important. Length is really good, and the replay value was decent, but not as decent as other games. Graphics were ok for a game of this time and since it was a anime based game pretty much (in terms of Graphic design), it fitted well. Characters are memorable especially one of the main characters who can rival even FFX's Auron.