Tales of Xillia Remastered - Deluxe Upgrade Pack

I came into Tales of Xillia Remastered having missed the PS3 original entirely, and within a few hours I understood exactly why fans kept asking for this remaster. This is a JRPG that had been stranded on a single aging platform since 2011, and bringing it forward was overdue. The core setup puts you in control of either Jude Mathis, a medical student dragged into a world-threatening conspiracy, or Milla Maxwell, a woman who claims to be the incarnation of the Lord of Spirits. You pick your protagonist at the start and follow their personal lens on the same story arc. The two routes share the majority of their events, which does blunt the replay incentive a little, but the character chemistry, particularly the push-and-pull between Jude's human empathy and Milla's cold, almost algorithmic logic, carries the narrative further than the structural limitations might suggest. The combat is where the game genuinely earns its reputation. Xillia runs on the Dual Raid Linear Motion Battle System, which layers a character-linking mechanic on top of the series' traditional real-time setup. You chain basic attacks and Artes (the series' term for special skills) using an Assault Counter resource that limits how aggressively you can spam moves. Linking to a partner enables synchronized Artes combos and character-specific support abilities: Milla can lock enemies in place, Alvin the mercenary can break guard and leave opponents stunned, and Jude has a teleport backstep if you time it precisely. The linking system is fast, fluid, and rewards active party management. Boss fights in particular shine here, demanding smart use of linked abilities rather than brute-force button pressing. The remaster adds a solid set of modern conveniences without touching the underlying game. Autosave is in, encounter toggling is in, a faster dash replaces the original's sluggish field movement, and the Grade Shop (previously a New Game Plus reward) is now accessible from your very first run with a 5,000 Grade head start. Quest markers, chest icons, and destination indicators appear on the map, which matters because the world is large and the original gave you little help navigating it. You can also skip dialogue, skits, and cutscenes on a second playthrough, which is welcome given the dual-protagonist structure. Post-launch patches have addressed early bugs including overly sensitive quick-step inputs and audio mixing issues, so the technical state is cleaner now than it was at launch. The game does show its age in a few specific ways. The world design is mostly linear, town-to-dungeon-to-town, and the dual protagonist routes overlap so heavily that the claimed replayability feels thinner than the concept implies. Visually, the remaster sharpens character models and targets 60fps, but environmental detail still reads as a PS3 game with better anti-aliasing rather than a full rebuild. Some voice work, specifically certain Milla lines, has been flagged by multiple reviewers as inconsistent in audio quality. None of these are dealbreakers, but anyone expecting a ground-up remake will need to recalibrate their expectations. This is a faithful remaster, not a reimagining. For JRPG players who never had a PS3 or simply bounced off the original's rougher edges, this is the definitive way to play one of the stronger entries in a long-running series. The skit system alone, with its animated character conversations that react to what you just did in battle or what meal you just cooked, adds more personality than most RPGs manage in their main cutscenes. If you already own the base game, the Deluxe Upgrade Pack layers in the original costume DLC and a Battle BGM Pack with exclusive tracks, which are niche additions but appreciated by series completionists.

Alex · Scout Team

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