Tales of Destiny II

"You have no excuse not to buy TOD2!"

Even though the Playstation 1 is dying, a lot of developers are trying to squeeze out some extra life by releasing some last minute Playstation RPG's. After FFIX and the Lunars, it seemed that PS1 owners were in a rather dry spell when it came to RPG's. That sad time is over because NAMCO has gone through great lengths to bring us the latest installment of its beloved ''Tales'' Series.

''Tales of Destiny 2'' is the latest game in the series, and it delivers in a big way. This is an honest-to-goodness RPG game, that will take you back to the days of Xenogears and Star Ocean 2. It has a very classic feel, which is missing in today's 3-D graphics dependent RPG games. Now some newer gamers who were raised on FFVII and VIII might be turned off by this, but for a lot of older gamers like me, it's just the shot in the arm that we need!

Story- The story is very lighthearted, but you WILL know when there are serious parts. It is nowhere near as complicated as Square or Konami RPG plots. There is not a lot of drama, just clear fun. You play a couple of small town kids who happen upon a mysterious girl from another planet who was sent to prevent some major calamity. Now this sounds very cliche, but NAMCO handles the story very nicely. You can follow it with no problems, there are no senseless deaths for shock purposes, no wasted dialogue, just pure classic RPG storytelling.

Gameplay/Battles - The gameplay will remind you a LOT of Star Ocean 2 there are

*Real Time Battles- Think Streetfighter Alpha and Tekken, with jump-in attacks and combos. basic slash and thrust moves can be linked and chained with skill arts to form high hit combos. The battle system is BRILLIANT. You will find yourself just wandering around fighting battles because they are just so much fun, you may actually forget that you have a mission to complete! There are also SUMMONS! Think Ifrit and Undine... THIS BATTLE SYSTEM ALONE IS THE REASON ALONE TO BUY THIS GAME!

*Mini Games- There are a healthy amount of Mini-games and sidequests to keep you busy in between battles and story, most are really fun. ACTION is the key word here, you actually have to use your hands AND your brain.

*Cooking - Just as Star Ocean 2, you get the ability to cook meals that have various helpful status effects. You get cooking Skill levels that increase everytime you cook an item. there is even an ''Iron Chef'' contest in the game. Very nice!

Normal RPG Stuff - Treasure chests, leveling up, dungeon walking, field map, items, armor, weapons, special items, sound test...all this great rpg stuff is there, there's no weird new system with a funky name, just all the elements that make an RPG an RPG. Many companies have forgotten these elements!

Music/Sounds/Voices - The Music in the game is very nicely done, very similar to Star Ocean 2. it is not GREAT, but each area is matched perfectly with a track. The sounds (punch, kick, slash) are good, and pretty solid, you have the option of turning off each aspect(music, sounds) separately so if you don't like either, just shut em' off. The voices are not too good, well the actual vocals are, but the way these silly kids read the lines are unacceptable! The way they read is like wet popcorn...no fun at all. Maybe some more emotion would have been better, Meredy's voice is really well done though.

Overall the game is pretty long, but you actually control it's length depending on if you want to do all the side quests and mini-games to perfection. Also you might just find yourself playing battles and forgetting all about your mission(the battles are really fun and you won't want to stop fighting). If you didn't like Tales of Destiny I, don't worry, this keeps all the good stuff from TODI and improves it in every way. There is absolutely NO REASON for people who have a PS not to buy this game. Namco went through a lot of trouble to get us this game, plus we got it late due to unfortunate circumstances. Don't wait until this limited game disappears, get it now or you will be upset later on when you can't find it. trade in some old games if you have to, but get this game now!

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 09/26/01, Updated 09/26/01