So here we are in Elympios, after the events of the first Tales of Xillia, while peace with Rieze Maxia is still very fresh and above all very fragile. The spyrixes which are slowly depleting the reserves of Elympios tend to be replaced by the spyrites, still in the development phase, but which constitute the future of the world. The game gives us the role of Ludger Kresnik, a young man whose dream is to imitate his big brother Julius by becoming an agent at the sprawling company Spirius Corp. Following his entrance exam, it is an attempted attack by the terrorist group Exodus against peace between the two nations that will plunge Ludger into the heart of a struggle for the extermination of parallel dimensions, including the small She seems be one of the keys. Universes close to the original universe, but which could nevertheless cause its destruction. Complex and addictive, the scenario of this Tales of Xillia 2 has the merit of starting much faster than that of its elder, which took longer to get started. The obvious advantage of not having to rest all the bases. Of course, and the players will have guessed it by seeing the cover of the game, this also implies the return of the heroes of the previous Tales of Xillia. Jude, Alvin, Rowen or even Elize will be there to fight by your side. So yes, on that side, it feels a little warmed up, but Hideo Baba's team still takes the opportunity to advance the relationships between the characters, in particular through a series of personal missions specific to each. And then, it is still quite pleasant to find familiar faces!
Speaking of repetition, don't expect to explore completely new worlds. Certainly, Tales of Xillia 2 offers to discover a little more in depth the nation of Elympios, but for the most part of the localities it is deja-vu and already visited. Ditto for certain monsters and certain bosses who are making their return. Mmm, that's a lot for a new title. But then, what's new Jamy? Well, Fred, it's all about progression. Indeed, where Tales of Xillia was sorely lacking in additional content, its little brother relies on it to advance the main story. Let me explain. Following events that it would be a shame to spoil you, the friend Ludger contracts a colossal debt whose reimbursement will constitute the red thread of the adventure. Long story short, you will need to make regular installments to unlock new storyline chapters. And to get money, you will have to complete secondary missions! In each city, a mission manager will offer you a list of quests such as "Break X copies of this monster", "Find X copies of this object" or "Bring an object from point A to point B ". It's not folichon, but it makes the joke and above all it makes the link between the different phases of the story. In addition, as we told you earlier, additional chapters dedicated to each of your teammates will be unlocked as the adventure progresses, by developing an affinity with them. Finally, note that thanks to the Feline Expedition system, you can send the cats you have picked up to the points of interest of Elympios and Rieze Maxia to collect special items.
On the fight side, castagne, savate, tatane, we are also on familiar ground there (not to be confused with this bad show where famous people are foamed by going to remote places of the globe to do Prisunic Humanism). Completely action-oriented, the games take place in an enclosed space within which you can freely control one of the four characters on your team. It's always about making the most of the links between your character and another member of the team in order to attack the opponent on two fronts and trigger devastating and chainable combos/Artes. The behavior of your teammates can be configured in a gambit way and it is necessary to adapt according to the caliber of the opponent (starting in "all offensive / I don't give a fuck" mode on a boss is the best way to do latter). In addition to basic strengths and weaknesses, the monsters encountered are also more or less sensitive to certain types of weapons. Yes, because one of Ludger's specificities is to be able to switch freely, including during a combo, between his twin blades, a hammer, and a pair of guns. Each weapon has its own Artes, its ascendancy over monsters, but also different tactical possibilities due to their varying ranges. And since we are talking about Artes, know that the evolution of the characters has also been modified. From now on, everything happens through the Allium Orb, which will offer a different evolution tree depending on the elemental extractor it houses. You can change the extractor at any time to modify the orientation of your character and the abilities/Artes to develop (share between Water and Fire abilities, focus on speed for a character who is a bit slow). But as long as you are on an extractor, there is no branch or choice: you have to accept a predefined evolution.
And of course, a year not really leaving time to develop another engine, Tales of Xillia 2 is visually identical to Tales of Xillia. Which means it's still a bit old-fashioned. J-RPG as we did a few years ago. The roads are empty and really too linear, the cities lack life and would have benefited from a few more inhabitants; that said, when we see how the game struggles to display the handful of clampins that are present, we say to ourselves that it is not so bad. We can sometimes wait several seconds before seeing the NPCs appear like that, out of nowhere! As a bonus: the impossibility of having Japanese dubbing causes a total desynchronization between the mouth movements of the characters and the English voices. Fortunately, the chara-design fishes out a bit of all that and the magnificent backing tracks bring us back to our nostalgic memories of the J-RPGs of the late 90s. Just the idea of a jazzy piece posed in the zone wild in the midst of monsters is worth its weight in peanuts.
So here we are in Elympios, after the events of the first Tales of Xillia, while peace with Rieze Maxia is still very fresh and above all very fragile. The spyrixes which are slowly depleting the reserves of Elympios tend to be replaced by the spyrites, still in the development phase, but which constitute the future of the world. The game gives us the role of Ludger Kresnik, a young man whose dream is to imitate his big brother Julius by becoming an agent at the sprawling company Spirius Corp. Following his entrance exam, it is an attempted attack by the terrorist group Exodus against peace between the two nations that will plunge Ludger into the heart of a struggle for the extermination of parallel dimensions, including the small She seems be one of the keys. Universes close to the original universe, but which could nevertheless cause its destruction. Complex and addictive, the scenario of this Tales of Xillia 2 has the merit of starting much faster than that of its elder, which took longer to get started. The obvious advantage of not having to rest all the bases. Of course, and the players will have guessed it by seeing the cover of the game, this also implies the return of the heroes of the previous Tales of Xillia. Jude, Alvin, Rowen or even Elize will be there to fight by your side. So yes, on that side, it feels a little warmed up, but Hideo Baba's team still takes the opportunity to advance the relationships between the characters, in particular through a series of personal missions specific to each. And then, it is still quite pleasant to find familiar faces!
Speaking of repetition, don't expect to explore completely new worlds. Certainly, Tales of Xillia 2 offers to discover a little more in depth the nation of Elympios, but for the most part of the localities it is deja-vu and already visited. Ditto for certain monsters and certain bosses who are making their return. Mmm, that's a lot for a new title. But then, what's new Jamy? Well, Fred, it's all about progression. Indeed, where Tales of Xillia was sorely lacking in additional content, its little brother relies on it to advance the main story. Let me explain. Following events that it would be a shame to spoil you, the friend Ludger contracts a colossal debt whose reimbursement will constitute the red thread of the adventure. Long story short, you will need to make regular installments to unlock new storyline chapters. And to get money, you will have to complete secondary missions! In each city, a mission manager will offer you a list of quests such as "Break X copies of this monster", "Find X copies of this object" or "Bring an object from point A to point B ". It's not folichon, but it makes the joke and above all it makes the link between the different phases of the story. In addition, as we told you earlier, additional chapters dedicated to each of your teammates will be unlocked as the adventure progresses, by developing an affinity with them. Finally, note that thanks to the Feline Expedition system, you can send the cats you have picked up to the points of interest of Elympios and Rieze Maxia to collect special items.
On the fight side, castagne, savate, tatane, we are also on familiar ground there (not to be confused with this bad show where famous people are foamed by going to remote places of the globe to do Prisunic Humanism). Completely action-oriented, the games take place in an enclosed space within which you can freely control one of the four characters on your team. It's always about making the most of the links between your character and another member of the team in order to attack the opponent on two fronts and trigger devastating and chainable combos/Artes. The behavior of your teammates can be configured in a gambit way and it is necessary to adapt according to the caliber of the opponent (starting in "all offensive / I don't give a fuck" mode on a boss is the best way to do latter). In addition to basic strengths and weaknesses, the monsters encountered are also more or less sensitive to certain types of weapons. Yes, because one of Ludger's specificities is to be able to switch freely, including during a combo, between his twin blades, a hammer, and a pair of guns. Each weapon has its own Artes, its ascendancy over monsters, but also different tactical possibilities due to their varying ranges. And since we are talking about Artes, know that the evolution of the characters has also been modified. From now on, everything happens through the Allium Orb, which will offer a different evolution tree depending on the elemental extractor it houses. You can change the extractor at any time to modify the orientation of your character and the abilities/Artes to develop (share between Water and Fire abilities, focus on speed for a character who is a bit slow). But as long as you are on an extractor, there is no branch or choice: you have to accept a predefined evolution.
And of course, a year not really leaving time to develop another engine, Tales of Xillia 2 is visually identical to Tales of Xillia. Which means it's still a bit old-fashioned. J-RPG as we did a few years ago. The roads are empty and really too linear, the cities lack life and would have benefited from a few more inhabitants; that said, when we see how the game struggles to display the handful of clampins that are present, we say to ourselves that it is not so bad. We can sometimes wait several seconds before seeing the NPCs appear like that, out of nowhere! As a bonus: the impossibility of having Japanese dubbing causes a total desynchronization between the mouth movements of the characters and the English voices. Fortunately, the chara-design fishes out a bit of all that and the magnificent backing tracks bring us back to our nostalgic memories of the J-RPGs of the late 90s. Just the idea of a jazzy piece posed in the zone wild in the midst of monsters is worth its weight in peanuts.
