Tales of the Abyss is a role-playing video game developed by Namco Tales Studio as the eighth main title in their Tales series. Originally released for the PlayStation 2, the game was published by Namco in Japan in December 2005, and Bandai Namco Games in North America in October 2006. 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. Namco has given Tales of the Abyss the characteristic genre name To Know the Meaning of One's Birth RPG . A port for the Nintendo 3DS handheld was released in Japan in June 2011, followed by an Australian and European release in November 2011 and a North American release in February 2012.
