is an

action role-playing game An action role-playing game (often abbreviated action RPG or ARPG) is a subgenre of video games that combines core elements from both the action game and role-playing genre. Definition The games emphasize real-time combat where the player h ...

released exclusively for the

PlayStation 3 The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. The successor to the PlayStation 2, it is part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. It was first released on Novemb ...

. It is the thirteenth main installment of the ''Tales'' series and is developed by

Namco Tales Studio , formerly known as , was a Japanese video game development company founded in 1986. The company was renamed in 2003 when Telenet Japan sold part of its stake and made Namco the majority shareholder. Namco Tales Studio was originally the primary d ...

with

Namco Bandai Games is a Japanese multinational video game publisher headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo. Its international branches, Bandai Namco Entertainment America and Bandai Namco Entertainment Europe, are respectively headquartered in Irvine, California and ...

as the publisher. The game was released in Japan on September 7, 2011, and was localized in North America and

PAL region The PAL region is a television publication territory that covers most of Europe and Africa, alongside parts of Asia, South America and Oceania. It is named PAL because of the PAL (Phase Alternating Line) television standard traditionally used in ...

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 . ''Tales of Xillia''s reception in Japan was highly positive. At the time of its release in Japan, it was the most preordered ''Tales'' game in the series and sold half a million copies in a week, before eventually shipping over copies worldwide. The game also won awards from

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...

and ''

Famitsu formerly ''Famicom Tsūshin'', is a line of Japanese video game magazines published by Kadokawa Game Linkage (previously known as Gzbrain), a subsidiary of Kadokawa. ''Famitsu'' is published in both weekly and monthly formats as well as in the fo ...

''. 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 is an action 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. The game was localized for North Americ ...

'', was released in November 2012 in Japan and in August 2014 in North America and PAL region.

Gameplay

''Tales of Xillia'' 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 A player character (also known as a playable character or PC) is a fictional character in a video game or tabletop role-playing game whose actions are controlled by a player rather than the rules of the game. The characters that are not control ...

traverses and interacts with

non-player character A non-player character (NPC), or non-playable character, is any character in a game that is not controlled by a player. The term originated in traditional tabletop role-playing games where it applies to characters controlled by the gamemaster o ...

s, items, or

mob Mob or MOB may refer to: Behavioral phenomena * Crowd * Smart mob, a temporary self-structuring social organization, coordinated through telecommunication Crime and law enforcement * American Mafia, also known as the Mob * Irish Mob, a US crimin ...

avatars Avatar (, ; ), is a concept within Hinduism that in Sanskrit literally means "descent". It signifies the material appearance or incarnation of a powerful deity, goddess or spirit on Earth. The relative verb to "alight, to make one's appearance ...

. On the field map, character interactions between the

party A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will often feature f ...

can also be viewed in the form of a

sketch story A sketch story, literary sketch or simply sketch, is a piece of writing that is generally shorter than a short story, and contains very little, if any, plot. The genre was invented after the 16th century in England, as a result of increasing publi ...

; these sketch stories are referred 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. During battle sequences, the game uses the ''Dual Raid Linear Motion Battle System'', a variation of the ''Linear Motion Battle'' used in the ''Tales'' series. Four characters from the party are chosen to battle and characters not controlled by a player are controlled by

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech re ...

with instructions set by the players beforehand. The enemy mob's number, appearances, behavior, vary and are dependent on the mob's avatar. Both sides' objective is to deplete the other side's

health points Health is an attribute in a video game or tabletop game that determines the maximum amount of damage or loss of stamina that a character or object can take before dying or losing consciousness. In role-playing games, this typically takes the for ...

(HP) using attacks and

skills A skill is the learned ability to act with determined results with good execution often within a given amount of time, energy, or both. Skills can often be divided into domain-general and domain-specific skills. For example, in the domain of wo ...

. When a party member's health falls to zero, the party member faints until revived with items, by a healer, or resting at an inn on the field map; Mobs with zero HP disappear from the arena. Killing all the mobs will yield

experience point An experience point (often abbreviated as exp or XP) is a unit of measurement used in some tabletop role-playing games (RPGs) and role-playing video games to quantify a player character's life experience and progression through the game. Experi ...

s, items, and allows the player to return to the field map. If all four participating party members are defeated, a game over will occur. Skill and

attribute Attribute may refer to: * Attribute (philosophy), an extrinsic property of an object * Attribute (research), a characteristic of an object * Grammatical modifier, in natural languages * Attribute (computing), a specification that defines a prope ...

development is based on a system of orbs placed on the nodes of a hexagonal web called the Lilium Orb. When characters level up, they receive GP which can then be allocated to the orbs on the web in a uni-linear path. Each orb activated contains either a new skill or an attribute upgrade. Battles take place in

real-time Real-time or real time describes various operations in computing or other processes that must guarantee response times within a specified time (deadline), usually a relatively short time. A real-time process is generally one that happens in defined ...

. Player actions include moving, dashing, standard attacks, and artes; artes are special attacks which consume "Technical Points" (TP), the in-game synonym for

magic point Magic or mana is an attribute assigned to characters within a role-playing or video game that indicates their power to use special magical abilities or "spells". Magic is usually measured in magic points or mana points, shortened as MP. Different ...

s. Dashing, standard attacks, and artes usage are also restricted by the "Assault Counter" (AC), a synonym for

action point ''Action Point'' is a 2018 American comedy film directed by Tim Kirkby and starring Johnny Knoxville and Chris Pontius, both of whom had worked together on '' Jackass''. Knoxville was inspired to make the film after seeing Matt Robertson's 20 ...

s.Tutorial speech balloon: "Your AC (Assault Counter) shows the number of consecutive attacks you can use. ..Artes consume both AC and TP (Technical Point) numbers. As long as you have AC and TP left, you can use attacks continuously." Party members are able to link to each other to perform unified attacks called linked artes. While linked, the supporting partner provides unique abilities to the character, while also increasing the Linked Artes Gauge. When the Linked Artes Gauge is full, the player character can enter Over Limit which gives them immunity to stagger, unlimited AC, and allows them to use linked artes in succession.Tutorial speech balloon: "Once you have filled all five segments of the Linked Artes Gauge, use a linked arte to go into Over Limit! While in Over Limit, your AC number will not drop and enemy attacks do no stagger you. What's more, you can use as many linked artes as you want!"

Plot

Two millennia ago, humans developed spyrix, a power source which absorbs spirits. In response, the spirit Maxwell gathered humans, who share a symbiotic relationship with spirits, onto an isolated land protected by a barrier; the isolated land became known as Rieze Maxia and the outer lands as Elympios. As spirits are needed to sustain nature, Maxwell waits for the day all humans on Elympios die off before dispelling the barrier.Maxwell: Two millennia ago, spyrix appeared in the world. Spirits Perished. Nature withered and died. Humans began following the path of annihilation. So I saved all the spirits and animals as I could, and I gathered humans born with the ability to produce mana. It was then I created Rieze Maxia and sealed them all inside it, to provide a haven from the spyrix. The world is an ark that must sail until Elympios falls. Twenty years prior to the present, an Elympion cruise ship becomes trapped in Rieze Maxia, eventually forming a terrorist group known as

Exodus Exodus or the Exodus may refer to: Religion * Book of Exodus, second book of the Hebrew Torah and the Christian Bible * The Exodus, the biblical story of the migration of the ancient Israelites from Egypt into Canaan Historical events * Ex ...

. Exodus works with the Elympios military to find a way to destroy the barrier. In the present era, Rieze Maxia is ruled by two countries called Rashugal and Auj Oule. While the two countries appear to live in harmony, they both initiate

black operations A black operation or black op is a covert or clandestine operation by a government agency, a military unit or a paramilitary organization; it can include activities by private companies or groups. Key features of a black operation are that it i ...

in attempts to conquer the other in hopes of uniting Rieze Maxia as a single country. In the present, medical student

Jude Mathis ''Tales of Xillia'' is a Japanese role-playing game released for the PlayStation 3 on September 7, 2011, in Japan. The game was localized in North America on August 6, 2013, and Europe on August 9, 2013. Its sequel ''Tales of Xillia 2'' was rele ...

investigates a military research facility in order to search for his missing professor. There he witnesses a spyrix-powered weapon called the Lance of Kresnik absorb his professor. The military prep Jude as the next victim, but he is saved by Milla Maxwell, Maxwell's successor. In response, the military activates the lance which absorbs Milla's spirit companions forcing her and Jude to retreat.Event List (Secret of the Research Center): "She discovers the Lance of Kresnik, but the girl they defeated before has set a trap for them. Milla loses The Four Great Spirits, but thanks to their quick thinking, Milla and Jude are unharmed. Milla and Jude are able to escape the research center" Jude and Milla decide to confront Rashugal's king who had endorsed the Lance's creation. During their travel, they are joined by

Alvin Alvin may refer to: Places Canada *Alvin, British Columbia United States *Alvin, Colorado *Alvin, Georgia *Alvin, Illinois * Alvin, Michigan *Alvin, Texas * Alvin, Wisconsin, a town *Alvin (community), Wisconsin, an unincorporated community Other ...

, Elize Lutus, Rowen J. Illbert and Leia Rolando. After Rashugal's king is defeated, Exodus obtains and uses the Lance to temporarily disable the barrier protecting Rieze Maxia, allowing Elympios' army to invade.Event List (Mounting Anxiety and The Mysterious Voice): "Through Milla's disclosure that Rieze Maxia is covered by a grand arte known as the schism, our heroes learn that these mysterious soldiers come from a separate world named Elympios." Assisted by Auj Oule's king,

Gaius Gaius, sometimes spelled ''Gajus'', Kaius, Cajus, Caius, was a common Latin praenomen; see Gaius (praenomen). People *Gaius (jurist) (), Roman jurist *Gaius Acilius *Gaius Antonius *Gaius Antonius Hybrida *Gaius Asinius Gallus *Gaius Asinius Pol ...

, the party defeats Exodus at the cost of Milla's life.Event List (An Intention): "Jude tries to stop Milla, who is hell-bent on using the Lance of Kresnik by herself. ..The Lance of Kresnik repeals the arte. Milla is killed in the collapse of the Zenethra." After mourning her death, Jude leads the party to meet Maxwell and attempts to persuade him to dispel the barrier and save Elympios.Event List (Freedom of Choose): "The party meets the real Maxwell at last on the Temporal Crossroads, the space that connects the human world to the spirit realm. Jude tells Maxwell that the schism should be destroyed. At this, Maxwell flies into a rage, believing that Jude is a traitor who would destroy Rieze Maxia." Reunited with Milla, who has been reborn as a spirit, they convince Maxwell of their cause. However, Gaius and the spirit named Muzét seal Maxwell within the Lance of Kresnik, intent on sustaining the barrier until all spyrixs are destroyed; Maxwell sends the party to Elympios before he is completely subdued.Event List (Freedom of Choose): "Maxwell promises to dispel the schism, but he is prevented by Gaius and Muzét. With the help of Maxwell, our heroes are spirited away to Elympios to recoup and find time to retaliate against Gaius and Muzét." There, the party learns about Elympios' dependence on spyrix and an ongoing research on spyrite, a power source harmless to spirits.Event List (New Possibilities): "Our heroes learn about spyrite from the rescued Balan. It may be possible to control the spyrite and save both worlds." With renewed conviction, the party confronts and defeats Gaius and Muzét. Maxwell dispels the barrier and disperses its energy to temporarily power spyrixes until the completion of spyrites. The party returns to their daily lives with Jude joining a spyrite research team, Milla resuming her role as Maxwell, and Gaius uniting Rieze Maxia under his rule.

Development and release

The game began development after ''

Tales of Hearts is an action role-playing game released for the Nintendo DS in Japan and the PlayStation Vita worldwide. It is the eleventh main entry in the ''Tales'' series, developed by Namco Tales Studio and published by Bandai Namco Games. The Japan-ex ...

'' was completed. A ''Tales'' game for the

was announced on July 28, 2010's ''

Weekly Shonen Jump Weekly, The Weekly, or variations, may refer to: News media * ''Weekly'' (news magazine), an English-language national news magazine published in Mauritius *Weekly newspaper, any newspaper published on a weekly schedule *Alternative newspaper, als ...

'' and officially announced by

on August 2, 2010; On December 15, 2010 ''Tales of Xillia'' was unveiled in ''Weekly Shonen Jump'' and its official website was launched. Its staff, battle system and two main characters were revealed along with the game's main theme, . Between January and March 2011, Namco released information about the other four playable characters. In May the game's release date, a ''Xillia'' themed PS3, and the game's theme song, "

Progress Progress is the movement towards a refined, improved, or otherwise desired state. In the context of progressivism, it refers to the proposition that advancements in technology, science, and social organization have resulted, and by extension wi ...

" by

Ayumi Hamasaki is a Japanese singer, songwriter, record producer, actress, model, spokesperson, and entrepreneur. By 2002, Hamasaki had earned the nickname "Empress of J-pop" due to her popularity in Japan and throughout Asia. Due to her success and relevanc ...

were revealed, with the Japanese vocals being retained in the Western release. Before the game's release, a Korean game guide of the game was leaked onto the internet forcing Namco to issue a response. Due to time constraints, some planned features were excluded such as an

onsen In Japan, are the country's hot springs and the bathing facilities and traditional inns around them. As a volcanically active country, Japan has many onsens scattered throughout all of its major islands. There are approximately 25,000 hot ...

scene and having Gaius or Muzét as playable characters. The game was released on September 8, 2011, and was made available on the Japanese

PlayStation Store The PlayStation Store (PS Store) is a digital media store available to users of Sony's PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 game consoles via the PlayStation Network. The store offers a range of downloadable content ...

a year later. The game was re-released under PlayStation 3 The Best label on October 9, 2014. In March 2012, ''Tales of Xillia'' was trademarked in Europe and North America. A

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

localization was officially announced by Namco Bandai Games Europe on July 6, 2012, through

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

. On November 5, 2012, Ted Tsung, the North American producer for ''Tales of Xillia'', announced the completion of the English voice recordings. On the same day, Europe's localization was announced to have subtitles in English, French, Spanish, German, and Italian. In April 2013, Namco announced the game would be released in August for North America and

; also announced was the

collector's edition The terms special edition, limited edition, and variants such as deluxe edition, or collector's edition, are used as a marketing incentive for various kinds of products, originally published products related to the arts, such as books, prints, r ...

of the game. In North America, the first print of the game were released as a limited edition bundle. The game was translated by

8-4 is a Japanese video game localization company based in Shibuya, Tokyo. The company was founded in 2005 by Hiroko Minamoto and former ''Electronic Gaming Monthly'' (''EGM'') editor John Ricciardi. They were joined by Ricciardi's EGM colleague Mar ...

and dubbed by Cup of Tea Productions.Ending Credits

Downloadable content

''Tales of Xillia'' had several

downloadable content Downloadable content (DLC) is additional content created for an already released video game, distributed through the Internet by the game's publisher. It can either be added for no extra cost or it can be a form of video game monetization, enablin ...

(DLC) which changed a character's appearance or provided in-game bonuses such as items, currency, or levels. The majority of the DLC were released weekly between September 8 until October 6, 2011 on the PlayStation Store. Costumes were themed and released in sets; in order of release the sets were, ''

Star Driver ''Star Driver'' also known as is a Japanese anime television series created and animated by Bones. It was broadcast for twenty-five episodes on MBS and TBS from October 2010 to April 2011. The anime was licensed in North America by Aniplex ...

'', ''

The Idolmaster 2 is a Japanese raising simulation video game in ''The Idolmaster'' series developed and published by Bandai Namco Games. It was originally released on February 24, 2011, for the Xbox 360 in Japan, and later for the PlayStation 3 on October 27, 20 ...

'', swimwear, steward and maid, school, and ''Tales'' series. Accompanying these costume releases were hair styles, accessories, palette swaps, and in-game bonuses DLC. Two DLC codes were bundled with physical releases: Ayumi Hamasaki's album ''

Five 5 is a number, numeral, and glyph. 5, five or number 5 may also refer to: * AD 5, the fifth year of the AD era * 5 BC, the fifth year before the AD era Literature * ''5'' (visual novel), a 2008 visual novel by Ram * ''5'' (comics), an awa ...

'' contains Milla's songstress costume; the first print of the game contains a ''

Tales of Phantasia is an action role-playing game originally developed by Wolf Team. It is the first title in Namco's ''Tales (video game series), Tales'' series. Initially released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Super Famicom in December 1995, it was ...

'' outfit for Jude and a '' Tales of Destiny'' outfit for Milla. The final DLC was the

Santa Claus Santa Claus, also known as Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas, Saint Nick, Kris Kringle, or simply Santa, is a Legend, legendary figure originating in Western Christianity, Western Christian culture who is said to Christmas gift-bringer, bring ...

costume set and was released on the PlayStation Store on December 1, 2011. In the English localization, the ''Tales of Phantasia'' and ''Tales of Destiny'' costumes were given with preorders of the collector's edition; North America's Limited Edition and the PAL region's day one edition also contained the codes. Excluding ''Star Driver'', the Japanese PlayStation Store's contents were released bi-weekly for North America and PAL region between August 6 and September 3, 2013. The final DLC, the Santa Claus costume set, was released on November 26, 2013.

Media adaptions

Manga

''Tales of Xillia'' spawned four

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

adaptions: two

anthology In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs or excerpts by different authors. In genre fiction, the term ''anthology'' typically categ ...

collections and two traditional manga series.

Ichijinsha is a Japanese publishing company focused on manga-related publication, including magazines and books. The company was first established in August 1992 as a limited company under the name Studio DNA whose main purpose was to edit shōnen manga. ...

were the publishers for the anthology collections. The first anthology collection is . Its two volumes were released on November 25, 2011, and February 25, 2012. The second anthology collection is . Its three volumes were released between December 24, 2011, and July 25, 2012. The two traditional manga series are by

ASCII Media Works ASCII ( ), abbreviated from American Standard Code for Information Interchange, is a character encoding standard for electronic communication. ASCII codes represent text in computers, telecommunications equipment, and other devices. Because of ...

and by

Media Factory , formerly is a Japanese publisher and brand company of Kadokawa Future Publishing. History It was founded on December 1, 1986, and its headquarters are situated in Shibuya, Tokyo. It is a subsidiary of Recruit Co., Ltd. Media Factory was possi ...

; they are adaptions of the game's storyline and follows one of the two protagonists. The Jude manga has four volumes released between February 2012 and March 2013, while the Milla manga has five volumes between February 2012 and October 2013.

Books

Shueisha (lit. "Gathering of Intellect Publishing Co., Ltd.") is a Japanese company headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The company was established in 1925 as the entertainment-related publishing division of Japanese publisher Shogakukan. The foll ...

, Yamashita Books, and Enterbrain each published a strategy guide for the game. ''Tales of Xillia'' was adapted into a novel series under the same name. It is published by ASCII Media Works and three volumes were released between November 10, 2011, and March 10, 2012. A play diary by ''

'' was published by

Enterbrain , formerly , is a Japanese publisher and division of Kadokawa Future Publishing founded on 30 January 1987 as . Magazines published by Enterbrain are generally focused on video games and computer entertainment as well as video game and strategy ...

on December 8, 2011. is a book by the game's character designers and was released on December 27, 2011, by

. It provides details on the characters' back story and how their design came to be. On the same day, was released by Yamashita Books and expands on ''Tales of Xillia''s lore.

Audio CDs

Five

drama CDs Radio drama (or audio drama, audio play, radio play, radio theatre, or audio theatre) is a dramatized, purely acoustic performance. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine t ...

based on the game's plot were produced by

Frontier Works is a Japanese company specializing in the creation and distribution of media related to anime, such as producing OVAs, radio dramas, drama CDs, anime soundtracks, or other related products. The company was established in August 1990. Projects ...

. volumes 1 and 2 were released on May 23 and June 20, 2012. volumes 1 and 2 were released on September 26 and October 24, 2012. was released on January 26, 2013, in a regular and limited edition. It contains a cameo from ''Tales of Xillia 2''s Ludger Will Kresnik and Elle Mel Marta. soundtrack was released by

Avex Group is a Japanese entertainment conglomerate led by founder Max Matsuura and headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. Founded in 1988, the company manages J-pop talents like Ayumi Hamasaki and internet sensation PikoTaro. It has also shifted into other busi ...

on September 7, 2011, in a regular and limited edition; it peaked 31st on

Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan and Western music. It started as, which was founded by Sōkō Koike in Nov ...

's charts.

Reception

At the time of its release in Japan, ''Tales of Xillia'' was the most preordered ''Tales'' game in the series and sold half a million copies in a week. In North America, ''Tales of Xillia'' was one of the top selling games on the

PlayStation Network PlayStation Network (PSN) is a digital media entertainment service provided by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Launched in November 2006, PSN was originally conceived for the PlayStation video game consoles, but soon extended to encompass smartp ...

in August 2013. , the game has shipped over copies worldwide. The game was re-released in Japan under the PlayStation 3 The Best label in 2014. Due to the amount of sales, Sony awarded ''Tales of Xillia'' the Gold Prize during the PlayStation Awards; the game also received the User's Choice award from the PlayStation Awards online poll. ''

''s review of the game was highly positive; they praised the game for its attentive visuals, accessibility, and fast battle system. In the "

Newtype is a monthly magazine publication originating from Japan, covering anime (and to a lesser extent, tokusatsu, manga, Japanese science fiction, seiyuu, and video games). It was launched by publishing company Kadokawa Shoten on March 8, 1985, with i ...

Anime Awards" from 2011, ''Xillia'' won the "Game Opening Animation" award. The English localized version of the game was also a nominee for the

Satellite Award for Outstanding Role Playing Game The Satellite Award for Outstanding Role Playing Game is an annual award given by the International Press Academy The International Press Academy (IPA) is an American association of professional entertainment journalists, representing both domest ...

in 2013. All English reviewers agreed the battle system was fast and engaging; however, ''

Electronic Gaming Monthly ''Electronic Gaming Monthly'' (often abbreviated to ''EGM'') is a monthly American video game magazine. It offers video game news, coverage of industry events, interviews with gaming figures, editorial content and product reviews. History The m ...

'',

Game Informer ''Game Informer'' (''GI'', most often stylized ''gameinformer'' from the 2010s onward) is an American monthly video game magazine featuring articles, news, strategy, and reviews of video games and associated consoles. It debuted in August 1991 w ...

GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. In addition ...

, and '' PlayStation Official Magazine'' panned the map designs calling them repetitive, lifeless and bland. The plot received neutral to positive reception.

Game Revolution ''GameRevolution'' (formerly ''Game-Revolution'') is a gaming website created in 1996. Based in Berkeley, California, the site includes reviews, previews, a gaming download area, cheats, and a merchandise store, as well as webcomics, screenshots ...

wrote "There's a pleasing inertia to the way plotlines form, unfold, and reach a conclusion that propels our heroes ever-forward, never stopping long enough to feel meandering but never feeling rushed or forced either.", praising the narrative to be one of the qualities to the game. Game Informer described the plot as "investing" and liked the balance in tragic and lighthearted moments. Joystiq lauded the execution of the plot for avoiding the usual JRPG "info dumps" and how small plot-lines intertwined into a larger conflict. ''PlayStation Official Magazine'' considered the plot as average and called it a let-down compared to the combat system. Reviewers have also noted the dual-protagonist execution caused incoherency in Milla's story. Reviewers had mixed opinions on the characters. Generally, reviewers liked the character interactions.

IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...

praised the diverse characters but panned Milla's English voice acting.

felt the characters were relatable and agreed with IGN about Milla's voice noting it sounded robotic and forced. ''Electronic Gaming Monthly'' described the characters as rather normal and competent compared to the previous ''Tales'' games, adding that they could imagine the cast having lives and dreams outside of the party's journey. ''

Edge Edge or EDGE may refer to: Technology Computing * Edge computing, a network load-balancing system * Edge device, an entry point to a computer network * Adobe Edge, a graphical development application * Microsoft Edge, a web browser developed by ...

'' described the character interactions as engaging, well written, and praised how the characters avoided the cliché found in manga and anime. Oppositely, ''PlayStation Official Magazine'' felt the characters "fall into the familiar anime archtypes" and that "flat voice acting and a melodramatic script" made it difficult to feel invested in the cast; Polygon agreed about the character archetypes and called it a lazy strategy used to make the characters understandable.

Notes and references

Notes

References

Primary references

External links

Official United Kingdom website

Official Japanese website
{{Ufotable 2011 video games Cooperative video games Dengeki Bunko Multiplayer and single-player video games Action role-playing video games PlayStation 3-only games Xillia, Tales of Terrorism in fiction Video games with cel-shaded animation Video games scored by Motoi Sakuraba Video games developed in Japan Video games featuring female protagonists Video games with downloadable content PlayStation 3 games Video games related to anime and manga