The North American Producer for Tales of Xillia put up a blog post earlier this month saying that voice acting for the 2013 title was finished, bringing the game that much closer to release.
What does it mean for Tales fans? Well, voice acting is one of the biggest road blocks to an international release. Other than localization (think of all the text that needs to be translated), it’s also one of the most time-consuming, as the producer notes in the post:
Eight hours of voice recording across an eight week span, filled with late nights catching up on emails, proofing, and preparation for the following day. It’s a grueling process that’s both physically and mentally taxing. Despite this, it was a fantastic experience, thanks to the support from Cup of Tea, 8-4, and the voice actors. I might be looking through rose-tinted glasses, but you won’t find a better group of people.
So it sounds like things went well. Unfortunately, this news didn’t come with an actual release date for the game, nor any information about who’s doing the English voices (bring back Cam Clarke!). But it’s still a step in the right direction, and it leaves me hoping that we might see Xillia sometime in the spring of next year.
Gray Areas 
Good news!. After all, I don’t really care about the voice acting (gimme japanese vocals for all I care), just make sure there are subtitles. Of course, I do appreciate well performed voice acting if there is one. Symphonia is a good mention. It’s just not something you’d have high expectations for in North America. 😦
I have these dreams that the voice acting for Xillia will be good, but…Graces was a mixed bag. Richard might be the worst-voiced character in the entire series. So…I’m certainly keeping my expectations low.