Tales of Destiny II

"A fun game, but it doesn't live up to its predecessors"

Preceded by the Japanese Tales of Phantasia and the original Tales of Destiny, Tales of Destiny II has some pretty big shoes to fill. The question is, does it? In some ways, yes it does, but in others, no.

Gameplay

Tales of Destiny II picks up where its predecessor left off as far as battle system goes. Your characters walk around the world and field maps encountering random battles just like your Standard RPG. However, once you enter in these battles, Tales of Destiny II becomes anything but your standard RPG.

Battles in Tales of Destiny II take place in a real-time, 2-D battlefield. Actions are not selected, rather, just like an action game; each button has a different effect. You can guard, attack, use a skill (combo of control pad and button changes skill and attack), or open the menu. You move and attack one character, while the others are controlled by the computer. You are able to adjust their AI or change their strategy and even tell them to use a skill whenever you choose. It’s a rather engaging experience that will keep you active through every battle in the game.

Another interesting concept of ToDII is TP. In the original ToD, characters had HP, MP, and TP. MP has been eliminated and now skills that would have used MP use TP. TP is used for Skills by some characters and Magic by others. At the end of each battle some TP is restored, making it a bit more expendable than most RPGs. Basically, your characters will be divided into two groups for battle, the ones that attack and the ones that cast magic. The roles are clearly defined and are impossible to change.

An Interesting side-note about Tales of Destiny II is the lack of swords. Reid is the only character that uses swords, and he also uses Spears and Axes. I guess Namco must have thought that they overdid the sword thing in Tales of Destiny. Heh.

Every thought that it was a little weird that RPG characters never ate? Well, you can solve that problem in Tales of Destiny II! Throughout the game you are able to acquire various recipes from the “Wonder Chef” and cook them. Each dish does various things, but the basic concept is to restore HP or TP. You shouldn’t overeat though, and the characters won’t eat several times in a row. In order to cook, you have to consume the necessary ingredients. If you don’t have all the ingredients, you don’t get to cook that dish.

I guess magic is the last thing on our list of things to cover. Magic in Tales of Destiny II is acquired by using craymels from inside a craymel cage. When two craymels level up and are in opposite Craymel cages, you are able to Fringe the two Craymels to gain a new spell. That spell can only be used so long as the two craymels that fringed to acquire it remain in opposite craymel cages. This forces the player to make some tough decisions and sacrifices as to which spell they want. That’s not all; after a spell of a certain element has been cast enough the Greater Craymel of that element can be summoned to attack the enemy for you.
Story

Tales of Destiny II takes place on the world of Eternia (hence the Japanese name, Tales of Eternia). In the world of Eternia, there are two distinct worlds, Inferia and Celestia. The worlds are separated by the orbus barrier and held together by the Seyfert Ring. At the beginning of the Story, we find our hero, Reid, has just finished his hunting for the day when he sees Farah, his friend at the lookout. Suddenly, an object comes crashing out of the sky and crash lands nearby. When they find the object, it turns out to be ship! What’s more, they find the girl that was in the ship. Problem is, she’s speaking in some unintelligible speech that neither Reid nor Farah can make heads or tails of. So, after some controversy, Reid and Farah decide to go and find Keele, their childhood friend who is now a student at Mintche University, to see if he can understand this foreign girl.

Tales of Destiny II’s basic story premise is good. It has all the makings of a great RPG story. Unfortunately, this potential is almost wasted. ToD II’s biggest story problems come from not elaborating enough. There are so many things in ToD II’s story that I would have liked to have been explained more. As they are now, they don’t make sense. This brings me to another story problem, plot holes. It so aggravating when they say one thing, but then have events occur that don’t make any sense based on the information given. A lot of the problem is just more of them not telling us enough, but some are just outright contradictions.

My final problem with ToD II’s story is how it all plays out. If the end of the game went at the same pace as the beginning, the game would double in play time. As it stands now, though, you spend all your time getting to the conflict, and then it’s over almost immediately.

Graphics

The graphics in Tales of Destiny II are neither bad nor exceptional. The World map is 3-D, but the rest of the game is sprites and drawings. I personally don’t have a problem with sprites, so I don’t mind ToD II’s graphic style. The spells are nicely done and each weapon has its own look. The world and field map graphics are much better than ToD, but then again, I liked the deformed battle sprites of the original better.

Each to their own, I suppose.

Sound

Bleh. There were only one or two tracks in the ENTIRE game that I liked. This is bad for me. I usually like almost every track and love a few of them. It’s sad that they couldn’t get better composers than what they did. It’s really disappointing.

Replay

Tales of Destiny II is short. You can complete everything that you need to complete in twenty hours, and you can have EVERYTHING by thirty. So, by RPG standards, it’s short. Combine that with the fact that when you beat it your able to create a system file so you can start a new game with new features unlocked. For an RPG, Tales of Destiny II has a high replay value.

Summary

Tales of Destiny II had some great potential and some of that is scene. However, ToD II isn’t half the game it could have been had more effort been put into it. Don’t get me wrong, Tales of Destiny II is a great game and it is a solid choice for your Playstation RPG library. It’s just that it could have been so much more

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 12/07/02, Updated 12/07/02