Famitsu magazine has a big spread on Tales of Xillia this month, revealing a great wealth of information about the game's recently announced characters, some keywords about its story and its battle system.
Keywords
*Liese Maxia - The world where Tales of Xillia's story takes place, a world where humans and monsters coexist with spirits. The spirits are known to support the human civilization, and some are able to even see them if they somehow manage to obtain a solid form.
*Spirit Arts - People in this world have the ability to utilize mana through spirit power (which they are calling "Gate" here). It's a rather common thing in the world, and is used to light houses or power ships and such.
*Spirit Maxwell - The Elemental Spirit or Master of Spirits, Maxwell, is said to watch over the coexistence of humans and spirits in this world. The truth about its true identity is a mystery, however.
*Great Country La Shugall (romanization unofficial, romaji is Ra Shugaru) - One of the great countries vying for supremacy within Liese Maxia. It is a historical country currently engaging in research regarding the spirits. Its king city, Il Fan (il fan, the city of the night) is the world's largest metropolis, erected with dazzling buildings and the people are allowed free use of Spirit Arts. In recent years, the strength of the dictatorship from a foreign invasion has been increasing, having become aristocratic representatives by title. (unsure of the translation, it was a bit hard to make out)
*Developing Country A Jule (romanization unofficial, romaji is A Juuru) - Since its founding, it has been known as a small country with a charisma of a small population in some frontier northward. Its means of livelihood is controlling monsters and is also being used by its military, giving it a somewhat peculiar culture.
Next up is some information about the two main characters, Jude and Mira:
Character Information:
---- Jude Mathis (VA: Yonaga Tsubasa, Chara Designer: Kosuke Fujishima)
-- Age: 15; Height: 163cm
-- Of his own volition, he left his hometown and is now training in a hospital at the metropolis Il Fan. He is usually a calm and composed boy, but may tend to be suddenly impulsive at times. He usually finds himself in little disputes due to his somewhat meddlesome behavior.
-- One day, a number of people are sent to the hospital due to a backfiring of a Spirit Arts. Upon doing an investigation on what may have caused the failure at a military laboratory, he meets Mira. He feels great adoration for Mira, who seems to have some sort of special mission, so he believes he can be of use to her.
---- Mira Maxwell (VA: Sawashiro Miyuki, Chara Designer: Mutsumi Inomata)
-- Age: 20; Height: 168cm (OH HEY MIRA'S TALLER)
-- She is able to summon all four spirits, and actually claims to be the Maxwell. She claims to have been enshrined in the mountains, but has come to the military lab upon sensing the annihilation of large numbers of spirits.
-- When it comes to fulfilling her duty of watching over the world, she shows no hesitation and is disgusted by those with no sense of responsibility. Though being someone of the spirits' intellect, she has no idea how to live as a human, making her quite interested in matters about humans and its civilization. In fact, she feels no hunger because mana is basically her energy source. Normally though, she is an honest person and a natural airhead.
Lastly, we have a little bit of information about the game's battle system:
Battle System:
* Technical Points (TP) - Will be used in the game.
* Assault Counter (AC) - This newly introduced system is used up during performing normal attacks. Your attacks will remain connected as long as your AP isn't 0. It's kind of similar to CC, in a way, though attacks will only consume 1 AP. In example, having 10 AP can have you performing 10 consecutive attacks.
Other Information:
* Game is 60% complete.
* Aside from the opening, ufotable will also be in charge of around 30 minutes worth of anime scenes.
We'll be putting up scans in this post as they become available.