Tales of the Abyss: COMPLETED!
And now you get a *MEEPLE RANT*
First off, of course...
*SPOILERS*
However, I will be primarily comparing TotA to another game to make the thing more coherent or something. Actually, I have no clue why, figured I'd do a different style and such.
What game do I choose?
...if you said Hoshi, you all fail at life, and should shoot yourself in the face.
Actually, decided to compare it to something very similar, and of a similar time frame. What game? Star Ocean 3, naturally. The games use a similar core battle system, both are close enough that they can be considered contemporaries, etc. Also, Star Ocean 3 is a game I considered to be the best at this style of RPG til this day, so I figured it'd be a good comparison in that regard, as if TotA held up to it well, it'd be a really good game! If it doesn't...depends how much it fails in comparison, etc.
Anyway, where to start...well, gameplay I guess. Tales games have always been 2D Games. They worked at this. They had a good formula, and it had specific fundamentals (like the concept of Air and Anti Air attacks dealing with Air Enemies, something far more common than in STar Ocean games.) So...why did TotA change it? Yes, its an extension of ToS, which admittedly, I overrated at first (complicated situation, won't get int it), but...the issue is, they didn't do enough for the 3D Aspect. The game felt like a watered down Star Ocean instead of a Tales.
Star Ocean 3 had more fluid controls for example; to Run, you didn't need to press an extra button down to take advantage of the 3Dness. Attacks were a lot more AoE oriented, and winning fights didn't end up being "RUN AROUND BATTLE FIELD WHILE IDIOT ENEMY CHASES YOU!" That never really worked. It didn't work in Tales games cause 2D Battles = far more limited terrain = hey you just got cornered! Congratulations Dumb shit! This made those games a lot more interactive.
However, TotA, I often felt just using Free Run was Auto Win in many cases. Game just didn't feel balanced for it. It really felt like they forcefully shoved a Tales game, something that works with 2D, into a 3D Battle system, compared to a fluid 3D Battle system ala SO3. Also, TotA didn't really have any interesting niches the way Star Ocean 3 had Fury; it was the same stuff Tales games have had.
On the brightside, Tales games have decent core gameplay, so the game was never truly boring. However, as I said, I felt a lot of the 3D Aspect was wasted, and often, enemies took advantage of it more than you when it wasn't free run related. It was only late game that they started giving attacks that actually meshed with a 3D Environment, compared to Star Ocean 3 which gives you a nice big AoE attack earlish in the game through, say, Hammer of Might.
Next off...pacing. TotA fundamentally fails in this regard. Star Ocean 3's pacing I don;t quite remember, but I don't remember things dragging. At all points, I remember feeling like I was accomplishing something, and there was plenty of gameplay. TotA had a lot of "Go to this town, talk to this guy, now go to this town and talk to this guy! Repeat about 5 times and you will FINALLY GET A DUNGEON!!!" And here we have the entirety of the Post Absorption Gate of Tales of the Abyss. The plot was so superficial at that point too; it was basically forcing on point after point that just felt like "ok, so the villains are trying to make a replica world, and its being more obvious, we get the point" and then they try throwing philosophical BS regarding "EXISTENCE!!" and what not.
Which segues into the plot. Now, TotA's plot wasn't bad at first...until they fell into the usual Tales Syndrom of ELEMENTAL DUNGEONS! GO TO ALL OF THEM CAUSE THERE'S A SECRET THING THERE! Every fucking Tales game but ToL (which is different) and ToD (Which has other issues) has this. Its pure retarded filler that's just not fun. There's no actual plot going on, just "ok, we did this here, lets see what we can talk about here!" and move on. At least in ToP, ToE and ToS, you got something out of it (namely summons.) This is one thing that stood out to me; Star Ocean 3 completely lacks these stock elemental dungeons in this regard. Yes, there's a snow dungeon...early in the game where it makes sense, since you're breaking out of an Ice Country. Yes, there's a Fire Dungeon...but again, there was plot reasons behind it, felt more like "oh, lets just turn this into our token Fire Dungeon!" TotA though? YOu had a bunch of stuff before it, then you reach a point where its "FIND THE SEPHIROTH TREES!" and they kind of default to "ELEMENTAL DUNGEON SPAMMING AWAY!"
But what about the good stuff? Well, the whole "Religion isn't innately evil, just some of the higher ups running it are!" thing was a nice refreshing direction. The whole clash of different countries, world powers, etc. was interesting too cause you really couldn't tell what the true relationships, motives, etc. of each country was. For SO3, you got a realistic version of SO2 at first (you appear on an underdeveloped planet, shit happens cause of you. In this case, its "You people with advanced technology, help us win the war!" makes a lot more sense than "WARRIOR OF LIGHT!") The whole convoluted of TotA's plot wasn't so bad, just hard to follow at times, though it ended up putting itself together in the end.
...but then Van falls into the Absorption Gate, and the Fake Ending occurs. Ok, fine, whatever...THE RESULTING PLOT AFTER IS JUST HORRIBLE. Its basically "Van's pulling a Xanatos Roulette, those that should be dead aren't cause of a YOU DIDN'T SEE THE BODY BS, and there's replicas. Oh yeah, and Mohs is douche." This is also where the pacing fails, as you spend hours doing much of nothing til finally you get a "Ok, go here to accomplish this!" This is the first time in an RPG I was so excited to go to a dungeon just cause it was a freaking dungeon. It was just a bunch of headdesking. They even pulled FF9's Disc 4 Plot of "Hey look, the evil Mist Miasma is now covering the world again!" somewhere in there, except instead of just being "Beat the final dungeon to resolve this" its "Lets go on a fetch quest!" Then they toss in a whole CLONES ARE PEOPLE TOO! thing for no reason, which...argh, the fact that I just wanted the game to end 8 hours before that point was bad enough. Egads was this stalling. You shouldn't have only 4 dungeons in 15 hours of plot *UNLESS* you are like Xenosaga and the dungeons are really fucking long.
Now, lets look at Star Ocean 3's Disc 2 plot, which I feel is close enough to a similar case regarding a split in plot, since the style the plots take is definitely a shift there, much like Post Absorption Gate. Star Ocean 3, we now get off that planet and deal with the actual threat in a more macrocosm way (which is odd since you were already dealing with most of an entire planet, but Star Oceans are weird like that!) It then decides to rip off the Matrix with 4D, and yeah. First off, let me say, I LIKED that twist. Yeah, yeah, its weird and screwed up, but it worked considering, and it wasn't tossed out of nowhere (I didn't see it coming, but it made a certain amount of sense considering. Out of nowhere would be "Hey look, this is the truth! No, it plays no real impact on the previous events nor does it explain anything, BUT IT MATTERS FOR THE REST OF THE GAME!") This kept the game interesting.
That's the main difference between the plot styles in both games. Star Ocean 3 was generally focused. It dealt with one thing at a time, and while several goals might be established, it'd deal with one in depth. TotA felt like it had to deal with at least 3 at a given moment. It made for a much less enjoyable story as a result. I'd rather not have to refer to every single plot detail and remember how everything connects perfectly just cause a game can't stay focused. Yes, I like piecing things together, but I prefer them coming together over time rather than "lets do 3 parts of a puzzle separate, then SHOVE THEM TOGETHER! ...wait, we're still missing pieces, damn!" When I do a puzzle (which is admittedly almost never), I prefer to work one piece at a time, and things slowly come together. I don't look at multiple parts of the puzzle and keep hoping something will connect from Part A to Part B or C. That's what TotA's plot felt like at times.
Next off the Overworld.
...I refuse to talk about this. Mostly cause everybody already knows about this. I'll just add in "only way this could be worse is if they somehow applied Wild ARMs Search into the game."
Skits...well, SO3 lacks anything comparable, so I can't use that. However, TotA's skits were generally...unamusing. They lacked the humor ToL's skits had before, and there were SO MANY that the serious ones felt like they were just recycling the previous plot details, and adding a new outlook on it which frankly just made me go "Um, ok, whatever, can we get going?" Yes, they're optional, but there's an occasional gem in the mix that I don't like to miss, which makes you have to deal with all the crap. There's also an occasional decent serious one at that.
The main problem is that TotA lacked comic relief on the PC end...well, decent anyway. Jade's comedic style was completely one dimensional; it was all pure sarcasm. Works at first, but gets old. Anise just wasn't funny considering her role. Mieu had the whole ULTRA NAIVE THING...which again, they didn't do enough with. The other characters were all generally serious (for all that Tear had the whole "weakness to cute stuff" quirk, but that was played so rarely it never mattered.)
Compare that to, say, Tales of Legendia. The characters are generally much funnier, the chemistry for them works better (Jay vs. Moses is such a sitcom duo, for example), and even the serious stuff often tossed in a punchline to make even those worth reading which didn't hurt. The Skits were far more enjoyable for that reason here.
Lastly, back to gameplay...
Character differences in TotA weren't nearly as well defined as SO3. Elfboy ranted about this once, but the two principle controlled characters are Luke and Guy (and Asch should he count.) They're different...but still feel similar when played. Anise is just kind of awkward, and better left on AI for magic, Jade's physicals are useless, and also far better as a mage, Natalia and Tear are healers, thus better kept as AI for that reason (also Natalia takes a while to learn decent physical skills for comboing.)
SO3? The two swordsmen in that are Fayt and Albel...who play ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ALIKE. Fayt's about hitting hard and fast, Albel's about spamming stuff. Then we have Nel, whose a Ninja thus mixing things up in regarding Range, melee, speed, etc. Cliff whose a powerhouse, Maria whose a range whore, Sophia whose a mage that is actually control friendly, Adray who...uhh...Adray. Roger who is unique enough, if scrubby, Peppita whose a support character who, again, is controller friendly, and Mirage whose a variation of Cliff.
See the thing above? The entire SO3 cast works a lot better PC Controlled than the TotA cast, and the options are far more interesting and there's more of them. Closest similarities are Cliff and Mirage, and they have their differences. It leads to a more diverse experience.
So...yeah, TotA's really not looking good compared to SO3.
Actually, at this point, I'll stop the comparison, since I'm working on CASTS!!!!
Luke: Not sure if I actually like him, mostly cause the whole angst near the end left a bad taste in my mouth. However, he was well done beyond that, going from snobby rich kid who can't think of anything but himself to an actually decent fellow.
Tear: Is pretty awesome overall. Liked her pretty much from the start as she was telling Luke to shut up at every moment, cause lets face it, early game Luke is annoying as heck. The chemistry between her and Luke made for a decent couple, and...yeah, I'll just say she was generally solid in all regards.
Jade: His humor side kind of sucks. Its the same joke over and over again. "Hey Jade, you're not tired!" "Oh, but of course I am! I'm practically falling over on the inside from exhaustion!" It was kind of funny at first, but then, its predictable and bland. His serious stuff was generally solid however. I didn't think he was as much of a prick as people who hate him made him out to be (felt more like that's just how he was as a person, not trying to intentionally putting people down.) So yeah, I guess I fall between the Jade lovers and the Jade Haters <_< >_>
Anise: FAILS. She's an attempt at a realistic version of that archtype...which is to say, YOU WANT TO PUNCH HER IN THE FACE. And the characters give her credit for this, the fuck? Betrayal stunt was forced, and then your characters are all like "Its ok, we're friends right!" ARGH! No, die bitch.
Guy: The general nice guy whose the kind of guy you want as a best friend. The Girl fear thing...I was afraid when I realized they were going to make a serious plot point from it (since normally this is a pure humor thing), but it ended up working better than I expected. Not much to say about him, just likable, and doesn't really do anything that'd make me want to wring his neck. Even the whole stunt at the peace treaty felt believable given the circumstances.
Natalia: She showed potential early. Princess who likes to take action and wants to help rather than sit by passively. However...she eventually can be summed up by the following statements:
A. Asch Obsession
B. Parental Angst
C. NOT A REAL PRINCESS WHY DOES EVERYONE STILL LOVE ME?
Ok, point C was actually neat...except the game kind of rushed through it. Point B...she resolves it early, but then...unresolved it cause some guy is her father despite her having no actual attachment? Sorry, but I found that hard to believe. From what I understand in real life, Children who usually meet their real parents after being adopted after that much time tend to feel nothing (maybe some initial excitement.) The whole BLOOD TIES!!! thing was just stupid after they just dealt with "EXPERIENCES MATTER MORE! Who needs blood when you have 17 years of memories!" I'd find it more believable if, say, Natalia was more upset at how she was the indirect cause of Largo becoming who he is and the death of her Birth Mother, but no, it was all "WAH MY REAL FATHER IS MY ENEMY!" Argh, so forced, I felt.
Asch obsession...you know, if Asch was likable and they did more with that relationship, I could actually care about it. Pity they, you know, don't.
Ion: Nice Foil of Luke. Same situation, but reacts completely differently. Not much else to say, just solid. Well, they really should have done more to make him look...I dunno...MALE. The voice didn't help, but they could have at least given him a hair style that looks male. I mean, they did it with Sync, why'd they give Ion those wear locks?
Mieu: Forced in Mascot who existed to be cute. That's...really all there is to it. They tried to go at an angle of "he's so naive that he loves everything even when he's mean at, isn't it cute ^_^" I guess, but again, they overplayed that role in skits cause there's TOO FUCKING MANY OF THEM.
Asch: Jackass. Yeah, ok, I'll grant he had good reasons to angst, whine, and hate stuff, but for fuck sake, you can lighten up from time to time. One moment that sticks out to me was in Grand Chokmah. At first, I thought he was doing something actually interesting, finally coming out and out and telling Luke why he hates him ("Shut up with the inferiority complex! Try to act superior at least, TRY to pretend your better, something! I can't stand you putting yourself down like that!") ...except its undermined when he basically says the opposite thing right after ("Don't think I can ever accept a Replica like you being better than me!" or some such.) It'd be one thing if the response was something like "But just cause I'm saying this doesn't mean I am willing to accept you're superior." It was this scene that made me head desk and want to strangle Asch, frankly. Completely kills his one shot at salvaging his character.
Such a character that backfired its not even funny.
Dist: Is Dist. Game needs more of him. Actually, this applies to ANY game; all games need more Dist.
Largo: Is a lamer. At first, he's your generic Big Henchman...but the Natalia plot just really failed. And the whole "I believe in Van cause he's destroying us all to create a better future!" thing was just stupid.
Arietta: WAAAH YOU KILLED MOMMY DIE!!!! ...amazing how she's so much better than Anise still. I guess the lack of screen time helps her.
Sync: Ok, at first, he's the Annoyingly Persistent Henchman. Ok, fine, whatever. Cliche, but inoffensive. At the Absorption Gate, they give him backstory and some resolve. Ok, fine, whatever, still nothing bad.
...then they BRING HIM BACK TO LIFE FROM WHAT SHOULD BE CERTAIN DEATH? FUCK. no, that's far worse than "YOU DIDN'T SEE THE BODY!" His last scene's speech was just emo to an extreme, and just plain ridiculous no matter how you look at it. Utter fail, etc. He deserves his hate.
Legretta: TOKEN FEMALE HENCHMAN AWAY! That's really all she did. Oh, yeah, forgot the whole "I WANT TO SLEEP WITH VAN!" thing. Whatever. She also wouldn't shut up with the whole "You're too slow Tear!" Yeah, whatever, this game doesn't have very good villains frankly.
Mohs: Why did he have so much screen time in the last parts of the game instead of Dist? Yes, despicable, yes a prick, but he overstayed his welcome. You needed to kill him the instant he transformed into that monster thing. Just pathetic the role he served; its a tool that they pretended wasn't a tool.
Van: He's really good at first, actually. The way he manipulated Luke was just brilliant. From there, he became a pretty straightforward villain. Not very offensive, but nothing special. Worked for that. Then he pulls the whole "Die...wait! Now I WILL USE THIS TO MY ADVANTAGE AND MAKE YOU MORE FUCKED OVER!" Manipulating Luke was a Xanatos Gambit; that's fine! The Lorelei Bullshit was a Xanatos Roulette, which was just stupid. It basically had him say "I have lost faith in humanity! Yes, I'm a humans fail villain but I'm going to mask it with pretty words, and try to create a utopia with CLONES!!!" Way to have a character degrade guys.
so...yeah, I'm tempted to give the game a 6/10. I was thinking 7/10 around Absorption Gate, but all the stuff after it was just painful. Gameplay was solid enough, just stands out as being so much worse than Star Ocean 3, the plot starts off fine, but then becomes so boring and dull (hey, beats OFFENDS EVERYTHING WITHIN A 20 MILE RADIUS like some games have *looks at XS3*), and the games flaws were just too ever present to really fully enjoy the game. The rushed job really shows.
