Xenoblade Chronicles Review

Posted By Shaun K. about 3 weeks, 6 days ago

Xenoblade Chronicles Review

Xenoblade Chronicles is easily one of the most anticipated Wii games to reach American shores in some time, a fact that only occurred thanks to the persistence and effort of gamers the country over. Yet the question remains, does Xenoblade justify all the hype surrounding it, or is this the case of a game better left on distant shores?

This may sound odd, but in a way Xenoblade reminds me a great deal of Chrono Trigger. Chrono Trigger, for me at least, was a game that blew my mind. Not because many of its elements were necessarily new to the genre per say but more because of how the game’s developers tweaked and then put together said elements into a greater whole. This care and effort helped to create a game that still feels relevant and fresh today as it did when it was released seventeen years ago. CT took chances left and right and yet never lost sight of the core elements of its genre and this paid off in droves for the final game, and te game was a standard setter that many sought (and often failed) to copy for years to come.

Similarly, Xenoblade features few elements that are out and out unheard of in a RPG, either Western or Japanese. A day and night system, enemies that visibly roam the environments instead of random encounters, sprawling open worlds where exploration and sidequests are as much a part of the game as the main story, using the placement of PCs and enemies as a major component in combat, an overall combat system that moves in real time and has strong action game elements, slots for enhancing weapons/equipment, and so on and so forth. None of these are new concepts in and of themselves, but the way Xenoblade takes these individual ideas, refines them (such as giving players free and minute control of the in-game time from the very beginning for example), and then adds them into an overall whole is what makes the game so truly remarkable of an achievement. Just as there was nothing else quite like Chrono Trigger when it first hit the scene, so too is there no other game on the market today that so seamlessly blends all the disparate elements of the RPG genre (in all its many permutations) in the way that Xenoblade does.

In the beginning… (That object in the foreground is the cutoff arm of one of the giants FYI.)

Even the setup for Xenoblade distinguishes itself from the norm: They were giants. Two beings larger than planets, locked into seemingly eternal combat above an endless sea. Then suddenly, the eon’s long battle came to an end with a single blow from each giant, slaying their opponent even while dying themselves. So the giants remained, upright and with blades biting into one another, as the millennia did pass and in time life began to form on each corpse. On the being known as the Bionis, life of a biological nature (rich, diversified, and consisting of many species) grew and evolved, even while on the giant named the Mechonis life of a more mechanical nature arose.

For many years all was well and the beings of the Bionis, led by the bipedal Homs, prospered. The coming of the Mechons, a horde of machines from the Mechonis, changed everything. The Mechons only seemed to crave destruction and death and for many years the Homs and other races of the Bionis found themselves being pushed back again and again. Until one day, a young man by the name of Shulk was forced to take up the only weapon that could directly hurt the Mechons: an energy blade by the name of the Monado (and said to be the very weapon wielded by the Bionis itself in its epic battle with the Mechonis). And thus was set in motion events that would alter the course of history for all upon both the Bionis and the Mechonis forever…

No one will ever be able to accuse Xenoblade of not having scope or scale.

Few stories, video game or otherwise, have managed to come up with a setting as unusual and unlikely as Xenoblade’s ‘gigantic corpses as landscape’ but this hardly represents the only aspect where the game’s writing shines. Early on, for example, the story seems to be building towards a moment seen countless times in RPGs before only to completely swerve at the last second with a plot twist that genuinely left me stunned and slack-jawed. I never saw it coming. Xenoblade continues to feature story beats like this, again and again zigging just when you expect it to zag, but at the same time the story never simply devolves into a series of pointless ‘What a twist’ moments either. Instead, what gamers are presented with is a rich, multilayered tale that balances epic with personal while also developing its many characters into far more than just standard archetypes of the fantasy genre.

Sure, at first Shulk may seem like just another of the countless ‘chosen ones’ to litter the RPG genre but the character quickly shows there is more to him than simple cliché. He has flaws that make him rounded without ever going too far in the other direction towards whiny or unlikable. So to do the rest of the main characters in Xenoblade feature similar depth regarding their personalities and backstories and even the game’s antagonists end up being far more complex than the simple Terminator or Matrix ‘evil machine’ riffs that they at first appear to be. From start to finish, Xenoblade Chronicles tells a rich and highly engaging tale that serves as more than enough motivation for players to complete its 60 or so hour main campaign in and of itself.

This view gets even more impressive once you realize the characters can jump off it to the water below.

Of course, there is so much to do and see in Xenoblade that it is easy to get lost in the game for hours without ever advancing the story. I would estimate that trying to complete every single bit of content in the game will require at least double the length of time that the main campaign takes up. One of Xenoblade’s biggest strengths, as previously mentioned, is its highly original setting and clearly the people at Monolith Soft knew this when they were working on the game. Exploration plays a huge role in Xenoblade, perhaps more so than any other Japanese developed RPG I have ever played, and it is hard to overstate how much joy lies in the simple act of discovering what lies over the next hill.

A big part of this joy comes from how fully the game embraces the physicality of exploring. The characters of Xenoblade can swim, jump from great heights (avoiding damage as long they land in a body of water), and can glance ahead great distances to see the destination of their current journey just tantalizingly waiting for them on the horizon. It is the kind of focus on traveling and uncovering the countryside that is more standard in the Western model of RPGs and this is just one of many examples of how Xenoblade blends elements from every aspect of RPGs, regardless of what side of the ocean said elements may come from, into a large whole.

This no lack of powerful and dangerous enemies to fight.

Take combat in Xenoblade, for example. Similar to a series like the Tales games, players generally only have control directly over one character at a time (except for when triggering special group attacks that can be accessed once a particular gauge is filled) and positioning can matter a great deal for creating chains or triggering extra effects when using special skills (called Arts in-game).

Yet at the same time, enemies visibly wander the landscape and battles take place in the same location said enemies are encountered as opposed to a separate special field. Also, basic attacks are triggered automatically as long as a character is near enough to an enemy, Arts all operate on individual cool down timers, and it is possible to unintentionally draw other foes into the fray if players wander to afar while trading blows with their current opponent. All of these are elements that clearly draw inspiration from MMOs or Western RPGs, with Xenoblade even going so far as to regularly directly reference terms such as agro in its various tutorials and help menus. Overall, what it adds up to is a combat system that will likely simultaneously feel familiar and novel to fans of the genre of all stripes.

Postioning is very important to combat in Xenoblade.

It is also a combat system with enough depth, variety, and customization to bear the brunt of the weight of the games lengthy running time and the same could be said about most of Xenoblade’s gameplay elements. Everything in the game comes across streamlined without becoming too overly simplified in the process. Thus the game lets players tailor their party’s skills, passive abilities, and equipment in a straightforward manner that retains plenty of complexity without dragging players down with countless meaningless stats or a needlessly complex leveling system. Similarly, the game has a fast travel system that (outside of a few specific story mandated instances) can be used at any time. Most major areas, be they towns, open areas, or dungeon like interior locations, have multiple markers placed around them for use with the system which in turn helps prevent the game’s many backtrack requiring sidequests from ever becoming too frustrating to complete. The fact that most sidequests (save those given by named NPCs) do not require players to ‘turn them in’ and the way the game marks any sidequests that are time sensitive via progression of the main story similarly avoids potential trouble spots regarding the over 450 sidequests present in Xenoblade.

And, as previously stated, while players will often have to revisit certain areas at various points while playing Xenoblade (especially when completing sidequests), the game does a nice job of layering in enemies of varying difficulty throughout all its locations. It is possible, for example, to encounter level 70 or higher enemies in the environments surrounding the village that serves as the game’s opening hub. More than one unwary player will likely find themselves quickly being wiped out by some ludicrously stronger foe if they simply go blundering about Xenoblade attacking every foe they encounter without paying attention. Fortunately, the game does not punish players harshly for death and will simply revert them back to the nearest or last fast travel landmark they encountered, accrued experience and items intact. This helps to further encourage exploration by not overly penalizing players who wander to far afield while also helping to ensure losing battles is not a completely meaningless occurrence.

The game does a good job balancing linear areas with more open ones.

Honestly, Xenoblade has so many clever and well-designed gameplay elements it would take a review twice this length or more to fully examine all of them. I have yet to even touch upon gameplay elements such as the relationship system. This system, in addition to leading to highly varied personal conversations among party members (branching dialogue paths and all), also encompasses NPCs and whole cities and remains the key to unlocking many of the best sidequests in the game. And then there is the gameplay mechanic that lets players see into the future, both in and out of combat, and in combat warns when an enemy is about to make a powerful attack so action can be taken accordingly to prevent or mitigate it. Or the game’s day or night system that, in another great touch, players can manually adjust at any time.

Xenoblade Chronicles Review

By Shaun K.

Does Xenoblade justify all the hype surrounding it or is this the case of a game better left on distant shores?