Its getting real close to Xillia 2's release date in the US

Slivendiferious wrote:

DreamSword wrote:

A double standard would be if Ludger plus one other character got a crapton of team attacks together but all of the other characters got like, 2 amongst eachother, THEN people praising Ludger. In other words, they criticize the first game for Milla and Jude having a ton of link artes amongst eachother while the other characters get half as much. Which is fair, considering the the whole premise of the game being team-based.

People praising Ludger for being a "one-man army" mainly comes from the soloing community, as well as the fact that Ludger is compatible with basically everyone in terms of link artes, whereas in the first game you were either relegated to the other main character(if playing as Jude or Milla) or were shafted if you liked to play as any of the side characters. In other words, Ludger is praised for versatility, which the first game definitely lacked.

To be honest I don't see the difference between the two situations.

It's the exact same thing.

There's just two of them in Xillia 1 and one of them in Xillia 2.

Okay, let me put it in simpler terms.

Xillia 1: Jude+Milla gets a tons of options, every other combinations gets half as much, if that.

Xillia 2: Everyone has a ton of options together, Ludger just makes it out better because of his extreme versatility.

In the first situation you're basically forced to play as Jude or Milla and partner with the other to get a full effect. The latter has it to where you can do whatever you want and still be fine, it's just that Ludger is top tier.

Eeh, even if "everyone has a ton of options together", they get virtually nothing compared to what Ludger gets. It's still pretty unbalanced if you ask me.

Yume Hanabi wrote:

Eeh, even if "everyone has a ton of options together", they get virtually nothing compared to what Ludger gets. It's still pretty unbalanced if you ask me.

Even if that were so, you're still not outright forced to partner Ludger with anyone specific. You can still argue unbalanced, sure, but it's still -more- balanced than Xillia 1 is, and therein lies the key.

I still have to get platinum on ToS Chronicle before I get Xillia 2
(i better should hurry up with my lazy butt )

You're not "forced" to partner Milla and Jude in the first either, especially since you can change your link partner with one button, and you can even alter your party composition at will mid-battle.

Sure, X2 has more options in general, but the gap between one (or two) characters and the rest of the party is still huge (if not bigger, cuz on top of tons of Mystic Artes Ludger also gets three battle styles and a special transformation mode). ymmv I guess, but personally I felt X2 was trying to push Ludger on me more than X1 did with Jude and Milla.

Don't forget that they did the whole "Silent Protagonist" schtick and the "Choice spins the FUture" or something mechanic to make you BE Ludger. Luger.

Yume Hanabi wrote:

You're not "forced" to partner Milla and Jude in the first either, especially since you can change your link partner with one button, and you can even alter your party composition at will mid-battle.

You are if you want a good amount of link arte options and/or to bring out their full potential.

Quote :

Sure, X2 has more options in general, but the gap between one (or two) characters and the rest of the party is still huge (if not bigger, cuz on top of tons of Mystic Artes Ludger also gets three battle styles and a special transformation mode).

But you're still not gimped by much if you decide not to play as him. So again, even if you can try to argue that Ludger gets more special attention, he's also still not saddled with a specific partner like Jude and Milla are.

DreamSword wrote:

Yume Hanabi wrote:

You're not "forced" to partner Milla and Jude in the first either, especially since you can change your link partner with one button, and you can even alter your party composition at will mid-battle.

You are if you want a good amount of link arte options and/or to bring out their full potential.

Quote :

Sure, X2 has more options in general, but the gap between one (or two) characters and the rest of the party is still huge (if not bigger, cuz on top of tons of Mystic Artes Ludger also gets three battle styles and a special transformation mode).

But you're still not gimped by much if you decide not to play as him. So again, even if you can try to argue that Ludger gets more special attention, he's also still not saddled with a specific partner like Jude and Milla are.

But you aren't gimped if you don't play as Jude or Milla, either. I mean, for instance, I played as Leia, and I destroyed that game so hard I actually wore out the X button on my PS3 controller. Even when a boss broke out of a combo I had them back in the combo in seconds flat, and by Linking with Alvin I was not only able to utterly wreck them, but I was able to get a pretty sweet victory quote as well. I didn't feel gimped at all, and in the instances where I did play as Jude or Milla, I still didn't feel like I was "gimped," even when I Linked, say, Jude and Leia or Milla and Alvin. Maybe I wasn't unlocking their "true potential," but likewise, you're not unlocking the true potential of the characters in X2 either since they're gimped in comparison to Ludger.

In other words, it's the same exact situation. Milla and Jude have more options than Alvin, Leia, Elise, or Rowen. Likewise, Ludger has more options than Milla (2), Jude, Leia, Elise, Rowen, and Alvin. You're not gimped or at a severe disadvantage in either case--or if you are, then it's similar in the other one. The situations are the exact same and trying to split hairs to find differences just so you can bash one while praising the other is ridiculous.

*sigh* Let me spell it out again because I apparently was not clear enough the first handful of times. The point is not "Xillia 1 sucks because Jude+Milla is better" and no, in the literal sense, there is nothing forcing you to be either character. The point is that Jude+Milla have tons of more options than any other combination in the game. And in this case, that is one combination that has it far better than any other. In other words, you don't get many dimensions if you aren't playing as them.

Meanwhile in Xillia 2, yes, it is true Ludger has more options. HOWEVER, Ludger+Anyone is still more free than Jude+Milla, because Ludger+Anyone is a grand total of eight combinations. As well, Anyone+Anyone is way better than Anyone+Anyone in Xillia 1, so you still get many options to explore even in that regard, whereas in Xillia 1, it's rather limited in terms of just about every combination other than Jude+Milla, the easiness of both games aside. Is it perfect? No. But it is still an improvement, and enough of one wherein people are willing to relax about it.

No, you are not required to like any one way over the other, and if you do congrats, I really don't care. Personally speaking I can't say which game is better in terms of story or whatnot as I have no grasp of the Japanese language. However, on a gameplay level, which is all Tales "fans" seem to care about now, it's easy to see why people prefer the latter. In the end, even if you argue the difference is slight, it still isn't the exact same scenario, because therein exists that difference, so it therefor is not a double standard when it comes to discussing team mechanics.

Now what IS crap about both games is the fact that your partner is forced to be AI and I highly doubt that they'll fix it in Zesteria, especially since Tales AI has almost never been good. It's almost like false advertising saying that the games are 4-player, when in practice they're 2-player.

who cares. MATAAAA DESTRUCTOOO

If any fellow Canadamen want the LE, EB.ca and BestBuy.ca have restocked, probably Future Shop too.

I apologize if this has already been asked and answered, but is there a pre-order bonus for Xillia 2 that will be different from any bonus that comes with the first printed copy of the game?

To try and explain my question a bit better, I picked up Blazblue Chronophantasma shortly after it released and my game came with a download code for Terumi. I read that the download code was in all the first printings of the game. Is there something like that for Xillia 2?

With how close we are with the release date, I think the regular copies (North America anyway) won't get the DLC Costume code for the game.

Which surprises me, cause they definitely made it possible with Xillia 1 with Day One/Limited Editions. And the Japanese release of Xillia 2 comes with them if you pre-order (and you get the Before Novel as well!).

Can I say bull****? Canadians have to pay 75+ for a single regular copy, and regular copies won't even come with a manual, and the warranty is at the back of the cover...

Bravo, Oh Bravo Namco


/nitpickwhatever.

Are the costumes from the dlc code purchasable through the PS store or are they just for pre-ordering the game?

Only 10 more days, I'm excited.

swordandshield wrote:

Only 10 more days, I'm excited.

I guess, I live on the wrong side of the world   

Where are you? What country? If its Europe, then its August 22nd which is only 3 more days.

He lives on Mars, and while it has seasons just like Earth and indeed a very similar length of day, its year is almost twice as long as Earth's, and its orbital eccentricity is considerably larger, which means among other things that the lengths of various Martian seasons differ considerably, and sundial time can diverge from clock time much more than on Earth.

In short, 13 days for us would be 26 for him, measured by our time.

lol'ed

Slivendiferious wrote:

He lives on Mars, and while it has seasons just like Earth and indeed a very similar length of day, its year is almost twice as long as Earth's, and its orbital eccentricity is considerably larger, which means among other things that the lengths of various Martian seasons differ considerably, and sundial time can diverge from clock time much more than on Earth.

In short, 13 days for us would be 26 for him, measured by our time.

Well it does say he lives on Mars. I gotta wonder...lol And I believe in aliens.

8 more days for US release, I'm doing a countdown lol XD

Aliens would need insanely futuristic technology to access our internet from that distance though.

yay, 11 more days.

Well, i hope you guys enjoy the game, it's a fun Tales game to at least run through once.

Also try to not play Ludger as your main, or you'll fall to the trap of just playing him for your play through. If it helps, his Slave/Partner ability mimics the Linked characters slave ability. So if you want to play as Leia, but still want to steal stuff, link to Ludger and he'll copy Leia's item steal.

And experiment with weakness combos as soon as you can. I only tried using it in THAT boss after losibg a lot of times and it made fights go at least quite smoother and a bit faster.

Does it do the same as Xillia 1 where you earn Grade and tropies for using each character? That really helped me branch out more with Xillia in a series where I usually stick strictly to the main character.

What are the link abilities for Gaius and Muzet anyway?

Musee is something like teleportation (basically when you backstep you'll teleport further away; reverse with front step).