Have you recently finished the thoroughly excellent Tales of Xillia? Are you now waiting with bated breath for its direct sequel? Me too! Worry not, Namco-Bandai have got us covered with an atmospheric new trailer for the upcoming Tales of Xillia 2.
Titled ‘The Pocket Watch’, it’s a little darker than usual for the Tales of series, and focuses on Elle, the young child that main character Ludger (although it sounds like he will be called ‘Luger’ in the localisation) has to protect throughout the game. It seems her father has entrusted her with a very important artefact – the titular pocket watch – before it can fall into the hands of Exodus, the group that served as a major antagonist in the first game.
It also sets the scene somewhat for the continuing tale; Elympios plays a greater role in this sequel (Hideo Baba has recently said in interviews that he wanted players to see more of the other world), and despite the events of the first game’s conclusion, Exodus continue to be a problem, opposing the fragile peace between Elympios and Rieze Maxia. As you can see in the image at the top of this piece, all the characters from the original game will be returning for Tales of Xillia 2. That’s great news for me, as I absolutely adored the cast of Xillia – even Teepo!
The trailer, embedded below, also gives us a sneak peak at some of the localised voice-overs we’ll be enjoying in the new game, which is due out some time in 2014. I’m really looking forward to it, and the music in this trailer really helps to get the blood pumping in anticipation.
In other Tales of series news, it was announced at NYCC that Tales of Symphonia Chronicles will be getting a special edition in the US. The collector’s box is much the same as the Japanese LaLaBit Market edition but adds a multi-disc soundtrack. The image below shows that Japanese edition, along with a couple of blank CDs for illustrative purposes
The box set will be limited to 15,000 copies in the U.S. and will sell for $99.95. That’s great for fans in the States, but there’s currently no word of a European release for this set. Needless to say I’ll be all over it if it makes it to the U.K, and I’m hoping for an announcement next weekend; series producer Hideo Baba will be at the London MCM Comic Con on the weekend of the 26/27th, and given that the U.S. set was announced at NY Comic Con, I’m hopeful that we’ll hear something then.
No dates have been given for either game yet, though Symphonia Chronicles will be available in “early 2014”. I’m guessing we’ll be seeing that around March, and then Xillia 2 will likely follow in August if Tales of Graces f (August 31st 2012 in Europe) and the original Xillia (August 6th/9th) are anything to go by. Either way, it’ll be a Tales of-packed year!
pushstartgaming 
After playing the first one I am already hungry for the 2nd one. I would hold the first one up there for me in the jrpg games. The trailer looks like the game is going to be a little bit dark sided. What is not a bad thing there was many moments in the first where my jaw was hitting the floor.
If that special edition makes it here considered it ordered ha ha
Yeah, I absolutely loved Xillia, one of the best jRPGs I’ve played since… well, Vesperia 😀 There were some pretty epic moments in there, but Xillia 2 is definitely looking a bit darker, if this trailer is anything to go by.
Haha, same here, I’ll be all over it. Hopefully we’ll hear something at MCM!
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