The sheer grinding dungeon crawler style of this game, and a broken save system, turns any RPG fan off from trying this.
Lots of places to explore | Different world each game | Good replay value
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The Bad
'Meh' graphics | Boring sound | Grinding gameplay | Shallow story | Broken save system
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From the Abyss is a game which never got a great deal of hype before its release (at least nothing like N+). It's the silent RPG game which generally is quite good and wows players. This is not the case, though.
Graphics: These are...reasonable. Nothing to write home about, though. Simple and plain 2D that composes the different lands which you explore. No 3D cut scenes at all, just more of the same. 3D RPG's have proven to work, so why not invest in making them like so?
Graphics Score: 5/10
Sound: Not a game that you'll like for sound. It fits the game well, but not one you'd recommend for its soundtrack. Like graphics: decent, but not impressive.
Sound Score: 5/10
Gameplay: Ok, so the story is a bit shallow and not really related to what you're gonna do. I mean, it just throws in a little intro, randomly assigns you a world (which is different for every player, so I was surprised) and makes you explore and beat enemies to restore peace to town.
You fight enemies directly, there isn't any kind of random encounters in this game, and it's not necessary to beat them all. They sometimes drop chests which contain weapons and other useful items, so make sure to pick them up. If you die, however, then you restart the entire level gain, which is major annoying and turns people off, especially if you lose a boss fight. If you don't know the method of beating them, you'll be repeating chapters over and over again.
However, if you use a Saint Statue, you can go back to town and save to then fight the boss battle, but the game doesn't refer this as a use of the Saint Statue. This makes it misleading for new players.
Gameplay Score: 7/10
Replay Value: If you consider story mode, this game uses a random creator to produce different worlds for everybody. Despite this making a game guide for this game nearly impossible, I believe the bosses and normal enemies are the same. This is a nice, unique feature of an RPG. However, story is way too short (around 8-12 hours average) and I doubt you'll want to play it again.
Plus, this game has no WiFi, and I don't believe co-op mode is very interesting if you don't have anyone to play it with you in wireless play.
Replay Value Score: 6/10
Resuming, From the Abyss doesn't really leave a mark in RPG standards, except maybe for its unique random world creator.
Apart from that, a shallow story, passable sound, grinding and somewhat confusing game play make this a game to avoid if you don't want to be passing long periods of time slashing enemies over and over. It's no wonder.