If you liked the Original, you'll love the remake. Never played Original? You'll love it if you're a "Tales of...&
The gameplay has a lot of features to it. The battle system is one of the most noticed changes on the remake as they added an aerial assault to the system. You can dash into monsters that are airbourne and unleash any type of combo you wish to perform. Another new feature to the battle system is that it doesn't have the TP system as your usual "Tales of..." Series. Instead it has what it's called "Chain Capacity" or CC for short. CC is just about everything, it's your regular attack, your techs, your spells, Square + Down activity, and some other holding Square activity. Although using the Square + Down decreases 2 CC, but adds 3 making it add just 1 more, it also can be used to recover Hp, status effect, or increase attack, defense, magic attack and defense, and some more through the use of certain accessories. Not only do accessories provide those activity, it can also be refined to improve attack, defense, magic attack and defense, HP, accuracy, evade and concentration. Now back to the CC I need to explain. CC are increased through the weapons. For Swordians, they can be increased by adding Min and Max CC if available. For non-swordian wielders, it's increased through refining. Now say you look at the status screen and your CC says "3-7," it means your minimum is 3 and maximum is 7. Now when you start the battle, you start with your Minimum CC, and restored through action(I don't ever recall restoring CC through standing still). So if you have 3 CC and you use Majinken(Which takes 2 CC) once, it'll be at 4 when it's restored or take the same situation and you use Attack and Majinken, It will also be at 4. Using Majinken once at whatever CC has the same effect as pushing Square + down once. One great thing I love is that you can spam the same skill over and over again, provided you have enough CC. So when I played, I got 14 CC, which means I can spam Majinken, Koga Hazan or any other 2 CC skills 7 times. A new feature only for Stan is that he can use his spells in the air, only provided that you use a tech that goes in the air and that it hits the enemy(Doesn't work if enemy guards), Stan can use Fireball in the air but will be turned into Fire Shot. All 3 CC spells are the same and all 4 CC spells are the same in the air. You can combine all these skills and go into a Hi-Ougi too.
Speaking of Hi-Ougis(actually called "Blast Calibur"), everyone, except one, has at least 2 Hi-ougis. Some BCs are gained through leveling and some are gained through certain event. They are divided by levels 1 and 2, some even got level 3, and also Secret Blast Caliburs. BCs are very easy to pull off, it can be used during any of your CC point. You push or hold L1 after performing a tech. Pulling off a BC is just like pulling off Stan's spells in the air, except doesn't require you to be in the air(Although Stan first BC is different when performed in the air than on the ground, everyone else performs in on ground to my knowledge so far). When you do have a BC, you'll have a bar below your HP. If that bar is full you can use a BC. Level 1 uses 1 bar(Blue), Level 2 uses 2 bars(Green) and Level 3 uses 3 bars(Red).
Now for the map and the menu screen. Your map is just like any other 3D "Tales of...." Series game, and going into battle is a random encounter. On your menu, you have your regular things like Techs, Equip, Food, Items, Options and Data. You also got new feature "Refine" where you can refine your equipments. Refining requires Lens, here you got your Rough Lens, Clear Lens, Blue Lens, Tough Lens and one more which I don't know the name to. Also just like the original, you can sell your Lens for gald. Swordians users don't require their Swords to be refined. They are improved by going to equip, click on the weapon and there you can add or remove certain weapon stats, like Attack, accuracy, Magic attack, CC and some other things.
The Graphic and Sounds has a big major improvement. The pictures on gamespot pretty much explains all your Graphics. Sounds have remixed music too. Voice acting is always great especially with Tomokazu Seki as Stan and the popular Midorikawa Hikaru as Leon. If you want more sound hearage, go to the Youtube site and look for user Nore139 or here's your site to his page. He also has videos of him playing and there you can see most of the new features on this game. http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=Nore139
The story also has a little change. If you read the Tales of Destiny Comic, then it's almost close to that. But if you never read or heard of it, then the story has quite very noticeable changes made.
Basically, if you liked the PSX original version, you'll love this remake. And if you never played the original but really love the "Tales of...." Series or just a big fan of the series, you'll also love this game. The chances of this game being released in the U.S are very low, but if you have an import PS2 or the Magic slide disc and don't care about region and also really want to play this then you should really get this game. But if you got neither but still really wants to play this, you can buy the Magic Slide Disc. If you don't know where you can buy the Magic Slide or Tales of Destiny: Remake, Pm or email me.
Well, thank you for your time going through this review, I know it's really realy long, lol.