Tales of the Abyss 3DS Review

The Tales series does not enjoy the best reputation for global relevancy, mostly because so few of the entries in this twenty-something strong series have been released outside of Japan. Where Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest enjoy a following as devoted outside of their home country as they do within, Tales fanaticism is much rarer in America, and rarer still in Europe. (Except, inexplicably, in France, where it's super popular.)

Tales of the Abyss was first released on the PlayStation 2 in 2006 in North America, and never made it any further abroad than that. If you're in Europe, where the game is already out, this 3DS remake of Tales of the Abyss is quite probably the first chance you'll have had to play it. That instantly makes it a lot more interesting for you. Thing is, though, it's six years old, and subscribes to most (if not all) of the irritating conventions that could make Japanese RPGs of the last decade feel like hard work. Don't come to Tales of the Abyss expecting a remake: the reality is much closer to a port.

The story follows red-haired, teenaged, aristocratic, amnesiac Luke Fon Fabre on his journey from total obnoxious jerk to slightly less of an obnoxious jerk, helped along the way by a cast of considerably more likeable supporting characters. It's very heavy on the fantasy jargon, which you have to be prepared to either ignore or swallow if you want to enjoy the story for what it is. It's fast-paced for its genre, with a lively flow of new party members and locations that helps to keep your interest even when the characters are rabbiting on about seventh fonon resonance and the civil tensions between Kimlasca-Lanvaldear and Malkuth.

The majority of the vast amount of dialogue is competently voiced by an American cast, which is very impressive on a handheld, and nothing has had to be cut from the PS2 version to fit it on that tiny cart. Less impressive is the 3D implementation; this wasn't a game designed for depth of field, and the character models and cartoonish cel-shaded art style really don't suit it. After the first few experimental hours I ended up playing entirely in 2D to save myself wincing at the game's attempts at depth-of-field.

The game was forward-thinking for its time, which helps it feel reasonably fresh today. The combat system, particularly, stands up well – it's a real-time, action-heavy system from a side-on perspective. You have an attack, a block and a skill button, and you can modify your actions by pulling the analogue in different directions when you hit A, B or Y. Both active and passive skills open up gradually as you gain battle experience – you'll suddenly be able to dodge, for instance, or use different airborne attacks. The way that characters' abilities develop and unlock is controlled by the Capacity Core that you equip them with – give them a strength-focussed Capacity Core, for instance, and battle skills will level up quicker.

The AI is generally really good in battle. Your allies know when you heal you, when to stay out of the way and when to attack, and you can modify their behaviour in the character menu. Don't expect the game to actually explain any of this by itself, though. You have to do a lot of digging around in menus to discover that you've even acquired some new skills, let alone figure out what they actually do. This is the game's main weakness: it expects you to be interested enough to find everything out on your own, and though it's nice not to be spoon-fed, some direction would be helpful.

It's also nice that Tales of the Abyss doesn't bombard you with incidental story detail and long, long cutscenes too often, hiding most of its background details in optional skits – animated conversations between main characters that crop up every five or ten minutes. A prompt in the bottom left of the screen lets you know when one of these is available, and if you don't want to spend two minutes watching it, you don't have to. If you like the detail, though, it's disappointing to find that these scenes still aren't voiced. After getting used to hearing characters talk, it's jarring to suddenly be thrown into a silent movie.

Alongside those forward-thinking elements, though, Tales of the Abyss subscribes to a lot of the less well-loved aspects of the genre. For instance, although the story has enough happening to keep you interested once it gets into its stride, there are things about it that are both cliched and annoying, including a squeaky-voiced cute animal-thing that talks at a pitch that's probably high enough to confuse dogs. The main character, Luke, is also unbearable at the beginning, and although he does improve, it's the most basic and unambitious kind of character development. Lastly, it's too long, a fault that's endemic in this series - the story starts to falter long before its conclusion, although in such a long game (45+ hours) that's almost inevitable. Its saving grace is the art style and world design, which both live up to the series' high artistic and animation standards.

Unfortunately, Tales of the Abyss serves as a reminder that the Japanese RPG has been stuck in a creative rut for a long time now – the fact that it doesn't feel all that different from many modern examples of the genre is actually a bit depressing. Having fallen in love with games like Xenoblade Chronicles and Dragon Quest X in the past few years, it's difficult to return to this complex world of menus and jargon without a bit of reluctance.

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