Previews// Tales of Xillia

Gameplay-wise little has changed from the previous games in the series, or indeed RPGs in general. You run around towns, talk to as many NPCs as you can stand, stock up on supplies and outfit yourself with new weapons, and then head out for whichever dungeon the game has you aimed at next. Repeat five times a day and if condition persists consult your doctor immediately.

That said, there’s one direction the series has taken which makes a fairly big difference – there’s a notable reduction in the amount of exploration you’re allowed/forced to undertake. The world map is more or less barren, areas between towns simply consisting of massive wide-open fields packed with armies of enemies. And the dungeons are far more streamlined than those of past games in the series, not just shorter but devoid of the puzzles and backtracking that were once a Tales staple.

I’m a little divided on this. On the one hand I was never a fan of spending long stretches of time traipsing around dungeons trying to figure out how to get further or running back and forth collecting keys and the like. But without all that the game’s pace is changed pretty drastically, and playing Tales of Xillia sometimes feels like you’re just being bounced from boss fight to boss fight while smashing through anything that gets in your way.

Fortunately combat has always been the thing that the Tales games do best and for better or worse Xillia once again does little to change that. On the surface everything feels very similar to the game’s predecessors and anyone with any Tales experience will settle in very quickly. That’s not to say that more advanced veterans won’t find plenty of differences - there are noticeable tweaks to the combo and combination skills systems for example - just that the majority of casual players could be forgiven for thinking that everything was the same as ever.

One new addition is the Lilium Orbs system that lets you tweak your characters stats and abilities somewhat. In a similar vein to the Sphere Grid system of Final Fantasy X, characters earn points from levelling up that can then be spent to unlock nodes around the map in order to increase their stats. Activating all the nodes in an area unlocks hidden skills that have a variety of beneficial effects in combat. It’s not quite as deep as FFX’s Sphere Grid, but it is useful to focus your characters abilities’ in different areas and further define their roles in battle.

For the most part what Tales of Xillia lacks in innovation it tries to make up for in style. This isn’t likely to win it any new fans but Tales fans will probably eat it right up. If you’re a JRPG fan who hasn’t played a Tales game before then this is a pretty good jumping on point, though if you’re a JRPG fan who hasn’t played a Tales game before then you’ve been doing it all wrong anyway.

While I’ve admitted I might not be the biggest fan of JRPGs myself I've definitely played enough to recognise a good one from the bad. From what I've seen of Tales of Xillia there shouldn’t be too many disappointed Tales fans come August.