1. SetsunaSeiei

   Aug 6, 2013

   10

   Tales of Xillia is one of the few games I have imported from Japan in my life, and it was totally worth it. The Tales franchise has had its ups and downs, but Xillia is definitely the high point for the series when you think about visuals, systems, story and characters. The world of Rize Maxia is beautiful and vibrant, the characters are well detailed and pleasant, the battles are fast rewarding and better than ever thanks to the linking between couples of characters and the way you gain skills in a Sphere Grid makes that even more compelling than in previous games. Cities are a joy to see, and even normal fields are big and full of paths you can take.
   
   Xillia also has two different adventures depending on who you decide to play as in the beginning (Jude Mathis or Milla Maxwell), and even if the story doesn't change too much I felt more interested in a second run than in most other Japanese RPGs. Now that the game is in English, I think fans of RPG and Tales alike will end up loving it just as I did.… Expand

   • 48 of 56 users found this helpful
2. RonaldR

   Aug 10, 2013

   10

   I'm near the end and boy if it wasn't a fantastic ride. While I love jrpgs I hadn't enjoyed the genre so much in years till I tried Graces last year, and I fell in love in a matter of hours. Xillia is even better, with its revamped graphics, Link Artes and fantastic cast of characters, and the plot so far has been great and fast paced. I recommend it to everyone, this isn't just for jrpg fans.… Expand

   • 18 of 20 users found this helpful
3. Joerpg84

   Aug 6, 2013

   10

   Great characters and story, innovative battle system with the new linking ...prefer this style graphics compared to previous tales! Definitely one of the better JRPGs I have played...even more than Ni No Kuni… Expand

   • 29 of 35 users found this helpful
4. KyoSiegfried86

   Oct 15, 2013

   9

   Tales of Xillia is pretty important to the Tales saga, finally combining both studios and changing something. Xillia feels the true next-gen Tales game.
   
   -STORY-
   Xillia's story is.... ok. It will pretty difficult for you to not find clichès all over the plot, and characters are what an anime/manga fan has already seen tons of times. They're ok, still, all of them have a good importance in the plot and have their own reasons to come along.
   Story can be seen through the eye of one of the two protagonists: the choice is at the beginning of the game. In 90% of the game, the two protagonists are together so you'll see the same exact thing. However, in that 10% of the game, you'll going to learn something better about the past of the protagonist chosen or other characters involved with him. Choosing Jude can be better for the first run, since it is always present during important speeches in the game.
   
   -GAMEPLAY-
   Xillia has changed something to the Tales saga's popular recipe: now the camera is manual. You'll explore big areas, populated by monsters (you can see and evade them), and there are tons of secrets, passages, treasure chests all over the place, giving you a lot to explore. Development system is pretty unique,too: every time you level up, you'll gain particular points to spend in a spider web-like menu, where you can freely upgrade your stats and learn artes following the web connections: this is good, you can give priority to the stats/artes you think are most useful. Companion AI is pretty good too, since you have to chance to customize it in a very simple way, yet very complete.
   And now, battle system: the battles are a mix between Vesperia/Abyss and Graces, you can move freely, still the camera prefers the one on one approach; fighting is easy, and there are a lot of combinations between normal attacks and artes, giving you a lot of combo to invent and have fun. This button mashing type of fighting is balanced by a good strategy option offered by the link: with this feature, you can have characters work in pairs, giving special abilities like guard break, time stop etc. all enemies has a weakness to exploit using this link system.
   However, the game is really easy (on normal), and you'll probably find to effectively use this feature only during boss fights.
   There's a flaw, however, and it regards the shop system: shops are divided in categories, you can upgrade each category by giving them objects (easy to find objects), when the shop level up you'll have the possibility to buy new equipment or have discounts, This is really good, except for the fact that leveling the shops (finding the objects) are SO easy that you can destroy the game difficulty in just a couple hours.
   Tales fans might be upset to know that cooking is gone... now you just buy food just like any other object.
   
   -GRAPHICS-
   On the graphic note, Xillia is meh. It's worse than Vesperia, and better than Graces F. However this may be due to the fact that the game finally uses manual camera, but somehow the graphics seems a bit outdated. Technically the game has a pretty stable frame-rate, you'll get only some issue during really really chaotic situations.
   
   -SOUND-
   Sound is just ok. Music is good, but there aren't lot of tracks so it repeat itself quite often. Voice acting is a mixed bag, but overall good. You can play with Japanese voices too, so it's not really a problem, I guess.
   
   -GAME LENGTH AND REPLAY VALUE-
   Game story is pretty long, and if you play it while exploring the areas you'll finish the game in probably 60-70 hours. There are a lot of sidequest, most of them pretty useless, but some of them really helpful. Overall your experience will be 100+ hours.
   You may want to replay it, too, by choosing the other character at the beginning (they have a small different ending).
   
   -CONCLUSION-
   Somehow, Xillia can be seen as the best Tales of ever created. However, some flaws in the shop system, and a well-known plot ruined the title of "best". It deserves a 9 imho.… Expand

   • 0 of 0 users found this helpful
5. Justhere

   Aug 7, 2013

   9

   My first impressions with "Tales of Xillia" were, admittedly, all over the place. I myself have played a variety of these games in the past, ranging from Symphonia on the Gamecube to Vesperia on the 360. I also delved into a section of the game that's not usually used. Multiplayer. I played this game along with a friend and got approximately 5 hours into the game at the moment. These are my thoughts.
   
   Tales of Xillia immediately made me feel right at home in the narration. It felt like a Tales game alright, so veterans like myself will notice distinct similarities. That being said, I was surprised when I was given a choice between the main protagonists, Jude and Milla. We chose Jude and moved on. As we got into the plot side of things I won't say anything about it my friend was easily confused. He hasn't played a Tales game before, so it should be noted that this game isn't really a good game for newcomers to use. That's not really the game's fault though; only so much can be explained in so little time.
   
   When it came time for combat, the basic tutorials were easy to understand so that even my friend could get the basics down. It utilizes a mixture of traditional Symphonia battles with Graces f's CC system, and the flow is pretty good. X button uses simple attacks that cost 1 AC while gaining TP, and the O button uses Artes, which use both TP and 1 AC. Simple combos feel good as you pull them off. When more characters are added to the arsenal, you're introduced to the "Linking" system, which allows you to pair up with a teammate to fight an enemy together. This opens up more combo potentials, and also brings in "Linked Artes" think of them as two people merging a normal arte together to create a stronger arte.
   
   Then we were introduced to co-operative fighting after getting my own tush thoroughly kicked I'm surprised that not many people talk about this, because the combat in this game just feels so much better when another player or multiple are helping you fight. You can strategize with people, not AI. It adds a whole new element to the game that I simply love. My only gripe about co-operative play is that you can't link with another human player. When you try to, the second player loses control of his character and the AI takes over. Being able to co-ordinate attacks and artes together would've been a great addition and would highlight the multiplayer aspect, but it's sadly missing.
   
   As for characters and art style, I have no objections here. It certainly feels like a "Tales" game while the graphics are significantly improved. I only met three playable characters in my travels and grinding, and all of them interact with each other well. I've heard people say that Milla's voice acting doesn't fit the character well, but I personally don't see a problem with it.
   
   Also, I like the new shop system. You find materials and donate them to the store, which in turn gives you discounts and new items. It makes grinding and searching for all of those materials feel useful and not a waste of time (That was one of my main problems of Graces f. The synthesis system for creating items that did nothing except sometimes becoming something valuable just felt like a chore. )
   
   I see Xillia as a fantastic addition to the "Tales" series. I really hope that Xillia 2 lives up to this game's quality. The multiplayer combat is fun and should really be noticed more. I can't give this game a perfect score, but it's damn near close.… Expand

   • 28 of 31 users found this helpful
6. logaems

   Aug 23, 2013

   9

   The biggest surprise of the year for me. I didn't expect much & what did I get The best battle system for an action jrpg on ps3, great funny characters, good chara design & a good story.
   
   Very few low points:
   - Average graphics
   - Some weird interractions between characters ("I want to kill you" then "Lets be friends" in 5 seconds ...)
   
   I played FF13, FF13-2, Eternal Sonata but ToX is my reference for PS3… Expand

   • 5 of 5 users found this helpful
7. tremault

   Sep 9, 2013

   2

   waited for this for ages, huge disappointment. This game is a mess. after playing tales of graces, the beginning of this game is utterly boring. There is no reason to like any of these characters, they have little depth or introduction, no real relationships or life to speak of. the game is dank and gloomy and the music is depressing. the battle system is horrendous, the game throws so much information at you before giving you chance to learn or adapt. not long after I was told one thing, it would tell me something else, I got so far into the game and found I was basically floundering about mashing the buttons. looking in the menu, I found functions that I apparently had been told about but just did not remember. there are way too many enemies as well which makes this game not much more than a grind-fest. the environments are dull and repetitive. I don't have much more to say besides, I waited for this game and even pleaded with it to give me some reason to play. in the end I just switched it off. 5 hours of my life and £45 utterly wasted.… Expand

   • 2 of 8 users found this helpful

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