To date, I have now reviewed five of the Tales games with the new Tales of Xillia being the most recent. So far, they have ranged in score from an 89 to a 99 out of 100, which shows that I really like how the series is constructed. Tales of Xillia is no exception to this rule. From the very beginning, I was addicted to the story and determined to find out what was going on. I even restarted the game as the other character four hours in, just to get more of the story to start with!

Even from just the opening intro, I found the characters to be splendid and the world amazing. The animation is very anime style. They are going more for the cartoon images than ultra-realistic like some other games. Personally, I like the animated look better. You can make the characters however you want and they don’t come out looking creepy (unless they are supposed to). Some of the lands are truly beautiful, like the Kijara Seafalls. The water is fascinatingly beautiful! It sparkles perfectly, better than I can imagine anywhere in real life would. There are a wide variety of monsters as well. As you go through the game, the monsters get more difficult and they look similar to their easier version, but yet more powerful.

I really like the fact that your characters speak out loud in Tales of Xillia. I don’t mind reading text on-screen, but when you’re in battle, it is much easier to hear them talk. Plus, I really like the voices they chose. Milla is perfectly confident and arrogant, as you would expect her to be, but when she learns something new about humans, you can hear the honest wonder in her voice. Elize does a wonderful job as a shy and timid kid who perks up when she finds true friends. Alvin is the perfect rogue, while Jude does a great job as the kid on the edge of true adulthood. Rowen sounds as mysterious as his knowledge suggests that he is. All the NPCs fit quite well too.

When you first launch Tales of Xillia, you’ll get a beautiful cut-scene featuring a mystical looking woman with four great spirits and then a very short scene featuring a young med student. Milla is the woman and Jude is the student. As soon as these scenes are over, you will choose which character’s story you want to see. For the most part, they have the same tale and you will play with both characters and you can make either the leader. At times though, usually when they are apart during various cutscenes, you will get the story from the point of view of the character you have chosen. I highly recommend that you play as Jude the first time through. I started over four hours in just because I could see how much of the story I was missing when Elize joined the party. It’s more like Jude gives you an overview of everything, but then you play again as Milla to get the details. I do find it interesting that Jude is a med student, old enough to treat patients, but yet they keep referring to him as a kid and he’s obviously not a full grown adult yet. It does make me wonder how old you have to be to be in college in this world, but then Elize is obviously a preteen at the oldest and no one seems to wonder about her traveling with what appears to be a ragtag group of mercenaries.

As you travel, you will be able to buy items at different shops. Instead of the shops just getting better items as the game goes on, you choose which shops to upgrade to get better items in. Be aware that different shops in different towns will give you a bonus on different types of donated materials, so make sure to look for those bonuses before you donate! You can really optimize your materials if you are careful. Materials donated to one shop will carry over to all shops, so upgrade any time and it will carry to the next town. To find these items to donate, look for sparkling spots on walls or bags on the ground. Treasure chests will also hold various items for you, so search everywhere.

As the story progresses, you will travel from town to town trying to find out what is really going on. As you go, various people will need help too. If you choose to help them, you will get sub-quests that you can do. I really recommend that you take them on as they will give you bonus money and items. Just keep on going and eventually, we’ll figure out what is going on with the mysterious weapons that Milla is trying to stop.

Tales of Xillia provides four different difficulty options: Easy, Normal, Moderate, and Hard. The game defaults to Normal, but I found that to feel too easy for my tastes and I’m not one who looks for the extremely hard challenges. I like to get through the story with a decent challenge, but not so hard that I get frustrated too often and throw the controller across the room. Moderate felt more like "Normal" in the previous Tales games to me.

Obviously, since you get stronger by leveling up, you can grind the levels as much as you want to make life easier on yourself, but once you get the World Map, traveling gets a lot easier. You can use it to return to any place you have been previously. If you haven’t been there though, you will have to find it yourself and grind through. When you level, you will get GP that you can use to choose how your character gets stronger. You will spend those GP on your Lilium Orb. It looks quite a bit more confusing than in the past. They are now on a hexagon web, like a spider’s web. I found it a bit difficult to navigate at first, but you can press R3 and zoom out, which makes it a bit easier to see overall. Non-active characters (since you can only have 4 active at once) do still get EXP like the others, so you don’t have to worry about switching characters in and out of your party just to make sure they level with the others. The Memory Ring will let you save, revive KO’d members, and restore 50% of your character’s HP. You can also do a quick save in other areas, but you can only have one quick save at a time.

Don’t forget to look at the downloadable items in the PlayStation store. There are some free things that will help you and some amusing outfits that won’t cost much, plus you can buy levels if you are impatient and avoiding enemies. I did find that I usually did not have quite enough money to buy everyone the latest gear as soon as it was available, but I was also avoiding enemies as much as I could without using potions so I could get on with the story. I had to decide who needed what equipment the most.

The controls in Tales of Xillia felt very natural to me as they are mostly exactly like the other Tales games. It did take me a bit of time to get used to using the linked artes, but now it is quite natural. Linked artes will really help you get through battles quicker and easier. First, you link your characters together by pressing the direction the character is from you on your bottom status screen. Then you both use artes at the same time and if executed properly, you will get a crossed sword icon on top of your character which lets you know to press (R2) very quickly. Only some artes can be linked with others, so you will need to learn which characters' artes link with others, but I highly recommend you invest the time into it. You can even switch out characters during battle, which can be so very handy at times!

So far, I love Tales of Xillia. I have not beaten it yet, but soon I hope! The Tales games have always provided an intriguing storyline and this one sucked me in from the very beginning. I do wish that I could see both character’s stories at once rather than having to choose and play through a second time to get the rest of the story, but that just gives me a reason to play it twice. If you’re a fan of RPGs, I highly recommend you pick up the new Tales of Xillia today!