Tales of Xillia 2 Review

Tales of Xillia 2 Review | September 2, 2014
PlayStation Exclusive Title

Tales of Xillia 2 is an action RPG and it takes place one year after the first game. The two nations of Elympios and Rieze Maxia have a very fragile peace agreement between them. However many still do not want to accept this new found direction. The group Exodus is still around and they are trying to disrupt the peace process. The two worlds did not really understand how they were affecting each other and now they are starting to compare myths and legends that each world have in common. These differences fill in some of the gaps making the rumored stories make more sense and since everybody already knows that the “Great Spirits" and Milla are real. Could the myths also be real? Julius and Ludger Kresnik work for Spirius a corporation in the middle of the process between the two nations. Ludger is starting to wonder if he can trust the Spirius Corp or his brother Julius. Since both of them seem to be holding back information.

The story centers around Ludger and a girl named Elle. They are new to the Xillia series but Ludger has one major flaw, he does not say much. He only says one or two words in the whole game, so it is hard to connect with him early on. After a couple hours you start to get many of the people from the first game in your group making story direction easier. But this also has a major flaw, if you did not play the first game then there is no connection to them either. You are unaware of the battles between they have fought and some of the extra character side missions make no sense because you don’t know how everybody is intertwined. Besides these little problems the story and voice talent is good. This is the type of game that you play to get to the next story section to find out what is going on. Tales of Xillia 2 adds some choices in the dialog. You can be somewhat make a good or bad decision to get the people in your group like or hate you but if you get them to like you, they will connect better with Ludger during combat and you will have more powerful attacks. There will also be extra story moments during the side missions and the main storyline if you continue the dialog and each ones special side quest. The story and main plot point encourages you to do side missions.

We did have the same combat issue with this game as we have had with many other Tales of games. You spend too much time swing at nothing because you are not close enough and can’t adjust until the attack stops. There is also a slow response after the attack to move into position to start fighting again. You explore the same areas from the first game and they are mostly boring and have no depth to them. Plus, they reuse the same dungeons and areas and just rotate them 90 degrees or so to make them appear different. The music is also annoying and terrible. We turned the music off so we did not have to hear it when we were traveling because it just repeats and adds nothing.

We would hope that the swing and moving combat issue would have been fixed by now but it keeps showing up in many of the Tales of games we have played. It took us almost 40 hours to beat the game. That is doing almost all of the side missions including all of the character side missions. The main story is only about 25 hours long and that is short for an RPG. The games plot points make doing side missions important. Replay is above average because the game is fun there is a New Game+ mode and there is more than one ending but you may just play it once and be done. Tales of Xillia 2 has a great story but some of the emotional connects are lost if you did not play the first game. The controls still have the same issues as before and some of the gameplay and side missions are repetitive. But, overall it is fun to play and the story elements keeps you moving forward. Keep you price under $45.00 to make worth it.

8.5 out of 10
Great Game

8.5 out of 10
Great Game

Rated
T for Teens

Rated
PEGI 16