The following information comes from an Iwata Asks feature with the producer of Tales of the Abyss, Makoto Yoshizumi...
- Yoshizumi says it's always important to know your fans
- Yoshizumi would often vidist game stores to note what what the people wanted, what they bought, what they would like, and what kind of people they were
- when the original Tales of launched, it managed to sell fairly well against a Dragon Quest launch
- it is important to make the games in the series special, which is why the first game had voicework and songs
- Yoshizumi thinks the characters in Tales games are very special
- players should be able to empathize with everyone in games — even the enemies
- villains aren’t pure evil, says Yoshizumi
- villains are just fighting for what they believe in
- Yoshizumi says the series isn’t about role-playing and doesn't consider the series to be in the RPG genre
- he believes players pick up the games to learn about the characters and to see them grow
- this is why each game is labeled an “______ RPG” genre
- Yoshizumi would like to call the games something other than RPGs, but he feels this would cause confusion
- “Everyone calls it an RPG, but it’s really not, so I’m sorry [for tricking you].”
- Tales of the Abyss is “an RPG where one learns the reason for one’s existence”
- it's also a game about discovering yourself
- Yoshizumi took a risk when making the protagonist of Abyss someone who was very selfish and annoying in the beginning
- players would see the main character change over the course of the game, eventually turning into someone likable
- Yoshizumi didn't want a storyline where “the fated protagonist had a perfect life and a perfect upbringing, and he grew up to defeat the demon king.”
- he instead wanted a story with flawed characters
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