Topic: Tales of The Abyss 3DS Impressions

MINOR SPOILERS FOR TALES OF THE ABYSS

I NEED HELP!!! I just beat Arietta and I was heading out of Choral Castle when I came across a monster called a Sword Dancer. How do I beat this guy?! He's killed me about three times now

Sword Dancers are part of a side quest, They are extremely difficult to beat, I recommend on focusing on cautious play, instead of being offensive, and getting hits when ever it is safe to do so, It will take a while though.

Also, I'm happy to say, I beat this game around a week ago an started my 2nd play-though , I loved it!

So it's one of those kinds of monsters.....okay. What level should I be at to have a good chance of beating this guy and what reward do I get for doing this side quest?

@MrGameluvr the first one was level 30~, whole you were level 15+. Wait till lvl 35+, come back and kill them all.

Sounds like a good plan but are you sure I can come back later and it won't have vanished or anything?

You have until Akzeriuth, which is pretty late in.

Awesome. Thanks for all the help everyone!!!

SPOILERS! I just got to the final boss (Van) on the replica Hod. Almost got him, but I lost. Going to grind a few levels then try again. SPOILERS END!

I've really loved this game so far. It's definately in my 3DS top 5. It's my first Tales game, and after really enjoying this, I hope the port Symphonia over as well (as I've heard nothing but good things about it).

@RR529 I would recommend having a level somewhere in the 70's for the final boss fight. I can't remember what level I was for it but it was definitely somewhere in the 70's.

Just make sure to keep your expectations in check. Tales of the Abyss was widely considered the best in the series before Xillia came out.

Thanks! That's what I figured. The party members I'm using were at 66, 65, 65, and 64, and I still almost got him. SPOILER (he had transformed where he had the feathers on his arm). I'm going to level them up to 72, 71, 71, and 70 before I try again.

Thanks for the warning. Of course, there isn't the slightest bit of info on whether or not Symphonia would be ported or not, but I figured that if Abyss did well enough, there's always the possibility that they'd release another one from the PS2/GCN era.

Will probably get this for my birthday. Having an RPG like this on my 3DS will be awesome.
Now I gotta beat Xenoblade Chronicles before May 16th.

i beat tales of the abyss on ps2 and 3ds i enjoyed both times say this is my favorite tales game but i like playing it on ps2 more

i was 76 my first playthorugh on ps2 then on 3ds i was 83

This is a question to anyone who has beaten the game (Spoilers for those who aren't at the end). Do you have to have the Key of Loreli equipped in order to beat Van? The reason I ask is because the sword I currently have equipped has better stats (Fonic Sword), and I don't want to downgrade unless I have to.

Ignore my previous post, I've just completed the game! I'll probably do a second playthrough, but I had better get back to Kid Icarus: Uprising first... (been awhile since I did any online matches in that game).

Rubbish, i've never seen anyone who ranks Abyss that highly until now. Abyss is GREAT but it's not even close to being the best in the series, the cast is nowhere near as interesting as Vesperia and the story is incoherent garbage compared to Symphonia and Vesperia. It's covered in useless fluff that seems to be there just to cover up all the holes created by all the ridiculous ideas, rather than provide entertainment. The whole fonic concept makes me want to bang my head against the wall and the world is poorly constructed.

You're not looking in the right places then if you haven't seen the praise for Abyss. I disagree greatly except for the cast part. Vesperia had the best cast in the entire series (but Tales of Abyss' cast is still great), but the story itself was just plain boring, IMO. Granted, I could say the same for any Tales of game. Abyss at least tried to make the main story interesting and I, and plenty of people I know who have played lots of Tales games, thought it pulled it off pretty well. The combat was top notch, too. So much so that Tales of Vesperia did next to nothing to it, and is second only to Graces f from what I've played.

Symphonia's the only other one I've really heard people call their favorite, and that's usually out of Nostalgia. It's a competent game, for sure, but the story is just plain bad (hammering in its already blatant themes, painfully obvious plot twists, among other problems) , the cast takes too long to get interesting, and the combat, while good, still felt like it was missing some crutial aspects that, quite frankly were added by Tales of the Abyss later on. Also, personally, I hated the chibi style, it just doesn't work in 3D.

Dang I need to get back into this game. I'm on game overload atm. With xenoblade Kid Icarus metal gear and a couple of others this game has taken a back seat. For that matter so have a few of those! I believe I owe it to myself to play this game from what I'm hearing!