Tales of Xillia 2 was the worst game ever.
There are spoilers here but I'm not cutting it.
I loved ToX and I looked forward to this game only to be completely disappointed and pissed off by it.
Let's break it down: Some random 20 year old guy named Ludger gets accused of being a pedophile by a little girl named Elle and then he keeps her around for no good reason. He gets saddled with a debt for both his and HER medical treatment…and for some reason doesn't object to this.
In between this melodrama, the cast of the original game show up to be fetch quests that add absolutely nothing to their character development; they're just there to look pretty. There was so much that could've been explored in their histories and through other dimensions, but the writers were lazy and just tossed them aside. I feel especially bad for Leia. I loved her in the first game, and here she was just pathetic.
Even Jude and Milla, who are the protagonists of the first game, get little attention. He's still trying to make some magical device to save the spirits and she's off…doing whatever she does in the spirit realm. They have no resolution to their almost-relationship. None. She goes back to being a spirit and he ends up…being alone and probably miserable.
And then there's AltMilla. She's a plot device that shows up early so you actually have a decent party, but the fact the party DESTROYED HER DIMENSION AND MILLIONS OF PEOPLE seems to be quickly forgotten. Jude kind of broods over her but we don't get to see much of it at all. The game almost ships her and Ludger, but it doesn't matter because she dies for more reasons that barely make sense.
Then the game reveals something that might actually be of interest…Elle is Ludger's daughter from a future, fractured dimension! In that dimension, Ludger has murdered everyone he cares about (including the entire party) for reasons that are murky. He has changed his name to Victor and his hair to black and he wears a mask! Oooh, because we couldn't see that coming! Some of this is supposedly explained in supplemental material only available in Japanese, but players in the NA audience are just supposed to ignore all logic and character development there.
But wait. There's more terrible nonsense in this game! There are three endings (and one humor-ending) that the player can receive. The first ending? Kill the ENTIRE PARTY. That's right. You murder all of them one by one to save Julius (Ludger's half-brother) for…nothing. The game doesn't give a resolution; it just ENDS. Is this the ending that brings us Victor? We may never know, because it just ENDS.
If you choose to kill Julius, the final dungeon opens and Milla proves that she is the most useless god/goddess in any pantheon. Why? Because instead of playing the "I'm Maxwell, Lord of Spirits--hey, Origin and Chronos…enough is enough, let the humans be" card, she just stands there and says NOTHING.
NOTHING. She doesn't stand up to the two spirits who are there. She doesn't even SPEAK to them!
Milla Maxwell, the Lord of Spirits is just a pair of boobs here while the player can choose to kill Elle or kill Ludger himself! That's right, you can off your own character, kids! Isn't this dark and edgy?
If you choose to kill Elle, Ludger becomes a powerful CEO of a huge company and then meets the woman that will become Elle's mother.
If you choose to kill Ludger, Elle grows up and stays in touch with the rest of the cast. Of course, we don't get the nice epilogue images that other Tales titles have had--no, this is all done with grainy pictures on her cell phone.
And finally, a lot of the backstory on Julius and Ludger and why they are half-brothers and why Ludger's father doesn't know who he is…it's not in the game! Super important information that fills in complete plot holes is only available in supplemental, Japanese-only books!
So, don't buy this game. Ever. It's terrible.
