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In an interview about the making of Tales of the Abyss, the original development staff from Bandai Namco (then simply Namco) discussed how writer Takumi Miyajima penned the overall story of the game in only a month and a half. The full interview is available in Japanese on Denfaminico.
Miyajima joined the project closer to the end of development, which is not the norm. The team had about four different story ideas, but none of them were going well. It had been difficult to come up with a hook, as well as a story that would be even more shocking than Symphonia’s. That was why they asked Miyajima to join the team and create a story from the partially-made game they had.
Miyajima started working on Tales of the Abyss in March 2004, and he finished writing the setting details and story on April 13, 2004. He says that this was soon after Symphonia, so he was still tired, and Abyss’s schedule was even tighter than Symphonia’s. So he was thinking, “I wish everyone would just blow up” while working on it. Despite the rush, he worked on the finer details and timeline of Auldrant until July, as Namco hadn’t chosen a producer yet.
Abyss’s story can still spawn a lot of debate and discussion, and this was true even during the development stage. Many staff commented to Miyajima that it would be more natural for Asch to be the protagonist and POV character, but Miyajima didn’t think it odd for Luke to have the spotlight. The prologue to explain everything that happened to Asch would demand too much time and investment from the player.
However, with an “amnesiac” Luke as the protagonist, they could cut out all that information. This also makes him easier for the player to relate to, as he is as clueless about the world as they are. Though Abyss is a story about replicas, making the player empathetic towards the player was more important. It also focused on the theme of self-discovery. This matched the target age group of Tales of the Abyss, since most Tales players during the early 2000s were middle-to-high schoolers.
Tales of the Abyss is available on the PS2 and Nintendo 3DS. Bandai Namco will likely release a remaster of it, but it has not revealed any concrete information on that yet.
