A couple of years ago, Arcade king NAMCO (Makers of Tekken and other fine games) decided to try its hand at RPGs and its first offering was a game called "Tales of Destiny". It cames across as a mediocre, arcade styled RPG which didn't exactly win it huge awards or massive amounts of fans. Not that it was a bad game, but it simply didn't have the depth or innovative genius behind it to make a big enough splash. It did however do well enough to justify a sequel...
And here we are, fast paced arcade action coupled with a 4 player melee combat system, okay CG animation sequences, hand drawn anime cut scenes and tons of voice overs. A interesting side note is that there is a more than coincidential similarity to an Enix game, Star Ocean 2, which is mostly in the music, but a lot of litte things stand out that remind me of it such as the cooking, fighting and the overall look and feel of the game. Namco has been known to work together with other companies, so I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if Enix has some mention in the games end credits. Or at least the group that put together Star Ocean (whose name escapes me at the moment).
Why it sucks: The battle system for starters! Unlike Star Ocean, the chaotic fights occur on a straight line where everyone stupidly charges one another and you button mash your way to victory or obliterate your enemies with special skills and magic assuming they don't get you in a pincer attack. This whole aspect unfortunately cheapens the game making it frustrating and awkward especially if you are used to picking out choices like "fight". >_< But I won't bash it in the least for making one way more involved in each enemy encounter... However, I will bash it for employing such a crappy method of a fighting system! Then there's Farah, the martial artist/farm hand, chick. Her annoying babble drives me nuts! And unlike Final Fantasy, ToD2 employs actual voice overs in the game! So just about anywhere you can pretty much expect to HEAR your characters as well as read their dialogue. But I've strayed too far, Farah's voice isn't the worst I've heard, but the annoyingly cheerful nonsense that pours out her mouth just doesn't seem to stop! But then... she's nothing compared to the little girl Pirate... ugh.
Why it rules: Well despite the few shortcomings this game has, there's tons of fun to be had here! Besides fighting, your characters cook (just like in Star Ocean...) and later in the first disc can bring their skills into the cooking arena! Woo-hoo! Then there's all the goofy stuff you'll hear people say, for instance if you speak to every inanimate object you going to get some strange (albeit rare) responses such as a Dojo student hiding in a desk drawer sobbing because he's afraid of the teacher's methods.
Personally, I like the music a lot! Definately a plus! While again, disturbingly like SO2's music, ToD2 stands out enough to differentiate itself and the music creates an occasional effect which is almost narcotic in a way in that it's very soothing, relaxing tunes will generate such a wonderful feeling... that the moment you get a random encounter, it's killed off the relaxing music and now you're more than ready to kill something! Not quite a plus, but it sure does motivate one towards violence. ToD2 is also quite lengthy, the 3 discs span well over 45 hours during which you're treated to some decent gameplay and a pretty good adventure overall. While the characters aren't always likeable (DIE KEELE!!!!!!!), there have been much wose that I've seen. And besides, the characters go through some fairly well done characterization the further through the game you go, heck you even get some romance goin' on! WOO! I don't know how many ways I can say a game is fun, but this one sure is. ^_^
Overall:It's really hard to go either way with this game, it simply screams "average". It's by no means a bad game (far from it actually), but it just doesn't measure up to Titles like Final Fantasy in terms of depth or playability (not to mention visuals), nor can it match the melee battles of Star Ocean. It just kind of floats betwixt and between a great game and an okay game. I really want to give this thing a better grade, but considering all the wowie zowie stuff I look for in games, I can't. Admittedly, it looks a lot better than say... the Lunar games, but it looks like something you'd have seen on the Sega CD and pales deathly next to say Legend of Dragoon or Final Fantasy 9. Not that visuals are all I look for (but they do help!!!) considering the library of good, but bad looking games I've got. In the end the game is good, if you liked Star Ocean you will probably enjoy this and for Anime/RPG freaks this is a must since it is right up your alley. A Fun game that doesn't do jack to push itself beyond what it is: An average anime RPG that follows a basic formula and utilizes a good, if strange battle system and some neat lil' side quests.