Falling oddly close to E3 and perhaps attempting to borrow a small piece of the limelight, Namco Bandai held Tales Festa 2012 just two hours ago (at time of article writing). At the conference, the company revealed the next Tales of game: a PS3-exclusive sequel to Tales of Xillia, given the simple title of Tales of Xillia 2.
The battle system will have that touch of action that Tales has been known for over the years, more specifically being built upon the foundation of, naturally, Tales of Xillia. Players will now have the ability to switch weapons in mid combat. For example, the character Ludger was shown on the video switching back and forth between a pair of swords and a pair of handguns. According to a screen shown later, he can also apparently wield a hammer.
The tale of the new Tales of takes place one year after the end of its elder. Story sequences will come with the decision making familiar to JRPG players, though Xillia 2 will be getting with the times and having those decisions have more impact on the game itself than the bulk of its ancestors. Furthermore, these decisions must be made within a time limit.
The original Tales of Xillia launched alongside a special edition PS3 console, and while that much is not yet confirmed, the game will at least be getting a special controller.
Here’s a video from the event:
[youtube]R35xRU2zU2A[/youtube]
We’ll keep you posted when more information becomes available.
