Tales of Xillia 2 - Initial Impressions

JDX: Before we start this initial impressions review, we have to confess something first. We've always been huge fans of Tales of series, even getting the collectors boxes when they were announced, and have already played most of their games up to this point. 

Rami: Completely incorrect! JDX is a super fan of Tales of Series, and constantly getting those crazy collector boxes. On the other hand I am a FAN of JRPG's and NEVER finished a Tales of Series game in my entire life. I have watched others play the ending so at least I know somewhat of what is going on. <(^_~)^ (Winning pose) 

JDX:...... Anyways, That being said, we'll he will try not to make this review biased because of that.

Now that that is out of the way, when we first got Tales of Xillia 2, we he had already pre-ordered the collector's edition box months ago. When it finally came in, I was super excited to play the game.

Box comparison between the two Xillia games.

Collector's Edition: Art book, Replica watch (mirror), Ludger Kresnik figurine, Rollo plush, Music CD and the game. (Left to right)

Note: Slight spoilers for the first few hours of the game, but it's a review so kind of hard to not have a few spoilers here and there.


Story

The events in Tales of Xillia 2 take place one year after Tales of Xillia. The main hero, Ludger Kresnek, is caught up helping a young girl, Elle Marta, look for a magical place called Canaan while simultaneously looking for his brother, Julius, who caused all sorts of mayhem in town. They must also find the secret behind the watch that Elle is carrying, which occasionally sends them to a different dimension.

Ludger, never really talks much, only saying one or two words per sentence. Instead, during cut scenes and even side skits, you will be given a choice as to what you want him to say. This was meant to give the player more control over how the story progresses and how he interacts with the characters. However it really doesn't feel like you’re altering how anyone behaves or even how the story progresses. Instead we have a main character who responds to everything either with a sigh or a “yeah.” Not quite what we expected from a Tales game to be honest. Although since the main theme of this game seems to be all about choice, we will see how this adds to the story later on.

Part way through the game after a severe incident on a train, you are rescued and given medical treatment by a very sleazy doctor, who then forces you to pay up 20 million gald for his services. Since you just started a fresh new adventure, you don't have that kind of money. Instead you are forced to take out a loan for the money so that you can pay him back.

Let me just pause right there. As a recent college student, where paying back bills and college tuition is running rampant, I like to turn to games to forget all the stresses of the real world and live in a nice fantasy one. Now when a game starts telling me I have to pay back my gigantic amount of debts, it gets a little too real all of a sudden @.@. Yeah but at least the game is nice enough to give you a job doing quests plus there is no interest. In the real world, we don’t got monsters to kill or items to collect upon people constantly requesting it. REALITY SLAP!

Throughout the story, Ludger’s childhood friend Nova will periodically ask him to make small payments to try to pay back the debt as fast as possible, usually when your gald hits a set amount. You can choose to either pay it back early, which will give you a bonus item for being “such a good client” or to hold on to your money to pay back later. The catch to this is that the story will not let you continue until at least one payment is made. Your travel rights are taken from you until it is paid. If you still don't pay up, Nova will forcibly take the money away once it reaches a certain amount. This leads to adding serious doubt as to whether or not to buy that nice new weapon sitting in that shop, or to hold onto your money for good old Nova to take away.

Nova asking for money. Insane debt balance left.

Gameplay

Tales of Series games have had the same style of gameplay for a while. It is a JRPG where you control one character and the computer controls up to three others unless you have friends/family to control the other three. Luckily it has been tweaked better for multiplayer. First off, the battle! Just run into a monster and you’re in action! The screen has a circular area where the player(s) fight with the monsters. Free roaming around is possible by holding L2 down and moving with left analog stick or just have a linear movement towards and away from the monster normally. Targeting monsters is simple by pressing R1 and moving the analog to pick the target. Each character in the game has a different unique fighting style. Of course it overlaps with older games. There are physical attacks and magical attacks for every character.

Battle with amazing scenery!

The main character this time, Ludger has quite an interesting style of fighting. He is able to switch between weapons in battle (when you acquire said weapon) and use different skills for each weapon. What baffles me is how are you able to heal with a sledgehammer?!? Healing with the power of violence!

Like every Tales of Series game, there is a TON of grinding to do. This one in particular loves to make you do that very early in the game. After playing the game through the beginning, the player is already given a HUGE amount of debt. After acquiring enough money, your friend (the banker) calls you, full of energy and says stuff related to money such as “You may hate me but I have a heart of gald.” Gald is the currency in the game. Luckily making gald isn't too hard since you are able to do quests for it. These side quests usually ask for hunting a certain amount of monsters or acquire a certain amount of items.

A new feature in the game that we like is the Kitty Dispatch. The kitties are adorable and the person who owns 100 kitties lost them in her move to her new apartment. So now the player needs or if so desired, go find them. Ledger owns a cat name Rollo and he is sent out on the kitty dispatch a lot. The kitty dispatch helps you acquire items or more kitties depending where you send the cat. There are also 18 special cats that are based on previous tales games to hunt. So far we have only found Luke from Abyss, so this may take a while.

Adorable Kitty Dispatch. Also can see the other kitties found.

Another new feature is the ability to “choose” your choices for the story. Honestly there are only two choices and most of the time, one choice is really not much of a choice. At least for now.

Graphics

We both agree that graphics isn't what makes the game a “good” game. The art style is chosen by the creator and we respect their choice. Knowing that, we would like to elaborate a little on the beauty of the game.

Amazing scenery!

Some parts of the scenery can look a bit choppy, but the character looks really nice. The scenery in some of the towns look amazing, and it really does give the feel of a large open world.

The graphics is exactly how I expected Tales of Series games to be. They have improved since the first couple of games. I can make out what the characters look like and see the beautiful scenery and that is good enough for me!

Sound/Music

The score sounds nice, but we haven’t really gotten very far into the game so this part is a little hard to judge without going a little further. So far, it just sounds similar to the first one.

Well for me, I am terrible at noticing music in a game. I couldn't tell anyone anything about the music since all I ever notice is what the characters say. This time the main character is pretty much a mute (as of now) and a little girl is the one who does all his talking. Voices sound good except I can’t make much of the main character’s voice. Well, that “sounds” good to me. (Bad pun I know)

Overall

• Starting story seems good, realistic debt feeling, and blamed for everything. Makes us feel good about ourselves (sarcastic).

• The gameplay has tons of things to do. We can’t complain, it’s a lot to keep us busy for a while.

• The graphics look beautiful and can’t wait to see the other characters.

• The sound and music sounds good but we only heard a few tracks as of now.

• Tales of Series games tend to have lots of replay value, so we hope this still holds true. We will know by the end of the game.

We may have a mid game review but definitely a full game review!

Platform: PS3

Starting cost of game: $59.99

Cost of Collector's Edition: $129.99


What were your first impressions? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Posted by Rami (Italic) & JDX (Bold)