This review contains spoilers
It feels nice to log this game after so long. It felt like it was going to be on "Playing" forever. And I have to say, it was worth it overall.
Xenoblade Chronicles is one of the only games to be immediately interesting to me on concept alone. The mere idea of a world built on the bodies of dormant titans than you can explore with a true sense of scale calls to me, and the fact that it's a JRPG only strengthened this. And generally, the game hits it on the head with this. It's impossible to not look around constantly while running from one location to the next, every area is stunning in its own way. This is easily the best part of the game, there isn't a single environment with a fault to it.
However, that cannot carry a game alone. The gameplay itself is generally good, but can be hit or miss. The combat, in particular, took a long time to click. I'm a big fan of turn based combat, but I wasn't a fan of how Xenoblade shook it up, adding action elements that for a while seemed pointless. It wasn't until the final fifth of this game where I finally got what they were going for, and had a great time with the battles. The system is really fun and customizable. The variety of moves, gem types, skill link options, and armor choices each character has allows for entirely different purposes to be created for characters, and allowing for a huge variety of team builds. There's no real punishment for trying it out either. The only main issue is the arts points, which cannot be reallocated, which boggles my mind when considering the expert mode level system. The fights and enemies themselves are also quite good too. It feels like they should blend together, but the amount of variables the open combat brings allows for things to vary quite a lot. I had to think outside the box for fights very commonly, being thrown into unexpected situations by enemy, nearby enemies, my teammates, or even the environment itself. It's not always perfect though. Some bosses in particular can be super annoying or unfair, especially any boss that brings in multiple enemies. It's almost always unbalanced and way too challenging. When a second enemy comes into battle in normal fights, I didn't mind it outside of mild annoyance since it's not only extremely avoidable and usually the player's fault, but also because they're generally less challenging than the bosses, even the super enemies. In boss fights, it's completely unavoidable, can be resummoned, and are horribly unbalanced. They always have way too much HP, and make big health bars even bigger. The only fight from memory where it felt balanced was Egil, as the enemies could be killed really easily, but hit hard and could group up if you weren't careful.
The fight that I think encapsulates all the flaws with the combat is Lorithia's. It's pretty much a gimmick fight, however the game is incredbily vague about it. The 4 (maybe 5?) minions she summons are absolutely unfair. All have spikes which can do a variety of debuffs, do a lot of damage, have high HP, and have high defense. The only character good against them is Melia, as they all have absurdly high physical defense, but if you attack too much, you'll be annihilated instantly due to aggro. It's this huge unbalanced mess that is only memorable for being bad. Even the boss itself is a super forgettable villain that had no build up and didn't really need to exist. It doesn't end there though. The boss itself can still hit too, and half of its moves can cause status effects. so you'll be constantly toppled, dazed, and confused, with literally no way to prevent it. To top it off, the boss themselves has no interesting moves once the minions are gone, and can be easily wailed on. Just a super frustrating and annoying boss that I think perfectly highlights the flaws in this otherwise good combat system.
The story itself is also good, but nothing incredible. It's biggest issue is the mishandling of foreshadowing. The game can't seem to be subtle at all with it, and will make it super obvious what it's hinting at. The pacing is also really slanted, but that's mostly for a generally uninteresting second quarter of the game, where not much happens. It isn't until Prison Island, which is nearly 30 hours in, where stuff starts to pick up for the first time since the good opening. The last 10 hours of the game is easily where the story shines. Everything the game has been building up to is finally revealed, and it is genuinely really good. It does this specific thing in series like Adventure Time or Attack on Titan, where your initial view of a world is super limited, and is slowly broken down over time, until it all comes crashing down at once, and the world as it was before is completely recontextualized, and it does it well. There are a few issues though with the writing at this point. Dickson is the most obvious, and how underwhelming it was. The actual moment of his reveal is a shock, but the game just kinda overlooks it? Dickson was pretty important to half your party, yet there's little surprise, sadness, or even anger from them. You could say they were more preoccupied by Shulk getting shot, but it's still very strange, they don't even discuss it later. Another issue was Zanza. I don't have an issue with how he's written, his motives and just general concept are great, it's just that I feel like there should've been more. He appears twice, with the second being the final boss. While he was there the entire game, I feel like his revealed self should've gotten some more time in the spotlight. He's a good antagonist, but someone like Metal Face, or hell even Dickson left more of an impact due to their defining moments and importance throughout a majority of the game.
Speaking of characters, this game falls into the usual JRPG traps, with me actually caring about nearly every party member, but dropping the ball in a few key areas. Shulk is easily the best written, being the focal point of the story and having the most chances to shine. Just as the world itself is, your view of him changes from beginning to end. Reyn and Dunban were both great too, though had less apparent arcs and changes to them. They were mostly there for Shulk to bounce his development off of, which is fine. The other characters can be a bit more inconsistent. Fiora is a great example. Her death at the beginning is a surprise, and is a large part of what initially drew me into this game. If a major character can die this early on, what does the rest of the game hold? The rest of her arc after she's brought back is mostly good too, having a more defined development than most characters, though that's also because a lot of it is interlinked with Shulk. The big issue comes at the very end. For someone who spent the entire game accepting her new body, and choosing to move forward purely for the people she cared about, having her suddenly shift back to being human again just felt like it went against all that, and left an overall bad taste. It's not a huge flaw, but it's a noticeable stain on a great character.
Melia is another good character ruined by the end, or rather lack there of. The entire game has her developing slowly, as she figures out the importance of herself to her people, however after her brother dies, nothing happens. She doesn't conclude as a character, it just ends. Not even the ending really does anything with her. Sharla and Riki both fall under similar boats of having unique ideas, but not being that interesting as characters to save it. I'm gonna be honest, I really didn't care for Sharla at all. Her tale is pretty sad, but the game just didn't put enough effort into selling Sharla (or her boyfriend) as unique characters. I genuinely can't remember a single notable scene with her. Riki is a lot more interesting, but nothing is done with him. He has no arc, which I thought was super disappointing. Riki had huge potential to be this character who learns what it means to be a hero, and the ups and downs of being an icon to your people. And I know they noticed this, since Riki and Melia share some moments together in game, but it never leads anywhere. While none of the characters are bad, there are just too many blemishes on them that bring the whole cast down as a whole.
The music in this game fits the world perfectly. I already said before how standout the environments are, however the music sells their uniqueness further. While not all equally memorable, each area has themes that define the area. The first that come to mind are Gaur Plains, Valak Mountain, Mechonis Field, and the second Prison Island visit. However, the battle and cutscene songs are where this game truly shine. The feeling of being in a tough battle, and having that part of You Will Know Our Names play is enthralling, and hypes me up every single time I hear it. And on the other side of the coin, hearing those 8 piano notes in Engage the Enemy instantly strikes fear. You can tell shit is about to go down every time you hear it, and it's easily my favorite song in the game.
Few miscellaneous notes:
-The way death is handled in this game is very weird. There are some characters who die, come back, die again, and then come back again, and it ruins the impact of death in this game. When Gadolt died for the second time, I didn't feel anything.
-The voice acting in this game is surprisingly great, especially Shulk. Is it overdramatic? Yeah, but despite that I was sold on all the characters. The British acting also has this special uniqueness to it, and I'm very glad they kept it in the rest of the later localizations.
-The affinity chart system is strange. I love the idea of having to spend more time in battle with characters to get closer to them, but the progress feels way to slow. Even leveling up one rank feels like it takes an eternity, let alone 5.
-The side quests in this game are super addictive, though I wish there was a bit more uniqueness. I'm fine with all the enemy and item quests, they're moreso for you to complete while exploring the area, not to backtrack and spend time in already explored locations. However, there's barely any story quests to make up for it. I don't remember a single one.
-I liked how Zanza's fight was one big homage to Safer Sephiroth.
Before I end the review, I wanna say something. This game was played over the course of a year and a half, split into multiple chunks of playtime every few months, and this likely affects how I view the game. A lot of my current feelings from the game come from the last 15-20 hours, and so it's a tough game to rate and review. However from memory, Xenoblade Chronicles is a good game with a lot of problems. If you like JRPGs, there's no reason not to check this out, it's a quintessential game in the genre. By the end though, I felt as though this game just sadly doesn't live up to all it feels like it should be.
Xenoblade Chronicles is one of the only games to be immediately interesting to me on concept alone. The mere idea of a world built on the bodies of dormant titans than you can explore with a true sense of scale calls to me, and the fact that it's a JRPG only strengthened this. And generally, the game hits it on the head with this. It's impossible to not look around constantly while running from one location to the next, every area is stunning in its own way. This is easily the best part of the game, there isn't a single environment with a fault to it.
However, that cannot carry a game alone. The gameplay itself is generally good, but can be hit or miss. The combat, in particular, took a long time to click. I'm a big fan of turn based combat, but I wasn't a fan of how Xenoblade shook it up, adding action elements that for a while seemed pointless. It wasn't until the final fifth of this game where I finally got what they were going for, and had a great time with the battles. The system is really fun and customizable. The variety of moves, gem types, skill link options, and armor choices each character has allows for entirely different purposes to be created for characters, and allowing for a huge variety of team builds. There's no real punishment for trying it out either. The only main issue is the arts points, which cannot be reallocated, which boggles my mind when considering the expert mode level system. The fights and enemies themselves are also quite good too. It feels like they should blend together, but the amount of variables the open combat brings allows for things to vary quite a lot. I had to think outside the box for fights very commonly, being thrown into unexpected situations by enemy, nearby enemies, my teammates, or even the environment itself. It's not always perfect though. Some bosses in particular can be super annoying or unfair, especially any boss that brings in multiple enemies. It's almost always unbalanced and way too challenging. When a second enemy comes into battle in normal fights, I didn't mind it outside of mild annoyance since it's not only extremely avoidable and usually the player's fault, but also because they're generally less challenging than the bosses, even the super enemies. In boss fights, it's completely unavoidable, can be resummoned, and are horribly unbalanced. They always have way too much HP, and make big health bars even bigger. The only fight from memory where it felt balanced was Egil, as the enemies could be killed really easily, but hit hard and could group up if you weren't careful.
The fight that I think encapsulates all the flaws with the combat is Lorithia's. It's pretty much a gimmick fight, however the game is incredbily vague about it. The 4 (maybe 5?) minions she summons are absolutely unfair. All have spikes which can do a variety of debuffs, do a lot of damage, have high HP, and have high defense. The only character good against them is Melia, as they all have absurdly high physical defense, but if you attack too much, you'll be annihilated instantly due to aggro. It's this huge unbalanced mess that is only memorable for being bad. Even the boss itself is a super forgettable villain that had no build up and didn't really need to exist. It doesn't end there though. The boss itself can still hit too, and half of its moves can cause status effects. so you'll be constantly toppled, dazed, and confused, with literally no way to prevent it. To top it off, the boss themselves has no interesting moves once the minions are gone, and can be easily wailed on. Just a super frustrating and annoying boss that I think perfectly highlights the flaws in this otherwise good combat system.
The story itself is also good, but nothing incredible. It's biggest issue is the mishandling of foreshadowing. The game can't seem to be subtle at all with it, and will make it super obvious what it's hinting at. The pacing is also really slanted, but that's mostly for a generally uninteresting second quarter of the game, where not much happens. It isn't until Prison Island, which is nearly 30 hours in, where stuff starts to pick up for the first time since the good opening. The last 10 hours of the game is easily where the story shines. Everything the game has been building up to is finally revealed, and it is genuinely really good. It does this specific thing in series like Adventure Time or Attack on Titan, where your initial view of a world is super limited, and is slowly broken down over time, until it all comes crashing down at once, and the world as it was before is completely recontextualized, and it does it well. There are a few issues though with the writing at this point. Dickson is the most obvious, and how underwhelming it was. The actual moment of his reveal is a shock, but the game just kinda overlooks it? Dickson was pretty important to half your party, yet there's little surprise, sadness, or even anger from them. You could say they were more preoccupied by Shulk getting shot, but it's still very strange, they don't even discuss it later. Another issue was Zanza. I don't have an issue with how he's written, his motives and just general concept are great, it's just that I feel like there should've been more. He appears twice, with the second being the final boss. While he was there the entire game, I feel like his revealed self should've gotten some more time in the spotlight. He's a good antagonist, but someone like Metal Face, or hell even Dickson left more of an impact due to their defining moments and importance throughout a majority of the game.
Speaking of characters, this game falls into the usual JRPG traps, with me actually caring about nearly every party member, but dropping the ball in a few key areas. Shulk is easily the best written, being the focal point of the story and having the most chances to shine. Just as the world itself is, your view of him changes from beginning to end. Reyn and Dunban were both great too, though had less apparent arcs and changes to them. They were mostly there for Shulk to bounce his development off of, which is fine. The other characters can be a bit more inconsistent. Fiora is a great example. Her death at the beginning is a surprise, and is a large part of what initially drew me into this game. If a major character can die this early on, what does the rest of the game hold? The rest of her arc after she's brought back is mostly good too, having a more defined development than most characters, though that's also because a lot of it is interlinked with Shulk. The big issue comes at the very end. For someone who spent the entire game accepting her new body, and choosing to move forward purely for the people she cared about, having her suddenly shift back to being human again just felt like it went against all that, and left an overall bad taste. It's not a huge flaw, but it's a noticeable stain on a great character.
Melia is another good character ruined by the end, or rather lack there of. The entire game has her developing slowly, as she figures out the importance of herself to her people, however after her brother dies, nothing happens. She doesn't conclude as a character, it just ends. Not even the ending really does anything with her. Sharla and Riki both fall under similar boats of having unique ideas, but not being that interesting as characters to save it. I'm gonna be honest, I really didn't care for Sharla at all. Her tale is pretty sad, but the game just didn't put enough effort into selling Sharla (or her boyfriend) as unique characters. I genuinely can't remember a single notable scene with her. Riki is a lot more interesting, but nothing is done with him. He has no arc, which I thought was super disappointing. Riki had huge potential to be this character who learns what it means to be a hero, and the ups and downs of being an icon to your people. And I know they noticed this, since Riki and Melia share some moments together in game, but it never leads anywhere. While none of the characters are bad, there are just too many blemishes on them that bring the whole cast down as a whole.
The music in this game fits the world perfectly. I already said before how standout the environments are, however the music sells their uniqueness further. While not all equally memorable, each area has themes that define the area. The first that come to mind are Gaur Plains, Valak Mountain, Mechonis Field, and the second Prison Island visit. However, the battle and cutscene songs are where this game truly shine. The feeling of being in a tough battle, and having that part of You Will Know Our Names play is enthralling, and hypes me up every single time I hear it. And on the other side of the coin, hearing those 8 piano notes in Engage the Enemy instantly strikes fear. You can tell shit is about to go down every time you hear it, and it's easily my favorite song in the game.
Few miscellaneous notes:
-The way death is handled in this game is very weird. There are some characters who die, come back, die again, and then come back again, and it ruins the impact of death in this game. When Gadolt died for the second time, I didn't feel anything.
-The voice acting in this game is surprisingly great, especially Shulk. Is it overdramatic? Yeah, but despite that I was sold on all the characters. The British acting also has this special uniqueness to it, and I'm very glad they kept it in the rest of the later localizations.
-The affinity chart system is strange. I love the idea of having to spend more time in battle with characters to get closer to them, but the progress feels way to slow. Even leveling up one rank feels like it takes an eternity, let alone 5.
-The side quests in this game are super addictive, though I wish there was a bit more uniqueness. I'm fine with all the enemy and item quests, they're moreso for you to complete while exploring the area, not to backtrack and spend time in already explored locations. However, there's barely any story quests to make up for it. I don't remember a single one.
-I liked how Zanza's fight was one big homage to Safer Sephiroth.
Before I end the review, I wanna say something. This game was played over the course of a year and a half, split into multiple chunks of playtime every few months, and this likely affects how I view the game. A lot of my current feelings from the game come from the last 15-20 hours, and so it's a tough game to rate and review. However from memory, Xenoblade Chronicles is a good game with a lot of problems. If you like JRPGs, there's no reason not to check this out, it's a quintessential game in the genre. By the end though, I felt as though this game just sadly doesn't live up to all it feels like it should be.