DS roundup: Tales of Hearts, From the Abyss, Children of Man

[Magus_Melchior]

First, Children of Mana. I haven't played that far into the game, but I'm guessing that the end looks as much a recompiled GBA game as the beginning. The use of straight-on viewpoint rather than isometric is a welcome design decision, as moving diagonally on the DS Lite D-pad is an exercise in frustration. Maybe the DSi will have a better D-pad, but I'm not holding my breath. Graphics aside, this looks like a straightforward dungeon crawler, though the first boss gave me a run for my money (but that's probably my reflexes starting to deteriorate due to age...).

Next, From the Abyss. Given it was built by Sonic Team, I figured it would be a worthy distraction, but the gameplay gets repetitive fast, especially without a cohesive story for motivation (perhaps they should stick to platformers?). Having played Soma Bringer, I find myself comparing the two and FtA seems dry and a bit awkward on balance, especially where item management and spellcasting are concerned-- it was an interesting idea to use the touchscreen for this purpose, but I'm not going to think to reach over there in the heat of battle.

Finally, Tales of Hearts. I'm not particularly fond of CG characters made to look somewhat realistic (LotR set the bar really high in this regard), so I got the anime version. Namco built the game itself, so there are a few differences from the earlier DS title, Tales of Innocence. For example, they returned to a 2D combat system reminiscent of the first Tales games, but managed to pack more vocal data into the game than ToI, which is an understandable sacrifice-- the vocals really bring the character interactions to life, and a 3D battlefield can be a bit unwieldy. Much of the action is through 2D sprites rather than full 3D, which is another area where they probably sacrificed to squeeze in the audio and video data, assuming they retained all of Alfa System's work.
Gameplay-wise, I'd say it's pretty balanced, though I find myself spamming one skill or another until the foe bites the dust. The allied AI could use some work to prevent spellcasters from running into the heart of the enemy and thus risking their necks-- though to be honest, there's not much one can do with only 3 directions to go. Calling in any player to cast a skill using the touchscreen is a nice touch, and you can even unlock call-ins of characters from other Namco games. Playable characters are equipped with upgradeable weapons called "Soma" that can evolve to unlock more skills and bonuses which are then "purchased" with materials found in the field or in town shops, similar to Junk shop upgrades in FF8, but possible anywhere outside of combat. Now if they'd included a refining skill or something to generate some 2nd or 3rd tier resources...
The story and characters can piss you off (particularly the villains), but in a good way-- it's primarily to motivate one to kick the enemy's butt to kingdom come. Reminds me of a Defense Grid: The Awakening quote-- "I have one piece of advice for you: Be merciless. They are." Cheap gameplay skills like stun-locking the boss with repeated uses of an aerial skill are much more satisfying as a result.
The theme of the game is conflict and camaraderie, and both play out as a rather political message not unlike the recent presidential campaign. It would be nice if the Japanese youth picks up on this, but I'm not holding my breath.
Edit: A warning-- Some of the puzzles force you into an isometric view. Yuck.