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!