Tales of Destiny 2
So I started to play Tales of Destiny 2 yesterday. It's a little weird because the game seems to have more hiragana than most Tales games. Not that I'm complaining, though it does make the game seem a little more childish. NEVER THE LESS, I'm enjoying what I've played so far.
This is what I've gleamed so far from the game with my narrow knowledge of Japanese and no source of a translation guide. So there might be some translation mistakes. Sorry!
The story starts off with Kyle, who is the son of the heroes Stahn and Rutee, from the original Destiny game. Kyle lives with Rutee at an orphanage that Rutee runs. Kyle's fifteen and gets along with the kids at the orphanage. There's also another boy called Loni who lived there, but he left to join some sort of army a few years back. He's currently 23 and good friends with Kyle. He feels guilty for Stahn's "disappearance" since Stahn was defending him.
Anyhow, the story starts off with Kyle and the orphanage kids wandering around in the woods. They get attacked by eggbears and Kyle's trying to defend them in vain until Loni shows up and proceeds to kick the crap out of them. They return to the orphanage where Loni and Kyle surprise Rutee and are reprimanded by her. There Kyle asks her if he can go lens hunting with Loni. Apparently Loni found the location of a lens and Kyle wants to go with. He wants to "become a hero" like his dad. Loni seems a little hesitant, and Rutee says NO WAY. Kyle's all miffed and can't understand why, after all, didn't his own mother go on journeys for lens when she was his age? But Rutee says NO and that's final. But Kyle is not dissuaded. First chance he gets the next day he sneaks off with Loni.
Soooo they head off to the cave area where the lens is supposed to be. There they run into a group of people and decide to go a different way. So you wander around a bit, fight a boss, and get to the lens place. Kyle is all excited since the lens is so big. But we have a Code Geass moment here as the lens cracks open and out comes a GIRL. So much for the lens.
Kyle and Loni are super surprised. The girl grows some clothes (um, so did they see her naked? O.o) and when she "awakens" tells them she's looking for a hero. Kyle is all excited, after all, he wants to be a hero! But the girls says no. Kyle is adamant, insisting he is not a hero now, but he WILL BE. But the girl is not having it. She brushes him off, telling him he's not the hero she's looking for. So does Kyle give up? Hexagon, no! He gets Loni and tries to run after her. But before they can get anywhere the group of people from earlier show up. They are ticked off because the lens is gone, and they think Kyle's group is responsible for it. Kyle says that it happened when they got there, but the guys are not happy about that either. Then one of them notices Loni, who's been hiding his face ever since they showed up. They recognize him and are not happy to see him at all. Before Loni and Kyle know it, they're knocked out. They awake in prison.
Kyle is unbelievably calm about being in prison. He seems really positive, actually. He decides to go on a journey to become a hero. Loni is sorta amused, but agrees to go with him in Stahn's place. They talk about it some more, and all the sudden this voice is all like, "you, a hero?". Then Leon a mysterious man appears wearing a mask. He talks to them about being a hero and Loni's all like, "We KNOW the great heroes and stuff! And they're Kyle's family!" The mysterious man thinks about it for a moment and says "Oh, so you're their...." He helps them get out and lets them call him what they want. Kyle picks Judas. How uncanny, Kyle.
AND that's where I stopped. I now have three bishounen in my party and I'm more than a little happy about that. If only it could stay that way. But I'm sure we'll be meeting up with Reala, the lens girl, pretty soon. I'd assume the guys would have abducted her along with Kyle and Loni. I have this slight feeling that Rutee's gonna be really pissed off when she finds out what's all happened. Poor girl.
Soooo, battle system.
The battle system reminds me a bit of Rebirth's, as there is no TP. I play as Kyle, who is pretty fun. Kyle uses a sword, but he can also cast spells, which is good against stronger bosses. I let Loni charge in and stay in the back to cast spells, occasionally coming forward to do some physical damage. There are sorts of over-limits that increase your power and give you better grade, though I can't remember exactly what they're called. To make matters worse, my player's manual is in Korean, so I can't really use it for reference. I could look online, but it's not a big enough problem. Anyhow, I got really bad grade the first few battles, but now that I'm more leveled up my grade is jumping up.
I really want to try out Judas sometime now that he's in my party.
Anyhow, I haven't had the time to get further, but I have a half day tomorrow, so as long as I don't have any distractions then ToD2 here I come!
PS: Where is Destiny 2 in the Tales time line? Did it come out before Symphonia, or after?
This is what I've gleamed so far from the game with my narrow knowledge of Japanese and no source of a translation guide. So there might be some translation mistakes. Sorry!
The story starts off with Kyle, who is the son of the heroes Stahn and Rutee, from the original Destiny game. Kyle lives with Rutee at an orphanage that Rutee runs. Kyle's fifteen and gets along with the kids at the orphanage. There's also another boy called Loni who lived there, but he left to join some sort of army a few years back. He's currently 23 and good friends with Kyle. He feels guilty for Stahn's "disappearance" since Stahn was defending him.
Anyhow, the story starts off with Kyle and the orphanage kids wandering around in the woods. They get attacked by eggbears and Kyle's trying to defend them in vain until Loni shows up and proceeds to kick the crap out of them. They return to the orphanage where Loni and Kyle surprise Rutee and are reprimanded by her. There Kyle asks her if he can go lens hunting with Loni. Apparently Loni found the location of a lens and Kyle wants to go with. He wants to "become a hero" like his dad. Loni seems a little hesitant, and Rutee says NO WAY. Kyle's all miffed and can't understand why, after all, didn't his own mother go on journeys for lens when she was his age? But Rutee says NO and that's final. But Kyle is not dissuaded. First chance he gets the next day he sneaks off with Loni.
Soooo they head off to the cave area where the lens is supposed to be. There they run into a group of people and decide to go a different way. So you wander around a bit, fight a boss, and get to the lens place. Kyle is all excited since the lens is so big. But we have a Code Geass moment here as the lens cracks open and out comes a GIRL. So much for the lens.
Kyle and Loni are super surprised. The girl grows some clothes (um, so did they see her naked? O.o) and when she "awakens" tells them she's looking for a hero. Kyle is all excited, after all, he wants to be a hero! But the girls says no. Kyle is adamant, insisting he is not a hero now, but he WILL BE. But the girl is not having it. She brushes him off, telling him he's not the hero she's looking for. So does Kyle give up? Hexagon, no! He gets Loni and tries to run after her. But before they can get anywhere the group of people from earlier show up. They are ticked off because the lens is gone, and they think Kyle's group is responsible for it. Kyle says that it happened when they got there, but the guys are not happy about that either. Then one of them notices Loni, who's been hiding his face ever since they showed up. They recognize him and are not happy to see him at all. Before Loni and Kyle know it, they're knocked out. They awake in prison.
Kyle is unbelievably calm about being in prison. He seems really positive, actually. He decides to go on a journey to become a hero. Loni is sorta amused, but agrees to go with him in Stahn's place. They talk about it some more, and all the sudden this voice is all like, "you, a hero?". Then Leon a mysterious man appears wearing a mask. He talks to them about being a hero and Loni's all like, "We KNOW the great heroes and stuff! And they're Kyle's family!" The mysterious man thinks about it for a moment and says "Oh, so you're their...." He helps them get out and lets them call him what they want. Kyle picks Judas. How uncanny, Kyle.
AND that's where I stopped. I now have three bishounen in my party and I'm more than a little happy about that. If only it could stay that way. But I'm sure we'll be meeting up with Reala, the lens girl, pretty soon. I'd assume the guys would have abducted her along with Kyle and Loni. I have this slight feeling that Rutee's gonna be really pissed off when she finds out what's all happened. Poor girl.
Soooo, battle system.
The battle system reminds me a bit of Rebirth's, as there is no TP. I play as Kyle, who is pretty fun. Kyle uses a sword, but he can also cast spells, which is good against stronger bosses. I let Loni charge in and stay in the back to cast spells, occasionally coming forward to do some physical damage. There are sorts of over-limits that increase your power and give you better grade, though I can't remember exactly what they're called. To make matters worse, my player's manual is in Korean, so I can't really use it for reference. I could look online, but it's not a big enough problem. Anyhow, I got really bad grade the first few battles, but now that I'm more leveled up my grade is jumping up.
I really want to try out Judas sometime now that he's in my party.
Anyhow, I haven't had the time to get further, but I have a half day tomorrow, so as long as I don't have any distractions then ToD2 here I come!
PS: Where is Destiny 2 in the Tales time line? Did it come out before Symphonia, or after?