Finished Tales of Xillia (Jude side).
It was a great experience to go through. Aside from some pacing and character issues, I absolutely loved the world, themes, and characters there were to see. But man, the combat was the star of the show for me, definitely my fav in the series. 8.5/10

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I didn't see Mila's side yet, so I can't say too much, but it was honestly fun seeing Jude grow as a character.
His meek and kind disposition is not often seen in male JRPG protags, but seeing his resolve and choices affect the ending was👍
I did wish his arc wasn't so fast. There's a certain part in the game where they basically tell what happened all in cutscenes instead of through its usual means, and part of me would have loved going through that gameplay wise along with skits and interactions. Making his big arc last so short was a shame.

Other than that, I really liked the cast. They meshed well with the theme of this game. I only wish they didn't staple so many things on Alvin. If you've played the game then you probably know what I mean. Definitely think other character could have taken some of those roles. Won't go too much into detail.

I also like the bad guys here. Think they were my favorites in the series. I think all of them had a grey side to them in which you could understand why they did the things they did. Especially their connections to the cast. Not only that but they were fun challenges!

Back to postive points! Combat was stellar. The progression to Artes>Linked Artes>Mystic Artes was top tier and experimenting with different characters felt good. It was honestly addicting trying to link everything, that I might have grinded too much before facing the final boss.

The lore of the game was also pretty fascinating. I'm always a big fan of games explaining how magic or special techniques work, and this game does a good job of doing it and expanding on it throughout the plot.
I'm honestly glad Xillia 2 is a thing cause I wanna see more of it.

I've been really meaning to play another Tales game this year, but getting hella addicted to first Atelier (beaten ten games so far this year ^^;) and then SMT (beat four games ^^;) really didn't help that effort XD. So I looked at the ones I had on hand to play, and I figured Xillia would fit the bill well, as that's the one immediately after my favorite, Graces, and it's one I've had recommended in particular from several friends in the past. It took me some 51 or so hours (and then mucking about for another 10 or so in post-game) to finish the Japanese version of the game, and I enjoyed my time with it very much ^w^

Tales of Xillia is the first game in the Tales series (to the best of my knowledge) to take a page from the Atelier playbook and have two main characters instead of one. First you have Jude, the 15 year old med school student who becomes embroiled in trying to stop a plot by his city/kingdom to plunge the world into war (or worse). Then you have Milla, the living avatar of the master of elementals, Maxwell, who is the one who embroils Jude in trying to destroy the evil Jin machinery that the government is trying to use for evil purposes. There's a cast of four main/playable characters outside of them, but they're the two the plot primarily revolves around. You can actually pick from playing either's route before you start the game, but Jude's is the one you should play first (as I did) and it's also the most complete. Milla's perspective on things is almost identical to Jude's, and Jude is the real main character when all is said and done, no matter how much Namco may try to pretend otherwise (although Milla is a very good #2 story focus).

I really loved the story and especially the character writing in Tales of Graces, and Tales of Xillia did not disappoint on that front either. All six of the main cast are really well portrayed and developed (with my personal favorite being Teepo), with the story's main themes being conviction, duty, and finding one's purpose. The antagonist is also very interesting for a JRPG, as I really can't think of any other one that I've played where the ultimate conflict between the main hero and villain comes down to such an almost mutually agreed upon point that their conflict ends the way it does here. Being a more recent Tales game, this is a longer story with two major twists (although it's oddly enough split across four acts), and I think it handles the writing really well in the way Tales so often does. The familiar fantasy-with-technology setting and larger themes of environmentalism and anti-colonialism are here, sure, but they're done in an entertaining and still unique way from other Tales games to make this one as engaging as ever.

The gameplay has changed a little and a lot, but it's mostly changed in the very incremental way that the Tales series is so reliable with. Where Vesperia had learnable skills tied to weapons you equipped and Graces had skills tied to your titles you equipped, now equippable skills are tied to a large sphere grid-style board you can slot points into upon leveling up. It also provides stat buffs and such on top of what you get for normally leveling up, but it isn't anything super revolutionary (although it is a trend the series would continue for some time). The way you walk around the world has also changed, with the narrower corridors that used to define dungeons and fields being replaced with wider areas, particularly in the fields. You can look around these locations for materials and treasure chests, but it again isn't a terribly significant change to how things had been done so far. The game has no overworld, but it does have fast travel available very early, and the way it does its shops is also quite clever. Instead of having multiple shops, all types of shop are effectively the same all over the world (no hunting for that ONE shop that sells the thing you need), and you use those materials you win in battles or find around the world to trade in and upgrade them and the stock they hold. It's a very neat idea to reward exploration and also make shopping much more convenient.

The combat system has the same sort of combo/chain limit style that Tales of Graces has, but refined even further so it doesn't have nearly such a steep learning curve as that one did. However, while they have kept the chain system, they've also re-introduced a mana system, so you can't use artes and special moves like you used to. They take a lot of how technical and important your movement was (side-steps are completely removed) and refocus it instead on dodging and attacks that more easily flow into one another. A really cool move that Jude can do is if he dodges with a back-step just before an attack, he teleports behind the enemy to hit them for higher damage!

This also helps build up your link gauge faster, and linking is this game's overlimit mechanic. During battle, you can link to another party member, and they'll both gain a special power to use in battle as well as help you kill whatever you're killing (both guarding your back as well as helping you focus-fire). When you've either taken or dealt enough hits to reach a pip of the meter, you can press R2 after you do a particular special move (every partner has particular artes they can do this with) to do a super powerful move. Filling the bar all the way means you can use those special moves as much as you want until the meter runs out and/or unleash an ultimate attack. Tons of Tales games have overlimit mechanics like this, but this is definitely the overlimit mechanic that I've enjoyed and actually used the most instead of just forgetting to ever use it XP

The presentation is really nice. Music is pretty and atmospheric, which is very usual for a Tales game, and the anime graphics style of Tales is as pretty as it always is. Character design is good and fan service is very thankfully kept low (save for a few fairly revealing outfits). There are some slight performance hitches in very large battles (generally post-game battles or optional super hard fights with lots of movement and particle effects), but even when they happen they don't disrupt your ability to fight too badly. It feels more like you suddenly have bullet time than anything XD

Verdict: Highly Recommended. This game didn't take the top spot of Tales of Graces for my favorite Tales game, but it came damn close. Xillia is honestly probably just a better game than Graces, if I'm being more objective, but Graces's themes and characters just hit home for me in a way I'm not sure any game can top. This is a really solid Tales game and an excellent one to check out if you've ever been interested in the series. It may not be quite as good as Vesperia to use as your entry to the series, if you've ever played one at all before, but it's still a really good one that you wouldn't be going wrong with either as a newbie or a series veteran~

Gameplay extrêmement addictif et fun, le système de lvl up c'est génial car ça motive le joueur à faire des quêtes annexes / grind (à chaque fois qu'on monte en niveau on peut choisir quelques skills ou améliorations, c'est vraiment génial), les graphismes et artstyle sont géniaux comme toujours. Le scénario était très bon (et un peu dark, ce qui est pas une chose mauvaise bien sûr) à mon avis et on peut choisir soit Jude soit Milla en tant que protag, je pense que c'est assez cool ça.

Vive Leia 🛐

~ Tales of Xillia é um jogo longo com um vocabulário complicado até mesmo pra quem entende bem inglês, já que utiliza expressões criadas para o próprio jogo e isso resulta em um enredo confuso e cansativo, entretanto, tirando os protagonistas (yep, no plural) tem um dos melhores casts de personagens ''secundários'' da série q acaba sobrepondo todos os problemas citados. O combate não é tão complicado quanto o de Vesperia e nem tão simples quanto o de Arise, mas é extremamente satisfatório e divertido. O sistema de skill tree é bastante similar ao do FFXII, na qual tu pode alocar pontos nos atributos que achar melhor em cada personagem e consequentemente liberar skills e magias. A trilha sonora e animação que são características bastante marcantes da série Tales também são bem menos atrativos em Xillia. No geral eu gostei da experiência que eu tive com o jogo, mas é difícil recomendá-lo principalmente se levar em consideração o difícil acesso, tendo em vista que é um exclusivo de PS3 até hoje e se encontra ''preso'' na plataforma.

Tentei jogar uma vez em 2022, larguei com 12 horas e odiei.
Peguei pra jogar de novo esses dias, passei das 12 horas e amei.

Um jogão que me surpreendeu nos momentos finais, apesar de ter as suas falhas ali e aqui, são coisas que dá pra relevar e focar só na história e na interação entre os personagens, que por sinal são muito boas. A gameplay também é bem gostosinha, muito melhor que a do Tales of Arise, o Xillia bota essa bomba aí de joelhos e ainda chama de puta, é isso aí nessa porra, recomendo.

Uma das falhas que citei antes são os cenários do jogo, o mapa por onde você atravessa (os que contém inimigos) são muito desinteressantes e chatos de se olhar, mas pelo menos as cidades são até que legais, é o que salva um pouco.

As my third entry into the Tales of Series, I found this one quickly becoming my favorite.

The cast of this game is wonderful, and I found myself enjoying each party member and what they were able to contribute overall to the group's dynamic. Surprisingly, I grew to like Alvin the most out of this cast, but all of the characters are enjoyable in their own right. This is especially true for the villains of the game, and I feel that the game does a great job of establishing them. However, I do feel that some characters, like Leia, could have used a bit more focus throughout the narrative.

The gameplay was fun, especially when I started getting used to the Linking system. I also enjoyed all of the character's unique combat mechanics, especially Milla's Spirit Shift. Each battle felt quick and satisfying, which was greatly appreciated given the format.

However, I still do have my issues with this game. Some of the character's arcs did not feel fully resolved by the end of the game for me. This was especially true for Leia. I also believe the game could have explored some of Elise's story more.

Some parts of the games closing act felt a bit too rushed, and I think that it caused the ending to feel a bit less conclusive. I also do think that some of the late game areas are rather underwhelming to explore.

One of the most frustrating aspects of the game for me involved the numerous highroads that the player must traverse to reach many of the towns and cities throughout the game. Many of these areas appear to be reskins of each other, which eventually began to make going through these areas a bit boring. It's especially baffling when the game is capable of having beautiful and unique cities like Fennmont, and yet the numerous highroads have little to make them distinct.

Finally, I think the Coliseum in this game is incredibly frustrating to play since a player can lose a battle by simply getting knocked out of the arena. It is even more frustrating when some boss fights that take place in the arena will add barricades to prevent the player from falling off.

Overall, I would recommend this game to anyone who is interested in giving it a try. I do think this game would benefit from an enhanced version with better graphics at some point in the future, but this version is still great in its own right.

The absolute pinnacle of what Bandai Namco has been trying to achieve with this series for many years now (13+ goddamn entries).
-Excellent Combat
-Excellent Characters
-Excellent Story
-Music was aight
Dungeons need some work tho.