4/5 ★ – Cyrus's review of Tales of the Abyss.

I am not the biggest fan of the series in general to be honest, so I didn't know what to expect. And what I got was a rollercoaster of emotions: - I really liked the beginning. Great setup to the story, the characters got their hooks in quickly since the intentions on most of them weren't clear for the start(or even for most of the game in some cases). And the battle system was close enough to my favorite in Symphonia that I really had fun in even the small fights. And then you had Luke, who is a great protagonist if you ask me, going through a very deep journey supported by characters who were more then just cliche. Akzeriuth and the aftermath of it were a great vehicle for a very good story. - then there was the middle part of the game, when I was really close to giving up. All I did was go to town A, talk to somebody, go to town B, talk to somebody, go through an old dungeon again. And the story at this time got weirder and some things just went over my head so I started to go through dialogues quicker to get into more of the fun fights(the only part of the game that was constantly great for me) - and then came the moment the game got me back in. The Anise twist really suprised me and from there everything that happened I was into: The replica takeover, what the cities are doing against them, Ashes and Lukes developement, Ion, Lukes sacrifice. And on the gameplay side they nailed the final dungeon for me: No bad gimmick or puzzles, just great boss fights interupted by some exploring for loot. The last fight took me some grinding and multiple tries, but I loved the intensitiy of it. So in the end I end up pretty happy with my time spend. I will keep that group of characters in my mind the most, because you really felt the way they developed over time. The ending, while still leaving some questions open, really made me happy and I even forgot the parts of the game I didn't like in that moment. And I think that what games are all about in the end. Oh, last thing: I heard multiple times that Luke is not that great of a protagonist because he is a bit annoying. I think they nailed him completely if you look at his back story and his development over time was so well done. How can you not be annoying when you're not allowed to leave your house? And not have a good game to play like Tales of the Abyss, of course!