#Tales of xillia 2 weapons ps3#

You can swap between three weapon types on the fly and later in the game transform into a Chromatus spirit form. Here you can link to other characters to unlock new combined attacks, gain affinity bonuses, equip different skills, level up your abilities, select different Arte types by gathering energy in different elemental fields and more. Played out in real time, and heavily focused on special attacks known as Artes, it's a tweaked version of the system from the previous game, which in itself was an evolution of the combat that has run throughout the series. Those coming to the game with prior Tales experience will certainly be better placed to make the most of the rich but often overwhelming combat system. It's technically possible to play it without knowledge of that game - there's a glossary to get you up to speed - but it's really a game for people who know their Dr Mathis from their Rowen. It picks up a lot of threads from the first Tales of Xillia, with several key returning characters.

#Tales of xillia 2 weapons ps3#

DLC from the first game works in this sequel, and if you've got other Tales save files on your PS3 you'll unlock some cute bonus items. True to form, the story veers from po-faced drama to goofy slapstick, often in the same scene, so the fact that none of the characters feel out of place is worthy of praise. The characters skirt close to cliché at times, particularly where the female companions are concerned, but each is memorable and fun to be around. The English language translation is excellent, as you'd expect from the Tales series, and the voice acting is also top notch. Yes, there are the expected flourishes of supernatural power, cartoonish monsters and wide-eyed girls with cute animal sidekicks, but there's an underlying humanity to Ludger's plight that really stands out. Rather than being some amnesiac waif searching for his cosmic destiny, you're a hapless guy paying for someone else's misdeeds and squeezed by a soulless corporation. And, to begin with, Ludger's debt does put a genuinely fresh spin on things.

It's a stultifying opening even by the heavy-handed standards of Japanese RPGs, so the prospect of anything new at the end of that chore feels like a breath of fresh air. And yet you chug through them over and over, like Groundhog Day with extravagant anime hairstyles. It's just a shame that it does so in such stodgy fashion. The game uses these skirmishes to rather laboriously detail its Cross Dual Raid Linear Motion Battle System, which is as complex as it sounds. Set almost entirely on a train, it finds you jogging down carriages and engaging in battles against enemy soldiers at the end of each one. To be fair, in gameplay terms, that opening sequence is a massive speed bump. Subtext and depth, and the game hadn't even properly begun! Ludger can swap between blades, pistols and a sledgehammer for your combat needs, depending on the situation. Here was a concept that echoed the financial reality of the world - relevant when the game originally launched in Japan in 2012, and arguably even more relevant today - and also added additional jabs at privatised healthcare and unscrupulous lending. When this bombshell is dropped after the introductory sequence, I was honestly thrilled. Despite trying to prevent the atrocity, Ludger is stung with a 20 million bill for his medical care, and then forced to pay it off while tracking his fugitive brother down. Your lead character, Ludger Kresnik, is in hock to the Spirius Corporation following a devastating terrorist attack apparently carried out by his own brother, an elite Spirius agent. Sadly, for all its conceptual brilliance, it's also one of several factors that make this a slightly disappointing entry in the Tales series. It's one of the most intriguing ideas I've seen in a game of this genre. It's something that presents an entirely new spin on the familiar structure of a Japanese role-playing game, and it even has an allegorical relevance to the real world.

Tales of Xillia 2 has one brilliant idea.