Tales of Xillia Remastered
Review
A Tale Revisited
by Camrin Santchi
reviewed on PC
Foreword
The Role-Playing Game genre is a vast one, so vast that its subgenres seem to have subgenres - Action, Turn-Based, Deck Building, Creature Collecting, Strategy, just to name a few. Some powerhouses of gaming can be found within these genres - Pokemon, Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, but one that this reviewer feels doesn't always receive the aplomb it deserves is the Tales Of series.
This Action RPG series has been going strong since 1995, and has recently been revitalizing their previous titles with new streamlines and fresh coats of paint to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the series, appropriately titled the 'Tales of Remastered Project'. Tales of Symphonia from 2003 and Tales of Graces f from 2009 have already received this treatment, and now it’s time for 2011's Tales of Xillia. Similar to other long running JRPG franchises, the vast majority of these games are separate worlds and canons unless specifically stated, so players would not need to play any previous Tales Of games in order to sink their teeth into Xillia, meaning this revisit is a great opportunity to get into the game for new players or fans.
Not So Branching Paths
Xillia has two main protagonists, Jude and Milla, with the player choosing who they want to be the primary character at the beginning of the game. As Jude and Milla spend a vast majority of their time together throughout Xillia, there are not many moments where this distinction reveals more about the context of the story, but there are some moments - Jude is a more 'human' oriented character with a bit more of a focus on the technological world-building, while Milla is a more 'spirit' oriented character. She is less interested in those human details, so they don't make as notable an appearance in her perspective, which instead favors the connections of the world and thus actively opposes some of the advancements of humanity. From what this reviewer has read, Tales fans do recommend Jude as a first playthrough, since some of his moments do more to flesh out the world-building as well as details regarding his character that would be missed while playing as Milla. Whether there's enough separate content to warrant an entire separate playthrough is a bit more divided among the fans.
Skit It To The Man
One of this reviewer's favorite parts of the Tales Of series is the 'Skit' system, which takes the place of party banter. In a lot of RPGs, take Dragon Age or Baldur's Gate for a Western example, the characters in your party will discuss, bicker, or banter regarding certain topics including hobbies, the plot, or events ongoing in the area. These party banters can be easily interrupted by walking into combat, loading zones, or several other circumstances. In more modern RPGs, there will be a moment of 'what were we talking about', both Dragon Age: The Veilguard and Baldur's Gate 3 institute this concept that helps ensure that players don't miss nearly as much dialogue as they might have otherwise. Skits in Tales Of, meanwhile, need to actively be engaged by the player by pressing a button, which will then play the Skit in a short scene via a Visual Novel style that will occasionally play with the interface by shaking text boxes, character icons, or more.
There is a lot to be said about the immersion of ambient banter, but the ability for it to be interrupted, dropped, or forgotten can leave players missing out on aspects of the characters, while the Skit system allows for more focus to be on the dialogue, making it a more curated look into the characters rather than just being some idle dialogue that can be completely missed or not heard at all.
A Couple Footnotes
One flaw that this reviewer found while playing Xillia was the minor case of porting issues, nothing too complicated but the default set graphical settings leave something to be desired thanks to some textures, and some of the controls take just a little bit of adapting, particularly in the case of shifting the control stick while not interrupting combos in the combat. These don’t break the game by any means, but they were noticeable and did require some adaptation.
Whether you're a long time Tales Of fan or just a fan of RPGs in general, Tales of Xillia Remastered promises to engage its players in music, story, characters, and a combat system that takes a bit of getting used to but is very satisfying to pull off as you weave multiple Artes into each other - it very much feels like learning fighting game combos once you adapt to them. Tales of Xillia Remastered comes very recommended.
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8.7
fun score
Pros
Character Skits, Satisfying Combat, Compelling Mix of Fantasy and Sci-Fi
Cons
Minor Porting Issues
