Last month we got our first look at the new Link Artes system in Tales of Xillia but didn't get any mention of the series staple Mystic Artes. That changes this week as new scans have been released revealing just that alongside a few new non-playable characters.

Tales of Xillia will utilize the contrast between light and shadow, which will lead to the game having a different art style direction than Vesperia's anime-style graphics or Graces's watercolor-style graphics (it could be more of a hand-painted or oil painting-like feel if the concept artwork is any indication). Baba stated that when he saw some of the concept artwork images running on actual hardware he was very impressed.

Looking at the scan it appears that Tales of Xillia is using a cut-in style similar to that of Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology 3 with a partial-body character cutout, although it includes a glow around the character this time. Since this is a static clip it's not known if the artwork animates in any way and the scan doesn't seem to mention it either. For those wondering what the Mystic Arte is, it appears to be Final Fury (the localized name for Satsugeki Bukouken).

The new scan also reveals those mystery characters we saw in the third Tales of Xillia trailer. Here's the low-down on the characters going from left-to-right in the scan (note that these are translated versions of the names and we'll get the official names once the official website updates):

- Bresa (Rina Satō)
- Agria (Maaya Sakamoto, otherwise known as the Japanese voice for Lightning in Final Fantasy XIII)
- Wingal (Hidenobu Kiuchi)
- Jiao (Ryūzaburō Ōtomo)

They all work under Gaius's command and are known collectively in the game's world as The Fauves.

In addition, another scan was released that seems to indicate that the Star Driver DLC that as of before only featured Jude and Milla will be for all of the other remaining playable characters. The full scan hasn't came out yet so this can't be verified but apparently the DLC will be available on the same day, September 8, as the game's release and each costume will sell individually for 500 Yen. No word on if there's a special bundle price to order all of them together, however.

Tales of Xillia will be released on September 8 in Japan exclusively on the PS3. No word has been given on a North American or European release.

UPDATE (8/8): The other remaining Tales of Xillia Star Driver DLC costume scans have been added.

UPDATE (8/6): The full scan has been added along with some more news about the Tales of Xillia Star Driver DLC costumes.