Last year, we were introduced to a new set of heroes in the new Tales of Xillia game. There aren’t many Tales games with sequels, but I am very glad they decided to go with a sequel for this one in the new Tales of Xillia 2.

The majority of the characters are the same as in the first game, but they’ve gotten new looks and fashions. Personally, I like the new looks. Since they’re living over in Elympios, they need a more modern look as the residents there still harbor resentment towards the people of Rieze Maxia. Of course, if you prefer the old looks, you can unlock them as the story goes, but changing them into the old costumes won’t affect the gameplay. The worlds look more or less the same too, which makes it much easier to find your way around, if you remember where things are from the first game.

I love that all the characters sound like they did before. I haven’t looked to see if they are all the same actors, but if they’re not, they sound like it. Your new hero, Ludger, doesn’t really speak much at all. When he does say something, it’s usually in one or two words. I can understand going for the strong, silent type, but I do wish that he spoke a bit more as it’s a bit annoying that he speaks so little. You expect your hero to have something useful to say sometimes at least!

As I said, if you played Tales of Xillia, then you will recognize a lot of the areas and people in Tales of Xillia 2. The major change in your world is that Rieze Maxia and Elympios have merged and the veil is gone. There is a bridge connecting them in Marksburg, a new city built on the schism. Of course, that doesn’t mean that the residents of these two worlds like each other. Elympios still has a bad economy and they blame Rieze Maxia for that. Elympiosians still can’t use spirit artes, while Rieze Maxians can. Ludger Kresnik (as in the Lance of Kresnik) is from Elympios. He’s just a seemingly normal guy whose big brother works for the Spirius Corporation.

Tales of Xillia 2 opens with Ludger fighting his brother. You can’t win this battle, so just listen to the story. This is just a dream; one that is making you late for the Spirius Corporation’s entrance exam. Your brother is in charge of the exam, the same brother that you just dreamed killed you. Interesting, no? Anyway, after failing the exam, Ludger ends up in a new job at the cafeteria. On his first day on the job, Ludger’s life will forever change when he meets up with Elle, a young girl who’s just trying to find her father at any cost. You’ll get to see Jude again from Tales of Xillia pretty quickly in the game. Rollo is Ludger’s cat and he ends up coming along as well. I mention the cat simply because you will use him (and the other 100 kitties you need to find) in the Kitty Dispatch to find items around the areas. I recommend using it continually. Anyway, back to the story. Ludger, Elle, and Jude will meet up with all your old friends including Alvin, Leia, Rowen, Elize, even King Gaius, and more as Ludger tries to figure out what is going on with the new fractured dimensions that have been popping up everywhere.

Each time they enter a fractured dimension, they have to destroy it to get home. The real question is, whose dimension is the real one? Should they be destroying millions of lives just to ensure their own survival? You’ll have to keep playing (and destroying) to figure out the answers to those questions. You will also have different episodes for your characters. You don’t have to do them, but it will increase your friendship with the others. Ludger has decisions to make too. These decisions also affect your affinity with the other characters. Along the way, you can also pick up side jobs and destroy bonus monsters. You can even unlock a poker game after completing one specific job. I highly recommend doing these to pay off your debt. Yes, you have a HUGE debt to pay off from the very beginning. 20,000,000 gald. I found that this was an interesting way to keep you from going to areas that you didn’t need to be in yet. As you pay off debt, your travel restrictions will slowly be lifted so that you can get to the areas you need to solve the mystery of the dimensions.

Tales of Xillia 2 is an RPG, so the difficulty can be as easy or as hard as you want. If you choose to run through as quickly as possible and skip all of the side stuff, you’ll eventually get to bosses that you can’t beat. The fact that you have to pay off your debt to travel more places helps keep you from getting too far, but you can definitely run across hard bosses. Ludger is anything but a normal human though. First, unlike your normal heroes, Ludger can shift between dual blades, a sledgehammer, and dual pistols. Each weapon has its own artes. That’s not extremely impressive, but it can be helpful. Second, Ludger can transform into an extremely powerful form, a Chromatus form, which just gets more powerful as you go. In this form, you can take down so many things single-handedly! I recommend learning to use it well on your hard bosses. I find that I don’t use it much in regular battles.

Allium Orbs are the next generation of the Lillium Orbs. They let your characters link among other things. Linking is always useful in battle! Your Allium Orb will also let you develop each character’s abilities by learning new artes and skills. They work differently from Lillium Orbs. Before, you just used your points to unlock things on the orb. Now, you have to equip Extractors and these Extractors will allow you to unlock new skills. Make sure to check your Allium Orb and change out the Extractors as needed.

If you’ve played any Tales of games, then you’ll be quite familiar with the controls. Your left stick moves and if you hold down (L2), it will let you free run. Otherwise, you will stay targeted on your enemies. (Square) is guard, while (X) is attack. (R1) is used to change targets and (O) is used to use an arte. Artes use both AC and TP, so watch your numbers. On free-roaming areas, (Square) brings up your map, which is very handy to keep from getting lost. You will see a yellow star on your destination to progress the story. These are the same as normal Tales of games. New things include switching weapons and Chromatus transformation. To cycle between your weapons, hold (L1) and press (R1) or (R2). Personally, I used the dual blades by default, but I found that the sledgehammer is great for breaking guarding and the pistols work well on flying creatures. To transform Ludger, press down on (R3) and (L3) at the same time. While you’re transformed, Ludger is the only one on screen attacking and you will only stay transformed until the Chromatus Gauge runs out. After that, Ludger goes back to normal. Also, you can have up to 4 players playing. The first one controlled will do all the exploring, but your friends can join in during the battles. Simply turn on the controllers and set a character to Manual control.

I absolutely love the Tales of games and I have since I first started playing them. Tales of Xillia was an excellent choice for a sequel. I love that you get to find out what happened to your characters after Tales of Xillia, but this second game really doesn’t have anything to do with the first one. It is simply set in the same places with the same characters, but the story is completely separate. This means that even if you haven’t played a Tales of game, and even if you haven’t played Tales of Xillia, you will still be able to fall in love with Tales of Xillia 2 without missing a thing. I highly recommend that you go pick Tales of Xillia 2 up today!