Bandai Namco Games' (BNG) Tales series has gained immense popularity in the past decade in Japan. Unfortunately, only a handful of them made it to North America thanks to the poor marketing strategy employed BNG, which resulted in crappy sales record and the eventual reluctance of BNG to localize any more Tales titles oversea. Having said that, Tales of Graces f for the PS3 is being localized, if you're a Tales fan and would like to play more titles in English, show your support and pre-order a copy of Tales of Graces f. This will make BNG realize just how big a fanbase from North America they're missing out on. This will also provide them the necessary driving force and motivation for future localization plans.
Anyway, in 2006, BNG localized Tales of the Abyss for the PS2, which received quite the praise from the RPG community. The story follows a spoiled royalty brat named Luke fon Fabre, who initially acted like a selfish jackass, but later underwent dramatic personality shifts that "transformed" him into a responsible and caring individual. The "transformation" is symbolized via a change in Luke's hairs: he deliberately cut off his long hairs to show his resolution and determination (a farewell to his past).
As one of the top five characters during the fifth official Tales character popularity contest , it's not hard to see why Alter decided to add Luke to their Altair line of bishounen figures. I was very impressed with Alter's Yuri and Flynn, the two male characters from Tales of Vesperia, so naturally, I have high expectation for Luke as well.
Based on the promo shots so far, the figure looks fantastic.
While I won't praise the pose as unique and interesting, it is different enough to distinguish him from a majority of the male figures nowadays that feature guys standing like they're ready for photos to be taken for their elementary class year books. The unique base seems like a tradition for the Alter line of Tales characters as Yuri and Flynn both came with tiled city street bases.
The coloring on Luke's hairs is simply superb. The transition from red to orange looks exactly like the official artworks by Fujishima. His snobby, arrogant expression is also faithfully recapitulated.
The blade Luke wields may not look as cool as the katana Yuri holds, its size makes up for the lack of details. The shirt he wears is pretty bland, although the way it "floats" makes the whole figure looks that much more badass. There seems to be some coloring issue below his middle finger, hopefully this problem can be fixed before mass production. Oh yeah, might as well mention that Luke's abs might make some fan girls scream (They're nothing compare to those from One Piece character figures, no, I'm serious. You wanna look at six packs? Check out Smoker or even Luffy, they may not be bishounens, but they have abs of steel).
Alter is kind enough to include an alternate head, featuring Luke in short hairs with a more calm and modest expression. Definitely not as impressive and dynamic as his flamey long hair and jackass face, but it's a nice addition for fans.
To conclude, this is a nice addition to Alter's Tales line of figures. If you've played or watched Tales of the Abyss (game/anime), and enjoyed the casts (Jade FTW) and story, do not hesitate to preorder. Alter rarely plague their final products with glaring problems, so I'm sure colors beneath the middle finger will be properly adjusted.
