Today marks the beginning of another long-form playthrough on the YouTube channel, now that we’ve burned through a ton of episodes of Trivia Murder Party and other friends from the Jackbox Party Pack. We’ve sort of been filling in the gaps of the busy holiday season with fun one-offs of those games, but it’s a new year now, which means it’s time for Tales of Xillia.

Xillia was a game I thoroughly enjoyed when it first came out in 2013, but what I’m noticing as time passes is that it’s actually my favorite game in the series. A lot of that is due to the cast of characters and the Lilium Orb system, but it also has some of the best battle mechanics in all of Tales, as well as a top-notch opening theme (seen below).

Somehow we managed to get Michaela to play the sequel with us (gotta love that Tales multiplayer, after all) even though she hadn’t ever played the original. So this is a chance for her to see the characters as they first interacted, instead of the neutered versions that appear in the sequel. It should be pretty entertaining.

You can find part one of the playthrough here — new Xillia videos will be appearing Monday through Friday, with Vesperia continuing in the weekend slot until it finishes around the end of the month. It’s a Tales-heavy January, but that only seems appropriate with Berseria on its way to the States on the 24th.

Progress

Music to My Ears covers soundtracks or individual songs from video games on Tuesdays. You can view all posts in the series by clicking here.