Despite the painful 3D, Tales of the Abyss pulls through as a great game.
Story
The story focuses around Luke. Luke is basically the typical stereotype of young royalty; spoiled, bratty, and never stops complaining. Luke's never-ending whining does become fairly annoying, but doesn't last forever. He actually proves to be a pretty likable character.
As a child Luke was kidnapped and he is now not permitted to leave the manor where he lives. He can't remember his past and has no idea what's going on in the outer world. After an accident, Luke disappears and finds himself lost outside the manor walls. Part of the story will be getting Luke back to his home, but the majority of the story is trying to stop a war between 2 empires. The story is a bit dull at first, but after a little while it's easy to get hooked to.
Music
The best word to describe the music would have to be "unique." It's very fitting to the game and has a nice variety. At no time did I ever find the music annoying or unbearable to listen to.
Gameplay
The gameplay was different from anything I had ever seen (this was my first Tales game.) It's similar to the classic RPG fighting style, but instead of standing in a line and taking turns to attack, you have complete control over your character (and only your character). You do have settings for you allies though to make they play how you choose. You can run around, use some button commands for special attacks, and more. The battle system is more like a fighting game than an RPG. It's really unique and never gets boring.
Enemies appear before they attack you. Instead of worrying about repeatedly getting into fights when you're dying in a cave (*cough* Pokemon *cough*) you have the option to avoid almost all enemies. Sometimes they will block a path, but for the majority of the time you can run right past them if need be.
Traveling back and forth between the same cities is sometimes required and seems like more of a chore than part of a video game, but it's not required a lot.
Play Time
This game has a really long play time compared to most games. RPGs normally take a pretty decent amount of time to complete, but Tales of the Abyss passed my expectations taking me roughly 45 hours to complete the main story and well over another 40 hours to do side missions.
3D Effects
The 3D has some issues and hurt my eyes at times. I found this game to have a bigger problem with ghosting (shows 2 of certain things instead of making it 3D) than any other 3DS games I've played. Having 2 of Luke on the screen became kind of annoying and resulted in me playing the game with the 3D off most of the time.
Recommend it?
I would highly recommend this game. From what I've seen it can be a pain to find, but if you see it at the store I would strongly suggest picking it up. It's a fun game and a unique experience (if you haven't played it on the playstation 2 already).