there's something special to me about the sprite-based era of ps2 rpgs.
the aesthetic tickles me, a melding of 3d environments meshed with 2d artwork that never quite fully looks like it occupies the same space; a tension hanging between the decisions made to render the world this way, a refusal to completely abandon past styles paired with the desire to highlight them with new ones.
tales of destiny: director's cut also treads this tension, though less successfully, in other ways. its writing is light and quippy, with its skits actually feeling like effective manzai comedy skits in a way that I don't think other/later entries manage to hit the precise rhythm of, but it nonetheless bears some solemn moments forward in ways I wouldn't expect to land with such grace. it's really quite striking how funny this game can be and then successfully pivot to a serious plot point pretty briskly afterward. I really, really enjoyed watching these characters bounce off each other, and keep each other on their feet, as they go through the process of saving the world a couple of times.
but my fucking goodness did actually playing this game turn into a chore. I think 2D tales games are just not terribly good, mechanically, though I don't feel like phantasia('s ps1 remake) was ever this bad when I played it. it's consistently stressful having to deal with a battle system where enemies can and will simply decide you do not get to continue your combo on a whim and then slap you halfway across the battlefield.
it's not often that I get such horrendous whiplash as I did with this game, between enjoying the story and cutscenes so much and loathing the gameplay even more intensely. the back half of the game is one prolonged marathon of dungeon crawling, with, no exaggeration, eight dungeons with essentially no break. each of them also requires you to traverse the world map to and from the dungeons as you stage a raid on the big bad's fortress. several of these dungeons have teleporter mazes among other puzzle gimmicks, and it all culminates in a three-layer final dungeon that involves 1) a mirror world gimmick, 2) a split party section where you leapfrog each party forward through several Fantasy Backrooms maps, 3) aligning several different stages of a tower so light will hit a crest (that you have to find all four pieces of) to open a door, while doing a bunch of switch-hitting elevator nonsense.
the final dungeon was like two and a half hours on its own and it was interspersed with a truly unnecessary number of random encounters and I am so fucking tired but god dammit stahn and rutee are cute in the epilogue. fuck me running why couldn't this stupid game be either good or bad and not Deeply Annoying