Its development team included director Yoshito Higuchi, producer Makoto Yoshizumi, and character artist Kōsuke Fujishima.The game features music by series composers Motoi Sakuraba and Shinji Tamura, and includes the opening theme song "Karma" by Bump of Chicken, which is replaced with the instrumental version in the western release, due to licensing issues.Taking place in a fantasy world, the story focuses on Luke fon Fabre, a young swordsman whose pampered life turns upside down when he unwittingly becomes the target of a military-religious organization known as the Order of Lorelei, who believe him to be the key to an ancient prophecy.Together with his companions, Luke attempts to discover the truth and significance of his own birth, as well as unravel the mystery of The Score, the prophecy that has bound humanity's actions for thousands of years.This system offers multiplayer co-op battles, and the camera for this mode is improved over the one found in Tales of Symphonia, zooming out as characters move away from each other so that other players are now always on screen.The game features a large number of these skills, acquired through the use of "Capacity Cores" — items that give stat bonuses when a character levels up.One such Seventh Fonist, Yulia Jue, an important religious figure in the game, puts in place a future for the world for thousands of years to come, with the promise of unlimited prosperity at its end.The game primarily follows Luke fon Fabre, a teenage son of the Kimlasca King's sister who has suffered from amnesia ever since he was kidnapped.In addition, there are the 6 God-Generals of the Order including: Legretta, Tear's former master with undying loyalty to Van; Arietta, a general who took a rivalry against the party after they killed the animals that raised her; Dist, a mad scientist with ties to Jade; Sync, a mysterious masked strategist; and Largo, the leader of the Oracle's shock troops.Luke fon Fabre is a teenager who has been held in his manor for years by his uncle, the King of Kimlasca-Lanvaldear, after being kidnapped and started suffering amnesia.As Luke intervenes, the Seventh Fonons in the two individuals' bodies react causing a hyperresonance, a reaction that sends the two flying to a land faraway.The two meet Fon Master Ion as well as Colonel Jade Curtiss from the Malkuth forces who informs them of an impending war.In order to prevent more of these collapses, the group takes advantage of Luke's hyperresonance skills to move the land to the subarea, the Qliphoth.In the meantime, they are opposed by Van's forces except Asch who is against his master's wishes of a new world populated by replicas in order to go against the score.Grand Maestro Mohs from the Order of Lorelei forces Ion to read the Planet Score, killing him in the process.[14] The North American version of Tales of the Abyss includes new Mystic Arte attacks for most of the main characters not seen in the original Japanese release,[14] but also removed all spoken dialogue from the optional skit cutscenes, translating only the text.Artist Kousuke Fujishima, who had worked on the previous version of the game, provided a new title logo graphic and promotional character art for the release.The incidental vocal theme performed by Tear throughout the game, "Fu Uta" (譜歌, Tone Song), was sung by Yukana.[52][53] Most reviewers praised the battle system, stating that it was an improvement from earlier Tales installments while at the same time noting that it often devolved into "mindless button mashing".In particular, 1UP.com felt that they were "rough around the edges"[52] and GameSpot pointed out a drop in frame-rate on the world map, along with a generic mix of RPG locales."[37] While IGN praised the fact that the portable title had not lost any features from the console version, they nonetheless felt that the title "hasn’t aged well in all respects," adding that "Having fallen in love with games like Xenoblade Chronicles and Dragon Quest IX in the past few years, it's difficult to return to this complex world of menus and jargon without a bit of reluctance.[57] Although exact numbers were not disclosed, a representative from Namco Bandai stated that sales of the game in Europe exceeded the company's expectations, and had to reprint the title "three or four times" to meet demand.