coining the term "xenoblade syndrome" for when people think something is the peak of the medium because they haven't engaged with the medium all that much
i walk into a dark room and get jumped by various twitter dot com users who have their favourite VNs listed in their bio. i am taken to a remote warehouse in which i am forced to watch anime that are good if you read the light novels and I soon die of clogged arteries after eating "kino flakes", all for the crime of not getting down with this game.
If i was there none of this would've happened. I'd have simply intervened.
the Xenoblade fandom is the prototype for the Persona 5 fandom but y'all aren't ready for that conversation yet
The combat is fun enough and the world is beautiful but the story has nothing remotely interesting to say and is just a series of tropes you've seen a thousand times before arranged in a sequence. But, like, in a way that's usually pretty fun.
Things don't have to be great to be good.
The combat is fun enough and the world is beautiful but the story has nothing remotely interesting to say and is just a series of tropes you've seen a thousand times before arranged in a sequence. But, like, in a way that's usually pretty fun.
Things don't have to be great to be good.
Xenoblade Chronicles will definitely be remembered as a classic or all time great. To me, it is more of a flawed masterpiece. An amazing story, world, characters, battle system, and music - but dragged down by some of the most dragged out pacing I've experienced. While the combat gets really amazing and satisfying, it kind of starts off dull and boring until you reach the 50% mark where battles become interesting and challenging. The biggest flaw here is the side questing system. Every side quest is a tedious fetch quest that has no substance and there are literally hundreds of them, which you pretty much need to do if you want to stay decently levelled for the main game - unless you grind out monsters which is even worse. There can sometimes be stretches of up to 10 hours of side questing before you continue the main story. Unfortunately this is no small flaw and without this, Xenoblade would be an easy 10. The amount of grind here drags it down so much. On the flip-side literally everything else is 10/10. I cannot praise enough how much I enjoy the main story aspects of this game.
nothing new under the sun but sometimes nothing is fresh either
i don’t mind a story cobbled together from decades of tired tropes; sometimes you want that kind of comfort food, and Xenoblade Chronicles presents what it has really well for the most part. The game is beautiful, the art and character designs just generally pleasant, the music slaps hard basically throughout, and despite the absurd size of the game, it hums along at a pleasant pace for mmmmmmmmost of it.
BUT there is a but and the but is big
I think partially because the game is SO big and partially because the tropes are SO cliche and partially because the play is SO shallow, the whole experience ends up feeling simultaneously exhausting and slight?
It doesn’t help that despite the game’s size there’s a lot of stuff in the story that still feels underdeveloped. Reyn and Riki basically have nothing going on. There are party member relationship events but VERY few of them, which makes sense given the number of combinations and size of the party, but less given the length of the game and size of the world. Lategame societies are underdeveloped despite being the most interesting wrinkle to the established lore.
Combat is similar. While there’s theoretically a lot going on, with stats to track, many equipment and ability types unique to every character, and just like too much shit on the screen, every combat encounter boils down to getting aggro off your dps and hitting the enemies from behind with whatever you’ve got cooking. Despite your myriad options and the genuine fun I had tinkering with move sets, none of that stuff really mattered most of the time in terms of how I was actually playing, and by the 2/3rd mark combat and sidequesting were tedious endeavors.
Most of this complaining comes from burnout though, I think. I expect to look back on the game fondly once the experience fades and I mostly recall cutscenes and wandering around maps over the majority of what I spent doing in them. It’s just hard right now for me to ignore how damningly faint that praise is.
i don’t mind a story cobbled together from decades of tired tropes; sometimes you want that kind of comfort food, and Xenoblade Chronicles presents what it has really well for the most part. The game is beautiful, the art and character designs just generally pleasant, the music slaps hard basically throughout, and despite the absurd size of the game, it hums along at a pleasant pace for mmmmmmmmost of it.
BUT there is a but and the but is big
I think partially because the game is SO big and partially because the tropes are SO cliche and partially because the play is SO shallow, the whole experience ends up feeling simultaneously exhausting and slight?
It doesn’t help that despite the game’s size there’s a lot of stuff in the story that still feels underdeveloped. Reyn and Riki basically have nothing going on. There are party member relationship events but VERY few of them, which makes sense given the number of combinations and size of the party, but less given the length of the game and size of the world. Lategame societies are underdeveloped despite being the most interesting wrinkle to the established lore.
Combat is similar. While there’s theoretically a lot going on, with stats to track, many equipment and ability types unique to every character, and just like too much shit on the screen, every combat encounter boils down to getting aggro off your dps and hitting the enemies from behind with whatever you’ve got cooking. Despite your myriad options and the genuine fun I had tinkering with move sets, none of that stuff really mattered most of the time in terms of how I was actually playing, and by the 2/3rd mark combat and sidequesting were tedious endeavors.
Most of this complaining comes from burnout though, I think. I expect to look back on the game fondly once the experience fades and I mostly recall cutscenes and wandering around maps over the majority of what I spent doing in them. It’s just hard right now for me to ignore how damningly faint that praise is.
All the praise that you have heard about this series doesn't do it enough justice. It was amazing adventuring through the world of Bionis and Mechonis. No words can be said that can adequately describe how amazing the music of this game is. Lastly the story-telling is the magnum opus of video games truly. You're either a fan of Xenoblade or you just haven't played it yet really.
My first playthrough that took over 200 hours over a span of 16 months because of how much it took for me to get used to this game personally, so it was a very long journey for me but in the end for the second half, it nailed everything I wanted. The only thing I want to get out of the way is that the first half is very tough especially with this combat system I love and hate so I'll get that out of the way and how the traversal feels very stiff like Dark Souls 1 stiff. Nearing the second half of the game though, I'll say the combat gets better with having a lot of flexibility with party members and the pacing is way better. Getting most of my complaints out of the way, let's talk about the good stuff already.
I've seen some other reviews talking about how this is the worst revenge story of all time, and it seems they either didn't finish it or simply media illiterate when that wasn't the whole point of the story at all. One of the best immersive JRPGs ever and you could just feel yourself getting sucked in the world and feel the whole world around you. Not going into spoilers too much but the whole plot setting on where it takes place which is two titans and this is important to the story and contributes to the world and the second half where it really takes off is one of the most awesome shits ever and I'm glad I finished this shit to experience it, just raw as hell. Shulk is one of my favorite characters especially with the way they handled his character overall in this game was just really good and I ended up really loving him with the rest of the cast that is super lovable and comfortable. This game absolutely isn't perfect but not a lot of games can be, but this is definitely for me and too bad for people who dislike this.
I was reluctant at first in the first half and nearing second half where they were going with Shulks character and the story main message but I'm glad the way it went and did what I really love. Seizing our own future, decide for ourselves on what we want to do and not let someone else control our destiny's walking along with other people towards a new tomorrow. That title screen after you finish this game with the main menu music playing is a special moment.
"Today, we use our power to fell a God. And then, Seize our destiny."
I've seen some other reviews talking about how this is the worst revenge story of all time, and it seems they either didn't finish it or simply media illiterate when that wasn't the whole point of the story at all. One of the best immersive JRPGs ever and you could just feel yourself getting sucked in the world and feel the whole world around you. Not going into spoilers too much but the whole plot setting on where it takes place which is two titans and this is important to the story and contributes to the world and the second half where it really takes off is one of the most awesome shits ever and I'm glad I finished this shit to experience it, just raw as hell. Shulk is one of my favorite characters especially with the way they handled his character overall in this game was just really good and I ended up really loving him with the rest of the cast that is super lovable and comfortable. This game absolutely isn't perfect but not a lot of games can be, but this is definitely for me and too bad for people who dislike this.
I was reluctant at first in the first half and nearing second half where they were going with Shulks character and the story main message but I'm glad the way it went and did what I really love. Seizing our own future, decide for ourselves on what we want to do and not let someone else control our destiny's walking along with other people towards a new tomorrow. That title screen after you finish this game with the main menu music playing is a special moment.
"Today, we use our power to fell a God. And then, Seize our destiny."
This review contains spoilers
i wholeheartedly believe that xenoblade chronicles is this generation's final fantasy 7. a jrpg epic with an incredible cast with enjoyable dynamics between every character, and a story that will be praised to high hell for years, and very deservedly. you really don't know what you've gotten yourself into until the end and it's so good. my only complaints are that the jp dub is pretty bland but the english dub falls off in quality closer to the end, but otherwise xenoblade chronicles is a consistently amazing game from start to finish.
Xenoblade Chronicles is probably the japanese game with the most cliches and stereotyped things I've ever played. Seriously, the whole time I was playing it felt like I was watching some generic shounen anime that comes out all the time, with various tropes you've seen in exhaustion before, it was kind of nostalgic in a funny way, it reminded me a lot of when I used to watch a lot of seasonal anime as a teenager. I don't mind that kind of thing, really, one of my favorite games is Persona, which is extremely weeb and has many stereotypes and cliches of the genre, it's just that in the case of Xenoblade I feel that overall it's a game without much substance, it's quite shallow. I really can't get anything amazing out of it when it comes to the narrative or the characters, is a bit uninteresting most of the time.
But despite the simplicity of the story and characters and not very creative narrative choices, the story has its moments and a few characters are endearing and charismatic, I really liked Shulk, Dunban and Fiora (especially Fiora). I won't give too many details because I don't want to spoil anything, but I really liked the chemistry between the three of them and how the game works with their relationship, making it very believable that they are very close, it really is like a family, it's nothing extremely deep or complex, nor does it need to be, it's just captivating and well-developed and I liked it, and in the end it's hard not to get attached to the main characters. Not only that, but the atmosphere and soundtrack are simply incredible (this game didn't deserve Yoko Shimomura), so exploring the map was very relaxing and comfy, it really manages to convey the feeling of the immensity of that world and immerses you in it in a very pleasant way, and it's a very interesting world conceptually, I really thought the whole Bionis and Mechonis thing was super cool.
The combat is very fun and engaging too, although I didn't like the fact that the game gives you very little exp, forcing you to grind, and grinding in this game is a bit torturous since the main missions don't give you any exp and most of the side missions don't either. I did all the side missions that the game put in front of me before moving on to the main story and defeated literally every enemy that came my way, but it still wasn't enough and I found myself underleveled in most of the main boss fights, so all you can do is spend an abnormal amount of time killing enemies with a higher level than yours until you level up, classic grind moment and it's fucking boring.
I really hoped that I would finish this game and write a much longer and more interesting review, but it's just that there's not much to say about this game, but in the end it's a good game and it has its charm despite everything. I'm just disappointed, as I was expecting one of the best jrpg's ever made due to all the acclaim and praise from the fanbase, but it doesn't come close to being everything they say it is. I honestly think that the Xenoblade fans should play more games.
But despite the simplicity of the story and characters and not very creative narrative choices, the story has its moments and a few characters are endearing and charismatic, I really liked Shulk, Dunban and Fiora (especially Fiora). I won't give too many details because I don't want to spoil anything, but I really liked the chemistry between the three of them and how the game works with their relationship, making it very believable that they are very close, it really is like a family, it's nothing extremely deep or complex, nor does it need to be, it's just captivating and well-developed and I liked it, and in the end it's hard not to get attached to the main characters. Not only that, but the atmosphere and soundtrack are simply incredible (this game didn't deserve Yoko Shimomura), so exploring the map was very relaxing and comfy, it really manages to convey the feeling of the immensity of that world and immerses you in it in a very pleasant way, and it's a very interesting world conceptually, I really thought the whole Bionis and Mechonis thing was super cool.
The combat is very fun and engaging too, although I didn't like the fact that the game gives you very little exp, forcing you to grind, and grinding in this game is a bit torturous since the main missions don't give you any exp and most of the side missions don't either. I did all the side missions that the game put in front of me before moving on to the main story and defeated literally every enemy that came my way, but it still wasn't enough and I found myself underleveled in most of the main boss fights, so all you can do is spend an abnormal amount of time killing enemies with a higher level than yours until you level up, classic grind moment and it's fucking boring.
I really hoped that I would finish this game and write a much longer and more interesting review, but it's just that there's not much to say about this game, but in the end it's a good game and it has its charm despite everything. I'm just disappointed, as I was expecting one of the best jrpg's ever made due to all the acclaim and praise from the fanbase, but it doesn't come close to being everything they say it is. I honestly think that the Xenoblade fans should play more games.
A lot of what I can say about this has already been said by many others, it's definitely deserving of the praise it gets though. Replaying this 2 years later was an absolute joy, and it only got better after playing the previous Xeno games. Well-developed characters, one of the best gaming soundtracks, and beautifully improved graphics. The gameplay is pretty great although I do think it might not be for everyone, it will most likely get more manageable as you progress through the game though. Just downright one of the best JRPGs ever made.
One of my favourite games ever made. Xenoblade Chronicles takes place on the bodies of two massive titans, which are incredibly fun and interesting to explore. The Combat system is super fun once you get the hang of it and includes multiple difficulty options so everyone can play, and the story is incredible. Its super engaging from beginning to end and full of awesome plot twists and details. The only issue with the original game is id say the side quests are pretty boring and uninteresting, but for the most part that doesn't matter since you don't really need to grind in this game or need that much XP so you can pretty much just ignore them.
The Definitive edition tag isn't just for show either. The graphics and character models have been significantly upgraded, and the looks absolutely beautiful for being on the switch. many quality of life features are also included making it definitely live up to its name of being the definitive version to play.
If your even remotely interested in JRPG's or RPG's or story based games at all, Xenoblade Chronicles is an absolute must play.
The Definitive edition tag isn't just for show either. The graphics and character models have been significantly upgraded, and the looks absolutely beautiful for being on the switch. many quality of life features are also included making it definitely live up to its name of being the definitive version to play.
If your even remotely interested in JRPG's or RPG's or story based games at all, Xenoblade Chronicles is an absolute must play.
This review contains spoilers
We are only Gods of Ourselves.
Xenoblade Chronicles is a lot of things. A passion project; a bloated bore; a good game. The amount of time, care and love put into this piece is apparent, and exactly why this game is seen through to the end, despite its own attempts to prevent the player from doing so.
The Bionis, and the Mechonis; All there is, all there was. The concept of living atop giants, absurd as it is, is fully realized. We come to understand the world as it is; a living being, with flesh and blood; antibodies and parasites. A true living world. The sheer scope, what it means to live upon a giant, is purposefully obfuscated at first. As the player travels up the Bionis alongside Shulk, they experience the various climates, cultures, and people inhabiting the body. A snowy peak on the head, a town plagued by falling debris on the resting calve. The world is fully realized and understood, and is by far the strongest aspect of the game.
The world of Xenoblade however, is not enjoyable to explore in and of itself. Exploration in game is marred by the slow movement speed of the party, and the large, expansive, empty lands you travel. You are never truly incentivized to travel, explore, to visit every crack, crease, and crevice. Sidequests will ask you to travel to a pond, kill some fish, without any compelling reason as to why you should do so. There’s a sense of aimlessness to it all, akin to wasting time, as if you’re procrastinating the main story. There is no natural reward for exploration, all you find off the beaten path is more monsters to fight, and the occasional ether mine. The monsters are rarely anything more interesting than what you’ve already been fighting, and the ether mines only serve as a method to further bloat the gameplay systems.
Ether mines are used to obtain ether gems, which insert into equipment to allow for additional effects in combat. An interesting mechanic encouraging unique builds, but the execution leaves much to be desired. There is rarely any easy way to obtain the gems you want, so it is often up to chance as to if you will have the gems you actually want. Gem crafting is the easiest way to obtain these enhancers, but it's a slow, tedious, and unengaging process. Your inventory quickly fills with items for gem crafting, but you will never be excited for the process, as your inventory will be so full you won’t know where to begin. This bloat defines the regular equipment system as well. Your inventory will so often be filled with assorted equipment, with the most minute of differences, with no easy method to sort or dispose of useless gear. Gear is sorted into various categories and types, making sorting them and finding what you want even more of a bore. The equipment management feels is a hassle, discouraging you from actually changing things up and experimenting like the game intends for you to.
The game begs you to experiment, but the mechanics constantly discourage you from doing so. The affection and skill link system encourage using various groupings of party members to raise their affections and unlock skill links, but the game often expects you to have Shulk in the party, as he hosts various unique skills. Not having Shulk in your party is a death sentence against various enemy types, so your party building is unfortunately limited. The lack of control over the AI beyond a rudimentary tactics system results in your party members often not doing what you’d like them to. This discourages you from ever even controlling other party members beyond Shulk, for the AI is not capable of making the proper strategic situations required of his role. This further cements Shulk as the only character you should control. Swapping party members out is made a hassle, the lack of a load-out system results in the player having to re-select their skill links, swap out their arts, change their equipment, gems, etc, until they fit properly within the new party. This bloat and tedium requires a lot of patience from the player, and is not appreciated in a game that is already so long as is.
This bloat extends to the narrative as well. While the game starts off strong after the Mechon attack, it starts to flounder soon after. It never becomes a bad story, but it spends too long stumbling around in areas that end up being meaningless in the grand scheme of things. Many areas serve as nothing more than highways to the next story location, with nothing of interest beyond the visuals and atmosphere of the areas themselves. Many locations could be cut from the game as a whole and there wouldn’t be any major loss. The story picks up once you reach the Fallen Arm, but everything before then is a peak or valley of quality and pacing. The fight with Xord is exciting and piques your interest, but much of the story between then and arriving at Alcamoth feels somewhat meandering. This sense of aimlessness can extend to the central cast as well. While Shulk is a well rounded central figure, many characters feel like they don’t have much to offer. Reyn, Dunban, and Melia all bounce off Shulk very well, their relationships real and believable. Riki and Fiora are both fun, but they definitely lack a sense of depth that makes the rest of the cast interesting. Sharla bares the worst of this aimlessness however. She doesn’t have much importance in the plot, primarily serving as a vehicle for Reyn’s character development. Beyond that, all she has for personality is her relationship to her fiance. She is entirely dependent on these male figures for her character, and it’s disappointing to see that she could be entirely written out of the story with relatively minor changes.
The biggest flaw of the narrative however, is the writer’s excitement to tell it. Foreshadowing is an important technique in stories, and can serve to make narratives more interesting to experience on repeat. When the foreshadowing actively spoils the narrative however, it instead serves to make the first experience worse. Numerous scenes in the story feature characters making incredibly obvious allusions to future narrative beats, the most egregious of which is Dickson’s betrayal. Dickson is shown throughout the game to know more than the average Homs, to an absurd degree, and that is perfectly fine. It makes him a character you have many questions about; as to how he knows so much about the Bionis, all the people living on it, and so on. The issue however, comes in when he is often shown to be planning behind your back. Constant scenes of him turning away from the cast and saying “The plan is all falling into place,” give the player the idea that he is suspicious and not to be trusted, not naturally, through their own wit and intuition, but unnaturally, through him saying things that obviously incriminate him as a suspicious individual. It showcases a lack of respect for the viewer to be able to pick up on character traits themselves. It makes any future events involving that character less surprising, less exciting, and less impactful. Dickson betraying the party could have been an unexpected and exciting part of the narrative, but it is instead expecting, awaited, and uninteresting. There are still good twists, but much of the game is brought down by this failure.
This doesn’t make the narrative unenjoyable however, and the message of the story within is still poignant. What starts off as a simple revenge tale, is denied at the last minute. Shulk forgoes revenge once he learns what is truly happening. He breaks the cycle of revenge, and denies his own destiny. He is not the one to choose who lives and dies, and neither should anyone else. He controls his own fate, and the fate of others should lie with others. He denies Zanza, believing that a God should not be free to control the fate of others unimpeded. He decides to fight against the concept of fate itself, because nobody should have control over the fates of others. Defeating Zanza has Shulk choose to deny the path laid out for him, and the path laid out for all life. We are not born to die, we are born to live. Denying the path of godhood, he wishes for a world with no gods. We are the ones who will carve our paths forward, and we are the ones in control of our destiny. Only Gods of ourselves. No greater power has control over us.
The gameplay cycle of Xenoblade is a mess. There are so many minor flaws that build up to bring down the overall experience. But despite that all, it is clearly a labour of love. A world created from the ground up, wholly unique and unlike any other. A story about hope and optimism, encouraging players to cease their own destiny. Characters that fight through it all for the hope of a better tomorrow. It is a story worth experiencing despite its flaws, and a game that deserves recognition for what it achieves. It is a beautiful mess of an experience.
Xenoblade Chronicles is a lot of things. A passion project; a bloated bore; a good game. The amount of time, care and love put into this piece is apparent, and exactly why this game is seen through to the end, despite its own attempts to prevent the player from doing so.
The Bionis, and the Mechonis; All there is, all there was. The concept of living atop giants, absurd as it is, is fully realized. We come to understand the world as it is; a living being, with flesh and blood; antibodies and parasites. A true living world. The sheer scope, what it means to live upon a giant, is purposefully obfuscated at first. As the player travels up the Bionis alongside Shulk, they experience the various climates, cultures, and people inhabiting the body. A snowy peak on the head, a town plagued by falling debris on the resting calve. The world is fully realized and understood, and is by far the strongest aspect of the game.
The world of Xenoblade however, is not enjoyable to explore in and of itself. Exploration in game is marred by the slow movement speed of the party, and the large, expansive, empty lands you travel. You are never truly incentivized to travel, explore, to visit every crack, crease, and crevice. Sidequests will ask you to travel to a pond, kill some fish, without any compelling reason as to why you should do so. There’s a sense of aimlessness to it all, akin to wasting time, as if you’re procrastinating the main story. There is no natural reward for exploration, all you find off the beaten path is more monsters to fight, and the occasional ether mine. The monsters are rarely anything more interesting than what you’ve already been fighting, and the ether mines only serve as a method to further bloat the gameplay systems.
Ether mines are used to obtain ether gems, which insert into equipment to allow for additional effects in combat. An interesting mechanic encouraging unique builds, but the execution leaves much to be desired. There is rarely any easy way to obtain the gems you want, so it is often up to chance as to if you will have the gems you actually want. Gem crafting is the easiest way to obtain these enhancers, but it's a slow, tedious, and unengaging process. Your inventory quickly fills with items for gem crafting, but you will never be excited for the process, as your inventory will be so full you won’t know where to begin. This bloat defines the regular equipment system as well. Your inventory will so often be filled with assorted equipment, with the most minute of differences, with no easy method to sort or dispose of useless gear. Gear is sorted into various categories and types, making sorting them and finding what you want even more of a bore. The equipment management feels is a hassle, discouraging you from actually changing things up and experimenting like the game intends for you to.
The game begs you to experiment, but the mechanics constantly discourage you from doing so. The affection and skill link system encourage using various groupings of party members to raise their affections and unlock skill links, but the game often expects you to have Shulk in the party, as he hosts various unique skills. Not having Shulk in your party is a death sentence against various enemy types, so your party building is unfortunately limited. The lack of control over the AI beyond a rudimentary tactics system results in your party members often not doing what you’d like them to. This discourages you from ever even controlling other party members beyond Shulk, for the AI is not capable of making the proper strategic situations required of his role. This further cements Shulk as the only character you should control. Swapping party members out is made a hassle, the lack of a load-out system results in the player having to re-select their skill links, swap out their arts, change their equipment, gems, etc, until they fit properly within the new party. This bloat and tedium requires a lot of patience from the player, and is not appreciated in a game that is already so long as is.
This bloat extends to the narrative as well. While the game starts off strong after the Mechon attack, it starts to flounder soon after. It never becomes a bad story, but it spends too long stumbling around in areas that end up being meaningless in the grand scheme of things. Many areas serve as nothing more than highways to the next story location, with nothing of interest beyond the visuals and atmosphere of the areas themselves. Many locations could be cut from the game as a whole and there wouldn’t be any major loss. The story picks up once you reach the Fallen Arm, but everything before then is a peak or valley of quality and pacing. The fight with Xord is exciting and piques your interest, but much of the story between then and arriving at Alcamoth feels somewhat meandering. This sense of aimlessness can extend to the central cast as well. While Shulk is a well rounded central figure, many characters feel like they don’t have much to offer. Reyn, Dunban, and Melia all bounce off Shulk very well, their relationships real and believable. Riki and Fiora are both fun, but they definitely lack a sense of depth that makes the rest of the cast interesting. Sharla bares the worst of this aimlessness however. She doesn’t have much importance in the plot, primarily serving as a vehicle for Reyn’s character development. Beyond that, all she has for personality is her relationship to her fiance. She is entirely dependent on these male figures for her character, and it’s disappointing to see that she could be entirely written out of the story with relatively minor changes.
The biggest flaw of the narrative however, is the writer’s excitement to tell it. Foreshadowing is an important technique in stories, and can serve to make narratives more interesting to experience on repeat. When the foreshadowing actively spoils the narrative however, it instead serves to make the first experience worse. Numerous scenes in the story feature characters making incredibly obvious allusions to future narrative beats, the most egregious of which is Dickson’s betrayal. Dickson is shown throughout the game to know more than the average Homs, to an absurd degree, and that is perfectly fine. It makes him a character you have many questions about; as to how he knows so much about the Bionis, all the people living on it, and so on. The issue however, comes in when he is often shown to be planning behind your back. Constant scenes of him turning away from the cast and saying “The plan is all falling into place,” give the player the idea that he is suspicious and not to be trusted, not naturally, through their own wit and intuition, but unnaturally, through him saying things that obviously incriminate him as a suspicious individual. It showcases a lack of respect for the viewer to be able to pick up on character traits themselves. It makes any future events involving that character less surprising, less exciting, and less impactful. Dickson betraying the party could have been an unexpected and exciting part of the narrative, but it is instead expecting, awaited, and uninteresting. There are still good twists, but much of the game is brought down by this failure.
This doesn’t make the narrative unenjoyable however, and the message of the story within is still poignant. What starts off as a simple revenge tale, is denied at the last minute. Shulk forgoes revenge once he learns what is truly happening. He breaks the cycle of revenge, and denies his own destiny. He is not the one to choose who lives and dies, and neither should anyone else. He controls his own fate, and the fate of others should lie with others. He denies Zanza, believing that a God should not be free to control the fate of others unimpeded. He decides to fight against the concept of fate itself, because nobody should have control over the fates of others. Defeating Zanza has Shulk choose to deny the path laid out for him, and the path laid out for all life. We are not born to die, we are born to live. Denying the path of godhood, he wishes for a world with no gods. We are the ones who will carve our paths forward, and we are the ones in control of our destiny. Only Gods of ourselves. No greater power has control over us.
The gameplay cycle of Xenoblade is a mess. There are so many minor flaws that build up to bring down the overall experience. But despite that all, it is clearly a labour of love. A world created from the ground up, wholly unique and unlike any other. A story about hope and optimism, encouraging players to cease their own destiny. Characters that fight through it all for the hope of a better tomorrow. It is a story worth experiencing despite its flaws, and a game that deserves recognition for what it achieves. It is a beautiful mess of an experience.
No matter how hard you try to break us, the future is ours to shape! Always!
The premise of Xenoblade Chronicles is simple, yet effective. Atop the colossal Bionis, the three childhood friends Shulk, Reyn and Fiora are living their best lives, until one day a particularly evil robot shows up to disturb the local peace. With the help of the legendary sword Monado, Shulk embarks on a journey across the Bionis to track down the unknown assailant and get his revenge. Not only is the Monado arguably one of the coolest weapons in fiction, it's also especially useful in combat against the machines and allows the wielder to see into the future. The theme of fate is ever-present, as Shulk has to deal with visions involving the people close to him dying several times, and only he can change the future to prevent these events from playing out, while also pursuing his own goals. I'll not take away any more from the story, since I found it to be pretty intriguing and well written until the end, despite having quite a few tropes here and there and also some predictability to it. Even with the sheer amount of downright meme-worthy lines or shonen shenanigans, the core narrative is still surprisingly solid and doesn't fall flat in terms of twists either. Yes, Dunban being "over there" is actually important to the plot. The setting of the two titans is incredibly unique and memorable, but also just straight up cool at the same time, the area progression is really satisfying here. As for the main cast, they all have their reasons to join Shulk in his fight against the Mechons and their voice acting is superb. It's a shame Adam Howden never got any major roles besides Shulk, since he especially nailed those screams and emotional moments. But honestly, the rest of the cast is just as good and I like how many unknown voice actors are featured here (and their British accents).
While the main storyline is not as long as I expected it to be, Xenoblade is still jam-packed with side content, rocketing up the overall possible playtime by a significant amount. Most of the side quests are just fetch quests or "kill x amounts of these monsters", but there are also several skill trees or other cool rewards locked behind others. It never crossed my thoughts until I beat the story, how much Xenoblade rewards interacting with the world on the side, as there's even a whole chart accessible through the main menu where you can see the relations between every single named NPC and the locale they belong to. There's an entire trading mechanic I didn't even pay attention to in my playthrough, but it's cool to know it's there, I think little things like this or the info you can read up on the named NPCs on the chart improve the already impressive worldbuilding by a lot again. Now, one of my biggest regrets is not interacting with the Colony 6 side-story at all, there were many side quests related to it and I couldn't complete any of them because I somehow didn't do the initial one. Honestly, it's a shame it took me so long to properly appreciate those aspects, so I'll definitely focus on them on my eventual New Game+ playthrough.
Amidst the fierce battle cries of "Now it's Reyn Time!", "Electric Gutbuster!" and "Star-searing flames of ABSOLUTION!", I actually ended up liking the combat very much and was surprised by how unique it was. By the end it devolved into chain attack spam for me, but before that point, I think the MMO-style approach is really fitting and fun overall, while the cheesy battle lines of the cast add a whole layer of entertainment as well. Here, good preparation is half the battle already, as you will need to decide which skills your AI-controlled party members should use and how to efficiently combine those with the tactics of the rest of the team for optimal results. I said the combat is "MMO-style", because skills are locked behind cooldowns and your active character is using auto-attacks in the downtime to fill the special bar, like in the case of Shulk it's used for the Monado Arts. His signature sword not only specializes in slicing through machinery, but can also buff him or his party in various other ways, like shielding them or granting everyone the ability to hit the Mechons. Each of those abilities uses different amounts of the special gauge, so it's up to you to decide what's the best approach for certain combat situations. It would be pretty unwise to keep throwing out Arts which use your full gauge, as enemies and especially bosses can counter those by attacking with so-called Vision Attacks. Those come in three forms, Red, White and Purple. By casting the Impulse Art on a party member, they can dodge a red attack, which is pretty straightforward. Things get interesting for the white attacks, as they require you to have a properly leveled Shield Art to even block the move - so if an enemy uses "Attack VII", you need the skill level of your Shield Art atleast at 7, anything below will not block. The use of haptic feedback is also really underappreciated from what I've seen, every time you hit with a chance attack you get vibration on hit and everytime you break an enemy's vision attack the controller emulates this "breaking" effect with a stronger rumble. There's also a pulse while seeing the animations for vision attacks playing out, resembling a heartbeat, and that's pretty cool if you ask me.
Teambuilding is a central mechanic in Xenoblade Chronicles, and also one that is handled in an interesting way. First of all, you get access to most of the cast fairly early into the story already, so you can experiment with different teams through many different areas and see who has your favorite playstyle, who you want to main and who you don't actually like at all. This availability of being able to build around your team without even getting to the meat of the main story yet is such a nice change of pace, since I know so many games where you get party members so late, that they're basically unusable, as you have probably already have a good team composition at that point. Looking at you, Fire Emblem. But Xenoblade doesn't have this issue and it's just really nice, so I hope the other two games in the trilogy adapt this approach as well. As for their actual involvement in gameplay, each teammate has an unique role and playstyle, so you can basically play any possible combination of party members together and it will work somehow. Another neat feature is the ability to choose any character besides Shulk as the leader, allowing you to control them in the overworld and battle, it's very handy for certain encounters (or if you're just a big fan of the character). Like personally I played Melia on Mount Valka so I could have an easier time reaching the airborne enemies and it ended up being a really pleasant change of pace! There is also a whole layer of customization here besides the current party setup, since you can tweak individual characters to your liking by equipping them with gems, certain armor pieces or adjusting the skill trees. I really like how skill trees are handled here, like you still can normally unlock character-specific skills of individual branches through EXP, but you're also able to make use of the skills of other characters if you raise the friendship between them accordingly. This is not a metaphorical statement, raising the affinity between two teammates comes with a nice amount of extras - you unlock new heart-to-heart events across the world, the possibility of extending chain attacks is higher and as mentioned before, you gain access to a bunch of the opposite character's skills. Very nice!
As for the soundtrack, the Definitive Edition features an (almost) entirely revamped OST with new arranged tracks. I've only heard a few of the original tracks in Smash before, so I won't compare the new arrangements to the original compositions. With that out of the way, I'm a big fan of the musical score for DE and especially the more emotional songs here really hit me at times. Hearing Engage the Enemy for the very first time in-game with the corresponding cutscene is an ethereal feeling and gave me shivers in combination with Adam Howden's performance there. Gaur Plain is also one of my favorites, even if that one's a basic pick - maybe because it's just a memorable, good song. My final nomination goes out to Mechanical Rhythm for just being a pretty sick standard battle theme, which could easily pass as a boss theme elsewhere.
Considering I'm planning to do a NG+ one day to catch up on the content I missed, it's needless to say that Xenoblade Chronicles left quite the impression on me, even after finishing the game. Now onto Future Connected and I'm looking forward to playing Xenoblade 2 in a while too. Here's hoping that the rest of the trilogy will be just as fun!
The premise of Xenoblade Chronicles is simple, yet effective. Atop the colossal Bionis, the three childhood friends Shulk, Reyn and Fiora are living their best lives, until one day a particularly evil robot shows up to disturb the local peace. With the help of the legendary sword Monado, Shulk embarks on a journey across the Bionis to track down the unknown assailant and get his revenge. Not only is the Monado arguably one of the coolest weapons in fiction, it's also especially useful in combat against the machines and allows the wielder to see into the future. The theme of fate is ever-present, as Shulk has to deal with visions involving the people close to him dying several times, and only he can change the future to prevent these events from playing out, while also pursuing his own goals. I'll not take away any more from the story, since I found it to be pretty intriguing and well written until the end, despite having quite a few tropes here and there and also some predictability to it. Even with the sheer amount of downright meme-worthy lines or shonen shenanigans, the core narrative is still surprisingly solid and doesn't fall flat in terms of twists either. Yes, Dunban being "over there" is actually important to the plot. The setting of the two titans is incredibly unique and memorable, but also just straight up cool at the same time, the area progression is really satisfying here. As for the main cast, they all have their reasons to join Shulk in his fight against the Mechons and their voice acting is superb. It's a shame Adam Howden never got any major roles besides Shulk, since he especially nailed those screams and emotional moments. But honestly, the rest of the cast is just as good and I like how many unknown voice actors are featured here (and their British accents).
While the main storyline is not as long as I expected it to be, Xenoblade is still jam-packed with side content, rocketing up the overall possible playtime by a significant amount. Most of the side quests are just fetch quests or "kill x amounts of these monsters", but there are also several skill trees or other cool rewards locked behind others. It never crossed my thoughts until I beat the story, how much Xenoblade rewards interacting with the world on the side, as there's even a whole chart accessible through the main menu where you can see the relations between every single named NPC and the locale they belong to. There's an entire trading mechanic I didn't even pay attention to in my playthrough, but it's cool to know it's there, I think little things like this or the info you can read up on the named NPCs on the chart improve the already impressive worldbuilding by a lot again. Now, one of my biggest regrets is not interacting with the Colony 6 side-story at all, there were many side quests related to it and I couldn't complete any of them because I somehow didn't do the initial one. Honestly, it's a shame it took me so long to properly appreciate those aspects, so I'll definitely focus on them on my eventual New Game+ playthrough.
Amidst the fierce battle cries of "Now it's Reyn Time!", "Electric Gutbuster!" and "Star-searing flames of ABSOLUTION!", I actually ended up liking the combat very much and was surprised by how unique it was. By the end it devolved into chain attack spam for me, but before that point, I think the MMO-style approach is really fitting and fun overall, while the cheesy battle lines of the cast add a whole layer of entertainment as well. Here, good preparation is half the battle already, as you will need to decide which skills your AI-controlled party members should use and how to efficiently combine those with the tactics of the rest of the team for optimal results. I said the combat is "MMO-style", because skills are locked behind cooldowns and your active character is using auto-attacks in the downtime to fill the special bar, like in the case of Shulk it's used for the Monado Arts. His signature sword not only specializes in slicing through machinery, but can also buff him or his party in various other ways, like shielding them or granting everyone the ability to hit the Mechons. Each of those abilities uses different amounts of the special gauge, so it's up to you to decide what's the best approach for certain combat situations. It would be pretty unwise to keep throwing out Arts which use your full gauge, as enemies and especially bosses can counter those by attacking with so-called Vision Attacks. Those come in three forms, Red, White and Purple. By casting the Impulse Art on a party member, they can dodge a red attack, which is pretty straightforward. Things get interesting for the white attacks, as they require you to have a properly leveled Shield Art to even block the move - so if an enemy uses "Attack VII", you need the skill level of your Shield Art atleast at 7, anything below will not block. The use of haptic feedback is also really underappreciated from what I've seen, every time you hit with a chance attack you get vibration on hit and everytime you break an enemy's vision attack the controller emulates this "breaking" effect with a stronger rumble. There's also a pulse while seeing the animations for vision attacks playing out, resembling a heartbeat, and that's pretty cool if you ask me.
Teambuilding is a central mechanic in Xenoblade Chronicles, and also one that is handled in an interesting way. First of all, you get access to most of the cast fairly early into the story already, so you can experiment with different teams through many different areas and see who has your favorite playstyle, who you want to main and who you don't actually like at all. This availability of being able to build around your team without even getting to the meat of the main story yet is such a nice change of pace, since I know so many games where you get party members so late, that they're basically unusable, as you have probably already have a good team composition at that point. Looking at you, Fire Emblem. But Xenoblade doesn't have this issue and it's just really nice, so I hope the other two games in the trilogy adapt this approach as well. As for their actual involvement in gameplay, each teammate has an unique role and playstyle, so you can basically play any possible combination of party members together and it will work somehow. Another neat feature is the ability to choose any character besides Shulk as the leader, allowing you to control them in the overworld and battle, it's very handy for certain encounters (or if you're just a big fan of the character). Like personally I played Melia on Mount Valka so I could have an easier time reaching the airborne enemies and it ended up being a really pleasant change of pace! There is also a whole layer of customization here besides the current party setup, since you can tweak individual characters to your liking by equipping them with gems, certain armor pieces or adjusting the skill trees. I really like how skill trees are handled here, like you still can normally unlock character-specific skills of individual branches through EXP, but you're also able to make use of the skills of other characters if you raise the friendship between them accordingly. This is not a metaphorical statement, raising the affinity between two teammates comes with a nice amount of extras - you unlock new heart-to-heart events across the world, the possibility of extending chain attacks is higher and as mentioned before, you gain access to a bunch of the opposite character's skills. Very nice!
As for the soundtrack, the Definitive Edition features an (almost) entirely revamped OST with new arranged tracks. I've only heard a few of the original tracks in Smash before, so I won't compare the new arrangements to the original compositions. With that out of the way, I'm a big fan of the musical score for DE and especially the more emotional songs here really hit me at times. Hearing Engage the Enemy for the very first time in-game with the corresponding cutscene is an ethereal feeling and gave me shivers in combination with Adam Howden's performance there. Gaur Plain is also one of my favorites, even if that one's a basic pick - maybe because it's just a memorable, good song. My final nomination goes out to Mechanical Rhythm for just being a pretty sick standard battle theme, which could easily pass as a boss theme elsewhere.
Considering I'm planning to do a NG+ one day to catch up on the content I missed, it's needless to say that Xenoblade Chronicles left quite the impression on me, even after finishing the game. Now onto Future Connected and I'm looking forward to playing Xenoblade 2 in a while too. Here's hoping that the rest of the trilogy will be just as fun!
being a xenoblade fan is the jrpg equivalent of cult indoctrination, which is saying a lot because being a jrpg fan is like joining a cult in and of itself, so really it's like separating into an extremist faction of a larger cult that simultaneously infights at every given opportunity while taunting non-members for not finding Dunban "being over there" ticklingly hysterical even after the 167th time it's referenced in deeply brainrotted twitter circles.
I am allowed to say this and mean it endearingly because I am myself an unfathomably deranged xenoblade fan far beyond the brink of salvation. this game has irreparably changed me. I have been ruined. my brain is broken. I'm not sure it ever worked right, but my xenoblade fandom experience has ensured that it will always work wrong. otherwise innocuous terms such as "44 seconds" or "bestest" have pavloved me into laughing forever. when I see shulk take a bite of a sandwich and that bite does not animate on said sandwich, I emphatically applaud. the mere sight of Juju, a child whose only crime is loving his people, makes me black out with vitriolic rage. anytime I slice a hot knife through butter, I cry. anytime I walk on ice, I scream. when I check the time, all I see is Reyn's face on the clock - it is always Reyn time in my world now.
the other day around Reyn time (lunch) I was slicing open a bagel with a freshly sharpened serrated knife in order to make myself a toasted chicken salad sandwich. delicious. yum. bestest. unfortunately, the bagel slipped out from underneath my hand and I ended up slicing my own thumb instead. despite the alarmingly large amount of blood and even more abundant visceral pain, I luckily did not end up needing stitches. was I relieved? no. grateful? no. all that could cross my mind in that moment was that "your blade... it did not cut deep enough."
I mained Shulk competitively in super smash bros. for wii u because of my love and loyalty for this damned game. for those of you unfamiliar with Smash 4 - Shulk is booty buttcheeks doodoo dogass tier in Smash 4. he is fundamentally fucked. hopelessly hoed. maining Smash 4 Shulk is like marathon training for months only to tie a boulder to your ankle at the starting line, or maining Sharla in xenoblade 1. for four whole memorable-but-not-wonderful years I would mosey to local tournaments having extensively practiced my Arts Landing Lag Cancels and Monado B-Reversals and Purge 50-50s and Airslash Ledge Snaps (in AND out of Jump Art!) only to get utterly dicked and shitted and pissed and vomited on by some iron-deficient 14-year-old Kirby player who sucked the monado into his disgusting mouth hole and used Jump and Speed arts to Run The Fuck Away for 6 minutes. all that suffering to appease the cultish urge to remain steadfast in my xenoblade chronicles brainrot. peak fiction. I hate myself. I live for this game, and therefore want to die.
I am a shattered man. I come to you as a cautionary tale. I love xenoblade 1. it is a good game. some might call it a great one. I could even wager that it's a classic. but it is not worth a total fundamental collapse of the self. this game has significant faults that time has further illuminated. sidequests are trash. the game's third act is a disaster. characters have chemistry but very few have arcs. women don't exist in this game. why doesn't unfinished battle loop in that one fight. juju. I have heard it all. it is no longer cool or trendy or tasteful to praise xenoblade 1 as the jrpg bastion it once was.
I do not care. It is far too late for me to view this game objectively, yet I find I am more grateful to have loved a game to an extreme degree beyond objectivity even if it has cost me an entire lifetime of mental fortitude. I wish Dunban was my real dad and was "over there" instead of "forgetting me because of dementia." Riki eats your favorite jrpg mascot character for breakfast and still has time to canonically fuck his probably-smokin-hot-by-nopon-standards wife before lunch. expert worldbuilding dares to ask "what if we were all on A Guy and we climbed up his ass" and thats raw as fuck. expert OST dares to ask "what would it feel like if ears could cum" and then made my ears uncontrollably bust jumbo nut wads for over a decade running. I am one of the deranged freaks who mained Melia and therefore thinks the combat is Pretty Sick Actually. stop maining Shulk, losers. stop cradling that milquetoast monado like a security blanket and get in Melia's pain train, we're starlight kicking god in his Klaussy.
I don't care if this game is "overrated," or if i'm "scaring the hoes." I don't care if xenoblade 1 is "too anime" or "predictable" or "nonsensical" or "boring" or "not a replacement for proper nourishment." I love this game. I eat it up. I consume it in its totality - characters, world, combat, music, fandom, memes, merch, a decade of irreparably damaged culture and identity. like Shulk, it changed my future. Xenoblade Chronicles ruined my life, and I am forever thankful.
I am allowed to say this and mean it endearingly because I am myself an unfathomably deranged xenoblade fan far beyond the brink of salvation. this game has irreparably changed me. I have been ruined. my brain is broken. I'm not sure it ever worked right, but my xenoblade fandom experience has ensured that it will always work wrong. otherwise innocuous terms such as "44 seconds" or "bestest" have pavloved me into laughing forever. when I see shulk take a bite of a sandwich and that bite does not animate on said sandwich, I emphatically applaud. the mere sight of Juju, a child whose only crime is loving his people, makes me black out with vitriolic rage. anytime I slice a hot knife through butter, I cry. anytime I walk on ice, I scream. when I check the time, all I see is Reyn's face on the clock - it is always Reyn time in my world now.
the other day around Reyn time (lunch) I was slicing open a bagel with a freshly sharpened serrated knife in order to make myself a toasted chicken salad sandwich. delicious. yum. bestest. unfortunately, the bagel slipped out from underneath my hand and I ended up slicing my own thumb instead. despite the alarmingly large amount of blood and even more abundant visceral pain, I luckily did not end up needing stitches. was I relieved? no. grateful? no. all that could cross my mind in that moment was that "your blade... it did not cut deep enough."
I mained Shulk competitively in super smash bros. for wii u because of my love and loyalty for this damned game. for those of you unfamiliar with Smash 4 - Shulk is booty buttcheeks doodoo dogass tier in Smash 4. he is fundamentally fucked. hopelessly hoed. maining Smash 4 Shulk is like marathon training for months only to tie a boulder to your ankle at the starting line, or maining Sharla in xenoblade 1. for four whole memorable-but-not-wonderful years I would mosey to local tournaments having extensively practiced my Arts Landing Lag Cancels and Monado B-Reversals and Purge 50-50s and Airslash Ledge Snaps (in AND out of Jump Art!) only to get utterly dicked and shitted and pissed and vomited on by some iron-deficient 14-year-old Kirby player who sucked the monado into his disgusting mouth hole and used Jump and Speed arts to Run The Fuck Away for 6 minutes. all that suffering to appease the cultish urge to remain steadfast in my xenoblade chronicles brainrot. peak fiction. I hate myself. I live for this game, and therefore want to die.
I am a shattered man. I come to you as a cautionary tale. I love xenoblade 1. it is a good game. some might call it a great one. I could even wager that it's a classic. but it is not worth a total fundamental collapse of the self. this game has significant faults that time has further illuminated. sidequests are trash. the game's third act is a disaster. characters have chemistry but very few have arcs. women don't exist in this game. why doesn't unfinished battle loop in that one fight. juju. I have heard it all. it is no longer cool or trendy or tasteful to praise xenoblade 1 as the jrpg bastion it once was.
I do not care. It is far too late for me to view this game objectively, yet I find I am more grateful to have loved a game to an extreme degree beyond objectivity even if it has cost me an entire lifetime of mental fortitude. I wish Dunban was my real dad and was "over there" instead of "forgetting me because of dementia." Riki eats your favorite jrpg mascot character for breakfast and still has time to canonically fuck his probably-smokin-hot-by-nopon-standards wife before lunch. expert worldbuilding dares to ask "what if we were all on A Guy and we climbed up his ass" and thats raw as fuck. expert OST dares to ask "what would it feel like if ears could cum" and then made my ears uncontrollably bust jumbo nut wads for over a decade running. I am one of the deranged freaks who mained Melia and therefore thinks the combat is Pretty Sick Actually. stop maining Shulk, losers. stop cradling that milquetoast monado like a security blanket and get in Melia's pain train, we're starlight kicking god in his Klaussy.
I don't care if this game is "overrated," or if i'm "scaring the hoes." I don't care if xenoblade 1 is "too anime" or "predictable" or "nonsensical" or "boring" or "not a replacement for proper nourishment." I love this game. I eat it up. I consume it in its totality - characters, world, combat, music, fandom, memes, merch, a decade of irreparably damaged culture and identity. like Shulk, it changed my future. Xenoblade Chronicles ruined my life, and I am forever thankful.
Xenoblade Chronicles is a game of unrelenting excess.
This is a big part of the game's sense of spectacle. The game's setting, located upon the bodies of two colossal titans caught in a freeze-frame of an ancient battle, is one of the most startlingly imaginative world concepts I've ever encountered. As you explore these titans you explore mammoth, gorgeous regions, the best of these conjuring up a sense of wonder (Bionis' Leg is a clear highlight for me, but I also enjoyed Satorl Marsh and Sword Valley a lot), whilst the worst regions whilst still pretty get bogged down by their sheer scale (Eryth Sea is simply just too large, whilst Alcamoth feels weirdly empty and lifeless).
For every moment of wonder brought by the game's sense of scale, there was for me alongside it a moment of frustration. The game has just so many systems to it, some of which legitimately feel good to use and are engaging; highlights are the arts system where you choose a character's moves and level them up individually, and adding gems to your characters armour allowing for personalisation with their stats (although the sheer variety of gems felt very intimidating in a bad way). The flipside is that a lot of the systems feel excessive and like you could easily get bogged down in a miasma of trying to optimise every single number; again I won't give a complete list here, but at the very least gem crafting and being able to copy across skills from other character's skill trees are systems that feel entirely excessive, and like they'd quickly turn into nightmarish abysses if you actually wanted to seriously engage with them. All of this is to say nothing of the ridiculous affinity map of the relationships of every named character in the game, or the Collectopedia (a name which unintentionally borders on self-parody) where you can stash individual copies of various collectables that you will seldom use to get rewards that you will also seldom use. It's all just so much.
I have a similar feeling towards the side quests in the game, which there are almost 500 of. There are a handful that are legitimately pretty good and help add to the feeling of the locations you've visiting or that give you nice insight into these communities, but there are also an absurd number of generic fetch-quests, item collection quests or missions to go kill a certain number of a regular enemies where the game just turns into this flavourless mush, you just ticking off boxes to make the game give you more minor rewards and small pats on the back. Again it feels like if this was more trimmed down and honed the experience with the side quests would be good, but it so easily turns into this blur where after a couple hour session of completing side quests I'd not be sure I could actually tell you what I'd even been doing with my time in any detail.
The most frustrating thing for me among all of this though is the battle system which relies on MMO-style cooldown moves. The best battles in the game are very engaging forcing you to actually figure out a strategy, but the vast majority of encounters I found essentially reduced down to just mindlessly and obediently pressing whatever attacks are ready to be used again when the game tells you they've finished cooling down; this is even worse than it sounds because moves having set cooldown times means most fights will work out as you using moves in very similar sequences over and over too. Shulk's positional moves that reward you for attacking from the side or behind the enemy help this situation a bit but not nearly enough to carry the 60 hour runtime.
Whilst I don't like this battle system particularly I think it would have been completely fine in a shorter game, but as is I felt like by 20 hours in I was already mostly done with what amounted to doing the same fights over and over and yet the game was still going to path me through countless enemies (inside the Mechonis was the roughest bit in this regard where what could have been a cool two or three hour long journey instead took several hours due to how many identical robots you're dragged past to have identical fights with).
I think, ultimately, I find myself liking almost everything about Xenoblade Chronicles other than having to actually play it. If I'm sounding really negative it's partially just out of frustration that the actual gameplay for me really didn't live up to the promise of everything else the game has to offer, rather than me considering the game at all bad. The soundtrack is legitimately great, even if the battle music specifically suffers from over-exposure, and I can see myself listening to it occasionally once I have a bit more distance from playing through the game. The world is conceptually wonderful, even awe-inspiring at times. The cast is very likeable and easy to root for.
Even in regards to the story, what starts out as a fairly typical story of revenge eventually turns into a tale of breaking cycles of violence and learning to overcome fate via communication and the power of free will. Much of the story is solidly told with some reasonably affecting emotional moments, but in the final ten hours various different aspects pay-off very well, whilst the ending itself is all at once bold, fascinating, impassioned, and in its final moments downright soulful, so much so that its hard for me not to buckle and forget how deeply frustrating and numbing much of the gameplay that got me to this point was.
It all leaves me feeling very conflicted.
This is a big part of the game's sense of spectacle. The game's setting, located upon the bodies of two colossal titans caught in a freeze-frame of an ancient battle, is one of the most startlingly imaginative world concepts I've ever encountered. As you explore these titans you explore mammoth, gorgeous regions, the best of these conjuring up a sense of wonder (Bionis' Leg is a clear highlight for me, but I also enjoyed Satorl Marsh and Sword Valley a lot), whilst the worst regions whilst still pretty get bogged down by their sheer scale (Eryth Sea is simply just too large, whilst Alcamoth feels weirdly empty and lifeless).
For every moment of wonder brought by the game's sense of scale, there was for me alongside it a moment of frustration. The game has just so many systems to it, some of which legitimately feel good to use and are engaging; highlights are the arts system where you choose a character's moves and level them up individually, and adding gems to your characters armour allowing for personalisation with their stats (although the sheer variety of gems felt very intimidating in a bad way). The flipside is that a lot of the systems feel excessive and like you could easily get bogged down in a miasma of trying to optimise every single number; again I won't give a complete list here, but at the very least gem crafting and being able to copy across skills from other character's skill trees are systems that feel entirely excessive, and like they'd quickly turn into nightmarish abysses if you actually wanted to seriously engage with them. All of this is to say nothing of the ridiculous affinity map of the relationships of every named character in the game, or the Collectopedia (a name which unintentionally borders on self-parody) where you can stash individual copies of various collectables that you will seldom use to get rewards that you will also seldom use. It's all just so much.
I have a similar feeling towards the side quests in the game, which there are almost 500 of. There are a handful that are legitimately pretty good and help add to the feeling of the locations you've visiting or that give you nice insight into these communities, but there are also an absurd number of generic fetch-quests, item collection quests or missions to go kill a certain number of a regular enemies where the game just turns into this flavourless mush, you just ticking off boxes to make the game give you more minor rewards and small pats on the back. Again it feels like if this was more trimmed down and honed the experience with the side quests would be good, but it so easily turns into this blur where after a couple hour session of completing side quests I'd not be sure I could actually tell you what I'd even been doing with my time in any detail.
The most frustrating thing for me among all of this though is the battle system which relies on MMO-style cooldown moves. The best battles in the game are very engaging forcing you to actually figure out a strategy, but the vast majority of encounters I found essentially reduced down to just mindlessly and obediently pressing whatever attacks are ready to be used again when the game tells you they've finished cooling down; this is even worse than it sounds because moves having set cooldown times means most fights will work out as you using moves in very similar sequences over and over too. Shulk's positional moves that reward you for attacking from the side or behind the enemy help this situation a bit but not nearly enough to carry the 60 hour runtime.
Whilst I don't like this battle system particularly I think it would have been completely fine in a shorter game, but as is I felt like by 20 hours in I was already mostly done with what amounted to doing the same fights over and over and yet the game was still going to path me through countless enemies (inside the Mechonis was the roughest bit in this regard where what could have been a cool two or three hour long journey instead took several hours due to how many identical robots you're dragged past to have identical fights with).
I think, ultimately, I find myself liking almost everything about Xenoblade Chronicles other than having to actually play it. If I'm sounding really negative it's partially just out of frustration that the actual gameplay for me really didn't live up to the promise of everything else the game has to offer, rather than me considering the game at all bad. The soundtrack is legitimately great, even if the battle music specifically suffers from over-exposure, and I can see myself listening to it occasionally once I have a bit more distance from playing through the game. The world is conceptually wonderful, even awe-inspiring at times. The cast is very likeable and easy to root for.
Even in regards to the story, what starts out as a fairly typical story of revenge eventually turns into a tale of breaking cycles of violence and learning to overcome fate via communication and the power of free will. Much of the story is solidly told with some reasonably affecting emotional moments, but in the final ten hours various different aspects pay-off very well, whilst the ending itself is all at once bold, fascinating, impassioned, and in its final moments downright soulful, so much so that its hard for me not to buckle and forget how deeply frustrating and numbing much of the gameplay that got me to this point was.
It all leaves me feeling very conflicted.
A future changed, for the better.
Back when the Operation Rainfall movement happened, I knew very little about the games involved in it, this one being among them. It wasn't until years later I would be exposed to this game via a 100% Let's Play video series from around 10 years ago. Watching that series sparked my interest in what would become the Xenoblade Chronicles franchise, leading to me buying multiple games in the series.
There was just one problem, though.
As interested as I was in playing the games in this series, I just couldn't beat them. I would always lose interest at some point. I bought Xenoblade Chronicles X, and never beat it. I bought Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and barely got past the intro. I bought a New 3DS XL at launch specifically to play Xenoblade Chronicles 3D and I didn't even come close to beating that version.
At some point down the road, Nintendo would release this, the definitive way of playing Xenoblade Chronicles. I saw this version come into existence and decided enough was enough. I wouldn't let this series keep escaping me like this. I needed to beat at least one of these games! I think they're neat and do cool stuff, and I wanted so badly to get immersed into it and savor the experience, especially since it had been long enough for me to forget most of the details about the plot of the game after watching that video series.
Long story short, I bought the game near launch and stopped at some point I can only vaguely remember.
Now, after all this time, nearly 8 years of playing and dropping these games, I made it my mission this year to beat this game, and I am happy to say that after 75 hours, I succeeded, and boy is there a ton here to like, and some to dislike.
Now, I refuse to spoil the story here, so I will talk about it vaguely. I think the plot is interesting and engaging, but it takes a while for it to become more engaging. Because of that, I implore new players to give the plot time to develop, as the deeper you go into this game, the more twists and drama you'll find. Plus, you'll get to know all the characters in your party more, which is great because they all find ways to be interesting and you'll easily end the game with favorites that may differ from the tastes of others, or it'll be Reyn. Reyn is such a good boy I love that himbo so much.
As for the gameplay, I think that the systems this game implements are very well-designed. They all interweave with one another in a way that helps you get the feeling that everything you do makes you stronger in some way. It's honestly hard to describe how one system works without bringing up another system and how that works and so on and so forth. There's enough going on here that listing them all would make this already long review even longer than it needs to be, so I'm going to try to simplify things as much as I can by describing a common scenario in this game.
So Xenoblade Chronicles is a game that has a ton of side quests. Whenever you go into an area populated with friendly NPCs, you'll find that many of them have tasks for you to do, whether it's killing monsters, finding items, or talking to other NPCs. Sometimes you'll receive side quests that have multiple different outcomes depending on who you talk to or what you do. I'll talk more in depth about my opinions about how side quests are implemented in this game later, but I wanted to establish what they are before I went on with my example scenario.
Let's say you're talking to an NPC that's giving you a side quest. As one party member talks with an NPC, there's a chance another party member will chime into the conversation, which raises the affinity levels between said characters. Raising affinity between characters is important for many reasons, but to name an important one, party members that are closer to one another can share skills with one another, which allows party members to have access to skills they would not be able to equip otherwise.
By the end of the conversation, you have your objective and the rewards you'll get for completing the quest, if the game wants you to see them. These could be experience points, money, equipment, and equipment-enhancing items called gems, just to name a few things. You can then track the quest, which points you in the direction of what needs to be done.
Let's assume the quest giver needs you to defeat enemies. Combat in Xenoblade Chronicles is MMO-style, in that you attack automatically and choose special abilities to use strategically in combat. Depending on your party composition, you may be able to employ strategies that utilize the unique abilities that each party member possesses. There aren't any truly ineffective party compositions you can have, so you're free to experiment to see how different parties function in combat.
Each party member has a unique style. You have your DPS, your Tank, your Healer, your buff-distributor, and others that have special concentrations. How you set up your party is up to you. You may want to maximize damage by having a party full of attackers, or you may choose to have someone who can soften up the enemy with debuffs or have someone who can reliably heal the party present to ensure that you'll survive to the end of the fight. I enjoyed mixing and matching party members to see what styles fit me the best, and I think that is one of the most satisfying parts of this game.
As you fight, there will occasionally be a quick-time prompt that when completed will not only fill a bar for a special move, but it will also increase your affinity with party members. When party members are incapacitated or are in low spirits during a fight, you can help or encourage them during a battle to help them out and raise affinity levels. When you defeat an enemy, outside of the experience points, you get skill points and ability points. Skill points allow party members to unlock new skills, and ability points allow you to improve the abilities you currently have. They also drop chests, which can include items needed for other quests, equipment, or items that can be used to make gems.
Now you've completed the request of the NPC that gave you the quest. Time to return to them and reap the rewards. You talk to them, and just like the first conversation, a party member can chime in and raise affinity with the leading party member. By completing the quest, you also raise your affinity with the area you received that quest from, which will allow you to receive even more side quests from said area.
Now, let's review what just happened. By doing a single side quest, we got the rewards promised from the quest, which includes cash for new equipment, experience points to level us up, and new equipment and gems to keep us in shape for the coming battles. We got higher affinity between party members, new items from monsters, and the ability to receive even more side quests from the area.
We saw side quest mechanics, affinity mechanics, and combat mechanics. We got stronger not only in terms of experience points for levels, but in terms of having stronger equipment, new gems to enhance our equipment, and more skill and ability points from the enemies we fought. All of these things are intertwining through just one side quest, and it all happens so seamlessly and naturally. Throughout this game you're constantly getting stronger in so many ways just by doing side quests and progressing the plot and it's so satisfying. I wish I appreciated the mechanics as much as I do now back when I first played this game, because if I did, I may have beaten this game way sooner.
I want to now talk about my favorite mechanic in this game, and one that I consider one of the most interesting mechanics in a game I've played.
The main character, Shulk, has the ability to see into the future. It would be easy to assume that if you could gaze into the future that life would be a breeze, but for Shulk it most certainly isn't, and the plot will cover that thoroughly. I'm not talking about how this effects the plot. I'm talking about how this effects gameplay.
When fighting tough enemies, Shulk may experience a vision of the future, which shows you that an enemy is about to unleash a powerful move that may incapacitate a party member. You then have the ability to change the future by performing actions to mitigate or cancel out completely the effects of the move. You can also warn other party members about the future, which lets you select an ability of theirs to use to help you change the future. I think this adds a very interesting dynamic to combat, forcing the player to think on their feet when enemies decide to put more pressure on them.
Visions can occur outside of combat, as well. Sometimes when you pick up an item, you'll get a vision of how that item will be used to solve someone's problem. It can also happen when you're receiving a side quest, showing you an outcome that can occur if you don't intervene to help. It really does feel like they made the most of the concept of future sight for this title, and it always gains my interest when I see it go off and give me some new information.
With all these things I like about this game, there are definitely some things that hold it back.
Perhaps the most egregious issue I have with this game is that it really, REALLY wants you to do a ton of side quests. More often than not you'll find yourself hitting walls in terms of difficulty if you don't do them to keep up with the level curve. You'll easily be spending hours completing side quests before making progress in the story, which can be off-putting for many. I will admit that I grew tired of it myself by the time I reached the endgame. This version of Xenoblade Chronicles very mercifully also includes a casual mode, which makes you stronger and enemies weaker, which helps to save time if you just want to enjoy the plot. I wound up using this at the end of the game because the alternative would be another few hours of side quests, which did not sound ideal after 75 hours of gameplay.
Another issue I have also relates to side quests. Sometimes, you'll be tasked with being in a specific area under specific weather conditions to get a specific NPC or monster to appear. You have the ability to alter the time of day from the pause menu, which is convenient. However, you are unable to see what the weather will be until you've already changed the time, which means going into the menu, changing the time, seeing if it's the weather you need, and if it's not, repeating the process over and over again until you get the results you want. It gets very tiresome very quickly and I wish that for this version they made the weather conditions more visible to players before they set a specific time to go to.
The overabundant side quests and the game's reliance on the player completing them can take the wind out of any player's sails as they play this game. If you can stomach that part of the game or are willing to turn on the new casual mode, though, you will get to experience an engaging story with great characters, as well as a killer soundtrack. The game nails ambient tracks as you explore the world, giving a good sense of adventure as you go through new areas. The music kicks up during combat, with tracks like "You Will Know Our Names" keeping you motivated to take down tough foes.
If you like the idea of a single-player MMO with a huge world to explore, fun characters to meet, a plot that gets more and more engaging as you play, and satisfying gameplay mechanics, I implore you to give Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition a shot!
Okay review's over TAKE THE ALLEYOOP CHALLENGE TODAY!! Every time you jump when playing as the character Reyn, he will randomly either grunt or say "Alleyoop!" How many times can you get Reyn to say "Alleyoop!" in a row? My record's 11. Here's a video where someone gets a 17 "Alleyoop!" chain! What's your "Alleyoop!" score? Share yours in the comments!
Back when the Operation Rainfall movement happened, I knew very little about the games involved in it, this one being among them. It wasn't until years later I would be exposed to this game via a 100% Let's Play video series from around 10 years ago. Watching that series sparked my interest in what would become the Xenoblade Chronicles franchise, leading to me buying multiple games in the series.
There was just one problem, though.
As interested as I was in playing the games in this series, I just couldn't beat them. I would always lose interest at some point. I bought Xenoblade Chronicles X, and never beat it. I bought Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and barely got past the intro. I bought a New 3DS XL at launch specifically to play Xenoblade Chronicles 3D and I didn't even come close to beating that version.
At some point down the road, Nintendo would release this, the definitive way of playing Xenoblade Chronicles. I saw this version come into existence and decided enough was enough. I wouldn't let this series keep escaping me like this. I needed to beat at least one of these games! I think they're neat and do cool stuff, and I wanted so badly to get immersed into it and savor the experience, especially since it had been long enough for me to forget most of the details about the plot of the game after watching that video series.
Long story short, I bought the game near launch and stopped at some point I can only vaguely remember.
Now, after all this time, nearly 8 years of playing and dropping these games, I made it my mission this year to beat this game, and I am happy to say that after 75 hours, I succeeded, and boy is there a ton here to like, and some to dislike.
Now, I refuse to spoil the story here, so I will talk about it vaguely. I think the plot is interesting and engaging, but it takes a while for it to become more engaging. Because of that, I implore new players to give the plot time to develop, as the deeper you go into this game, the more twists and drama you'll find. Plus, you'll get to know all the characters in your party more, which is great because they all find ways to be interesting and you'll easily end the game with favorites that may differ from the tastes of others, or it'll be Reyn. Reyn is such a good boy I love that himbo so much.
As for the gameplay, I think that the systems this game implements are very well-designed. They all interweave with one another in a way that helps you get the feeling that everything you do makes you stronger in some way. It's honestly hard to describe how one system works without bringing up another system and how that works and so on and so forth. There's enough going on here that listing them all would make this already long review even longer than it needs to be, so I'm going to try to simplify things as much as I can by describing a common scenario in this game.
So Xenoblade Chronicles is a game that has a ton of side quests. Whenever you go into an area populated with friendly NPCs, you'll find that many of them have tasks for you to do, whether it's killing monsters, finding items, or talking to other NPCs. Sometimes you'll receive side quests that have multiple different outcomes depending on who you talk to or what you do. I'll talk more in depth about my opinions about how side quests are implemented in this game later, but I wanted to establish what they are before I went on with my example scenario.
Let's say you're talking to an NPC that's giving you a side quest. As one party member talks with an NPC, there's a chance another party member will chime into the conversation, which raises the affinity levels between said characters. Raising affinity between characters is important for many reasons, but to name an important one, party members that are closer to one another can share skills with one another, which allows party members to have access to skills they would not be able to equip otherwise.
By the end of the conversation, you have your objective and the rewards you'll get for completing the quest, if the game wants you to see them. These could be experience points, money, equipment, and equipment-enhancing items called gems, just to name a few things. You can then track the quest, which points you in the direction of what needs to be done.
Let's assume the quest giver needs you to defeat enemies. Combat in Xenoblade Chronicles is MMO-style, in that you attack automatically and choose special abilities to use strategically in combat. Depending on your party composition, you may be able to employ strategies that utilize the unique abilities that each party member possesses. There aren't any truly ineffective party compositions you can have, so you're free to experiment to see how different parties function in combat.
Each party member has a unique style. You have your DPS, your Tank, your Healer, your buff-distributor, and others that have special concentrations. How you set up your party is up to you. You may want to maximize damage by having a party full of attackers, or you may choose to have someone who can soften up the enemy with debuffs or have someone who can reliably heal the party present to ensure that you'll survive to the end of the fight. I enjoyed mixing and matching party members to see what styles fit me the best, and I think that is one of the most satisfying parts of this game.
As you fight, there will occasionally be a quick-time prompt that when completed will not only fill a bar for a special move, but it will also increase your affinity with party members. When party members are incapacitated or are in low spirits during a fight, you can help or encourage them during a battle to help them out and raise affinity levels. When you defeat an enemy, outside of the experience points, you get skill points and ability points. Skill points allow party members to unlock new skills, and ability points allow you to improve the abilities you currently have. They also drop chests, which can include items needed for other quests, equipment, or items that can be used to make gems.
Now you've completed the request of the NPC that gave you the quest. Time to return to them and reap the rewards. You talk to them, and just like the first conversation, a party member can chime in and raise affinity with the leading party member. By completing the quest, you also raise your affinity with the area you received that quest from, which will allow you to receive even more side quests from said area.
Now, let's review what just happened. By doing a single side quest, we got the rewards promised from the quest, which includes cash for new equipment, experience points to level us up, and new equipment and gems to keep us in shape for the coming battles. We got higher affinity between party members, new items from monsters, and the ability to receive even more side quests from the area.
We saw side quest mechanics, affinity mechanics, and combat mechanics. We got stronger not only in terms of experience points for levels, but in terms of having stronger equipment, new gems to enhance our equipment, and more skill and ability points from the enemies we fought. All of these things are intertwining through just one side quest, and it all happens so seamlessly and naturally. Throughout this game you're constantly getting stronger in so many ways just by doing side quests and progressing the plot and it's so satisfying. I wish I appreciated the mechanics as much as I do now back when I first played this game, because if I did, I may have beaten this game way sooner.
I want to now talk about my favorite mechanic in this game, and one that I consider one of the most interesting mechanics in a game I've played.
The main character, Shulk, has the ability to see into the future. It would be easy to assume that if you could gaze into the future that life would be a breeze, but for Shulk it most certainly isn't, and the plot will cover that thoroughly. I'm not talking about how this effects the plot. I'm talking about how this effects gameplay.
When fighting tough enemies, Shulk may experience a vision of the future, which shows you that an enemy is about to unleash a powerful move that may incapacitate a party member. You then have the ability to change the future by performing actions to mitigate or cancel out completely the effects of the move. You can also warn other party members about the future, which lets you select an ability of theirs to use to help you change the future. I think this adds a very interesting dynamic to combat, forcing the player to think on their feet when enemies decide to put more pressure on them.
Visions can occur outside of combat, as well. Sometimes when you pick up an item, you'll get a vision of how that item will be used to solve someone's problem. It can also happen when you're receiving a side quest, showing you an outcome that can occur if you don't intervene to help. It really does feel like they made the most of the concept of future sight for this title, and it always gains my interest when I see it go off and give me some new information.
With all these things I like about this game, there are definitely some things that hold it back.
Perhaps the most egregious issue I have with this game is that it really, REALLY wants you to do a ton of side quests. More often than not you'll find yourself hitting walls in terms of difficulty if you don't do them to keep up with the level curve. You'll easily be spending hours completing side quests before making progress in the story, which can be off-putting for many. I will admit that I grew tired of it myself by the time I reached the endgame. This version of Xenoblade Chronicles very mercifully also includes a casual mode, which makes you stronger and enemies weaker, which helps to save time if you just want to enjoy the plot. I wound up using this at the end of the game because the alternative would be another few hours of side quests, which did not sound ideal after 75 hours of gameplay.
Another issue I have also relates to side quests. Sometimes, you'll be tasked with being in a specific area under specific weather conditions to get a specific NPC or monster to appear. You have the ability to alter the time of day from the pause menu, which is convenient. However, you are unable to see what the weather will be until you've already changed the time, which means going into the menu, changing the time, seeing if it's the weather you need, and if it's not, repeating the process over and over again until you get the results you want. It gets very tiresome very quickly and I wish that for this version they made the weather conditions more visible to players before they set a specific time to go to.
The overabundant side quests and the game's reliance on the player completing them can take the wind out of any player's sails as they play this game. If you can stomach that part of the game or are willing to turn on the new casual mode, though, you will get to experience an engaging story with great characters, as well as a killer soundtrack. The game nails ambient tracks as you explore the world, giving a good sense of adventure as you go through new areas. The music kicks up during combat, with tracks like "You Will Know Our Names" keeping you motivated to take down tough foes.
If you like the idea of a single-player MMO with a huge world to explore, fun characters to meet, a plot that gets more and more engaging as you play, and satisfying gameplay mechanics, I implore you to give Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition a shot!
Okay review's over TAKE THE ALLEYOOP CHALLENGE TODAY!! Every time you jump when playing as the character Reyn, he will randomly either grunt or say "Alleyoop!" How many times can you get Reyn to say "Alleyoop!" in a row? My record's 11. Here's a video where someone gets a 17 "Alleyoop!" chain! What's your "Alleyoop!" score? Share yours in the comments!
This game is seriously so beautiful. its story and its foreshadowing is brilliant and the music only helps it. i cant get enough of its characters. Shulk is literally my husband idc.
I'm writing this at 2:30am, after having spent about 13 hours straight doing what I thought was "the final stretch" :^) I'll try to keep it brief cause I'm tired but this game is big...
I really love this game. The combat took some getting used to, and it's not without its flaws, but man it just didn't get boring for me at all. The characters are great, as is the story and the music, it's a long ass journey but it's fulfilling. I also hugely appreciate customisable armour and played dress-up so much I prolly added 5 hours to my game time lol.
Now that said, it is a long. ass. journey... If you don't enjoy the combat or running around absolutely massive maps for 30-60 mins between cutscenes (with mob fights ofc) this will probably be a mega slog. Everything is so fucking far away I felt like I'd missed a car or some shit 2 chapters in cause it takes forever to get anywhere. This fucks the pacing at times as well, with some chapters ending with these big intense build-ups only for the next part to put a long walk between you and the next cutscene. Seriously at one part you load in, walk in a straight line with no enemies for 2 whole minutes, just to trigger another cutscene...
Anyway! Shut up I'm tired and I thought I'd be done hours ago but I wasn't and I'm kinda bummed but also I love it and I don't want it to be over so I'm gunna spend a small fortune on the sequel now okok
I really love this game. The combat took some getting used to, and it's not without its flaws, but man it just didn't get boring for me at all. The characters are great, as is the story and the music, it's a long ass journey but it's fulfilling. I also hugely appreciate customisable armour and played dress-up so much I prolly added 5 hours to my game time lol.
Now that said, it is a long. ass. journey... If you don't enjoy the combat or running around absolutely massive maps for 30-60 mins between cutscenes (with mob fights ofc) this will probably be a mega slog. Everything is so fucking far away I felt like I'd missed a car or some shit 2 chapters in cause it takes forever to get anywhere. This fucks the pacing at times as well, with some chapters ending with these big intense build-ups only for the next part to put a long walk between you and the next cutscene. Seriously at one part you load in, walk in a straight line with no enemies for 2 whole minutes, just to trigger another cutscene...
Anyway! Shut up I'm tired and I thought I'd be done hours ago but I wasn't and I'm kinda bummed but also I love it and I don't want it to be over so I'm gunna spend a small fortune on the sequel now okok
"Now it's Reyn time!"
"Watch out! Mad hairball on the loose!"
"I'm powering up!"
"The adults are talking here pops!"
"Let's not lose our heads, though."
"Good thing I'm here? No? Anyone?"
"Cheers!"
"Shulk? You saw another one didn't you?"
"Man, wha' a buncha jokas!"
"Who else wants some?"
"Haha! In your face!"
"This one I belong!"
"It just goes to show, brawn is better than brains."
"Got it, Shulk."
"Ok, let's start a chain attack to finish him!"
"I know, I know!"
"Yeah! Reyn time!"
"Ain't over yet"
"Get outta 'ere!"
"Yeaah, I'm turnin' up the heat!"
"SUCK ON THIS!"
"Give it some Oomph!"
Reyn: "Now we're getting started!"
Riki: "But Riki already started..."
Reyn: "Sharla, with you around I fight three times as hard!"
Sharla: "Reyn, what am I going to do with you!"
"Are we insane?!"
"Are you nuts?!"
"Ugh... Let's split!"
"Go for this one!"
"Uh? Do what you think is best!"
"Watch out! Mad hairball on the loose!"
"I'm powering up!"
"The adults are talking here pops!"
"Let's not lose our heads, though."
"Good thing I'm here? No? Anyone?"
"Cheers!"
"Shulk? You saw another one didn't you?"
"Man, wha' a buncha jokas!"
"Who else wants some?"
"Haha! In your face!"
"This one I belong!"
"It just goes to show, brawn is better than brains."
"Got it, Shulk."
"Ok, let's start a chain attack to finish him!"
"I know, I know!"
"Yeah! Reyn time!"
"Ain't over yet"
"Get outta 'ere!"
"Yeaah, I'm turnin' up the heat!"
"SUCK ON THIS!"
"Give it some Oomph!"
Reyn: "Now we're getting started!"
Riki: "But Riki already started..."
Reyn: "Sharla, with you around I fight three times as hard!"
Sharla: "Reyn, what am I going to do with you!"
"Are we insane?!"
"Are you nuts?!"
"Ugh... Let's split!"
"Go for this one!"
"Uh? Do what you think is best!"
In celebration of Xenoblade Chronicles 3 being announced, I decided to revisit the Xenoblade Chronicles series once again.
Xenoblade Chronicles has such a phenomenal story. Every character feels like they got swept up in a conflict they didn't want to be in, but still fight for what they think is the right thing to do. The main draw of this however, is their motivations aren't so pure, as they're naturally flawed and controlled by their emotions, which makes them feel so realistic and allows you to relate to them so much more than you otherwise would. In addition, they do tend to fulfill a certain role that might be cliché feeling at first, but they take that mold and expand upon it, and subverting your expectations of the sort of "box" you think they're going to be confined into. The game also knows when to sprinkle in humor, that's entirely created from the amazing chemistry every character has, so it feels natural and once again just makes them even better.
Xenoblade Chronicles as a game however, is also quite genius. There's not a lot of moving parts here really, but it'll definitely take time to understand everything. Usually though, you'll have your basic arts that'll grant a de-buff to a monster, or gain bonus damage based on position. Your party composition is always only three characters, which isn't that limiting because you can really customize your characters down to the smaller details, which is great.
I will mention however that Xenoblade Chronicles can be very challenging or pathetically easy based on your knowledge and preferred strategies. There's one strategy called "Topple locking" which is such a busted and guaranteed way to get through any sort of challenging endeavor when fighting, I almost recommend not doing it. The idea is basically stun locking the enemy, and ensuring you can never miss an attack, and get bonus damage on top of that. But trust me when I say there's plenty of other strategies you can employ to overcome challenges, but I thought I'd mention the oversight anyways. Besides that, the combat is excellent, just fast paced enough to keep things interesting and intense, but also slow enough where you can make calculated and crucial decisions like a turn-based game, it truly is genius at how it's balanced out and practical even in the toughest fights in the game. You engage enemies out on the field and fight without any loading or anything, you just jump straight into fighting. Your character can be moved around and will auto-attack for you, but it's up to you to select what art to use, and when to use it. So you're always making small decisions that'll snowball into a huge advantage that'll allow you to decimate anything in your path. The game gives you plenty of great options to do this as well.
Outside of battling there's also a lot going on. Tons of menu's for equipment, leveling up your arts, unlocking new passive skills, and linking other characters skills to other characters, though limited. There's also a whole menu for character's affinity, party members and NPC's, and gem crafting. I won't go into huge detail into all of these, but I'll touch on them a bit. The equipment menu is good, and you can even change the look of your character to whatever you want once you have a piece of gear that has that specific look. Armor in this game though isn't of much importance however, so you won't need to think about it a lot. Leveling up and setting new arts for characters is really simple, and you can lay them out however you want as well for convenience or so you can combo them together easily. As you battle, you'll unlock new passive abilities for your characters as well. You can link specific abilities from other characters as well, however you have to build their trust by having them fight together a lot, which can be a pain, but you'll naturally progress that as you play. The only issue is linking skills requires these coins which you get by fighting "unique monsters" which are more stronger variations of the normal monsters you'll fight in a given area. There's also some super strong bosses you can test your luck against later on in the game to challenge yourself. But in order to link skills, defeat every single one you can possibly find. Last thing I'll go over is gem crafting. The system itself is hard to learn, but once you figure it out, you'll be making some super busted stat boosting items that'll really pack a punch and it's very rewarding to do as well. I wouldn't worry about gem crafting or optimizing your builds too much if you're just wanting to play through the story though, as my gems and gear were pretty bad and I progressed fine. But for some of the optional challenges, definitely consider getting the best of the best, you'll need it.
Music is absolutely insane. There's so many beautiful songs here that encapsulates every area, battle, boss, and cutscene this game has to offer. The range is also remarkable, from some intense guitar riffs, to soft piano, and beautiful harmonization is a lot of the songs as well, it all comes together to create that unique "Xeno" sound that's so distinct across all the games. There's also alternate tracks for a lot of areas if it's nighttime, which are more subdued and peaceful to their daytime counterparts which are louder, and more profound.
Graphics are subjective, let me just say this before delving into this portion. So in the original release of Xenoblade Chronicles, the graphics haven't aged the greatest. I am going to defend it however, because it was unique, and nothing like I've ever seen before. Lighting and character portraits specifically stick out to me from the original release. And while it may be dated, it's still got a lot of expression and everything is designed soundly enough to distinguish everything without any issues, at least for me.
Now with Definitive Edition, I have no qualms or complaints with. It's stunning, it essentially just heightened everything to the point of perfection. Now I understand if the more animated look might not appeal to you, because the character designs do differ quite a lot from their original counterparts. But at the same time, they still look and feel like them, and that's what's most important to me. If the Wii/3DS versions turned you off from the graphics, play Definitive Edition, it's honestly a treat for the eyes. Environments also got a huge update in Definitive Edition, much better lighting and so much more personality.
That's all I have to say! Xenoblade Chronicles is truly a masterpiece of a JRPG. Even the original on the Wii is an absolute gem and I strongly urge any JRPG fan to play this. I'll admit I was a very turn-based only RPG player for a long time, but it was this game that changed my mind and opened me eyes to how good they can actually be. You can get Xenoblade Chronicles on Wii, Wii U through eshop, and the New Nintendo 3DS specifically as a heads up, other 3DS models won't play it. You can also get the Definitive Edition (that this review was based on for the most part) on Nintendo Switch. I personally recommend the Definitive Edition as it fixes a lot of bugs and issues from the original version you can get on the other platforms.
Xenoblade Chronicles has such a phenomenal story. Every character feels like they got swept up in a conflict they didn't want to be in, but still fight for what they think is the right thing to do. The main draw of this however, is their motivations aren't so pure, as they're naturally flawed and controlled by their emotions, which makes them feel so realistic and allows you to relate to them so much more than you otherwise would. In addition, they do tend to fulfill a certain role that might be cliché feeling at first, but they take that mold and expand upon it, and subverting your expectations of the sort of "box" you think they're going to be confined into. The game also knows when to sprinkle in humor, that's entirely created from the amazing chemistry every character has, so it feels natural and once again just makes them even better.
Xenoblade Chronicles as a game however, is also quite genius. There's not a lot of moving parts here really, but it'll definitely take time to understand everything. Usually though, you'll have your basic arts that'll grant a de-buff to a monster, or gain bonus damage based on position. Your party composition is always only three characters, which isn't that limiting because you can really customize your characters down to the smaller details, which is great.
I will mention however that Xenoblade Chronicles can be very challenging or pathetically easy based on your knowledge and preferred strategies. There's one strategy called "Topple locking" which is such a busted and guaranteed way to get through any sort of challenging endeavor when fighting, I almost recommend not doing it. The idea is basically stun locking the enemy, and ensuring you can never miss an attack, and get bonus damage on top of that. But trust me when I say there's plenty of other strategies you can employ to overcome challenges, but I thought I'd mention the oversight anyways. Besides that, the combat is excellent, just fast paced enough to keep things interesting and intense, but also slow enough where you can make calculated and crucial decisions like a turn-based game, it truly is genius at how it's balanced out and practical even in the toughest fights in the game. You engage enemies out on the field and fight without any loading or anything, you just jump straight into fighting. Your character can be moved around and will auto-attack for you, but it's up to you to select what art to use, and when to use it. So you're always making small decisions that'll snowball into a huge advantage that'll allow you to decimate anything in your path. The game gives you plenty of great options to do this as well.
Outside of battling there's also a lot going on. Tons of menu's for equipment, leveling up your arts, unlocking new passive skills, and linking other characters skills to other characters, though limited. There's also a whole menu for character's affinity, party members and NPC's, and gem crafting. I won't go into huge detail into all of these, but I'll touch on them a bit. The equipment menu is good, and you can even change the look of your character to whatever you want once you have a piece of gear that has that specific look. Armor in this game though isn't of much importance however, so you won't need to think about it a lot. Leveling up and setting new arts for characters is really simple, and you can lay them out however you want as well for convenience or so you can combo them together easily. As you battle, you'll unlock new passive abilities for your characters as well. You can link specific abilities from other characters as well, however you have to build their trust by having them fight together a lot, which can be a pain, but you'll naturally progress that as you play. The only issue is linking skills requires these coins which you get by fighting "unique monsters" which are more stronger variations of the normal monsters you'll fight in a given area. There's also some super strong bosses you can test your luck against later on in the game to challenge yourself. But in order to link skills, defeat every single one you can possibly find. Last thing I'll go over is gem crafting. The system itself is hard to learn, but once you figure it out, you'll be making some super busted stat boosting items that'll really pack a punch and it's very rewarding to do as well. I wouldn't worry about gem crafting or optimizing your builds too much if you're just wanting to play through the story though, as my gems and gear were pretty bad and I progressed fine. But for some of the optional challenges, definitely consider getting the best of the best, you'll need it.
Music is absolutely insane. There's so many beautiful songs here that encapsulates every area, battle, boss, and cutscene this game has to offer. The range is also remarkable, from some intense guitar riffs, to soft piano, and beautiful harmonization is a lot of the songs as well, it all comes together to create that unique "Xeno" sound that's so distinct across all the games. There's also alternate tracks for a lot of areas if it's nighttime, which are more subdued and peaceful to their daytime counterparts which are louder, and more profound.
Graphics are subjective, let me just say this before delving into this portion. So in the original release of Xenoblade Chronicles, the graphics haven't aged the greatest. I am going to defend it however, because it was unique, and nothing like I've ever seen before. Lighting and character portraits specifically stick out to me from the original release. And while it may be dated, it's still got a lot of expression and everything is designed soundly enough to distinguish everything without any issues, at least for me.
Now with Definitive Edition, I have no qualms or complaints with. It's stunning, it essentially just heightened everything to the point of perfection. Now I understand if the more animated look might not appeal to you, because the character designs do differ quite a lot from their original counterparts. But at the same time, they still look and feel like them, and that's what's most important to me. If the Wii/3DS versions turned you off from the graphics, play Definitive Edition, it's honestly a treat for the eyes. Environments also got a huge update in Definitive Edition, much better lighting and so much more personality.
That's all I have to say! Xenoblade Chronicles is truly a masterpiece of a JRPG. Even the original on the Wii is an absolute gem and I strongly urge any JRPG fan to play this. I'll admit I was a very turn-based only RPG player for a long time, but it was this game that changed my mind and opened me eyes to how good they can actually be. You can get Xenoblade Chronicles on Wii, Wii U through eshop, and the New Nintendo 3DS specifically as a heads up, other 3DS models won't play it. You can also get the Definitive Edition (that this review was based on for the most part) on Nintendo Switch. I personally recommend the Definitive Edition as it fixes a lot of bugs and issues from the original version you can get on the other platforms.
I get it now
Evangelion for people who are more gay than evangelion fans
This review contains spoilers
My first JRPG !
The opening got me really pumped up. In a couple of minutes, you learn the basis of the battle system, the game briefs you about the confrontation between Bionis & Mechonis, and you understand everything that is at stake. The sequence shot of the ongoing battle between the 2 titans was dope.
Once I discovered the first area, I was blown away by the music. This is becoming a recurring opinion in my reviews, but the environment themes in this game are incredible. All of them are a league above.
I was immediatly hooked on the combat: the cooldown on your arts, the added effects depending on your positioning, the chain attacks, the arts combos... Everything clicked instantly.
And even though some people criticize it for being too spammy, I never got tired of it personally.
I enjoyed spending a lot of time managing my team: getting the best gear, hunting down Unique Monsters to upgrade my arts, increasing the affinity between characters, unlocking their skill trees. There were so many little things to keep me busy, and optimize my team as much as possible.
The side quests were completely uninteresting ("go kill X monsters" type of thing) but I always tried to activate those quests because the rewards were quite generous. This was a good way of getting gold & gems.
Really often, I was completing some of those quests without being aware of it, just by wandering around killing random enemies.
I got really attached to some of the characters. Dunban was the first one that really stuck out. The fact that he was the previous wielder of the Monado was really cool. He has the aura of a leader and he teaches a lot to the other characters, he's the mentor/veteran of the party.
There's also Dickson. He's like Shulk's cool uncle, when you see his chara design, personality, and his attitude towards Shulk. I also liked how detached he looked at times.
And of course, there's Melia. She goes through so much during the whole game, she has to be the one who suffers the most throughout the story. I was always cheering for her.
So many beautiful sceneries... Satorl Marsh at night, the waterfalls in Makna Forest, the Frontier Village, Eryth Sea, Valak Mountain, Fallen Arm... They put so much effort into the aesthetics of the environments, and it shows. And when you combine that with the environments themes which I talked about earlier, you get an amazing experience. Exploring can be so damn satisfying.
However, this game (and other xenoblade titles too) has a big flaw in my opinion: your character is way too slow, compared to the HUGE size of the map.
It takes too long to go anywhere... especially when you want to complete your map to the fullest.
The moment when the party finally arrives in Frontier Village was such a high point in the game. You acquire 2 new characters with really different combat mechanics (Melia and Riki).
The party gets biggers, you learn more about the Monado and the different races, especially the High Entias, and the party gets closer to its goal: reaching Prison Island.
Moving forward, the party arrives in Alcamoth, then there are the events at High Entia Tomb, Prison Island, Galahad Fortress, etc... I'm not gonna go over every event happening in the story, but it's just so captivating. It's full of action & great reveals.
Something else that I enjoyed with XC1 is the different points of view that you get of Bionis & Mechonis. Since you're literally traveling on a titan, you're always exploring different parts of its body.
At the beginning, you're on its foot, and as the story progresses, you go higher and higher (leg, back, shoulder, head, etc...)
And you can occasionally deduce where you are by looking at the other titan, since the 2 titans are facing each other. It made for a really coherent World.
Zanza was a good final Boss. I really enjoyed how over-the-top he was, with the stereotypical god complex, and his exaggerated chara design. Not to mention his epic battle theme.
It was a satisfying ending to an epic adventure. And despite its flaws, it has became my favorite singleplayer game.
----------Playtime & Completion----------
[Played the Wii version in March 2021 & the Definitive Edition in mid-September 2022]
Wii version Playtime: 130 hours
DE version Playtime: 110 hours
100% Completion
The opening got me really pumped up. In a couple of minutes, you learn the basis of the battle system, the game briefs you about the confrontation between Bionis & Mechonis, and you understand everything that is at stake. The sequence shot of the ongoing battle between the 2 titans was dope.
Once I discovered the first area, I was blown away by the music. This is becoming a recurring opinion in my reviews, but the environment themes in this game are incredible. All of them are a league above.
I was immediatly hooked on the combat: the cooldown on your arts, the added effects depending on your positioning, the chain attacks, the arts combos... Everything clicked instantly.
And even though some people criticize it for being too spammy, I never got tired of it personally.
I enjoyed spending a lot of time managing my team: getting the best gear, hunting down Unique Monsters to upgrade my arts, increasing the affinity between characters, unlocking their skill trees. There were so many little things to keep me busy, and optimize my team as much as possible.
The side quests were completely uninteresting ("go kill X monsters" type of thing) but I always tried to activate those quests because the rewards were quite generous. This was a good way of getting gold & gems.
Really often, I was completing some of those quests without being aware of it, just by wandering around killing random enemies.
I got really attached to some of the characters. Dunban was the first one that really stuck out. The fact that he was the previous wielder of the Monado was really cool. He has the aura of a leader and he teaches a lot to the other characters, he's the mentor/veteran of the party.
There's also Dickson. He's like Shulk's cool uncle, when you see his chara design, personality, and his attitude towards Shulk. I also liked how detached he looked at times.
And of course, there's Melia. She goes through so much during the whole game, she has to be the one who suffers the most throughout the story. I was always cheering for her.
So many beautiful sceneries... Satorl Marsh at night, the waterfalls in Makna Forest, the Frontier Village, Eryth Sea, Valak Mountain, Fallen Arm... They put so much effort into the aesthetics of the environments, and it shows. And when you combine that with the environments themes which I talked about earlier, you get an amazing experience. Exploring can be so damn satisfying.
However, this game (and other xenoblade titles too) has a big flaw in my opinion: your character is way too slow, compared to the HUGE size of the map.
It takes too long to go anywhere... especially when you want to complete your map to the fullest.
The moment when the party finally arrives in Frontier Village was such a high point in the game. You acquire 2 new characters with really different combat mechanics (Melia and Riki).
The party gets biggers, you learn more about the Monado and the different races, especially the High Entias, and the party gets closer to its goal: reaching Prison Island.
Moving forward, the party arrives in Alcamoth, then there are the events at High Entia Tomb, Prison Island, Galahad Fortress, etc... I'm not gonna go over every event happening in the story, but it's just so captivating. It's full of action & great reveals.
Something else that I enjoyed with XC1 is the different points of view that you get of Bionis & Mechonis. Since you're literally traveling on a titan, you're always exploring different parts of its body.
At the beginning, you're on its foot, and as the story progresses, you go higher and higher (leg, back, shoulder, head, etc...)
And you can occasionally deduce where you are by looking at the other titan, since the 2 titans are facing each other. It made for a really coherent World.
Zanza was a good final Boss. I really enjoyed how over-the-top he was, with the stereotypical god complex, and his exaggerated chara design. Not to mention his epic battle theme.
It was a satisfying ending to an epic adventure. And despite its flaws, it has became my favorite singleplayer game.
----------Playtime & Completion----------
[Played the Wii version in March 2021 & the Definitive Edition in mid-September 2022]
Wii version Playtime: 130 hours
DE version Playtime: 110 hours
100% Completion
Still a total all-timer. Might be my favourite JRPG.
One day I will become Reyn.
One day I will become Reyn.
One thing I can say quite definitively about this title is that that the world designers were cookin'. Very few things coming off a Nintendo console can be considered "high fidelity" — even with the fresh coat of a remastering — but fidelity is only ever one part of a game's visual toolset. Creativity and an eye for detail are what truly make a work special, and the world designers at Monolith Soft clearly had it.
I've been into sci-fi tales from the cradle, so I'd like to think that I've seen a lot in the long list of works — both new and old — I've read, watched, and played. I have vague memories that I've seen a general setup like Xenoblade's "universe for two" before, but... there's a magic to the execution here that got even my desensitized, open-world-burned-out self to spend 30 minutes in areas just "looking around." Something I haven't done much of since I was first awed by Mass Effect back in 2008.
Original or not, it sure feels unique. Even when I knew that I had probably found all of the interesting gameplay elements in an area, I still would feel compelled to look.
So for all of the more mixed opinions I'll give after this, I will say right off the bat that I now see why this game has been held in such high regard by its fans since its original 2010 release.
I also understand why people compare it to a single-player MMO, because beyond just the combat, every technical aspect of this game feels like it was derived from that space of the industry. In more good ways than bad — I say as an occasional MMO enjoyer.
[Combat]
Combat on the surface is almost one-for-one with the likes of World of Warcraft or (more relevant to me) Star Wars the Old Republic. You can move freely and it's in "real-time," but it uses the same style of targeting and action queueing any MMO player would immediately recognize. With that said, as an offline game it's far more responsive and willing to push for tighter timings on actions. They took the liberty to add features that its online contemporaries could not, like a system that plays out a possible future action from the enemy as a warning for the player to shift their tactics.
Frankly, I find the combat very satisfying with all the little tools they give you to maximize your damage-per-second and balance that with defense. It's not too complex when you're being introduced, but over time you find added layers that can create some pretty dramatic effects when you figure them out.
My only real problem with it is tuning. The game wants to encourage a diversity of team compositions and character builds, but it has two particularly grevious misfires to that point: the "Medic" character is way too effective as a healer compared to anyone else (and the team size is a mere 3); the main character has only one set of skills and most of his variety comes from special mechanics related to his weapon which don't have as much organic interplay.
This doesn't rear its head much in most fights, but once you get to the actual challenges you're heavily pressured into taking those two and one of two effective tanks. You can finagle the system to make other things work or level over the challenge, but to me it always seemed like I was intentionally hamstringing myself to do so.
[Checklisting]
The rest of gameplay revolves around exploring the world and collecting items. There are some interesting aspects to this, but its mostly fairly rudimentary in implementation. Smooth and neuron-activating, but simple and potentially very time consuming if you're a completionist or nearly one.
On the more interesting side, there is a mechanic that tells you if a random item you pick up will be part of a sidequest that fits the plot. That's a very cool bit of QoL that I loved. Also, there's a whole system around building reputation with the named NPCs of the world, and a big ol' graph showing all of their connections, likes, and tradable items. The further you build out that graph, the more side quests you unlock. Some of which even have alternate outcomes if you talk to specific characters before mindleslly setting out.
It's just a bit unfortunate that most of these quests are piled in with token fetch/kill quests so they can be easy to miss and there's little additional presentation for them. Just the same text boxes only with more involved dialogue. Great if you notice it, but no one will blame you if you don't.
There was one aspect of this system that I feel particularly let down by (though, maybe unfairly) which is that your party members have affinity values for each other as well, which unlock passive combat bonuses and, more importantly, "heart-to-heart" scenes that give their individual relationships more development. The "unfortunate" part to me was in how much time commitment it would take to fully engage with the system and in how obnoxious it was to actually trigger the scenes. To the point where I gave up on doing them in normal gameplay and opted to watch them on YouTube.
In my 41 hour playthrough where I tried to do the significant side content I could find, I got about 3 party members to full affinity with the main character, and none of them higher than 4/5 with each other. In addition, you have to find the locations for each scene on the large maps with no option to at least fast travel back to them later, and you definitely won't have them unlocked on first visit.
So great idea, poor execution.
[Narrative]
The tale that sets the context for your long trek through this alien-yet-inviting world fittingly evoked my nostalgia for both Gurren Lagann and Final Fantasy. The broadstrokes being close to the former and the details of the characters and atmosphere closer to the latter.
I ended up liking the whole cast more than I had expected after seeing their visual designs for years (I have a prejudice against the kind of not-shorts Shulk wears, apparently). I'd even say the writing had some great moments, just not consistently. Still, the only real "negative" moments were a couple fairly repetitive beats in Shulk's character development, and I otherwise liked him. He was much more direct and brash than I expected, but not in a thoughtless way.
I can't say I ever felt "surprised" by the twists in the story, but there were some details to it that caught me off-guard at times. And in the end, like the exploration, I was always happy to just soak up the sci-fi goodness.
I do really think the game needed a proper "point-of-no-return" in the last 2 or 3 chapters and drop off the exploration elements at that point, because there was a bit too much dissonance between what the gameplay and narrative were trying to accomplish pacing-wise at that point. It's not the worst I've seen, but it let out a bit of the steam it had built for me.
[It's not 'Incredible' but it's certainly 'Memorable']
There's a lot of cool stuff going on in this game, and I'm really looking forward to catching up with the series now. It's hard to pinpoint anything other than the world design that it does particularly well, but in a "whole greater than the sum of its parts" way, I left with rather warm feelings about the whole experience.
If you're a JRPG veteran and haven't gotten to this one yet, I absolutely recommend. I think sci-fi fans who want something a bit low-key on the gameplay side will generally enjoy this as well.
I've been into sci-fi tales from the cradle, so I'd like to think that I've seen a lot in the long list of works — both new and old — I've read, watched, and played. I have vague memories that I've seen a general setup like Xenoblade's "universe for two" before, but... there's a magic to the execution here that got even my desensitized, open-world-burned-out self to spend 30 minutes in areas just "looking around." Something I haven't done much of since I was first awed by Mass Effect back in 2008.
Original or not, it sure feels unique. Even when I knew that I had probably found all of the interesting gameplay elements in an area, I still would feel compelled to look.
So for all of the more mixed opinions I'll give after this, I will say right off the bat that I now see why this game has been held in such high regard by its fans since its original 2010 release.
I also understand why people compare it to a single-player MMO, because beyond just the combat, every technical aspect of this game feels like it was derived from that space of the industry. In more good ways than bad — I say as an occasional MMO enjoyer.
[Combat]
Combat on the surface is almost one-for-one with the likes of World of Warcraft or (more relevant to me) Star Wars the Old Republic. You can move freely and it's in "real-time," but it uses the same style of targeting and action queueing any MMO player would immediately recognize. With that said, as an offline game it's far more responsive and willing to push for tighter timings on actions. They took the liberty to add features that its online contemporaries could not, like a system that plays out a possible future action from the enemy as a warning for the player to shift their tactics.
Frankly, I find the combat very satisfying with all the little tools they give you to maximize your damage-per-second and balance that with defense. It's not too complex when you're being introduced, but over time you find added layers that can create some pretty dramatic effects when you figure them out.
My only real problem with it is tuning. The game wants to encourage a diversity of team compositions and character builds, but it has two particularly grevious misfires to that point: the "Medic" character is way too effective as a healer compared to anyone else (and the team size is a mere 3); the main character has only one set of skills and most of his variety comes from special mechanics related to his weapon which don't have as much organic interplay.
This doesn't rear its head much in most fights, but once you get to the actual challenges you're heavily pressured into taking those two and one of two effective tanks. You can finagle the system to make other things work or level over the challenge, but to me it always seemed like I was intentionally hamstringing myself to do so.
[Checklisting]
The rest of gameplay revolves around exploring the world and collecting items. There are some interesting aspects to this, but its mostly fairly rudimentary in implementation. Smooth and neuron-activating, but simple and potentially very time consuming if you're a completionist or nearly one.
On the more interesting side, there is a mechanic that tells you if a random item you pick up will be part of a sidequest that fits the plot. That's a very cool bit of QoL that I loved. Also, there's a whole system around building reputation with the named NPCs of the world, and a big ol' graph showing all of their connections, likes, and tradable items. The further you build out that graph, the more side quests you unlock. Some of which even have alternate outcomes if you talk to specific characters before mindleslly setting out.
It's just a bit unfortunate that most of these quests are piled in with token fetch/kill quests so they can be easy to miss and there's little additional presentation for them. Just the same text boxes only with more involved dialogue. Great if you notice it, but no one will blame you if you don't.
There was one aspect of this system that I feel particularly let down by (though, maybe unfairly) which is that your party members have affinity values for each other as well, which unlock passive combat bonuses and, more importantly, "heart-to-heart" scenes that give their individual relationships more development. The "unfortunate" part to me was in how much time commitment it would take to fully engage with the system and in how obnoxious it was to actually trigger the scenes. To the point where I gave up on doing them in normal gameplay and opted to watch them on YouTube.
In my 41 hour playthrough where I tried to do the significant side content I could find, I got about 3 party members to full affinity with the main character, and none of them higher than 4/5 with each other. In addition, you have to find the locations for each scene on the large maps with no option to at least fast travel back to them later, and you definitely won't have them unlocked on first visit.
So great idea, poor execution.
[Narrative]
The tale that sets the context for your long trek through this alien-yet-inviting world fittingly evoked my nostalgia for both Gurren Lagann and Final Fantasy. The broadstrokes being close to the former and the details of the characters and atmosphere closer to the latter.
I ended up liking the whole cast more than I had expected after seeing their visual designs for years (I have a prejudice against the kind of not-shorts Shulk wears, apparently). I'd even say the writing had some great moments, just not consistently. Still, the only real "negative" moments were a couple fairly repetitive beats in Shulk's character development, and I otherwise liked him. He was much more direct and brash than I expected, but not in a thoughtless way.
I can't say I ever felt "surprised" by the twists in the story, but there were some details to it that caught me off-guard at times. And in the end, like the exploration, I was always happy to just soak up the sci-fi goodness.
I do really think the game needed a proper "point-of-no-return" in the last 2 or 3 chapters and drop off the exploration elements at that point, because there was a bit too much dissonance between what the gameplay and narrative were trying to accomplish pacing-wise at that point. It's not the worst I've seen, but it let out a bit of the steam it had built for me.
[It's not 'Incredible' but it's certainly 'Memorable']
There's a lot of cool stuff going on in this game, and I'm really looking forward to catching up with the series now. It's hard to pinpoint anything other than the world design that it does particularly well, but in a "whole greater than the sum of its parts" way, I left with rather warm feelings about the whole experience.
If you're a JRPG veteran and haven't gotten to this one yet, I absolutely recommend. I think sci-fi fans who want something a bit low-key on the gameplay side will generally enjoy this as well.
Absolutely fantastic game and experience. The gameplay is great, the characters are very enjoyable, and the story is incredible. Easily my favorite game of all time.
It really is that good. The story is the best of any JRPG I've played, and the main group is iconic. The character design is not as over-the-top as 2, making this game more approachable for everyone as well. The battle system is excellent, and all of the quality-of-life improvements the Definitive Edition brings make this the best way to experience it in all of its glory.