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

I don't see Jude's side fixing anything, as he was there for most of the major story beats. This was just a poorly written game. The biggest fault with this story is
there is no real bad guy. Gaius is just a power hungry king, he doesn't have any evil ambition, he just wants to be the guy in charge. Muzet is a better bad guy than him because she's just crazy. But because she needs to follow someone, he literally steps into a role no one wanted. That's some major boring-ass shit if you ask me.

So basically you played Milla's story first and missed all the story scenes in the first half of part 4 that are Jude only that explain all the things you're upset about...
 

Seda

Member
I actually think the Tales of Xillia final boss is one of the better Tales villains, mostly because just about every other Tales villain is absolute garbage. Narrative-wise, I felt Tales of Xillia was better than several of the previous entries as well, felt more cohesive to me than Abyss/Vesperia and not as aggravating as Graces. I thought Xillia's primary weakness were the party characters themselves (outside of Rowen).
 

Bladenic

Member
I actually think the Tales of Xillia final boss is one of the better Tales villains, mostly because just about every other Tales villain is absolute garbage. Narrative-wise, I felt Tales of Xillia was better than several of the previous entries as well, felt more cohesive to me than Abyss/Vesperia and not as aggravating as Graces. I thought Xillia's primary weakness were the party characters themselves (outside of Rowen).

Really? Care to elaborate? I thought the cast was in the upper echelons as far as Tales casts go. Perhaps it's because they followed the abysmal Graces cast...
 
Really? Care to elaborate? I thought the cast was in the upper echelons as far as Tales casts go. Perhaps it's because they followed the abysmal Graces cast...

Jude and Alvin have that scene which truly cements their characters as pathetic. Elize is kind of a bitch to Leia and Milla for no real reason for half the game. Leia is truly worthless to the narrative after her initial scenes.

I do enjoy the Xillia cast though I can see why people would dislike the characters. Except Rowen he's a straight up baller.
 
I actually think the Tales of Xillia final boss is one of the better Tales villains, mostly because just about every other Tales villain is absolute garbage. Narrative-wise, I felt Tales of Xillia was better than several of the previous entries as well, felt more cohesive to me than Abyss/Vesperia and not as aggravating as Graces. I thought Xillia's primary weakness were the party characters themselves (outside of Rowen).

Lol, this is basically the exact opposite of how I felt about the game. Narrative wise, it felt like an unfocused mess with the antagonists development all feeling pretty half assed (the final bosses in particular), and the main characters were basically the only think I liked about it on the writing side (that is, their personalities themselves, not their role in the story).
 

Seda

Member
Really? Care to elaborate? I thought the cast was in the upper echelons as far as Tales casts go. Perhaps it's because they followed the abysmal Graces cast...

To preface: Vesperia is my favorite cast by far, and also my favorite Tales game as it is the most rounded - although other games beat it in specific 'categories'.

I don't have much to say, I'm pretty terrible at explaining my opinions (and that's all this is), but I just felt Jude was boring and safe and I simply didn't find his personality interesting. All Milla had going for her was her duty to her mission, Leia's motivation was just to be with Jude (groooan at her character building moments on Milla's side about wanting to be a nurse).

Elize wasn't too bad I suppose.

I really enjoyed Rowen's backstory and I appreciated how it was incorporated into the events of the main-game narrative. Deciphering Alvin's loyalties and motivations through the ongoing dialogue through the game was something to maintain interest in that character as well.
 

Seda

Member
Lol, this is basically the exact opposite of how I felt about the game. Narrative wise, it felt like an unfocused mess with the antagonists development all feeling pretty half assed (the final bosses in particular), and the main characters were basically the only think I liked about it on the writing side (that is, their personalities themselves, not their role in the story).

Tales of Symphonia 2 final boss is easily my favorite antagonist in the series. Easily. I'm not sure if many other people share my sentiment on this.

Xillia final boss is a few flights of stairs below that. As I said, I only sort of appreciated him due to not be as terrible as most everyone else.

Speaking of:

Every other antagonist is in the cellar.
 
I always like Dhaos from Phantasia mostly because he was the only villain unlike every tales after ward where the villain stick gets passed between 3-4 different characters.
 

Bladenic

Member
To preface: Vesperia is my favorite cast by far, and also my favorite Tales game as it is the most rounded - although other games beat it in specific 'categories'.

I don't have much to say, I'm pretty terrible at explaining my opinions (and that's all this is), but I just felt Jude was boring and safe and I simply didn't find his personality interesting. All Milla had going for her was her duty to her mission, Leia's motivation was just to be with Jude (groooan at her character building moments on Milla's side about wanting to be a nurse).

Elize wasn't too bad I suppose.

I really enjoyed Rowen's backstory and I appreciated how it was incorporated into the events of the main-game narrative. Deciphering Alvin's loyalties and motivations through the ongoing dialogue through the game was something to maintain interest in that character as well.

First of all, extreme bro fist about Vesperia on both accounts. Best cast, best game.

Rowen was definitely the best, but I also liked Alvin and Leia a lot. Leia was absolutely useless to the main story, but I liked her personality otherwise. Elize was a surprisingly good child character in a series that gave us Anise, so that's an automatic win. And besides a few points, I liked Jude and Milla well enough.

Hardly a perfect cast, but leagues ahead of Abyss, Legendia, and Graces, at least.
 

BOTEC

Member
The good guy team was fine, I didn't mind any of the party characters, even though they're all pure tropes at this point. The bad guys were the most ineffectual bunch though. For the majority of the time as they were prattling off their monologues I sat there nodding my head and agreeing with every word. Can I play their side of the story? That would be a way better game.
 

Seda

Member
First of all, extreme bro fist about Vesperia on both accounts. Best cast, best game.

Rowen was definitely the best, but I also liked Alvin and Leia a lot. Leia was absolutely useless to the main story, but I liked her personality otherwise. Elize was a surprisingly good child character in a series that gave us Anise, so that's an automatic win. And besides a few points, I liked Jude and Milla well enough.

Hardly a perfect cast, but leagues ahead of Abyss, Legendia, and Graces, at least.

I agree on this - thinking about it, I'm probably just disappointed that the Xillia MCs aren't on the same level as Yuri :(

As for my 'cohesive' comment, I find the narrative to be quite secondary to the battle system of course - I tend to enjoy every Tales game a fair amount simply because they're a blast to play. However I think being a shorter game suited the narrative unlike Symphonia, Abyss, and Vesperia which have a fair amount of padding and/or oddball twists thrown throughout, dragging in places. Xillia tended to mostly avoid that I thought. I guess that's what I mean by cohesive.
 

Bladenic

Member
The good guy team was fine, I didn't mind any of the party characters, even though they're all pure tropes at this point. The bad guys were the most ineffectual bunch though. For the majority of the time as they were prattling off their monologues I sat there nodding my head and agreeing with every word. Can I play their side of the story? That would be a way better game.

LMAO funny you should mention that, considering cut content allowed you to play as the two bad guys. Oh well.
 

demidar

Member
I agree on this - thinking about it, I'm probably just disappointed that the Xillia MCs aren't on the same level as Yuri :(

As for my 'cohesive' comment, I find the narrative to be quite secondary to the battle system of course - I tend to enjoy every Tales game a fair amount simply because they're a blast to play. However I think being a shorter game suited the narrative unlike Symphonia, Abyss, and Vesperia which have a fair amount of padding and/or oddball twists thrown throughout, dragging in places. Xillia tended to mostly avoid that I thought. I guess that's what I mean by cohesive.

At this rate no Tales MC will come close to Yuri.
:(

As far as the narrative goes, I felt that for the first half/two-thirds of the game having to run through fields to hit the next narrative checkpoint really did a number on interest, especially since the fields were so boring and stale. When it hits chapter 4 though the story gets in to gear and starts moving fast. Ideally chapter 4's speed should be applied to the rest of the game (but with not so high a stakes, just new plot points coming in fast). I guess what I'm saying is the pacing is pretty poor for the majority of the game. The actual content of the narrative though is alright, and the final boss works well enough (though I recognize it as rushed) and I understand his motivations so from that standpoint he's a success.
 
Haven't played for a few weeks and started up again last night. I'm at the boss fight against
Agria and Presa, and they're absolutely slaughtering me. I can get one of them down to extremely low health, but then they start spamming artes like crazy and wipe out my party. Any suggestions?
 
Haven't played for a few weeks and started up again last night. I'm at the boss fight against
Agria and Presa, and they're absolutely slaughtering me. I can get one of them down to extremely low health, but then they start spamming artes like crazy and wipe out my party. Any suggestions?

One possible solution is to either raise your water or fire resistance as best you can and defeat the other one that doesn't use that element.

Depending on your setup, you can easily get elemental attacks to start healing you instead of dealing damage.
 

MogCakes

Member
Haven't played for a few weeks and started up again last night. I'm at the boss fight against
Agria and Presa, and they're absolutely slaughtering me. I can get one of them down to extremely low health, but then they start spamming artes like crazy and wipe out my party. Any suggestions?

Keep Rowen in your party and have him only use Tidal Wave.
 

Darkone

Member
Started the game a few days ago, my first Tales game.
I am deep in Jude chapter 1 and except from the second boss that was a challenge the normal monsters are kinda easy (one above Normal setting).

Because i don't have much time i am doing only the main story.
great game so far.
 
I so hope that game makes up for the 50 hours I invested in Tales of Graces f and its dragging puzzles and level design. Lets see if I like Jude better than Asbel.
 

demidar

Member
I so hope that game makes up for the 50 hours I invested in Tales of Graces f and its dragging puzzles and level design. Lets see if I like Jude better than Asbel.

I'd be pretty surprised if anyone likes Asbel more than Jude. Jude's not the greatest but at least he beats super low bar that is Asbel.
 

Labadal

Member
I could finally put in some time to play this. Left the first town and met Alvin. I like him already. Jude is okay, I guess, at least better than Asbel. I don't mind Milla, but her lisp, it's obvious that I can't stop thinking about it. Combat has been fun so far and I've been introduced to the link system.

First impression is good, even if as people said, fields look boring.
 
I thought the cast was good and the plot decent. Considering this is a jrpg I don't see where these high standards are coming from. The game is well above average in this regard within its genre.
 

Seronei

Member
I beat this 2 weeks back but haven't bothered making any posts. But it's not until I went back playing Vesperia that I really appreciated how much smarter the friendly AI is in Xillia. Healer doesn't randomly start to melee the boss when she's at 300hp and they don't run around doing nothing as much as in Vesperia.

Xillia was definitely much stronger than Graces, I heard most people preferred the Graces battlesystem to Xillia but Graces never really felt good to me. I loved the combat system in Xillia.

Not sure if I want to beat the Jude path as well, it seems to have more content though.
 

Bladenic

Member
I beat this 2 weeks back but haven't bothered making any posts. But it's not until I went back playing Vesperia that I really appreciated how much smarter the friendly AI is in Xillia. Healer doesn't randomly start to melee the boss when she's at 300hp and they don't run around doing nothing as much as in Vesperia.

Xillia was definitely much stronger than Graces, I heard most people preferred the Graces battlesystem to Xillia but Graces never really felt good to me. I loved the combat system in Xillia.

Not sure if I want to beat the Jude path as well, it seems to have more content though.

Jude's Act 4 beginning is so much stronger (and longer) than Milla's. A second playthrough shouldn't take you long either if you skip cutscenes you've already seen and use Grade shop.
 
Jude's Act 4 beginning is so much stronger (and longer) than Milla's.

My god, how awful is Milla's act 4? The beginning of Jude Act 4 was the worst part of the game with its melodrama and cringe inducing dialogue. I certainly would recommend someone to play through the game again to see those scenes.
 

Seronei

Member
My god, how awful is Milla's act 4? The beginning of Jude Act 4 was the worst part of the game with its melodrama and cringe inducing dialogue. I certainly would recommend someone to play through the game again to see those scenes.

It's not awful, it's just like 20 minutes long.
 

Sorian

Banned
My god, how awful is Milla's act 4? The beginning of Jude Act 4 was the worst part of the game with its melodrama and cringe inducing dialogue. I certainly would recommend someone to play through the game again to see those scenes.

I still enjoy the beginning to Jude's act 4 just because of how surreal everything feels during it.
 

Peff

Member
My god, how awful is Milla's act 4? The beginning of Jude Act 4 was the worst part of the game with its melodrama and cringe inducing dialogue. I certainly would recommend someone to play through the game again to see those scenes.

Great Spirit A: We managed to save her body...
Great Spirit B: ...but she doesn't seem to remember anything!
Great Spirit C: She must have lost her memory.
Great Spirit D: Guess we did something wrong.

Repeat for half an hour while rotating which spirit says which line.
 
So I just started this game

What on earth is up with the audio quality on Milla's voice? It sounds like they mashed together two different games, the clarity on her voice sounds nothing like Jude's.

This is seriously awful, what were they thinking letting it out the door like this? The poor quality is causing a strange lisp on her S's that's completely unnecessary.
 

Bladenic

Member
So I just started this game

What on earth is up with the audio quality on Milla's voice? It sounds like they mashed together two different games, the clarity on her voice sounds nothing like Jude's.

This is seriously awful, what were they thinking letting it out the door like this? The poor quality is causing a strange lisp on her S's that's completely unnecessary.

Right? Hopefully they get the actress' mic working right for Xillia 2.
 
So I guess no DLC costumes this week.

STAR DRIVER costumes where are you?
Scamco would have to get the license for that in NA. Probably never going to see those on NA PSN.
Millia's school outfit is just wow. WOW! Caved and bought that.
ToXSchoolCos.jpg

I'm moving along in Chapter 2. How can you tell if Leia stole some items? I'm spamming Death Knell and don't really noticed she's stealing anything.
I like the banter, but there is so many effin skits. Is this really necessary?
I don't really have any attachment to any of the cast besides maybe Milla. Don't really care that much about them honestly haha.
 

Arthea

Member
So, I've finished and platinumed ToX, it's not a very long game, for Tales I mean.

There is so much wrong with this game, don't even know where to start.

Locations and dungeons were bland and uninspired. Don't get me wrong, I don't expect awesome locales from Tales games, but in ToX it was even worse than usual. The very confusing gorge and the mine with actual mining are only two that made some impression on me.

Why on earth they got rid off cooking I'll never understand. No cooking, no minigames, no really interesting sidequests and on top of that combat system was so so. This game is too simple for it's own good. And requirements for shop development are ridiculous, I would say even beyond ridiculous.

Characters are OK more or less, although this all
let's give Alvin 2000158th chance
, didn't make this game any good. But story doesn't make much sense quite often. It might be that translation is bad, so I won't judge too harshly. Still, infamous
Gaius speech about protecting the weak and making them strong. c'mon, you don't make the weak strong by protecting them, even for mandatory epic speech it made too little sense.
Real Maxwell doesn't make much sense also
, most of the time. I mean they even "forgot" that
temporal ways will disappear together with schism while all characters still are there
*rolls eyes*

I'll give this game credit for having two lines of the story though, they are quite similar but it was still a nice thing. I laughed hard at the coliseum. What a trolls (><). This partly applies to the
main (post game) boss too
. That was funny.
The free camera was nice to have too.

So all in all it was the worst Tales game I played (and I played most of them), even Legendia was better, yes.
Not sure I wanna play ToX2, unless it's much much better.
 
In one of the animated cutscenes towards the end, she doesn't lisp, which makes it even -more- baffling.

edit: 1m30s here. Jude's ending, so spoilers obviously.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8yjWSX2KFk

edit2: 1m15s here - Actually, she doesn't lisp in the opening either? Might be all animated cutscenes then.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EB9Qivg5I0A

It's pretty much just the quality of her setup. It would be fine if it were consistent with every other character, but she literally sounds like she skyped all her voice acting in.

Namco and I guess 8-4 should be pretty ashamed they let it out the door like this. This isn't the early 2000s, you can't just go "Welp, we ran out of money, whatever" and act like none of it is on you.

Xillia sold fairly well its first month in the NPDs. I wouldn't be surprised if the poor quality of the localization made it so Xillia 2's sales dip dramatically.
 

Arthea

Member
I would think that ToX being what it is, has a lot to do with ToX2 sales, but then again, I don't really care about bad VAs and they don't influence my buying decisions at all.
 
I doubt the audio quality of Milla's voice recordings will have any tangible impact on sales. That said, it is indeed embaressing.

I have to think there are people that bought it on faith, found X factors unsatisfying, and bad audio quality is on a number of people's lists.

For sequels, the best you can usually hope for (bar some insane explosion) is to recapture the audience of the original, which is why you try to do the best job you can on the original. I don't think they did the best job they could here.
 

Falk

that puzzling face
It's pretty much just the quality of her setup. It would be fine if it were consistent with every other character, but she literally sounds like she skyped all her voice acting in.

Eh, shit happens. An AAA I worked on last year (won't say what. It was English-primary too :V) literally had VAs done with lavalier mics inside a room that, as far as we can tell, had an active CRT. We managed to clean up that one decently though.

I mean, even with sub-par recordings it's still possible to save a lisp with proper processing, in this case harmonic excitement of proper band-passes. Sure it doesn't sound as good as a properly recorded performance but it's still better than nothing.

I just wince when I try to fathom what kind of situation, financially or otherwise, would have prevented a revisit or aforementioned salvage-work when the VA was done November last year and the game came out only a few months ago. Heck, I'd have preferred if they'd processed the animated cutscenes so the lisp was there as well just to justify it as intentional. Right now it's just half-and-half.
 
Scamco would have to get the license for that in NA. Probably never going to see those on NA PSN.
Millia's school outfit is just wow. WOW! Caved and bought that.

You could say the same thing with the Idolmaster costumes. Though I guess there's less hoops to jump through for that.

I like Millia's school outfit since it gives access to a hair style that doesn't have hair all over the place which is nice.
 

Amon37

Member
why do jrpg trophies make you feel you accomplished nothing lol. I have 50 hours I'm at the end of Jude's side and have only 14% trophies versus farcry 3 which I'm also playing only have 5-10 hours and already have 25% of the trophies
 

ys45

Member
Finished the game this week and i personally loved the game and story , i found it refreshing that the
bad guy was not totally bad and did not want to destroy every life for once, he just had a different point a view and wanted to do things his own way

And i really enjoyed the ending
where you see what has become of everyone and what they are up to,I feel kinda sad for Leia though she was falling for Jude and he did not care at all for her ,it was only Milla, Milla Milla :p

Overall, best JRPG I played in a while .
 
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