Pretty much a flat improvement on the first one. Most of my enjoyment of the first Xillia came from the combat, a super fluid and expressive battle system that's easy to grasp but deeply rewards proper strategy and coming up with real combos. But I found the story and cast to be pretty dull for the most part. Xillia 2 improves on both of these fronts significantly with the addition of Ludger, our new protagonist. The sudden implementation of a silent MC with dialogue options, a first (and, as of 2024, last) for the series, is definitely a contentious idea, but one that I feel pays off reasonably well. Ludger has a good sense of character in his dialogue choices, and the family melodrama involving both his brother and his kinda-adopted daughter throughout the dimension-hopping shenanigans they keep finding themselves in provides a heart for the story that beats much louder than anything Xillia had to offer. The remaining playable characters still don't really make up a cast I deeply enjoy, but I find their post-adventure character arcs attempting to move forward with their lives after saving the world to be a good deal more interesting than when they were actually saving the world. The battle system remains fairly similar to the first game, but Ludger's ability to switch between three sets of weapons, granting him access to a truly gargantuan arsenal of artes, make him the single most fun and interesting character I've gotten to use in this series so far. I'm not nearly good enough to take advantage of the truly cracked shit you can get up to with his combos, but even on a basic level his versatility makes him a joy to play around with. And that's not even mentioning his Chromatus mechanic, a super mode that lets you beast on enemies in the frame rate dimension for a good 20 seconds. Reaching the point to where you never feel tired or discouraged running into enemies because of how good it feels to beat things is just about the highest compliment I can give an RPG battle system, and Xillia 2 improves on an already rock-solid foundation to hit that benchmark with flying colors. A consistently enjoyable package overall, and my favorite Tales game yet.