(PSX) Tales of Destiny NTSC-U (215MB)

[Knight24]

"A small step back over Tales of Phantasia, but it hardly matters."

Ah!, an rpg that plays and feels like a Snes game on a PlayStation, isn`t it great?, if your answer is a big fat NO then this review is not for you, not to mention you don`t like rpgs because under its (great) Snes look there is a rock solid rpg well worth your time and attention.

Story 8,5/10:
Tales of Destiny`s story is a good example of a classical plot done right, it doesn`t have anything you haven`t seen before, but it is very well made from start to finish. The characters are fantastic, the dialogue is very humorous, the pace is perfect and there is a nice bunch of cool and unexpected moments.

By the way, if you are wondering what happens with Stahn, Rutee and Philia`s love triangle after finishing the game, well, go ask someone who speaks Japanese and owns the original version because in that one there are conversations between the characters in the world map (the above mentioned love triangle among others) that have been completely removed in the US release, what`s more, it seems that those parts had voices and everything. The less said about this the better.

Graphics 9/10:
Well, there was room for improvements that is undeniable, the graphics are almost exactly the same from the Snes version of Tales of Phantasia plus a couple of anime sequences, which makes them perfect in my book, but I guess they could easily have been better with fancy additions to make them look even more beautiful. Whatever, that is irrelevant for me, I love these graphics, I am totally in love with the series` graphic style and if you ask me every rpg should have the same visuals.

Music 6,5/10:
The soundtrack is both good and bad, sometimes even terrible, but the worst part is that it had potential to be really good. The quality is very low too and most themes are way too short and repetitive, what a pity and what a massive disappointment after Tales of Phantasia`s almost unprecedently brilliant soundtrack.

The excellent opening song is no where to be found in the English version either (surprise!), and although it has been replaced with an equally superb theme, I am never going to understand why they do that, I mean, first of all, only real fans are going to buy a game that clearly exudes ``old-school`` from every pore like this one and second, everybody knows fans like their games totally unbutchered, what is the point in wasting time removing all the songs and editing all the dialogues and stuff?, it is just plain stupid.

Gameplay 9,5/10:
Those who have played Tales of Phantasia know what to expect, sadly, a more in-depth look reveals that there is something missing and the few (nearly irrelevant) issues the previous game had haven`t been solved. This hardly matters though, Tales of Destiny`s gameplay is basically perfect and the (best) battle system (ever) remains intact save for the summonings, only god and Namco know why nobody in this game is able to cast spirits. The world map is a bit different too, it doesn`t look very good I must say, but aside from the external appearance it is just your average rpg world map.

The encounter rate remains high and it is the only real drawback worth mentioning if you ask me, sometimes there are just too many battles, and while I think this is not a problem because of the marvellous battle system (and you can always use one of those bottles to reduce the number of encounters), it may turn several people off, that is almost sure.

What isn`t that high is the difficulty level, Tales of Phantasia was a pretty challenging title, there were some pretty damn tough boss battles. Tales of Destiny isn`t easier compared to Tales of Phantasia, the game itself is extremely easy to beat.

Finally, I know this is downright unbelievable but there is a part where we have to input a password, we are given hints and stuff but there is no way to figure out the password without using guide because it seems this part was messed up in the translation, so it`s get a FAQ or go to hell. Again, the less said the better.

Overall:
Although it has nothing to do with Tales of Phantasia in terms of story or characters (except for a small cameo), this sequel is definitely a small step back, it doesn`t add anything and the summonings are missing for some unknown reason, but nothing to be overly-worried about, it is still an extremely solid and interesting title that is going to keep you entertained during the 30 hours or so you are going to spend playing.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 01/30/06

Source: Gamefaqs

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[Shadow Dragon]

Thanks!

[Zetsubera]

Thanks man, this game was simply amazing.