Tales of Destiny

"Living proof 2D remakes can be as excellent as today's 3D rpgs"

-Tales of Destiny Remake (JPN)-
This review is based on the Japanese version currently.

-PLOT- [08]
{Breakdown: Main Plot- B, Character Plot- B, NPCs- B}
The story beings with Stan being caught as a stowaway on the flying airship. While being questioned, the airship was suddenly attacked by monsters. Evading arrest and questioning during this chaos, Stan ran deep inside the airship when he found himself trapped in a room with monsters outside. Hearing a voice, he searched the room and found a sword.. which he then used to free himself from being trapped and escape out of the airship.

Despite all those events, the biggest surprise was when Stan learned the Sword can talk and has a mind of its own. This starts a journey for Stan to find the Swordians and as well as the "Eye of God", an artifact that has the power to destroy the world. Along his quest, he meets a large variety of characters to join his quest: a duo of lens hunters, an expert swordsman, an arena champion, a young but master archeress, a priestess, a prince, a bard and finally a cook.

During the whole adventure, they all experience many emotions which ultimately binds their bond in faith and friendship with each other.. to help overcome what lies ahead and the greater truth to a greater plot which may ultimately cause the destruction of the world.

While the plot is basically the generic type of "saving the world", I love the characters in this game. Each all have a purpose of joining as well as their personality keeps the whole party lively. It gets even better when you view them in the skits. Skits are like small "dialogues" where the party members talk to each other ranging from learning about each other to current events that have been taken place.

Sadly I didn't feel much for the villains as far as it goes.

-GAMEPLAY- [09]
{Breakdown: Difficulty- A, Battle System- A, Puzzles- A, Control- B}
Since Tales of Destiny is a remake, one would assume it would have features that will be added and removed. Gone are the majority of the boss battles that seems to exist in Tales of Destiny PSX. Most of the minor boss battles are not there anymore as well as some changes in when you fight the remaining bosses and such.

Battle is completely revamped from the usual Tales pattern. The system still contains the same techniques and spells we have come to know and love.. but now how it is used and executed is entirely different. The differences is now known as "CC" (Chain Capacity).

CC is how all actions in battle are done. Each specific actions (double jump, charge, backstep), attacks, spells and techniques all requires a certain amount of CC to be able to be performed. Each characters will have their own minimum and maximum amount of CC, from there you must ultimately decide what action the characters should perform.

Due to this new system, the general rule of "tokugi -> ougi" does not apply in this Tales game anymore. You can now use ANY techniques and/or spells anytime you want, providing you have enough to perform it. You want to spam majinken all day? Go ahead! Chain two Indignation spells in a row? Sure, if you have at least 10 CC to perform it since Indignation cost 5 CC per cast.

Another change is the new addition known as Swordian Devices. Each Swordian Master (Stan, Lion, Rutee, Woodrow, Philia) can be customized on how their abilities are factored. These abilities includes increasing one's attributes (attack, mind, critical) as well as giving each a special effects in battle (poison, sleep, gain, spell cast) and last, the ability to increase the minimum and maximum of their CC.

There are six levels of skills on the Swordian Devices as well as a required amount of points needed for each skill to be able to be equipped. In order to access the higher leveled skills, you must first master (100% learn) the lower ranked that is adjacent to it. Gaining Device Points is as easy as leveling or fighting bosses on Hard+ rank. Mastering the skills is as easy as fighting battles, the lower amount of points needed for that skill, the faster the learning rate is. Keep note, even if mastered, you must have that skill equipped to be able to gain the bonus for that character.

For the unfortunate characters who have no Swordians, the other option is to Rerise. This function allows any weapon/armor/accessories to be upgraded and customized. Using lens found from defeated enemies, you may have up to three different upgrade choices for that particular item. Those choices varies differently from CC Min/Max to status attributes to special effects.

The difficulty of this game is actually harder than the latest Tales installments (Tales of the Abyss, Tales of Legendia, Tales of Symphonia). Actually.. the difficulty in this game makes those three installments mentioned a joke in difficulty. Yes, the enemies are that hard in this game.

Difficulty-wise, it is very comparable to "Tales of Destiny 2" (ToD2). Enemy casters loves to cast magic to kill your members while their melee tries beat you up. Originally, all you need is three casters and a tanker to keep the enemies under control (like in ToD2). Unfortunately this does not work in this case due to another new feature: Pass-Through.

Enemies can now run pass the frontlines (if you don't defend to block their way) to get to your casters at the back. This opens a huge vulnerability to your casters to melee attacks BUT also enemy casters will be nuking at the same time too. Hence to solve this dilemma, it is advisable to assure you have a balanced party such as having two melees (first melee for up front, the second melee as an in-between your first melee and casters).

Of course this tactic could be done to them also.. but the enemies tend to protect each other so you must be aware.

Resist and Weakness is very important in this game. Resist a certain type of attack and able to deal more than double damage if that is the enemy's weakness can spell life or death, especially on the higher difficulties. Also status effects is important to prevent since falling asleep or being paralyzed means the enemies will have an easy time killing you.

Overall, the new battle system is very fun. While the beginning seems to be lacking due to the low amount of CC, later games is a blast as you can create your own custom combos with any attacks, spells or techniques if you met the required CC to perform it. Enemies are very smart and you must play your best especially on the higher difficulties if you want to win. This means making sure you have good elemental resists as well as exploiting their weakness. Also making sure you have the correct status check equipped would be needed too.

Puzzles in this game are average and most does not require any knowledge of Japanese (although it does help). The difficulty factor isn't as easy as "Tales of the Abyss" but it isn't as nerve-wrecking as "Tales of Symphonia". Some of the puzzles includes finding some keys, moving boxes and getting through some maze.

-GRAPHICS- [08]
{Breakdown: Graphics- B, Animation/Cutscenes- B, Full Motion Videos- B}
Graphic-wise the nice coloring and design is good.. the characters sprites looks great too.

Dungeon looks aren't too bad but it does not have the wow factor.. although I must admit some are badly designed as the way it looks, you would assume it is a dead-end when it is not (you can get stuck if that happens).

Ah, the outworld is not the prettiest but it is a huge improvement compared to the other Tales outworld. There's also interactive stuff you can do too (like kicking a rock.. minigame!).

Magic and techniques in this game are pretty. It does get pretty intense when you see tons of techniques and magic flying all over the screen though.

-Composition- [08]
{Breakdown JPN: Background Music- B, SFX- B, Voice- A, Memorable- 20%}
It's amazing to hear some familiar music in remix and enhanced fashion (especially coming from playing ToD2). While the tracks are mainly from the original Tales of Destiny-PSX game, there are new additional themes added in here too!

From the outworld "Crooked Sight" to my favorite town theme "A Snowscape" (which I loved from ToD2) it really puts the mood for those locations. Battle themes such as "Justice and an Edge" and "Rebel against Destiny" gives me a fighting mood in the fun-filled battles. Last, let's not forget "I feel so happy today".. a great happy-fun theme making cutscene events.. happy!

Aside from that, there really is no dungeon theme or any others that were memorable.

Great voice acting, from Stan's mindless thoughts to Chelsea's infatuation. Really well done.

-REPLAY- [HIGH]
{Breakdown: Extra Difficulties- A, Secret Moves- A, Bonus Dungeons- B, Collectors- B, NewGamePlus- A}
As a Tales game there is bound to be replayability and this is no exception.

This time it is different as there is no grade shop. Instead you have an option of choosing six different "effects" when you start a New Game+. These effects includes lowering gravity (to allow better air combos), single party mode (only one character in battle but doubles CC) and more. Game data such as Narikiri Dolls, play time, count usage, Definite Strikes and more are carried over though.

Along with the New Game+, there are two extra difficulties (Evil and Chaos) as well as secret moves and an dungeon that can be accessed!

Speaking of collectors and extras, you can go to Namco's Tales of Destiny Japan website to play the minigames! Beating the minigames allows you to earn some passwords which unlocks a lot of extra features such as one of Stan's techniques as well as skits cards and more!

Those are not the only minigame as Destiny has its own minigames too! From archery shooting to drum beating.. there are some pretty interesting surprises from playing those games!

Namco really did a great job in making this game fun. Having minigames in-game and on the official website (to unlock cool stuff) as well as making the New Game+ different from its norm but yet fun still.

-THE FINAL GRADE- 09 / 10 JPN (9.6)
In the end, one would wonder what the definition of a remake should be when "remaking" a game. Namco answered it with an example that should be set as a standard. Improved graphics, excellent new battle system, customizable plus fun upgrading with Swordian Devices and Rereise, remixed music, good graphics, great voice casting and of course lots of replayability via NewGame+ and minigames on their website.

Aside from the usual save-the-world story there really isn't too much of a negative from this game.

If gamers think 2D battle system RPGs is dead.. they are wrong. Tales of Destiny Remake is living proof that games are still fun and just as superior in every way. This is definitely one game RPG import fans should not miss out on.

Summary (JPN):
+ Battle System, MiniGames (website + in-game), Replayability, Difficulty
- Ok storyplot, decent music, cheesy final boss (if unlocked)

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 12/26/06