Has its flaws and missed opportunities, but still a solid and worthwhile game that is unfortunately underappreciated.
G R A P H I C S : The graphics.. oh my gosh the graphics. Of the 50 or so games I've played on the Playstation (almost all of them rpgs) Tales Of Destiny II is easily in the top 5 in terms of graphics. The diverse backdrops and sprites are highly detailed and crisply coloured in all their 2D glory. The character designs are- like in all Tales Of games, very pretty to look at. Even if Reid has a weird-looking top. Honestly, I prefer clean graphics like these even in comparision to some of the older 3D PS2 offerings. Anyway the graphics are great.
M U S I C / V A : The music is composed by Motoi Sakuraba. Imagine my dissapointment when it's not a total masterpiece like that of Star Ocean 2 and Valkyrie Profile. Even Golden Sun has a few more catchy tunes than this one. The OST of Tales Of Eternia mostly consists of forgettable tracks that while not offensively generic- are too often no more than average. Then the voice acting.. how can I explain it without expletives? It's not really acting. It's just bored people reading. I've heard worse and I'm sure there's worse out there.. but the bottom line is, for me? It's just not worth listening to all the same.
G A M E P L A Y/ M I S C - My opinion is mixed when it comes to the gameplay. First the battle system. It's like Star Ocean 2's only much better. Fast-paced button-mashing action. You control one character while your other three (who are easy to work with and have pretty good AI) fight alongside you. The difficulty is really light though, usually you just corner your enemy and whale on him/her and even if it's the final boss they'll go down without much of a fight. While there are some additional bosses that prove a bit complicated to deal with, the overall flow of the maingame is a cakewalk. The dungeons are often long- sometimes too long, considering the wealth of random battles. I ran away from at least 1/3 of them and suffered no penalty. There is the occasional fun puzzle to figure out (these are also very simple) but fun as they can incorporate some platforming mainstays now and then. The pacing is an uber-linear tread of dungeon/boss/town/cut-scene/repeat. The world is pretty big- actually there are two of them, and journeying everywhere would take around 60 hours. There aren't really any side quests. There are a wealth of mini-games but most of them are pointless offering little (or no!) reward and many only playable once. This is a dissapointment as some of them- like Whis- are really fun. There is one feature here though that I think should be put into every game- a listing in the menu of every item, every enemy, every recipe-- oh that's right I didn't mention you could cook ^^; just a minor side endeavor that makes healing between battles easier-- that you encounter. Anyway it offers something nice for the completists.
O V E R A L L.. In the end the game is just fun. Even With it's flaws (uber linearity, iffy story, useless mini-games and missed opportunities) it is still alot of fun to play. The graphics are beautiful, the characters are fun, and the battle system is refreshingly fastpaced. Exploring towns, clearing dungeons, defeating bosses, searching out all the nooks and crannies of Eternia- it's enjoyable, just not an unforgettable masterpiece. I don't regret playing it through, and reccomend it as a very good Playstation RPG.