Undeserving of such a low score, Tales of Destiny is a solid old-school RPG that is worth a look for fans of the genre.
User Rating: 8.3 | Tales of Destiny (PlayStation the Best) PS
Tales of Destiny is a very enjoyable RPG. While not strong graphically, it is the gameplay that makes this RPG worth a playthrough. Gameplay: Like any Tales game, this game has the classic linear based movement battle system. Your characters move freely along a line and fight the enemies on that same line all in real time. There are also random battles. Battles take place on a single line of movement, and so depending on which characters you can use, sometimes you can win simply by sitting back and taking out your enemies with archers at range. The battle system is real time, not turn based, and incorporates lots of skills, which take Tech Points, or TP, to use. These skills range from utterly useless to unfairly strong, and are essential to win battles. Magic in this game also seems to be rather unusually strong, and is worth using in every situation. To assist you in the quest are "Swordians". These are swords that are essentially characters in themselves. They often speak during the quest, giving advice on how to proceed, or providing comical relief. These Swordians also level up if you continue to use them. While many walkthroughs say to buy new swords and use them, it was often that my Swordians were so levelled up that they were far superior to any conventional weapons. Not every character has a Swordian, but those that do not, make up for it in sheer strength. You also have many ways to heal yourself. There is magic, and there are items, but also food. You can put various foods in your food pack, and as you walk on the world map, it will heal all your characters a certain amount of HP and then disappear. It's a rather good way to allow you to do a lot of leveling up, which you may need to do often. The storyline is adequate, but its nothing new. There are several interesting things added into it, such as the Swordians, but apart from that there isn't any real meaty stuff to sink your teeth into storywise. Graphics: Graphically, Tales of Destiny does not impress. If you have played Tales of Phantasia on the Super Famicom, these graphics are basically the same. If Namco had done something to improve the graphics, the game would not have suffered so much from the low score. Sound: The music of Tales of Destiny is honestly some of the best I have heard on the PS1, whilst a lot of it is midi, not orchestrated, it is very well done and worth listening to. It is not a game that will disappoint you in the sound department. Value: Around 18$ used for this game is a good value, but it's not really worth multiple playthroughs. Tilt: Tales of Destiny is probably the most underrated game I know of on Gamespot. Whilst it may not impress graphically, the awesome gameplay, great soundtrack, and lots of nifty goodies are all enough to keep you playing for a while.
