Tales of Xillia 2 Review

Tales of Xillia 2, the fourteenth installment of the core Tales of game series. Tales of Xillia 2 is a direct sequel to Tales of Xillia, set one year after the events of Jude Mathis and Milla Maxwell's journey.

Tales of Xillia 2, follows the journey of Ludger Will Kresnik who must protect a young girl named Elle Mel Marta and destroy the fractured dimensions to keep peace within their own. This game contains a similar mechanic to that of Mass Effect, where you must make decisions using the L1 and R1 buttons, making your choice between good or bad.

In, Tales of Xillia 2 after the first chapter you are told you must repay a twenty million gald debt!? This is due to medical bills and veterinary bills you racked up within the first chapter. To pay off this debt you must preform various side quests or jobs as they are known in game. These jobs can be anything from item hunting or monster slaying. Unlike previous, Tales games you will find yourself a majority of time fulfilling these jobs instead of walking through the story.

Admittedly, the side quests are optional but are recommended as they help wipe the debt a lot quicker. The story itself, is pretty solid and keeps the player hooked through the gameplay and the stunning anime cutscenes, they are beautiful.

The battle system is extremely similar to the first installment which is good, because why change something that isn't flawed. Obviously, there are changes such as new ailments such as bleed status and more weakness or strengths instead of just elemental, we now have; sword, gun and hammer. This is down to Ludger's weapon switch ability, which adds a more tactical side to battle, as each of the other characters can take advantage of these weaknesses and strengths.

Tales of Xillia 2 is a lot of the same but with lots of variety. Definitely worth the purchase because this game will have you hooked with story, side quests and Kitty Dispatch. Yes, you heard me right, Kitty Dispatch, a function within the game where you send your fat cat, Rollo to find cat friends and rare items.

If you haven't picked up, Tales of Xillia, I suggest you head to your video game retailer store on the high street or online and purchase this game, because it is well worth it.


Tales of Xillia
8/10

P.T. Review

P.T. Review: Same Hallway, Different Scare.

P.T. or Playable Teaser or Silent Hills for those who have completed or got so frustrated with the final puzzle you went to YouTube and watched the trailer. Silent Hills is the world’s first interactive teaser trailer and if you did either of the above you know it was created from the brilliant mind of Hideo Kojima, the creator the Metal Gear Solid franchise and from the twisted mind of Guillermo Del Toro co-creator and executive producer of FX’s, The Strain.

P.T. was first revealed at Gamescom 2014 for Playstation 4 as trailer. Trailer started with a games company name no one had heard of, 7780s which in square metres is the size of Japan’s Shizoka Region which is often known as, The Quiet Hills or in this case, Silent Hills.

The trailer continued with a blood stained bag talking to us, as the player steps out into a red lit hallway, then the text flashed up, “Experience the world’s first Interactive Teaser.” This piqued my interest.

The player continues around a corner to be met with a tall figure at the end of the hallway and the logo, P.T. flashes up on screen. Finally, the trailer switches to people playing the game and the text in the bottom left, “Actual reactions from gameplay.” Suddenly the woman on screen starts screaming frantically and finally more text appears in the bottom left, “Available Now. Only on Playstation.”

Before, Sony could finish their conference, I grabbed my controller and booted up my Playstation 4 and headed to the store to download this, Interactive Teaser.

Installed and with my preference of controls and brightness set, the game had started. My character awoke to two cockroaches crawling across the floor and the door in front of me opened slightly. The character now standing, I had control in a first person perspective, I looked around the room, behind me was in darkness and around me were tallies of five scattered all along the left, right and front wall.

I walked and opened the door in front me and entered a brightly lit hallway with a radio broadcasting a new story of brutal murders that have occurred across the country, where the Father has murdered his family before killing himself. With that information, I assumed maybe I am in the house of one these murders.

The layout of the hallway was a simple, “L” shaped hall with signs of a struggle littered about these hallowed halls. I was somewhat comfortable in this hallway so I continued down this hall, checking the two doors on the way and examining the various pictures of the husband and wife presume until reaching the end and walking down some steps walking through the final door at the end presumably into the basem—oh, it’s the same hallway.

Now, I’m wondering were those tallies on the wall, my tallies and that’s how many times, I’ve walked through these hallowed halls? Erasing the thought from my mind, I continued on but this time the door to the loop slammed shut and the first door, I passed began to make to move and bang as if someone was stuck in there. I slowly approached the door and everything fell silent, no banging. I continued to search for a way out but nothing so, I came back to find the door to the loop open again and as I passed the door that was banging, it quickly banged again but more violently but immediately stopped. My heart leapt out of my chest, I heard a weeping woman but I wasn’t sticking around so, I ran to the door and started the loop over.

P.T. continues to take you through this loop several times, slowly moving you further and further out of your comfort zone and makes you solve puzzles, search for collectibles and put you on the verge of your seat. The warning when downloading the demo states, “Do not play this if you have a heart condition.” And my god is it right, with babies crying and horrible ghosts lurking with the hallway you have to have a strong will and heart to make it through.

P.T. is a perfect example at how game developers should market their games but with Hideo Kojima at the helm of course it was going to be perfect. He did the exact same thing with, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. Made a fake Games Developer Company and passed it off under a different name and waited for the gaming community to pick it dry.

In summary, P.T. is great way to grab your audience’s attention and bringing back one the most beloved games of the horror genre to its roots is perfect. If you have a Playstation 4 and haven’t downloaded P.T. I suggest you do right now and play it, in the dark, alone and with headphones on.

Silent Hills is currently in development and is scheduled to be released sometime in 2016, it’s still currently unknown if the game will be multiplatform but with Tokyo Game Show around the corner, we will be sure to hear a little something.