To say that Luke fon Fabre, main character of Tales of the Abyss, has led a sheltered life is a bit of an understatement. Though 17 years old, the only memories he has are of his confinement within the family estate. Things were less strict when Luke was a child, but after he was kidnapped and lost all of his memories prior to that event, his family has been very protective of their sole heir.

Yet despite his family's best intentions, fate intervenes. Intent on assassinating Master Van, Luke's instructor, a young woman infiltrates the estate and somehow puts all the guards to sleep. In a last ditch move to defend his teacher, Luke crosses weapons with the girl, the result anything but expected. Suddenly vanishing in a flash of light, Luke and the young assassin soon find themselves smack dab in the middle of an unfamiliar forest. And in an even odder twist, the would-be assassin, who was just threatening the life of Luke's teacher, appears apologetic, vowing to help him return home. With the player equally as stunned and clueless as Luke, so begins Namco's latest chapter in the Tales series.

Of course, Luke's homecoming isn't as simple as it sounds. First the duo has to escape from the forest, which just so happens to be filled with monsters. Serving as the tutorial, this dungeon slowly eases the player into the game's mechanics. Once the monsters catch a glimpse of Luke, they'll chase after him, resulting in a fight if the two happen to touch.

Once in a fight, combat plays out like that of a traditional action game. Luke can slash at his enemies, block their attacks and perform special moves. To simplify matters, Luke automatically runs towards the targeted enemy, but is also able to run freely around the battlefield when a certain button is held.

Termed the Flexible Motion Battle System, the freedom to run anywhere on the battlefield provides for some interesting strategy. For example, let's say the other party members are attacking an enemy from the front but keep taking damage. If one were to run behind that enemy and attack, there's a good chance it might turn to face you, however, this would then leave its back wide open for the other party members to attack. Either way, the enemy is vulnerable. Another scenario involves the party tackling a tough monster while you focus on keeping the other monsters from ganging up on them.

In the spirit of keeping things fresh, characters gain new abilities and moves as they level up. The more abilities and moves a character has, the more potential for customization and strategizing. New abilities aren't just limited to battle either, a few hours into the game we gained the ability to shoot fireballs thanks to the loveable Mieu, who quite often serves as the Luke's punching bag. Fireballs are then used for puzzle solving in dungeons and towns, a welcome departure from just running around talking to people and fighting monsters.

Throughout towns and dungeons, a small icon will often appear in the lower left-hand corner of the screen, indicating a skit is available to view. Entirely optional, these skits give the characters of Tales of the Abyss a chance to reflect on recent events and express their thoughts. Allowing the player to learn more about both the characters and the world of Abyss at their own choosing, the skits are a unique way to pull players deeper into the story.

Contributing to this is the fact that the characters of Abyss are far from static. Though his spoiled upbringing has conditioned him otherwise, Luke soon begins to mature due to a crash course in life lessons. Early on, Luke casually grabs an apple from a vendor as he walks past and starts to munch on it, much to the horror of the shopkeeper. The situation only snowballs when the town's entire stock of food goes missing and the townspeople go after the most obvious culprit, Luke the accidental thief, forcing him to learn a few harsh lessons about the rules of commerce and the importance of treating others with respect. His maturing is a gradual process, but one that's easily observed through the skits and cutscenes.

It's too early to make a final judgment, but with a little more than six hours into Abyss, things are still looking good. The action-based combat is fun, plus the story and characters seem to be headed in interesting directions. A few issues have popped up, the frequent load times between fights and dungeons can be tiring and the overworld seems a bit sparse, but thankfully they don't have much of an effect on the gameplay. With the game set to hit stores in the days following October 10th (that's this upcoming Tuesday), check back with us next week to see how Tales of the Abyss stacks up.