So for some reason I found myself in Gamestop a while ago and noticed Tales of Abyss for 3DS. Now not having a 3DS at the time (I bought a pink one for my fiancee but lacked one of my own), I wanted to play it and thought to myself that I knew this game came out for another platform before. A quick Google search on my phone and I found it was a PS2 game. Now of course Gamestop didn't have it in stock , wasn't sure they could order it, and it was $25 used for an 7 year old game. Keep in mind the 3DS version was on sale new for $20 at the time.
So obviously I didn't pick it up, mostly due to the fact I don't think I could log 50+ hours playing a JRPG on a 3" screen but I did start a quest (PUN!) to get the PS2 game. I stumbled across http://pcsx2.net/ which is a down right AMAZING Playstation 2 emulator which allowed me to play the game at a higher resolution that the original PS2's output, which is good because I didnt want to have to go dig my PS2 out of storage. So I snagged the game from Amazon for about $20 + shipping and got to work. I copied the disc to my computer HD, to improve load time, reduce wear on the disc and reduce the noise of the DVD spinning. If only I got the actual PS2 cover and instruction book instead of a blank CD case, oh wells.
Everything ran fine without a hitch, I dropped well over 50 hours in front of my computer doing everything I could in my first play through that was available all in glorious HD. Being a Tales game it always locks things away to keep the 2nd time through fresh, but while I appreciate them trying to keep a second play through exciting I just dont have the time or desire to replay a 50 hour game anymore. I would LOVE to try my hand at the replica dungeon as it sounds pretty awesome but I skirted my way through the Coliseum way too under-leveled (I did it in my 40s, all the guides suggest doing it in the 60s) so I would hate to dump another 30 or 40 hours of my life to not be challenged or even worse get there and be completely frustrated.
I love this game anyway, I looked up old reviews and most of them put this game in the 92/100 mark which I believe is dead on balls accurate. The active battle system (you actually run around the battle field and attack, or hang back and keep enemies from breaking your AI partner's casting) is amazing and significantly more fun that picking "attack" from a turn based menu. I actually played Tales of Vesperia before this on 360 and despite Abyss being a little older and running on an older platform the games are right on par with one another. I started the Tales games with Tales of Destiny, back when I was a reviewer for SegaSages (which eventually turned into gamefaqs.com ) I've already gotten "Tales of Graces f" for PS3 ready to go and I look forward to Tales of Xillia this fall and I hope Namco translates its sequel next year. This is a fantastic series with not a single bad game in the series, something Final Fantasy cant say , I'm looking at you Final Fantasy 8.
~Malenko
