Tales of the Abyss on 3DS, port of Bandai Namco's PS2 JRPG with Luke fon Fabre and the characters of Auldrant. Dynamic Linear Motion Battle system and epic story. An excellent portable JRPG from the Tales franchise.
Your verdict
Category
RPG1 player12+
Description
Luke fon Fabre, a young amnesiac noble, uncovers a global conspiracy tied to the Score and Replicas in this 3DS port of the Tales series PS2 JRPG. Published by Bandai Namco, released in Europe in November 2012. Real-time combat with combos and elemental artes, open world, full English voice acting. Multilingual version.
Tales of the Abyss review
4/5
Art direction
★★★★★
"Striking"
4/5
Music
★★★★★
"Excellent"
4/5
Story
★★★★★
"Captivating"
Kosuke Fujishima's plates set the tone for everything else. Clean lines, fine faces, heavily worked military uniforms, layered fabrics and complicated fastenings: his characters are drawn with a tailor's care, and this conversion renders them at a resolution that finally brings out those details of cloth. The settings, plainer, deliberately leave all the room to those silhouettes.
A sung motif returns every time the prophecy is quoted. A few notes carried by female voices without precise words slip into the scenes where the Score is invoked, at court, in the temple, on a battlefield, always identical, always calm. The music thus becomes the voice of that determinism, and the story that sets out to contest it must literally fight against its own accompaniment.
The protagonist is written to be insufferable, and that is the wager. A nobleman's son shut away for seven years, he is arrogant, ignorant, convinced he is right, and his decisions bring about a catastrophe whose responsibility he at first refuses. The story devotes its first half to dismantling that assurance, then poses a harder question still: what is an existence worth that one has no right to?
Gameplay
"Excellent"
Fun
"Pleasant"
Addictiveness
"Obsessive"
Stringing together real-time battles where you move and strike freely, learning artes and forging bonds among chatty heroes sets up an adventure in which each chapter rekindles the urge to press on. Side quests and cooking stretch out the journey. The port stays dated, yet the brisk action and the richness of the story hold a lasting pull.
Difficulty
"Balanced"
Lifespan
"Massive"
Following Luke fon Fabre into a world-spanning conspiracy tied to the Score unfolds an action JRPG generous in exploration and twists. The ample main quest, real-time combat and optional skits hold you for long hours. This port of a Tales-series classic offers a lifespan dear to JRPG fans.
Is Tales of the Abyss still worth playing in 2026?
A 3DS port of the cult JRPG in the Tales saga, Tales of the Abyss follows Luke fon Fabre, a spoiled young noble caught in a global plot around the Score and the Replicas. The real time arena combat stays one of the snappiest in the series, and the writing, mature and nuanced on identity and guilt, leaves a lasting mark. The portable version faithfully carries the content without real technical added value. For a fan of narrative JRPGs or of the Tales series, the title keeps a real density, still recommendable.
