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Tales of Xillia |OT| - Teach me about Bazongas!

L

LuuKyK

Member
Finally unlocked Milla and Alvin's casual costumes! They are pretty cool.

Also, at this point in the story (mid chapter 3) -
I cant be the only one to think that Gaius reasons are not all that wrong. I was leaning towards favoring his ideas over Jude and Milla's one. But then Milla said that she would for sure find a way to save the spirits and it seemed like a somewhat better choice to make. I mean, of course destroying Elympios would not be a good thing, but if they left the spirixes abuse continue, I think it would eventually lead to destruction of both Elympios and Rieze Maxia. Its still a tough choice imo. Lets see how it goes.
 
B

Brandon F

Well congratulations! You got yourself caught!
Just bought the game.

Hard or Moderate difficulty? Reviews stated Normal is WAY too easy, but wanted recommendations between the next tiers of difficulty. Can it be changed mid-game in case Hard is too grindy or absurd?

Also start with Milia or Jude? What is more natural in terms of plot?
 
M

MilkBeard

Member
LuuKyK said:
Also, at this point in the story (mid chapter 3) -
I cant be the only one to think that Gaius reasons are not all that wrong. I was leaning towards favoring his ideas over Jude and Milla's one. But then Milla said that she would for sure find a way to save the spirits and it seemed like a somewhat better choice to make. I mean, of course destroying Elympios would not be a good thing, but if they left the spirixes abuse continue, I think it would eventually lead to destruction of both Elympios and Rieze Maxia. Its still a tough choice imo. Lets see how it goes.
Click to expand...

By the end of the game, there are parts as well where I actually agree with
Gaius
more than the main party. There's a part where he explains his reasoning, and I'm like...that makes total sense. Something happens shortly after that validates Jude and MIlla's motives but still. However,
Gaius is power hungry and that always ends poorly.
 
M

MilkBeard

Member
Brandon F said:
Just bought the game.

Hard or Moderate difficulty? Reviews stated Normal is WAY too easy, but wanted recommendations between the next tiers of difficulty. Can it be changed mid-game in case Hard is too grindy or absurd?

Also start with Milia or Jude? What is more natural in terms of plot?
Click to expand...

Moderate is the new normal. Of course, you can change it at any time during the game.
 
B

BassForever

Member
Brandon F said:
Just bought the game.

Hard or Moderate difficulty? Reviews stated Normal is WAY too easy, but wanted recommendations between the next tiers of difficulty. Can it be changed mid-game in case Hard is too grindy or absurd?

Also start with Milia or Jude? What is more natural in terms of plot?
Click to expand...

You can change difficulty at any time, if this is your first tales start on moderate, if not start on hard. The game gives you access to items which increase the rate you gain exp so if you use those every battle you'll stay ahead of the curve. Bosses are still incredibly annoying thankfully you can instantly retry a boss if you die and are given full access to the menu before your retry to tweak and skills, equipment, strategies, or difficulty if all else fails.

Start with Jude, most of the world and character building happens on his half of the story.
 
R

R_thanatos

Member
MilkBeard said:
By the end of the game, there are parts as well where I actually agree with
Gaius
more than the main party. There's a part where he explains his reasoning, and I'm like...that makes total sense. Something happens shortly after that validates Jude and MIlla's motives but still. However,
Gaius is power hungry and that always ends poorly.
Click to expand...

Don't read if you haven't finished the game

I always think that this turn of events is because gaius was placed in a final antagonist position when he wasn't supposed to be in the first place. In their early plans , he was supposed to be playable and that means that part of his character and destiny/motives were merged with what they had in mind for another character. It's fairly obvious when you see him as a whole as a character during the whole game that he isn't in there only for power so it would have been quite possible for him and the party to share a true common goal against a final antagonist ... in the end they didn't change his character much and the result is that contradiction. the fact that he is not wrong but not totally right either.
 
B

BassForever

Member
R_thanatos said:
Don't read if you haven't finished the game

I always think that this turn of events is because gaius was placed in a final antagonist position when he wasn't supposed to be in the first place. In their early plans , he was supposed to be playable and that means that part of his character and destiny/motives were merged with what they had in mind for another character. It's fairly obvious when you see him as a whole as a character during the whole game that he isn't in there only for power so it would have been quite possible for him and the party to share a true common goal against a final antagonist ... in the end they didn't change his character much and the result is that contradiction. the fact that he is not wrong but not totally right either.
Click to expand...

Wasn't
_____Muzet_______
planned to be playable at a certain point in development as well. Not really sure how that would have worked either unless
she was always planned to be a temporary ally and got degraded from playable to summon spam
 
R

Rhapsody

Banned
zerokoolpsx said:
Didn't know there is an idolm@ster theme, but you can't buy it without.........

Really Scamco?
Click to expand...

Actually, it's not all that bad. I just found out that the theme is actually free if you have all 3.

Just DLed. I don't like this theme. It's just a blindingly bright theme with the Ufotable drawings of the girls in iM@S costumes. It also doesn't help that I'm not a big fan of Ufotable's static character designs of Tales characters anyways.
 
M

MilkBeard

Member
R_thanatos said:
Don't read if you haven't finished the game

I always think that this turn of events is because gaius was placed in a final antagonist position when he wasn't supposed to be in the first place. In their early plans , he was supposed to be playable and that means that part of his character and destiny/motives were merged with what they had in mind for another character. It's fairly obvious when you see him as a whole as a character during the whole game that he isn't in there only for power so it would have been quite possible for him and the party to share a true common goal against a final antagonist ... in the end they didn't change his character much and the result is that contradiction. the fact that he is not wrong but not totally right either.
Click to expand...

Playable Gaius? Probably would have been my favorite character. He is so badass looking, and his moves are insane. But yes, it almost feels somewhat forced that his direction and the party's direction had to cross as foes. There was a part specifically at the end that it seemed like they wanted exactly the same thing. But in a way, it's still pretty cool because they made comparisons between Gaius and Milla, and how they are basically very similar, how focused/single minded they are with their goals, so much so that they will oppose each other if necessary.
Even with the slightly forced antagonist nature of Gaius, I still think he's one of the coolest antagonists for an RPG. His motives are much better twist on the usual JRPG fare.
 
D

demidar

Member
Milla's alt costume is infinitely better than her normal costume, that much is certain.

Regarding final boss,
it would be nice to have a powerful warrior-king that DOESN'T go crazy for power. It would be a nice twist of the established Tales plotlines. Or better yet, make it so that you win against Gaius but Rieze Maxia gets horrendously damaged by Elympios proving Gaius right.
 
M

MogCakes

Member
MilkBeard said:
Even with the slightly forced antagonist nature of Gaius, I still think he's one of the coolest antagonists for an RPG. His motives are much better twist on the usual JRPG fare.
Click to expand...

He's always getting power ups that he didn't earn. Ex: Lance of Kresnik, Muzet, sword that can cut dimensional space, super saiyan mode. He's on the same level as Jude IMO, a self-righteous prick.
Rowen is the true badass.
 
M

MilkBeard

Member
MogCakes said:
He's always getting power ups that he didn't earn. Ex: Lance of Kresnik, Muzet, sword that can cut dimensional space, super saiyan mode. He's on the same level as Jude IMO, a self-righteous prick.
Rowen is the true badass.
Click to expand...

Rowen is a secret badass. His character is awesome. He's so humble, which is what makes him really interesting. Plus,
the mad fire of love!
 
C

cpp_is_king

Member
What causes the shop expansion ingredients to change? Is it playtime? Story progression? Saving / reloading? I've been waiting what seems like forever for them to change, and they won't :(
 
D

dakkumauji

Member
cpp_is_king said:
What causes the shop expansion ingredients to change? Is it playtime? Story progression? Saving / reloading? I've been waiting what seems like forever for them to change, and they won't :(
Click to expand...

My best guess is just playtime but I never left my game on and did nothing just to test that.
 
T

thepotatoman

Unconfirmed Member
A lot of JRPGs I play these days I feel like I'm playing out of obligation because I do not want to give up on a genre that I enjoyed so much years ago.

Tales of Xillia is one of the very few modern JRPG games that I truly enjoyed beginning to end. I don't know why, but this game feels like the first truly epic I've played in a while. I mean tons of games in both the west and east put you in the shoes of the savior of the universe, but for some reason that never strikes me as a huge deal, while in this game it always felt legit.

I guess there's just a lot of ruinous pratfalls that the game doesn't for that most games do, like not making the main characters be super strong at the start of the game (post prologe), not having some dumb plot device of destiny and ultimate power that basically does all the work for you, not having some character who's only job is to bark orders at you making you just the pawn. Things like that.

As for the major spoilers talk:

Gaius's need for ultimate power for complete subjection in order to make the world a better place is a very cliche and overdone concept, but what makes him work so incredibly well in the game is he never really slips into actual cruelty. I don't think I've ever seen that archetype where the writers didn't feel they needed to throw in some massive flaw that makes the main villain clearly unfit for ultimate power even if his ultimate motive is just.

Although I kinda forget what his role in the child experimentation thing with Elize was, so maybe that was his act of cruelness.
 
L

Lagunamov

Member
MilkBeard said:
As for the spoiler, it doesn't really feel like the game needed to be longer to me. It would have been cool, but not really that necessary.
I'm not sure what you mean by 100%..are you talking platinum? That's very, very quick. Not sure if serious for a first time playthrough. .
Click to expand...
Only one side, both sides around 65-70 hours.
 
C

CielTynave

Member
So I'm probably going to buy the game this week when I get my paycheck, just wondering if buying DLC before the game installs causes any issues. Might be a dumb question but I've never done it with any game before lol.
 
F

FSLink

Banned
CielTynave said:
So I'm probably going to buy the game this week when I get my paycheck, just wondering if buying DLC before the game installs causes any issues. Might be a dumb question but I've never done it with any game before lol.
Click to expand...

It doesn't, think about it, the game includes a free cameo costume DLC (Stahn for Milla, Cress for Jude). :p
Plus if it did cause issues, there's nothing stopping you from uninstalling the DLC.
 
M

MilkBeard

Member
Finally beat the final boss, only took me 17 minutes and 4 seconds. Not nearly as troublesome as some made it out to be. I was about level 67 or so. The only slightly troublesome thing was
that I beat Muzet first, and she got resurrected.
Other than that, it just took time and they went down.

Just finished watching the final scene. Pretty satisfied with how it ended. Everyone here makes it seem like the game just ends abruptly, which is not true. It's a decent conclusion, and seeing it in animation form was nice. Now on to the EX dungeon.

Beat the game around 80 hours, all sub quests finished. All party members level 69. Great game, glad I played it. As of late, I've been buying a lot of games this gen and not finishing them, but this is one of the games that compelled me to finish it. I'll probably go through and play Milla's side after a bit.
 
M

MechaX

Member
MilkBeard said:
Just finished watching the final scene. Pretty satisfied with how it ended. Everyone here makes it seem like the game just ends abruptly, which is not true. It's a decent conclusion, and seeing it in animation form was nice. Now on to the EX dungeon.
Click to expand...

It's true that the game does at least have a conclusion, all things considered (and it might be rushed, but not crazily so like Xenosaga Episode III or something where plot-threads and body counts were piling up within minutes). Personally, I think that if they could have expanded on
Elympios
just a tad bit more, or maybe actually finished that
playable Gaius scenario
, it would have been perfect without going into the "30 more hours of game after fake-out ending" approach some of the other games in the series had that often completely ruined the pacing.

thepotatoman said:
As for the major spoilers talk:

Gaius's need for ultimate power for complete subjection in order to make the world a better place is a very cliche and overdone concept, but what makes him work so incredibly well in the game is he never really slips into actual cruelty. I don't think I've ever seen that archetype where the writers didn't feel they needed to throw in some massive flaw that makes the main villain clearly unfit for ultimate power even if his ultimate motive is just.

Although I kinda forget what his role in the child experimentation thing with Elize was, so maybe that was his act of cruelness.
Click to expand...

Yeah, given how Tales villains have come across in the past, I was expecting Gaius to dip into flat out crazy territory at some point in the game. Even when he revealed his plan for Elympios, I was expecting some absurd "but they must all be sacrificed to protect our world" line of thought. Instead, Gaius was merely "I'm going to take all of them in, but fuck Spyrixes and Spyrites are proven (at least in his experience) to be way too dangerous to work with." Hell, this is probably the first JRPG where the "antagonist" takes over the kingdom the main characters originated from and everyone agrees that said antagonist would make an infinitely better king anyway.

I don't know if the writers did it intentionally or if this was more a product of the tail end of the game being rushed, but I was genuinely somewhat impressed with how even-handedly they handled Gaius rather than slipping in some inane motive for genocide at the last minute like virtually every other Tales villain.
 
M

MilkBeard

Member
MechaX said:
Personally, I think that if they could have expanded on
Elympios
just a tad bit more, or maybe actually finished that
playable Gaius scenario
, it would have been perfect without going into the "30 more hours of game after fake-out ending" approach some of the other games in the series had that often completely ruined the pacing.
Click to expand...

I agree about
Elympios
, however, we are getting a second game so I'm okay with what's there. It would have been nice to have a little more exposure to the vastness of
Elympios
it'self but what's there is okay. I personally like the
fakeout ending
, it reminded me of Tales of Destiny when that exact same thing happens. But I suppose the real thing here is that there is a lot more potential for extra stuff to happen with the universe they've created. Makes me excited for the sequel.
 
M

MilkBeard

Member
BTW, the Golden Mage Knight is a bitch. Beat him, then he splits...beat him again, then he splits AGAIN...shit. That last bit was just too much for me. Probably gonna level up to about lvl 80 and then try it again. Shit got insane.
 
L

LuuKyK

Member
Bladenic said:
Only 4. One for Jude and Milla for beating their respective stories, and one for Milla and Alvin for getting 459 feathers.
Click to expand...

Actually 459 is for the title. You only need 400 to unlock the costume + 40000 gald. The vendor gives you rewards for every 100 feathers you bring.
 
R

R_thanatos

Member
thepotatoman said:
As for the major spoilers talk:

Gaius's need for ultimate power for complete subjection in order to make the world a better place is a very cliche and overdone concept, but what makes him work so incredibly well in the game is he never really slips into actual cruelty. I don't think I've ever seen that archetype where the writers didn't feel they needed to throw in some massive flaw that makes the main villain clearly unfit for ultimate power even if his ultimate motive is just.

Although I kinda forget what his role in the child experimentation thing with Elize was, so maybe that was his act of cruelness.
Click to expand...

It's been a while, so pardon me if i'm wrong but gaius involvement is more like responsible because he was in power at the time but wasn't he far from being the one who gave direct orders ?in that case this is far from being an act of cruelness
 
G

gundamkyoukai

Member
Okay this game is curse for me .
Order it month ago then it got delay , was suppose to come in today but got delay again .
I like having my disc game but fuck i buying this on DD today .
 
G

Gartooth

Member
Just started Milla's side, and I just have to say thank you to all the people who told me to do Jude's side first. In the introduction to the game it seems I miss so many cutscenes because a lot of the early ones happen on Jude's end, and a lot of the characters and events are seen through his perspective while Milla they essentially through you right into the game. (so far I haven't seen any Milla exclusive scenes though I know there are scenarios where that will likely happen down the line)
 
Y

Yazuka

Member
Now I am totally finished with the game and I loved it. Getting the platinum was not as bad or time consuming as getting the platinum trophy in Tales of Graces f.

Now bring on Tales of Symphonia Chronicles and Tales of Xillia 2!! I need more Tales of in my life. =)
 
B

BassForever

Member
Yazuka said:
Now I am totally finished with the game and I loved it. Getting the platinum was not as bad or time consuming as getting the platinum trophy in Tales of Graces f.

Now bring on Tales of Symphonia Chronicles and Tales of Xillia 2!! I need more Tales of in my life. =)
Click to expand...

Have you played any of the fan translated games like Phantasia psx, innocence ds, or tempest ds?
 
D

Die Squirrel Die

Member
MechaX said:
Yeah, given how Tales villains have come across in the past, I was expecting Gaius to dip into flat out crazy territory at some point in the game. Even when he revealed his plan for Elympios, I was expecting some absurd "but they must all be sacrificed to protect our world" line of thought. Instead, Gaius was merely "I'm going to take all of them in, but fuck Spyrixes and Spyrites are proven (at least in his experience) to be way too dangerous to work with." Hell, this is probably the first JRPG where the "antagonist" takes over the kingdom the main characters originated from and everyone agrees that said antagonist would make an infinitely better king anyway.

I don't know if the writers did it intentionally or if this was more a product of the tail end of the game being rushed, but I was genuinely somewhat impressed with how even-handedly they handled Gaius rather than slipping in some inane motive for genocide at the last minute like virtually every other Tales villain.
Click to expand...

Did I miss it? Where did he say he was going to take the Elympians in? He wanted to keep the schism up, keeping Reize Maxia and Elympios separate, destroy all the spyrixes and shut down the spyrites. He may not have actively sought to destroy them but he certainly seemed to be planning to doom the Elympians to a painful, hard existence.

In that respect I thought he was really the flipside of Gilland. Both ultimately wanted to help their world, but were willing to do so at the expense of the inhabitants of the other world.

Ultimately that was the contrast between the both of them and Milla. Milla sought to protect all, humans and spirits, Reize Maxians and Elympians alike. In the sub-event with the Grandma and Grandchild, Milla saw that Spyrixes had uses beyond just weaponisation. Gauis though, because he didn't seek to understand the people he would conquer, acknowledged only their military uses.

That would seem to be Gauis' flaw, that he enacted his will without much real empathy, as he saw those beneath him as weak. Also I'm not sure how much the game gives you to really judge how good his rule was. He united Au Joule from warring tribes to a single nation, but it's one with a common enemy in Rachugal. Then when he unites Reize Maxia it's after succeeding Natchtigul, who was a tyrant, and under the new threat of Exodus.
 
T

thepotatoman

Unconfirmed Member
^^^
Just because he didn't lay out his plan for a post Spyrix Elympios doesn't mean he didn't have one. Gaius is not one to lie, so when he says he's going to take care of the Elympians he probably means it. Milla and Jude just didn't like the idea of a society with complete dependence on a single person.

I mean throughout the entire damn game he talked about taking care of the weak, so to say he didn't care about the weak is just really wrong. It really was all about enabling the weak take care of themselves instead of taking absolute control over them.
 
D

Die Squirrel Die

Member
thepotatoman said:
^^^
Just because he didn't lay out his plan for a post Spyrix Elympios doesn't mean he didn't have one. Gaius is not one to lie, so when he says he's going to take care of the Elympians he probably means it. Milla and Jude just didn't like the idea of a society with complete dependence on a single person.
Click to expand...

Which sort of expands upon what I said about Gauis ruling without empathy. His duty of care was less about doing what was best for his subjects and more about demonstrating his own strength. As such he thought short term, with plans that began and ended with himself. Jude and Milla point this out when he wants to take the Lance of Kresnik. He claimed that he would keep it safe from being misused, which they agree with, but point out that he won't always be around and he can't guarantee that when he's gone that it won't then fall back into the wrong hands.
 
T

ThatChairMan

Member
Spoilers about Gilland:

Did anyone else feel slightly sympathetic towards him? I know we eventually find out how horrible he was to his family and all that, but that cutscene after his battle was particularly chilling. Everyone berating him as if it was his fault that Elympios was dying from spyrix overuse, and him pretty much yelling back that that it wasn't him that made that choice. I actually felt kind of bad at that point.
 
M

MogCakes

Member
Stepping away from his motivations for a bit,
Gaius is Marty Stu incarnate for most of the game. He gets what he wants, when he wants, everyone looks up to him, he never has to face the consequences of his actions, and the only time that ever changes is after the final battle. The scene after that was not satisfying for me. I would have loved to see the bastard bruised up, beaten, and defeated in both body and spirit, but no, he hasn't got a scratch on him. He's also a pompous asshole, he never once shows humility or even common courtesy.
The director must love the guy to bits.

Yeah, I'm not a fan of him.

JKLee said:
Spoilers about Gilland:

Did anyone else feel slightly sympathetic towards him? I know we eventually find out how horrible he was to his family and all that, but that cutscene after his battle was particularly chilling. Everyone berating him as if it was his fault that Elympios was dying from spyrix overuse, and him pretty much yelling back that that it wasn't him that made that choice. I actually felt kind of bad at that point.
Click to expand...

I saw that as a lampshade on how people often don't think about how the other side may feel when they're in conflict.
Dude's still a dick for trying to turn Reize Maxia into fuel though.
 
D

Die Squirrel Die

Member
MogCakes said:
The director must love the guy to bits.

Yeah, I'm not a fan of him.
Click to expand...

I wonder if there's some truth to that. It would explain
why the child kidnapping part is shrugged off, even though he's supposed to protect the weak he lets that go on under his nose. Plus his second in command is completely juiced up on the boosters that resulted from it.

They even make a big deal about Milla confronting him about it before they met, and it's just kinda 'yeah I did it, so what?' and then it gets dropped and every cutscene with Jude and Gauis has Jude telling him how much he admires him. That whole plotline was weirdly handled.

It was obviously an integral part of Elize's character and they build it up right from the events of Hamil through Xian Du to Kanbalar and then it just gets left to flap in the breeze and is barely addressed past that point, apart from Jiao admitting that he killed her parents, which once that is brought up is also just left hanging without being directly addressed much, even though Jiao is still talked about almost everytime the party come up against the rest of the Chimeriad. And the not-Teepo stuff. Just all left with little to no resolution.
 
R

Rhapsody

Banned
I was also surprised as to why
the party wasn't in trouble after Nachtigal died. Even though it was Celsius and Gilland that killed him, no one witnessed Nachtigal's death besides the party. I thought they would've found them suspicious. Guess they didn't doubt Rowen.
 
B

BassForever

Member
Am I reading this skill right for Rowen? Opportune Moment time stops for 3 seconds after avoiding an attack with a back-step? Can that be linked with Jude? If so my gahd

Edit: Two questions, am I over leveled for where I'm at, I'm level 60 on hard and just got to [spoier]Elympios[/spoiler]. Also with where I just got how much longer is the main game?
 
D

dakkumauji

Member
BassForever said:
Am I reading this skill right for Rowen? Opportune Moment time stops for 3 seconds after avoiding an attack with a back-step? Can that be linked with Jude? If so my gahd

Edit: Two questions, am I over leveled for where I'm at, I'm level 60 on hard and just got to
Elympios
. Also with where I just got how much longer is the main game?
Click to expand...

Yes, it's a fun skill for Rowen and it activates a lot more quickly than you imagine.

Basically you explore everything on the world map of
Elympios
and then you have sidequest hell before the final dungeon.
 
B

BassForever

Member
dakkumauji said:
Yes, it's a fun skill for Rowen and it activates a lot more quickly than you imagine.

Basically you explore everything on the world map of
Elympios
and then you have sidequest hell before the final dungeon.
Click to expand...

Will I be able to travel between
both worlds
at some point before the finale?

Also I have to say I know it's "Tales tradition" to add another arc just when you think the game is over to extend things another 5-10 hours, but Xillia is really pushing this trope to the point of real frustration. It feels like the writers didn't really know who they wanted to be the
main villain/final antagonist
and kept throwing characters at the wall until something stuck. Seriously we've had
5 so far Nachtigal, Gillian, Muzet, Maxwell, and now Gaius
and if I didn't already know who the final boss was I would be expecting a FFIX
out of nowhere true villain shenanigans. Eternia already established Sekundes so it's not a real stretch
 
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