In only a few days and with a feverish pace, I've managed to claw my way through Tales of Destiny, but my overall opinion on it has not changed much. It is overcrowded with dungeon after tedious dungeon crammed full of esoteric and confusing puzzles and features a cast of mostly unremarkable characters. I can at the very least say that no one from the cast struck me as particularly annoying, and the relationship between Stahn and Rutee is cute, even if the game refuses to explore it further. Some of the more interesting characters will leave your party before the final stages of the game, as well.
What you're left with is a mostly unremarkable RPG with an excellent battle system. It seems right at home in the Tales series, but I definitely can't say I'd recommend it to someone looking to try the series themselves. Truth be told, I'm a relative neophyte to the series as well, having only completed this title, Phantasia, Symphonia, and Abyss. I've got my sights set on Eternia sometime in the future, but after that, I'd be more than happy to tackle Legendia, Vesperia, Graces, and/or Xillia. I figure I really only have up to go from here. Destiny, although not a terrible game per se, is definitely relegated down to the bottom of my initial rankings for the series, right there with Abyss.
Why did I power through the game even though there were many things about it that I did not like? Well, I had an interesting conversation about that with a friend of mine recently. I've challenged myself over the past year or so to make a concerted effort to finish every game that I start, regardless of how I feel about it. I'll generally find something about these games that I enjoy but even if I don't, it's a challenge that I've set for myself to overcome. I'm not going to say that I have completely stuck my ground on this principle because there may have been a few games I started and abandoned because I really wasn't feeling it--but for the most part, I finish what I start, especially where RPGs are concerned. And if I don't, I add it to the backlog and I get to it eventually. . .
What's this?!
One thing I decided to do for this game is record the final encounter. After some research, I decided on using Open Broadcaster, the streaming program, to record my game. It uses a lot fewer resources than Fraps and doesn't take up nearly as much hard drive space once the recording is finished. I think it came out really well, even if the final battle depicted in said video is a little sad to watch. Seriously, after such a grueling series of dungeons, they pit me up against three alarmingly weak bosses in a row and then the game is over. What an anticlimax.
As for what's next, I haven't decided yet! I technically only have one game left in my PlayStation backlog, but my obsessive tendencies are making it difficult for me to confidently move right on to it. I'm going to look into my options and maybe play a few minutes of a few games to get an idea of where I'm going. This is a decidedly different strategy than what I've employed for the past few weeks in that I've launched myself wholeheartedly into each new game right away--but that's fine. I like to switch things up every now and then so I don't get bored!
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| Bye bye, Tales of Destiny |
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