by Alexx » Sun Sep 01, 2013 7:00 am
My wife and I are having a GREAT time! We loved the Graces battle system more, but that was mostly for the TP situation. The Link system they have in Xillia is really cool so far, though it's obvious they planned for certain characters to Link more than others. You've got these special Artes you can perform when Linked with different characters, but some have WAY more than others. The two main characters - of course - have the most. The only problem with that is when you're playing two player, though. Generally someone is gona be stuck with the healer, and though the healer has a great Link advantage (Elize, for instance, gives you HP and TP that she steals from the enemy) there are very few Linked Artes to perform.
'Course I don't mind; I'm an attack dog so often times I'm gona need someone healing my TP more than I'm going to remember to do a Linked Arte. My wife Elena was always better at managing the party anyway (that was how we started playing these together in the first place: I was failing miserably at party management in Symponia, so she and a friend jumped in to play the other characters). Overall it's fun, and honestly I've mostly forgotten how to control Graces anyway, so it's not like I'm missing much.
As usual, the story is where it's at! It just took a big 'ol turn recently, so we're foaming at the mouth to get back to it. Every night we've had where we don't have to get up early the next day was spent playing into the wee hours of the morning. It's not just the story though, it's also the characters. Tales games always have a way of making the characters unique VS most other RPGS I've played. I mean you've got the standards, but the writers seem to find ways to break the molds. Like you've got your standard female childhood friend of the main character, but she's NOT annoying! They blissfully decided NOT to make her focus constantly on the main character's relationships with other females, and in fact this childhood friend character is one of the nicest characters in the group while ALSO being sort of a tough-type character (usually the tough-female-childhood-friend type likes to push people around). Point is: The writers like to break the character molds, and I highly appreciate that.
I guess if I had any complaints, it would be about the Shop upgrade system...and it's only a small one at that. You upgrade shops ALL at once. Any shop in the world is the same shop, and you get new items by collecting materials and donating them to the various shops (weapons, armor, accessories, items, and food). So whether or not you get a better weapon is not based on progression - it's based on how often you upgrade shops and how much money you have. Well....Tales games are REALLY fun for fighting, so we rarely ever skip fights. We're hard pressed for cash, BUT we always manage somehow, so we're always ahead of the game in terms of weapons! We could limit ourselves, but who wants to do that? So I guess the shop system is nice in that you're not working to get everything before you leave someplace, but you also have NOTHING in your way if you want to buy the toughest muthafuggas in terms of enemy killin' power. It also cheapens the treasure chests you find, 'cause they're either full of materials for upgrading shops, or full of armor you totally don't need.
Like I said though: it's a small complaint. Mostly because I'm just having a good time in terms of gameplay and story. If there were any other small complaints it would be the lack of in-game costumes (there are very few; you've gotta buy the rest) BUT...they give you a TON of extra items to dress up your characters. Hats, mutton chops, glasses, shades, a tiara, a backpack, etc etc. We're constantly changing around our looks with each new item. Nothin' goes better with a pair of mirrored shades than slicked back hair and some badass mutton chops!
"Since you got here by not thinking, it seems reasonable to expect that, in order to get out, you must start thinking." ~ Tock, the Watchdog
-but at least they have the mini accessories you can equip. I guess Namco Bandai is becoming a bit notorious for milking the DLC system from what I read. '_'
