I tried with the cooking in both games. Then, half an hour later, I realized I had spreadsheets opened, trying to determine who I needed to fix what to give the maximum benefits, and I just went "to heck with this", and stuck to generic items ever since. I never understood why the heck the mechanics were so complicated. Most of the players I talked to had a similar reaction. "Oh, I just chose recipe X and stuck with it, because no one really hates it and it works for most situations". The mechanics are stupidly overcomplicated, especially with no good in-game tracking system for some of the stats.


The combat gives me a similar problem. I don't specifically remember how it worked in Symphonia, it's been too long since I've played it. But in Abyss, I remember sitting through hours of tutorials on Fields of Fonons, only to wind up completely ignoring the system in favor of basic attacks and basic artes. Because it's stupidly overcomplicated.

"You have to have two of the same element ability cast on the same location to create a FoF. Oh, and you can't actually aim them, they cast on whatever your current target is, so hope it doesn't move. Then, abilities used in the FoF get additional effects. So, again, hope the enemy doesn't just move away or sidestep, or that field will be useless. Finally, don't forget that your main character can't actually set up ANY FoFs, just in case you thought the system was too easy to set up."

So they give us a system requiring three or more turns to set up and take advantage of, that you have almost no control over due to the fluid nature of combat and the whims of the AI, and that only marginally improve your skills. I wound up getting so frustrated by the completely inaccessible depth in the combat that I quit the game and never went back. I keep thinking "y'know, I liked the story, I should go see what happened", but then I get in, play a battle or two, and shut the game off again. I didn't have the same desire to go back to Symphonia because I realized how similar it was to FFX, and I figured I knew most of what I needed to about the story.