![]() ![]() Anyway, in order to earn cash to pass by the regular arbitrary story roadblocks, you need to complete requests that might require you to find a certain number of items or kill a certain number of creatures or send your horde of feline minions forth into the dangerous wilderness and see what they bring back (not kidding even a little bit). I’d thought Xillia was bad in terms of lazy design but its sequel seems to be trying for the world record with its grand total of (approximately) four new areas. As far as I can tell, the sole purpose of this mechanic is to force you to revisit the same depressingly unoriginal and boring locales the first game put players through. The bank holds your future captive by limiting the places you can visit based on the debt you have remaining, so in between story missions you have to pay it off in order to continue. I can’t even begin to fathom why Bandai Namco would shaft the entire role of the protagonist for the sake of a system that has next to no impact on the game at all (especially considering they could have written the poor sod a script in addition to his precious choices). The net result is that you have dead weight for a main character in a franchise that lives and dies by the strength of personality of its characters and their interactions. As you get points you can earn a couple of skits and skills that you were given for free the first time around. ![]() ![]() This is done to allow the implementation of a choice system that gives the player the chance to rack up Affinity Points TM with various characters based on their decisions, or at least that’s what I assume. The first problem is that Ludger is selectively mute, with voice acting being provided for only one-word answers or various battlecries. In those two sentences I’ve mentioned at least four of the major issues that make Xillia 2 less than it could have been. Oh, and the guys from the original game tag along for the ride. All you need to know is that there’s a new character named Ludger (Loo-ger) who has a massive debt and gets roped into destroying Fractured Dimensions (alternate versions of the Prime Dimension, where the story takes place) in order to pay it off while being followed by a girl named Elle. If you’ve played Xillia and want more then the story does its job (and little else). I’m going to skip over the story summary this time around because, for once, the concept behind the game isn’t all that important for my review. It’s not quite bad, however, and I’m willing to concede that it shows sparks of ingenuity, though I cannot deny that with all things considered it is definitely a disappointment. Xillia 2 takes characters from the first game and plants them all into new environments which have the potential to draw out more of their unique personalities, which is a good thing, but does so while making an alarming number of poor design decisions and carrying over the feeling of a general lack of effort that also pervaded its predecessor. Unfortunately, it has already been superseded by its own sequel. When I recently reviewed Tales of Xillia I was forced to admit that it was the worst of the Tales games I had played up until that point. ![]()
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