Tales of the Abyss - first look

The Tales series meant very little in the US until 2004's surprise hit Tales of Symphonia. It blended intense action, beautiful graphics and... well... a passable story into a lengthy adventure hundreds of thousands found well worth undertaking. Flash forward to earlier this year, and suddenly, things hit the status quo again. Tales of Legendia, which arrived on the PS2 in February, was kind of a mess - though it looked great, mediocrity seeped through every crack.

The good news is that game has absolutely nothing to do with Tales of the Abyss aside from two of the words in the title. No, Abyss bubbles from the same well as Symphonia did, and that is very good news - because it looks like it might just be better in every possible way than the best game this series has ever seen.