You’d be forgiven for mistaking “Tales of the Abyss” for “Street Fighter II.” The game looks nothing like chess, as most role-playing games do, and everything like a fighting game, with your character running toward and away from the bad guy, attacking, blocking and doing special moves.
Yes, the frenetic, real-time combat is more “Final Fight” than “Final Fantasy,” but underneath it all is an architecture that’s pure RPG. The point is not just to fight, but to play a role. Outside of combat, the characters on your adventure are real people, with complex backstories. You choices you make for them, whether learning recipes to make new items that heal you, or going on a mission to root out a thief in a small country town, affect everything from the mundane to the characters’ final fate.
The two “Tales” games on tap this spring — which, like all entries in the series, have no narrative relation to each other — affirm everything that’s ever been said about this franchise, good and bad. Most obviously, it’s refreshing to play an RPG that isn’t built around slow, deliberative battles that are all strategy and no action. Less obviously but just as appreciated, the game lets you talk to your fellow fighters outside of combat. Thousands of skippable “skits” among the members of your battle party flesh out the little rivalries and love triangles endemic to this genre, and will appeal to anyone who’s ever wondered why they could talk to townsfolk but not the people who’ve been by their side all along.
| ‘Tales of the Abyss’ |
| » System: 3DS |
| » Price: $39.95 |
| » Rating: 3 out of 5 stars |
| ‘Tales of Graces f’ |
| » System: PS3 |
| » Price: $59.99 |
| » Rating: 3 out of 5 stars |
Unfortunately, the latest crop of “Tales” games does nothing to rebut the stock criticism of these games: that they’re button-mashers.
“Tales of the Abyss” is the first major RPG to appear on Nintendo’s hand-held 3DS, known for its ability to deliver 3-D images without you having to wear stupid glasses. “Abyss” puts you in control of a guy named Luke fon Fabre, the least wussy redheaded male ever. He was kidnapped at 10, and lost all his memories of childhood, and has some sort of hidden magical power — whatever, the point is that he has to save the Kimlasca-Lanvaldear Kingdom (not another hyphenated kingdom!), and of course he has a loyal band of friends willing to fight alongside him.
This game hit the PlayStation 2 way back in 2006, and its translation to the 3DS has meant a graphical downgrade. Somehow, though, the blocky graphics becomes clearer when you increase their visual depth, using the 3-D slider on the side of the screen. Pity there’s no slider to make the combat deeper.
Theoretically, fighting can be quite strategic. Different combinations of buttons and joystick directions create different moves, and doing the right moves sequence of moves makes a big difference. Of course, actually playing the game, it doesn’t take long to realize just hitting the attack button nonstop while flailing the joystick works out about the same. In this way, the game is indeed like many fighting games these days. And that’s not a compliment.
“Tales of Graces f,” on the PlayStation 3, has more immediate appeal than “Abyss” by virtue of its clearer graphics. Its dumb story aside, it’s the better of the two in almost every way. “Graces f” (the “f” stands for “friendship”) takes a more granular approach to character and weapon customization, which, given the shallow combat, offer a much-needed dose of depth.
These two games, like all others in the “Tales” series, largely coast on the elements that make all RPGs engrossing. Developing your characters, and helping tell their story, will keep you coming back well after the moment-to-moment fighting has lost its interest.
Of course, the 2-D action-RPG has been done better. If you have a Wii, skip these games and try “Muramasa: The Demon Blade.”
