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| A modern classic. |
Ages ago two giant beings fought endlessly, the mechanical Mechonis and the organic Bionis, until they reached a stalemate, ending both their lives. Many years later and life began to grow on them: robots known as Mechnons on Mechnonis and Human-like Homs on Bionis. Naturally, it didn't take too long till the two waged war on each other, resulting in a terrible struggle for the Homs. The story follows Shulk, a young Hom out for revenge after a Mechon attack destroyed his colony and killed his loved one. Guiding him is the "Monado" a mysterious sword that grants Shulk visions into the future and one of the few weapons that can damage mechons.
Joining Shulk's journey to the Mechonis are his band of friends like his trusty buddy Reyn, the childish but upbeat Riki, and badass war hero Dunban to name a few. The party member were likeable and each had their motives to join the adventure via story arcs. As for the story itself, it was amazing as the sense of mystery surrounding the two giants, the Monado, and the conflict with the Mechon were engaging and always kept me hooked. It can get heavy-handed towards the end with many twists and revelations getting revealed, but was a fun time nonetheless.
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| The story's constantly shrouded in mystery and the characters were great. |
Xenoblade Chronicles is an open-world RPG where you control Shulk and two party members as you journey from the giant body of the Bionis to the giant one of the Mechonis. Along the way, you'll be battling hordes of monsters and mechon, exploring vast new areas, and levelling up your characters. Battles sees characters attack automatically while you also select attacks or "Arts" from the battle menu. These are skills unique to each character and can range from heavy attacks, health restoration, and elemental spells. You can also perform neat chain attacks, which get more powerful as you connect your attacks. A unique feature of the game is that Shulk can see into the future in battles, like a party member being killed or heavily damaged, and can give warnings to prevent the outcome. It was a cool aspect since it always helped out against boss fights and made battles interesting.
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| The gameplay is straightforward at first but gets deep with its many mechanics. |
Scattered across the game's gigantic world are resources to collect, secret areas to explore, and tough monsters to fight. There's also villages and cities to explore, each with their own inhabitants, atmosphere, and side-quests. You'll also come across "Heart-to-Heart" moments, which see characters bond together via cut-scenes as they talk about their lives and interests, which were always a pleasure to watch. Battling aside, you'll be mostly exploring and walking (a lot!) throughout the gigantic Bionis.
Occasionally, you'll come across tough and over-levelled enemies in the game's more secret areas, so exploring is limited to late-game at times. The game's side-quests were good and offer some much needed experience and loot. Some will have you to helping out people with their issues and learning more about them while others are just lame fetch quests, which sadly the game is nothing short on.
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| The game's packed with content to enjoy. |
Xenoblade took over 55 hours to beat but with the extra content like affinity charts to max, super-bosses to beat, side-quests to beat, its most likely double that at 100 hours. A few issues with the game that I had was that you couldn't pause the game during battles and wished that there was 2X speed feature like in Final Fantasy XII HD as you'll be walking a lot in the game. Sure the auto-run feature helps occasionally, but walking was still a chore.
The Definitive Edition also introduces a new expansion game "Future Connected", which sees Shulk and Melia on a new adventure on the Bionis' Shoulder, which was originally cut from the base game. It was a nice 6-10 hour journey that offered some neat insight into the world after the ending and new characters to meet. Another new feature is Expert Mode, where you can play the game fighting tougher enemies while manually assigning experience points to characters, which is great for returning fans.
Being an HD remaster, the new user-interface, character models, mech designs, and backgrounds look much sharper and cleaner than the original. It does show its age with some low-quality texture and character models though yet the scope of the world never ceases to amaze and was ambitious for a Wii game too with lots of activity happening on-screen. The game runs at a solid 30FPS both in TV and handheld modes, despite a few technical issues like constant, pop-in textures, lip-syncing issues, and stiff walking animations.
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| The scope of Xenoblade never ceases to amaze. |
As for the voicework, it's fantastic with many great performances all-around (Shulk, Dunban, and Riki being my favorites). The Definitive Edition offers a new "Arranged" soundtrack in addition to the original, which I personally find bland. Featuring the talents of Yoko Shimomura and Yasunori Mitsuda, Xenoblade's OST packs some stellar tracks like the iconic "Main Theme", "Gaur Plain", "You Will Know Our Names", the ending theme "Beyond the Sky", and "Time to Fight!" from Future Connected.
Overall, Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition is among the best RPGs I've ever played and one I'll remember for years to come. The amazing story coupled with memorable characters makes it a standout in the genre and the gameplay was fun and never ceased to impress with its exploration and constant variety. While it occasionally shows its age, the presentation holds up well thanks to the HD visuals and stellar soundtrack. Xenoblade is a must-play for RPG fans and the new casual mode is a great way for newcomers to experience the game for the first time.
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