Tales of Xillia Remastered Review

As a longtime fan of the Tales series, and Tales of Xillia in particular, Tales of Xillia Remastered is exactly what I was hoping for. I played the original back on PS3 in 2011, loved it despite its flaws, and was genuinely hopeful that Bandai Namco would do right by this remaster. And they did. The quality of life improvements achieve the objective of modernizing the ability to play this great JRPG, and making it the definitive experience. The visual upgrades aren’t quite as dramatic as I’d hoped, but coming back to Rieze Maxia after 14 years with faster load times, 60fps combat, autosave, and the ability to actually sprint makes this a worthwhile endeavor.

A Tale of Two Characters

The game starts by showing you two brief cutscenes and asking you to pick between Jude or Milla as your main character. Milla gets a vague scene where she’s sitting in a temple muttering about spirits leaving, then she fights a ghost snake and walks away. That’s it.

Then Jude’s scene shows him as a med student in this massive medical school. I am pretty sure I chose Milla back in 2011, so I opted to go with Jude this time around. A medical school in a fantasy JRPG world with swords and magic? A fun possibility to be sure.

Here’s the kicker, though. It doesn’t matter too much. Like, at all. The two characters meet up super early and spend maybe 90% of the game together. You get some solo moments with whoever you chose, and those are actually pretty great for character development, but you’re not missing anything crucial. It’s less “two different stories” and more “same story, slightly different camera angle.”

Meaningful Combat

The combat system is called the Dual Raid Linear Motion Battle System, which is a mouthful, but it’s basically real-time combo battles where you can link two characters together for synchronized attacks. I understand if you are skeptical, because JRPG combat can be… okay, let’s be honest, it can get really repetitive and button-mashy.

But this system is really well done. This keeps you engaged. You’re swapping between characters, timing your linked attacks, and building combos that flow together. There’s a rhythm game quality to it where your AI partners trigger their abilities automatically if you’ve set things up right, so you’re not drowning in inputs, but you still need to focus and make smart decisions.

The Lirium Orb system for character progression is pretty open-ended too. Instead of forcing you down a linear skill tree, you can unlock abilities in whatever order makes sense for your playstyle. There are plenty of opportunities for theorycrafting character builds and making sure your team synergizes properly. That’s the kind of problem I actually enjoy having, and I was quickly reminded why I loved Tales of Xillia so much.

Maps Show Their Age

Compared to some of the othe entries in the Tales series, the environments in Xillia are a bit basic at times. There are several times you’ll find yourself running through same-looking corridors and fields over and over, and even with the remaster’s visual upgrades, they feel lifeless. There’s a ton of backtracking throughout this one as well, which only makes the at times bland map design more noticeable.

The game does try to help with this. There are new objective markers pointing you toward your next goal, treasure chests now show up on the minimap, and there’s a sprint toggle now. These are smart additions that make the whole experience less tedious. Sure these are Band-Aids for the original problem, but that’s often the goal of a remaster after all.

The character models have also been improved. They’re colorful and the cel-shaded style has aged better than realistic PS3 graphics would have. You can definitely tell this is a 14-year-old game, but they are certainly improved. Some of the cutscene animations are stiff in that classic PS3 way, but I actually found that kind of charming.

Should These Two Be Saving the World?

Where Tales of Xillia Remastered truly shines is the character writing. Milla is the incarnation of a demigod who loses her spirit powers early on, and watching her deal with being suddenly vulnerable is genuinely compelling. She’s got a cold exterior that hides how lost she feels without her abilities.

Jude, meanwhile, is a smart but timid teenager who gets essentially branded as a terrorist by accident. His growth throughout the game as he learns to stand up for himself and figure out his place in this mess feels earned and is one of the more rewarding character arcs in the series.

The supporting cast bounces off them really well, too. There’s this prickly, uncertain energy to the group dynamic that keeps things interesting. They’re not just the power of friendship cliche. They argue, they have different priorities, and the tension makes the story feel more grounded.

The game tells a lot of its story through optional skits that pop up while you’re exploring. These aren’t voice-acted, which is a shame, but they add so much depth to the characters and their relationships. Don’t skip these.

60 FPS Feels Good

I played this on PS5, and the performance improvements alone make this remaster worth considering. The game runs at a buttery smooth 60fps, and load times are basically nonexistent. These sound like minor things, but they truly transform the experience and, once again, are the ultimate goal of a remaster

Boss battles especially benefit from that smooth framerate. Executing a massive linked combo with multiple characters and the screen exploding with effects, having it all run perfectly smooth just feels good. No slowdown, no stuttering, just pure action.

Still a Great JRPG

Tales of Xillia Remastered is a great game and its only flaw is that this is a remaster of a PS3 game. The combat system is still top notch, the characters are well-written, and the quality of life improvements make it much more accessible. But the bland environments, repetitive backtracking, and dated visual presentation do remind you this is a 14-year-old game with a fresh coat of paint.

If you played Tales of Xillia back in 2011 and loved it, you already know you’re getting Tales of Xillia Remastered. The quality of life improvements make it way more playable than the original, and the Grade Shop lets you breeze through parts you don’t want to grind. It’s basically “play it how you want” mode.

If you’re new to the series, I still recommend it. This is a solid JRPG with a great combat system and good character work, but do keep in mind it still feels like a PS3 game because it is one. The pacing drags in spots, the maps are repetitive, and the visual improvements don’t always hide the game’s age.

The core of what made Xillia so special is still here. The combat is legitimately fun and strategic. The characters are more complex than your typical JRPG party. The story takes itself seriously without being grimdark. If you can look past the dated design elements, there’s a really good game underneath.