Throughout the story, several characters touch on this and its gruesome implications, but no one ever outright says it: You're committing genocide.
By destroying each new catalyst, I wiped out the entire timeline and everyone in it. This rings especially true with the game's flippant handling of alternate universes. Tales of Xillia 2 never really explores the consequences of the great weights it places on your shoulders. Instead, it was a shackle that kept me from moving on at my own pace and left me grinding for cash. The constant specter of the loan did nothing to enhance the story. It was simultaneously an act of mercy and a way to render everything I'd accomplished up to that point meaningless. How did I finish the game without clearing the debt? Tales of Xillia 2 automatically nixed what was left of what I owed as I neared its end-game. Even with my best efforts, I paid off little more than 3 million gald in-game. Desperation and boredom drove me to wile away my frustrations by fighting enemies wherever they were plentiful. I spent hours grinding on side-chapters and bounty quests, but even these became nail-bitingly tedious. It was like being stuck in a pay-to-play game with fake money.Īt a whopping 20 million gald (the game's currency), my debt was a behemoth that couldn't be casually chipped away at. Main-chapter stories were locked until I hit milestones in payments. Instead, focus is given front-and-center to the relationship between Ludger and Elle.īut for every right move Xillia 2 takes forward with its hands-on story, however, it loses ground with its pacing.Įarly in the game, I was saddled with a massive loan as part of the stupidest gate mechanic I've ever encountered in a JRPG. Tales of Xillia 2 makes no effort to develop these old characters outside of optional side-chapters.
TIME SINK MAC FULL
It never seemed as though I were playing anything new - largely because Ludger is joined by the entire gang of playable characters from Xillia 1, as well as two familiar faces that make their debut as full party members. I felt like I had little control over my characters or reasons to experiment with their skill sets, which gave me no reason to stray away from playing as Ludger. It sucked the fun out of gaining new levels. I would set each character with an orb and promptly forget.
TIME SINK MAC UPGRADE
The original Tales of Xillia's upgrade system allowed me to choose which abilities or attributes each character would learn next, but Xillia 2's progression is stunted due to the new "Allium Orb." The Allium Orb offers a pre-determined stash of skills to learn or improve on. It's the kind of easy, hands-on experience I appreciated from Xillia when it came to controlling my party - at least, in some aspects. The special mode is only available when playing as Ludger, but the game allows you to swap control between party members with a quick button press. Once full, I could slip into a special transformation and perform a bevy of cool new attacks. It runs based on a meter that steadily builds over time. With the Chromatus, I was able to push my battle prowess one step further. Once in a battle, I took control of one character and could perform different attacks and combos at a furious pace. Getting into a fight was always my choice, and the game's combat made it a pleasant one. Enemies appear in the game world rather than attacking randomly. Like the first Xillia, fights are real-time free-for-alls. That ability - called the Chromatus - is a fantastic addition to the game's battles. In its main story, Xillia 2 tasked me with eliminating "fractured dimensions" - basically alternate universes - to protect the integrity of the "prime dimension." Ludger has the ability to warp into these alternate worlds and destroy the source, effectively wiping out the other timeline and all its people. It's also the same world as the first game, so returning players will already be intimately familiar with most of the locales. The main story requires very little exploration. Building off a more linear structure than the first, Tales of Xillia 2 is split into several main chapters, with the option to occasionally branch off on character-driven side chapters. Hero Ludger Kresnik is sucked into a strange conflict by his brother's secrets and a chance meeting with a young girl named Elle. Where the first game felt fantasy-driven, with a story that revolved around spirits, Tales of Xillia 2 takes a decidedly more sci-fi approach: alternate universes.
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