7.5
the setting of xc1 is instantly compelling, with a unique setting and cast of characters. i would say, both story and combat wise, the weakest part of the game is the first 5 hours, but its not bad. from there, the story and gameplay improve massively as you unlock more party members.
shulk is a great protagonist, with an interesting backstory that you slowly learn more about. the rest of the characters are also quite good, and most of the heart to hearts really help flesh out everyones relationship with one another. i would consider this game more character driven, as shulk is in the center of most of the things in the plot, but it also lends itself to a grand story. these aspects of the game are probably the best part about it, and there really aren’t long stretches of the story dragging itself. that being said, i think the worst part of this game are how the women in the story are written. they all felt tied to one or more men and felt like accessories more than anything else.
there is a sweet spot gameplaywise, once you master break/topple, the game feels pretty good! but a lack of deeper mechanics, means that once you hit the 35+ hour mark, the game can feel really stale. there were a handful of harder boss fights, but most of the time i barely died to bosses. personally, i would switch between multiple party members to both max affinity and change up my playstyle time to time. grinding also isn’t really required to play this game, which is nice.
the semi-open world was also fun to explore, there were lots of big maps that felt amazing to play on switch. i've never had this game crash, and the framerate was stable most of the time. biggest complaint here was a lack of fast travel points, so i spent a lot of time walking. this was especially annoying for doing quests. i would not recommend doing every quest available to you, at least on a first playthrough. for the first 80% of the game, i made sure i had as many quests as i could completed. i don’t recommend this, as by the last 20% i felt pretty burnt out. many of the quests are item fetches with no real story/world building and not worth it. feel free to do the ones that interest you, but don’t as many as you can on a first playthrough.
graphics wise, this game does look decent, even compared to more recent titles on the switch! there were also pretty good lighting effects, frontier village is one of my favorite examples of this. again, i had no issues with crashing. the ost is pretty good too, though i don’t think as memorable as it could’ve been, some tracks do stand out a lot more than others. the english voice acting was good too, especially for being a 2010 game.
tldr xenoblade chronicles definitive edition is very much a character driven game with a compelling story and setting. lack of depth in combat can make it feel stale after a while, but the world is fun to explore if you like messing around. don’t do every side quest on a first playthrough.
the setting of xc1 is instantly compelling, with a unique setting and cast of characters. i would say, both story and combat wise, the weakest part of the game is the first 5 hours, but its not bad. from there, the story and gameplay improve massively as you unlock more party members.
shulk is a great protagonist, with an interesting backstory that you slowly learn more about. the rest of the characters are also quite good, and most of the heart to hearts really help flesh out everyones relationship with one another. i would consider this game more character driven, as shulk is in the center of most of the things in the plot, but it also lends itself to a grand story. these aspects of the game are probably the best part about it, and there really aren’t long stretches of the story dragging itself. that being said, i think the worst part of this game are how the women in the story are written. they all felt tied to one or more men and felt like accessories more than anything else.
there is a sweet spot gameplaywise, once you master break/topple, the game feels pretty good! but a lack of deeper mechanics, means that once you hit the 35+ hour mark, the game can feel really stale. there were a handful of harder boss fights, but most of the time i barely died to bosses. personally, i would switch between multiple party members to both max affinity and change up my playstyle time to time. grinding also isn’t really required to play this game, which is nice.
the semi-open world was also fun to explore, there were lots of big maps that felt amazing to play on switch. i've never had this game crash, and the framerate was stable most of the time. biggest complaint here was a lack of fast travel points, so i spent a lot of time walking. this was especially annoying for doing quests. i would not recommend doing every quest available to you, at least on a first playthrough. for the first 80% of the game, i made sure i had as many quests as i could completed. i don’t recommend this, as by the last 20% i felt pretty burnt out. many of the quests are item fetches with no real story/world building and not worth it. feel free to do the ones that interest you, but don’t as many as you can on a first playthrough.
graphics wise, this game does look decent, even compared to more recent titles on the switch! there were also pretty good lighting effects, frontier village is one of my favorite examples of this. again, i had no issues with crashing. the ost is pretty good too, though i don’t think as memorable as it could’ve been, some tracks do stand out a lot more than others. the english voice acting was good too, especially for being a 2010 game.
tldr xenoblade chronicles definitive edition is very much a character driven game with a compelling story and setting. lack of depth in combat can make it feel stale after a while, but the world is fun to explore if you like messing around. don’t do every side quest on a first playthrough.