Tales of Xillia

Tales of Xillia (Japanese: テイルズ オブ エクシリア, Hepburn: Teiruzu Obu Ekushiria) is a Japanese role-playing game for the PlayStation 3. It is the thirteenth core product of the Tales series and is developed by Namco Tales Studio with Namco Bandai Games as the publisher. The game was released in Japan on September 7, 2011 and was localized in North America and PAL region in August 2013. The game takes place in a fictional world called Rieze Maxia where humans and ethereal spirits live in harmony. It follows Jude Mathis and Milla Maxwell who elude government officials after sabotaging a weapon of mass destruction known as the Lance of Kresnik. The plot's central theme is Yuruginaki shinnen no RPG (揺るぎなき信念のRPG^?, lit. "RPG of Unwavering Convictions") .

Tales of Xillia's reception in Japan was highly positive. At the time of its release, it was the most preordered Tales game in the series and sold half a million copies in a week; the game also won awards from Sony and Famitsu. The English localization received positive reception for its battle system, neutral to positive reviews for its plot and characters, and criticism for the map designs. The sequel, Tales of Xillia 2, was released in November 2012 in Japan and in August 2014 in North America and PAL region.

Tales of Xillia 2

Tales of Xillia 2 (Japanese: テイルズ オブ エクシリア2, Hepburn: Teiruzu obu Ekushiria 2) is a Japanese role-playing game for the PlayStation 3 released on November 1, 2012 in Japan. It is the fourteenth core product in the Tales series and was developed and published by Bandai Namco Games. Versions of the game localized for North America and Europe were released in August 2014.

The game takes place after Tales of Xillia and follows Ludger Will Kresnik; the Kresnik family has the ability to infiltrate and destroy fractured dimensions. Since the spirit Origin is unable to support the abundance of souls, a famous company hires Ludger to destroy fractured dimensions to keep the world in balance. The game's central theme is Sentaku ga Mirai wo Tsumugu RPG (選択が未来を紡ぐRPG^?, lit. "An RPG where your choices spin the future") .

Gameplay

Tales of Xillia 2 consists primarily of two major areas: the field map and the battle screen. The field map is a realistically scaled 3D environment where the player character traverses and interacts with non-player characters, items, or mob avatars. On the field map, character interactions between the party can also be viewed in the form of a sketch story; these sketch stories are refereed to as skits and consist of animated portraits and voice acting. When coming into contact with a mob avatar, the environment switches to the battle screen, a 3D representation of an area in which the player commands the characters in battles against the CPU-controlled mobs.

Tales (series)

The Tales series, known in Japan as the Tales of series (「テイルズ オブ」シリーズ, "Teiruzu Obu" Shirīzu), is a franchise of fantasy Japanese role-playing video games published by Bandai Namco Entertainment (formerly Namco), and developed by its subsidiary, Namco Tales Studio until 2011 and presently by Bandai Namco. First begun in 1995 with the development and release of Tales of Phantasia for the Super Famicom, the series currently spans sixteen main titles, multiple spin-off games and supplementary media in the form of manga series, anime series, and audio dramas.

While entries in the series generally stand independent of each other with different characters and stories, they are commonly linked by their gameplay, themes and high fantasy settings. The series is characterized by its art style, which draws from Japanese manga and anime, and its action-based fighting system called the "Linear Motion Battle System". Multiple people have become linked with the series, including character designers Kōsuke Fujishima and Mutsumi Inomata, producers Hideo Baba and Makoto Yoshizumi, and composer Motoi Sakuraba. The series was created by Yoshiharu Gotanda.