The PS3 was a powerhouse for RPGs and the start of a real resurgence for the genre at large. This is the console where we saw Dark Souls, Valkyria Chronicles, Persona 5, and Skyrim, just to name a few. However, Bandai Namco’s “Tales of” franchise had a real golden age on the system, with a whopping five different games on PS3. Now, it looks like the most beloved of the bunch, Tales of Xillia, might finally be getting its due with a full remaster.
Listings for a Tales of Xillia Remaster briefly popped up on three different Eastern European online stores; JRC, Smarty, and Brloh. Fans on Reddit spotted the listings before they were taken down, with the remaster supposedly coming to PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.
If true, this would mark the first time Tales of Xillia has been re-released ever, as it never made its way off of the PlayStation 3. Even in Japan, there was never any kind of port to other systems whatsoever. That’s a bit baffling as Xillia has long been regarded as one of the very best entries in the prolific RPG franchise.
Originally released in 2013, one of the major differences between Tales of Xillia and the rest of the franchise is game length. Xillia can actually be completed in roughly 40 hours, making it one of the shortest Tales games — in this case, that’s a good thing. The narrative of Xillia has phenomenal pacing and ends up feeling far less meandering than your usual Tales game. There is some replayability thanks to two different story paths that correspond to the game’s dual protagonists, Jude Mathis and Mila.
Tales of Xillia also features one of the smoothest combat systems in the series. You take four characters into combat but link them as pairs, which unlocks the use of Link Artes, on top of all your normal attacks and artes. Each character pairing has a different selection of Link Artes, providing for a ton of different combinations and options. The story’s pacing and frenetic combat make Xillia feel light and breezy, and almost nothing in the game is superfluous or unnecessary.
One thing that’s interesting about the listing, however, is that it only covers the first Tales of Xillia. A sequel, Tales of Xillia 2, was released on PS3 a year later in 2014. Because the listings were only for “Tales of Xillia Remaster,” that presumably would be just the first game. This could mean Bandai Namco wants to sell a Tales of Xillia 2 remaster separately, rather than releasing a collection, but it’s impossible to tell at this point.
It’s astounding that Bandai Namco hasn’t done more with the Tales series since the runaway success of Tale of Arise in 2021, which has dwarfed every other entry in the franchise with over 3 million copies sold. In the years since, the only thing we’ve seen is an expansion for Tales of Arise, titled Beyond the Dawn, and a remastered version of Tales of Symphonia. Bandai Namco quite literally has no shortage of beloved games to choose from, and as other RPG series like Persona, Final Fantasy, and Trails flourish, it feels like Tales of is vanishing. If Bandai Namco wants to keep the franchise alive, remastering Tales of Xillia is definitely an important first step in doing that.
