Base Game Review: (Spoiler Free)
Xenoblade Chronicles is a singleplayer MMO that borrows the good and the bad things from this genre, but finishes with a very positive balance.
The story is very good, it takes time (a pretty long time) to get you, but it did. The world is where the lore shines, because it's interesting and quite unique (a freaking gigantic mecha).
The characters are good, not more not less a jrpg party, you know what you can expect from them (HEROPON). Shulk is an amazing protagonist, so does too his sword Monado, another unique and awesome thing.
A little time to talk about the Expert Mode. It's simple amazing. Despite the name, it doesn't make the game harder, quite the opposite. It changes your level to any you want (limited for some characters to the minimum to when they join your party) and stores your experience for later use. This with Casual Mode makes the game so much easier to play and to experience without an absurd amount of grind, stay 6 levels below the enemy and you will get a 50% bonus experience, casual is just to guarantee that you just dont die and erase the artificial difficulty for the red enemies with 99% dodge chance. I really do recommend to start playing with it enabled.
Like i said earlier, xenoblade really did make a singleplayer MMO. The skills with positionals, effects, buffs, debuffs, tank, dps, healer and auto attack CDs are some of the features. It can be a little repetitive because some skills are far better than others, but it was tolerable. A lot of mechanics for builds, you have your equipment, gems, skill trees, leveling habilities and so on. It can be a little overwhelming at first, but after some hours it's nothing really and not even mandatory for finishing the game with ease.
The game has an insane amount of side quests, most of them completely dispensable (like a MMO), that you dont even need to do because a lot of them dont even give experience as a reward. A "social link" like system among the people in the world are the real rewards from the side quests, and it's okay if you like that kind of thing.
Overall, a must play game for every jrpg fan.
Future Connect Review:
If you played Persona 3 FES, i can sum up this in two words: The Answer.
More moments with some of the favorite characters, a new small area to explore, little new cool mechanics and boring overall story. That's it!
(SPOILERS FROM THIS POINT ON)
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Shulk is totally "just vibing" in this "expansion", Melia was suppose to be the protagonist, and she is, but he is just there giving moral support and Monado like solutions. If it was only Melia and the two Riki's children, who are amazing and really funny, would be a lot better and justified.
Just like i say to all my friends: play Persona 3, and then watch The Answer, i could too say to them to play Xenoblade Chronicles and watch Future Connected. Since is together with the Definitive Edition, you can easily rush through the story of Future Connected and not lose much if you want to play it.
Xenoblade Chronicles is a singleplayer MMO that borrows the good and the bad things from this genre, but finishes with a very positive balance.
The story is very good, it takes time (a pretty long time) to get you, but it did. The world is where the lore shines, because it's interesting and quite unique (a freaking gigantic mecha).
The characters are good, not more not less a jrpg party, you know what you can expect from them (HEROPON). Shulk is an amazing protagonist, so does too his sword Monado, another unique and awesome thing.
A little time to talk about the Expert Mode. It's simple amazing. Despite the name, it doesn't make the game harder, quite the opposite. It changes your level to any you want (limited for some characters to the minimum to when they join your party) and stores your experience for later use. This with Casual Mode makes the game so much easier to play and to experience without an absurd amount of grind, stay 6 levels below the enemy and you will get a 50% bonus experience, casual is just to guarantee that you just dont die and erase the artificial difficulty for the red enemies with 99% dodge chance. I really do recommend to start playing with it enabled.
Like i said earlier, xenoblade really did make a singleplayer MMO. The skills with positionals, effects, buffs, debuffs, tank, dps, healer and auto attack CDs are some of the features. It can be a little repetitive because some skills are far better than others, but it was tolerable. A lot of mechanics for builds, you have your equipment, gems, skill trees, leveling habilities and so on. It can be a little overwhelming at first, but after some hours it's nothing really and not even mandatory for finishing the game with ease.
The game has an insane amount of side quests, most of them completely dispensable (like a MMO), that you dont even need to do because a lot of them dont even give experience as a reward. A "social link" like system among the people in the world are the real rewards from the side quests, and it's okay if you like that kind of thing.
Overall, a must play game for every jrpg fan.
Future Connect Review:
If you played Persona 3 FES, i can sum up this in two words: The Answer.
More moments with some of the favorite characters, a new small area to explore, little new cool mechanics and boring overall story. That's it!
(SPOILERS FROM THIS POINT ON)
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Shulk is totally "just vibing" in this "expansion", Melia was suppose to be the protagonist, and she is, but he is just there giving moral support and Monado like solutions. If it was only Melia and the two Riki's children, who are amazing and really funny, would be a lot better and justified.
Just like i say to all my friends: play Persona 3, and then watch The Answer, i could too say to them to play Xenoblade Chronicles and watch Future Connected. Since is together with the Definitive Edition, you can easily rush through the story of Future Connected and not lose much if you want to play it.