Tales of the Abyss

While waiting for people to come back from vacation and between sending out resumes, I was able to finish Tales of the Abyss for PS2. Some interesting points:

1. Although there was no Japanese language option, the voice acting for the characters were done quite well. After hearing some of the Japanese voices, I think that some of the English voices were a lot less annoying than the high pitched Japanese voices. The jokes the characters make are genuinely funny and often times I was LOLing.

2. The fighting system is awesome and improves upon the already fun Tales system. Tales of the Abyss uses the new Flex-Range Linear Motion Battle System (FR-LMBS). Aside from sounding like a BF2 assault rifle, the system allows the player to move around a fully 3D arena with ease and makes comboing enemies all the more amusing.

3. The story was superb. It never really slows down and it alternates between seriousness and comic relief. It all plays out in the end and every loose end is tied up.

4. The character development is also done very nicely. The main character is soooo annoying at the beginning of the game that you really don't feel bad for him when everyone (except 2 people) ditch him halfway through the game. But then after a while, he becomes more likable and eventually, you see his progression from teenage angst to something a bit more mature. Of course all the other characters have mysterious pasts and they are all revealed as the game passes.

5. The game was very challenging. Especially the boss fights. I decided to play it through on the "Hard" difficulty the first time through (Beating it once unlocks "Very Hard" and Unknown" difficulties) and many of bosses were pretty rough, taking quite a few tries to beat.

All in all, Tales of the Abyss was a great game, and I look forward to the next Tales game.