Unboxing [US]: Tales of Xillia - Standard Edition (PS3)

So after finally getting around to Tales of Graces f, the next game I wanted to get in the Tales franchise was Xillia. While UK copies are still around I wanted the set to match Graces f as the spines look pretty cool in my opinion. Unfortunately the game, while still available in the US, is not that import friendly on Amazon. Luckily I was able to grab a copy on eBay for a good price (cheaper than Graces f in fact) and best of all, it was from a UK seller so that's a bonus.

Tales of Xillia is the second Tales game to be released for the PlayStation 3 but the first to be developed for it (as Graces f is a re-release from the Nintendo Wii version). This is also the 13th instalment in the long running Japanese Role-Playing Game franchise. Xillia ended up becoming the most pre-ordered title in the series as well as the most hyped it ever was for western players. The game was released in September 2011 for Japan followed by August 2013 for English speakers. Much like a majority of the titles localised, Tales of Xillia's English release only contains the English dub, but these generally are in good quality.

Xillia's gameplay is split into two parts. One part is where you walk around, talk to people and explore the world to handle the main story and side-quests, while the other part is the battle system. The battle system carries off from where Graces f left off and modifies it. The system works by walking into an enemy (like traditional JRPGs such as Final Fantasy) but the actual fight is more real time action than the classic 'stand still, make commands, and then do it for the next person/wait' so fans who dislike that type of RPG will enjoy the Tales franchise much more. The Neptunia games also did something similar but Tales is more action-oriented.

As noted in the title, this is the North American standard edition of the game. A limited edition was once available that included select tracks from the OST as well as an instruction booklet. The standard edition just comes with the disc, which became the norm by the time this was released in the US. The Trophies are also as tough as the other instalments so good luck with that.

Format: PlayStation 3

Version: USA

Exclusive: Yes

Local Players: 1-4

Online Players: None

Resolution: NTSC 480p, 720p [This is based on the video output, resolution in-game may be different]

HDD Space: 2300MB

Trophies: Yes

Tales of Xillia is available to own on PlayStation 3 for retail and digital. In Europe it's also available in a collection along with Tales of Xillia 2 for the price of one game. Copies of Xillia are not as bad as Graces f so you should be fine for another year at least, the UK version is slowly going up in price but it's not that bad.