I'm not sure whether it was more because of the handy visuals (like a diagram of how the Absorption/Radiation Gate work, or shots of the fonon belt around the planet) or simply the fact that I played the game beforehand for a little familiarity with all the esoteric terminology, but one way or another I'm happy that I finally actually kind of sort of somewhat slightly understand what happened in the Tales of the Abyss plot. Almost. Now there are only maybe 19 things I don't get instead of 26.
Plot's still a mess, though.
Spoiler:
Oh hey, the countries have erupted into war--wait, no, war's over.
Oh hey, Tear's gonna die--wait, no, Ion's got a solution.
Oh hey, miasma's spreading and will destroy the world--wait, no, thousands of replicas just so happen to have been recently created and they'll solve everything.
Oh hey, they killed off [insert villain here]--wait, no, there they are again.
Oh hey, Luke and Asch are both going to die--wait, no, first one to die passes his fonons to the other.
And so on. Conflicts come up and are squashed at a real rapid-fire pace that doesn't help the tension any.
I won't harp on too long because that's not the anime's fault, but basically in Abyss I've resigned myself to the fact that I'm just supposed to watch things without any critical thinking.
What
is the anime's fault:
1) The characters. They had twenty-six episodes, but I still don't think they managed to portray the full personalities of each character and the dynamics between them. Guy was handled very well, and I don't blame them much for Tear since I couldn't find any depth or ambiguity to her even in the game; the only thing I was looking for but didn't get with Anime Tear was her getting angry at others and showing more pride as a soldier, which is a loss but not a big one. Other than those two, though:
Spoiler for Luke, Jade, Anise, Natalia:
Luke - In the game I thought Luke had no personality or anything unique to him after he stops being an obnoxious jerk, but here he didn't even have personality back then. Not enough Mieu abuse, not enough trying to rile up Jade and failing, not enough yelling at the others and complaining about everything that happens and generally being an idiot. To make a character whose main arc is supposed to be about him "maturing" (a loose term considering what he becomes, as Makku pointed out), he needed as much material as possible to "mature" from.
Jade - I can't stand this guy in the game, but in spite of myself I seriously wished they'd kept more of his personality in the anime. He only has a small number of sarcastic jabs throughout the entire thing, and never messes with everybody's mind or makes up joke excuses about being too old to do work, saying that others should do it for him. In the anime I think he's actually a very soft and understated character, and it makes him uninteresting to be so one-sided.
Anise - "Boooo." Where was it? Aside from that, she wasn't as bad as the others in this spoiler section (though I do hate her voice acting--way too cutesy) since they did capture her individual personality, but she came across like a third wheel in group dynamics. Her relationship with Jade was only barely hinted in a couple of scenes, she only comments on wanting Luke's money a couple of times and doesn't vie for his affection so much, and has pretty much no relation to the other three, making her always seem out of place even though she shouldn't. In the game I think she looked up to Natalia and I'm pretty sure she looked up to Tear.
Natalia - My game favorite. But with skits and other optional scenes being out of the picture, she never shows her fun or naive sides and doesn't show much of her frank side except in the first episode. Her loyalty to her friends (and pretty much everybody, honestly) still shines through, but that just makes her a nice and normal person whereas in the game she was also an entertaining, charming, and sometimes surprising one.
2) The music. I'm not sure why they didn't just pull a bunch of themes directly from the game or make arranged versions, because Motoi Sakuraba's soundtrack was superb and certainly much, much better than the very typical anime music.
3) The fights. First, I guess I should commend them a little because I've never seen action RPG battles translate to an anime as well as the ones in very late Abyss episodes (from 19 on). The group fights were cool and everyone played a part, although for some reason Natalia didn't get to use a named move until the end and I don't think Luke
ever did.
That's not to say they're good, just that they're better than other RPG adaptations I've seen. Everybody else pointed out the major problem already, but usually it only took one hit to finish off an enemy. Lots of blocking and dodging and magic shields before a hit connects, which is nice, but here's the thing... the Abyss heroes are fighting warriors called The Six God-Generals. With titles like that, they should be able to take some hits. I guess what I wanted to see was the enemies being gradually worn down: some cuts here and there, arrow nicks, magic hits that just scrape someone, and things like that. Instead it's either miss-or-instant-kill and that's not very engaging because it gives off the impression that in each individual fight only one or two of the six characters weren't throwaway extras.
Maybe it's just me, but after watching Symphonia and Abyss I really think these Tales anime series need to stop trying to play the stories and characters so straight and serious. The game skits may be completely out of place and probably aren't even canon, but they're a good method to bring out the characters' individual quirks and demonstrate what their personalities are like when they're
not involved in constant life-or-death situations.
In a game I'll automatically want the heroes to succeed unless I hate them, simply because I'm the one playing them. But in any non-interactive story, having those little hints that the heroes would probably be having very enjoyable lives if not for whatever's threatening them is what makes it possible for me to care. If the story tells me Tear is going to die, it's vital that I see flashes of character so I can think that if she's gone the world should miss her personality--but in the anime she doesn't have one, so what's the big deal?
She needs to get angry. She needs Anise to poke fun at her feelings toward Luke. She needs to watch with mixed horror and disgust and finally shout down the rest of the cast when they make up conspiracy theories that the only reason Jade can be calm and collected inside a volcano is that he's hiding cooling devices inside his uniform, and start trying to take off his clothes to find out.
These are just examples and I really mean they apply across the board for all characters in the Abyss adaptation (and Symphonia for that matter), but basically they would convey a sense of liveliness that's actually very missed.
Anyway, I liked this way, way, way more than the Symphonia adaptation, but that's not saying very much. 5/10... though just barely. I'm a harsh judge at times, I guess. :P