Tales of Xillia 2
By Michael Lafferty,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Complex but fun, action-packed RPG stresses player choice.
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Tales of Xillia 2
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What’s It About?
TALES OF XILLIA 2 is a fantasy role-playing game that features a variety of characters. The main protagonist is Ludger Kresnik, a seemingly ordinary man who has the ability to travel into and destroy fractured dimensions to keep the world in balance. He's coerced into debt to save a little girl, who accompanies him at times, and can use several characters from the previous games.
Is It Any Good?
Tales of Xillia 2 is a solid role-playing game that pays homage to the previous game (Tales of Xillia), offers a few new elements (side quests are easier to track), and has a deep customization system that allows players to create and prepare a character for battle in a manner they find appealing. The story is a bit mired in concepts that fly past in cut scenes and are intertwined with language that might be familiar to fans of the original but are like a foreign language to newcomers. The game's translation seems to have ended at the text; spoken elements, street signs, and so on are still in Japanese (this game released in Japan in November 2012).
But it's pretty easy to skip the hyperbole and get right to the meat of the game, which is combat. The combat is rich, with a linking system between two characters that can increase damage output and allow for some spectacular combinations and finishing moves. Some segments seem as if they go on and on (the train, for example), but the game does have a nice share of save points that allow players to reload, make a different decision, and see where the new path takes them. The graphics are anime but serviceable, the control scheme is easy to comprehend, and the game does have some nice twists and turns that keep players entertained and involved.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the consequences of decisions made or actions taken, as shown in Tales of Xillia 2. How do you weigh decisions from different angles before deciding what to do? Do you take time to think about the consequences before you make an important decision?
Talk about the separation of games and reality and why some of the topics depicted in Tales of Xillia 2 are inappropriate in the real world (such as violence or talking about female body parts).
Game Details
- Platform: PlayStation 3
- Pricing structure: Paid
- Available online?: Not available online
- Publisher: Namco Bandai
- Release date: August 19, 2014
- Genre: Action/Adventure
- Topics: Magic and Fantasy, Sports and Martial Arts, Adventures
- ESRB rating: T for Blood, Mild Language, Suggestive Themes, Use of Alcohol, and Violence
- Last updated: August 25, 2016
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