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Taken directly out of the ToD topic and done by request, here's the first review to be put in the review sub-forum.

~Tales of Destiny: Review~

Opening remarks- Having played it's sequel first, I wasn't expecting anything big out of this game... Yet it still surprised me in quite a few areas. Plot-wise, I pretty much knew everything from the get-go, but everything else jumped out at me. Is it a good game? Yes, you bet. Is it an awesome game worth praise? Not really, and it isn't praised on end like some certain games, so it does just well as it should.

Media- As the first Tales game to be on the Sony Playstation (PSX), it didn't live up to as much as it could have. Only 1 disc, but tons of story. The part that really got me was the 3 (about) cut-scene whammy it did mid-game. I wasn't expecting that, at all. All I expected out of it was the anime intro, that's it. So it was pretty surprising that this one disc game was able to pull that off. (No Rating for this section)

Graphics- The graphics have been barely updated since the Tales of Phantasia Super Famicom (SFC) sprites. A bit more detailed, but still the same chibi-idea and fairly choppy motions. Heck, when Cless and Arche from ToP make a cameo, they still use their SFC sprites. Being the first PSX game, one could hope the graphics could be a tad better... But as far as I can see, the game was going to originally be for the SFC anyways, so it doesn't matter that much to me. But to others, looking on the release date (97 Japan, 98 US) and other titles recently released (Final Fantasy 7, for example) one would've liked a better display. Though much of the dungeon and battle sprite ideas weren't changed, the overworld was a little... It showed somewhat of a 3D enviornment, and I guess that's good enough. They'd later make much nicer layouts with Eternia.
Graphics- 3 out of 5.

System- I really do believe they were going to put this on SFC originally, I could be totally off, but the way the game handles it seems a LOT like the SFC ToP. The battle system is still fairly choppy, leaving big blind spots open for both you and the enemy after an attack. Techniques are a bit bizzare in this game because of the Swordian system. Spells are considered different from your usual "Majinken". Thus, you can't short-cut them, making it a pain when you want to go and use "Flare Tornado" or something of that valor. As far as the overworld/city/dungeon goes, it's been a tad improved. It's still pokemon-esque, there are invisible squares, or rather, lines in this case, that the character must walk on. You can't go diagonally. The option to run without an item in this game is really nice, but you barely use it because of the ridiculous encounter rate. At times, there won't be random battles, which is nice, but when there are... A PAIN. There is no "run away" option (Unless I'm an idiot and I never found it), unless you have a certain character use a certain tech to run away. Even then, it's unlikely you'll pull it off. So you're better off fighting EVERY SINGLE BATTLE. That's why I would occasionally stop, the plot interested me, but it wasn't worth going through about 40 encounters in one dungeon alone. As for bosses... Very few are hard, except the ones you HAVE to be killed by. It makes me wonder why they kept the encounter rate so damn high. Not only is it annoying, it makes boss battles a lot easier because you've leveled up so much.
System- 3 out of 5 stars.

Story- I really can't give away alot of the story, but I will tell you this, even if you get to the end of the game, many things will still confuse you. This is probably why Tales Studio make Destiny 2, many lose ends they never tied up in this one. As far as character development goes, this game does a pretty nice job at it. It doesn't really pay attention to un-needed characters (Kongman, Cheslea, Johnny) as much as the main ones, but the main ones sure are developed. In fact, I'd say its character development is much better than Symphonia's. As for the rest of the story... You'll just have to find out for yourself.
Story- 4 out of 5 stars.

Sound- My favorite subject to review. Destiny is the first game in the series to have a J-Pop intro... That wasn't MIDIfied. ToP had one, but it had to be MIDIfied to fit on the cartridge. The PSX disc has no such flaw, thus the song remained intact. "Yume de Aru Youni" is a love song... Which doesn't really make any sense for the main plot of the game, rather the sub-plot going on that you notice, then don't pay attention to because the main one has you. As far as the actual tracks in-game, they're still somewhat MIDI-esque. Giving me yet another reason to believe this game was going to be for the SFC. 92 tracks total, which is pretty impressive. Though some are just old tracks for sidequests (Like the 8 tracks from "Tower of Druaga"). Motoi Sakuraba worked pretty hard on this one, not as much as some later, but still hard. Some tracks such as, "Leon~Victim of Fate" are actually better kept in the MIDI format. I just wish that they could've put "Bare Its Fangs" and "Surprise Attack!" for two separate parts of the game. It gets sort of annoying hearing one, than the other about 5 million times, than finally the other again. Town themes are nice, not as nice as some of the later ones, but still good. Event themes are probably the best from this game, such ones as "Idle Fears" and "Danger Signal". As well, I give this game kudos for one of the best final boss themes. By the way, Miktran's theme is really called, "Crown of Crosses", XD. As for other aspects of sound, this game was the first to have skits (Japanese version anyways). Though they aren't the anime-type ones that most people know from others, the use of sprites is still nice. Leon's voice owns.
Sound- 4 out of 5 stars.

Overall- 3 out of 5 stars.