Tales Series・Figures・Tales of Xillia

Tales (known as "Tales of" in Japan) is a franchise of fantasy role-playing video games (RPG) by Bandai Namco Entertainment. Debuting in 1995 with Tales of Phantasia for the Super Famicom, the brand currently spans 16 main titles, multiple spin-off games and supplementary media in the form of manga, anime and audio dramas. The series can be divided into two main categories; the Mothership titles develop the main plot, while the Escort titles (also called spin-off titles) focus on side-stories. Tales of the World is a sub-series under the Escort title and heavily emphasizes the crossover appearances of characters from past games.

The fictional plot of Tales of Xillia is set two millennia ago, when humans developed spyrix, a power source which absorbs spirits to supply power. In response, a spirit called Maxwell gathered humans who share a symbiotic relationship with spirits onto an isolated land protected by a barrier. This isolated land became known as Rieze Maxia and the outer lands are Elympios. As spirits are needed in order to sustain nature, Maxwell waits for the day all humans on Elympios die off before dispelling the barrier. 20 years prior to present-day in the game, an Elympion cruise ship becomes trapped in Rieze Maxia, eventually causing the formation of a terrorist group called Exodus. Exodus works with the Elympios military to find a way to destroy the barrier. In the present era, Rieze Maxia is ruled by two countries called Rashugal and Auj Oule. While these two countries appear to live in harmony, they both initiate black operations in attempts to conquer the other in hopes of uniting Rieze Maxia as a single country.

Tales of Xillia consists primarily of two major areas: the field map and the battle screen. The field map is a realistically scaled 3D environment where the player character traverses and interacts with non-player characters, items, or mob avatars. On the field map, character interactions between the party can also be viewed in the form of a sketch story. Sketch stories are referred to as skits and consist of animated portraits and voice acting. When coming into contact with a mob avatar, the environment switches to the battle screen, a 3D representation of an area in which the player commands the characters in battles against the CPU-controlled mobs.