Tales of Destiny

"Better than the first?.....no.....but still great!!!"

Remember the days when new ideas of battle systems for RPGs were spreading like wildfire? Its gone now, cause most ideas are taken. But this is one that will always be one of a kind. No one has ever ripped this system off!! And it's the best one out there!! Not better than the first though....



Story: 9/10 - The story in this game is somewhat unique. It takes after the first tittle: Tales of Phantasia (super Famicom), it was the biggest snes cart ever- 48 mbits -and used vioce overs with text. It's about an ancient race of people that went to war. The arch enemie - Kronos - lives in an outer shell earth. And waits for the perfect time to awaken and revive the outer shell in this sequel. You - stahn - must gather with your new found friends and eventually gather the help of ancient ''living swords'' and defeat this ancient lord of ruin.


Graphics: 8/10 - This game's graphics were almost EXACTLY the same as it's snes counterpart. Luckily, the snes game was rated the most advanced graphcal snes game in japan- even better than Chrono Trigger!- but taking the step up to the psx should have improved the graphics. It only upgraded the spells, and the longevity. The graphics are still awesome!


Gameplay: 10/10 - This is the only game series that used this unique battle system. It almost reminds me of street fighter. It's a 2d side scrolling battle where you use menus only for magic and item healing. All reg. attacks are done with buttons on the controller! You can even get an item to do special attacks like street fighter! By pressing a certain code on the directional pad! Ex: <<>>< executes the Kienz aytac, or kick attack. If you collect a special item called the channeling ring, you can have a second controller play as the second character that was peviously played by the cpu. Just like in secret of mana!


Sound: 7/10 - the sound is the only disappointment. In the jap. version, all conversation was speach not text, like in ToP. They should have taken the time to record american voices like in grandia or septerra core. The music is pretty good, but the battle music can get repetitive and anoying. The Leon battle music is awesome though. They also kept the jap. voices for battle attacks. Thats where I got Kienz aytac. I thinks that's japaneese for kick attack.


Replay value: 9/10 - most rpgs suck when it comes to replaying them. NOT THIS ONE!! You will never acomplish eveything in this game unless you're a complete expert. If you equip a different sword to a person that had a diferent sword than it, he will lear diferent magic attacks, for example. I played through it at least 5 times before I started acomplishing anything drastic.


Overall: 9/10 - Don't get me wrong, this game was awesome, one of my favorite psx games of all time, but I was just expecting more because of how great the snes prequel was. The ending was short too. But I do urge you, go out and buy this game!!, or at least rent it. Believe me, it's worth the 40 bucks!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 05/18/00, Updated 05/18/00