Tales of Destiny, the sequel to Tales of Phantasia, carries over its original composer and throws in a second one to mix things up a bit. And boy, does it mix things up! When listening to this soundtrack, one asks themself “is this Sakuraba’s style?”…If the answer is a definite “NO!”, chances are you’re hearing a track done by the other guy. However, there’s some stuff in here that is definite Sakuraba material. The title track “Tales of Destiny” is one such example.
This soundtrack was printed, as you can see, years after the game’s release in Japan…Something that Namco also did with Tales of Phantasia. Before buying this, I personally asked “Hey…You own the game, and there’s a sound test on there…Why buy the OST?” Luckily, I ignored that notion and bought it. The main difference is definitely the quality of music you hear. There is a DEFINITE difference in quality, the better being on the soundtrack, of course. A whole new set of instruments may be found in one track that you never heard in the game, and it makes that track sound darn good! However, this can work inversely too…There are tracks I prefer hearing on the PSX rather than on this CD, though they may be few.
The packaging to this soundtrack is ENTIRELY TOO SIMPLISTIC…I was hoping for something fancy. I suppose I’d have to buy the Drama CD set for that though. 🙁 …
As for the music itself, I REALLY enjoy Tales of Destiny’s tracks. I liked the game itself for many reasons, but the soundtrack was really, really cool! I normally don’t like Sakuraba’s upbeat tracks (call me a hypocrite to VGM fan-ness…) but I really like the upbeat tracks on this thing! I have always been known to like soundtracks with multiple composers though…It adds to variety while keeping a similar sound due to synth constraints.
The Tales of Destiny OST is quite easy to find. Anime Nation lists it, though they don’t always have it in stock. I got my copy at CD Japan for about $34 before S&H. Rather than these two, you could just check out the buttons above for GMO or Otaku. This soundtrack has quickly become a favorite in my home CD player, I suggest you pick it up if you’re a Sakuraba fan or just want to remember the good ol’ times playing ToD!
