2) Tales of the Abyss
Best Tales of Games
Abyss is one of the most interesting games in the entire Tales series and it plays a bit with players expectations. Luke Fon Fabre is a pampered noble who spends all of his time in his families estate, with the biggest excitement being his swordsmanship teacher Van.
After a failed assassination attempt on Van, Luke’s life gets turned upside down as he’s warped out of the manor into the wilderness. Luke has to join forces with the assassin Tear, and somehow find his way back home.
For a large part of the game, Luke plays the part of a whiny angst ridden teenage hero, but that role drastically changes the farther you get.
Revelations about Luke’s past and his amnesia turn up some morbid answers, with Luke himself being a clone of the real Luke Fon Fabre.
The main cast builds a great team with each other, and all of their pasts seem to somehow interconnect with each other and the overall plot.
Luke himself becomes a complicated character by the end of the game, and undergoes a massive amount of character growth.
Abyss was also the first game in the series to allow players to roam battle in full 3D movement. You could finally run around in each direction and unleash the normal variety of artes and special attacks.
A system called “Field of Phonons” would also give elemental bonuses based on where magic spells were used in battle.
Abyss was a big step in more than one way for the series. It really helped advance the combat system to a new level, and the character development played with your expectations of JRPGs, surprising you with its turns.
It’s one of the premiere examples of everything a great Tales game can be.
