I want European confirmation yo.

Sounds like good news to me. I held off on getting Legendia because I heard it wasn't that great, and it was supposedly a disappointment compared to previous Tales games released here, but I'll probably get Tales of the Abyss when it comes out (along with Rogue Galaxy and FFXII ^^).

oooh, on a side note, did you guys get Tales of Legendia? I had no idea. Hmmm. hope we haven't missed out on that one.

XDDD BWAHAHAHAHA Shroom you just made my day. YES!!! WOOHOO After Tales of Legendia, which imo was pure greatness, and now Abyss? =D Sweet. I can't wait for Rogue Galaxy and this.

I'm not too shocked that Tales of the Abyss has been confirmed for a US release. Like I have been saying in quite a few topics today, it was just a matter of when, not a question of what if. This is still good news. I can't wait to get my hands on this game and play it.

Rockin'! <3
I was really hoping for Abyss to come to the US. This just made my day. Very awesome news and I'm eager to get my paws on this bad boy.

Legendia was good? o.o I was told it wasn't that great so I didn't get it. :[

Crap I missed your post, early morning whatever. >.< Anyway Shroom in light of your post here's my personal rundown of ToL.

I find the game's weakest point is in its gameplay, based on the majority of the complains or disappointments around the net, in comparison to the other Tales series. In fact people demanded so much along the likes of either ToS style or the ToD2/ToR level of gameplay which sadly was not so from there you could say that the rest in the gameplay is history as you can see in some reviews that constantly compare it to ToS.

Story on the other hand is also not the game's strongest point but its also not the weakest in fact it managed to serve its purpose as something there for the fact of having a plot but that doesn't mean that the plot was bad, although far from perfect but I would still say it was good with some minor twists here and there and some holes here and there.

While on the subject of characters I find it to be the game's strongest point having the most developed characters I've ever seen along the lines of the Lunar series and even does a better job at it.

Music is also a treat in ToL being done by Go Shiina, althoug I'll be honest and say that I've never heard of this guy before this game, but damn this guy just made me a believer. The music in ToL is great.

In terms of graphics well you can look at the screen shots in terms of how they look but in terms of animation and frame rate and stuff, its alright. Although some people are turned off by the chibi look. <.<;;

Bottomline in this post is that, if your expecting ToS type of gameplay or ToD2/ToR like the ones you see in videos then your bound to get disappointed and might as well not bother with this one if thats what you are looking into a Tales game. Most of the people I know who liked the game never liked the game immediately but grew on them and the quirky cast of characters.

This is great to hear I really enjoyed Tales of Symphonia and when I heard about Legendia I got all excited and then I read it was not that great. Hopefully Tales of the Abyss will be better.

Lol thanks for the time and your view :-) I would still really have liked to have the chance to play ToL ( frankly I just wish we got all the options you guys get) but hey, mybe I haven't missed out on much from the sounds of it If ToTA is by the same team as ToS however, I REALLY want to play it. I loved that game.

On that note, I actually really need to replay ToS, didn't realise what saving after the end of the game would do to my file, so I never got to do all the extras after the final dungeon ( I only really fough tthe final bos at the time to see what happened, I was so not finished with the game).

Edit - Worth noting for Euopean gamers, I went out and bough tthe official OP2M today, and it does in fact have Tales of Legendia down for an Autumn 06 release.I might ge tit yet

well to tell the truth i wanted to see this game for the gamecube since tales of symphonia was perfect for the cube i thought this would be to, but its for the ps2 and looks great the Gameplay looks really fun to keep the gamer into the game the story seems to be ok and the graphics aren't the best but they are still nice to see on the ps2.


http://media.ps2.ign.com/media/762/762419/imgs_1.html

For the most part I think almost all of the people here in dreamers haven't played TotA yet other than a few who have the Japanese version. So just hope that person would post in the topic.

Personally I'm glad that this is getting released for the PS2 and I do hope that at least this time around people will actually support the series. z_z

Mwahaha.. one of them would be me. I bought it for Yume's birthday. We have a tendency to want the Jap version instead of the English.

If you're comparing the graphics if the likes of FFXII, obviously it's not that good. But except that sometimes I feel that the clothing is a little flat at places, I have no complains and it works for me. I especially love the way the menu is set up.

Except the cooking system, which is that of Tales of Symphonia (which I don't like), everything else seem to be of Tales of Destiny, ToD2 and Tales of Rebirth quality. I think the strongest point of this game is its character development and growth, and with it, the plot. It's a 'Tales of' game after all. XD

Battles are a lot of fun, because it supports multiple players (up to four, woot!), and has the wonderful thing called Hi-Ougi which is sometimes really problematic to cast (but not as hard as ToD2). FOF is the trickier one, and it's what makes the battles really interesting. And I love the AD Skill called 'Free Run'.

Overall, so far so good. I love this game as we progressed (we because Yume plays the main char, I play during battles) and I look forward to playing it. Can't say the same for a lot of other games.

I just Pre-ordered Tales of the Abyss from Gamestop today and they gave me the Laser Cell. If you pre-ordered, I highly suggest you go and pick it up before they are all gone!

Here's what it looks like if anyone is curious (or hasn't seen it already).



I really like it. I really like the logo engraved in the matt board. Did anyone else already get theirs?

Danny

I'm going to merge all the three ToTA topics, 2 old and 1 new one, in preparation for the upcoming release of the game which happens to be on Oct. 10, 2006 and knowing that ToS had a strong following here in the US I'm pretty sure many of the ToS fans would surely pick up this game.

As for this topic, everything about ToTA will go into this topic whether it involves game or non-game discussion and Japanese and English version.

So for pre-release discussion, any hyped up in picking this one up? and getting the Laser Cell pre-order gift as what Morridor mentioned? What games are people going to play while waiting for this game? and etc.

Seems like good news. I haven't played Legendia yet and probably wont for awhile ( All the PS2 titles I bought are just kinda collecting dust thanks to WoW ) but I do dig the Tales series and definitely will be putting this one on hold next time I make the trip down to EB.

Does anyone know the exact release date?

IGN says its Oct. 10, knowing them they always get their release dates right.

This one totally sneaked up on me xD I work too damn much to keep up lately. Anyway, I'm guessing most places like Gamestop will get this either later today or tommorow depending on when it ships, but I reserved it today while reserving my PS3 spot and got the cool lazer print thingy. <3! Looks like it's going to be a fun game. I enjoyed Legendia, so I'm thinking this one will be even better. So I'll have this AND Devil Summoner to add to my growing pile to play in Feb. after our christmas rush. Yay!

I forgot about this one. I came into this topic to look up the release date actually. I'm actually looking forward to this game, especially since I'll probably take up videogaming again soon. (Must have been a year now since I properly played a game at home, besides RE 4.)
So I'm going to get this game in a few days. And hopefully play it soon.

It's going to be at my local EB tomorrow, Oct 11th.

I put the thing on hold and got the goofy laser cel... I could honestly care less about it, as it's more than likely just going to sit inside the game case.

I was really surprised about the release date, especially since Legendia was just released not too long ago. I doubt I'll be playing the game anytime soon either, I've got a slew of other games that come before it.

It says 10-10-06 on Gamefaqs.... So I take it that it'll hit shelves here next week.

There goes my FF 12 gametime...XD

LOL I know what you mean, but seriously though I'll wait until Oct. 31 to play FFXII or maybe after I finish ToTA if it gets here to my city in a more earlier time before the end of the month since FFXII has been here since last week. xD

It was released today... I just picked it up.

Won't be playing it for awhile but I do think I'll be playing it before I mess with Legendia... I've heard terrible things about Legendia, and honestly Abyss just looks like the cooler game. The character designs look amazing, as well as the fact that I've heard solid reviews for it from several trustworthy sources so I really hope that it's as good as the Tales games I used to play on the PS1.

Gah... And with Marvel Ultimate Alliance AND FF12 coming out this month... I'm just swamped with RPG's. I haven't touched VP in awhile nor any of my other RPG's because I've been focusing on WoW.

The PS2 is golden, I've never had a problem with having TOO many good RPG's to play before... I can't believe I wasted my money on an X-Box and a Gamecube.

I'll likely pick it up during the weekend. I would have like to go today, but didn't cash my check I received from college. I'll likely get the chance to do that during the weekend. I hope this game like Symphonia, because I've just heard a lot of bad reviews regarding Legendia.

I can't find Legendia, otherwise I'd play it. But I picked this up today and plan to play it in what free time I have.
The character designs look quite cool, and I haven't gotten really far at all (barely an hour into the game! xD) to really judge anything yet.

Well if your looking for Symphonia then this game is for you Eva. Legendia I would say are not for the hardcore fans of Tales gameplay.

Abyss has been getting pretty decent reviews so far, although the majority fans reaction to GS review of Abyss getting a point lower than Legendia was gold. xD

I think I want a spoiler free topic, I don't want anyone ruining the game for me.

I'm 4 hours into the game and plays just like Symphonia when you get down to it. The characters of Abyss are much better than "I want to save the world" characters from Symphonia. The main character really takes after Zelos from Symphonia, excluding the player trait Zelos had. So far, I want to get more into the game, but it's pretty solid.

Since I enjoyed Symphonia quite a lot, I know I should enjoy this game as I further progress. Still, I enjoyed the GC controller with Symphonia oppose to PS2. Though, I'm getting use to use PS2 control system. Not vastly different. Also, I'm getting use to use my new wireless Logitech controller.

I'm about 25 hours in, and I'm loving this game to pieces. One particular plot twist was so predictable, it was annoying, but they took it in a decent enough direction. I'm playing it and thinking that the Tales team really knows how to tell a story, despite how anime inspired the story actually is.

The gameplay is a bit better, though I'm not all too sure that the c.cores and the chambers really add all that much. (I haven't found a yellow one yet >=/)
But none the less, theres a bit less button mashing in this. Its a bit more difficult to get high combos because of the FOF on the map. Its pretty hard to take advantage of, IMO. Especially for the mages.

But all that aside, theres a well done story here, and the gameplay is fun enough. I just hope its longer than I think it is.

Are you playing on Hard mode?

Are you playing without a guide?

During first playthrough for any game I like playing without a guide. I'm having fun since I'm not blowing through the game. I'm oddly struggling since I find that Tears' TP runs out quite fast for me while she's healing everyone.

Totally true. I play as Jade as the second player and it's rather rare that I cast a spell in a FOF in time. But that difficulty makes it a lot more fun, in my opinion. I have yet to successfully do Jade's Hi-Ougi though, shucks.

I find bosses battles to be far too hard on Hard mode. I barely do damage to them and they keep killing my party members quite fast. I like a challenge, but it's kinda ridiculous that I'm taking that much damage and only dealing a small amount of damage. I've set bosses battles to normal while fighting regular battles on hard.

On normal, they become much too easy. On hard, their armor ridiculous and the damage they can deal will wipe you out. Sure, I can dodge, but my other characters get wipe out since CPU not that smart to dodge obvious attacks, which makes hard mode ridiculous. If my CPU allies were smart, I won't have a problem, but they rush in and kill themselves, even when I set strategies, they still rush in and kill themselves on Hard mode.

I might try taking bosses on Hard mode later in the game or during the next playthrough, but not sure I want to do it during this playthrough. Especially considering I'm fighting groups usually and they all go into overlimit at some point and damage me when they go into overlimit.

I am playing without a guide, on normal mode. I looked at a guide to see how much I missed, and christ I suck at games.

I like playing without a guide as well, especially on games that allow New Game+. I haven't had a real major challenge yet. (I had a bit of trouble with arietta, which it sounds like what you are having trouble with )
And besides Guy, I find the CPU to work pretty well. But more often than not I have my bro playing with me anyways.
Jade is awesome.
Jade is awesome.
Jade is superbly awesome.

Yeah, Jade is wonderful. Except if I blast one too many spells at nothing in particular. >.> But when his TP is all used up, I get Yume to switch Luke or Guy or Anise up for me. Lol. Anise's light (holy?) and dark spells rocks.

Hard mode fine for normal battles, but once again, owned badly by a boss when fighting on Hard mode. It's just baffling how much their defense increases in Hard mode. I survive for like 10 minutes during these battles and the bosses are usually only 1/3 the way dead. I only manage to defeat one boss on hard mode that would be Dist's robot. Everyone else mauled me up pretty good during a battle until I set it back to normal.

I wonder how hard maniac mode will be, since I'm sure they have one.

The CPU are not bad, but during these boss battles I had on Hard mode. They need to dodge these spells or they're finished. They do a decent job, but they end up getting wasted. I can defeat these bosses, but it would cost a lot of money and time. I'm cool for a challenge, but don't like wasting time fighting to get cash, so I can buy gel and life bottles.

Asch just joined my team. Obviously, he's not as much as wuss as Luke. Lol, though never a fan of his type of hair type. Anyway, just reached the research lab to look into Van's grand plans.

I'm sure I missed my share of junk. Need to get those books for Luke and need to unlock more tech for Guy.

Personally, I love being support, so I like using Natalia. Not to mention how cheap he range attack can be. Too bad her TP just disappears like that while healing. I find CPU healing and reserving CPU for healers not all that great myself, which why I prefer using Natalia.

Gamespot's Review is up!
A 7.9. Ew. But I don't care. Everyone I've talked to have said that it blows away Symphonia, so it has to be good. Plus, Symphonia only got the higher score that it did because there were practically no other RPGs on the Gamecube in the first place.

I need to get this one soon.

You act like 7.9/10 is a bad score.

It's a "good" I think this game deserves a little more than that.
Maybe more in high 8's.

But you haven't even played it yet.

And remember that 5 is mediocre... 7.9 out of 10 is definitely a solid score.

Well, my friends are saying it's comparable to Tale of Symphonia, you'd think Tales of Abyss would get a higher rating.

With gamespot, thing more along the lines of a C+ rather than a "7.9 out of 10"

And they are a commercial reviewer. The only reason they gave it as "low" of a score as they did is because they are being paid more to make FFXII the "biggest RPG of the month, no matter what".
Despite that, I read the review and its quite well written. I'd go off the text before you go off the numbers.

If a 7.9 is a C+ does that make a 5 an F?

That's basically how it would break down if you looked at it like that.

Reviews are merely other people's opinions. You can take it for what it's worth. I don't pay much attention to reviews myself and rather get opinions from people I know and have similar taste in gaming as myself.

Anyway, Luke and company back together and I'm heading off to meet Peony. I'm trying to pick titles and such up, but don't want to walk around mindlessly looking for title.

One thing I'm pleased about is that Hi-Ougi are easier to use. It seem everyone got two, while Anise got three. Got to like a spilt screen showing a image of the character. It's cool to know that bosses can use Hi-Ougi as well since I found images of the spilt screen portait.

I know I missed some C.Core since I have Forte of earlier C.Core, but missing a few. Heck, I might have missed a few of the begin C.Core.

Without a doubt, I'm missing a lot of junk myself.

Yeah, thats generally what I'm getting at. Its the same way with a good amount of reviewing sites, and magazines. (The ever popular Game Informer, as well as IGN go by the same standards.)

And the amount of skits, scenes, sidequests, and things you can miss in this game is insane. Truly a master who can play this and get everything you're able to get on the first playthrough...on the first playthrough.
I got to a point where I figured out how much I missed and just stopped caring. I'm just playing at my own pace, somewhat rushing through the story.
Especially at the war part or any terrain bit where you have to travel in any "dungeon" using the world map engine. That thing is a royal pain in the ass. Load times of about 15 seconds, and major lag. If I were to give an example, think the Mountain range where you save the airship guy, or the marsh.

But I am currently in Sheridan heading for Tataroo Valley.

So the games that are getting below 5 out of 10 on their site are super F's or something?

Sorry, it's a ten point scale brosef. And considering they use all ten points for their reviews ( I see many games that get less than a 5 ) I don't follow your logic.

IGN and Gamespot lists a 5/10 as a mediocre score, 4 as poor, 3 as bad... And they use all these scores. So I don't see how 5 is an F score. In fact if anything it'd be a C or a D. MEDIOCRE.

So naturally a 7.9 out of ten is listed as what? GOOD. In fact it's .1 away from being GREAT...Which to me would seem like a B... But you really can't compare it that way because if you wanted A,B,C,D,F you'd be on a 5 point scale as opposed to ten.

So Tales of Abyss is basically a GREAT game and the score it received definitely reflects that. But yeah, enough about scores... I'll leave it alone. =x

Yes, the loading time a pain, but not a huge deal. It bothers me the most when I'm going into the battle and after battle since I don't like loading time before of after a battle. Such a pain.

I'm glad I'm not the only person that thought the world map engine is a total pain. I wish they made a much simpler world map engine. I find myself using the entire world map inside of the mini-map just because it's the only map that allow me to know where I'm going.

I never care about missing junk during my first playthrough. I doubt a person would be able to get everything during their first playthrough without a guide. It's more enjoyable to play without a guide since you're just winging it and having fun with the game without concern about obtaining all that junk.

I just defeated the Sword Dancer for the second time. Fought him earlier than I was suppose to fight him, so it was slightly tough, but not all that strong. I'm currently trying to save people from a sinking village and I'll leave it at that not to spoil people who haven't played the game.

I'm about an 1 hour 18 minutes in right now. (Yeah. Finishing off Xenosaga III. I'm literally at the last boss.)

My comments:
-Luke's character is awesome.
-Battles are okay. I'm on hard too right now. I haven't faced a boss yet, but even random encounters are hard if you just go in there button mashing for the tougher enemies.
-Graphics are good. The only place that they're lacking is the world map and the battle fields. Both are simply generic (so far).
-Let's break down the load times. The load times aren't bad at all when in a doungen entering and exiting battles, however, the loading does get tedious when going from room to room in a doungen or to a lesser extent, the towns. This is made worse by three little dots in the lower right corner of the screen that pretty much only draw your attention some more to the loading times.
-How----EVER. The real loading times bad on the world map. The world map takes a fricking long time to load. So there you are. On the world map. You see an enemy, encounter it. You kill it. Now let's wait a good 10 seconds while staring at a brown screen while the system is figuring out why the heck it threw out so much of the data on the world map from the cache.
-BTW: The town I've been in so far is large and full of houses in the background that make the village actually realistic in size.

-This is general Tales goodness. If you loved Symphonia, you NEED this game. It's Symphonia's spiritual successor, minus a tiny bit of graphics and a fair amount of load times.

Interestingly enough, today I turned down the Sharpness of my HDTV, which doesn't save my settings unless I choose the "SAVE" option after changing them, and the smoothness skyrocketed while the graines were signifigantly reduced. Xenosaga III looked great (but still reasonably grainy). It will be interesting to see how much better ToTA and more specifically Valkyrie Profile 2 looks now.

Boss battles will become quite annoying. Just wait until you fight three bosses at once and that's just the second boss battle of the game. You'll fight two people little down the road as well. On hard, it become a pain since their defense allows them to survive for a long time. Not to mention got into Overlimit twice in one battle.

I do like they gave the monsters designs on the world map instead of being a black blob like Symphonia.

Yes, the loading time on the world map after a battle is far too long.

Just visited the second Sephiroth and making my way back to town. Don't want to say more since it would spoil.

Yeah, I generall agree with you on the boss battles, and load times. Despite that, I think the gam's purpose was still rather apparant, and approved for my standards.

Indeed. I'm not too bother by load times.

Though, I'm bother by the boss' defense during battles. While I like a challenge, I don't think it's challenging to survive for a half and hour boss battle. They end up killing due to time of the battle. Not too mention you'll be using a large amount of life bottles and other healing items to stay alive, which are not easily obtain since cash isn't that easy to get during the earlier part of the game.

By the way, if you keep your old equipment and sell later, you'll make a fortune. When you sell items later in the game when the prices for the items are high, the items sell for a higher price. Remember, the higher the items cost at the store you're at, the higher the sellling of items are at that store.

Yeah, I knew that tip already. I'm getting a little further into the game, infact I'm playing it right now, and I have finally finsished Xenosaga, and I can finnally have some down time for this.