Tales of Xillia Remastered
This review contains spoilers
I know what I'm about to do is unfair, useless and kind of dumb, but this year I've gotten to play two JRPG remasters (this and Trails in the Sky: Chapter 1) in franchises I haven't played before (outside of very briefly playing Tales of Arise, not long enough to have much of an opinion), so my brain connects and compares the two. And I use Criticker mostly to remember what the hell I think about things because my memory is terrible. So I will do that here.
Trails in the Sky has a much better remaster. That game is so silky smooth, with almost non-existent load times with my rig, polished visuals and audio. Just an absolutely joy on a technical level.
Whereas Tales of Xillia floods you with awkward pauses during dialogue/scenes and characters looping and repeating the exact same phrases over and over again (they're hungry and they haven't fought before), which becomes annoying. It's also not that pretty but that doesn't bother me that much.
Also, in Tales, they constantly talk. You're constantly being prompted to check in on what these characters have to say, and it's just a little too much for me, honestly. I know it's meant to build depth but I don't need that much. And the fact it stays on the screen until you do engage with it (as far as I know, though maybe there was a way to turn that off) is also annoying.
But where Tales easily excels over Trails is in the story. I was instantly hooked on the plot. Why am I just demolishing everybody? Oh no, the spirits are now dead, what is this thing? Etc. And the plot stays at a really good pace the entire time, with at least one plot twist that made me go, "daaaaamn," because it shifted the narrative and opened up a whole new dynamic. Whereas with Trails, the story EVENTUALLY got fantastic (and to be honest, I like Estelle and Joshua more than Jude and Milla, though I do really like Milla), but man is the beginning world-building ever sloooow.
As for the rest, I'll just quickly touch on it. The combat is fast and action-packed, with quite a bit of depth if you engage with it. No problem at all there. The progression system is like one of my favourite's of all-time, FFX's sphere grid, but you do end up having to fill up other stats that you may not otherwise fill up just because you want the grid to expand. But still, I liked it a lot.
You're also constantly running around picking stuff up, which does slow down the experience a bit, but in order to upgrade your weapons, armour, items, etc, you have to. I don't mind this too much. The areas are pretty small and everything else is fast, so it is satisfying.
I think if Trails wasn't so slow narratively I would like it more than this, but Xillia does a few things better, and as it stands, I think it's about equal. I'm glad I chose to play this.
Trails in the Sky has a much better remaster. That game is so silky smooth, with almost non-existent load times with my rig, polished visuals and audio. Just an absolutely joy on a technical level.
Whereas Tales of Xillia floods you with awkward pauses during dialogue/scenes and characters looping and repeating the exact same phrases over and over again (they're hungry and they haven't fought before), which becomes annoying. It's also not that pretty but that doesn't bother me that much.
Also, in Tales, they constantly talk. You're constantly being prompted to check in on what these characters have to say, and it's just a little too much for me, honestly. I know it's meant to build depth but I don't need that much. And the fact it stays on the screen until you do engage with it (as far as I know, though maybe there was a way to turn that off) is also annoying.
But where Tales easily excels over Trails is in the story. I was instantly hooked on the plot. Why am I just demolishing everybody? Oh no, the spirits are now dead, what is this thing? Etc. And the plot stays at a really good pace the entire time, with at least one plot twist that made me go, "daaaaamn," because it shifted the narrative and opened up a whole new dynamic. Whereas with Trails, the story EVENTUALLY got fantastic (and to be honest, I like Estelle and Joshua more than Jude and Milla, though I do really like Milla), but man is the beginning world-building ever sloooow.
As for the rest, I'll just quickly touch on it. The combat is fast and action-packed, with quite a bit of depth if you engage with it. No problem at all there. The progression system is like one of my favourite's of all-time, FFX's sphere grid, but you do end up having to fill up other stats that you may not otherwise fill up just because you want the grid to expand. But still, I liked it a lot.
You're also constantly running around picking stuff up, which does slow down the experience a bit, but in order to upgrade your weapons, armour, items, etc, you have to. I don't mind this too much. The areas are pretty small and everything else is fast, so it is satisfying.
I think if Trails wasn't so slow narratively I would like it more than this, but Xillia does a few things better, and as it stands, I think it's about equal. I'm glad I chose to play this.
Mini Review: I've never played the original version so I was hyped to try a remaster, and it's not the smoothest remaster from a technical perspective. But outside of the visual hiccups and audio hiccups, I dig this quite a bit. I enjoy everything else. While not the greatest JRPG roster of all-time, the characters are good. The story kicks off quickly and has some fun twists. Doesn't have the most expansive OST but the songs that are there absolutely work. Combat and progression systems function well.
Watch the Trailer