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Nightengale · Oct 16, 2017

Post-haircut Luke is exactly how I imagined a

7 years old

would treat the fallout of what happened after the mid-game climax.

Paranoia, constant sense of self-doubt, self-loathing, lazy, martyr complex, self-reaffirmation of worst fears.

Throughout the entire second half, he basically

retreats back into a shell of inferiority complex to fool himself into expecting that he'd be thrown away any day and that he's steeling himself to be "fine" with that, even if that is a load of bullshit.

Mid-game climax has a short time-skip of a few months after the defeat of the mid-boss, and it was ingenious is showing that

while the rest of the cast acted like responsible adults with lives outside the adventure, Luke was just NEETing around at home with no purpose and meaning.

The adrenaline rush that came from the immediate post-haircut change that allowed him

to function like a normal person during an adventure completely vanished once the battle was over and he had to start thinking about life outside of the RPG journey.

Very, very few games explore this space, and what more, explore it from the perspective of

a "loser" who even after the grand battle, has no place in society.

Is it perfect? Nah. There are a lot of pacing issues.

But Luke is one of JRPG's best protagonist from start-to-finish. He is the best written character in the entire Tales franchise for me.

kromeo · Oct 16, 2017

It shares the same problem as Vesperia of having 10 hours of unnecessary padding at the back end of the game but it's still my favourite in the series, the only one where I actually still cared about the story by the end#

Edit - I lie, the ending section of Xillia 2 was pretty good

SoulUnison · Oct 16, 2017

ubercheez said:
That post-credits scene is one of the most well-executed emotional payoffs I've ever experienced in a game. The Grand Fonic Hymn being sung over the flowers at night... man, it still gets me.

I inadvertently time-skipped to 4:58. That...was a mistake, but I can't stop laughing.

BassForever · Oct 16, 2017

My favorite Tales story, second favorite game after Vesperia. Need to replay it soon.

Espada · Oct 16, 2017

BassForever said:
My favorite Tales story, second favorite game after Vesperia. Need to replay it soon.

This is where I stand on TotA. It's ambitious in a way very few of the games following it were, and some things like the Fon rings in combat or some of the story arcs are some of my favorites in gaming period. For example? Guy? That wise cracking guy with a comical fear of women? He's one of my favorite characters in the medium.

To this day I'm baffled why people prefer pre-change Luke. Absolutely abysmal taste, that's like saying you like Algus/Argath in FFT or the asshole mayor in AW: Days of Ruin.

Jo Shishido's Cheeks · Oct 16, 2017

Atrocious cast. Out.

CrazyHal · Oct 16, 2017

My favorite thing about Abyss is Jade Curtis. He is by far the funiest video game character i have ever seen. No matter how many times i replay the game, he always makes me laugh out loud. His sarcastics comments are pure gold!

Weiss · Oct 16, 2017

Terrible story with a repulsive cast of jackasses.

Luke was better with long hair when he had the chance to actually have an organic character arc, rather than

accidentally committing genocide

and thus forced to become a generic animu hero.

Espada · Oct 16, 2017

CrazyHal said:
My favorite thing about Abyss is Jade Curtis. He is by far the funiest video game character i have ever seen. No matter how many times i replay the game, he always makes me laugh out loud. His sarcastics comments are pure gold!

Yeah, Jade was fun. Especially when he'd

talk to Emperor Peony, it really felt like the back and forth two long time friends would have.

SliceSabre · Oct 16, 2017

Easily my favorite Tales game. Battle system was fantastic and actually had a story I could pay attention to and I am thankful for that because it is a long game.

Zafir · Oct 16, 2017

Yeah Abyss is definitely my favourite Tales of game.

I feel like it's a love it or hate it game though. The characters seem to rub some people the wrong way.

JCX · Oct 16, 2017

SatoAilDarko said:
Anyone know how the 3DS port is?

I finished this on 3DS. Porrt itself was good, and I enjoyed some of the 3D effects.

I actually enjoyed the story somewhat, but I found the battles to be too easy. Basically button mashed through the whole thing

MechaX · Oct 16, 2017

Laughing Banana said:
LOLLLL.

I pretty much agreed with everything that you said in here! XD

Might as well call Tales of the Abyss as Tales of the Cunts, hahaha.

I always give Guy a pass because he was the main one who stood up for Luke and was like "well, he's a bit of a fuck up and he's still my bro." Tear also at least stays with him too.

Jade, Natalia, and especially Anise can choke on some big dicks for real though.

DarknessTear · Oct 16, 2017

Spoiler everyone is a piece of shit.

Great game, though.

Zetta · Oct 17, 2017

BkzUzi said:
Yeah, I completely agree with you here. Once he cuts hair he becomes a generic boring jrpg protagonist. He had a unique personality and if you played the game it made sense the way he acted in the beginning. Maybe I wouldn't have mind the personality change so much if it wasn't so abrupt, eh.

And yeah the rest of the cast were assholes, they kept him in the dark the entire time and then kept shitting on him when he messed up. And the only person who listened to him was the main bad guy lol. You can't even blame him for killing off the town since the rest of the cast wouldn't tell him anything. Anise being the biggest offender, at least the blond haired guy was a bro. Still consider it the best Tales game though.

Came in here to say this and I'm glad I wasn't the only one. Jade is loved by many but I find him to be the shittiest character in this game due to the fact he knew everything and still kept his mouth shut.

RurouniZel said:
My post is going to contain some MASSIVE FUCKING SPOILERS. You've been warned. I'll use the spoiler tag anyway, but seriously. Don't click if you've not played the game. The short spoiler free version is I hate this game because I hate the characters.

This man right here gets it.

jrush64 · Oct 17, 2017

Glad Im not the only one with the thought that Luke was better before cutting his hair. After he cut his hair he became such a lame boring character.

The cast of characters are all just so shitty. Hypocritical, awful characters with Anise being by far the worst. Arrrgh!!!! I hate the cast so much. They are truly the worst Tales characters ever. Just bad writing to be honest... I never say that for any game.

theofficefan99 · Oct 17, 2017

Honestly it seems like the people who hate Abyss' cast are the same people who will claim that Shion from Xenosaga is a terrible character.

Jhoan · Oct 17, 2017

I finished the 3DS version earlier this year and actually enjoyed it even though damn near every character kept secrets that they knew because of reasons. That being said, I think Yuri is one of the best Tales characters in the series but Luke's development over the story was pretty damn good and convincing. Van was a relatively grey villain like Vesperia's big bad.

Combat was really fun but after coming from Vesperia, it felt quite repetitive once I got FOF fields down for each character. It was still a really cool idea along with the way you can customize characters with fon stones and learn new skills. I liked playing with Guy the most because he's quick followed by Luke and Anise.

Because it's a Tales game, I had to use a FAQ to do all the side quests which made the characters more interesting. Mieu is annoying though but the high pitched mascot comes with almost every Tales game these days. Overall, I really enjoyed my time with it.

King Gilga · Oct 17, 2017

Game is tooo fucking long for the story it has.

Got bored in that one big dungeon with the see through walkthroughs and stuff where you go to to fight

Brunette haired chick's brother

It's no Vesperia.

jrush64 · Oct 17, 2017

theofficefan99 said:
Honestly it seems like the people who hate Abyss' cast are the same people who will claim that Shion from Xenosaga is a terrible character.

Shion was an extremely awful character especially in 3. She didn't deserve Allen constantly defender her bullshit.

Surfside · Oct 17, 2017

Laughing Banana said:
Luke pre-change >>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Luke post-change.

At least Luke pre-change is something different than your typical JRPG protagonist. Luke post-change is cringey to the max who can't seem to function for 5 seconds if he does not self-hate or being emo for whatever reason.

I fully agree with this. And it wasn't like he was unemphatetic towards people. He only acted so snobby because he didn't know any better. Clearly his upbringing was at fault. So one could understand why he behaved the way he did.

kromeo · Oct 17, 2017

King Gilga said:
Game is tooo fucking long for the story it has.

Got bored in that one big dungeon with the see through walkthroughs and stuff where you go to to fight

Brunette haired chick's brother

It's no Vesperia.

It's not like Vesperia isn't just as long, and that game hardly has an interesting main story

Aiustis · Oct 17, 2017

My 3rd favorite Tales game.

It's actually the only one I've played that I didn't think the story chugged on too long or the characters were insanely unbearable (Luke was insufferable but he was supposed to be).

Vesperia is my favorite but the story went on waaay too long like a tv series that should have ended 2 seasons before it did.

YankeeDonB · Oct 17, 2017

Still my favorite Tales. Agreed on Luke's arc, and yes, Karma rules. Loved it when repurposed as battle music in final dungeon....

Fou-Lu · Oct 21, 2017

I just defeated the three God-Generals on the snowy mountain peak where they apparently died (I have my doubts there of course).

I do think the party was too harsh on Luke at first but they stopped being jerks to him about it pretty quickly. Heck now they are telling him not to beat himself up over things and letting him know own he has changed and is a good friend and person. Makes re-reading a lot of the posts here odd, since people seem convinced they just completely hate him for the rest of the game.

theofficefan99 said:
Honestly it seems like the people who hate Abyss' cast are the same people who will claim that Shion from Xenosaga is a terrible character.

You may be on to something. I really liked (even when I was very frustrated with her) Shion and thought she was a great character.

theofficefan99 · Oct 21, 2017

Fou-Lu said:
I just defeated the three God-Generals on the snowy mountain peak where they apparently died (I have my doubts there of course).

I do think the party was too harsh on Luke at first but they stopped being jerks to him about it pretty quickly. Heck now they are telling him not to beat himself up over things and letting him know own he has changed and is a good friend and person. Makes re-reading a lot of the posts here odd, since people seem convinced they just completely hate him for the rest of the game.

You may be on to something. I really liked (even when I was very frustrated with her) Shion and thought she was a great character.

Yeah, the character doesn't need to be a good person (or, well, a saint) to be a good character.

Laughing Banana · Oct 21, 2017

theofficefan99 said:
Honestly it seems like the people who hate Abyss' cast are the same people who will claim that Shion from Xenosaga is a terrible character.

theofficefan99 said:
Yeah, the character doesn't need to be a good person (or, well, a saint) to be a good character.

Nah, I hated Abyss' cast and yet I wholeheartedly love Shion and in fact, the entire cast of Xenosaga. For me, the difference between these two are as large as heaven and earth. Xenosaga 3 made me bawled like a baby so many times.

Also, funny you should mention the Saint thing, considering Luke post hair cut is as saintly as a character can be to the point where I can't stomach his sense of extreme self sacrifice and constant emo-ing anymore.

Voror · Oct 21, 2017

I've been feeling like doing a replay of this for the first time since I beat way back when. Sister has the 3DS port which she said she'd send me.

I'd definitely be up if they wanted to do some sort of HD remaster similar to Symphonia, though given they already did the 3DS port I'm skeptical it will happen. Vesperia more likely I'd think if they do any.

It's been a long time but overall I did enjoy the game, though the cast did irritate me quite a bit. The thing is, they could have dealt with it if they had the cast address how they were acting early on, but chose not to.

You can perhaps assign some blame for the whole town destruction incident on Luke, but there's tons of mitigating circumstances to that such as Luke's age, him actually getting controlled to a degree by Van, nobody in the party actually taking the time to explain anything to him even though he keeps asking, and the simple fact that Van had never been anything other than a kind mentor to Luke so of course he's going to trust him.

Guy at least accepts some responsibility and Natalia I think had her own stuff going on that was distracting her. I think Jade admits at some point that him not saying anything is a part of a flaw he has of not wanting to cause issues or something, but that's about it.

Another one is that for all the shit Tear gives Luke for trusting Van, no one ever brings up her undying loyalty to Mohs nor does she seem to realize how hypocritical she is either.
And this for a guy who never once to me came across as anything other than sketchy and evil.

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