Tales of Xillia (PS3)

Tales of Xillia has one of the most messed up plot lines ever dreamed of (besides Final Fantasy 13) and one of the most irritating final boss fights ever. I don't know where to start but I suppose i'll start with the story so that I can get it over with... urgh. The story opens up rather well as you quickly obtain new characters and there are plenty of interactions via skits along the way. It starts steady but it is likeable and it even starts to get good at one point. The game begins with either Jude or Milla depending on whom you choose (Star Ocean 2 much?) and they're trying to stop this weapon of mass destruction, not because it's a terrifying weapon that could kill millions but because it kills "spirits". Now i hope this "spirits" theme appeals to you, because the entire game is based around it, like many tales games, the world has a source of energy, sorta like blastia and cryas in the last two games, this game uses spirits as the power source of the world. Spirits essentially feed off the mana lobes of humans (don't ask) to survive, in return they provide their powers to the world. The lance of kresnik however sacrifices spirits themselves to power it up, in other words it is essentially a spyrix, which is another term commonly used in this game (if you think final fantasy 13's constant use of the words fal'cie and l'cie, you'll probably get the feeling of this game's common use of these terms and there are more of them later on).The first issue is that the philosophy behind the spirits is pretty poor, the game doesn't explain much about them in words and what exactly it is that they do, the game only gives you an idea of their purpose. They essentially seem to be connected to nature in a way and the worlds energy but this isn't really explained properly and so the game can be pretty confusing at times and it can lead to the party's actions being somewhat questionable. The main issue is that the game doesn't make the spirits seem to be an essential plot device as you question their importance, can people exist without spirits? would the world shrivel away to nothing without them? (well according to milla it would) If so then why the hell are the characters not explaining this to the villains? The problem is that this game is filled with plot twists, some of which make the game worse and further have you questioning the importance of spirits, this isn't helped by the fact that Jude is such a do-gooder yet he never thinks for himself, so you have to do it for him, how hard is it to think "am I really doing the right thing by following Milla on her mission to destroy the spyrix weapon"? If anything, the plot is solely centered on Milla since Jude just follows her around the entire game and serves little purpose, one of the main issues i have about Judes character is his obsession over Milla, it's so damn creepy and awkward, especially since she isn't human and she doesn't understand human relationships, this makes Jude very inconsiderate towards her which is ironic since she gets accused of being inconsiderate towards Jude when it was his decision to tag along in the first place. The many plot twists this game throws at you makes it really hard to explain why the story is so awful but i'd be best to say that the story is actually good up till the final chapter where the game literally falls all over itself, think star ocean till the end of time when I say this, the plot twist at the end of chapter 3 is literally a game killer, especially since the game sets you up with what could have been a great villain only to throw it all away, in fact the game does this twice. By the end of the game, the main villian is the guy you predicted to be the main villian fight from the start due to his cliché'd appearance. All I have to say is that the main villain of the game is bad, despite many people believe he is cool, I don't think so, his actions (particularly his minions actions) are illogical and his goals are unclear, at the start of the game he is likeable, by the end you want to stab him with an ice pick and watch him die a bloody painful death just because of how bad of a villain, no of a character he is. His worst offence is in chapter 4, where the characters finally find a solution to everything. the problem is that the main villian believes their solution to be futile due to his arrogance and man is this guy the most arrogant character ever as he believes what he is doing is right just because he says so.The ending is pretty unsatisfying to say the least because the main villian doesn't get the punishment he deserves. Also, early on in chapter 4 Jude becomes emo for no good reason, if you think Edge Maverick's emo moment in star ocean 4 was bad, wait till you see Judes moping in chapter 4, it is simply put pathetic, all the respect I had for his character was gone at that very moment, which is sad since he is my main dude in battle, screw that guy. Simply put, the story is a mess, many people say, the games pacing is where it's lacking, I disagree, the game does build up interest slowly but meeting new characters along the way helps build up to the major parts of the story, it's not a boring crawl but I think the game does tend to focus a bit too much on the characters at times which is nothing new in the tales series, milla in particular was an interesting character and very well explained, but I think they went a bit too overboard with the whole "Maxwell" thing instead of developing her characteristics and by the end of the game, after a certain plot twist, her character development becomes completely worthless, if there is any character development whatsoever, it's just so difficult to see as the game doesn't express itself properly, which is it's main problem. had the game managed to express itself to it's audience, instead of spilling too much jargon down our throats, I think the story would have been far more appealing. Oh and just forget chapter 4 ever existed... it completely ruins the whole game. Now that i've got the horrific storyline out of the way, i'd like to get to the gameplay. The game play of Tales Of Xillia is the most fluid game play in the series, period and is one of the best real time battle systems in an rpg. Combat is fast paced and fluid and is really easy to pick up but can be difficult to master, I suppose it depends on the character you pick, Jude is pretty good for beginners, I used him the majority of the game and i had a lot of fun with him. Every character is unique and has their own abilities and traits for example, Jude is able to blindside enemies by back stepping at the right time, like in Star Ocean 4, though this requires more precision and unlike Star Ocean 4, it isn't a core element of the gameplay. The best part of the gameplay is by far the linking. In battle you have the choice to partner up with another character, when "linked" you're partner's ai will synchronize with you to perform long combo string's, which allows anyone to pick up and play the game. You can also perform link artes by filling a bar of your over limit gauge, this is essential to build the gauge up so you will use them often just for the sole purpose of filling it up, once it reaches maximum, you can use a link arte to enter over limit, in over limit you can chain your link artes and even perform powerful mystic artes by executing arcane artes and holding X, you can perform any move freely without consuming ac to really build up the combo count. Sadly, linking isn't as balanced as it should have been, some character combinations have more link artes than others, Jude and Milla moreso, this can lead players to use the same link partners all the time. Every character has their own unique ability to assist their link partner, some are really useful, you could even say that they're cheap such as Rowen's magic guard others are rather useless such as Judes healer and Leia's steal, Elize can be used to conserve tp so you can save your gels for later battles, so she's usually going to be a major link partner but the best link partner combination in the game is definitely Jude x Milla due to the fact that they have the most link artes, true you can swap link partners on the fly to perform more link artes but it's easier to just stick with Jude x Milla. Leveling up in this game is similar to that of Final Fantasy X or Path Of Exile which allows you to freely input your characters stats and abilities using the lithium orb. Many times I forgot to do this and got curb stomped, so you have to remember to spend your gp. The problem with the lithium orb is that most of the abilities are completely worthless and i'm talking farcry 3 worthless, you level up and spend it on an ability that for example, the bench warmer abilities heal up characters in reserves periodically which is useless for characters you use all the time. whereas the magic guard abilities are useless for the characters you never use. It's as if Tales Of Xillia expects you to main every single character. It also feels like they just added abilities for the sake of adding them as some of them don't seem to serve much purpose such as Teepo master which increases your tp and hp when taunting with Elize, first of all, even if you were to main the healer, why would you be taunting with her? you'd be best to swap her out and link with her so she automatically restores tp herself with her Teepodrain which she uses often anyways. Some abilities are rather cheap such as angels cry and revive, though they aren't particularly cheap for the end game, you can get them way too early because of the freedom of the lithium orb which can make the rest of the main game a cake walk, I think they should have removed the level cap after the completion of the main game allowing more skills to be available for the end game such as revive and angels cry. The end game, I haven't finished yet but i'm at the end boss of the bonus dungeon (magnus zero) and he is really irritating for the same reasons as another boss in particular..... Now I would like to rant about one thing in particular, this does not affect the game in itself but it may be important to know. Tales Of Xillia has the worst final boss fight in a jrpg ever, at least from what i've experienced. Now you already know by now that i already hate the main villain, but this final boss fight is the main reason why I hate him. Now for those who have played you're probably wondering why i direct my hate at him because he isn't the main issue... but my god if I hear "Absolute Domination" ever again i will crack someone's head open... metaphorically of course. There may be spoilers but I will try to keep it as spoiler free as possible. There are three issues with the final boss fight, the first becomes obvious as soon as you wittle the health bar to around the half way mark, the final boss will heal. It took me a while to figure out how the final boss managed to heal but it turns out that it occurs when the final boss is blocking... how the hell was i supposed to know this!? The worst part about this is that the final boss heals 10,000 health every second whilst blocking, no joke. So how do you combat this? There are many ways somebody mentioned stealing with Leia but that wasn't the way I did it. The best way to beat the final boss is to link up with Alvin which allows you to break guards. The goal is to keep Alvin alive long enough so you can use his breaker skill when the final boss blocks, that way you can stop the final boss' healing. The second issue is that the final boss CAN STOP TIME AT WILL. You may be beating the living crap out of it one minute and then BOOM, you can't move a frame. This leaves you open for the final boss to do anything to you, including Blade of Heaven and Absolute Domination (get ready to hear it over and over again till your ears bleed). There is literally nothing you can do to stop this, it is just a cheap move the final boss uses to screw you over. The third and final main issue is that once you beat the final boss, it magically comes back to life... what!? so you have to kill it all over again. I was ready to throw down my controller and reset the game, which I did, because the final battle lasted at least 20 minutes straight, possibly even half an hour. Anyways now to cover miscellaneous features. The game has a new attatchment system which is fun to mess around with. Now you can colour your accessories and place them anywhere you want, you can make your characters look stylish or stupid, every character can equip every accessory, so yes you can give the male characters pig tails and the female characters a moustashe and a pipe. All in all I was impressed by how many different kinds of accessories there were and it really gave the player incentive to do side quests just to obtain them all. The level design is great and open despite not being a world map. there are a lot of hidden treasures to find which gives players more incentive to backtrack. you can fast travel to any area in the game once you reach a certain point which is pretty early in the game so backtracking doesn't feel much of a chore to do. There are lots of foraging sports similar to that of the last remnant (I swear, this game's level design feels very similar to the last remnant). The soundtrack is better than the previous game, though it may not be the most memorable soundtrack, there are some nice tunes in the mix and the final dungeon theme actually doesn't suck this time. It also has a pretty good final boss theme (thank god) but sadly you will be sick of it by the time you've fought the final boss for half an hour. Voice acting, though controversial is pretty decent. The game doesn't last as long as the other games in the series but there is still plenty of content. Grade has returned though this time it is less stressful. Grade is rewarding for earning in game achievements, titles which was great considering the fact that i'm not a trophy hoarder. All in all Tales Of Xillia has left me with a bittersweet feeling... after beating it I am bitterly disappointed but I cannot lie and say that I didn't enjoy it the whole way through.-------------------------------------Plot/story: 7.1Graphics: 8.8Presentation: 9.0Gameplay: 9.4Music: 7.4Lifespan: 8.5Replay value: 8.0-------------------------------------Overall score 7.6-------------------------------------Don't buy at current price, it isn't worth over £40.00 wait till the price died down to around at most £35.00 i'd say it's worth around £25.00.

The first of two currently released in Japan "Tales of Xillia" games. Tales of Xillia 2 is due to be released in 2014.Story: The main theme of Tales of Xillia is the environment, and how spirits and humans can co-exist. As you'd expect though, there are many different layers to the story, making it more complex and interesting. This is true of most Tales games- and even more so in Xillia, where you can play through as one of two main characters.Jude: Jude is a medical student in Fennemont who happens across a strange woman one evening while searching for his Professor. He is stunned to find out who she really is, and from this day onwards his life is changed forever.Milla: Milla is on a mission to find out the cause of a disturbance amongst the lesser spirits. Tracing the disturbance to Fennemont, she meets a teenager called Jude- and learns a disturbing truth. Determined to carry out her mission, Milla's journey begins.Characters:Apart from Milla and Jude, there are 4 other playable characters. There are also many memorable minor characters, including friends and foe alike. The characters are fully voiced, and all have an interesting background that is explored in the game. Sometimes JRPGs fail to explore character history. In this game that is not the case. Great lengths have been gone to in order to give each of the 6 party members, and even the minor characters, a back story. This makes them all more real and likeable- for the most part.Level Gaining:Rather than getting artes and improving stats automatically, Xillia follows a FFX style levelling up system. Each character has a grid that looks like a spider's web. On the web are many nodes with different things on. Stat increasing nodes are along the web strands. Once you activate the web around one gap, the node inside the gap will be activated too. These nodes are for skills and artes. It sounds more complicated than it is. You use 1GP to activate 1 node. You get a varied number of GP per level up. One of only two criticisms of the game is that once you get to higher levels, the GP becomes ridiculously low. It was only the completionist in me that made me want to take them all to LV99.Battle System:In battle you have the typical HP (health that goes down as you are attacked) and TP (technical points required to use artes and spirit/magic artes). In battle you can run around freely and attack using normal attacks (the `x' button) and artes (the `o' button). You can also use items by opening a menu mid-battle, though you cannot keep using items willy nilly. You must wait for a cool down period before using another item. You can change equipment, artes, strategy and participating characters mid battle.Assign artes to controller analog functions (directional pad, L3 and R3). That way if you can assign an attack to the following:`o'`o' and up directional arrow.`o' and down directional arrow.`o' and left directional arrow.`o' and right directional arrow.You can do the same with `o' and any R3/L3 direction.This increases the number of attacks you can assign your character by a lot. You can even assign other characters' attacks to any of these slots, giving your leader quick instructions for team members. It is very handy to assign status healing spells like "dispel" and healing spells like "nurse" to these slots- as well as attacks that push enemies back or expose weaknesses. Sometimes it's better to assign attacks that target a lot of enemies too. In battle you can use magic/spirit artes and melee/normal artes. The party of six will each have a variety of unique abilities and fighting styles, making battles less samey and tedious. You can switch any one of the party with your leader, in and out of battle. The fast paced nature of the battles and ability to run around freely also do this.Linking with partners who have their own `linked abilities' will help you gain an edge in battle. Milla's linked ability is to bind foes, Jude's is to heal you if you are knocked down. As you learn skills during the game, there are certain skills that- when equipped- your linked partner shares. You can switch linked partners during battle, as well as switching leader and participating party members. This means you can make the most out of all your group's abilities.On the left of the screen is a gauge. As you fight and attack this gauge will fill up. Once one `bar' of the gauge is full, it will be possible for linked members to perform "linked artes" together. Once linked to another party member, characters in battle can perform linked artes with them. The linked artes are different for each pair. If you open the menu and select artes from the top, followed by the character you are controlling, you will have a list of the leader's artes. The artes with green symbols next to them are ones that can initiate a linked arte. All you have to do is use this arte in battle. If you see a gold circle appear in front of your character, press R2 at the right time and the linked pair will perform a powerful linked arte, with a cut-across 2D animated view of the characters involved.Once your overlimit gauge is full, the symbol at the top of it will flash. In this state, the next time you perform a linked arte with your chosen partner, your party will go into overlimit. In this state it is possible to perform chains, where linked artes can be used one after another. You can even switch linked character partners in this state to carry on the chain, you just have to be smart about which artes your leader has. Make it one that many party members have linke artes with, and the chain linked artes will be very powerful indeed.Finally, when in overlimit, it is possible to use mystic artes. For that you need an arcane arte, but there are usually only one of two per character.Arcane artes are artes that can chained with normal artes. For example, if you attack normally, and then use an arte, you can also use an arcane afterwards to stockpile the damage. Also, if you use an arcane arte while the overlimit gauge is full and in use, press the `x' button right after using it to perform a mystic arte. A full bodied 2D picture of the character, followed by mini cut-scene will follow as the character deals massive damage!The Tales of Xillia battles are immensely fun once you get the hang of them. There's hours of entertainment in playing around with different characters, earning trophies and titles for certain achievements and basically kicking a-!Side Quests:As you travel through the "world" you will meet many people with green exclamation points above their heads. They will give you quests. Some are for extinguishing monsters. Others are for finding people, or objects. The side quests come with heavy rewards, and it is recommended that you do as many as possible.Sub events:During the main game, there will be an opportunity to view many sub-events. These are very missable unless you are relentless, so I recommend using an online guide if you are a completionist.Skits:These are a staple of "Tales Franchise" games. As you progress through the story, keep an eye on the bottom left corner of the screen between cut scenes. If a symbol appears in red, green or white, press select and you will be treated to a fully voiced `skit' where the characters in your party talk to each other. There are over 200 skits to find in the game. Red is for main event skits, green is for sub event skits and white is for random skits that appear as you achieve certain requirements- such as defeating a secret boss, amassing a lot of money, walking to a certain area at a certain time. They are funny, sad, moving. Really they serve as character interaction and entertainment. As the characters talk little profile images of them appear. The images change appearance to match the character's mood. The amount of detail that went into these skits must have been immense. They are all fully voiced, sub titled and the grammar hasn't been off once.Titles/ Grade:Along with trophies for your PS3 account, you can unlock in-game "titles" when you make certain achievements. The title will earn you grade. At the end of the game, your grade is tallied and you can use it to purchase bonuses for your next play through. Never before have I been so encouraged to play through more than once. I played through as Jude, gained grade, and am now enjoying many bonuses playing through as Milla. If you use the grade wisely, you could keep your best weapons, start will full levels from your last play through and increase exp levels. There are many more bonuses besides that. The best thing is you get to keep your titles and grade when you play through again, meaning you can stack achieved counters. There is one counter that says you have to eat 800 meals. I got all my characters up to LV99 and did every sub event, and I still only reached 500ish foods consumed. In my new play through, since I used the old save file, that counter stays at 500. Some titles are only obtainable as Jude, and the same for Milla.Shop Levels:The main point of gathering materials in this game from monsters and bosses, is to give them to shops to expand them. The shop in every area is the same, so if your weapon shop is LV50 in one area, it will be LV50 everywhere. As you progress your shops in levels, they will gain new items and give you discounts. An added element of fun are the different categories of materials, represented by symbols. The shop with matching expansion symbols will level up twice as fast if you use matching materials. The expansion symbols change though, so be careful. If a shop expansion symbol is highlighted in green, the rate of expansion will be 3X the normal rate.Food:One of the shops you can expand is food. Eating food gives you different effects in battle, for a certain number of battles. The best food for experience will give you 100% extra experience in battle for 5 battles. There are ones to raise your stats and gald too.Change your character's appearance:Accessories- want your character to look really angry for the whole game? If you find the `rage glasses' item, you can do just that. Want your character to have a snotty nose for the whole game, or a pet dragon to perch on their shoulder? A backpack perhaps? Cool hats and other accessories? Collect them as the game progresses and equip them to your character (limited to 3 per character). They change the appearance of you character, for hilarious effects.Costumes and Hair- You can collect a few different hair styles and costumes, though most you must buy from the PSN store as DLC. To be honest though, when playing TOS, TOV and other Tales games, I never managed to get more than a few costumes anyway. I think it's ace that you can just buy them, though perhaps it should be optional.Voices:There are very few scenes in Tales of Xillia that are NOT voiced. The voices are- in my humble opinion- excellent. There is only one voice I hate, which is a miracle in itself. But thankfully it's not one of the main party. Not only are the 200+ skits voiced, but characters will randomly talk as you walk around too, and these are fully voiced. For the sake of the review I'll call them `chatter moments'. There are many situations where unique chatter moments are unlocked. If you equip good armour, wear certain costumes, don't eat bonus foods regularly or leave characters out of battles for too long, you will come across a chatter moment.Graphics:Blew. Me. Away. The environments are breath-taking, but the character facial expressions are awesome. The characters and world are really brought to life in this game because of the graphics.Music/ Sound:Matoi Sakuraba. The genius of techno/ classical/ rock and jazz mixes. Need I say more? The music is addictive and non-intrusive. I encourage you to buy the album even if you're not a JRPG fan. My only other criticism of the game other than GP levels is inconsistent volumes of voices in the cut scenes at the end of the game. Not a problem until then. I had my music setting down to just below half and my voices volume up to the max, but I could still hardly hear them talk. In order to hear the character voices in the end I had to put the music setting down to nearly zero. Not a problem, just frustrating.Overall:I have been playing this game nonstop since the day after it was released. I am only now ready for my second play through. It is probably my favourite Tales of game now. I have played all the ones currently available in the UK, by the way. This is just my personal opinion. You could always try some others out to see which your favourite is. These are all the English translated Tales Series games available in the UK. Tales of Symphonia Chronicles (PS3) (TOS Chronicles contains the GameCube and Wii Symphonia games below, but revamped and in HD) Tales of Graces f (PS3) Tales of Vesperia (Xbox 360) Tales Of The Abyss (Nintendo 3DS) Tales Of Symphonia: Dawn Of The New World (Wii) Tales of Symphonia (GameCube) Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology (PSP) Tales of Eternia (PSP) Tales of Phantasia (GBA) They are all sound games, though Graces, Vesperia, Abyss and Symphonia Chronicles are probably the most current/ modern ones.In the mean time, I highly recommend Tales of Xillia!As usual, if there's anything you feel I left out or want to know, ask and I will try to find out! Thanks!

...it's not the day one edition ! The title is misleading....but the price is low, so it's ok.Just change the title.

It's not the day one edition. The price is low but the description is wrong. You should change it, you know