rionaleonhart | Wait, You Have To Pay For Things?

Jade: Well, well, Luke. A lovely lady on each arm?
Tear: I... I'm not... We're not...
Luke: He's not talking about you. He must mean Anise and Mieu.

Luke, you little shit.

Tales of the Abyss is so charming! It won me over very quickly. It reminds me a little of Bravely Default, actually, what with all the optional ridiculous conversations between your party members.

I'm curious about the fact that Guy is apparently in the habit of creeping through Luke's bedroom window to chat and fleeing before anyone else spots him there.

Below the cut are my thoughts on the first eight hours of Tales of the Abyss! I'm just past Chesedonia.

Luke is a clone or otherwise a duplicate of the real Luke. I became convinced of this about fifteen minutes into the game. He didn't lose his memories prior to the kidnapping; he never had them. Luke was kidnapped and never returned. He was somehow duplicated by his kidnappers, and that's the 'Luke' we're playing as.

Luke doesn't want to kill anyone! This is something I have never seen a JRPG address! (I'm sure there must be other JRPGs that address it, but this is the first time I've seen it myself.) I'm so used to soldiers being standard enemies in games that, the first time this game put me into battle against a soldier, I attacked him without thinking much about it, just as I'd attacked all the monsters up until now. And then the game reminded me sharply that it wasn't the same thing at all; this was the first time Luke had ever killed a human being. He may be a terrible arsehole, but that doesn't mean he doesn't grasp the value of a human life.

I also love him suddenly having to confront the fact that, hey, his pal Guy has killed people!

Luke's attitude to killing helped me warm to him a little, but come on, Luke, you could be less of an arsehole to poor Mieu. Although I suppose your cruelty to Mieu helped to ensure that my attitude to Mieu would be 'awww, poor little thing' rather than annoyance, so perhaps on some level it's a good thing?

Did... did Jade just nibble Guy? I had to reload my save and replay that skit to be sure I wasn't misreading things.

I was unhappy when Anise asked me what I thought of Tear and I was forced to choose between 'she's annoying' and 'she's my type'. I don't want to give either of these answers! I like Tear, but I'm not 'shipping her with Luke at all. (I'm slightly 'shipping Luke and Guy. I think I'm slightly 'shipping everyone and Guy. His phobia of being touched by women could make things interesting with the girls, he seems to be one of the very few people Luke genuinely likes, and I cannot get over the nibbling.)

Still, I prefer Luke/Tear to Luke/Anise, and Anise was the one asking, so I went with 'she's my type' in the end.

THIS WORLD HAS SOME SORT OF DUPLICATION TECHNOLOGY. My Luke theory is looking more solid by the second! This could be really interesting.

I'm excited to see where this story is going! But I'm much more excited to see what stupid conversations my party members are going to have next.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I LOVE TotA, and if you already love Luke then you're in luck, because he only gets better. I've beaten it and I still don't ship Tear with Luke at all, though I love their friendship. It reminds me a bit of Phoenix and Maya from the Ace Attorney games, in that they come across more like siblings than people trying to hook up. At least to me they do. Guy/Luke was my OTP start to finish.

Guy/Luke all the way!

I'm really interested to see how Luke develops! (My phone's predictive text suggested 'develops!!!' there. I'm excited, phone, but am I that excited?) I love that, even though he's a pretty unpleasant person to be around, he has a solid moral core.

Have you played any Tales games before? I've only ever played Symphonia, its sequel, and bits of Graces, but I think the series-wide "skits" were the inspiration for Bravely Default(/Second)'s Party Chats. And yeah, I love them too. Given how universal the "a bunch of random people travel the entire world" setup is in RPGs as a whole, not enough of them give a window into what said people are like when they aren't immediately involving themselves in some aspect of their quest.

That said, I haven't played Abyss, so I'm not going to read what was under the cut. Still, I'm glad you're enjoying the game!

I'm completely new to the series! I'm glad to hear the skits are series-wide, because they're a great concept. All these little glimpses of the characters' lives and interactions are so much fun.

Oh, you're in for a ride. Abyss is one of my favourite Tales of games and Luke and Tear are pretty much up there as my fave Tales of characters. Luke is genuinely sweet to another character as well fairly early on, so I look forward to seeing your reactions to that too.

I've noticed that Luke does seem to be good with kids; he's always nice to Ion, and he has patience with Anise even if he's a bit unsettled by her. It's really interesting to catch these glimpses of deeper characterisation under the 'what a brat' first impression he gives.

Edited 2017-05-01 06:15 (UTC)

Yeah, Ion is the character I'm thinking of! Luke is always nice to Ion and is very protective of him, and it's interesting to see that when the rest of his interactions have him irritated and confused because he doesn't understand the social norms behind them at all.

Is this your first Tales game... Because if so all the tales are worth it and the skitz are amazing! Though out of all the tales games.. The most dubious anti-heroes are the Abyss crew.. Which is why I love them

It is indeed my first venture into the series! I think I'm going to have to check out some of the other games, because I'm enjoying it immensely.

!!!! Tales of the Abyss is a major childhood favorite of mine. I’m am so excited you are playing this.

No comment on certain… observations. Because you are disturbingly observant. I mean, man. Wow.

Luke doesn't want to kill anyone! This is something I have never seen a JRPG address!

And isn’t it awesome!?

I'm slightly 'shipping Luke and Guy.

This is one of my big OTPs. It’s… wonderful. Guy is wonderful in general. I love him to pieces.

Certain observations, if those are correct (I've now seen Asch the Bloody's face and, well...), are largely based on the fact that there appear to be two Lukes on the game box and in the video that plays before the start menu appears, so I'm not working solely from in-game information!

And isn’t it awesome!?

It's SO GOOD. I often think 'hmm, it's odd that we're mowing down all these soldiers without a qualm' when I'm playing games. I appreciated Final Fantasy XV's robotic soldiers as an alternative to 'yeah, our heroes just kill a load of people, don't question it,' but it's much more interesting to see a game outright go 'yeah, our heroes kill people and they actually address the weight of that.'

Guy is delightful! I wasn't sure at first about his phobia, but I'm glad it looks like there's going to be some sort of plot explanation for it, and that it's not just 'Guy hates women and it's hilarious'. He gets along perfectly well with women; he just has trouble with physical proximity to them.

I will say nothing until you've gotten far enough in the plot yourself! Though I will look forward to discussing the game more with you whenever possible ;)

Guy's phobia is actually given sufficient explanation and... well, I thought it was handled well. He's just the best. I'm happy to let him be the fandom bicycle.

THE NIBBLE.

I don't know what to say.

He may be a terrible arsehole, but that doesn't mean he doesn't grasp the value of a human life.

I loved this too!! I'm so happy you're enjoying the game!

Thank you for the recommendation! It's such a delightful game. I get so excited whenever I reach a new inn, because it usually means I can get MORE STUPID CONVERSATIONS by sleeping there.

yessssss

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