Return to Xillia Again - Tales of Xillia 2 Review
Let’s grab your controller, beverage, and get back into the RPG realm of the Tales series.
It’s time to return to the world of Xillia. So once again war has broke out between the nations of Rieze Maxia and Elympios. At the end of the first Xillia you achieved a level of peace between the nations but spirits and humans still haven’t achieved this harmony yet. The game begins with your new protagonist Ludger. He is a character who is the silent type but gentle, kind, and always wanting to help his brother Julius.You learn as the story unfolds about the many mysteries that surround your brother, the connection between humans and spirits, Spirius Corporation, and the Key of Kresnik and how a girl named Elle intersects on your destiny and fate ties you together on a new adventure.
So the world of Xillia is falling apart due to a new anomaly of fractured dimensions. It is causing instability between their primary world and other dimensions/worlds. As the player you become an agent of the Spirius Corporation to conquer this challenge and restore balance to the world.
The story revolves around the premise to complete the trial to save humanity placed by the spirit Origin. You discover a young girl named Elle along the way who wants to make a wish in the Land of Canaan to save her Dad. After meeting up with Elle you team up to reach this mysterious place to save the prime dimension of Xillia. One of the best aspects of the game is getting to team up with your old teammates with the cast returning from the original game with Jude, Millia, and the rest. This was a real treat to play with my old team while using a new protagonist to experience a new story and expansion of the world of Xillia.
So let’s start with the good and bad then I will summarize my thoughts and give my verdict. So the battle system is action based like the previous entries and stays tried and true with flashy spirit artes and easy to jump into combat. The story is incredible and picks right back up from where the original Xillia completed with one year passing since the last adventure. The skits made me laugh and continue to impress connecting me with the characters on a deeper level. The relationships you build through the side quests and character specific chapters are great too! I highly recommended the character specific stories between the main game chapters. You gain not only more experience and cash but also greater insight into additional story cannon to fill in gaps and expand on the mysteries of Xillia. There is also tons to do from New Game Plus upon completing the game, side bosses, and sooo much more. You get your money’s worth in this game. My final clock time was 50+ hours and I might even go back again down the road to play some more it was that solid of an RPG.
The bad I honestly can only think of a few it’s pretty lengthy of an adventure so it might turn off some but I think it’s worth it from start to finish. Lastly, you revisit many of the same places you did in the first game so very familiar so it might feel to some gamers a retread.
Final Verdict in this review
I typically give scores but I’m experimenting a new formula for rating games moving forward that isn’t common like scores or grade letters. So with each game it will get a ranking of level up, de-level, or get some experience. So how this will work is simple. If it’s a level up I highly recommend it for its amazing graphics, gameplay, story, narrative, mechanics, and overall polish. If it’s a get some experience I would consider it from a rental or looking more into it to see if it’s a game or genre you would be interested in playing. The de-level rating I would recommend playing something else due to issues of poor gameplay, experience, story, or other technical issues that plague the game and hamper the overall experience.
At Life Leveler we are here to level up your life with better games that challenge us to do more, be better, and enrich our lives. So my final verdict on Tales of Xillia 2 is Level Up! Everything about this game is fine tuned, crafted, and a wonderful story that will emotionally pull you into the characters and the story.
So up next I will be reviewing Tales of Arise the latest entry in the series that dropped on Steam, PS5, and Xbox Series X. I will be streaming my journey on YouTube if you want to follow along prior to my review. The link will be listed below. I will have this review completed in October likely towards the end of the month as I just started and like all RPGs they take a bit of time to complete and grind through but fortunately the Tales series doesn’t feel like a grind but an experience.
TikTok/YouTube Version coming later this week! Follow me @ life_leveler on TikTok and on YouTube @ youtube.com/dakinggamer.
Until, next time keep gaming and keep leveling up your life with better games and experiences!
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