First off, the game has admitted to having a rushed anniversary production schedule, so some things aren't as good as they could have been (one in particular being every 'seahaven' locale is the exact same). But of course, there's more to Xillia than that.
Character-wise, it's fairly diverse for our heroes: normal medical student who is initially hesitant to fight, smooth-talking mercenary with mysterious motives, a (powerful) little girl who just wants friends, a cheerful childhood friend with a staff, and a legitimately old respected butler - you're bound to like most of them.
The one kink could be Milla, the resident God in Human Form: aside from an absolute fascination with the human body, her entire mindset revolves around getting her mission done, period (frequently through impossible/insane/no-empathy-yet-ultimately-means-good actions). This will either make her a Badass Action Girl with some Adorkable-ness or... well, the YMMV tab covers that. There's very little middle ground for her, my opinion being the former.
Story-wise is interesting, revolving around Milla completing her most basic mission: protecting spirit-kind, who have been dying recently - naturally problems arise, but this won't stop her or the others. It's presented in two sides, from the perspective of Milla herself and Jude... the core story is the same for both, but certain scenes/side quests/ boss battles will be different, depending on who you choose. So at the least, you'll have to play twice to get all the details.
Gameplay-wise? In a word, explosive.
A key theme of the combat is linking, allowing yourself and a partner to work together in battle, breaking guards and disrupting enemy attacks - the AI's fairly good at it too. And you're allowed to indefinitely switch between in-battle characters on-the-fly, in addition to near-instant switching out a member for one of the two backups. Theoretically at end-game, you could switch+play as all six characters in one battle (linking included). And you'll need this teamwork, because the bosses aren't easy to 'stun-lock' to death - plus later, linking is essential to using Mystic Artes.
Fair warning though: linking nullifies any player-control for the linkee (linker is unaffected), so it's not recommended for 3-player and up.
Ultimately, I say give Xillia a try, and see what you think.
Ultimately Good
First off, the game has admitted to having a rushed anniversary production schedule, so some things aren't as good as they could have been (one in particular being every 'seahaven' locale is the exact same). But of course, there's more to Xillia than that.
Character-wise, it's fairly diverse for our heroes: normal medical student who is initially hesitant to fight, smooth-talking mercenary with mysterious motives, a (powerful) little girl who just wants friends, a cheerful childhood friend with a staff, and a legitimately old respected butler - you're bound to like most of them.
The one kink could be Milla, the resident God in Human Form: aside from an absolute fascination with the human body, her entire mindset revolves around getting her mission done, period (frequently through impossible/insane/no-empathy-yet-ultimately-means-good actions). This will either make her a Badass Action Girl with some Adorkable-ness or... well, the YMMV tab covers that. There's very little middle ground for her, my opinion being the former.
Story-wise is interesting, revolving around Milla completing her most basic mission: protecting spirit-kind, who have been dying recently - naturally problems arise, but this won't stop her or the others. It's presented in two sides, from the perspective of Milla herself and Jude... the core story is the same for both, but certain scenes/side quests/ boss battles will be different, depending on who you choose. So at the least, you'll have to play twice to get all the details.
Gameplay-wise? In a word, explosive.
A key theme of the combat is linking, allowing yourself and a partner to work together in battle, breaking guards and disrupting enemy attacks - the AI's fairly good at it too. And you're allowed to indefinitely switch between in-battle characters on-the-fly, in addition to near-instant switching out a member for one of the two backups. Theoretically at end-game, you could switch+play as all six characters in one battle (linking included). And you'll need this teamwork, because the bosses aren't easy to 'stun-lock' to death - plus later, linking is essential to using Mystic Artes.
Fair warning though: linking nullifies any player-control for the linkee (linker is unaffected), so it's not recommended for 3-player and up.
Ultimately, I say give Xillia a try, and see what you think.