Welcome back to our history lesson, and join in on our second walk down memory lane of the Tales Series, as we countdown the days until we have our hands on Tales of Xillia. Last time we covered from the Tales of Phantasia to Tales of Phantasia: Narikiri Dungeon, now its time to go even further. Let’s take a look at Tales of Eternia.
Tales of Eternia
Tales of Eternia (November 2000), the fourth released in the franchise, but third in the main series, and released in the US as Tales of Destiny 2 ( September 2001). To capitalise on the success of Tales of Destiny, not to be confused with the actual Japanese Tales of Destiny 2 ( which was made a few years later ), well that got complicated fast we will just stick to calling it Tales of Eternia for simplicities sake. Europe never received this release, which might be for the best cause who knows what we would have to called it. For Tales of Eternia the art style shifted to more realistically proportioned characters and moved away from the chibi designs of previous games, and featured animated cut scenes and extensive voice work. Also making the brave choice to stick to sprite based graphics in a world of polygons made it stand out from it’s contemporaries and has lead to it aging a lot more gracefully than most from it’s time.
The combat mechanics refined again from Tales of Destiny, featuring smoother graphics and better AI but remaining true to it’s LMBS roots so far; the combat controls in Tales of Eternia feel like you are playing a fighting game and not a JRPG with time sensitive button presses and combos, and a basic co-op combat so your friends can fight with you.
Tales of Eternia’s story is full of fun and the colourful characters we have come to expect from the Tales series by now, while it’s story isn’t as enthralling at the previous installment (and this is in no way a negative), Tales of Destiny just had some very big shoes to fill. Tales of Eternia follows the story of Ried, the always hungry and good hearted hero as he is tangled up events that are beyond and eventually having to prevent the Grand Fall, an event that is threatening to wipe out all life on his planet.
It received a PSP remake in 2006 in Japan and for the first time in Europe. It’s success inspired a 13 episode anime series, the series doesn’t really follow any particular game storyline and is more inspired by the characters and events of Tales of Eternia. It’s definitely worth checking out for fans of the game.
There was also a Japanese only MMO called Tales of Eternia Online, the game ran for little over year and incorporated the traditional tales combat into a multiplayer set up, with five classes to choose from. Sadly this is another game I have no way of playing.
Tales of the World: Narikiri Dungeon 2
The second game in the “Narikiri side series” (October 2002), it features the same job system as the previous game with combat system more inline with current iteration of the LMBS in the main game series. The Tales of World title refers to the fact it features characters from previous games, specifically Tales of Phantasia, Tales of Destiny and Tales of Eternia. A lot of existing art was used and I must say it looks quite good for a GBA game. It was never released outside of japan or re-released in any other format, making it hard to get a hold of but worth a play if you do.
Tales of Destiny 2
It was around this time that the Namco Tales team had grown large and successful enough to divide into two teams, Team Symphonia and Team Destiny. The next release comes from Team Destiny, titled Tales of Destiny 2, remember when Tales of Eternia was released in English as Tales of Destiny 2? well this is the actual Tales of Destiny 2! Tales of Destiny was the most successful and loved game in the series at that point, which is why it got a sequel. Just like Tales of Eternia and it had some big shoes to fill to follow up on Tales of Destiny. It was never released outside of Japan because it was sprite based and it was thought western audiences wouldn’t like it a time of polygons and the fact a “Tales of Destiny 2” already existed in the west, to provide more confusion. This was the first real sequel in the main series, it follows Kyle, son of Stahn and Rutee ( protagonists from the first game ), and his adventures. He wants nothing more than to be a hero like his father, so when one day a girl literally appears from the sky he sets off on his own globe trotting adventure.
Only released in Japan in November 2002 on the Playstation 2, it was hugely successful. The mechanics are nothing too crazy here, they are largely consistent with the rest of the series, and the combat seems to move very fast compared to previous games.
That brings us to the end of the Part II, stay tuned for Part III where we will be starting off the next in the series. Another obscure one from the Tales of the World side series, Tales of the World: Summoner’s Lineage.
