My First Introduction to Namco Tales Games
I really enjoyed playing Tales of Destiny 2. It was a way better game than the Gamespot review score gave it. It is an old school RPG with decent in game graphics and great animated cut scenes. The animated cut scenes provide a better picture of the characters and are used for key events in the storyline. It is funny because I started playing this game on a SDTV and then finished it on the HDTV where the poorer game resolution was obvious, but you get used to it.
The game has a great story about heroes uniting to save 2 interconnected worlds. The game spans three discs. The storyline is hard to follow at times, but makes more sense the further along you get. There are some great storyline twists that keep you interested. I enjoyed exploring both worlds and later in the game both world's oceans.
The characters are memorable. There are four main characters to your party with two additional characters added later on that you can switch to. One of the additional characters that you meet and control later on in the game is annoying and only states the same two-line sentences the whole time. The voice acting was very well done and there is quite a lot of it throughout the game.
The gameplay is definitely where the game shines. It has a very intuitive combat system that lets you directly control the main character and indirectly control the other three members of your party. You fight with the main character by swinging your sword (X), blocking ([ ]), or skills (O). The other characters of your party fight on their own, but you can input what spells to cast, different fighting strategies, and so on. While your battling the enemy with your sword (hack and slash), you can direct your other characters to cast a combat spell or use an item or just let them combat on their own. You get spells by finding and having Craymels join your party. They are elementals (water, earth, fire, etc.) that you encounter throughout the game. You level up your Craymels to get better magic spells the more you use them.
I highly recommend this game to anyone who is a RPG fan.