TGS: Kill Fist-Fighting Chickens in Tales of Xillia

Looking at Tales of Xillia for the first time, one thought kept recycling through my head: This is the PS3’s Tales of Vesperia. Not because Xillia looks particularly like Vesperia, though — similarly gorgeous, sure, but not enough that you’d confuse the two. Where Vesperia was exclusive to 360, Xillia is exclusive to PS3. Both have circular arenas and real time combat. Both let you jump between characters in battle and feature talking head chit-chatting when they’re out of the fight.

At a base level, I couldn’t stop thinking about Vesperia because Xillia is so very obviously and proudly another Tales RPG. This is a series with distinct factors its fans love, and although you can be reductive to show just how similar they all are to one another, it doesn’t take away from their quality. But the real reason I couldn’t stop thinking about Vesperia is because I loved it, and Xillia got me stoked to return to the Tales franchise.