VGR: Tales of the Abyss (PS2)

Before I write anything, VGR = Video Game Review for those slightly slower then others (just kidding!).

I was interested in renting this game to try ever since I heard about it. This was mostly due to the fact that I’ve played tales of destiny 2 and greatly enjoyed it. I still have mixed feelings about the game itself but I’m mostly leaning towards positive.

So starting up the game for the first time, I was introduced with a fairly appealing anime cutscene. Although the anime part of it was well done, the 3D seemed like it was lacking in frames per second. Really really choppy 3D animation for a PS2; looked pretty much like PS1 fps. Based on experience from playing many other role playing games, I prevented myself from getting too excited about a cutscene because I knew I would be let down for the most part. I was getting the general, “I wish the rest of the game was like this” kind of feel, even though I hadn’t played the game yet. Anyways moving on…

Game starts off with some fairly old kid looking out of a fancy house window, nothing too special, though you do get the imediate feel of confinement which is good for the story. Honestly, the opening is pretty lack luster, I prefer more epic openings. Good thing the battle system makes up for it.

Many improvements have been made to the combat system including the default “straight line” fighting combat, aswell was a free range 3D plane fighting style. Both of which are grealy utilized during combat. This game depends greatly on how you control your character in combat aswell as where you stand during certian attacks. This addition greatly reduces the number of players just mashing the X button in previous “Tales” games. I don’t know if this was included in previous games but you can also team up with a friend and have him control another one of your allies, very very fun. Even though I never buy games, I’m thinking about buying this due to the multiplayer gameplay.

The graphics are colourful and the environments are well detailed. The only thing that really bothers me is the character animations. Although there is a wide variety of animations, alot of them seem really jaged and poorly constructed. The character models themselves recreate the anime feel very well.

The real winner for this game is the voice overs. They have been done many times before and failed horribly, but this game seems to have an appealing taste. Also, an enormous amount of dialogue is voice overed, and the great part is that it doesn’t seem to shorten the length of the game. I’m sure the game has many other additions which I have not reached or unlocked due to only renting the game, but I may fix that in the near future.

Average Score [8]

The Black Mages

In correspondence to my previous post, I’ll reveal another one of my favorite bands. Because of my huge obession with video games (especially roleplaying), I’ve taken a liking to a band named “The Black Mages”.

All the music they have covered were songs from various Final Fantasy games. All of which are brilliantly well done. I greatly recommend checking out this band if you have any interest in the Final Fantasy series as I’m sure you will reminisce of old events while listening to this music.

Currently they have two cd’s released: “The Black Mages” and “From the skies above: The Black Mages”. Both are extreamly well done, though I prefer the music from the second cd more. Below is a torrent for both cds.

• Black Mages I and II

If you already have the cd’s and you’re looking for something else of enjoyment you can check this out:

• The Black Mages Live – Divx (.avi) Torrent
• From the skies above: The Black Mages Live – Divx (.avi) Torrent

Well I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Well the music….The actual people playing are pretty goofy looking as my friend pointed out to me, but atleast the music is good….

Sounds of Muse’ic

Everyone has there own favorite music so I figured I should post my own. I listen to alot of music, and by alot I can tell you that my older computers hard disk drive has about 20 gigs of random music stored on it. To me, one particular band always stood out from that big 20 gig music folder. Although I would listen to alot of music, I always drift back to one band named “Muse“.

This was never the ordinary band. I’ve followed along all there albums and each one has been completely different, aswell as every song ranging in style. It seems that every song has a unique feel aswell as a catchy undertone. This is what I love about them so much. The key songs that I like the most tend to fall more towards the heavy genre: Suppermassive Black Hole, Citizen Erased, Time is running out, and Muscle Museum. If you like any heavy music with a more poetic feel, you’ll definitely enjoy Muse.

Below is a link to a torrent where you can download the music collection.

• Muse Collection

Studio Ghibli

These are the masterpieces of movies. What I concider the godfather of animes, but you’re probably wondering what they are. Well they are the Studio Ghibli anime films. Studio Ghibli you’ve probably never heard of but you may have seen the movie “Spirited Away“.

I saw the movie “Spirited Away” when it was first released in North American theaters. This was back in 2001 and I had forgotten about this brilliant film up until recently. I rediscoved it when I downloaded a ytmnd.com soundtrack which had a song from Joe Hisaishi called River Side (I will upload it later) which actually reminded me of this long forgotten movie. So I did some research and it turned out that Joe Hisaishi did the music composition for “Spirited Away” aswell as numerous other films which all belonged to the Studio Ghibli collection.

This alone was enough to encourge me to buy “Spirited Away” as well as the newer 2005 movie “Howl’s Moving Castle“. Both of these movies deserve proper recognition from me! Howl’s is a mysterious film where a young girl loses faith in herself and is later turned into a 90 year old women in which she learns to build faith in herself through the curse placed on her. Spirited Away is a more straight forward film where a young girl’s world is turned upside down where spirits and other creatures roam the bathwaters of a forbidden amusement park.

The director of both these movies, Hayao Miyazaki, is a legend in my books and I greatly recommend watching all his films. Later this month I plan to buy more of the Studio Ghibli films including: Princess Mononoke, Nausicaa, and Totoro.

Top three pictures are Spirited Away, and last three are Howl’s Moving Castle.