PS1 Tales Games

[WulfeLuer]

So.

I'm getting ready to liquidate a butt-ton of 40k crap, and I've been considering using the proceeds to supplement my usual 'buy an old RPG and add it to the Backlog of Glory' antics. After a bit of deliberation I've been thinking about going ahead and snagging Tales of Destiny and Tales of Destiny II (I know it's really Tales of Eternia, yay Trademarks) for the Playstation. Then I did some research and found out that both of these games fetch well over US$100, typically at least US$130-$150. Just what the hell makes these two so special? There's absolute loads of RPGs for the console and era, in all levels of fame vs. obscurity that go for half that or less. Did they receive short production runs? Were they cult hits even among a genre of cult hits?

[celerystalker]

The battles were different for the time, it was an era when RPGs had lower print runs, and perhaps most importantly, they're the earliest US releases of a series that went on to become very popular.

[kupomogli]

I'm really hoping Tales of Destiny remake is eventually localized for the west in some form, because the game has a decent story and likeable characters, but the PS1 gameplay is barely a step above Phantasia, meaning it's not that great, just an okay game.

Tales of Eternia though is. imo. the best in the series but unfortunately the series takes a quick dive afterwards and they're rather average for the remainder of their releases with Graces F being the only standout 3D game with some amazing gameplay(story is so so, not good, but not boring enough to put me to sleep or having to skip it it's so bad.)

Pass on Destiny, get Eternia/Destiny 2 or import the PSP version of the game which was released in Europe but never came to the US.

[Aussie2B]

Yikes, I guess they've both gotten worse in price since I last saw. Time to kick myself yet again for passing on Tales of Destiny back in the day for like 20 or 25 bucks, opting for a couple cheaper PS1 RPGs instead. Still don't have a copy, sighs. I've got Tales of Destiny II at least, which I got totally for free since it was $20 on Amazon back then, and I had won a gift certificate from GameFAQs. I think that might've been the first time I ever used Amazon period.

Anyway, if you go the European PSP route for Tales of Eternia, be wary. Early copies of the game have a really bad glitch that always crashes the game at a certain scene, making it impossible to progress any further short of downloading a save file that's past that point in the game. I don't believe there's any way to confirm via packaging if a copy is glitched or not, so you'd have to pop the UMD in a PSP and check the disc's firmware number. 2.5 and higher are good.

I wish we had an alternative to the PS1 Tales of Destiny available, but alas, that's the only version officially in English.

[SparTonberry]

It was a number of years ago I bought Tales of Destiny for what seemed around market value of $50 disc-only.
(I remember it was one of the first things I bought AFTER I learned that Google doesn't or didn't seem to have a buyer-protection on their Paypal clone. Luckily the Google-using scammer only got like $9 out of me attempting to buy Batman: The Animated Series for GB, though I'm sure they got more from other people. The only "contact" option Google had was "contact seller". :P )

And yes, importing the PSP version of ToE was even then a cheaper move than buying the PS1 version.

[WulfeLuer]

Thanks for the feedback, guys. Feel free to keep it coming, too.

I really was just thinking about this since I have a late-blooming like of the Tales series, and I'm trying to feed my addiction. I don't mind having my sights set on expensive games (I snagged the whole Suikoden main series including the pricey V and the exorbitant II). I just wanted to know why. There seems to be a fairly positive opinion on these two games, which helps a good bit.