Tales of Destiny

The second installment of the jRPG series called Tales of developed by Namco, distinguished by an arcade combat system. The title tells the story of a fantasy world and a young adventurer who, with the help of a self-aware sword, goes to save the land from extinction.

Story

Thousands of years ago there was a great war between two civilizations - the Erthers living on Earth and the Aethers living in the flying cities. Initially, the advantage was on the side of the much more technologically advanced residents of clouds cities. However, when a group of scientists left them and created a conscious swords that gave control over the elements, the situation reversed. After the conflict was over, the magic weapon went silent for thousands of years.

One day, a young adventurer named Stahn Aileron comes into possession of one of the swords, Dymlos. This event becomes the beginning of his long adventure, during which he meets many similar daredevils and gains a chance to save the world from the forces of evil. To prevent the catastrophe, he must find a powerful artifact, the Eye of Atamoni, which was stolen by the cunning priest Lydon Bernhardt.

Mechanics

Exploration in Tales of Destiny is based on mechanics well known from many other jRPGs. A group of heroes visit subsequent areas, performs tasks, talks to characters they meet and fight with enemies. One of the hallmarks of Namco's game is the way in which the battles are conducted: they take place in real-time on 2D arenas and resemble fighting games in their premise. During the confrontations, heroes can only move in one plane, attack their weapons, use special techniques that use TP points and cast spells. The latter require - depending on their power - time for the hero to pronounce the spell formula. During battles, the player controls only one hero, although they can switch between warriors present on the battlefield to use their special abilities or spells. The remaining heroes are controlled by artificial intelligence and operate according to pre-set tactical commands, which can be freely modified and adjusted to the current situation during combat.

Technical aspects

Tales of Destiny resembles the representatives of the genre released on previous generation of consoles. Among the members of the team working on the game was the illustrator Mutsumi Inomata, who has been involved in the creation of numerous manga and anime series. The animated scenes presenting the plot in the game have been prepared by studio Production I.G., which was responsible for, among other things, titles like Ghost in the Shell and Blood: The Last Vampire. In 2006, a remake of the game was released on PlayStation 2, offering a number of improvements.

Last updated on March 16, 2020