Tales of Destiny 2

[Dracos]

Okay, few know but once long ago I ran a little amateur gaming review section on excess.  When excess caved in and my computer was stolen, I promptly retired from that.  Therefore unlike before this won't be highly organized reviews with scores on the various systems, but more general editorials on the video game at hand.

Figuring I just beat this game another time it makes a good starting point.

Tales of Destiny 2 is made by Namco, not triace as some would believe oddly enough.  It's the third game in the Tales series and a bit less than one would expect.  While I am currently unable to comment regarding the appropriateness of it's hidden dungeon (my maniac level games keep getting erased before I get there -_-.  Will have to play it through again to get it), it does keep up the utterly stellar battle system that has been the forte of the Tales series since it's super nintendo days.  It is a classic example of how one can have bad plot, bad art, bad characterization, and cliche villains; Yet still have a good game.

When I says that this game had a solid base to start off of, I really means it.  Besides the already existing fan-base and ideas from the previous Tales series, the excellent pretty much already designed battle system, and the solid gameplay, it really has little excuse to be anything but a spectacular game.  Unfortunately it falls far short of that.  While definitely a fun game, between it's plot weaknesses, failure to properly utilize programming flags, horrible character designs, and by far one of the ugliest air ship designs I've ever been subjected to (In fact, looking far worse than their artwork for the Tales of Phantasia air ship) it was far less than it should have been.  The summoning system in a word, stank.  I STILL don't think I've seen maxwell get summoned, simply because the odds of me NOT casting any time based spells for the time it takes to cast 10 space based spells is non-existent.  The flag system, mentioned a second ago, becomes utterly clear when you find your ship in a town... that you flew to.  Or even worse, when your submarines are parked at a town, surrounded by mountains, that you flew to.  Someone failed the logic check on that one.  Of course they might have been too busy drawing a map of the world on the sea floor.  Or the beautifully rendered "Tales of Destiny 2" logo also on the sea floor.

The characters are as a whole rather poorly drawn.  Particularly if you use the nifty little 'talk' option.  Here's an idea they had that they really flubbed.  It's an utterly brilliant way to allow people to REMEMBER what they are supposed to be doing after leaving the game on hiatus for months...  It's a really pity they slaughtered the feature.  Increadibly ugly art, completely unforgivable in light of the EXCELLENT FMV's they did, and horribly sound effects.  Plus occassionally they really wouldn't give you anything that really helps at all.  I mean, one shot to finally give the players a chance to ask the npcs who should KNOW stuff something and they botched it badly.  Real pity.

In the end, there are three saving graces that make this game one worth playing, if not a real collector item.

A)The battle system is stellar.  I've said it before, but the simplicity of the battle system combined with the strategy you could actually excercise made it an impressive system.  They've follow the DW example of keeping what works and expanding upon it only slightly each game.  Thus giving them an incredibly solid 2-d battle system.
B)You get to kill Valkyrie.  It might be noted from other areas but I hate Valkyrie.  As much as the game was sorta fun, the character was a doll.  Well, even if you liked valkyrie, it's fun to get to fight another game protagonist as an enemy.  It's also done well and one of the more challenging fights in the game.
C)Dhaos returns.  Now everyone OUGHT remember the king villain from ToP one.  The guy with the nifty glowing balls of flaming death around him.  He's a villain who just keeps coming and never quite stays down.  He also dresses spiffy and is quite the punk.  You don't have to fight dhaos (named Sekundos in this game >_<) but if you can it's a REALLY FUN FIGHT.  Especially because they allude to the previous games where Indignation (Otherwise translated Holy Wrath) was his downfall... and boy is it here.  If you manage to cast it at the right time you get perhaps the nicest end battle scene in the entire game.  In fact it makes the conclusion to the final battle anti-climatic because it's just that cool.

That ends Dracos' thoughts on ToD 2, Go out and play it.  ^_^

Dracos the Dark Heretic
Critiquing games across the cosmos

[Dracos]

I just realized I forgot something...

The arena.  This they screwed up....  BUT...  without spoiling it it's worth going through the whole thing.  The fight at the end is one of the most fun fights in the entire game.  Second just barely to Sekundos.  It's the kinda fight you always want from a sequel with new characters.

Fearless Leader

[Yuthirin]

I had ToD 1 for Playstation, and it was great, I loved the animation and the battle style was cool. I was so pissed when my stepbrother stole it and pawned it off at Babbages... >_<

[Anastasia]

*Spoiler warning*

While I am currently unable to comment regarding the appropriateness of it's hidden dungeon (my maniac level games keep getting erased before I get there -_-.  Will have to play it through again to get it),

You mean Nereid's Labyrith, right?  It's not much, except you get the opportunity to fight Regulus at the end of it.  He is the famous martial arts master that founded the Dojo Farah studied at hundreds of years ago.  Problem is, he's possessed by Nereid, so he has killer moves and high level magic. -_-.  By far the hardest battle in the game, it's a controller breaker.

B)You get to kill Valkyrie.  It might be noted from other areas but I hate Valkyrie.  As much as the game was sorta fun, the character was a doll.  Well, even if you liked valkyrie, it's fun to get to fight another game protagonist as an enemy.  It's also done well and one of the more challenging fights in the game.

Which game is this Valkyrie from?  The only game I can think of offhand is Valkyrie Profile, but I don't think Namco made it.

I just realized I forgot something...

The arena.  This they screwed up....  BUT...  without spoiling it it's worth going through the whole thing.  The fight at the end is one of the most fun fights in the entire game.  Second just barely to Sekundos.  It's the kinda fight you always want from a sequel with new characters.

Curious, what do you think they screwed up in the arena, Drac?  Myself, I though it was a nice miniquest, albeit a hard one.*

*At least on Disk 1, at any rate.  If I ever try to finish it on Disk 1 on Maniac, please shoot me and save me the insanity.

[Dracos]

Valkyrie was obviously from Valkyrie profile.  Whether Namco made it or not, i don't remember (And don't have the game in front of me at the moment to check.  I do know tri-ace worked on Valkyrie profile, but namco might have been the publisher).  Either way, she dressed, acted, and looked like the Valkyrie from that game.

Well...  The original arena from ToP 1 was always one on one fights.  Pretty much you'd always be overpowered by your opponents but it was entertaining because skill in one on one was most important.  Hell, I remember using the physical powerup technique not because of what it actually did but because it made me do a flip in the middle of it, allowing me to use it as a ditch dodge technique.  The emphasis on your own physical power compared to your enemies was far increased in ToD 2, with the multiple enemies on you.  Instead of being able to utilize one on one tactics, you pretty much had to be able to overpower a group (Because frankly running around didn't do much as they tended to group mages with fighters and ranged archer types a lot).  Effectively, I found this far less enjoyable then the original.

Fearless leader

[Anastasia]

I figured as much with Valkyrie, but I wasn't sure offhand...The doll comment alone should have done it. >_<

Myself, I found I preferred the one on many style of the ToD 2 battle arena.  It requires insane amounts of skill, speed, reflexes and a dash of luck to win the battles, a far cry from the cakewalk of an arena that was in ToD 1.
That, and the ***** and ***** fight kicked worlds of ass.

[Dracos]

But...the reason I found the last fight at the end of it so enjoyable was because it was virtually one on one.  The major 'chaos' factor of a lot of the earlier battles wasn't there.  Instead it was more of a game of chess, one on one.  I know on the harder modes you get two opponents (Which I've done) but it still doesn't get up to the annoyance of fighting five enemies on the screen at once by yourself.  I just didn't find that as fun.   This was accented by the fact you pretty much had to win on the first try to get the best prizes.  Whoever thought that up in an minigame of that difficulty should be shot.  Particularly due to the inclusion of some enemies that were virtually impossible without preknowledge of their weaknesses *Cough Cough The Golems of Virtual immunity to all but one type of weapon Cough*

Little quirks like that might have been fun for a single arena 'circuit'...but really got tiresome being the entire Arena.

Fearless Leader