Tales of Destiny

Tales of Destiny is second game in the Tales series by Namco on December 23, 1997 in Japan. Both the Japanese and North American versions of the game have an introductory video animated by the renowned studio Production I.G, and the Japanese version has a song accompanying the video called Yume de Aru Youni, sung by the band DEEN. It is similar to its predecessor, Tales of Phantasia, in terms of gameplay, graphics, and content. It also has a Mothership Title sequel titled Tales of Destiny 2.

Gameplay
Tales of Destiny continues the trademark Linear Motion Battle System of the Tales series, with the Enhanced Linear Motion Battle System, there are some graphical enhancements to the system as it was first implemented in Tales of Phantasia. Nevertheless, the combat is still very similar to the first game in the series, taking place on a 2D plane where characters and enemies act in real time. Melee and ranged attacks are executed in real time, with spell casting requiring a chanting time that increases directly with the complexity of the spell being cast. When the chanting of a spell is complete, game-time temporarily stops as the spell animation is carried out and damage is assigned, so spells essentially act as interrupts. Special melee and ranged attacks do more damage or have more hits than normal attacks, but require technical points, or TP, to be consumed for use. Also, the battle system rewards the player with extra experience for stringing together multi-hit combos. The end result of this break from traditional turn-based RPG battle systems is a more fast-paced and reaction oriented system that behaves more like a fighting game and less like a typical Final Fantasy title.

Pre-battle options include assigning spells and special attacks to buttons and button-directional combinations, changing the party's battle formation or order, and assigning AI behavioral patterns for your computer-controlled allies. Certain spells can also be taken off the active casting list for computer-controlled allies. At any one time, the AI is controlling the other characters in the party that the player is not directly commanding, taking general strategic orders into consideration when acting. The player controls one character directly at a time, but can switch to other characters and issue special attack or spell orders for any character on command using an in-battle menu system. This menu system enables the player to use items, spells, or special attacks on the fly in battle. Also, the menu system allows the use of general commands given to the entire party during battle, along with instant adjustment of previous strategy or formation orders. All of these control options were innovative at the time, even when considering that Tales of Phantasia was released in 1995 with nearly identical tactical options.

Characters
Stahn Aileron (スタン・エルロン) A young 19-year-old adventurer who grows into a powerful sword-based physical fighter, Stahn is the protagonist of Tales of Destiny. Not known for his intelligence or his cultured background, his fire-elemental Swordian is Dymlos.

Rutee Katrea (ルーティ・カトレット) Armed with Atwight, the Swordian of Water, 18-year-old Rutee is a headstrong Lens hunter who travels the world looking to make a profit with her partner, Mary. She has a bad reputation in the Kingdom of Seinegald because of her money-hungry ways, but she does not let it bother her.

Leon Magnus (リオン・マグナス) Leon is a master swordsman of Seinegald - at age 16 the youngest in history to serve the kingdom, and a close associate of Hugo Gilchrist, the president of the powerful Oberon Company. A complex and slightly brooding character, Leon's agile Swordian is Chaltier.

Philia Felice (フィリア・フィリス) A 19-year-old priestess at Straylize Temple studying the A'ether Wars period, Philia is isolated from the outside world until the events of the game. She has a sweet, charming personality and is very dependable, but she can also be overly fastidious. Her powerful spell casting ability is augmented by her Swordian, Clemente, but her physical attacks are weak.

Garr Kelvin (ウッドロウ・ケルヴィン)

The 23-year-old Prince of Phandaria, Garr is a skilled archer as well as a swordsman; Igtenos is his wind-elemental Swordian.

Mary Argent (マリー・エージェント) Suffering from amnesia, 24-year-old Mary is not aware of her last name due to an unknown event in her past. Mary has no Swordian, but can use swords and axes as a strong physical attacker. Rutee uses Mary for her own financial gain.

Chelsea Torn (チェルシー・トーン) The 14-year-old granddaughter of Garr's archery master, Alba. Even though she appears cute and innocent, Chelsea is an archer skilled beyond her mere 14 years of age. She is a good long-range attacker with her bow, but not a Swordian user.

Bruiser Khang (マイティ・コングマン) A 39-year-old powerful fighter from the battle arena, Bruiser is an optional character. However, he forcibly joins Stahn's group in the PlayStation 2 remake. Using his fists as a weapon, he is the undefeated champion of the world when it comes to battling in the arena; no Swordian.

Karyl Sheeden (ジョニー・シデン) An estranged 26-year-old son of an aristocratic family, Karyl is a bard by trade. He may seem fragile from outward appearances, but he can provide useful support in the party through songs played on his lute.

Lilith Aileron (リリス・エルロン) Stahn's 17-year-old sister, who is very concerned about him and wishes he would not go on such dangerous adventures, was a dummied character available only through use of a Game Shark or similar device in the original version of the game. In later remakes, however, she becomes an optional playable character.

Story
In the past, a comet crashed into the world, throwing dust clouds into the sky and shrouding the world in cold and darkness. At about the same time, the inhabitants, the Aethers, discovered a new form of energy from the meteorite's core, which they named Lens. Combining this with further research, the people were able to create cities in the sky and live in them. Unfortunately, only a select few were chosen, leaving the rest of the people to remain on the bleak surface of the planet.

Over time, the sky's inhabitants became known as the Aetherians and their Aeropolis cities. They created a horrific weapon called the Belcrant that shot down any who dared oppose them. This caused full scale war to erupt between the two civilizations, now known as the Aeth'er Wars. However, regardless of their will and persistence, the Aetherians continued to have the power to dominate every engagement though the use of their superweapon.

In their disgust of their civilization's elitist behavior, a group of Aetherian scientists went to the surface. There, with aid from the people, they were able to create special swords, called Swordians, that were sentient. Unlike other weapons, these swords chose their masters and were able to call upon the elements of nature to do their will. Using these weapons, the people of the surface finally had an edge against the Aetherians.

Thanks in part to the Swordians and their masters, scores of Aeropolis were sunk to the depths of the ocean. In the end, the Erthers claimed victory over the Aetherians. Thousands of years later, this story has been mostly forgotten. In the meantime, the purposeless Swordians fell into a deep stasis sleep, only to awaken when grave threats rose once again.

The story of the game begins when country-boy-turned-adventurer Stahn Aileron, who seeks fame and adventure, sneaks aboard the flying ship Draconis as a stowaway. He is found by the crew and forced to work as a deckhand, but when a large hostile force attacks the ship, the crew is overwhelmed and Stahn breaks free during the ensuing chaos. Looking for a usable weapon to fend off the attackers, he gains access to a storeroom and discovers a "junk" sword. However, the sword starts talking to him, calling itself Dymlos and claiming to be a sentient Swordian from the Aeth'er Wars. Armed with Dymlos, Stahn fights his way to an escape pod, which he uses to escape the rapidly descending ship before it crashes into the ground.

Dymlos becomes the key to the fame, fortune, and adventure Stahn seeks as the young man meets other Swordians, quickly becoming embroiled in a battle for a relic of the Aeth'er Wars: a huge, extremely powerful Lens called the Eye of Atamoni.

Tales of Destiny Remake
On June 19, 2006, magazine scans indicated that a remake of Tales of Destiny would appear on the PlayStation 2. As of November 15, 2006, one week before the original release date of November 22, the game was delayed to an unknown date. Two days later on November 17, 2006, the official Namco Tales site announced Tales of Destiny Remake’s release date to be November 30, 2006, in order to fix a bug they discovered in the game during testing.

Game-play
The Enhanced Linear Motion Battle System (E-LMBS) has been replaced by the new Aerial Linear Motion Battle System (AR-LMBS), a battle system that was built for aerial comboing. Aerial Linear Motion Battle System replaces Techincal Points (TP) with the new Chain Capacity (CC) points. These CC allow easy comboing of any skills the player likes, provided he or she has the CC necessary. Each character has a base and max CC, which can be changed using several methods. At the start of a battle, the character will start at their base CC. Every time they use up CC, it will go up 1 higher than before, until it has reached the character's max CC; from there, it will go down to the base CC again.

Some enemies can inflict the player with a status effect called Downsize, this status effect will revert the characters to their PlayStation version sprite. The characters will be unable to attack or run while Downsized, only walk or use items.

With the exception of Leon, all ten playable characters are available at the end of the game, whereas the original only allowed two extras in the final areas. Kongman and Johnny join the party as a part of the story, and Lilith can also be recruited through a side-quest instead of a glitch or cheat, and her move Thunder Sword has now become her only Blast Caliber. To get Lilith, the player must talk to her in Leane after he or she can freely control the Sea Dragon, and then defeat her in the Coliseum at Rank 4 with Stahn.

The game music has been remixed, and several new songs have been added in to the soundtrack. The original's two main battle themes, "Bare its fangs" and "Surprise attack!", have been made the main battle themes for the first and second halves of the game, respectively. They are joined by a new third main battle theme toward the end called Progress toward the end (another "Bare its fangs" remix), which is the main battle theme at the very end of the game.

Graphical changes

 * The remake features overhauled hand-drawn sprite-on-3D-background graphics similar to Tales of Rebirth and the Arial-Linear Motion Battle System (AR-LMBS), which adds significant importance to aerial combat.
 * The Tales of Destiny Remake overtook Tales of Destiny 2 as the game with the fastest battle system in the Tales series.
 * Though the overall plot remains the same, the entire game script has been re-written.
 * The main story for the game is completely voiced, and also features additional dialogue, scenarios, and anime sequences.
 * The skit system has been revamped.
 * The world map is now in full 3D and even has some mini-games on it.
 * There are also more vehicles than in the original.

New events
New scenes have been added, while some scenes from the original, such as the date with Ilene, were removed. The remake also includes a new battle between Stahn Aileron and Dymlos in an attempt to regain the full strength of the Swordians.

One of the most notorious new features is the featuring of one of Tales of Destiny 2’s main antagonists Barbatos Goetia as a secret random encounter. He is usually found if the player attempts to 'auto-level' (running around in circles in the world map while setting all characters' controls to be Auto) and can be found even when the player's party is not greatly leveled, which can occasionally cause game-overs. Barbatos is also an end boss in the game's secret dungeon.

Another feature present in this remake is the Narikiri dolls. When the player beats the game, he or she gains access to the EX Dungeon, a 10-floor bonus dungeon. The clown who lets the player into that dungeon will allow the player to exchange earned EX Points from the dungeon for items, such as the Narikiri dolls. The Narikiri dolls allow the player to change the characters into other characters by equipping them with a doll. This also allows the player to use Leon Magnus in the second half of the game, or use a party consisting of four of him, or any other character. When the player first gains access to the dungeon, only Narikiri Leon will be available for 1,000 EX Points, but new characters will be available after every cleared floor.

Media references

 * Players may acquire several items that references to Tales of Destiny 2 characters, such as a wig resembling Nanaly's hair and a mask identical to Judas'.
 * Kratos Aurion replaces Cress and Arche as the Quiz Master.
 * Dolls of Mieu and Tokunaga can be found in various houses.
 * Pictures in Heidelberg Castle feature characters from Tales of Rebirth, Veigue Lungberg, Agarte Lindblum, and Annie Barrs.
 * A character resembling Veigue Lungberg appears as a boss in the EX Dungeon, using some very similar attacks.
 * During one of the cutscenes, Zapie from Tales of Rebirth can be seen sitting on top of a cabin roof.
 * One of the shopkeepers of a bakery in Liennea resembles Mimmi Bread, the 'Wonder Chef' of Tales of Legendia.
 * Kyle from Tales of Destiny 2 appears as a doll in Mary's house during a sidequest. Loni can be seen as a kid in Cresta.
 * Hats from several Tales of characters make appearances on Gentlemen as cameo enemies in a side-quest. Gentlemen wearing the hats of Claus F. Lester, Ras, Chloe Valens, and Hilda Rhambling from Tales of Phantasia, Tales of Eternia, Tales of Legendia, and Tales of Rebirth respectively can be fought individually, and later altogether during the same side-quest.
 * A Gentlemen wearing the hat of KOS-MOS from the Xenosaga series can be fought in the EX Dungeon; this Gentlemen has several of KOS-MOS' moves.

Tales of Destiny: Director's Cut
A Director's Cut of Tales of Destiny and Tales of Destiny Remake was announced on July 20, 2007, and was released on January 31, 2008 in Japan for the PlayStation 2. Tales of Destiny Director's Cut's characteristic genre name is The Name "One More Destiny"'s RPG (もうひとつの運命という名のRPG).

This version of the game includes a new game mode called "Leon's Side". Leon's Side makes Leon Magnus the main character of the game instead of Tales of Destiny ' normal main character, Stahn Aileron. The original game mode from Tales of Destiny is still available to play, under the new name "Stahn's Side".

There is also a very small side-quest in Stahn's Side called "Lilith's Side", where Stahn's sister Lilith Aileron goes into the Tilso Forest to get herbs as a present for Stahn. Lilith's Side can be started by sleeping in the Snowfreer Inn at the end of a Stan's Side playthrough. In addition to Lilith's Side, several other sidequests have been added.

Tales of Destiny Director's Cut was released in two versions, the regular version, containing just the game, and a Premium Box version containing a special Premium Box with artwork by Mutsumi Inomata, the game, a 128 page illustration booklet with character artwork by Mutsumi Inomata, and an original soundtrack of the Director's Cut (featuring 21 songs).

Tales of Destiny Remake save files are still loadable in Tales of Destiny Director's Cut from the Load Original Data option on the game's title screen.

Major changes

 * The game includes the "Second" difficulty rank that was available in Tales of Destiny 2, this difficulty rank was not available in the original release of Tales of Destiny Remake. Several characters have received new artes, especially Leon Magnus, who also receives a third Blast Caliber called Majinken Setsuga.
 * The Coliseum has a new Rank 6 that has many of the game's bosses appear in a boss rush, including the game's hardest enemy, Barbatos.
 * A Definite Mode is also added, which allows the player to chose from previously encountered enemies, and attempt to get their Definite Strikes, the enemies will not die until the player preforms the Definite Strike, so doing infinite combos is possible.
 * Two new end-game carry over features have been added, Succeed Skill, which transfers artes and skills over to the next playthrough, and Succeed Food Strap, which transfers the player's Food Strap to the next playthrough.
 * Max Stats have been increased from 999 to 1999, Max Lens has been increased from 990 to 9990, and Max HP has been increased to 9999.
 * There are new Swordian Device skills, post battle voices, more skits, and the effects of some features that were abusable were lessened, such as Flash.

Related media
Much like its predecessor, Tales of Phantasia, Tales of Destiny contains hidden references to classic Namco arcade games; this section covers the original PlayStation version. This tendency to refer to classic Namco products in each subsequent Tales game has become an enduring characteristic of the series.
 * The most significant reference comes in the form of the game's bonus dungeon, a sixty level recreation of Tower of Druaga complete with the original music and every monster from the original arcade game. The monsters present on each floor closely mirror the monsters present on the same floor in the arcade game. The requirements to receive the treasure chests on each floor are different, however, though several clues to the solutions are given in the actual game through various characters in towns. It also seems a coincidence that the abbreviation for Tales of Destiny is "ToD", which Tower of Druaga can also be abbreviated as.
 * There are additional references to Tower of Druaga outside of the bonus dungeon itself. Items present include: Excalibur, Golden Armor, Red Line Shield, Blue Line Shield, Wing Boots (Jet Boots), Hyper Gauntlet, Pickaxe, and the Blue, Red, and Green Crystal Rods.
 * There are statues of Gil and Ki in front of the temple in Kalviola and there is a Blue Line Shield statue in front of the armor shop. Additionally, the dreamy girl in Cresta mentions the characters and story of Tower of Druaga.
 * On the Draconis there are pictures in a bedroom of a slightly obscured Pooka from Dig Dug and a Paccet from Baraduke.
 * There is an ad for Tekken 3 in Sheeden; Heihachi Mishima is also visible in one of the towns.
 * The music and jingles for the Mach Boy race in Neustadt are from New Rally-X.
 * There is an S-Flag from Rally-X on a shelf in the Developer's Room and Lens Shop.
 * The Gnome item summons several multi-colored characters from Libble Rabble.
 * Typing "OGRE" at one point in the game that asks for a password will give Stahn a clue for Tekken 3: "Seek Ogre's Blood."

Trivia

 * People who signed up to receive news on Namco Bandai's Tales series received a survey asking what they think of the series; this suggests that the company may be considering more North American localizations. Another Tales survey was released, and this points to the fact that Namco Bandai is taking more interest in the North American future of the series. Numerous images were from the Tales of Destiny Remake, and this may imply that Namco Bandai is preliminarily considering a North American translation.
 * Tales of Destiny Remake overtook Tales of Destiny 2 as the game with the fastest battle system in the Tales series when it came out.