The last time we heard news about Tales of Xillia, it was when the Tales of Festival 2011 trailers went live. This week we have a new batch of scans which showcases some new characters and gameplay mechanics.

The game 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.

The first two scan shows two of the characters that were present in the trailers from last week. The first character is the older man with the cross-shaped scar. His name is Nachtigal I. Fan and he is voiced by Hōchū Ōtsuka. He is the current king of La Schugall. The other man is named Ibal and is voiced by Showtaro Morikubo. He is a servant of sorts for Milla.

The other two scans show off some of the game's gameplay mechanics. The first scan shows off the 360-degree camera viewpoint ability which was previously theorized based on numerous images Namco Bandai had released of the game. Search points inside dungeons have also been confirmed.

The other scan shows off a new Shop Build system, which evolves the previous shop "materials" system employed in Tales of Vesperia. By bringing materials to shops the shops themselves can be upgraded, which gives cheaper prices and even new items depending on what level the shop reaches.

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.

(Apologies for the unusual lateness in posting this article due to the events of E3 this week.)