TALES OF THE ABYSS 3D! NEW OLD HOTNESS/ First post!

So yeah! New blog about gaming/game collecting! This should be good.

I went ahead and picked up Tales of the Abyss for 3Ds, and I've played it for around an hour now. So far, so good. The 3D doesn't add way too much to the game, honestly. It mostly feels like a straight port from the PS2 version, but with a few differences which I'll go into.

Starting out, you get that awesome opening with the instrumental/more rock version of Karma from the Japanese rock band Bump of Chicken. For some reason, both the PS2 version and the 3DS American versions don't use the Japanese track, which has vocals, and is very good. There's a Youtube link that combined both versions and it was better than either separately. But, I digress, it's a cool song.

The 3D to the game merely adds depth, which lets you judge distance between things a bit easier, but to be honest, it doesn't add way too much. Tales of the Abyss was already the first Tales game to really give an open field of battle (More than Symphonia, as you could free-run in Abyss, where in Symphonia, you were still targeting in a straight line, but you could switch to other enemies on a 3D field.) This returns in the 3DS version, and I haven't got the ability just yet (as you level to it), but when I do, I know I'll be right at home.

Graphically, it's almost the same as the PS2 version, if not slightly cleaner. Namco fixed the biggest issue with the game: the skits. They are much easier to read, and don't get taken up by the background nearly as much as the PS2 skits. So rest assured, in a place with white backdrops, you can see your silly skits. Everything looks crisp still, and the game is still as pretty as it was years ago, but now it's in your hands, rather than on a TV.

The sound is fine as well. The 3DS speakers work really well from everything I've played on it throughout the year I've had it, and TOTA is no exception. The music is an entertaining but expected score from Motoi Sakuraba, who has also done Star Ocean: The Second Story, which is possibly my favorite video game of all time, so I felt right at home hearing the score again. Luke is still whiney, but that changes of course.

But the most important issue is the gameplay, and it translates quite well from what I've played so far. The circle pad gets you along well, but it's still no replacement for a true analog stick, so doing specific attacks isn't as fluid as you'd hope, but it does it's job. Not having a second analog may cause an issue later when I want to assign certain moves here or there like on the PS2 version, but I think it should be an issue I can work with. Everything else translates fine, and there's also the touch screen, but I haven't played around with it enough to see what more it does.

Overall, it's fun, and maybe later I'll have a full review, but this is what I can do for now. But... full review? Is that even going to be possible? What about the Reaper invasion?

See you Tuesday, universe.

Expect a bit about the Louisville Arcade Game Expo sometime as well here soon!