Tales of Xillia Remastered Review – One Half of a Solid Remaster

As part of its 30th anniversary celebration of the series, Bandai Namco announced The Remastered Project. It’s an initiative to bring all classic Tales games to modern hardware, starting with Tales of Symphonia in 2023. 

The plan is to gradually make every Tales game available on current hardware with very minor improvements or changes. So far, the results have been mixed, with Symphonia struggling to run any better than it did when it first launched 20 years ago. Tales of Graces f Remastered fared better, with the title finally being playable outside of the PlayStation 3. 

Now, we have Tales of Xillia Remastered, part one of the Xillia duology and the next logical title for Bandai Namco to bring to modern platforms (apart from the classic Tales of the Abyss). Since both Xillia 1 and 2 are available and intricately connected, fans hoped for the publisher to bundle them together into a neat, accessible package. 

That’s not the case, however, as we’ll have to wait for the inevitable conclusion to this story sometime in the future. But, how does Tales of Xillia Remastered play in 2025? Is it worth checking out even if you don’t get to see the whole story just yet?

TL;DR

As a fan-favorite duology, Tales of Xillia Remastered is missing its second half. While modernized and enjoyable, it’s an incomplete story that doesn’t work on its own. What’s here features fun gameplay, lovable characters, and the signature Tales experience, all packed in just under 40 hours.

Story – A Tale of Two Protagonists

The Tales games live and die by their protagonists, and Tales of Xillia Remastered is no different. Thankfully, its cast of characters is charming and likable, with everyone contributing to forming a party you can root for. 

As the player, you’ll choose either Jude or Milla at the start of the game. Jude is a medical student eager to help everyone around him. Milla is a mysterious girl with magical powers and a stone-cold personality. For better or worse, Tales of Xillia Remastered is filled with anime tropes, and you’ll quickly learn which character falls under what category. 

Jude and Milla meet very early in the game and work together to save the world from impending doom. The usual stuff. And while your objectives may change over the course of the game, the initial premise never does. Saving the world is always at the back of every quest, dungeon, or town you visit, so there’s very little to be surprised by here.

Little Benefit to Replaying the Game

Although Tales of Xillia Remastered lets you pick your character, there’s not much incentive to replay the game in terms of learning more about the story. For 99% of the game, both characters share the exact same story beats, and what little deviation exists isn’t worth sinking another 40 hours into the game. 

It’s unfortunate, as there could have been more unique content dedicated to each character, similar to how NieR Replicant handled its multiple protagonists. Instead, the difference comes down to whether you like punching people or casting magic spells to achieve the same goals. Beyond the story, Tales of Xillia Remastered does feature gameplay modifiers that can make replaying the game more fun. 

You can increase the amount of XP or drops you earn from monsters, the damage you deal to enemies, or play the game with new character costumes. However, these are superficial changes, and whether they’re worth replaying the entire game for will come down to personal preference.

Gameplay – The Classic Tales Formula

Tales of Xillia Remastered shares the same gameplay formula as any other Tales game you may have played. You’ll control a single character in a party of four as you travel the world. Combat is action-based and takes place in arenas, and there are no random encounters. 

You’ll clearly see each enemy on the map and get to choose whether you want to attack them. However, as this is a JRPG, you’ll want to gather as much XP as possible. As you travel, you’ll also gather materials you can use to invest in stores to unlock more powerful weapons and armor. 

This also constitutes grinding, so it’s in your best interest to engage with anything that moves on the map. With sidequests being very simple and focused on fighting enemies, it all comes together to form a straightforward but thankfully enjoyable experience.

A Deceptively Linear Experience

Tales of Xillia Remastered gracefully hides the fact that it’s a pretty linear game. Every area you visit will propel you forward, with little room for meaningful exploration or discovery. 

Much like the fact that both Jude and Milla have a mostly identical story, the developers wanted you to see everything the game has to offer without having to search for it. This means sidequests always revolve around the area you’re currently passing through, and you’ll wrap them all up before moving on to the next story area. 

This allows you to clear content organically and without having to backtrack too much if you’re thorough. Tales of Xillia Remastered also lets you fast-travel from anywhere at any time, making it convenient for you to jump back and forth between areas. This isn’t an open-world game; its structure is more similar to Final Fantasy X and XIII than to classic JRPGs.

Visuals – Fine-Tuned But Left Mostly Untouched

Originally released on the PlayStation 3, this re-release is rebuilt in the Unity Engine. Given the game’s anime aesthetics, it’s a great choice that allowed the developers to fine-tune the game’s technical aspects without altering the visuals. 

As a result, Tales of Xillia Remastered looks almost identical to its original release, for better or worse. Character models are very detailed and colorful, and the same can be said about the towns and dungeons you’ll come across. 

However, anything that’s not the focus of attention is very simplistic and lacks finer details. This goes for most NPCs and areas you’ll pass in between said towns and dungeons. Forests, plains, deserts, and other areas feel empty and lifeless, which is a leftover from the original release that had to run on the PlayStation 3. 

Thankfully, the game runs well and is well-optimized, as we experienced no crashes or bugs during our time with it on the PlayStation 5. Tales of Xillia Remastered runs at smooth 4K 60FPS here, and you’ll undoubtedly have a great time playing it on this system.

Audio – It’s What You’d Expect from the Early 2000s

In terms of its audio design, this is a game emblematic of the time it was released. Its sound effects are simplistic and don’t add much to the colorful visuals. In many instances, the game doesn’t feature any music whatsoever, making for a bizarrely empty atmosphere. This isn’t a bug or a problem with the game’s settings. Some areas are deliberately designed to be without any music, which is something you rarely see in JRPGs. 

When there is music, it’s orchestral, upbeat, and lends to the game’s atmosphere. It’s nothing you haven’t heard before, and it can fade into the background, but it’s serviceable. Tales of Xillia Remastered features pretty good voice acting for its time, with the series’ signature skits really letting the voice actors shine. 

Every character features a distinct personality, tone of voice, and approach to the rest of the party. This creates a diverse and memorable set of characters that you can connect with as you play the game.

Conclusion – Should you play Tales of Xillia Remastered?

What’s next for the Tales series? It’s now been 4 years since Tales of Arise (not counting its DLC, Beyond the Dawn). While The Remastered Project is a great initiative that’ll bring many older titles to new players, we’re also holding our collective breaths for a brand-new Tales title. 

Tales of Xillia Remastered is a great game that’s definitely worth your time, but it feels like the release is mostly geared toward existing fans. With the Xillia 2 remaster undoubtedly already in development, our assessment might change a year down the line. As it stands, players who never picked up a Tales game before might have a more enjoyable time with Vesperia or Arise for the time being. 

Dedicated series fans should pick up Tales of Xillia Remastered as they’ll definitely enjoy it as it is, blemishes and incomplete story notwithstanding. The game is now available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and PC.

Big thanks to Bandai Namco EU for sponsoring our review!