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Tales of Xillia 2 |OT| Return of the Bazongas

Pachimari

Member
Didn't even know this was out.

I randomly bought Xillia 1 today and saw 2 at another store right after. ^_^

I have never played a Tales game but all I hope for is a great story.
 

Zafir

Member
speaking of which, the Exoplasma fight was a nice one.
I did that boss last night accidentally. Was really difficult at the level I did it, guessing I did it way earlier than I should have lol. I pretty much had to cheese it with the L3+R3 transformation. I think I turned it down to normal too, screw moderate.
 

Finalow

Member
yes it's not an easy fight, besides the "normal way" to kill him, which is waiting for him to split up, you can also use power charge 2 and 3. I liked the fight since it's different than usual, but he was not one of my "under 2 minutes" elite monsters.

-

did they put a bit of effort in the ex dungeon this time? The one in Xillia was garbage as usual, such a needlessly long and awfully boring copy-pasted dungeon. but then again, as far as I remember, I've never found a good ex/secret dungeon in any tales of game that I've played.
 

Zafir

Member
yes it's not an easy fight, besides the "normal way" to kill him, which is waiting for him to split up, you can also use power charge 2 and 3. I liked the fight since it's different than usual, but he was not one of my "under 2 minutes" elite monsters.
Ye I was doing the first method as well in between transforming. The issue was I was just taking so much damage, and the AI was being moronic. So I decided to pretty much solo it while I set the rest of my party to heal duty. It was long and arduous but I somehow managed it. I really do get the feeling I did it way too early though. I did it when you have to go to where it is for Judes story (Judes chapter 3 maybe?) because I figured I may as well do it while I was there.

Edit: In other news, I don't like the Kitty Dispatch. Sometimes it just doesn't seem to want to give me the item I am after. :I
 

Finalow

Member
it will take a long time to complete every area.

the chances of getting items are better the more cats you have, or that's how it should be anyway. I've got 92 cats now and I only completed one area.
 

RangerBAD

Member
it will take a long time to complete every area.

the chances of getting items are better the more cats you have, or that's how it should be anyway. I've got 92 cats now and I only completed one area.

I just got 50 kitties and over the course of that I've finished about eight areas.
 

FSLink

Banned
Anyone else check out before completing it? I've just reached the bit where you can go to the abyss dungeon for the first time, and I've had very little fun with the game so far, so I've decided to call it quits. Skill system isn't as fun as the first game, the new characters aren't great and the old ones haven't gelled well. Story's very bland.

And the asset recycling, my god.
Skill system is way better in this one than the first game which just kind of gave you the illusion of making choices. You really only got some stuff a few levels earlier in Xillia 1. No idea which chapter you are referring to as the Abyss dungeon but I felt the game picked up considerably after Ch10.


As far as good EX dungeons I liked Destiny remake's but it was kinda difficult at first.
 

Zafir

Member
I don't really like the system in Xillia 2 as much either. Though I didn't think Xillia's was fantastic either.

Either way, just done Chapter 12 myself. Great chapter, along with the previous one.
I wasn't surprised by the revelation of her father being Ludger in a future fractured dimension, the story kept hinting at it before hand so I figured that would be the case. Wasn't quite expecting him to be so corrupted mind you. :p It was surprisingly harsh and dark though. Like usually tales of games are serious in their story but never dark.

As a side question, I got a message saying a side quest became unavailable(
A fathers gift
or something). I didn't miss anything important did I? I can go back to a save before if necessary.
 

galvenize

Member
I finished the game and here I was
still waiting like an idiot for the alternate Milla to come back lol
,
srsly I expected some kind of romance in Xillia 2, but after watching Ludger's ending it's understandable.

All in all, better game than the first one. Story was great in my opinion.
 

FSLink

Banned
Just finished getting all 100 cats. Why is one named Woodrow in the US game? Shouldn't it be Garr? The naming inconsistencies bug me. :/
 

Pachimari

Member
I finished the game and here I was
still waiting like an idiot for the alternate Milla to come back lol
,
srsly I expected some kind of romance in Xillia 2, but after watching Ludger's ending it's understandable.

All in all, better game than the first one. Story was great in my opinion.
I'm about to start the first one. Is the story great in that one?
 
currently in the Kijara Seafalls and 21, havent went to Spirius corp to start chapter 6 yet
im not overleveled am i? wanted to get as many location to warp to as possible out of the way for easy traveling
 

ohlawd

Member
dafaq at your avatar

nah, you'll end up somewhere near the ballpark of the next chapter boss' level. and moreover, you shouldn't worry at all about being overleveled. Just bump up the difficulty if you feel that you are.
 

demidar

Member
meh if I see a pic like that but with Rise and Marie, I'm switching

Come join us in the Super Best Friends thread, you'll be right at home.

To contribute to the thread, was running through Milla's second character chapter and god the AI sucks. She stood away from the boss doing absolutely nothing (because she was on low health) with full TP even though she has the ability to cast spirit artes. I did about 120,000 damage to the boss by myself though so I'm pretty good at Gaius now I guess. Why is AI so bad???
 

ohlawd

Member
^ iunno what that thread is about but ok I'll check it out cuz I can't say no to you, demi <3

Nope.

Can't.

That
Julius montage right before his death
. I couldn't.

I cried like a fucking baby.

yeah, that shit cut deep

JULIUS :_____:

Zestiria looks like it ain't pushing for these kinda feels. Thank goodness.

they really gotta shake things up. Going dark? everyone goes dark. I want the next game after Zesty to be all comedy-like.
 
Come join us in the Super Best Friends thread, you'll be right at home.

To contribute to the thread, was running through Milla's second character chapter and god the AI sucks. She stood away from the boss doing absolutely nothing (because she was on low health) with full TP even though she has the ability to cast spirit artes. I did about 120,000 damage to the boss by myself though so I'm pretty good at Gaius now I guess. Why is AI so bad???

You need to change your strategy for all of your party members. Change everything to make them attack without regards to HP (if you don't they will stay at a distance so the enemy can kill them easier) or TP (they are going to waste all of their TP anyway).

Casters should be set to "Mainly Artes" or "Prioritize Healing". Healers shouldn't be entering into melee because half the time they will just end up suiciding at close range so make sure to set them to keep their distance.

I think the Tales team should consult Shift on how to make good AI teammates. Of course this isn't something that could just be patched in but I mean for a future Tales of game. I don't think part of the challenge in a battle system should come from the incompetence of the AI controlling your party.
 

Zafir

Member
You need to change your strategy for all of your party members. Change everything to make them attack without regards to HP (if you don't they will stay at a distance so the enemy can kill them easier) or TP (they are going to waste all of their TP anyway).

Casters should be set to "Mainly Artes" or "Prioritize Healing". Healers shouldn't be entering into melee because half the time they will just end up suiciding at close range so make sure to set them to keep their distance.

I think the Tales team should consult Shift on how to make good AI teammates. Of course this isn't something that could just be patched in but I mean for a future Tales of game. I don't think part of the challenge in a battle system should come from the incompetence of the AI controlling your party.
Even doing all that, the AI is really poor, and has been the case for all Tales of games I've played. But yeah I agree with you're last part. Half the difficulty is down to the AI being... questionable.

On the plus side, the item strategy was a nice addition when ever they added it(Know Xillia had it, can't remember whether Graces did). I remember back when it was just a single toggle for whether to use items, man that sucked. I turned items off for everyone and just managed them myself.
 

Hugstable

Banned
LOL that avatar

Didn't even know this was out.

I randomly bought Xillia 1 today and saw 2 at another store right after. ^_^

I have never played a Tales game but all I hope for is a great story.

Oh Xillia is definitely decent when it comes to story and gameplay. I really liked the game and it probably makes a decent introduction to the series since the battles are fun and the gameplay is tight. Xillia is also good in that most of the characters are pretty fun to play in their own way, I especially like doing aerials with Leia and Alvin used to be a bit slower but had some really good artes. Jude is fun especially since he's fast, can do tons of combos, etc. It had a decent length and I really enjoyed the story as well as the Lillium Orb Leveling. My only fault with the game is the fields, but it's not too big a deal after awhile once you learn to navigate them.
 
Even doing all that, the AI is really poor, and has been the case for all Tales of games I've played. But yeah I agree with you're last part. Half the difficulty is down to the AI being... questionable.

On the plus side, the item strategy was a nice addition when ever they added it(Know Xillia had it, can't remember whether Graces did). I remember back when it was just a single toggle for whether to use items, man that sucked. I turned items off for everyone and just managed them myself.

Of course, changing the strategy won't fix the AI, but at least they will perform in a slightly less indolent manner.

The first time I remember seeing auto-item was in Vesperia? I can't say for sure. It's useful for those instant life bottles at least.
 

demidar

Member
You need to change your strategy for all of your party members. Change everything to make them attack without regards to HP (if you don't they will stay at a distance so the enemy can kill them easier) or TP (they are going to waste all of their TP anyway).

Casters should be set to "Mainly Artes" or "Prioritize Healing". Healers shouldn't be entering into melee because half the time they will just end up suiciding at close range so make sure to set them to keep their distance.

I think the Tales team should consult Shift on how to make good AI teammates. Of course this isn't something that could just be patched in but I mean for a future Tales of game. I don't think part of the challenge in a battle system should come from the incompetence of the AI controlling your party.

Not only did I set them to "Mainly Artes" and "Full TP consumption", I also turned off all her martial artes. Sending her in would get her one-shotted (playing on hard).

I don't really know how else I could try to circumvent the shitty AI.
 

FSLink

Banned
Of course, changing the strategy won't fix the AI, but at least they will perform in a slightly less indolent manner.

The first time I remember seeing auto-item was in Vesperia? I can't say for sure. It's useful for those instant life bottles at least.

It was first in Abyss but very limited.


On New Game Plus and fighting (Ch.4/5, the one where you recruit Leia)
Rowen was pretty fun. Though once he reached like 10k HP left, he started spamming Tidal Wave and Rochte Waltz, lol. Well timed Magic Guard + having Leia spam Barrier helped tons.
 
just beat it. the story reall picks up after chapter 9 or so. some really epic moments that even beat xillia 1. Overall I though xillia part 1 was the better package and had a better paced story xillia 2 starts off pretty slow but the last 8 hours are really epic. the gameplay is fantastic in xillia 2 and playing as gaius is win
 

Zafir

Member
It was first in Abyss but very limited.
Of course, changing the strategy won't fix the AI, but at least they will perform in a slightly less indolent manner.

The first time I remember seeing auto-item was in Vesperia? I can't say for sure. It's useful for those instant life bottles at least.
Yeah Abyss had auto item, so did Vesperia but that's not what I'm on about. I meant the separate item gambit system which allows you to fully customise. It's just sooo much better than the single option on the strategy screen. I just set everyone to do not use in both those games because I didn't really like when they'd use items.
 

Zafir

Member
In Abyss I either have to turn everything off for Tear and Natalia beside their healing skills to make sure those two not kill themselves during battles.
Yeah, I've found casters to be the most tedious in terms of their AI. I'm pretty sure I did a similar thing. I don't think I turned off everything besides healing, since they often have some good damage spells too, like Tear has some really spells. However I did turn off everything outside of the good spells and healing because I just didn't want them to be running in doing their rubbish melee artes getting killed. I also put all the healing spells I was using in quick slots so I could call them to do it whenever.

Edit: To add, I often ended up controlling casters myself(despite not really liking the play style) in some fights because they were just being inadequate. Youeither set them to be at range and they'll spend all their time running and not being 'smart' with when they start casting, or you don't and they'll just cast in melee range getting themselves killed. Vesperia had a similar issue. I haven't had to do that with Xillia or 2 so it has definitely improved.
 

Xenoflare

Member
Yeah, I've found casters to be the most tedious in terms of their AI. I'm pretty sure I did a similar thing. I don't think I turned off everything besides healing, since they often have some good damage spells too, like Tear has some really spells. However I did turn off everything outside of the good spells and healing because I just didn't want them to be running in doing their rubbish melee artes getting killed. I also put all the healing spells I was using in quick slots so I could call them to do it whenever.

Edit: To add, I often ended up controlling casters myself(despite not really liking the play style) in some fights because they were just being inadequate. Youeither set them to be at range and they'll spend all their time running and not being 'smart' with when they start casting, or you don't and they'll just cast in melee range getting themselves killed. Vesperia had a similar issue. I haven't had to do that with Xillia or 2 so it has definitely improved.

Same here, for a good chuck of boss battles near the end I ended up using Tear and spam Holy Song and Revitalize.
 

Papercuts

fired zero bullets in the orphanage.
honestly i'm just glad they seem to be keeping the open field design, Tales dungeons can go to hell

Really? I hate the fields. ;_;

They've just been so bland in this series. With Xillia 2 I've lately just sprinted across all of them so I can just warp around it, and only go there when I need items/monsters from that spot, though all the reuse doesn't help there.
 

Pancakes

hot, steaming, as melted butter slips into the cracks, drizzled with sticky sweet syrup OH GOD
honestly i'm just glad they seem to be keeping the open field design, Tales dungeons can go to hell

Gotta disagree here. I prefer a unique dungeon as opposed to bland fields with cubby holes and tons of loot just laid out in the open. Vesperia was perfect with its world map and dungeons.
 

FSLink

Banned
Gotta disagree here. I prefer a unique dungeon as opposed to bland fields with cubby holes and tons of loot just laid out in the open. Vesperia was perfect with its world map and dungeons.

Vesperia was basically a PS2 Tales in HD, which worked out in its favor most of the time since it was generally more polished in most areas to include world map. Symphonia/Abyss's world maps were pretty rough, lol
 

Dice//

Banned
Xillia 2: BEATEN! :D

Thoughts...

= Ewwwwwwww, that Ludger voice option. You don't even see his lips move, your "in-game choice" is just read to you from the R1/L1 screen. :S It adds some life to the role, for sure, but feels real half-assed (and Ludger has a great voice!).

= I dunno.... I liked the emotion in this game; but the pacing felt kinda crappy. We only get one real chapter to hang out with Julius, and only one chapter dedicated to Elle and Alt Milla's relationship (that she then realizes is super-important to her for the next 3). The ideas work and work really well, just the pacing feels rushed.
it's actually both sad but maybe realistic that the party just can't warm up to Alt Milla in the same way or that she's almost quickly 'forgotten about' when she's killed. Alternate Milla ISN'T *their* Milla. That bitter streak in the fractured version seem appropriately complex for it, and the party's own reaction... felt sadly somewhat human.

= The plot was good, but still has a lot of "magical mumbo-jumbo" that makes the story-telling too much a product of its own made-up issues. The details feel complex and somewhat turgid. ORIGINS TRIAL, KEY OF KRESNIK, SOUL TRANSFER, CANAAN, CHROMATIS, MAXWELLIANXILLIANBRRRRGLGGLRRRR. Okaaay~~~ I'm not even too sure how much sense I could really make of it especially with respect to how the Keys of Kresnik worked and what went in and out of dimensions
As a whole, I liked the character quests much more than the actual plot. It certainly doesn't help that Elle is a pipsqueak cheerleader with a big mouth and Ludger doesn't really "have a voice".

Elle is feeling sad...
PAUSE TO THINK ABOUT HOW YOU SHOULD CONSOLE HER.
L1 Hold her Hand / R1 Tell her "man up or 'daddy' will put you up for adoption"!

= Love the post-game. Love the alternate endings. I actually kinda regret buying costumes since a lot of the in-game offerings actually look quite wonderful (and it's nice to see the game offering free costumes after Xillia 1 giving you few options in that regard). Love the EX Giganto Monsters too. They're wonderfully difficult!

= I liked Origin's design. A little creepy, but a nice change of pace given how detailed (or sometimes downright tacky) the rest of the spirits and cast are.

= Holy fuck, Muzet's face at the end of her chapter... No party member has seemed more curious, horny[?], and downright insane.

= I like how all characters generally improved in likability. Even Ivar.

= Plot-wise, Gaius and Muzet felt pretty pointless, but they were great additions for battle. On that note...

= omg, 3 party members isn't enough for the amount of experimenting I wanted to do. I love everyone!!!!

= I like when Tales tries to be political too. I liked the amount of tensions there were between Rieze Maxians and Elympions. It feels real and makes the world feel more comparable to perhaps real life situations for it. I like that Leia writes about the tensions, I like that Alvin is a [struggling] salesman between the nations, I like Rowen and Gaius have political unrest as region-representatives and leaders.

= Honestly, the only ship I ever cared about in this game is Alvin x Leia I think more because they're nonchalance and 'chumminess' would probably work best IRL as buds (so I was happy they were "dimensional partners", so to speak).
I kinda felt the same for Yuri and Estelle --- maybe I just like it when the writers don't try so hard to write about lovers and just focus on relationship-building (read: not romance building) -- it was that "ship" that almost sank all of Xillia 1's plot for me.

= This game is my FF13-2. Is it great? Yeah, I guess, it *definitely* does the job at the risk of a lot of "sequelitis". But MAN you can get a lot of mileage out of it, recycled content or not.
...I will say it's a lot more playable than X1.

= I'd love another Tales sequel --- but more like Tales of Destiny 2. I'd love to see them take a world like 10-15 years (or more!) into the future of the first installment.

Xillia 2:
Personal Grade: 8.5 Fat Cats out of 10.
Less Bias Grade: 7/10.
 

Papercuts

fired zero bullets in the orphanage.
I like the world maps just for what it does to the general world feel. It makes the towns feel farther apart and gives a better scale when you go through a dungeon, leave and see how 'small' the area looks. As opposed to these fields that, basically, make the world look like a few hotspots of towns linked together by incredibly linear fields blockaded in by cliffsides. The way everything is connected feels goofy as hell, even if funny enough they seemed to do it for scale it kinda backfires to me and makes everything seems so much smaller.

I'm not opposed to RPGs not using a world map, but the implementation in the tales I have played has not worked well to me.
 

demidar

Member
I like the world maps just for what it does to the general world feel. It makes the towns feel farther apart and gives a better scale when you go through a dungeon, leave and see how 'small' the area looks. As opposed to these fields that, basically, make the world look like a few hotspots of towns linked together by incredibly linear fields blockaded in by cliffsides. The way everything is connected feels goofy as hell, even if funny enough they seemed to do it for scale it kinda backfires to me and makes everything seems so much smaller.

I'm not opposed to RPGs not using a world map, but the implementation in the tales I have played has not worked well to me.

Yeah, nothing against not wanting to do a world map, but Xillia's implementation has been lackluster. I even preferred Graces f's corridors to Xillia's fields because at least you got some great views.
 
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