Tales of the Abyss: gameblog 1

I love Dist. He's the white-haired megane Roku Jinshou voiced by Yao Kazuki. He moves around on a FLYING ARMCHAIR. He refers to himself as "DIST OF THE ROSE". And the other Roku Jinshou IGNORE HIM. He keeps a DIARY OF REVENGE. And he has an obvious crush on Jade, which is not reciprocated.

SPOILERS AND CAPS. Lots and lots of spoilers. And caps. Lots of those too.

From the beginning of the game to Luke and Tear being interrogated on the Tartaros





May possibly not make a lot of sense, like most of my talks.

Game starts out with an anime cut-scene of some chicks floating in the air. Or something. I don't actually remember that. Or what they said that matter. Hell, I didn't even really understand the first part of the narration besides the very end, when they said something about "the war continuing on" or something to that effect. I AM MASTER OF DETAIL stfu. After that it cuts to Tear, who looks like she about to set off on some mission. End cut scene.




Actual gameplay opens up with Luke in his room, which, for being the son of a duke, is really rather small. And despite the overall 'music/sound' theme, you can't play his record player. Eh, you can't even reach it, actually, so it doesn't matter much...but there isn't a lot of interaction with objects in buildings outside of dungeons, and it feels like a waste, what with the theme and all the nice details (I should've been able to play that piano in the bar, dammit! But I'm getting way ahead of myself.)

Anyway, Luke is looking kind of angstily out his window, and when he goes to leave his room, he seems to hear something, but brushes it off as his imagination. Yey, crazy hero! No, don't listen to those voices in your head!



Random menu access! I don't like the menus that much...the layout is okay and easy to figure out; it's just that it's hard to read a lot of the kanji because the characters are too small and not that clear. But yeah. Equipment menu. I like games with quirky descriptions of items. The 'nagurareru to sorenari ni itai' bokuto line is <3

Anyway, now we can explore this place! Which turns out to be home. And talk to random people! Who are servants and stuff and don't really have anything interesting to say. Can't go into one of the doors because there's some meeting of sorts, so we go patter around the other side. Some servant tells me that Van-Sensei is here to see Luke, and that Luke should wait for him in his room. But first we explore some more.



And steal stuff from our servants' rooms. There was nothing in that cupboard because Luke had already taken it. Hahaha bastard.



Ramdas, one of the more important servants, annoys Luke be refering to him as Bocchama and tells him not to speak with the gardener because of their status differences, to which Luke is basically stfu.

During all this wandering about the house, it's also learned that Luke is basically a prisoner in his own home. He's incapable of leaving it until he's 20, because seven years ago he was kidnapped by the enemy country Markt, and because he's the son of some super higher up and heir to the royal throne because he's engaged to the princess and all that (who's also his cousin, since his mother's elder brother is the king and Luke's uncle because you couldn't figure that out for yourself yey cousincest).

Oh, and he also has no memory of what happened before (and during) the time he was kidnapped. So the result is a VERY protected, VERY bored little rich boy. And his sword lessons with Van-Sensei are basically the only thing that brings him joy.



Since there's nowhere else to wander, and the knights that guard the mansion won't let Luke out, there's nothing else to do besides return to his room and wait for Van. He finds Guy, another household servant and probably the closest thing Luke has to a friend, waiting there for him to help relieve him of his boredom. But Luke is basically "wutevah! Van-Sensei iz here 2day!".



Another servant knocks to let Luke know Van is ready, and Guy takes his leave. Through the window. Because it wouldn't be good for him to be seen there.

...omg clandestine meetings? How scandalous. But anyway, whee! Now we can go somewhere else.



And Luke is a pitiful little uke puppy in front of Van. "Are we gonna have sword lessons? Are we are we ARE WE???!!" The only time Luke looks really happy is when he's with Van or talking about him or something dude Van just ravage the poor thing already.



Blurry cap of doom, Luke's ma babies him too much. Luke himself doesn't seem to particularly care for it.

Anyway, the reason for Van's visit wasn't for a sparring lesson, although he agrees to see to him after the meeting. Apparently Ion, the head of the religious order Lorelai (basically he would be like the pope I guess? I don't know a good word for doushi), has gone missing, and Van's been ordered to head out and search for him, to which Luke is devastated, because his favorite sensei and his sword lessons are going away.

It can't be helped, so Luke gives up, but Van agrees to one last lesson before he leaves, and we get to have a battle training stage. Yey. Those aren't fun, it's easy enough to learn the basics in actual combat, and I rarely ever bother with such pansy commands like 'defend' in these non-turn based rpgs anyway. Button mashing is fun 8D

Before they begin, Van and Guy exchange some cryptic words, which Luke is pretty much just "TEEHEEHEE what?" at, and they begin. Camera cuts to the inside of the house, where all the guards seem to be knocked unconscious, and we see Tear entering.

After going through the basics, there's another event, and Luke senses some presence coming near.



Tear appears in the courtyard and attacks Van, saying something along the lines of traitor or some such.



Luke jumps into the fray because OMG, crazy lady attacking his beloved sensei! But when their weapons come in contact to each other, some weird disturbance occurs between Luke and Tear and teleports them out of the household.




When they land, they find themselves in some pretty valley somewhere over yonder. Why's it night now when it was day when they teleported, I don't know. They try to figure out what the hell just happened, or rather, Tear does, while Luke is mainly just WTF? Apparently Luke is a Seventh Phonemer, just like Tear, and that caused the disturbance to occur between the two of them. Which doesn't make aaaaany sense to me, or Luke, who knows virtually nothing of the outside world. In any case, Tear tells him that she has no plans to take his life, and that she'll try to get him back home.

Luke, in the meanwhile, is stuck between being amazed and terrified that he's free from his house arrest. But since he knows nothing of the outside world, of its discomforts and dangers, he'd like to get back home. Even though that means he'll be trapped again. Anyway. Tear suggests heading toward the ocean, because they can probably find some means of getting out of where they are, even though they don't even know that.



Real fights this time, with some more training from Tear involved. Luke gets cocky after beating an enemy or two, then screams bloody murder when they come across a group of enemies at once. Hahaha.



They come across a random carriage driver (yey for deus ex machinas!) at the end of the valley who asks them if they're the Shikkoku no Tsubasa (Black Wings), a group of thieves, because...that's a smart question to ask when you're all alone and possibly facing a group of cutthroats. They manage to convince him no because the Shikkoku are THREE people and they're only TWO! Or something. Luke thanks his lucky stars as he's already tired of the outdoors and nature and hey, free ride! Except not because the driver asks for 12000 gald. And considering we get around 10~20 gald per fight....we have no where near the cash. But Tear gives him a pendant of hers or something, and he agrees to drive them to the capital.




Along the way, they're nearly crushed by a large armored land ship that's chasing the supposed real Shikkoku no Tsubasa. Who blow out a bridge they just went over, and which the carriage Tear and Luke are in just came over.

The driver remarks that that's the new Markt land ship Tartaros...to which Luke asks the obvious (?) question, what would Markt forces be doing in their country Kimuelasca? And to which Tear asks if the carriage isn't heading to the Kimuelasca capital of Vatical. Of course not, because they're not in Kimuelasca, they're in the Markt Empire.

pwn'd?



Eh....I just like a lot of the facial expressions Luke has.
Driver asks them why the hell would they want to be going there, and are they actually Kimuelascans, to which Tear quickly replies of course not! They're just...heading to the enemy country for some other reason. Driver tells them that if they wanted to get to Kimuelasca, they should have stayed on the other side of the bridge they just crossed over, which the Shikkoku no Tsubasa just conveniently destroyed.

pwn'd.



Realizing they're totally not headed where they want to go, it's suggested that they head to the village of Engave and head to another port from there to get them to where they want to go. Here you have the option to have the driver take you to Engave, or you can get off where you are and walk the rest of the way.

Since I'm getting tired of just event after event, I figure we'll explore and choose to walk the rest of the way.



Yey, world map.

I have complaints about the world map.

First would be the odd yellowness to it all. Maybe that's significant to the story, but the whole world map looks like someone added a transparent yellow layer over everything, or played too much with the contrast or something.

Second would be the cameras. They're stupid. They take FOREVER to do a 360, and it often lags while doing so. If I want to see my surroundings, I want cameras that go around just like that, not one that takes 5 minutes.

Third, I'm not sure if it's largely due to the incredibly slow speed of the camera spanning, but I lose my sense of direction really easily on the map. Even with the compass, I tend to stare at in in confusion because it never seems like I'm moving in the direction I want it to. I don't have this problem at all with the Wild Arms Alter Code: F map, where I always get to where I want to go (assuming I can), so I'm not sure what it is with TotA.

Anyway, I run around and get lost a lot, encounter these glowing rings that give you stuff, and get denied access to every random dungeon/etc. that I come across, and get a 'cooking' tutorial along the way. Eh, I don't like the cooking process in this game as much as I did ToS, so I've rarely used it yet.



After enough farting around, we finally arrive at Engave. Some dude tells us that we should head to the Kaitool checkpoint down south if we want to leave, which is taken note of, but first they want to rest.

(Don't mind my random changing of pronouns.)

There's a crowd in front of the inn with people complaining that their food is being ransacked by something, so we head around the rest of the town first.



Luke is obviously Princess Jasmine as he takes an apple from a nearby vendor without knowing that he's supposed to pay for it, and the vendor bitches us out. Tear is WTF but teaches Luke how to buy things (at first I thought we were going to get a shopping tutorial too, but I guess Namco figured we weren't *that* dumb).



They return to the inn to find the people still pissing about their stolen stuff. The vendor from before shows up, overhears, and accuses Luke of not just stealing *his* stuff, but everyone else's too. Haha.



They toss him inside to get Rose, the bosslady of the village, to do something with him. Rose is talking with some higherup from the Markt army (JADE JADE JADE JADE 8DDDDDD), Luke argues his innocence in one of the most snobby and snotty ways possible, Jade interrupts, saying that Luke doesn't seem like the type to do something like that, and then some kid shows up.




This kid says that upon inspecting the cellars, he found hair of an animal called a Cheegul (or something), which points at them as being the possible culprit, and that allows Luke to get off scot-free.

Tear wonders why the doushi Ion is there, and Luke realizes that this kid is the person Van had been sent out to look for. Ion sets off with Jade and Rose to Rose's house to discuss something or other, and Luke wants to go pester Ion, but Tear says no.



Now that they can finally enter the inn, they come across another kid, who is Ion's Guardian, asking Ion's whereabouts. Luke tells her that back home Ion is being considered a missing person, to which the girl is O SHI and rushes off.



That night Tear says they should prepare for heading off to the Kaitool checkpoint the next day, but Luke has other plans. Tomorrow he intends to head off to the Cheegul forest and find the real perpetrators, because even though he was cleared of the crime, he's still really pissed and wants to give them a good thrashing. Animal abuse is bad.

The next morning there's a skit about LUKE'S EMO DIARY. Tear sees him writing something and inquires about it and Luke is all OMG DUN LAFF but the doctor told him to keep a journal should he have a memory relapse. Tear agrees that it's a good idea and I went WAHAHAHA because I think Luke keeping an emo diary is adorable.




The next day they head over to the forest and find Ion there, surrounded by monsters. Ion defeats them by using some sort of magic, but faints after doing so. They rush over to his aid and find out what the hell he's doing there alone.



Ion says he wants to find out the reason behind the Cheegul stealing the villagers food, as they're small creatures which shouldn't need so much, and they're holy creatures which helped out Yuria, the founder of the Lorelai religion, so he feels somewhat responsible. Greetings are went around, and Ion recognizes Tear as Van's younger sister, to which Luke naturally spazzes at. Tear gives no real explanation, and Ion joins them (he's a NPC).



Half way through and they get deeper into the forest. Tear says that Ion should return to the village, since it's dangerous, but Luke says that he'll stick with Ion, because even if they made him return, he'd likely return to the forest again anyway, and alone. Ion thanks him and says that Luke is a kind person, to which Luke is OMG STFU I AM NOT (////). Hahaha.

They continue on, figuring they'll find some sort of evidence. Deeper in the woods and by a large old tree they come across some apples with Engave markings on them. They enter and find the Cheegul nest.



...OMG WTF KILL IT KILL ITTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



They meet the Cheegul elder who can speak Japanese the human tongue thanks to a magic ring given to them by Yuria long ago. She tells them that one of their kind set fire to a portion of the woods to the north, causing a creature called the Raiga to move to the forest they're currently in. Since the Raiga enjoy eating Cheeguls, the Cheeguls have been stealing food from the village to keep the Raiga occupied with that instead of eating them.



Ion says that he wants to go negotiate with the Raiga (>_> ........), and so the elder gives us a stupid animal mascot to do take along to do the translating. He gets the ring and can speak Japanese too! whoo. Apparently it was he who set the forest on fire. Great.



...My general reaction of Mieu is quite similar to Luke's.　　It gives me great pleasure when Luke steps on him or kicks him or flings Mieu around ^______^

Upon leaving the tree to head to the Raiga nest, Mieu shows off excitedly that he can spit fire from his mouth. Normally Cheeguls his age can't, but thanks to the magic of the ring, his magic has been raised too.

Which....doesn't make sense. If he couldn't blow fire to begin with, how did he set the Raiga forest on fire? I doubt the elder just lets the little brats play with the ring.

Maybe it was done on purpose. With matches.

Anyway, the path to the Raiga nest cuts through a river, at which Luke whines, because the little Bocchama can't stand to get his feet wet. So he uses Mieu to burn down a rotting tree nearby and making it into a bridge. With any luck, we'll set this forest on fire too.

Along the way Luke receives a Capacity Core from Ion, which allows characters to grown stronger in certain aspects (physical strength, magic, etc.) depending on which one is affixed.



They come across the Queen Raiga and Ion attempts to...talk things through. Queen Raiga goes RAWR...and they still need Mieu to translate. She's currently protecting an egg, so she's not in the most friendly mood, and says that she'll kill off Luke and crew and feed them to the baby when the egg hatches, because baby Raigas love eating people =D So boss battle it is.

And we're apparently having trouble or something (I dunno, I though I was doing rather good) and Tear and Luke pause to wonder how they're supposed to beat the Queen Raiga when Jade and Anise (the young girl guardian from the Engave inn that was looking for Ion) show up. Jade joins in the fray and we beat the Raiga shortly after that. They also crush the egg, an act which leaves a bad taste in Luke's mouth.



Jade gives Anise some quiet instructions, who runs off, then chides Ion for going off alone. Ion manages to convince Jade to allow them to report to the Cheegul elder, and Jade agrees. The elder is relieved, and as a punishment to Mieu, orders him to join Luke on his journey for a while.

・・・いらねぇ。

As they near the entrance of the forest, Markt soldiers rush in.



...and capture Luke and Tear by Jade's command as being the two who gave off the unidentified Seventh Phoneme, promising sweetly that it's not like they'll kill them. As long as they don't struggle.



So, back on the Tartaros, they get interrogated by Jade. And we get a long chunk of explanation that I didn't all jot down. Whee. Let's begin.

After a little bit of interrogating, they come to the general concensus that Luke is just too dumb to honestly be trying anything to harm the Markt Empire. Ion suggests asking Luke and Tear to help in the negotiating of peace between the countries (empire and kingdom? -_-) of Markt and Kimuelasca. Luke didn't know things were so bad that they were on the brink of war, which is actually common sense for everyone else. Luke demands to know specifics before he agrees to anything, but Jade disagrees, saying that if they told him everything and he then decided not to help, it'd cause even more problems. (Or something. Or more likely they'd just kill Luke off) In any case, if they agree, they can talk to one of Jade's subordinates. So now we can go explore the ship and form an opinion before agreeing to anything. Anise joins in the party after a bit because she's after Luke's wealth had an insta-crush on him.




It's a pretty big ship. ...A-yuh.

So after I've run end to end of everywhere they'll let me go (not the bridge though =( ), we talk to the soldier Marco because we want to trigger the next event more-so than actually caring much about agreeing to help.


....Uh, I'm like, dead now, and I was going to write more (because gamewise I'm actually up to the part when they first return to Vatical, but that needs to wait.....*passes out*




.....I JUST NOTICED THAT JADE'S BELT BUCKLE IS PACMAN. *is slow* ....I wonder if his buttons are supposed to be pacballs (the holes in the belt definitely are). And actually if you think about it, his hair resembles the shape of the ghosts. Kay, I'm prolly reading too far into this now.