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ToX2 behind-the-scenes info

People have been wondering about the decisions behind Xillia 2’s creation, so I have compiled information found in guides and interviews. No straight-up translation because that’s too tedious, just an info dump.

X1&2 Spoilers below.

From the Complete Guide interviews

Producer & Director – Baba & Anabuki

[Note: Anabuki worked on S, A and V’s development. He was the main planner for V 360 and did some directing for the PS3 ver. He was part of the battle system team in X1, and became the director for X2.]

Reasons for making a sequel

· Fans had often said they wanted sequels in past questionnaires

· Xillia was the 15th anniversary and they’d created a very detailed setting they wanted to re-explore

· Wanted to expand on Elympios with an Elympion main character

· Felt it was a waste to use the characters in only one game

· Feels it kind of started when people said it would be fun to play as Gaius and Muzét

On what changed and what didn’t

· They wanted to keep the old characters

· Since the setting was more or less the same (tho with more focus on Elympios), they decided to build the game’s identity on its mechanics (see below)

· Game mechanics changed a lot, with the introduction of the debt system, fixed parties, chromatus ability and choices

· Setting is more modern

How the debt system came to be

· Because ppl Ludger’s age worry about money

· They wanted to have Ludger burdened by something

· 20,000,000 gald bc that’s the kind of sum that modern day salarymen could borrow. It’s a huge sum but not impossible to pay back if you work hard

The choice system

· Because part of being an adult is making choices

· Sometimes there are choices you don’t want to make but you have to (exemplified by having to destroy fractured dimensions)

Okumura as main character designer

· Because since this wasn’t a game with two protagonists, they couldn’t ask both Fujishima and Inomata like last time

· Since Ludger’s kind of a player self-insert, his design would be tricky, so it’d be easier with someone from within the studio

· Okumura’s been working on Tales designs since Eternia (mainly for minor character) and his talent shone when he designed the Chimeriad, so they weren’t worried

Why the heroine is 8

· They wanted her to be someone you’d strongly want to protect (working toward the last choice)

· It wouldn’t work if it was a strong heroine who fought alongside you like in past titles

· Yamamoto wanted her to be a girl because “I’d want to protect a little girl more than a little boy”

· If she can’t participate in battles, it’s easier to remove her from the party for plot reasons (can’t have a fighting heroine kidnapped by the last boss for gameplay reasons)

· (When she’s out of the party) Wanted to make players feel her absence in anticipation to the last choice

On Ludger’s various fighting styles

· Baba wanted a sort of style shift like in Graces

· Since he was a new protagonist, they wanted to introduce something that wasn’t in the original Xillia

· Chromatus was Anabuki’s idea, because he likes transformations

· People who played the first game probably have attachment to the old characters, but since Ludger’s the protag here, they wanted to make him stand out more

· Staff got angry at Baba because that meant they basically had to program three characters in one XD

On Ludger’s silence

· They wanted him to be a self-insert to the player

· Plus it makes the one scene where he speaks more meaningful

· They added the voiced lines option as NG+ bonus for those who like voices

· Reason they didn’t make that option available on first playthrough was they wanted to get their message across/wanted players to see what they were aiming for, which wouldn’t be possible if players could skip the voiceless aspect from the start

About Gaius and Muzét

· It was hard to include Gaius because he’s supposed to be super strong

· Also because he’s the type to handle things himself before the protag has a chance to. But since this was Ludger’s story, they had to sideline him

· They wanted to give him an ability like Vesperia’s fatal strikes, but that would make him too strong, so they had to tone it down

· Muzét’s a good middle-range character. She’s weak if you get past her guard, so she has the ability to move out of range quickly

About the endings

· The first scenario they came up with was the one where Ludger disappears, but since they implemented the choice system they wanted the game to have an important choice at the end, hence the creation of other endings

Discarded ideas

· Fractured Milla with short hair (discarded because they didn’t want ppl to realize immediately from promotion images that she was a different Milla, and also bc they didn’t think Milla was the type to cut her hair short since she doesn’t care much about her appearance)

· Otoh, something they hadn’t planned on: character models. They were originally just a way for the motion team to test things, but since it was fun they decided to include it in the game

Any chance for another sequel or anime adaptation?

· Nope on sequel, as they think that world’s story is over

· They’d like an anime or other media adaptations, but there’s no plans for it

Battle team – Fukuie, Yamase & Takizawa

[Fukuie was responsible for battle planning, various mechanics and linked artes; Yamase was the battle programmer (worked on Ludger’s artes and on mystic artes in particular); and Takizawa was battle program support (enemy artes and mystic artes, effects etc)]

What was kept from the original and what’s new

· Linked artes were an essential part of the original so it was kept. They thought of modifying it but since it was popular they decided not to and simply make it easier to use

· They gave spellcasters some more melee artes

Anabuki’s influence

· Anabuki wanted more event battles so they added a lot

· He’s also responsible for having them end the final fight with a mystic arte & cut-in

Ludger

· They made bosses stronger because Ludger is really powerful

· Elite monsters weak spots were inspired by Vesperia’s secret missions system

· Implementing Ludger’s three fighting styles was apparently tricky with the tight schedule they had, so they asked for something else, but they went back to the first idea eventually

· Example of other idea: giving him the fighting styles of the old characters. But that would cause problems if they simply copied the motions (they cited Elize’s posture, which would look weird on Ludger)

· The scenario team asked that Ludger use both hands for each weapon style

Chromatus

· The transformation part came mainly from the scenario team – someone said they wanted the image of a dark hero and someone else replied “then they should have a transformation.” The battle team was like “but he already has three fighting styles!”

· At first the transformed state was less useful than fighting normally, so they removed staggering when transformed but added a time limit

Other characters

· Anabuki wanted Gaius to be strong since he was the previous game’s last boss, but simply making him stronger than the rest would break the balance

· There was a lot of arguing about his special ability

· They also had a lot of ideas about Muzét but settled for emergency wrap because she can fly around freely

· They increased the speed at which Rowen threw knives to make him less defenseless

Trivia

They picked Cless and Stahn as cameo because they were cameo costumes in the first game; then they added Mint and Rutee

They like the cameo ending, they feel it’s like a 4koma

At the beginning, the animation team made an animation of Ludger prostrating himself, but it wasn’t used. There’s always a number of gestures that don’t make it into the final product

Takizawa cleared everything on Unknown

Scenario team – Yamamoto, Hasegawa & Hori

[Note: Yamamoto was the main scenario writer of X2 (as well as H, Z and B); in X1 he worked on sub events]

Settings

· They picked the story of Maxwell and Kresnik from the first game and developed it further as a base for X2

· They were careful not to make it look like the previous game’s story wasn’t complete or to make it sound like the previous game’s conflict was lighter than the sequel’s

· There was a request from the planning team to make up a different system, so that’s how they came up with the choice system and having the protag be a player self-insert

· However, leaving him without expression or personality would be too un-Tales-like, so that’s how he ended up like he is in the game

· It was decided from the start to change the protag because Jude and Milla’s story was over

· Since the first game was heavily focused on Rieze Maxia, they made this game from the pov of Elympios

On separating main story and character episodes

· Part of the new system idea

· You get to know the characters more in their chara eps and that can influence the main story a bit

· They’d planned on adding bonus scenes from the start; they added more than expected

Fractured dimensions

· Represent the power of choice (as they show how history would be if different choices had been made)

· Also as a way to catch X1 players’ interest

· Yamamoto’s favorite FD is Victor’s dimension because it’s full of suspense; in chara eps it’s the one with Nachtigal. Hori’s were the ones with the Chimeriad because he had wanted them to survive so that was a way to see them again. Hasegawa’s were the ones in Leia’s and Alvin’s chara eps.

· They redid Leia’s episode entirely, giving a bigger role to her boss as a result

· The target audience for X2 is a bit older than X1, so that’s why they show stuff like relationships between boss and employee, it adds a touch of realism and can make adult players empathize

Ludger and Elle

· Elle is at the center of the story. She is both a trouble bringer and a source of strength for the main character

· They wanted the last choice to be heavy, choosing between Elle and Ludger/the player themselves

· No choice is more correct than the other. While Jude etc were heroes who saved the worlds in the first game, they didn’t need for Ludger to be a hero at all cost – that’s for the player to decide with the choices

· The Julius ending was Hori’s idea. He wanted people to feel that it was a valid choice

· Choosing means eliminating the other possibility. Nothing changes if you don’t choose, you can’t go forward. That’s why they didn’t include the option to save both

· If it had been a shonen manga, everyone would be happy at the end, but they wanted an older target audience for this game, which meant burdening Ludger with difficult choices

· The two joke endings were added for more Tales-like fun. The cameo ending was requested by the planning team

· It’s just for fun though so they don’t consider the cameo “happy end” valid because it glosses over the main story’s drama

New characters

· It was hard to find balance on Gaius because he tends to solve things himself if you let him, but here he needed to have a support role

· They liked showing a more casual side to him, as well as his relationship with the Chimeriad

· Muzét didn’t really have evil intent (in the first game), it was more that she went out of control. Bc she had a hard time in X1 and since X2 had a heavy story, they decided to focus on light-hearted scenes with her

· Fractured Milla was created to show the player what fractured dimensions were in a straightforward manner

· They also wanted to surprise the players by giving her a completely different personality

· At first, she was just created as a step to bring prime Milla back, but they decided to give her a bigger role because they grew attached to her

· At first, they came up with half a dozen personalities for her before settling on one (tsundere)

· They picked a cat for a mascot because there were cat lovers among the staff

· It’s hard to have an animal move around during events, to they made him a fat cat so he wouldn’t move too much

· Ludger’s hair is silver like his father’s, and the black part is dyed

· Nova’s meche is because she saw Auj Oule women (it’s a cultural thing there) and she wanted to imitate Rieze Maxia’s fashion

Discarded ideas

· Julius’ was supposed to be Ludger’s mother at first, but they thought an older brother character would be more popular. His overprotectiveness is remnants of his motherly role

· Yamamoto wanted Bisley to use a gun and have a scene where Ludger transformed and avoided the bullets, so Bisley would go “that slow thing is useless” and discard the gun before transforming himself and punch faster than the gun fired bullets

· He also wanted a scene where Bisley showed up to the last dungeon in a car saying “Sorry for the wait”

· Anyway Bisley is really Yamamoto’s favorite XD

· Nova and Vera had a very small role originally but Nova grew as a character who cheers Ludger up when he worries about his debt

· She was originally just there to provide information; in the original idea, she was also originally in love with Ludger, not Julius, and would be irritated at Julius for causing Ludger trouble

· They didn’t expect her to even show up at the hot spring

From staff comments in the World Guidance book

· At first the debt was supposed to come from Ludger having to take responsibility for the Oscore incident

· Anabuki drew the wanted posters

· They call Kanbalar Edo lmao

· They’d originally planned to have an ending where Ludger gives up in ch.14

· The imagery of butterflies is associated to the Key of Kresnik (Elle’s hat design, Bisley’s wings in his chromatus form…)

· Jude was introduced early to cover for Ludger’s lack of lines

· They considered having him oppose Ludger at first (abt destroying the dimensions) and eventually join the party

· They decided to keep the old cast’s personalities as they were in the first game’s epilogue, but made an exception for Elize, who matured a bit in between

· They originally wanted to show Muzét regret her actions of the first game, but her chara eps took another direction

· Fractured Milla was originally simply a gimmick to show the cruelty of fractured dimensions, but her role got bigger

· They had templates for her

· A hidden thema of the extra episode is to restore Ivar’s honor

· Ideas for Rollo: Julius’ disguise, Chronos’ true form. But he ended up as a regular cat in the end

· The dungeon in ch.10 was meant as a homage to past titles

· Since the game is aimed at adults, “immorality” and “irrationality” were key themes of the first ideas

· Some character design rough sketches are dated as far back as March 2011 (the first game came out in September 2011)

Past translations:

Unused ideas for plot, fractured dimensions, Ludger & Julius episode, and fractured Milla personalities.

Staff comments about the fractured dimensions featuring the Chimeriad.

Interview with Daigo Okumura.

Interview with Takashi Kondo.