It’s been a long time coming, but Namco Bandai’s Tales of Xillia is finally coming out in English.
Tales of Xillia is the latest episode in Namco’s long-running Tales Of series, and the first to be designed specifically for the PS3 — last year’s Tales of Graces F was an enhanced port of a Japan-only Wii title. While Tales of Graces F was no slouch in the visuals department despite originally being developed as a Wii game, Tales of Xillia looks absolutely stunning by comparison.
I’m not sure how I feel about the dubbed voices though, especially Milla’s. Of course, I’ve never liked English dubs to begin with, and the voices in previous Tales Of games did grow on me after awhile, so I’m sure I just have to get used to the new cast. I wish Namco would start offering dual-language tracks on their games like some other RPG developers do, but at this point, I’m just glad we’re getting an English version of Tales of Xillia at all. The English script was done by 8-4, the same people responsible for Fire Emblem Awakening’s excellent English localization.
Tales of Xillia doesn’t have a final US release date yet; Namco Bandai still has it listed as a vague “2013” release. Xillia’s direct sequel, Tales of Xillia 2, came out in Japan in 2012 and has yet to be confirmed for a Western release.