Are Xillia and Xillia 2 really that bad?

[Luisma]

I've read a lot of people saying that. I really want to play them but with all I've read I'm not sure anymore. Should I give them a try?

[coffeerox]

Both are good games. Xillia 2 is often misunderstood because of it's flaws. It makes you PLAY the game more before it allows you to progress in story and JRPG'ers play only for story (which doesn't make sense since Tales is primarily gameplay first but whatever) and that grinds their gears.

It's main storyline isn't too big as other Tales games but what people don't realize is that the characters are explored more in depth thanks to the alternate reality missions.

[Xengre]

Origineel geplaatst door pokenar:

Origineel geplaatst door Xengre:

Tear was definitely my favorite, and a bad ass in general. Jade was great, imo, and Luke does become somewhat emo but not your cliche emo tho I can understand (wont spoil for others). I liked Anise, too. That may just be me tho. Luke grows, at least. I hated Ashe, Natlia kinda irked me with the Luke/Asche thing, and Guy ticked me off sometimes because of his disposition even tho I fully understood why and even tho I agreed. Haha, yeah the plot in Vesperia was kinda meh but I did love the characters in it.

See, I originally liked Jade and Guy, but Luke, Anise, and Natalia pissed me off day 1. What ended up pushing Jade and Guy into my ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ was That every single party member, especially them, could have prevented almost the entire plot if they just opened their damn mouths about what they knew And lets not forget that While I may not like Luke, the party members were WAY too harsh on him after he screwed up, which is probably why he went emo instead of going straight to a more heroic type

And yes, I do like the Vesperia characters. stuff like this is why I say "Characters" and "Plot" instead of just story, because I value characters highly, but not plot.

Yup, Guy/Jade could have solved a lot of issues with some details. Tear could have helped some as well, tbh, but isn't nearly as big an offender here. I actually did not like Anise at the start but she grew on me because shes such a deceptive bad ass. Shes the one character, story wise, I would not mess with after Jade/Van. I blame Ion as well. I fully agree they were overly harsh on Luke. Part of this is why I liked Tear so much, because of how she acted towards him and also why I couldn't completely dislike Guy despite how much he could irk me he was actually a good person. I like that Luke didn't just forget what had happened, though. I don't think any reasonable person would have been able to avoid the disaster had they been in Luke's position, especially with so many trust/thinking for yourself issues he had, but that is another topic.

Rita Mordeio ftw!

[Birbone]

I don't know: I found Xillia 1 extremely good story wise and it has a good roster of character (although I despised Milla with all my soul). I haven't fully played Xillia 2 but I do like the new character and the improved battle system from the original. Overall, they are very good, perhaps not as good as some of the other games but still solid RPGs (Although in europe it was rare to find a Tales game: Abyss only came recently over the 3DS and I'm still hoping for Legendia. Hearts is on VITA now but it was originally on DS japan only).

Yet again, Xillia was the first Tales that I actually played properly: I hated Vesperia's clunky and sluggish battle system and characters (and back then I was playing SO:4 and its combat system, which felt MUCH more smoother in comparison. Of course the characters were bad, but Yuri had such a group of idiots...), and before that I played Tales of Eternia on PSP (which was meh) and Tales of the World (Which was also meh).

TL;DR: you should give them a try. They are pretty good and solid RPGs and most likely going cheap nowadays.

[Faint]

not that bad, they get a bad rap because they're not better than their predecessors but they are not bad games by any means.

think of it like you would a sports games, NBA2k13 is better than 14 yet 14 is not that bad and improved 'slightly' in one area. Its the same thing with these 2 games as the tales games.

so no, not bad, just not good enough for fans

[Xyes]

Xillia 1 was great. I enjoyed Xillia 2 BUT the battle system irked me. I say that because, the "weakness" system practically forced the player to play as Ludger.

I don't particularly enjoy playing as the main character in Tales games. I usually switch around.

[Jargous]

Xillia was ok, Xillia 2 however, was a grindfest. Mix the two together, and the reviews become mixed. Personally, Xillia was good, but when it feels like you're grinding out the storyline, that's when I kind of dread playing the game. But this is bound to happen with just about any game, how your opinion is formed after going through those scenes ultimately determines whether you enjoy it or not.

I started the Tales series at Legendia, and let me tell you, the 1st half was good, but the 2nd half was dreadful.

[Little Game Fairy]

I think people have different opinions on different games. While it's not my favourite in the series, I still had a lot of fun playing them. Though Tales of Xillia 2 was too dark for me and I wasn't the biggest fan of Ludger as a protagonist.

But I still think the games are good. And I would love to see them on Steam.

I like how Tales of Xillia has bigger and more open spaces to explore than Graces. But some of them can be a little bit boring. I loved how you could go up and explore the Marshes, even if you were underleveled. It's a neat little place to have an exciting challenge early in the game and get a bunch of levels really quickly.

I also really like the unique use of cultures in Tales of Xillia. Tales of Xillia's setting is very Eurasian. With lots of references to Russian, Mongolian, and Central Asian cultures(occassionally Chinese). It's very interesting seeing cultures being represented in the way Xilia represented them. I very rarely see so many references to Russia, Mongolia, Central Asia and Western China in video games.

While that's not an objective thing to be praising, it was super interesting to see. Especially as someone who likes reading about these cultures and the history of these cultures. Taking it as a hobby to study these cultures really shows how there really never has been a well defined "East" or "West" culturally, and continents like Europe and Asian are silly and shouldn't have ever been separated. I guilty of playing into these cultural ideas, too, saying things like "a game being brought to the West". But the more I've read about these cultures represented in Tales of Xillia, the more I realize there's really never been an East or West, Europe or Asia.

I'm totally really happy seeing those cultures represented and would like to see more games with Central Asian/Eurasian cultures represented in fantasy fiction.

Tales of Xillia also has a really amazing soundtrack. With such variety. There's so many interesting tracks. Sakuraba always does a great job with soundtracks and has especially grown with the Xillia soundtrack.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjjrbiH9_4o

A track like this will be a treat to Dark Souls fans, as this is a track that could easily be in a Dark Souls game(also composed by Sakuraba). Interestingly, Tales of Xillia and Dark Souls were released at around the same time. So Sakuraba may have had some of the same inspirations for both of them, or wanted to bring some of his inspiration from the Dark Souls soundtracks to the Tales series with Xillia.

Along with some Jazzy music that you rarely hear in RPGs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4nNDZ_4PiI

I also liked the questing system. How you would have so many little optional side quests with a list. Some of them could be a little frustrating for people, since they were easy to miss or get disqualified on. But still, I liked the idea.

Also, this is subjective, but I really liked Agria as a villain. She was so memorable as a villain character.

[snowyonetwo]

Origineel geplaatst door Xyes:

Xillia 1 was great. I enjoyed Xillia 2 BUT the battle system irked me. I say that because, the "weakness" system practically forced the player to play as Ludger.

I don't particularly enjoy playing as the main character in Tales games. I usually switch around.

Yea. That was so frustrating, especially since he was basically locked into the party. THERE IS A REASON WE CAN PLAY AS EVERYONE PEOPLE! I loved using Milla.

Anyways... My biggest issue with Xilia 2...

The plot blew. Okay. Let's be serious here for a second. They had this great concept of traveling to alternate timelines, yet NONE of them got really explored. Sure, one got explored a bit, but otherwise all we got to see was the same areas we had already seen and not much else. For example, in one chapter the party enters a temporal 'ark' where the bodies of people escaping the destruction of their timeline are hiding. They're guarded by a keeper who doesn't wish to kill the party, only to protect the people in the ark. The party gets confronted with the happy greetings of the people inside, all looking forwards to a new life. The keeper also reveals that he's met alternate versions of the party, defeated them, and stored them. This is all perfect for a great set-up and twist! The party could be stuck with the moral plight of destroying all these people looking forwards to meeting them, they could meet alternate versions of themselves and see directly how things went differently, maybe even mix it up and have a world where, say, Presa joined the party instead of Alvin at the end. There is the chance for even a mass mirror battle against their alternate selves trying to save the temporal ark. So what happens?

Generic boss battle, forgotten about soon after, and the biggest revelation comes from the damned CAT! What a WASTE! We get alternate dimension Milla, but then she's killed off for the real Milla. Regardless of your feelings towards either; WHAT A WASTE! We meet a reality where Agria is becoming... less evil... And after a short side quest it's gone. WHAT A WASTE! Instead the story focuses on Elle and Ludger with the rest of the party being basically tag-alongs. Muzet becoming good? She's just trying to be a big sister and outside of a few scenes never gets focused on. WHAT A WASTE!

That's the problem. Outside of Ludger and Elle everything is just there to be wasted. What about a world where Agria was good and the party was evil? What about a world where Driselle picked herself up after her brothers death and became a gunner? What about a world where Celsius is free and joins the party? This would have been the perfect chance to show some interesting worlds, add in different party members, and experiment around. Instead it's just same old party members pushed to the side in favor of two newbies.

[Birbone]

You know, the Tales Series can be summed up pretty often with what you just said: "What a waste!".

Like, I am replaying Vesperia after years of trying it again: I never finished it but I was gonna give it a good try. But the issue is that, despite having a great MC, the rest is completely off and I never, EVER liked anyone else (minus Raven and Judith, but the rest? Annoying).
"What a waste".

I'm playing Tales of Hearts on the Vita: It's quite good, but the first 20 hours is COMPLETELY FILLER and only servers as a gateway for the real plot, which only lasts like 10-15 hours and I'm honestly struggling to finish it because it's boring and came out of nowhere.
What a waste.

Xillia (for me) had the same issue as Vesperia but backwards: it had such a good roster of characters (I loved Alvin and Rowen's backstories, and the rest was good), but holy mother of mercy...Milla was just an evil character, plain and simple. Remember the scene inside the fort? Where someone attempts to kill Elise? MILLA WAS GOING TO LETTING HER GET KILLED and she was not bluffing.

https://youtu.be/-gOHHw7dT_0?t=11m13s the exact skit that made me hate her.

She was supposed to be the male version of Yuri Lowell but to me she seems more like the lame cousin of Kefka: she isn't crazy, but evil enough to be compared.
What a waste.

To me, at least.
And yes I don't know how to make proper links. Bite me.

[Wunray]

Xillia 1 was a great game, it's sequel only has it's combat going for it.

[DiaCrusher]

Kill the trash that said that.

[snowyonetwo]

But that's sort of the whole point. Milla going from a determined warrior willing to kill anything that gets in the way of her objective to slowly becoming more and more 'human' and understanding how they thought and felt and everything. Plus... not to be a ♥♥♥♥, but given the choice between potentially ending the conflict at the cost of the life of one girl, END THE CONFLICT! Think of all the little girls lives you'll be saving if you succeed!

[Cether]

Tales of Symphonia was my favorite game, Zelos and Sheena are some of the most memorable characters of any game I've played. Behind that would be Abyss for the amazing amount of end game content the game had, but I couldn't stand Luke after his "change". At least when he was a douche he was a funny douche.
Then would be Vesperia, which was generally good at everything it did, but not necessarily the best at any one thing.
After that would be Xillia which I thought was fun but just kinda meh and it never really grabbed me. Next is Tales of Legendia, which I don't really remember anything about and compared to every other tales game I think that says enough.
Xillia 2 I didn't like whatsoever because it felt like a work simulator set in the xillia universe. And then Tales of Symphonia 2, which was really awful fanfiction made into the sequal of my favorite game.

And last would be Tales of the World, which was an okay PSP game (Seriously that console sucked) but a terrible Tales game.

[txh0881]

I loved Xillia.

I have not played Xillia 2, though. It is on my to-do list, though.

[best nick EVER seen]

xillia 1 is good, xillia 2 is bad. Xillia 2 is the first "Repay your debts" simulator ever, so that's something...