[PS3]Tales of Xillia - Tales' Next Flagship Series

[KLevin26]

For weeks, Namco's been throwing around what the next game should be. That soon will change, as V Jump has revealed that the game for the PS3 is Tales of Xillia.

Namco Bandai is all set to unveil the new PlayStation 3 Tales game later today, but Weekly Jump has the scoop. As many have speculated based off trademark filings, the new game is "Tales of Xillia," and it's set for release in 2011.

The big feature for Xillia is that it has two main characters, a first for the series. The male main character is Shuto Matis (voiced by Tsubasa Yonaga). The female main character is Mira Maxwell (voiced by Miyuki Sawashiro).

Only a few details on these characters are revealed in the magazine. Shuto attends a medical school in the royal city and is an excellent student who gets things done. Mira is a master of spirits which control the four elements (earth, water, fire and wind).

These two characters were designed by two different veteran Tales series character designers. Shuto comes from Kosuke Fujishima. Mira comes from Mutsumi Inomata.

Also of note in Jump's first look is word that the game's theme song will be performed by Ayumi Hamasaki.

The new game was first announced back in August as just "Next Tales of." Namco Bandai currently has a countdown running for the game's full unveil. This will reach zero later today.

Prior to the Jump reveal, our only look at the game game through some concept art, which you can see below. The Tales team also shared some details in an August interview.

[Rhodes]

Probably wont see the light of day outside of Japan.

[KLevin26]

Maybe. Though, XSEED may look into this. Afterall they WERE looking to do Tales games. So, I wouldn't say that just yet.

IMO you really don't know that for sure. Because gamers said that Abyss wouldn't reach the U.S, yet it did. Vesperia too, Symphonia as well.

[Ryos]

Maybe. Though, XSEED may look into this. Afterall they WERE looking to do Tales games. So, I wouldn't say that just yet.

IMO you really don't know that for sure. Because gamers said that Abyss wouldn't reach the U.S, yet it did. Vesperia too, Symphonia as well.

The only way this is coming here is if Bamco does it. Though Bamco was picky on what titles they bring over, now they've deemed us irrelevant for JRPGs. You can wait for a domestic release, but you will be waiting for Godot.

[Johnny]

I'm really looking forward to this. Vesperia on 360 and Graces on Wii were day one for me and I loved them, so this will inevitably be the same.

[Senku]

XSEED needs to send pod people (that they can control) over to the Namdai office; and replace the entire staff.

Only then would we see this game come out here anywhere close to the JP release date.

[TheGreenMan]

Probably wont see the light of day outside of Japan.

*Is still pissed at Tales of Graces not coming to the U.S.*

[HitokiriShadow]

Siliconera article has a trailer (http://www.siliconera.com/2010/12/15/tales-of-xillia-has-double-the-protagonists/)

The two lead approach is interesting, particularly that they were designed by different people. Mira looks fantastic and being voiced by Sawashiro Miyuki is a nice plus too. Male lead.... is a male lead. Looks okay, I guess, but he's certainly not very distinctive.

I'm very pleased to see this will be on the PS3, and it looks gorgeous. Can't wait for Bandai to release it in the.... oh, right. Odds of this getting released in the U.S. seem pretty slim unless Bandai lets someone else do it. Well, unless someone announces plans for a U.S. release before it gets released in Japan, I'll be importing the JP release and hopefully someday I'll understand enough Japanese to actually play it.

[TheGreenMan]

Siliconera article has a trailer (http://www.siliconera.com/2010/12/15/tales-of-xillia-has-double-the-protagonists/)

The two lead approach is interesting, particularly that they were designed by different people. Mira looks fantastic and being voiced by Sawashiro Miyuki is a nice plus too. Male lead.... is a male lead. Looks okay, I guess, but he's certainly not very distinctive.

I'm very pleased to see this will be on the PS3, and it looks gorgeous. Can't wait for Bandai to release it in the.... oh, right. Odds of this getting released in the U.S. seem pretty slim unless Bandai lets someone else do it. Well, unless someone announces plans for a U.S. release before it gets released in Japan, I'll be importing the JP release and hopefully someday I'll understand enough Japanese to actually play it.

OMG! A Tales game with two leads? Every Tales game has two leads...a male and a female.

The female lead is VERY hot.

[broodwars]

I'm not going to allow myself to be excited by this announcement until the game gets announced for the US. I'll keep an eye on the weather Forecast for Hell.

[Zeether]

I'm not going to allow myself to be excited by this announcement until the game gets announced for the US. I'll keep an eye on the weather Forecast for Hell.
Ditto to that and Graces, mostly because I want the Wii version and I am not going to go so far as to resort to exploits to play an import copy.

[HitokiriShadow]

OMG! A Tales game with two leads? Every Tales game has two leads...a male and a female.

Yes and no. The male is always the main player character, the one who's eyes you see the story through and the one the player is expected to primarily identify with (hence why you start off controlling them and whenever the party splits up, you control the one he's in). There's a co-lead/female lead who is usually the most plot significant character other than the lead, sometimes moreso (Colette being a prime example), but they aren't the "main" or "lead" character in the sense that the story is being told through their eyes. This is the way most RPGs work. The only exceptions I can think of to this are Final Fantasy XIII (Lighting is the covergirl, but there's really no "main character") and Mana Khemia 2.

Now that I think about it, that's probably the case here too. I was thinking they were suggesting the game would be told equally (more or less) through both character's eyes, with both being the primary player characters and told from alternating perspectives for good chunks of the game. I may have been interpreting that comment based on what I want to see rather than anything the game plans to actually do or was actually suggested. They were probably just introducing the two main characters, the same way they'd start off revealing Tales of Symphonia with Lloyd and Colette or Tales of the Abyss with Luke and Tear.

[angelx03]

Hopefully this female swordsman is as badass as Chloe in Legendia.

Gah, we're never going to get this here in America?!! :cry:

[Johnny]

I'm not going to allow myself to be excited by this announcement until the game gets announced for the US. I'll keep an eye on the weather Forecast for Hell.
Ditto to that and Graces, mostly because I want the Wii version and I am not going to go so far as to resort to exploits to play an import copy.

I'm pretty sure the Graces Wii translation will work like the Fatal Frame one - there is no modding needed. You just need a copy of the game and a file on a SD card and away you go. AFAIK nothing is 'modded' internally.

[ilmaestro]

Mira looks fantastic and being voiced by Sawashiro Miyuki is a nice plus too.
Absolutely agree! And the animation is being done by ufotable... if the game wasn't a must-buy for me anyway, this would certainly tip it over the edge!

[Zeether]

I'm not going to allow myself to be excited by this announcement until the game gets announced for the US. I'll keep an eye on the weather Forecast for Hell.
Ditto to that and Graces, mostly because I want the Wii version and I am not going to go so far as to resort to exploits to play an import copy.

I'm pretty sure the Graces Wii translation will work like the Fatal Frame one - there is no modding needed. You just need a copy of the game and a file on a SD card and away you go. AFAIK nothing is 'modded' internally.
I'd still be disappointed though. The English voices were what added to the charm of the Tales games for me, and hearing the voices in Japanese would take away that charm. Yes, I'd be able to understand the game better, and don't get me wrong but I'm sure the seiyuu are as good, but I'd be losing part of what made me like the games in the first place. I'm very upset that Namco cannot seem to realize that there is still a fanbase here in the US, and as a result every time a new Tales is announced I have to say to myself "there's another one that will never make it here" and it always turns out to be true. It would be nice if they'd for once told us why this is happening. Are they expecting it to beat out Final Fantasy again or something?

[Isuzu Inugami]

This is the way most RPGs work. The only exceptions I can think of to this are Final Fantasy XIII (Lighting is the covergirl, but there's really no "main character") and Mana Khemia 2.


Suikoden 3 had 3 (or 4, or 6--but those last two don't really count) playable "main" characters, and it wasn't until the last third of the game that you had to choose just one to finish the game with. And Star Ocean 2 let you pick between Claude and Rena for your playable character, although the story was almost identical either way.

Although the Siliconera article is pretty vague on what they mean by "two main characters," so I don't know if it's a choose one to play sort of thing like Mana Khemia 2, or if you get switched between them through the story, like FFXIII.

Vainly, I also hope for a release over here. :sweat:

[ilmaestro]

Reading Dengeki Online's report, it says you will choose one of the two and play through the story from their viewpoint.

I'd argue this isn't technically the first time they've done this, as they added Lion's side into the Directors Cut of the Destiny PS2 remake, but I guess that isn't quite the same thing.

[HitokiriShadow]

Suikoden 3 had 3 (or 4, or 6--but those last two don't really count) playable "main" characters, and it wasn't until the last third of the game that you had to choose just one to finish the game with. And Star Ocean 2 let you pick between Claude and Rena for your playable character, although the story was almost identical either way.

Although the Siliconera article is pretty vague on what they mean by "two main characters," so I don't know if it's a choose one to play sort of thing like Mana Khemia 2, or if you get switched between them through the story, like FFXIII.


When I originally read it, I was assuming (until further information was revealed) that it was a linear story in which the players would alternate control of the characters rather than a Mania Khemia 2 or Star Ocean 2 Choose-a-Scenario situation.

[Johnny]

I'm not going to allow myself to be excited by this announcement until the game gets announced for the US. I'll keep an eye on the weather Forecast for Hell.
Ditto to that and Graces, mostly because I want the Wii version and I am not going to go so far as to resort to exploits to play an import copy.

I'm pretty sure the Graces Wii translation will work like the Fatal Frame one - there is no modding needed. You just need a copy of the game and a file on a SD card and away you go. AFAIK nothing is 'modded' internally.
I'd still be disappointed though. The English voices were what added to the charm of the Tales games for me, and hearing the voices in Japanese would take away that charm. Yes, I'd be able to understand the game better, and don't get me wrong but I'm sure the seiyuu are as good, but I'd be losing part of what made me like the games in the first place. I'm very upset that Namco cannot seem to realize that there is still a fanbase here in the US, and as a result every time a new Tales is announced I have to say to myself "there's another one that will never make it here" and it always turns out to be true. It would be nice if they'd for once told us why this is happening. Are they expecting it to beat out Final Fantasy again or something?

Fair enough, but the fact remains that if you really want to play it, there is a way. I'm sure Namco are aware of the US Tales fanbase, but when the game struggled in Japan, they're probably not interested in localising it for it to sell horribly.

[HitokiriShadow]

A tiny bit more information on the two leads (also, character art). (http://www.siliconera.com/2010/12/27/one-lead-character-in-tales-of-xillia-uses-swords-the-other-fists/)

Mira uses swords, guy uses fists and seems to double as a healer. And Mira's character art is gorgeous. (http://www.siliconera.com/postgallery/?p_gal=106930|2)

[HitokiriShadow]

Two new (and very nice) trailers are out. (http://www.siliconera.com/2011/05/29/tales-of-xillia-trailers-straight-from-the-tales-of-festival/)

The first one is 5+ minute game play trailer. If you didn't already know, one of the party members is a little girl (looks roughly Anise's age) with a sock puppet... thing. Well, when she runs around in the field... it floats around near her.

There's no world map traveling in the trailer and some of the areas the characters were running around looked more like the "world maps" of Star Ocean and FF12 than a typical dungeon. So I have to wonder if this game might not have a traditional world map.

And the battles looked awesome. Here's hoping Graces F does well and Bandai Namco doesn't take too long to bring Xillia here.

The other one is a 3-minute story trailer. It's notable for giving a good taste of the game's theme song and, I think, the first glimpse of a major villain character. He looks like someone how is probably introduced as a villain the very first time he's on screen and he's someone you'd take one look at and say "yeah, he's a bad guy", so probably not much of a spoiler, but if you don't want to have any idea who the villains might be, you shouldn't watch this trailer.

[HitokiriShadow]

Just in case there's anyone that cares about the Xillia JP releases and isn't reading the FP thread, I'll repost the information here.

Several limited editions for Xillia have been announced:

Tales of Xillia X Edition PS3 Bundle: ¥37,980, special PS3 (Pics here (http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2011/05/29/tales_xillia_date/)), just the regular edition of the game as far as I can tell.

LaLaBit LE version: ¥12,980, Jude AND Millia character figures, calendar, special box

Famitsu LE version: ¥10,979 stuffed Tipo, B2 poster, clear file, and a cloth

Regular edition: ¥8,379

Apparently pre-orders will receive one of four random mascot charms, along with a product code for the PS3 themes and costumes.

I've decided I'm insane and ordered the Famitsu DX Pack. I really want the Millia figure and don't like having 50+% chance of getting the Jude figure I don't give a shit about, but I want the other items in the Famitsu LE alot more than the calendar and box for the LaLaBit LE.

Here's hoping I get the Millia figure. And more importantly, that I entered everything right and don't run into any problems. And that the exchange rate doesn't get much worse between now and September. ;_;

[ilmaestro]

I do really want the ebten LE, the stuffed Tipo will just be too much awesome. Gonna see if NCSX will be able to get it or not before I bother setting it up via Tenso, though.