Tales of Destiny

by Namco

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00002STPH
• Media: Video Game
• Release Date: July 20, 1999
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #12,762 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)

Product Description

GameSpot Review

As with the Mario 64 and Tomb Raider phenomena before it, the market has been flooded with RPGs since Final Fantasy VII was released in the US. While America's RPG drought has ended, a hidden plague of less-than-satisfactory RPGs lurks amongst the good ones. Namco's Tales of Destiny is one of those RPGs that should've been left abroad.

Tales of Destiny is the sequel to Namco's Super Famicom RPG, Tales of Phantasia. Taking place in the same world, Tales of Destiny centers around a rag-tag team of youths who uncover.... OK, sparing you the details, there is absolutely nothing original about the story in Tales of Destiny. In addition to a stale and exceedingly slow-moving story, you can also expect boring, moldy characters and dry, musty dialogue. To start, the story takes several hours to "take off," which isn't a problem in itself, but the speed of liftoff is slow compared with any respectable RPG. Namco's pacing of the game is neither rewarding nor predictable, with sparsely used major battles and painfully slow character development. In terms of playtime, Tales of Destiny is a monster of an RPG, but the lack of a compelling story will make the game seem at least twice as long - not a good thing. Even after the story has "picked up," players wander from town to town to hear the next batch of cracker-thin dialogue, fighting monsters every other step of the way. Nothing in the game stands out, rather blending into an endless tapestry of tedium.

Tales of Destiny's one unique feature is its real-time battle system and many of the trappings therein. Played like a side-scrolling Secret of Mana, you control every aspect of the lead character's attack in real time while the other three characters attack on their own. Holding up and hitting the attack button will cause the onscreen ego to do an upward aerial attack. Likewise, holding down will result in a jab. Different monsters are more susceptible to different kinds of attacks, and strategic combination of attacks and spells is key to winning. Battle can be paused at any time to change your teammates' attack AI or ask them to use spells or items. In addition to spells, you also have special sword combos that are executed in battle with another button. The developers must have realized that the game's battle system was the only thing they had going for them, accordingly giving the game a fairly annoying encounter rate to increase the time spent in battle. Thanks to this encounter rate, the initially cool battles become as tedious as the rest of the game.

Tales of Phantasia was one of the last big Super Famicom games in Japan, drawing headlines with a whopping 44-megabit cart size and, for the time, a huge amount of voice. Unfortunately, Tales of Destiny has no such technological buzz surrounding its release. Looking and sounding far too much like an SNES game, Tales of Destiny seems like it was originally intended to be a sequel on the SNES that got delayed well into the PlayStation's life cycle. While towns and other locations sport some decent art, the characters almost completely lack animation, unlike many of the more recent 2D RPGs. In battle, the characters are large but still lack noteworthy animation. Spell effects are also standard SNES fare, as well, relying on transparency and Mode 7-esque effects. The game's overworld is presented with the game's token polygons but looks hastily done, especially with the garish 2D sprites walking over it. Musically, Tales of Destiny has a series of peppy, generic RPG tunes that are as devoid of hummability as they are overplayed. The game's battles are accented with voices, but Namco didn't bother translating them from Japanese, so a majority of the players won't care or will opt to turn them off in the options menu.

Tales of Destiny isn't terrible but simply reeks of being on Namco's back burner for far too long. So little is exciting or new here that you are probably better off playing another RPG or two in this game's stead. --Peter Bartholow
--Copyright ©1999 GameSpot Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of GameSpot is prohibited. GameSpot and the GameSpot logo are trademarks of GameSpot Inc.

Manufacturer Description

Namco's first true RPG. Incorporating the elements that made Final Fantasy VII such a huge success on the PSX Namco is bringing the RPG back into the limelight. With beautiful animation and hours of intense gameplay this is sure to please every gamer not just RPG fans.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting way to play, December 4, 1999

By A Customer

= Durability:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Tales of Destiny (Video Game)

I've played too many games to even remember most of em' and I decided to buy Tales of Destiny due to an urge to have a new RPG. I wasn't sure of what to expect, I thought it'd probably be some lame no name chance out of nowhere like Tecmo's Secret of the Stars. But then I played it, now this game hit me pretty hard considdering what my idea of it was. I couldn't stop playing, I played this unique battle system and the storyline until I couldn't stay awake. I played this game for two and a half days streight. I didn't even do this for Final Fantasy 7 or Suikoden, this is a game that you wanna play more and more of. very powerful plot indeed but the graphics were certainly weak, I mean they were pretty bad(not as bad a Lunar Silver Star Story Complete's but still pretty weak.) However the music was the best part about the game I think that it beat out any other game's music. Most games have their strongpoints and that's it. Xenogears has the best plot I've ever seen. Suikoden has the best battle system I ever seen. Final Fantasy 8 has the best graphics I've ever seen. But Tales of Destiny have them all balanced out(cept the graphics). I'd reccomend this game to anybody accept the people who only play a game for it's graphics. ~Seth~

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Why isen't this game famous?, February 16, 2000

By A Customer

= Durability:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Tales of Destiny (Video Game)

I really would like to know why this game isen't famous. I didn't know anything about the game and didn't hear about it before or nothing. I love RPGs so I went to my rental store and looked at a bunch of games. I found this one and picked it up and looked at it. I said "Nah...I will just get Medal of Honor instead." Man is Medal of Honor a great game but then I rented this and loved it. The first reason I like it is because of the battles. You can actually walk up to them and swing your sword at them by pressing buttons and you get learn new skills to do really big moves (I guess you could call them limit breaks but you can use them as much as you want anytime you want until you run out of your points for magic). And you can have all of your characters fight at the same time so you and 3 other people can be pounding on one enemy. You can pick different stratagies on the battle menu. Like you can pick no spells so the computer people that are in your party won't use any spells. Which that is another reason why I like the game. You just control one person in the battle. 3 other people help you out using spells on there own and sometimes when the other people in your party gets really mad they will constantly use spells and let all of there energy out. I really didn't know what the guy was talking about on the review under the title of the game. He was talking like this was the worst ever. Everything he was saying about I disaggreed with. Another thing I like about the game is how the people treat you. They treat you like real life but maybe a little ruff. Don't worry I won't spoil anything. You can walking around town doing nothing and then you can help this girl out and she and another person will say "So......let's sit down somewhere to talk." And then you go in this place with a bunch of drunk people in it which is very humorous. You all talk and decide to go on journey. So then they rent you a place at the inn which is right next door. You go in there and fall asleep. The next morning you see yourself in bed still asleep and you see a bunch of ZZZZZZs about your head which makes you laugh at how cool the game is. Then you see the two girls come in and they talk together telling each other to wake you up. Then one of them walks up to you and kicks you in the face and yells wake up. After you wake up you go "HUH...HUH! Oh....Good Morn(yyyahhhhhnnnn)ing." And then one of the girls go "Your such a zombie." It's just a really really fun game. You go out in snow storms and dungeons and a bunch of places that you can just check out for the fun of it. I really don't why people say this game has such bad graphics. I just finished beating FFVIII and played this game and didn't think the graphics were bad at all. In fact I like the graphics on this game way better because they let you laugh sometimes when you see how they walk. You see your legs walk really fast just like on Charlie Brown. That's basically why I like the game soooooo much because of the fun graphics and the fun gameplay. If you want a fun game that will make you laugh play this. If you want a good game that will make you have different feelings play FFVII. BUY THE GAME! MAKE IT POPULAR!

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Ultimate Game For An Ultimate Era..., May 13, 2000

By A Customer

= Durability:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Tales of Destiny (Video Game)

Namco's Tales of Destiny was by far the greatest RPG I've ever played in my entire life. (13 years) When I first rented the game with my friend, I had supreme doubts, and I thought it looked terrible. But after renting it myself, I got hooked. I guess the battle system and the weaponry and characters got me. We continued renting it, and my friend and I both played it using the item that allows you to in the game. The graphics are ok, almost like SNES. If you like Final Fantasy Anthology, this is the game for you...