BANDAI Tales of Xillia Limited Edition

My first Tales of ... Series. Great story mode and awesome cast of characters! Limited edition was also cheap so how can I dislike this.

The first "Tales of" game that I played was Vesperia and I really liked it, mainly because it does not have a kiddie story line and the over-emphasis on the played out "let's friends and we can do anything" mantra that seems to infest a lot of recent japanese exports.Story----------------------Tales of Xillia draws you in immediately from the beginning with an intriguing story and likable characters. The game lets you choose to play as Milla Maxwell, the woman, or Jude, the guy. Since I've only played as Milla I cannot comment about any differences that may exist when choosing Jude, but I believe there are subtle differences in the way the story plays out based on who you select as the main character.I'm in the process of playing the game now, but I have a good number of hours into it so that I can safely say that the story is well told, and keeps your interest. You want to play to find out what happens next, and the skits as well as voice-over commentary that you hear are quite entertaining.Voice acting is top notch, and a lot of you are probably going to like Alvin. He sounds almost like Nathan Fillion, but it's not. The dialogue between the characters is natural and often humorous and all characters are voiced in a way that matches with their personality and appearance.One MAJOR gripe I have is the "pro climate change" messaging they sprinkle throughout the game, some of it so blatant that it would make captain planet seem subtle. In this game the spirits are metaphors for natural resources, and Milla is likely supposed to be 'mother nature'. Once you pick up on these undertones, the rest of the story contains a lot of irritating enviro-wacko messaging you'd expect to hear at some liberal mouth-breather convention. For example, Milla often explains that when humans use devices that artificially harness the power of spirits, the spirits are "murdered". There's also a healthy dose of Milla proclaiming how she must "save the world" and that "she's the only one who can", a fairly typical mindset among ideologues that have deemed themselves to be the ones that decide what is right and wrong, and what actions are acceptable to right the perceived wrongs.Having to sit through in-game dialogue that spews pro climate change garbage (they call it "spirit climes" in the game) without warning does get quite annoying. Why Namco let some idiot liberals inject their leftist propaganda into the game is beyond me...shame on you, Namco for detracting from your game with this nonsense.Audio----------------------The sound in this game is well done, although nothing jumps out at me. You have ambient background sounds when you are in a town that make it seem more alive, but since it is on a loop and there isn't much variation it can get quite annoying when you hear some guy shouting "fresh mutton" no matter where in the town you venture...and it's the same sound in every town.Music----------------------I like the music in this game, but the battle music is incredibly annoying at first. Thankfully it changes to a better tune once you pass a certain point in the game. Some background music is familiar, the desert music in this game is the same as it was in Tales of Graces F, and since I have not completed the game I'm betting there are a few more "classics" included.Combat & Battles----------------------The combat system is a bit more "linear" than it was in Graces F and Vesperia and it retains a lot of nuisance issues from the other games that Namco should have eliminated in Xillia.Firstly, you will get stunned, knocked down or otherwise "disabled" way too often. It happens frequently with standard enemies that are near your level range, and it happens constantly for many of the boss battles. I really do not understand why they feel the need to make combat so frustrating, and unlike Graces F where you could dodge quite easily, Xillia makes avoiding attacks quite tedious, combined with the fact that a lot of the boss enemies move faster than they should be able to.Early on in the game you will be running out of "TP" quite often, and these points are what let you cast spells (artes). TP do refill when you resort to standard melee attacks, but not at a quick enough rate...so in essence you have pretty cool abilities but if you use them you'll be 'out of gas' pretty quickly (meanwhile, the enemies seem to have an unlimited supply and continue using their special attacks over and over). It gets better later on when you have a larger resource pool, as it is replenished based on a percentage of the pool.Xillia introduces a feature called "linking", which allows the player to link with another character to gain special combo moves as well as support abilities. I think this is one of those features that "seems good on paper" but doesn't really add much to the actual game, aside from more unnecessary complexity. When you are linked, you share the cost of linked abilities with the other character but you can only perform linked abilities after casting an arte - which means you really aren't "saving" TP by linking, and the amount of damage you do is not substantially greater than simply attacking head on.Xillia also makes it easy to swap characters in and out of the battle in real time, which can be useful at times, as the characters have better-defined "class roles". Swapping in Rowen when fighting a boss that casts artes often can easily turn the tide of battle to your favor.Finally, the special abilities each character gets force you to pick and choose among them, as you can only set 4 to use. You can also set 4 shortcuts which are activated by pressing the right stick in a direction...although it feels clumsy in battle even though you get access to 8 of your 20 or so abilities in total.Character Development (Leveling)----------------------You level up in this game in the standard fashion, through experience points acquired from battles, and when you gain a level you get a small number of points which you can allocate however you want by choosing orbs. Each orb boosts a stat, while free-floating orbs provide a skill or ability if you box it in by activating all of the orbs around its perimeter.The characters in Xillia do tend to follow class roles better, although a lot of the skills overlap (meaning that many characters have the same one). All in all it's a simple system that gives you some control over what you gain with each level.Conclusion----------------------If you like any JRPG style games, you are going to enjoy this one. It is on par with Vesperia, so it's very good. You will not feel at a loss if this is the first game in the Tales series that you play.The limited edition gives you a music CD, a small booklet and some costumes. I did not care much for the DLC costumes - they look worse than the default costumes the characters start with. The music CD is worthwhile as it is decent music, so it's not a bad idea to go for this version over the standard edition.

no disc music

For fans of the Tales series, if you're hardcore, you may still find this modern take that's been going strong since Symphonia to be right up your alley. For someone whose enjoyment maxed out at Tales of the Abyss and have been getting moderately bored with the series ever since, this game does nothing to draw you back in.Plus a star for being able to pick the sex of your character, though the storyline progresses similarly despite your choice. It's just another hand-holding guided tour through the convoluted Anime-inspired storyline, with decent fight sequences peppered in between. Unfortunately, it's still lacking the depth I encountered in what seems so long ago now...The leveling system is deceptively shallow, as there are fairly clear-cut best options for progression that you'll be choosing over others without even thinking....There just isn't much to keep you coming back. If you dig this kind of game, you're gonna love it. If you were looking for a title to reinvigorate the series, it's still on the horizon, with any luck. This isn't it.

I absolutely agree with the previous reviews I had read that Tales of Xillia is a great game in the Tales series. If you enjoy the Tales series at all, then Tales of Xillia is one you cannot miss. The themes are a little more mature than most of the tales series with some adult oriented humor. The story is amazing. There are plenty of twists as is well known in the Tales series. The gameplay is fast and fun and I can honestly say that after 25 hours into the game so far, I have not been bored even once. Would definitely recommend this game to anyone as it has become my favorite ever in the Tales series. I did not think any Tales game would replace Tales of Symphonia Chronicles as my favorite but I was pleasantly surprised!