The Tales franchise may have not seen a new game since 2021's Tales of Arise, but 2025's been a darn good year for the franchise. We started off with Tales of Graces f Remastered in January, and now we're finishing out the year with a return to the PlayStation 3 classic, Tales of Xillia. Thisis a welcome game to get a remastered version because it has previously been unavailable outside of the ever-aging PS3. It's  also one of my favorite games in the franchise! Thankfully, Tales of Xillia Remastered is an excellent and faithful remaster that keeps all the good parts of the original while smoothing out a number of the rough spots.

Tales of Xillia is set in the world of Rieze Maxia, where humanity coexists with magical spirits. This fragile coexistence is threatened when a group of humans finds a way to suck the life out of the spirits. The lord and ruler of the spirits, Milla Maxwell, descends to Rieze Maxia to learn the truth behind these attacks. Unfortunately, she falls into a trap and is drained of her powers. Weakened and desperate, she is forced to ally with medical student Jude Mathis. The two set out to save the spirits and stop the true evil threatening their land.

Tales of Xillia is my favorite of the post-PS2 Tales games when it comes to plot and characters. While other games have had higher moments, Xillia is the one that feels like the most cohesive product. It has a fun cast and interesting story, and it feels the most complete in terms of story. The ending feels a little rushed in some spots but not in a way that leaves the game feeling unsatisfying or like you need to play the sequel to get the full story.

It isn't perfect. At the start of the game, you can choose either Milla or Jude as your main player character. The two spend most of the game together, and the plot doesn't change significantly based on who you select, but occasionally, you'll get different cut scenes or different views of plot events. Jude tends to be more character-focused, while Milla is more focused on the big picture. You're never out of the loop, but certain details get more focus, and there's even some slightly unreliable narration to the story. (For example, Jude tends to come across as more competent if you play as him and more of a dork from Milla's point of view.)

Tales of Xilia's biggest problem is that the twin protagonist gimmick doesn't add anything to the game and likely works against it. The idea of picking between two characters is cool, but it feels disjointed instead. Rather than two interconnected stories, it feels like you have one story but an occasional cut scene is omitted. This impacts Milla worse than Jude, especially since there's at least one significant story beat where she skips most of it. I appreciated the idea, but the game would've worked better if it stuck with one protagonist. It doesn't sour the story at all, but it's the biggest weakness in the narrative.

Tales of Xillia uses the franchise's standard action-RPG combat system. Players take direct control of one of the party members and fight enemies directly using a combination of regular attacks and special Artes. You can dodge, move and block attacks in real time, but Xillia leans far harder on the RPG side of the action-RPG spectrum. In Xillia, your basic actions are governed by AC (Assault Counter) and TP (Technique Points). AC represents the number of moves you can take in a single combo, while TP serves as the game's magic points and is used to fuel your strongest spells and abilities.

The biggest gimmick in Xillia is the Link system. While in combat, the characters can link up. A "linked" character grants their partner some of the benefits of their passive skills and active abilities, including special linked attacks. More importantly, each character has a distinct link skill. Alvin will Guard Break enemies, so it's best to link with him if you're facing an enemy who is constantly guarding. Rowen can protect you from magic spells, so he's important when facing spellcasters. Choosing the best link for each fight is essential to mastering combat.

Every character has a distinct combat personality. Jude is built around narrow evasions. If you dodge at the last moment, he'll teleport behind an enemy to allow for longer combo strings. Milla can cast magic spells that she can "alter" into powerful regular attacks. Magic-using Elize has a magical puppet named Teepo, and she can choose to channel magic spells through the puppet or have it attack alongside her for more useful physical skills. Each of the characters has their own play style. I heavily gravitated toward Milla's magic-swordperson gameplay, but all of the characters are a blast to play.

Tales of Xillia's combat system is a lot of fun, but if you're coming to it from Tales of Graces f, it might feel like a step backward. Graces f has one of the best — if not the best — combat systems in the franchise, while Xillia's combat system feels more basic and familiar. It lacks the variety and degree of customization that Graces has, which makes Xillia easier to pick up and play, since you don't need to hyper-focus on the specific attributes of every attack the way you do in Graces.

Xillia's a straightforward RPG. You'll generally venture from town to dungeon to town, and you'll occasionally stop to complete some side-quests. It's largely a straightforward and mostly linear adventure. This isn't a criticism because there's plenty of gameplay to keep the title interesting without getting bogged down in bonus content. When compared to later Tales titles or even its own sequel, Xillia doesn't break the mold.

The remastered version of Xillia follows in the footsteps of Tales of Graces when it comes to the new features. A number of quality of life features are added to the game, including autosaves, the ability to toggle enemy encounters, a faster dash movement speed, and icons on the map that show the locations of side-quests, chests and maps, and other items. Likewise, you can access the Grade shop from the start of the game, which lets you start the game with (toggleable) bonuses, such as increased experience gain or money gain. Most of the DLC costumes and features from the original game are also present, with only the licensed anime tie-in costumes being inaccessible.

As with Graces, most of these features are very welcome additions. Some feel less essential compared to Graces, since Xillia already had some improvements to begin with, but the boosted speed of movement alone is a huge plus and makes the remaster the ideal version to play. My only complaint is shared with Graces, which is that starting with the Grade shop unlocked feels awkward, and it isn't instantly clear that you can purchase and then disable the cheat functions, so you'll have them in your back pocket if you need to speed up grinding for gold or materials.

Thankfully, the remastered visuals in Xillia look excellent. The PS3 origins of the game are plainly visible in the simplicity of the models and the environments, but the revamped color and shading help the character models pop, and the simple cel-shaded graphics looked a tad basic at the time but have aged quite nicely with the remaster's fresh coat of paint. The music is excellent; the Remastered version includes a bundle of classic Tales songs to mix up the music. The dub is pretty much the same as it was in the original version of the game, but the improved sound quality stands out, in particular helping Milla's voice sound clearer than it did in the original PS3 release.

Tales of Xillia Remastered is an excellent remaster of a darn solid and enjoyable JRPG. While it doesn't quite reach the highest highs of other games in the franchise, neither does it reach the lowest lows. It's a solid, enjoyable and well-crafted JRPG from start to finish, and the remastered version of the game is the best way to experience it. Even if the combat doesn't shine quite as brightly as in Tales of Graces f, the entire package is arguably one of the best ways to experience Tales at its most consistently fun.

Score: 8.0/10