At long last... I FINALLY finished Tales of Xillia 2 last night. I'm sorry it took me so long. I really am. But it's hard to play games when you have a job. It really is. Sometimes I can play it... sometimes I can't. Plus sometimes I feel like I just don't have enough time to play it or other things come up that prevent me from playing it.
All that really matters... is I finally finished it. There's A LOT I could say. There really is. But I don't want this to turn into a text wall. So I'll try to just discuss key points. First of all... this game isn't as good as the first game. I'm sorry but it's just not. Is it bad? Not really. However... the story drags once you hid the midpoint of the game and becomes incredible repetitive. Luckily, for me at least, it wasn't as bad as the repetitiveness that occurs in Tales of Graces and is actually a little better and makes things a bit more unique and interesting than that game. But it definitely plateaus and feels unnecessarily padded. But I'm unbelievably persistent. So I point myself through it. But not everyone can do that obviously. In the end... it was worth it due to a major story point that happens later. Which got me interested and invested in it again. But it does take to long. Not only that... but things are massively contradicted from the characters in this game from what happened in the last game. I'd have to give spoilers to delve futher, and I won't, but just know that things that were story points in the main game are contradicted in this game and it seems like hypocrisy. The game tries to justify it and I suppose it does so and it's one of those 'but thou must' situations but things are still massively contradicted.
Also... silent MC's don't work for this franchise. I'm sorry but they just don't. For me at least. That's what the MC (Ludger) is. A silent MC. For the most part. He's not silent for 100% of the game. I'd put it more around the 90% range in terms of his silence. Have I been babied with the other games and the MCs always talking? Sure you could say that. But it just becomes really obvious with this game that silent MCs just don't work for Tales of. Also... the other major character... the child... (Elle) is honestly and probably the most annoying character I've ever experienced in the entirely of the Tales of franchise and I'd even go as far as to say the most annoying character I've seen in games in quite a long time. She's a brat. I'm sorry but she just is. She has her moments and I'll give her that and some of the battle victory stuff with her is great and hilarious but that doesn't make up for how annoying and how much of a brat she is. Sorry this is just how I feel. It's no wonder I got the first ending that I got.
I liked the 'mini Social Links' this game did though. I even feel like this game gave better character development for the characters than the first game did because of this. It makes me feel like this should have been in the first game. So better job there.
Overall... there are definitely A LOT of problems with this game. But it's also very similar to Final Fantasy 13-2. So if you liked that game then you'll more than likely like this game too. At the end of the day it's up to you what you do. Do I recommend it? I would still say yes but I'm the type of person who feels obligated to play sequels when they are made. I don't really think it's something you can just ignore and act like it doesn't exist. You can do that if you want obviously but the game does have good moments and better character development than the first game while being harder than the first game (at least for me anyway. Or I was just **** at the game. Assume the latter for now I guess)
But it's up to you at the end of the day obviously. I would still say it's worth a look. Here's my updated Tales of list. Just know that I'm done with this franchise until Arise. Oh and it's an overall list. If I was to do, say, a list for the stories of the game... it would be a completely different list. Same for gameplay, etc.
Abyss
Berseria
Xillia
Xillia 2
Graces f
Symphonia
Zestiria
Symphonia 2
Vesperia
Next up... I'm finally back to current gen (sort of) with PS4. I'm finally getting around to pandemic games. Persona 5 Strikers is next and I'm hoping to begin it tonight but we'll see.
