= #326 (19/20) 2012 | Bandai Namco | PS3 | JRPG 11 Points: @kalonite kalonite: Oh wow do I have strong feelings about this game. I was introduced to the Tales series by the original Xillia, and I remember being pretty resistant to it at first. It looked to me like a bunch of loud cutesy mascots and anime tiddies slapped onto a basic JRPG in its 27th iteration, and I was not here for it. Then Milla Maxwell happened and I understood. These games have such a distinct humour about them that is entirely based in the stellar groundwork put into making the characters rounded, interesting, and more than just an interchangeable cliché. I loved Xillia, and I was so excited to get back into that world. When I started Xillia 2, everything seemed wrong. The main character doesn’t talk, there’s this dumb kid with a super-annoying voice following me around, and there didn’t seem to be the same ensemble magic that the first game had in such abundance. Hoo boy. Hoooo boy was I wrong. Xillia 2 is the most extra, melodramatic, high stakes bunch of absolute nonsense that I have ever experienced in an RPG, and I love it. Entire universes get wiped out in seconds. Established characters’ personalities flip on their heads and then right back again like acrobats in a circus. Your character is saddled with TWENTY MILLION GALD worth of debt in the first act….and you actually have to pay it off. And somehow, in some magical way, Bandai Namco manage to wrangle all of these things into a coherent story that actually makes sense, with characters worth genuinely caring (and stanning) for? By the end of the game, that annoying little girl following me around was the most important thing in the world to me, and there’s nothing I wouldn’t do to protect her. The cast had all grown and learned from their experiences across both games, and I was so invested in their plight. So when the final dungeon rolled around and the choices I made led to the ‘bad’ ending for these characters I loved so much, it was utterly devastating in the most satisfying way. Usually I’d be mad that I made the ‘wrong’ choices and got the ‘inferior’ ending, but this felt like an actual legitimate, believable, tragic conclusion to this story I’d invested so much time in. Basically, the moral of the story is, I’m so glad I got over myself and played a Tales game because there’s just so much to love.
I need to get around to actually getting into this. I've only played like 10-15 hours so far. I remember a distinct feeling of there being too many buttons to push in battle...
Fabulous choice @kalonite! Also, finally a game in the 11s I have actually played (aside from my own).
Iconic. Hoping the first one does really well here. This elimination reminds I actually meant to try paying the whole debt in the game for the secret ending, but for some I never got around to it, shame.
I really loved Xillia, but I had borrowed a PS3 just to play it and gave it back before I could get around to the sequel. Maybe they'll do a remaster someday? (Probably not.)
It's not that unlikely. There have been plenty of Tales remasters/rereleases (like Symphonia (plus its sequel), Abyss, Graces, and now Vesperia). It wouldn't be surprising if they did Xillia/Xillia 2 next. But probably only in a few years.
Oh wow I was like what the hell is happening to all my rate hard work jesus christ why can't I see images anywhere on the site help
Teebs I'd never heard of the Tales games outside of this forum but the passionate support here has always made me want to check them out, eventually. I've actually thought about buying a second-hand PS3 to tap into the exclusives I've missed along the way. The fanboy inside mostly wants to play MGS4 again as I've went through it a single time, when my friend let me borrow his console. I'm annoyed that there doesn't seem to be any plans to bring the quadrilogy to the PS4 despite whisperings over the years.
There are a ton of great PS3 exclusives and the games are very cheap on the store too so it's not a bad idea. I still have a handful of games in my PS3 backlog actually, namely the Trails of Cold Steel series.
Catching up: Never cared for OG Idolmaster, but I love the Cinderella Girls sub-franchise. (If only I could get the Rin/Anzu/Kirari costumes for Berseria *sobs*.) Mio and Anya are best girls, but Minami and Ryo are waifu. The imgur images work for me if I change the https to http.
Ahem. Let's cap off the 11-pointers with another obscure oddity, shall we? = #326 (20/20) 1997 | Konami | N64 | Action-Adventure 11 Points: @nikkysan Animalia: Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon – or Go For It, Goemon: Dance of the Neo Peach Mountain Shogunate as it was named in Japan – was the fifth game in the Ganbare Goemon series, but only the second one to be released internationally. Oh buy you thought the name was weird? This is a game about stopping a gang turning Japan into a Westernised fine arts theatre, and boasts several all-singing, all-dancing cinematic song and dance extravaganzas because WHY NOT
Atelier Totori (soratami) Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds (playboy69) Clue: Murder At Boddy Mansion (VivaForever) Dark Souls 2 (Stradiwhovius) Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers (DominoDancing) Gran Turismo 3 (Syzygyz) Harvest Moon: Back To Nature (send photo) King's Quest IV (Empty Shoebox) Maplestory (Number) Mortal Kombat 4 (beyoncésweave) Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon (nikkysan) New Style Boutique 3: Styling Star (iheartpoptarts) Pop Idol (2014) Poy Poy 2 (Squashua) Tales of Xillia 2 (kalonite) The Beginner's Guide (Filler) THE [email protected] SP: Perfect Sun (junglefish) The X-Files Game (Robert) Titanic: Adventure Out of Time (If You Go) Yu-Gi-Oh! True Duel Monsters: Sealed Memories (Sprockrooster)
Mystical Ninja: Starring Goemon was an overlooked gem for the N64. It borrows elements from Ocarina Of Time and makes it a bit more simplified, but you’re still travelling around an open world for dungeons, finding new items and abilities in a feudal Japanese world plus fight in a giant mech against other giant robots. It also has a super quirky sense of humour that may or not land all of its jokes since it’s directly translated from Japanese (with a few censored jokes deemed too inappropriate as they wanted the western release to be kid-friendly) but it’s charming all the same.
I do feel a pang of guilt because my second-hand 360 is packed up under my bed due to lack of space (and I haven't cared to play it since picking up a PS4). Although it was an unexpectedly amazing present from my brother, I do kinda wish he'd went for a PS3 because none of the Microsoft exclusives interest me. Ddd I sound so ungrateful, I really did appreciate it!
