Tales of Destiny

"An underrated game that is in fact a VERY good game."

An underrated game that is in fact a VERY good game.

Tales of Destiny is a very 'worthy' game. By 'worthy', I mean very good. Namco's attempt to make a RPG (Role-Playing Game) was successful in both ways: the unique gameplay system and a lot of mood-fitting sound/music. This game is somewhat long, and it was only on one single disc. This game is one of the most underrated games of all times; it wasn't very popular. Most people who will play this will remember the 'Tales' series from Tales of Phantasia (the 'prequel' or so people say, on the Super Nintendo Console). When I first got this game, I thought it was garbage due to the fact that it's graphics were horrible and consisted of 2D-based figures and a bad flat background...but graphics doesn't make up a game, does it? I guess we all look at games by their graphics. Maybe it's because of our first sense--our sight.

Story

Really, not much to put here. In Tales of Destiny, You start out as Stahn Aileron, who decides he wants to get famous and earn lots of money. He then becomes a stowaway who gets caught by some crewmen on a giant dragon ship called Draconis. He finds a mysterious talking sword called Dymlos and is led to the beginning of his epic adventure. Stahn also meets several companions on his trip who also have swordians. This leads to a strange adventure that Stahn and his companions all find out what it is really all about.

Graphics

This was the downside of Tales of Destiny. It was all 2D with some 3D rendering moves and attacks. The 2D sprites were very detailed and nice. This is Namco's trademark for their '2D sprites on 2D flat backgrounds'. The patterns of each character's movements were very unique. From the cape of Stahn blowing in the wind, and the water splashing when you step on it--it's all good. The only thing I disliked and thought it was bad about it was that the game's outside world looked like a mixture of slabbed paint. It was even worse than Super Nintendo graphics! The graphics was the part where most reviewers of this game rated most poorly. The anime intro, which was a Full Motion Video (FMV) was good, although it wouldn't hurt to put more FMVs. If Namco would have put more FMVs, it would have spice the game up a little. The sword and movement effects were nicely done. The 3D polygonal spells were poorly done. They looked like it was rendered, then slaughtered using a cheap paint program, if you know what I mean.

Gameplay

The gameplay system in Tales of Destiny was the best part of the game. It was a side-scroller action featuring the Linear Motion Battle System (LMBS). This means all battles are in real-time battle. Everyone really moves and attacks based on real-time. You control the main character while the other characters are computer-controlled. This was the same in Tales of Phantasia. Actually, Tales of Phantasia for the Super Nintendo is what made this game popular. In Tales of Destiny, they changed and added more things such as more attacks and skills that Tales of Phantasia had. You have three ways of attacking: normal or none, special move (gained by leveling up), or spells. Some of the special move attacks were used with up circle, right circle, down circle, etc. You would encounter enemies in two ways: random battles, and running into the sprites. There are just too many battles in ToD, which you have to fight a lot. Luckily, there is a retreat command which is the same as escape, but you can always escape in Tales of Destiny; it just takes time, so be patient. There are a low number of sidequests and mini-games in Tales of Destiny. It would have been more fun if Namco decided to put more of them.

I had a very good experience playing this game.. You have the feeling of ''wanting to play more and wanting to find out what happens next''. I couldn't put my controller down for about one minute. The only bad thing about the gameplay was that it was hard to control your other characters. Sometimes that can be very annoying.

Music/Sound

Another strong point in Tales of Destiny was it's music and sound effects. Each spell had it's own voice dialogue. Tales of Destiny has over 90 musical tracks, most of them which are extremely well-done. The sound effects were nicely done in 32-bit format for the PlayStation. The battle music was above average and other tracks were excellent. I like the music at the beginning of the game. There is also a musical jukebox in the menu where you can access to hear different tracks played throughout the game; as well as choose your volume settings for your background music (BGM), or sound effects (SE).

Controls

The controls here are pretty basic for this game. You had four directions of movement: up, down, left, right. Since it was 2D sprites and background, the controls were well-suited for this kind of scenario. During battle, it's very easy to do combos and attacks that not only look great, but make the game much better. Controls are somewhat an important part when playing a game, because you spend about 99% of the time pressing on the controller.

Replayability Value

In my 'most' humble opinion, this game was very addictive and quite long. A master gamer could possibly not find ALL the items and secrets. If you play this game without cheating or a FAQ/Walkthrough, you'll discover many more secrets on the second or third time playing. There is a BIG secret in this game that is very hard to find.

Final Comments

This game was very well-done. The battle system is one of a kind. I have never played a game where you could control your own characters in battle by attacks. This game just simply rules. I had a wonderful time playing it. Only thing that disappoints me is that the game was a bit lagged, as in 'slow'...

But this game has much to offer, and I can see why most reviewers rated it poorly. The dungeons and puzzles are quite challenging and this should keep most gamers satisfied.

--AcidicRage

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The Ratings
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Story: 8.6/10

This so-called 'Swordian' concept is a first. The plot gets better as the game progresses. Namco did a good job on the storyline.

Graphics: 7.7/10

2D on flat, but nice hand-drawn backgrounds---Makes sense. The anime FMV intro to the game is about average. Good 2D sprites. Everything looks a bit like old SNES graphics, though.

Gameplay: 9.6/10

Superb gameplay system. Gotta' love the LMBS. Real-time battle plus the different combo attacks and skills really bring out Namco's surprisingly good trademark.

Music/Sound: 8.9/10

Above RPG-standard. Lots of good tunes that you'll get stuck in your head. Leon's Victim of Fate is fantastic. Good in-battle attack voices, too.

Replayability Value: 7.0/10

Probably no more than playing it two times. The replayability kind of wears down when you play it the second time. But, there's some good secrets hidden in this game.

Overall Score: 9.2/10

(The overall score is not an average and is rounded to fit the GameFAQs score.)

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 10/23/00, Updated 09/24/01