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Tales of Destiny: DONE

Story - 3/5
The story was rather simple. Swords that held spirits and power from an ancient war were reawakened and gathered to save the world from some idiots trying to use power from the ancient times in the present to rid it from its "corruption" aka. human beings. There wasn't much depth to it but it was short... The beginning already introduces you to all the towns (ugh so much NPC talking action) and then throws you there again for other short missions... makes the game so short feeling.

Character - 4/5
The main characters were great, especially Stahn. He was a funny sleeping brick and for some reason he doesn't feel like the right love interest for Rutee, or should that be the other way around. I didn't particularly like how there were suddenly three extra characters near the end you could pick from to fill up your slots. They didn't really connect to the main story, so they felt out of place. However, two of the three (the two I chose) were extremely powerful and useful so they were a good replacement over, say, Garr. As for the non party members, there wasn't enough story for them so there was no sympathy for those characters at all. First you meet them, and the next thing you know they go plop already. Only more feeling developed for those characters after I took a listen at the "face" event dialogs that were unlocked after I completed the game. Oh, I also like the fact that they kept the Japanese voices.

Gameplay - 3.5/5
The biggest irk was not even the game's fault, but the ISO itself on the PSP freezes the game sometimes when spells are being casted. I had to do quite a bit of resetting but that was easily avoided by not casting offensive spells. When I was reading through the guides for side quests, I looked at their level recommendations and noticed I was quite a few levels behind but I didn't have any trouble with the enemies. With the right tactics, even the most annoying [CHEAP!] enemies (the ones that do nothing but mass cast AOE spells and basically mutilate your party if you're a second too late) go down without trouble. Oh, I hate the Tower of Druaga (the optional tower). There isn't a single good guide out there and one too many levels went to waste because their solutions didn't even work.

Music - 2.5/5
It was s'alright. A few catchy town themes. Nothing memorable.

Overall 3/5
It felt like they could've used that story to make it more "heavy"... Perhaps more on the ancient war. But then again, maybe that's why there's ToD II. Oh yeah, Phoenix in this game is overkill and it's great. I finished the game plus sidequests and extras in under 40 hours.