The full commitment to a world map with the scale and scope of a WoW like MMO is what makes Xenoblade Chronicles stand out from its peers at the time of its release on the rinky dink Wii, still being impressive after all these years just how vast and expansive its environments are, as you walk around on top of two colossal titans frozen in combat, a wholly inspired setting for a fantasy tale. More so than FFXII, the ability to peruse the whole landscape ahead of you and all of its critters walking around, without being sucked into a pocket dimension for a turn based combat each time you take two steps, reinforces the thought that this is how every modern JRPG should strive to be.
It is unfortunate then that XC goes and spends a little too much time with its hand on the MMO cookie jar. As you inevitably start engaging with its side content, and you find yourself killing and collecting a list of seemingly irrelevant monsters and items, it's quickly understood that XC is not about to make an effort to make you care for these menial and meaningless tasks or the polygon people who ask you to do so. Being self aware of such shortcomings, XC even goes as far as completing most of your quests the moment you finish your grocery list, not even requiring you to deliver the goods to the NPCs who asked for them in the first place. Cause walking back would be too much of a hassle, no?
XC wants to be your mistress, making an effort to give you a pleasant, annoyance and stress free adventure without any of the hassle that plagues older entries in the genre. The consequence is that when you find yourself skipping every line of dialogue from NPCs because you can easily access their requests on a menu and have the map spell out the fetch quest's location, being invested in the world of XC and the plight of its people no longer becomes something the player is willing to put effort into. Everything is commodified in XC for the player's pleasure, from the enemies identified with their power level and items floating around in the world as blue orbs, to the ability to change time and fast travel at will or the personal moments between characters being just tokens on the map to tick off.
These problems are then exacerbated by a combat system that quickly loses it's lustre, as you realize you can brute force your way through the entire game by spamming every attack and waiting for their cooldown, turning every RPG menu system a nuisance to interact with, and a story so tropey and cliche, that if you have been playing games as long as I have, you have definitely seen numerous times before (and done better). I can definitely see how XC would inspire and impress a younger crowd if it was their first experience with the genre. But standing here now as a bitter old Gamer™, and rolling my eyes as a love triangle is solved by having the third wheel sacrificing himself, or the main character spewing out free will diatribes for the 100th time in the whole game, it's very hard to come out of Xenoblade Chronicles not feeling like I played something incredibly outdated. A game that ticks off all the checkboxes, to it's own detriment.
It is unfortunate then that XC goes and spends a little too much time with its hand on the MMO cookie jar. As you inevitably start engaging with its side content, and you find yourself killing and collecting a list of seemingly irrelevant monsters and items, it's quickly understood that XC is not about to make an effort to make you care for these menial and meaningless tasks or the polygon people who ask you to do so. Being self aware of such shortcomings, XC even goes as far as completing most of your quests the moment you finish your grocery list, not even requiring you to deliver the goods to the NPCs who asked for them in the first place. Cause walking back would be too much of a hassle, no?
XC wants to be your mistress, making an effort to give you a pleasant, annoyance and stress free adventure without any of the hassle that plagues older entries in the genre. The consequence is that when you find yourself skipping every line of dialogue from NPCs because you can easily access their requests on a menu and have the map spell out the fetch quest's location, being invested in the world of XC and the plight of its people no longer becomes something the player is willing to put effort into. Everything is commodified in XC for the player's pleasure, from the enemies identified with their power level and items floating around in the world as blue orbs, to the ability to change time and fast travel at will or the personal moments between characters being just tokens on the map to tick off.
These problems are then exacerbated by a combat system that quickly loses it's lustre, as you realize you can brute force your way through the entire game by spamming every attack and waiting for their cooldown, turning every RPG menu system a nuisance to interact with, and a story so tropey and cliche, that if you have been playing games as long as I have, you have definitely seen numerous times before (and done better). I can definitely see how XC would inspire and impress a younger crowd if it was their first experience with the genre. But standing here now as a bitter old Gamer™, and rolling my eyes as a love triangle is solved by having the third wheel sacrificing himself, or the main character spewing out free will diatribes for the 100th time in the whole game, it's very hard to come out of Xenoblade Chronicles not feeling like I played something incredibly outdated. A game that ticks off all the checkboxes, to it's own detriment.