July 30^th, 2005 (4:18pm) - Namco’s Tales RPG series will celebrate is 10th anniversary this year, and to celebrate the event, a new Tales game will make its way to the Playstation 2 called Tales of the Abyss.

Tales of the Abyss will take place in a fantasy world known as Oldland. Two thousand years ago, civilization discovered something known as the "Seventh Phoneme," which gave details about the birth of the planet and also foretells what will happen in its future, including its demise. The discovery of the Seventh Phoneme didn’t lead to peace, and Oldland becomes engulfed in an all-out war between powers to gain possession over the item.

The long period of battle turned the land to ruins and brought about a lethal miasma. Fortunately, civilization was able to seal the miasma deep into the earth by following the words of Yuria, a prophet that can read the Seventh Phoneme. On its road to recovery, Oldland is now being ruled by the Kimraska kingdom, Lambardia kingdom, and Malchut Empire. However, the people follow the words of the religious order of Lorelei and its prophet Yuria, who continues to send messages throughout the world.

Character designs will once again be done by Kousuke Fujishima, who’s been working on the series since its 1995 debut title on the SNES, Tales of Phantasia.

The two characters for Tales of the Abyss so far are named Luke and Tia. Luke is a young man who’s the son of a baron in the Kimraska kingdom, posessing the ability to use power that’s drawn from the Seventh Phoneme. Tia is a female that fights as a soldier for the religious order of Lorelei and can also use the powers of the Seventh Phoneme.

Tales of the Abyss also seems to feature 3D graphics somewhat similar to Tales of Symphonia.

No release date has been announced yet for the game.