Current mood: I'm going to fucking dose off man
This is my second attempt at writing a review for this anniversary game. The first draft was written right after I finished Jude's side in 2016, which was such a dumpsterfire mess that I had to delete the whole thing cause what the fuck was that thing kill it with fire!!!!!
Of course, whenever I revisit media after a few years I always gain new insight and cringe at my own writing so here it is! The new review minus the 2016 jokes with a hint of adult cynicism.
Tl;dr: I was too burntout to replay the game as Milla, 6 years has passed, and I'm still burntout but I got things done.
Tales of Xillia is also known as the RPG of Unwavering Convictions. You'll soon see why.
The classic game of 'guess that character' comes back in full force, with artwork including the (spoilers) antagonists! The game leans hard on the dual protagonist feature, with Jude, your normal young hero (in blue) and Milla, the Lord of Spirits Maxwell (in pink) being our mains this time round. This is the first game where resident character designers Fujishima and Inomata collaborated. Alvin the mercenary with chronic backstabbing disorder and Elize the shy, dark magician girl with the talking doll are Fujishima's designs, while Rowen the old man character and Leia the martial artist genki girl are Inomata's works. The antagonists at the back (who become playable in the sequel) are Gaius the strong and charismatic king and Muzet the psychopath spirit (Inomata and Fujishima designs respectively).
Telling the story with only either viewpoint is a recipe for confusion, and I'm known to forget a lot of things *coughtalesofsymphoniacough* so I'll go through everything the best I can without sounding too boring:
Arc 1 is the straightforward intro: Jude has a chance meeting with Milla because he was at the wrong place at the wrong time, they are branded terrorists by the government, flee the country with a mercenary (Alvin), came back to finish what they started with a kid in tow (Elize), witnessed an assassination, enlisted the aid of a veteran military strategist (Rowen) to fight the king of the country, aaaaand fail. Milla is crippled from waist down.
Arc 2 involves war. War never changes. Milla doesn't fucking care if she's crippled, she'd crawl her way to stop the king if she has to. Jude brings her to his hometown to see if his doctor dad can help. Dad says "No" but childhood friend (Leia) says "Yes" so they go do some stupid shit and Milla regains her ability to walk! Right back on their 'fight the king' schedule, so they rent some wyverns to fly them halfway to their destination. They fight the king, kings dies, war breaks out, there's a hole in the fucking sky???? Now comes the alien plot. It's no longer a war between two countries, now its a war between two worlds. Other country's king (Gaius) works with the party to wipe out the invading 'aliens', but Milla bites the dust.
Arc 3 is full of sad. Everyone is sad. Jude, Alvin and Leia play a game of Russian Roulette which ends with Leia getting shot (not true, except for the getting shot part). Milla has a Jesus revival and the party punches god (the real Maxwell) in the face. Milla's sister (Muzet) has some programming issues and goes crazy, teams up with Gaius so that they can bring despair to the 'aliens'. The party tells Gaius his plan sucks FFX-2 Yuna style and also win the fight. The end.
I know I said this review doesn't have any 2016 jokes... now it has 2022 jokes instead. Be thankful I didn't mention Ivar because then I'd have to make an amogus joke.
This is an oversimplified version of the plot, but if one was playing Milla's side first... well, it would more or less be the same, bar the Leia getting shot part. Because here's the thing, you wouldn't know why or how it happened if you have not played Jude's side first. Maybe the three of them actually played Russian Roulette (they didn't). There's a lot more instances before this one that had the same problem. Why was Jude at the research centre? Why did Elize suddenly join the party? When Milla was crippled, why did Jude suddenly change his attitude about her decision overnight? How did Jude and Leia find out about the device that could make Milla walk again? Where the fuck did this new character Muzet come from??? It was the worst when Milla is back in the spirit world and all kinds of shit is happening with the party. The aforementioned Russian Roulette, Muzet attacking Nia Khera, beating up Agria and Presa, and of course, the party managing to find and fight Maxwell before Milla has her Jesus revival.
However, the worse offender had to be the one where they put a viewpoint split before an important scene, but wanted the player to know what happened -- so they showed Milla leaving, but the camera does not follow her; instead it stays on Jude and shows you the important scene, then cuts away to regular Milla gameplay. Yes, I'm talking about Cline's assassination.
The person recording this is playing Jude's side, but scenes from the marked timestamp until 8:55 are shared on both sides. In Jude's side (as seen in the video), we see the aftermath of the assassination, then the girls' capture; in Milla's side, after that fade-to-black you continue with your shopping then get captured, as seen with this video:
I get mood whiplash just from watching that sequence. They could have just combined both sides into one cutscene, or forgo the assassination cutscene altogether and have another one where a soldier reports to Gilland and the girls overheard; or have him gloat about Cline's apparent death in front of them. You want a dual protag twin viewpoint experience for the players, then fucking do it right. Go big or go home. Alright rant over.
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| Boy meets girl, but little did Jude know, Milla is going to have him absolutely whipped. |
Gameplay: Past me would have said the free camera is a winner but present me thinks fixed cameras are actually better and more fun. Free camera is good, but only if executed correctly. This is not it for me. This is not the first game to do away with an open world map (the earlier game being Graces f), but the field sections in Xillia felt so repetitive and restrictive. You literally can't see anything in the fields except boulders, more boulders, and the sky. This, coupled with the free camera makes going through these sections a chore, when all you want to do is go to the next dungeon so you can progress the story. Final Fantasy XII did the navigation and exploration right, and I don't think I'm biased in saying so. The game also has no traditional world map field, it has sectioned areas between towns and dungeons, is also the first in the mainline series to introduce a free camera... but doesn't feel 'boxed in' like Xillia. You can see the seas, the faraway mountains and plains. Even in Graces f where the camera is fixed, it still feels more open than in Xillia because the horizon is visible. Trekking through the world aint that fun but you know what is? The battles thank GOD! It's fast-paced and easy to pick up for casual players but also complex enough for people who want a challenge. The response is immediate, never thought I'd appreciate something as simple as this but after Vesperia's nightmare of controls... this is good. It's no Symphonia-levels of unlimited TP pool for casters, but I got pretty damn close by giving the primary healer constant regenerating TP and the mage a reduced TP cost accessory. They almost never run out of the stuff now. Almost. Rowen is the GOAT with the right setup and Tidal Wave. My only gripe was that AOE heals do not target anyone now so you have to move the aoe all the way to the person who needs it... most of the time at the very opposite end of the arena, so Elize finishes her cast before it reaches the target and heals no one. Great.
Story: The twin viewpoints of two protagonists sound good in theory for storytelling and replayability but somehow you will miss out on content if you're not backtracking every possible moment. I'd say my playthrough was ok because I played Jude's side first so going through Milla is just extra scenes and tidbits, but there are people actually confused by the plot just by playing it the other way round... thus the lengthy paragraph above. Otherwise, it's a standard 3-arc Tales story. I think Milla's death kinna fucked me up for a bit but there's not much that wow'ed me.
Soundtrack: The music must have grown on me. It's repetitive at times but it's different! Kind of. Rashugal's field bg is nice, Auj Oule's makes me wanna fucking sleep, and the jazz-themed music for Elympios fits the atmosphere of a sad tech world perfectly; but also makes me wanna fucking sleep. The individual themes for the various towns are ok (except for Xian Du and Kanbalar, got bored of it quickly), not a big fan of the music in Elympios but eh. The one I like the most is probably Fenmont, with Sharilton and Leronde coming in second. I also just realized that this game does not have ominous latin chanting OR a pipe organ. The game's largely Asia-inspired setting means there are no angels or churches, only spirits and temples. Religion is not the focus of the story so there was no need to make it sound all holy or grand. Oh but the theme song though. It's such a banger and the composition is genius, all by artist, performer and entertainer Ayumi Hamasaki. We don't really hear the motif as often in the game though, that, or I just have lousy ears. Probably the latter.
Overall rating: The game was fine...? I guess? I remember thinking this game was the peak of what the franchise could accomplish but if I said that now, it'd be a lie. It's enjoyable, sure, but it lacks a certain charm. The graphics are good (for its time) and the battles are genuinely fun but there are many aspects of the game that I wished followed the old Tales formula. Past me might have given a 7 or 8 but now I can only say it's a 6. The devs tried so hard to make it a good anniversary game that they forgot to make it a good Tales jrpg.
The game title is a doozy. 'Xillia' is not used anywhere in the game and it's not a real word. I didn't even know how to pronounce the damn thing until I watched TalesFes. Apparently the X is a crossroad, where the fates of the two characters (Jude and Milla) intertwine. Like I said, they leaned hard on the dual protag aspect.
Thankfully, the characteristic genre is simple and easy. Conviction, defined as:
1. a formal declaration by the verdict of a jury or the decision of a judge in a court of law that someone is guilty of a criminal offence.
2. a) a firmly held belief or opinion.
b) the quality of showing that one is firmly convinced of what one believes or says.
Milla and Gaius has no.2 in spades. The story only happened because these two are too fucking stubborn to back down from their duty. On Milla's side, she lost her companions, was crippled, fucking died and came back none the worse for wear and proceeded to kick major god butt, all the while holding on to her mission of protecting humans and spirits, even after knowing that it was a 'fake' mission given to her by the real Maxwell. Gaius believes it's his duty as the strong to protect the weak, he is willing to use whatever means necessary to ensure his people are safe and believes that he can shape a future where his ideals will persist even when he dies.
It's not as obvious but this also applies to Jude. He's the tag-along kid who has no actual goal... but helping Milla is a valid goal and he sticks to it right until her untimely demise. He gets PTSD after that but snaps out it and develops a new one -- to complete spyrite research so spirits and humans can exist together in harmony.
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| (saw this ss and was going to make a FFXIV joke my bad wait you know what I'll do it anyway lmfao instead of failing in gacha Milla lost her units and had to roll for more but she has no currency so now she's stuck) |
Was this an improved review for the game? Yes. Has my assessment changed? Yes, but not for the better. 2016 me thought this game was the shit; it had a female protagonist, a free camera, updated graphics and anime cutscenes by Ufotable. It's a major upgrade from Vesperia and Graces and it is gorgeous. In 2022... it's still good, just not as great as I remember. Not to worry though, Tales games always get me to come back after a few years, and not just for the trophies.
My next Tales game might be a replay of Zestiria OR Arise, if I manage to snag a copy. Video games are so damn expensive... Arise has me excited because it's not an anniversary title and I'm not fully spoiled yet, I've also heard good things about it and the demo looks really promising. However the next game on my list isn't a Tales game or a FF one (I'm thinking of replaying FF12 again I have a fucking problem) because it's high time I clear the video games backlog -- Star Ocean here I come! (for the second time)
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