Tales of Xillia

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"Even if you present them with a more noble way, humans won't change. I've been watching them for two thousand years."

Namco Bandai's latest entry in the Tales (series), released in Japan for the Play Station 3 on the 8th of September 2011. It currently holds the record for the fastest-selling Tales (series) title and the second fastest-selling Play Station 3 title with approximately 525,605 copies sold in the first week.

In the world of Liese Maxia, humans and monsters co-exist with the Spirits, who grant their power to humans in exchange for protection. The most basic form of this is the ability to channel mana as Spirit Power, which can be used to power everything from street lamps to magical spells. Two countries vie for supremacy of Liese Maxia: La Schugall, an empire whose extensive use of Spirit Power has granted it incredible prosperity; and A Jule, a developing country whose power comes from the control of monsters.

Jude Mathis is a bright young medical student studying in the capital of La Schugall. When a large number of patients are suddenly admitted to his hospital, he investigates the cause and encounters a mysterious woman called Milla Maxwell. Milla claims to be "Maxwell", the legendary leader of the Spirits, and has come to investigate a recent wave of spirit deaths within La Schugall. Together, she and Jude discover a horrific secret lurking in the heart of La Schugall, and are soon forced to flee from the military.

Other characters include Alvin, a smooth-talking mercenary with a secret agenda; Leia Rolando, Jude's childhood friend and trainee nurse; Elise Lutus, a timid but gifted Spirit Summoner who speaks through her doll Tipo; and Rowen J. Ilbert, the dedicated butler of a respected noble family within La Schugall.

The battle system is a fusion of the Destiny (Capacity Points) and Symphonia (TP) styles featured in previous Tales games, allowing for constant combos as long as "Assault Counter" points remain. The most notable addition is "Link Mode", which allows two characters to coordinate their actions far more closely, protecting each other, attacking together and executing powerful tag team attacks called Resonance Artes. The Skit System from previous Tales games has also been expanded, now including more inter-party banter during battles and casual dialogue while wandering through the overworld.

You can check out a subbed story trailer here, a gameplay trailer here and the first commercial here.

Recently it has been announced that a direct sequel to the game will be released sometime in the near future.

Recognize the style of the anime scenes? That's Ufotable!

Tropes used in Tales of Xillia include:

• Aborted Arc: Act 4 ends when Gaius hands Jude the key to the final dungeon and says "see you there," immediately ending the group's journey in Elympeos and leaving the rest of that storyline (The Elseworld Energy Project, human experimentation, etc.) to voiced-over sub-events.
• Action Girl: Milla and Leia.
• Always with You: It is hinted in the ending for Jude's side, that even though Milla now lives in the spirit world as the new Maxwell, she still watches over him and presumably, their friends.
• Amplifier Artifact: Boosters. They work by forcefully extracting more Mana from a person's Gate than is normal (or healthy), thus allowing the user to cast more powerful Spirit Artes. The drawback is that it shortens the user's lifespan.
• Anime Theme Song: progress by the queen of J-pop, Ayumi Hamasaki.
• Another Side, Another Story/Perspective Flip: The game allows you to choose either Jude or Milla at the beginning of the game as the "main character". Whoever you choose will get more scenes, their own set of Battle Theme Music, and you get to see their version of events when the party splits up. While Jude is a more traditional Audience Surrogate whose scenes focus on Character Development, Milla is more involved in the events of the plot.
• Badass: Jude, Milla, Alvin, Gaius.
• Badass Grandpa: For the first time in Tales history, a 60+ yr old butler joins the fray of playable characters. Bringing the roster to six, enter; Rowen J. Ilbert
• Bittersweet Ending: The two worlds are saved, the well-intentioned antagonists are redeemed, and Jude and Milla finally admit their feelings to one another. However, Milla turns down the opportunity to be reborn as a human and live Happily Ever After with Jude, as she feels it is her responsibility to stay in the Spirit World as the new Lord of Spirits.
• Black Magic: Jin machines. Unlike Spirit Power, which essentially recycles the mana used, Jin burns up the mana completely and risks depleting the finite mana supply of the world. The most dangerous Jin machines (such as the Spear of Kresnik) even suck up the mana from every living thing around them (including Spirits) to power themselves.
• Boy Meets Girl
• Brought Down to Normal: Milla loses her elemental abilities early into the plot.
• Call Back: At one point in the story, very badly-drawn wanted posters are put up for Jude and Milla.
• The Cameo: The pre-order costume for the game features Jude as Cless and Milla as Stahn. Also, the already announced DLC costumes are from Star Driver.
• Cast From HP: The Kresnik Spear seems to be the most horrific version of this. It sucks out the life energy of everyone around it so it can fire a Wave Motion Gun. Worse, Nachtigal is experimenting on his own people to improve the process.
• Chekhov's Gun: There are quite a few events that foreshadow the development of Origin technology. When Jude and Milla search for a Spirit Fossil to power the device that will allow Milla to regain the use of her legs, they are carrying out the exact steps needed to make an Origin device.
• Combat Medic: Jude, intentionally, but his small pool of healing moves makes his status as one disputable. Leia, on the other hand, is a true qualifier.
• Combination Attack: Link Artes. Several between characters, depending if they have the artes that complement each other.
• Did Not Get the Girl: In the end, much to the sadness of both Jude and Milla, they cannot stay together.This is also the case with Alvin and Presa.
• Doppleganger Attack: The Golden Swordsman in Tales of Xillia does this once after you run down his HP for the first time, then again once you run down the HP of him and his clone, resulting in three clones. Something of an odd case, as the duplicates possess distinct fighting styles based off of those of your party members, and are just as powerful as the original.
• Dual Boss: The Final Boss.
• Duel Boss: Jude versus Alvin.
• Epilogue Letter: During the ending, the characters tell their current condition after the final battle by writing letters to each other, with the exception of Milla, of course.
• Expy: If you're sensing something very Yuri-ish about Jude then, trust us, you're not the only one.
  • To put it simply, Yuri and Asbel's bastard child.
  • Shinn Asuka moreso Shinn.
  • There's a character in the third PV who looks more like a palette swap of Emeraude from Tales of Graces.
  • The first boss seems very reminiscent of Zagi. Even her theme music sounds similar...
  • Alvin is basically Sosuke Aizen playing the part of Kratos and everything that implies.
  • Ivar looks like Haseo in skin color, hair color and face a bit.
• The Fellowship Has Ended: Each of the party members went on their separate way after the ending, though they still keep in touch with one another.
• Fighting Your Friend: Jude versus Alvin.
• Five-Man Band: The game generally jumbles this all around, with Jude or Milla sharing the spotlight most of the time depending on who you're playing as. Generally, they fit under:
  • The Hero: Jude/Milla
  • The Lancer: Alvin
  • The Smart Guy: Jude/Rowen
  • The Big Guy: Alvin/Milla/Leia
  • The Chick: Leia/Elise
  • Sixth Ranger Traitor: Alvin
• Gotterdammerung: Maxwell's creation of Liese Maxia was this for Elympeos, effectively leaving them with no alternatives to Jin for basic necessities where once they could rely on help from Spirit Arte users. But then, in the ending, the Shell falls and The Magic Comes Back.
• Good Old Fisticuffs: Jude's Weapon of Choice.
• Green-Eyed Monster / Fatal Flaw: Ivar becomes increasingly jealous of Jude, a flaw that continually bites him (and, eventually, the entire world) in the arse.
• Handshake Substitute: Alvin and Leia do a complicated one.
• Heroes Prefer Swords: Averted. Jude fights with his fists, just like Senel. Played straight with Milla however.
• Heroic BSOD: A Tales game wouldn't let its protagonist get away without having one.
• Holding Hands/Intertwined Fingers: Jude and Milla in the ending. It's a Tear Jerker as this is before they have to say goodbye because of Milla becoming the goddess of Liese Maxia
• Kid Hero: At 15, Jude is one of the younger protagonists that the Tales series has seen along with Kyle and Ruca; the standard hero age seems to be 17.
  • Inversely, Rowen is the oldest playable character who isn't Really Seven Hundred Years Old in the main series, having 62 years of age.
• Limit Break: The fan favorite attacks return once again; introduced via full-body cut-ins (ala Tales of Graces).
• Magic Knight: Milla is what happens when a Magic Knight is designed to excel in both swordplay and magic without Competitive Balance holding them back. The only thing stopping her from becoming a One Woman Party is her lack of a self-healing ability.
  • Rowen is also a Magic Knight, though on the sliding slide of magic versus melee, he skews closer to the former.
• Magitech: All technology in Liese Maxia can be explained as applied Spirit Artes. Jin is a more nefarious example. Origin, which is developed during the events of the game, is basically Jin without its one glaring drawback.
• Megaton Punch: Milla can smash people around with giant summoned fists made of stone.
• Milestone Celebration: The game is produced in celebration of Tales series 15th anniversary (which was in 2010).
• Multicolored Hair: Milla's hair is red, blonde and green.
  • With something sorta blueish at the end of the green. Now remember who she claims she is and which Spirits that would entail ruling over.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Alvin, after accidentally shooting Leia.
• Names to Know in Anime
  • Saori Hayami: Leia Rolando
  • Haruna Ikezawa: Tipo
  • Mugihito: Rowen J. Ilbert
  • Hochu Otsuka: Nachtigal I. Fan
  • Maaya Sakamoto: Agria
  • Miyuki Sawashiro: Milla Maxwell
  • Tomokazu Sugita: Alvin
  • Tsubasa Yonaga: Jude Mathis
  • Showtaro Morikubo: Ivar
• Official Couple: Jude and Milla, natch.
• One-Scene Wonder: Tales veteran Soichiro Hoshi as an Asbel expy... whose only real purpose is to make one empowering speech before handing the B-plot off to his younger sister.
• Plucky Comic Relief: Ivar, he's hyper, he moves like cartoon characters and has comical SFX going in for him.
  • Deconstructed: As the goofiest character, he's the least likely to be taken seriously, even when he needs it.
    • The Scrappy / Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Ivar is also a deconstruction of these tropes. After Milla begins traveling with Jude, he becomes bitterly jealous and tries to prove his worth in increasingly ridiculous ways that just exasperate the heroes. It gets to the point that Milla even facepalms at the sight of him. He's so desperate for her approval that in his bid to rescue himself from the heap, he goes to activate the Spear of Kresnik, thinking it will free the spirits and regain her trust, when in fact it plays right into Jiland's hands. To the kid's credit, he does mature a bit and take a decent level in badass in the aftermath.
• Say My Name: By the boatloads.
• Scenery Porn: The game is really beautiful, whether it's the anime cutscenes or in game scenes. Then again, the anime cutscenes were produced by ufotable.
• Tearful Smile: Milla in the ending.
• True Companions: The main characters.
• Wave Motion Gun: The Spear of Kresnik. Except it's not the type that blows stuff up.
• Wham! Episode: The start of Act 3: "It wasn't a weapon."
• What the Hell, Hero?: Deconstructed. Alvin's attempts to snap Jude out of his Heroic BSOD lead to him almost killing Leia.
• Wholesome Crossdresser: Milla's Stahn and Dhaos costumes.