I've had a 3ds for about 3 months now (bought it as a Christmas present for myself) and have Ocarina of Time 3d as my only game at the moment.. I love rpg's and have really been craving a good handheld rpg game. I might end up picking up Tales of the Abyss anyways, but I'd like to know if any of you have played/liked/don't like the game just to get some opinions. It's honestly cause I never really heard much about this game when it came out, but I recently finally finished Vesperia and want to know if this one is good as well.

P.S. I'm leaving for work right now so I won't be able to reply to posts til I get back which is around 11, so I promise I will look at/reply to this thread when I get back and that I'm not ignoring it! haha

The characters are abhorrent

It's pretty dated now and seeing as how you already played Vesperia, it probably won't be all that enjoyable to you.

If you're thinking "Alright, so the gameplay is dated. I'm in it for the story and characters!", just no. Abyss is really bad in those areas... EVEN FOR A TALES GAME.

I started it about a half a year ago (on the PS2) on the rabid recommendation of a friend. It's alright. I ran out of JRPG steam around 30 hours in after a red herring ending, but I intend to finish it...someday.

The part where you are fighting dudes is fine. The part where all the characters suck and are not good makes that game suffer incredibly.

I'm about 20 hours in, and I stopped playing it when I picked up Tales of Graces. While I'm enjoying Tales of Graces more than Abyss, but I don't regret playing the latter. While the main character, Luke fon Fabre, is a self-centered tool, I don't mind the rest of the cast. I'll get back to the game later.

I have to disagree with the people claiming the characters are bad. While I understand the hatred towards Luke, he's made to be a self-centered asshole in the beginning for a reason. A large part of the story is him trying to become a better person, and the question of whether or not that's even possible.

As far as the game as a whole, I'd say it's one of my favorites in the series. The combat doesn't control as well as newer Tales games, but it still holds up better than most RPGs of that era, and even many newer ones.

@Apathylad said:

I'm about 20 hours in, and I stopped playing it when I picked up Tales of Graces. While I'm enjoying Tales of Graces more than Abyss, but I don't regret playing the latter. While the main character, Luke fon Fabre, is a self-centered tool, I don't mind the rest of the cast. I'll get back to the game later.

Luke as an asshole is the best part about Abyss. When he becomes not an asshole it starts to suck, largely because of the reaction of the entire rest of the cast and how stupid they are for acting like that.