For years, friends have bugged me to play the Tales series. Usually Tales of Symphonia, but other titles have come up from time to time. A big-name JRPG series, well worth my time to check out… but I never quite got around to it. I finally gave the series a chance when I won a copy of Tales of Xillia.

I actually finished it back in October, but since my focus was on horror, I decided to save my review for this month.

(This post contains light spoilers, since I’ll be discussing my favorite character, but nothing visible contains anything major.)

Tales of Xillia gives you the option of following two protagonists: Jude Mathis or Milla Maxwell. The story is largely the same either way, but certain scenes and sections differ depending on who you play as. I heard the story is harder to follow if you play as Milla, so I picked Jude.

For a lot of fans, Jude might be the weakest part of Xillia. He’s a fairly dull protagonist. No matter whose story is clearer, the plot focuses on Milla’s quest, and Jude spends a good portion of the game just wanting to help Milla. That said, it raises some interesting comparisons between Jude and another member of the cast, which I won’t go into because it involves heavy spoilers.

One thing that made Tales of Xillia stand out to me was its sense of humor, and that’s where Jude takes an especially good role in the story. Now, I hated the two most obvious comic relief characters (Ivar and Teepo), but beyond those annoyances, the game was quite funny at times… often at Jude’s expense.

The gameplay was enjoyable. I prefer turn-based RPGs, but action RPGs are fine and Tales of Xillia handled it well. I never used Jude’s evade attack, and I barely played as any other characters, but I loved using the Link System and trying to chain multiple Linked Artes together. I ignored the food system for a while because… uh… I forgot about it… but once I actually started using it, I liked that too. I’d load up on food that increased gald and experience earned from battles, and use one after the other to get as much out of them as possible–I especially tried to time it to make sure they were in effect for boss battles.

And speaking of experience and battles, the leveling Lilium Orb system reminded me a bit of Final Fantasy X’s sphere grid. While FFX isn’t my favorite Final Fantasy games, it’s one of the few where I would level grind just for the fun of leveling up.

Instead of a typical RPG shop system, where you buy better items at locations further along in the game, all of the shops in Xillia can be leveled up by donating gald (the game’s currency) or materials. As a shop increases in level, new items become available and other items are discounted. I enjoyed this little twist.

The story was pretty interesting, with twists and turns, but what made it notable to me is that it sidesteps and subverts a lot of typical fantasy and/or JRPG story elements. For example, fantasy stories tend to depict two types of kings: the scary conqueror king and the good king who takes the time to talk to each and every one of his citizens. Tales of Xillia has Gaius, who manages to be both.

Aw, if his people love him so much, he must be such a nice–EEK!

Gaius is my favorite character from Tales of Xillia. This guy is so cool, there are NPCs who talk about how awesome he is and it doesn’t feel forced. His #1 priority is protecting his people, and if you hurt them, you’re going to suffer the full wrath of a king who will lead his army against you and possibly wipe out most of your forces by himself.

He also bumped Zacharias Barnham (PL vs. PW) and Simon Blackquill (Dual Destinies) from their top spots on my “hottest video game guys” list.

Speaking of which, we need more Gaius pictures. Fellow Gaius fangirls, this is for you.

(Hidden because of major spoilers and to spare any mortified non-fangirls reading this.)

Gallery of Tales of Xillia Gaius Pictures

Certain games we’ll be getting to soon enough have sparked debates about fanservice in video games. I’m in favor of it because of this. Tales of Xillia wins for best fanservice (although this screenshot isn’t the best quality).

And his “Absolute Domination” Mystic Arte was awesome enough normally…

But in the final battle…

Even more awesome!

And he’s dominating away…

Staring into your soul…

“ABSOLUTE DOMINATION!”

I really wish these images were better quality… 😉

But at least I have a Tales of Xillia 2 Gaius poster!

Don’t give me that look! Being attractive doesn’t make Gaius any less of a strong, fascinating character!

Moving on…

I found the majority of the characters to be interesting in their own ways, and I enjoyed exploring the world. There was a lot of treasure and loot to collect, and the collector in me wasted a ton of time at the beginning because I just wanted to fight monsters and pick up stuff.

I only have a couple of complaints. Near the end, it felt a little rushed, and a couple of subplots were never expanded on to my satisfaction. It also disappointed me that the story’s major moral conundrum is neatly resolved without any real effort. Not that I wanted it to end with a choice between two bleak possibilities, but I wanted them to work a little more for their happy ending instead of just being handed a convenient third option.

Overall, Tales of Xillia was a fun experience. I’m sorry it took me this long to get into the Tales series, but now that I’ve made it, I’m going to stay. I’ll definitely play Tales of Xillia 2, and since I already have Tales of Symphonia Chronicles and Tales of Destiny, I’ll play those as well.

Join me in the comments to discuss Tales of Xillia and the series further! Which games do you recommend the most? What did you think of Xillia and how does it compare to the others? Have I lured in any Gaius fangirls?

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Buy Tales of Xillia from Amazon
Buy Tales of Xillia from Play-Asia