Tales of Destiny 2: Beated

Alright, finally something more fast-paced!

Story - 3/5
Honestly, I disliked the story. It was like a mix-mash of all the previous Tales (Phantasia, Eternia, Destiny) in a not so good way. We have time traveling from Phantasia, alternate worlds from Eternia, and the chunk of Destiny's story to mold it all together.

So we have the offspring of Stahn and Rutee, named Kyle, who wants to be a hero just like his parents so he sets off to become one. He encounters a giant lens and out comes a girl. He chases after the girl to become the hero she's looking for. We get thrown into the future, the into the past, then back to the present. I personally liked the Swordian arc the best just because I liked the whole Swordian story altogether. But anyway, so this goddess gives 'birth' to two other goddesses. One of the goddess' ideals of a perfect world is retarded, which ends up changing history completely, so we basically have to stop her. What I don't understand is where these goddesses come from exactly. The power of lens evolves and creates its own conscious and then takes the form of a human? Someone tell me.

Characters - 4/5
Originally I never understood why Leon was such a loved character until there was Destiny 2... now I understand completely. Now I love the guy to bits. It's just depressing to know that he has to live in the dark for the rest of his life. But it was awesome how he brought out Chaltier at the right time but wait, there's a plot hole - if they didn't travel back in time to bring Chaltier, how did it end so smoothly at the end of Destiny? I thought they didn't have enough power without him?!?

About the other characters... I only liked Kyle, Judas and Harold out of the main group. Loni was annoying. Nanaly was annoying. Reala was exceptionally annoying. She had this strange personality change right after she spoke with Philia and became all hyper and happy. Annoying. However! The skits were humorous and fun as a whole cast.

Sound - 3/5
A lot of remixes and enhancements from the original Destiny. Nothing really special or memorable, sadly. Battles were really noisy, which isn't exactly a bad thing but it just reminded me about how Tales series are usually anyways.

I don't particularly like the theme "key to my heart" either.

Graphics - 4/5
I don't know but Destiny 2 kept reminding me of Ragnarok Online - in town sprites anyways. The world and battle views were very Eternia. Um, the spells were pretty?

Gameplay - 3.5/5
World map running is tedious. Boat rides are tedious.

Battles are fun. I had this habit of draining my SP meter really quick though. No visible HP total was frustrating. How much did you start the battle with? Will a 30% or a 60% gumi suffice?? I can't tell! If your controlling character ends up not located on the left side of the screen with your other characters, your SP and TP meters shorten and all the characters on the left screen will get their ass kicked. It was a weird battle condition that just effs you up.

The skill and equip enchant system is quite complicated. I had trouble with it so I just configured the essentials and didn't bother experimenting. I usually set my skills to Attack+, SP/TP recovery, and Hi-ougi's. Equipments were all focused on SP/TP recovery.

I don't think I even touched the refine option. I tried refining my savories, lavenders, etc to some reds but it didn't work out as well as I'd hoped.

Overall - 3.5/5
There's quite a number of dislikes for this game and too little likes for me to give it a good overall impression. Some of the boss battles were challenging, and that's a good thing. The last boss didn't turn out to be a wuss. The ending was surprising.. the whole [spoiler]it's all going to be just a dream! bs. And how Reala somehow comes back to life...[/spoiler] The last scene was obvious and I know they want a happy ending and all, but that just felt like they just to put it there to make the protagonists canon.

Judas unmasked was the highlight of the game, seriously.

I don't know what game to play next.