Tales of Destiny (1997)

I get it why so many love this chapter. It's a game with a lovable cast (Philia and Leon my beloved ♡), the 'original' CC Battle System (I'm fond of it thanks to Graces) and interesting dungeon with riddles (apart the final one, ugh).
The pacing is a bit off, just like in many old games. There's a lot of backtracking, but I didn't feel it so annoying because I was genuinely interested in Stahn and other Swordians story. It helps that the protagonist is an optimist and funny one.
Another good thing that helped me not to feel this bad pacing is the Skit System. Some skits are quite remarkable, especially the ones that depict better the relationship between Master and Swordians. As you progress through the game you always want to know more!
The story is nothing new, some plot twist are obvious, but you can't help to feel sad for the characters. A particular scene left me in tears.
I never played the original Tales of Destiny, but the difference visually speaking is enormous!!

So far definitely enjoying the characters in this one more than Phantasia, but combat in general less. The Ally AI is braindead and will not attack enemies if you are in front of them, and for some reason your basic combo is a single hit. Thankfully Stahn, Philia, and especially Rutee are maintaining my engagement, as they are much more fully personified than the old cast. There's also this weird thing narratively where every city you travel to is struggling with one particular social issue across all people. This city has a sexism problem, this one has a terrible class divide, this one is xenophobic. The game doesn't do any commentary beyond "this is bad" and the characters don't really do anything about it so its more a funny game of "guess the social issue coming next" than any kind of thematic relevance.

You know, this wasn't too bad. I'll try to be short as there's not much to say, really. Decent story that starts pretty light and comical, your typical RPG fare, then gets pretty dark. Lots of the second half feel out of place, narrative-wise. Fighting is fun, but there's just way too much of it. I could've lived with half the encounter rate, honestly. The translation is good, graphics are fine, music is largely forgettable except for a few interesting bops. There's an optional sixty floor dungeon called the Tower of Druaga based on the Namco arcade game of the same name. This was a fun little diversion, containing some of the hardest content and best treasures in the game, but then making the rest of the story line trivially easy. All in all, pretty decent, just a bit on the long side for what it is.

This is the first video game that I had ever purchased. I didn't even own my own playstation. My brother had one, and I had intended to use his, but you know how little boys can be. He found that my desire to own and play my own things was an afront to him and so I had to go and buy my own playstation. Was quite awhile before I got to playing this.

Its a great game, the story is a little long, but the little nuances and the sort of small instances where there is not much story to be told are kind of a breath of fresh air, because sometimes it will be a good 10 minutes of explaining text.

Stahn Ailerion (I think I spelled that right) is a pretty good protagonist. You start out as a stow-away and find a sword wrapped up in chains on an old airship called the Draconis. After having been discovered, they force you into swabbing the deck for the rest of the flight. As you are tending to the deck, monsters invade the ship and begin killing the crew mercilessly. You avoid them as best you can and find your way back to the storage room to find the only weapon you are aware of. As you lift the sword from its prison, a voice speaks out to you, calling you a moron, and telling you it hasn't been able to talk to anyone else in ages. You and the sword work your way to an escape pod and land in a snowy mountain plain. Your journey begins.

Its a great game. The idea of swords that can talk was pretty great. I like that there are characters who are weapons. Leon Magnus is a pretty cool dude. I wish they had brought the sequel to this game to America. If you play Tales of Destiny 2 (Which is really Tales of Eternia) there is a quiz that has information from this game. ToD2 is a pretty solid game as well.

As much as I love this game I was never quite able to finish it. There are 2 major arcs. The first one ends with you coming back to your hometown and sleeping, and suddenly bad things begin to happen again. The second one which I have never been able to finish climaxes with a layer of land wrapped around the planet's stratosphere as a dungeon, with about 4 dungeons, each containing a different colored crystal, each dungeon heralding its own puzzle mechanic that you have to work through. This over 100 hours in. I couldnt deal with it anymore. I laid down my controller as my wretched body could take no more. I admitted defeat.

I ended up youtubing the ending. I've restarted this game more than 10 times. It just wasn't meant to be. That being said I do enjoy the characters and the battle system in this game. If only the ending werent so long winded.