The Hopeless Boss Fight with Asch actually isn't all that tough to beat if you have enough healing items and know how to use the free-run mechanic to perform hit-and-run tactics.
The final boss isn't particularly challenging in any of his forms, and in his final form you have infinite HP and TP. Note: the infinite HP and TP phase only occurs when you have Luke and Tear in the party, and besides...what could be more satisfying than whaling on the Big Bad with impunity?
Awesome Music: One of the strongest contenders for the Best Soundtrack in the Tales Series title. And that's saying something.
One moment in particular stands out that really breaks the base on Luke and his character: the Wham Episode. To what extent Akzeriuth's destruction was Luke's fault is the subject of a lot of debate. On the one hand, some people think the disaster was caused by Luke's selfishness (wanting to save the people only so he could become a hero), arrogance (believing he could save the city by himself despite having no training), failure to tell the others about the plan, and blind faith in Van, since Van's justification for kidnapping Luke was pretty transparent and contained a contradiction. After all, if Van was saving Luke from painful and horrific experiments regarding his hyperresonance, why didn't these experiments resume once Luke returned? On the other hand, some people shift the blame elsewhere, since Luke was only seven years old when all this happened. Van was a father figure to Luke for his entire life — Luke comments that Van was the only one to praise him, scold him, and take him seriously. Van was also in a position of trust and authority, being the Commandant of the Order of Lorelei, which shows that he was well respected in the world at large (including by some of Luke's traveling companions). Plus, the fact that Luke was hypnotized into carrying out the final, fatal act means he's not entirely to blame; some of the fault must go to Van, regardless of Luke's actions. Still, the debate continues to rage among Tales fans as to how much of Akzeriuth's destruction was Luke's fault and how much others are to blame.
Breather Boss: Fyr Bronc, the dragon in Mount Zaleho, especially considering that the previous boss was the first fight with the Big Bad and That One Boss.
Creepy Awesome: Jade Curtiss can be this when he wants to be. In addition to his snark, he comes off with a rather large dose of Black Comedy, mentioning his age quite often and even joking about death and the end of the world. That said, he's still one of the most popular characters in the whole Tales fandom, regularly placing in the top 10 in character polls.
Crosses the Line Twice: Luke's abuse of Meiu is consistently Played for Laughs, but hits a particular zenith in one scene in which Meiu worries because the ship they're on appears to be sinking and Meiu doesn't know how to swim. Luke responds by punting Meiu offscreen and giving this line:
The entire party (minus Ion) post Akzeriuth as explained below. Their treatment of Luke falls flat when it turns out a good chunk of them knew something in regards to the entire incident (Guy knew about Van's plans, Tear had all the reason to see Van as the Big Bad, Jade had figured out key information, and Anise was working for Mohs plus Natalia heard enough of Luke's conversation with Van pre mission to be somewhat suspicious) and most of them also know at this point that Luke is actually seven years old.
Asch is even worse. Before the reveal that Luke is his replica, he spends most of his appearances hurling abuse at people, tries to kill Luke and would have done so if not for Van and tries to make Luke kill Tear once the channel between them is open. After the reveal, none of this is ever brought up again. To top if off he constantly hurls abuse at Luke and the party outside of Natalia, and they just accept it.
Enjoy the Story, Skip the Game: Abyss' story is still considered one of the best, if not the best, in the series, with official polls about the series regularly having the story, characters, and setting ranked highly, and the main protagonist, Luke, is regularly discussed among players as an example of the strengths of video game story telling. Its gameplay is standard Tales fare, with its most unique aspect, the FoF/Altered Artes mechanic, being too unreliable and gimmicky to affect the strategy of battles much, so it doesn't offer anything new to those who played Symphonia or later entries.
Ensemble Dark Horse: Asch in the anime, which leaves out his Kick the Dog moments in the game, including his participation in the Tartarus slaughternote He arrived afterwards. and his attacking Tear, making him much more sympathetic.
His game incarnation is one for some too if not solely for his notorious Narm moment.
Luke's Fan Nickname is Ambassador Asshat, for when he cranks up his Jerkass nature up to eleven as an ambassador to Akzeriuth. That's what happens when you give a spoiled rich kid authority and tell him that his freedom and the opportunity to work alongside his beloved father figure ride entirely on him doing an impressive job.
Mr.Ending! The red haired man, that could be Luke or Asch depending on viewer interpretation, who comes back at the end.
Master Badtouch for Van due to a certain scene on the ferry to Chesedonia between him and Luke.
Genius Bonus: Jade's sister's name is Nephry. The minerals Jadeite and Nephrite are collectively called Jade. Also counts as Family Theme Naming.
Jade at one point rattles off Lorelei's fonon frequency, which sounds suspiciously similar to the first dozen or so digits of pi.
The Religious and Mythological Theme Naming doubles as this - Many locations that are held up by the sephiroth are actually named after the Hebrew Kabbalah.
Musical terms are everywhere in the game, from the shop names, to the C. Core names, to the assumed names of the God-Generals before Asch joined up (Cantabile being who he replaced), to the positions of power within Daath.
In the PS2 version, it was possible to remove the disk from the system while the game continued to run. This allowed you to go literally anywhere on the world map, and by replacing the disk, visit any location early to get powerful weapons that you weren't supposed to be able to access yet, most commonly the Keterburg Casino Lethal Joke Weapons and the Vorpal Sword.
Guy's gynophobia becomes much less funny when you realize that it was because he was buried under the corpses of many women of his house who died to protect him.
Similarly, the part when you realize that Anise's attempts to get a rich husband are not out of greed, but to free her family from their debt, as well as how far she's willing to go for their sake.
Luke's bratty, entitled behavior in the first arc and how everyone treats him take on a darker edge when it's revealed he's actually a seven year old forced into acting at least twice his age his whole life.
Guy's gynophobia plus his close friendship with Luke.
Jade plus Dist or Peony, both of whom earn innuendo-laden comments from Guy.
Luke's worshipful relationship with his "Master" Van. Luke's even got a giant portrait of him hanging up in his roomnote Slightly lessened if you consider that he calls Van "sensei" in the Japanese version (translates literally to "teacher", although can still be translated to "master" since Van's specifically teaching Luke combat), but the portrait's still there and so is the rest of their relationship.
Good luck playing the game beforehand without realizing that Luke gets the haircut in the first place in direct response to accidentally destroying Akzeriuthwhile trying to save it in thanks, in part, to his jackassery whilst handling the situation.
"Luke" actually being a fon replica on the original Luke fon Fabre, aka Asch, is pretty common knowledge even among people who haven't played the game.
Anise. Her family was the victim of a con and wound up in debt. Mohs paid off the debt, but had her parents become indentured servants, leading Anise to want to earn the money to free them. Unfortunately, she does some morally dubious things to reach this goal, including wanting to marry into wealth, performing occasional scams and serving as a spy for Mohs, leading to Ion's death. How much you sympathize with her depends on how willing you are to forgive her for the latter, spoilered act.
Asch is the original Luke fon Fabre who was kidnapped by Van as a child and made his way home and discovered the replica Luke and is Secretly Dying because of how Luke was born. However, his many Kick the Dog moments throughout the game, aka attempting to murder Luke, controlling Luke to try and make him kill Tear For the Evulz and hurls endless emotional and verbal abuse at Luke throughout the entire game until they finally settle their differences in the final dungeon make it hard to like or pity him.
Sync is not only allied with the villains but does some exceptionally cruel things for no good reason, such as making fun of Akzeriuth's destruction and mimicking Ion's voice to guilt-trip Anise. However, it's difficult not to feel a drop of pity for him when you realize that he was cast away along with the other unused Ion replicas and only kept around as a tool by Van.
The replicas of Frings, Iemon and Mary, among others, openly say that they don't care whether the originals live or die, a sentiment Tear says will come back to haunt them someday. Of course, they also are thrust into the world without any ability to care for themselves or people willing to care for them, and end up being persecuted, exploited and used to destroy the miasma. Learning that the villains are not coming for them drives them over the Despair Event Horizon, and prompts them to sacrifice themselves to neutralize the miasma in the hopes of finding a place where the surviving replicas can live.
Dist is shown to be a lonely man emotionally stunted and lost from childhood trauma who desperately wants things to be back to when he was happy. Despite this, the way he goes about it is far from okay, making it understandable why Jade refuses to acknowledge him until he finally gets over it.
Luke pre Important Haircut. He's a spoiled Sheltered Aristocrat who can be a massive Jerkass. At the same time, he's woefully unequipped to deal with various things, has the life experiences of a seven year old and later turns out to actually be one, and is utterly horrified when he kills a person. He also has no experience with normal relationships (or friends for that matter) and is desperate to prove himself while also dealing with everyone basically wanting him to remember everything before his kidnapping ie they basically are all saying they hate this Luke and don't see him as the "real" one.
Low-Tier Letdown: Natalia is often seen as the worst of the playable cast. The main reason is she is a Combat Medic who focuses on single target support artes and healing, which is very useful yes, but lacks the very useful healing and buffing Tear has at higher levels, and is outdone combat wise by Luke, Guy, and Anise. At later levels, Tear's healing is more important because of Mystic Artes, and other powerful spells that hit most of the arena, while Natalia will be stuck having to heal one person at a time and risking a party member being killed during the process. She still is useful, and is flexible in what she can do for optional content, but Tear is more useful compared to her.
Magnificent Bastard: When Van Grants learned that the Score predicted that the world would end, he decided to avoid this fate by destroying the world, killing all of its inhabitants, and creating a replica world in its stead. To accomplish this, Van pretended to be a loyal adherent to the Score, fooling nearly everyone in the Order of Lorelei so he could advance in rank to command the Order's military. When one of Van's plans hinged on Luke surviving his death that was foretold in the Score, Van kidnapped Luke and replaced him with a replica, framing the deed on the rival empire of Malkuth. Van is incredibly charismatic, capable of making his enemies into his loyal followers and is always one step ahead of the heroes. In the end, all of the heroes can't help but respect him despite his crimes.
Memetic Mutation: In Japan, Luke's line, "It's not my fault!" has become memetic enough that anytime his Japanese seiyuu shows up in the Tales of Festivals, this line will always show up.
Memetic Troll: Jade Curtiss has had this reputation cemented by the fandom for his many contributions to the comedic parts of the game and the thing most will remember about him first is his constant tendency to screw with virtually everybody in the game.
Thanks to an unfortunate choice of dramatic arm movement, Tear's breasts briefly bounce during a cutscene that takes place in the middle of fighting the final boss. It lasts for less than a second and they only bounce a slight distance rather than going over the top, so it's perfectly possible not to notice it. But if you DO notice, it's incredibly out of place.
The whole game is riddled with this in general due to the technology limitations of the time. Dull Surprise and some Large Ham bits that don't mesh with the rest can make what are meant to be dramatic or heartrending situations rather jarring instead.
Special mention goes to the cutscene where Malkuth and Kimlasca go to war. The moment is supposed to be horrifying, but the animation is...questionable at best, looking like blobs of triangles crashing into eachother.
Mohs' mind degenerating from their One-Winged Angel form is supposed to be horrifying. The scene where the process almost completes features them flying all over the screen like a deflating balloon while repeating "Score" over and over. It's... a little hard to take seriously.
No Yay: In two parts of the game, during the Absorption Gate and night before the assault on Eldrant, the main group breaks up into pairs, with Ship Tease at least between the first two pairings. Luke and Tear are, of course, the Official Couple and get the most Ship Tease. Concerning Guy and Natalia, they are only three years apart, since she is eighteen and he is twenty-one. So far, so good. However, the final pairing is Jade/Anise, a thirty-four-year-old man and a thirteen-year-old girl.
Tear/Luke can be this in general depending on how you view Luke's age when put together with his Character Development. Since Luke is, in fact, only seven years old and it's known well that by the whole party, Tear can come off unintentionally creepy and give the impression of someone who takes advantage of a child's Precocious Crush. This leads into any pairing with Luke in it being Squick to some extent.
One True Pairing: Luke and Tear. One of the few examples in the entire Tales series where the Fan-Preferred Couple (Ho Yay pairings notwithstanding) is completely supported by the canon.
Tear finding out she's dying (she doesn't, thanks to one of Ion's final acts).
Luke finding out he's dying (whether he does is debatable)... take your pick.
Seeing that little boy drown in miasma at Akzeriuth.
Later on, meeting a woman whose husband and son were in Akzeriuth, the latter having come to visit the former.
Asch's death. Not only an antagonist, but one we just had a final duel with five minutes ago... But it still hurts.
The death of General Frings...especially if you did his adorable romance sidequest...for nothing...
Rewatch Bonus: Luke's rude and dickish behavior as well as his somewhat childlike dialogue for much of the game becomes more understandable and more obvious once the player knows that Luke is actually only 7.
Ships That Pass in the Night: Arietta x Sync is pretty popular shipping, despite the fact that the two characters never interact in the game nor in the anime and Arietta is clearly in love with Ion. The fact that Sync is Ion's replica helps though.
Squick: Luke is the Mr. Fanservice of the game, what with his belly baring outfit that shows off his impressive abs and various other costumes that even do away with shirts all together. Why is this under squick? Because despite looking like a teenager, he's actually seven years old due to being a replica. This also makes the Tear/Luke pairing cringeworthy as well.
Unintentionally Sympathetic: Though Luke is an incredible ass about it, he's not exactly wrong when he says "It's not my fault!" in regards to Akzeriuth. One can blame him for being an arrogant ass about things but as Van tricked him and then forced him into destroying Akzeriuth, there's only so much a seven year old can do in regards to his Parental Substitute turning out to be the Big Bad. While plenty of the rest of the party (Tear, Guy, and Jade in particular) possessed information that would have had a good chance of adverting events if they had brought it up. Luke, on the other hand, was handicapped from the start and that's without bringing in the fact he was sent knowing he would, according to the Score, destroy Akzeriuth and himself so they could kick off a war. The Broken Aesop on the main page also points out no one gave Luke a good reason to distrust Van aside from saying he should think more critically.
Mohs devolves into a mindless One-Winged Angel, and after the party finally fights and kills him, they "feel kind of bad", noting that he was obsessed with the Score to the very end, and there was a time when his actions would have been seen as justified. Considering what kind of person he was, holding Anise's parents hostage and forcing her to be The Mole and then killing Fon Master Ion (who was chronologically two) it's virtually impossible to feel that he didn't deserve it.
Anise. She betrays the party, almost gets them killed, flat-out DOES get Ion killed, and kills Arietta rather than talking things out with her when she has the chance. It doesn't help that, compared to Luke, Anise looks like she gets away with this (a case of Values Dissonance) despite being directly aware of her actions and not having the same excuses Luke has for being Locked Out of the Loop.
Asch can be this, considering that before the reveal that Luke is his replica, he spends most of his appearances hurling abuse at people, tries to kill Luke and would have done so if not for Van and tries to make Luke kill Tear once the channel between them is open. After the reveal, he constantly hurls abuse at Luke and the party outside of Natalia up until he and Luke finally accept one another at Eldrant and dies shortly after.
For that matter the entire party falls under this and/or Designated Hero in regards to how they treat Luke. Many players felt like the party members blaming Luke for the destruction of Akzeriuth is hypocritical as the major reason that Luke ended up trusting Van was because, despite being shown he's extremely sheltered and has no idea how the world works (including having to be taught the concept of shopping) while being functionally seven due to his amnesia and is eventually revealed to actually be seven, they regularly ignored him, berated him for understandably not knowing things, told him to shut up when he demanded to know things, and refused to explain why he shouldn't do the thing that led to Akzeriuth or why not trust Van. With Van thus being the Reasonable Authority Figureand a Parental Substitute to Luke, why wouldn't Luke trust him over the so-called "friends" of his? And they don't get better even after Luke's Important Haircut! Though Guy genuinely means well and admits to his own part to play in the disaster, he's very wishy-washy about defending Luke against the others' comments and actions. Tear flat out says he's to blame and encourages Luke's Guilt Complex, while Jade and Anise continue to berate him and, in Anise's case, encourage him to die. By the time they actually start treating Luke better, he's a massive mess mentally speaking and it's way too late for him to be able to take their advice.
The Big Bad. His status as a Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds gets hard to swallow when you take into account his hypocrisy, the sheer amount of people he's killed, and his treatment of both Asch and Luke. It's hard to consider him well intentioned when he spends so much time doing incredibly wrong things for the sake of his goals.
Luke (Well, Asch... It Makes Sense in Context) and Natalia's betrothal, as first cousins. Due to their status as nobles, no one even so much as bats an eye. This is because Auldrant seems to use a world-wide medieval-like setting. In Medieval times as well as other periods, nobles were anything but unknown for marrying within the close family. It later turns out that Natalia is not biologically related to Luke.
Near the end, Jade offers Luke his left hand in a handshake. In Japan, this is seen as respectful (as it's done with the shield arm, showing that one is willing to let their guard down in front of someone else). Westerners might find this odd, as it's not as respectful in Western territories (since, in Medieval times, people apparently wiped their butts with their left hands).
The fallout of Akzeriuth, and the party seemingly blaming Luke for it, can come across as strange to a Western player compared to someone from Japan. The party all seem to call out Luke for how he isn't taking responsibility for the events that unfolded, making it seem like they are saying Luke is solely at fault for it, but in truth the party are upset Luke is claiming he isn't at fault for any part of it, and get fed up with how he is avoiding accepting any role he played in it. This is because Japan takes responsibility very seriously, and Luke refusing to accept he had a role in it at all is a sign of immaturity on his part. In the West though, while Luke played a part in it, it was the Big Bad who manipulated him and made him do it, so Luke would be seen by many Westerns are being a victim of a manipulator who, while tragically made a mistake, shouldn't be treated as being responsible for the event. Jade later makes it clear that the issue wasn't that Luke played a role in Akzeriuth, it was that he refused to improve at first and denied his involvement in it, but this explanation comes later, so it makes the immediate aftermath look like everyone is blaming him over being angry he is being immature about it. The fact Luke is actually seven years old doesn't help with how Western audiences see it, for the same reasons mentioned.
On a related note; Anise being seemingly Easily Forgiven for betraying the party and helping Mohs. In Japan, because Anise is younger than Luke(at least, was believed so before him being a replica is revealed), the fact that Anise owns up to her mistake, apologizes, and feels guilty for it right away is supposed to be a sign of how mature she is for her age, making her situation sympathetic and why the party don't hold it against her. On top of that, because it was for her family, something taken seriously in Japan, her circumstances make sense to a Japanese player and show how mature she is. In the West though, where individual choices are weighed slightly more heavily, Anise comes across as being Easily Forgiven despite her situation, since she willingly helped Mohs and never seemed to regret it until is costed her Ion. Furthermore, compared to Luke, Western players felt she was let off the hook significantly easier; while both were not fully at fault for the situations, Luke comes across as being scapegoated by the others despite it being a mistake he made without knowing better and was forced against his will to do, while Anise knew what she was doing and still went along with it and only seemed remorseful because Ion died.
Ion. He looks incredibly effeminate and has female voice actors.
Jade deserves an honorable mention: Gender-Blender Name, feminine pose, long hair. . . and if you can believe it, some of his concept art made him feel even more like a woman, even with short hair!
Then there's Din, who runs the trade shop in Chesedonia. Din has short blonde hair and wears thick, unisex clothing. Din also doesn't get any voiced dialogue, so you have to see a specific scene where Jade inspects Din's shop to actually know Din is, in fact, a girl. Generally it's assumed she's a he.
When it was released, it was considered... well, not bad, but just sort of a ho-hum entry. Likely not helped by it following on the heels of Tough Act to FollowTales of Symphonia. Give or take ten years and its status has grown to be one of the most respected titles by the fanbase for its intriguing and realized Constructed World, a complex plot and especially deep characterizations, its stellar soundtrack, and for improving on Symphonia's gameplay by introducing free-run, which set the standard for later 3D titles in the series. It's now regarded as having aged the best of all the 2000s-era Tales games, with various Japan only polls consistently having it among the highest rated in every category it appears in.
To a similar degree, Luke as the main character. Although Yuri Lowell is still the most beloved protagonist in the franchise, Luke is now widely considered as the best constructed one. Even though his Jerkass attitude at the beginning of the game can be off-putting (and the reason why he had a bum rap for some years), his massiveCharacter Development (by far, the biggest one in the entire franchise) makes it worth it.
Wangst: Luke goes through quite a bit of this during a big part of the third act. Also, if you defeat Asch in Yulia City, the resulting cutscene shows Asch doing a bit of wangsting of his own after being defeated by a mere replica.
What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: If you insert the game into your 3DS, the first thing you'll see is a Ridiculously Cute Critter running around a ball, saying "Let's Play! Mieu! Mieu! Mieu!" Anyone unfamiliar with the series would suspect this game is for kids, when its plot includes mass-murder, some suggestive dialogue (including discussions of a party member's bust size and references to prostitution), and mild swearing (damn and hell is about as strong as it gets).
It goes back farther — as a rule, there's a reason the Tales series typically has T-ratings.
What Do You Mean, It's Not Symbolic?: If you're familiar with Friedrich Nietzsche, then you may think that the title has something to do with Nietzsche's famous quote about The Abyss, but it never really has any bearing on the game itself. Except with Van, who started to oppose the Score after being used to destroy Hod as an innocent child, and then does the exact same thing to Luke in order to advance his plans.
and Finish the Promise