Tear Jerker / Tales of Xillia 2

Warning: Spoilers Off applies to these pages. Please proceed at your own risk.

Being Darker and Edgier, this game is even sadder than the first one.

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Story Events

• The scene introducing Elle and Victor has Elle basically watching her father being gunned down and with her screaming for him while the boat she was on drives away after Victor cuts the lines so Elle can escape to safety. While it is revealed he survived during Chapter 10, it was heartwrenching to see Elle screaming for her father.
• The first time they head into a fractured dimension, though they don't know it yet. The train is still being hijacked by Julius, but instead of Vera and Bisley, the party meets Nova and her boss. After the ensuing battle with the Julius of this fractured dimension, you're told to kill your brother - and no matter what you do, he will kill Nova and her boss.
• Alternate Milla's death. Even if the game makes it obvious from miles away, it's still horrible. During the chapter, her level up and victory quotes change, reflecting her depressed nature.
  Alt Milla: I don't belong here...
  • And during the chapter, she finally asks Jude why he's distant towards her ^note In the Japanese version, he even refers to her as 'Milla-san' and gets curious about him. Jude reveals that his father used to be part of Exodus and Milla quickly puts two and two together.
    Alt Milla: I must have killed my world's Jude when he was a baby...
  • What happens just prior to her death. Rideaux is attacking Elle, but Ludger can't move since he's holding Alternate Milla and preventing her from falling into the abyss. Both of the options chosen are horrible.
    • Choose to let go immediately and Alternate Milla will stare at Ludger (and the player) in hurt disbelief.
    • Keep holding her hand and she asks Ludger to let go, so he can save Elle. Then Alternate Milla decides to let go herself, asking Ludger to please take care of Elle. She also meets Milla while falling in the abyss and says "I knew I wouldn't like you".
    • Ludger actually tells Alternate Milla to hold on, since she promised to cook the soup Elle likes so much. Just before letting go, Alternate Milla says that Ludger will be the one who has to cook it in her stead.
  • The worst comes that her death, and the entire chapter, is a Call-Back to Xillia and how Milla died in that game, too. It once again is a very bleak level, takes place on a ship that is run by Exodus and ends with Alternate Milla sacrificing herself, just like Milla had done before.
• The chapter Elle and I is one huge tear jerker and a Break the Cutie for Elle. Elle finally makes it back home to her father, Victor, who actually seems like a pleasant fellow. After making Ludger and the others dinner and tucking Elle in for a nap, he reveals that he's actually a divergence catalyst and the final waymarker for Canaan which means you'll have to kill him. That's not the only sad part though, it's the fact that Victor is this world's version of Ludger and he has completely lost his mind to the point of thinking his Elle is the "fake Elle" and that he needs to be reborn in the prime dimension to reunite with the "real Elle". Elle walks in on the group fighting and halfway through the battle she starts screaming for them to stop. After you kill Victor and go back to the prime dimension, Ludger takes Elle back to Drellin to let her rest and makes her dinner, at which point she completely breaks down. Poor kid.
• The duel between Julius and Ludger. Ludger has to kill his brother, so he can create a soulbridge and get to Canaan to save Elle. And Julius is humming the Hymn of Proof as he's dying. The battle music during the duel also contains the Hymn of Proof melody.
  • The information that comes from the supplementary materials makes this worse: A sacrifice isn't actually needed to create a soulbridge, Chronos is supposed to create it after someone has collected the Waymarkers. The only reason sacrifices became a common ritual was because someone who did the trial long ago misunderstood and thought a sacrifice was necessary. Meaning Julius, Rideaux, and a bunch of other people died for nothing!
• All of the endings, actually, as there is no real happy ending.
  • The Bad Ending. Realizing that he cannot kill his brother, the party leaves him to collect himself, while heading off to confront Julius themselves. They need to get into Canaan and Julius told them that, if Ludger can't do it, they should. Ludger realizes what's going on and rushes over to stop them. Desperate to keep Julius alive, Ludger repeatedly denies going through with it and begging for there to be another way; when Gaius raises his sword, Ludger completely snaps and attacks the entire party. The ensuing battle pitches Ludger against the Xillia cast, who are all begging for him to stop before he kills them. After, Julius sees Ludger covered in blood and his own divergence catalyst transformation is progressing, to the point that it creeps onto his face. Ludger realizes that he just killed his friends to keep his brother alive, who may not have that much time left... and then Julius admits that this might be the world he wanted, too. A world, where Ludger had forsaken everything for him.
    Julius: You threw everything away... for me?
  • The Ending where Elle becomes the millionth catalyst. Ludger doesn't want her to do this, but Elle is resigned to it because she's not the 'real Elle'. Years later, Ludger is the new CEO of the Spirius Corporation and meets Elle's mother. While it has a hopeful note to it that Elle will be born, after the events of the game and the drama of the two Millas, it feels hollow because it won't be 'this' Elle.
  • The Ending where Ludger becomes the millionth catalyst. Intent on saving Elle, Ludger transforms again into his full Chromatus form to make himself turn into a divergence catalyst. While Elle begs him to not do this, since she's willing to die for being a fractured dimension's Elle, Rowen points something out to her: Ludger isn't doing this for the prime dimension's Elle or any of the other Elles out there. He's doing it for the one he knew, for the Elle who became friend and family to him. And Ludger vanishes while humming the Hymn of Proof to her.
  • In both of the above endings, Muzét and Milla's time in the Human Realm is up and they need to return to the Spirit Realm. This time, probably for good. Milla leaves silently and Muzét gives Gaius' hand a quick brush as a silent goodbye before they disappear, with nobody looking.

Character Episodes

• Muzét's Character Episodes in general, because they mostly revolve around her trying to figure out how to become close to the party, the way they are with Milla.
  • Her 2nd Episode has her going out of her way to create gifts for each of the party members. Upon being presented with the gift, their immediate reaction is to distrust her, talk about how ugly the gift is and even wondering if she's trying to curse them. Ouch! Thanks for nothing.
    • Even worse, immediately after, Muzét's sitting around and looking serene, but thanks to the Yakkety Strap, Ludger can hear her thoughts. And she's admonishing herself to not cry.
  • Her 4th Episode involves Muzét planning a monster attack in Marksburg, so she can pull a Big Damn Heroes moment off and get admired and liked by the party. Unfortunately, the monster proves to be stronger and things backfire. Then the party asks if this is Muzét's doing and what the hell she was thinking. She's near tears at this point.

• Alvin's Character Episodes seem to mostly revolve around breaking him down and making him feel bad. In his 2nd Episode, his business with Yurgens is flourishing, but the ore they work with is the divergence catalyst. And just before destroying it, this dimension's Yurgens catches up to them and calls Alvin a betrayer for lying to him. And in the 3rd Episode, it also leads to Yurgens cutting his partnership with Alvin, because he knows it won't work out.

• Rowen's first Chapter, in which the catalyst turns out to be Sonny, the chancellor's loyal sentient cat. The fact that you have to kill a cute talking cat with glasses (that can transform into a catalyst monster, but still...) that did nothing to anyone beyond attacking in self defense is bad enough, but his dying words before you deliver the final blow make it all the more heartbreaking:
  Sonny: [to Rowen] I see... You're the person (my owner) was talking about... Please promise me that after I'm gone, you'll always there for her... Please do this for me...

• During one of Elize's character episodes you chase a group of terrorists into a mine. With the Elympios and Rieze Maxia forces closing in, the party decides to go in and talk the terrorists down to avoid further bloodshed. Elize manages to convince the terrorists to turn themselves in and promises to talk the chancellor into showing them mercy. In the end, despite both Rowen and Elize's pleas for mercy to the chancellor, the terrorists are taken in and set to be executed because it is the law. Thus begins the first of many painful lessons Elize will learn over the course of the game.

Fractured Dimensions

• The fractured dimension you enter upon Gaius joining your party. In this dimension, Gaius has abdicated the throne and Wingul took over the leadership in Kanbalar. And according to the NPCs, Wingul is pretty much an isolated dictator. And then you meet Wingul and learn, that Karla was terminally ill in this dimension and Gaius considered abdicating the throne to take care of her. Wingul begged her to try to convince Gaius to not do so, which caused Karla to commit suicide... which caused Gaius such grief that he abdicated the throne, anyway, and Wingul took over. Not out of duty to Gaius, but because out of genuine friendship. Knowing that, it makes Wingul's death in the prime dimension much more tragic in hindsight.

• Gaius' 2nd Character Episode has him travel to a fractured dimension where he isn't King yet and encounters the Chimeriad, who fight him when they realize he is not the Erston they know. They do make it clear that they consider him a close friend of theirs, which not only makes Gaius realize how the Chimeriad must have thought of him as a friend in the prime dimension, too, and feels worse about their deaths.

• One fractured dimension shows that, Agria actually taking Leia's hand at the Nia Khera Hallowmont, resulted in the two of them becoming friends and even working on journalistic stories together. Though it's more along the lines of Vitriolic Best Buds, it shows that Agria's twisted world-view could have been improved.

• A fractured dimension in Rowen's Character Episodes shows that King Nachtigal became a Good King instead of the Tyrant he originally was. All because of a hairpin of his sister's, a memento, and her words to always be true to himself. He even reveals that Rowen was rather happily married to Carrie, before she died. Rowen is shaken to learn that his old friend was this close to being redeemable in the original dimension, but is happy to know that their friendship remained on good terms in this world.

• Alvin's 4th Episode has a fractured dimension that brings them to just before the events at the Nia Khera Hallowmont. They see him, Presa and Agria head off and notice that Presa is wearing a ring: she and Alvin are engaged in this dimension and the ring is the divergence catalyst. When Alvin asks her back for it, Presa throws it in his face and demands to know if everything they had shared was a lie... then this dimension's Alvin comes across them and demands to know what's going on. In the chaos, Presa throws herself in front of Alvin and gets shot by the other Alvin, only to die in our Alvin's arms. One line that Alvin snaps at his other self hits close to how much he hates his past self and wants to improve.
  Alvin: It's not "don't you trust me"! You should say "I want you to believe me"!

• One of the fractured dimensions visited during Milla's Character Episodes involves a world where spirit worship has largely died out, even in Nia Khera, and Ivar is mocked by the other villagers for still adhering to the old ways. And his greatest wish is to meet Maxwell. After the party saves Ivar and two children, who previously mocked him, at the Nia Khera Hallowmont, Ivar realizes who Milla is and begs her to allow him to become her handmaid. Milla barely glances at him before the dimension is destroyed.
  Milla: I'm sorry. We won't ever meet again.

• The fractured dimension that involves the Epsilla Ruins. It turns out that the ruins are a Matrix of the people of an old civilization that willingly digitalized their data, in the hope of being found and resurrected one day. And Odin, the one in charge of protecting the ruins and data, has been doing so for 90.000 years. Unfortunately, he is the divergence catalyst and needs to be destroyed. It gets worse when Odin reveals that a different fractured dimension's version of the party had just fought him themselves, but lost and their data was digitalized. And that party thought their dimension was the prime one, too. After the dimension is destroyed, the knowledge that this civilization is probably also in the prime dimension, but completely inaccessible because the ruins have collapsed, just makes it more heartbreaking.

• Elize's 4th Character Episode features a dimension where Jiao actually adopted her, instead of giving her over for Booster research. When it's revealed that Yurgens is in cahoots with some poachers, Elize manages to convince Jiao to not kill him and realizes that Jiao is the divergence catalyst. They follow him into the Sapsrath Woods, only to see that he has killed the poachers and Yurgens, because they tried to blackmail him for letting them go. After fighting him, Jiao's final words lament that he wasn't able to give Elize what she wanted: a bunniekins doll, which turns out to be made with the fur of the endangered monster species that the guys were poaching. Jiao even calls Elize his 'sun, moon and stars'. It's clear that Elize still sees him as a Parental Substitute, so watching him die again, especially when she now knows that things could have been better, makes it worse.

• The fractured dimension of Chapter 12 is filled with these.
  • Spyrite technology has actually flourished in this dimension, but Jude was killed shortly after completing it, meaning he couldn't even see how the world changed after his hard work.
  • It's an off-hand comment by an NPC, but this dimension reveals that Gaius is the sole survivor of the mass murder of the Xillia cast. But he is crippled, to the point that he cannot even stand, which is a Fate Worse than Death to him. One of Gaius' comments in the prime dimension was his existence as King leaving him to live in a solitary existence. In this dimension, he's crippled, betrayed and alone.
  • Even poor Driselle isn't spared. She's still alive, but she has become a recluse and refuses to see anyone, locking herself in her mansion and focusing solely on work. Because every person she considered family is dead. Even worse, she was the one to identify Rowen's body and likely those of the others, in whatever state Victor left their bodies in.
  • One of the biggest is Victor's death. After learning that he's this Elle's father, he's also this dimension's version of Ludger and was the one who killed the party years ago. Elle screams at the party mid-boss fight to stop, but Victor is still killed. As he's dying, he sees that Elle has begun to turn into a divergence catalyst herself, the very thing he had hoped to prevent. With his plan foiled and goal broken, Victor holds Elle close and smiles, humming her lullaby.
  • Post-dimension, there is the skit 'Idealism And Reality' in which Jude actually wonders if he needs to die for Spyrite technology to work out. Call it overdramatic, but that a 16 year old is wondering that, especially a rather happy-go-lucky guy like Jude, is pretty disturbing.

• The fractured dimension Ludger gets pulled into, after his duel with Julius. It's perfectly happy! Jude's Spyrite technology is succeeding; Leia is an accomplished reporter; Alvin and Yurgens' business is flourishing and Gaius and Rowen's campaign for peace among nations is going swimmingly. And Julius and Ludger are living just fine, with Ludger even being a popular chef at the train station. Sadly, Julius is the divergence catalyst and Ludger needs to technically kill his brother a second time. Rollo's cry at that point will feel like needles pushed into your heart.
  Julius: I wish I could have eaten Pasta Magherita one last time.

Other

• In supplementary material, it's revealed that Julius, at the age of thirteen, killed Ludger's mother in selfdefense. He had found her and Ludger on accident and Claudia, convinced that Bisley had sent him to take Ludger away, went Mama Bear Mode on him. Ludger was only five at the time and witnessing this has caused him to repress it, so he can't even remember his mother anymore. And poor Claudia only tried to protect her son from Origin's Trial and the entire screwed up Kresnik clan, which is what caused the death of her older sister, Julius' mother.

• A sidequest has the party find Julius Catstantine III for Marx. Apparently, the man had been helping Julius out over the years and even named his cat after him. The cat is pretty much the only family he has left, after his daughters died about twenty years ago. It's only implied, but it's clear that this man is Julius and Ludger's grandfather and his daughters were their mothers. Poor guy is meeting his second grandchild and can't even admit it.

• One of Vera's sidequests has her talk about how Bisley has been placing Princessia flowers on his wife's grave for the last twenty years. She also mentions that this will be the first year he's doing this for his sister-in-law's grave, too, who vanished shortly after his wife died. Bisley found out about Ludger and knew that the only reason Julius would be taking care of him, is if Claudia were dead.

• Pretty much the fates of everyone in the fractured dimensions who have to die/disappeared so the prime dimension can survive and flourish. Most of the inhabitants only major crime is that they are born in a fractured dimension and almost all of them have no clue about that fact. They could had live normal lives and all of sudden they are gone when a Chromatus User destroys the catalyst or when Origin grants Ludger's or Elle's wish of destroying all fractured dimensions wiping them off the face of existence.