The whole chat and/or skit system is quite popular with the Tales of Series. This time, Tales of Xillia takes it up a notch by applying three different chat systems in the game. We have four new scans from VJump: the first two scans focus on the three new chat systems, while the two latter tell us a bit more about how Lohen joins the party.
The game's well-known chat system will supposedly consist of three, collectively known as the Tales of Xillia 3-Chat System.
First off is the Fighting Chat, wherein the characters converse in the middle of a battle with their face images appearing up on the upper left part of the screen in a cut-in like manner. However, it seems the art for Fighting Chat is not animated to talk. One way they can be triggered is when you switch control from one character to that of the other using the D-pad (similar to that of Tales of Graces'). This character switch feature is not allowed to be used on dead characters.
The second one, the Long Chats, is the type of chatting/skits we are all familiar with from the Tales of Series. In this case, they opted to use the box-style skit faces, similar to that in Tales of Vesperia and Tales of Symphonia.
The last one, the Short Chats, are chats that will come up automatically when in dungeons or towns, with its text appearing on the lower left of the screen. There's also a small image of the character's head that is performing the short chat. In my opinion, the chat art is currently looking very impressive, especially the ones from the Fighting Chat. Ufotable has done a great job on this.
Now, for new info on Lohen J. Ilbert. Lohen is 62 years old and 175cm tall, and he is apparently also a user of the spirit artes. He uses these artes for long distance attacks and uses his saber, which looks like a beam saber, for close-range attacking. He also carries throwing knives with him. For his special ability, he can control artes after they have been cast, such as letting the Splash spell move around on the battle field.
He is a butler of an esteemed family from La Shugall. Though he usually has a gentle expression on his face, he can occasionally give off a sharp intense feeling through the glint of his eyes. He is very knowledgeable about everything and is very good at making rational judgments depending on the state of affairs. He's basically a brainy character.
When Jude and the others happen to visit the town of Karaha Schall (????????, karaha shaaru) in La Shugall, they stumble upon Lady Droselle (?????, durosseru), the younger sister of the Lord of the Schall family, and Lohen, the butler. Because of that, they are able to gain an invitation into the Lord's mansion, and they do get to meet this Lord, named Crayn (????, kurein). However, it seems the Lord knows that they are being pursued by the military. After various happenings, Lohen joins the party, and they head for some cave that is said to have a flame with a mysterious light.
