Collection essentials #505: Tales of Destiny 2 (PS2)

Now we have the fourth major entry in Namco’s JRPG series, “Tales of”. This is the first one in the series to be a direct sequel to a previous entry, as the pattern before had been creating a brand new world and independent story with each entry. This led to some confusion, because the third Tales game on PS1 had been renamed “Tales of Destiny II” for its American release. However, the real Tales of Destiny 2 only ever got released in Japan, so the majority of the confusion that could have happened was avoided despite the tragic fate of English-speaking fans not getting this game in their own language.

The events of this game take place nearly two decades after those of the first Tales of Destiny. This time, the protagonist is Kyle, the son of the previous game’s hero Stahn. The game’s story sounds pretty typical for a JRPG. Early in the game, Kyle meets a mysterious girl, gets tangled up with both a nasty powerful bad guy who did something horrible to his father and also an evil clergywoman. Honk if you’ve heard this sort of thing before.

Despite being on a new and more-powerful console, Tales of Destiny 2 is still mostly in 2D, with the only 3D area being the world map. The battle system resembles that of the previous entry, Tales of Eternia/Destiny II, meaning that rather than turn-based combat, players engage in 2D fast-paced side-scrolling action in each battle screen. Up to four party members can participate in a given battle, which can be controlled by the computer or by other human players. 

A big part of the appeal to this game, as is normal for Tales games, is the colorful cast of characters. Destiny 2 refined the “skit” systems seen in previous games, where you could see a frivolous conversation between party members under certain circumstances. Skits were made more numerous and accessible for Destiny 2. Now, as the player roams around, the title of a skit may pop up on the bottom of the screen prompting the player to press the “Select” button to watch it if they wish. These skits are great for fleshing out the characters and their relationships to each other, not to mention providing very funny and memorable moments. Pretty much all the Tales games since Destiny 2 have utilized more or less the same skit system, and it’s become a staple of the series.

Tales of Destiny 2 enjoyed very good sales and popularity in Japan, but that wasn’t enough for Namco to give it a chance in the West. This could be because of poor sales for the first two English-language Tales games, and it probably didn’t help that this was a mostly-2D game when most American PS2 owners were craving the most cutting-edge 3D graphics on their hot new console.

As for my personal history with Tales of Destiny 2, I took an interest in it as I fell in love with Tales in the mid-2000s. When I got my Japanese PS2 in 2006, this was one of the first games I grabbed for it. And so, I played through this game many years ago, and had to do so in Japanese using a “story synopsis” guide, which is pretty suboptimal, but teenage me was still happy to play the game in some form. I remember it being quite difficult, probably the hardest Tales games I’ve encountered, but that may be in part because I didn’t fully understand some intricacies of combat due to the language barrier.

This is an interesting time for me to be writing about this game, because I’m actually hoping to play it again very soon, for the first time in ages. You see, a group of dedicated fans has been hard at work at producing an English patch for this game, and they appear to be nearly done, although it’s not clear exactly when that will be. Being able to play this game in English will be an absolute delight, and I can’t wait. I may even update this post or make an addendum post if I have enough new things to say about it after a new playthrough. Stay tuned. As an old-school Tales fan, whether it’s available in English or not, this is a very cool game that absolutely gets the honor of being a collection essential.