Tales of the Abyss

 

Finished playing Tales of the Abyss yesterday, the sad ending accompanied by rain falling upon my window while the credits rolled on the 3DS. While I saw it fitting I don't know if the people across the lake appreciated  the rain that much during the camping (sorry about the Swedish, but the music festival is probably to small to garner any English fans). A fun game, a bit short though with just 50 hours, but then I didn't search for every single side quest or that sort. Compared to Tales of Symphonia it's not that good. I quite prefer Symphonia with its very good story and tragic characters that you have to fight. You actually feel for them and their plight and goals, but at the same time you see the evils they commit. In that game the main character is quite one-dimensional, he's the idealistic youth who strive for a better world. Same as the main antagonist, but he's pretty much a communist with all the Homo Sovieticus thinking.

In Abyss on the other hand the main character is deeply flawed. He begins as a spoiled aristocratic brat, but due to a traumatic event that changes his world upside down he starts to reform. You hate him in the beginning, but after playing through those events you begin to feel sorry for him. He feels like a real character and that's pretty much one of the main themes of the game. The main antagonist on the other hand is just set on destroying the world to "free it from itself". In Symphonia that was pretty much the same goal for Mithos Yggdrasill, but the character felt much more alive and logical (in a... twisted kind of way). A great part in that story was also when his ancient friends tried to push him toward a different path instead of that idea he clinging on to in hope to bring a better world as well as revive his sister. In the very end all that you saw was a former hero that regressed to nothing but a lonely scared child with a dream of a better world, who pushed his friends and loved ones away. No wonder you feel sorry for him.

Van Grants then? He's not alone. He has people who believes in him to their very end and dies in order to protect them. He doesn't even seem to care. Yes, he has a tragic back-story as well as he was forced to be a weapon that destroyed his home, but it's not the fall from grace story that Symphonia used. Van's plan felt more like vengeance upon the world for what it did to him while Yggdrasill tried to make it better, but due to insanity would let it burn.

Other things? 3D was kinda useless. Yes, it gave depth, but not in the animated cut-scenes so why do it? Music on the other hand was beautiful and certain themes really puts tears in my eyes (or would if it wasn't so damn hot that they evaporate before they leave the eyes). And why would it not when it was partially composed by Motoi Sakuraba, the composer behind the Golden Sun-games (didn't think I would sneak that in would you)?