Xenoblade Chronicles (Wii - 1st completion)

[leathercubster]

Probably considered the best Japanese RPG on the Wii, Xenoblade Chronicles is based on the Xeno series of games. The first was Square's (now Square-Enix) Xenogears on the PSone in 1998, one of my all-time favourite RPGs (I last played - for my second time - and reviewed the game in 2007 on my old Yahoo blog). The creators of the game eventually left Square and formed their own company, Monolith Soft, and they continued the series on the PS2 with the Xenosaga trilogy that was published by Bandai Namco (I only played the first game and reviewed it back in 2006) as a spiritual successor to Gears continuing the game's use of religious references and philosophy in a sci-fi context. Nintendo acquired Monolith Soft in 2007 as a second-party developer. They have helped contribute to Nintendo's games including The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. Xenoblade Chronicles was released in Japan in 2010 and then a year later in Europe. During this same time period, the game did not have a confirmation of a North American release. Nintendo of America was relatively silent about it, sparking speculation that it would not be released in North America. In response, a fan campaign called "Operation Rainfall" formed to persuade Nintendo of America to localize Xenoblade Chronicles (along with fellow Wii RPGs The Last Story and Pandora's Tower which both eventually were published here). The group organized several efforts to raise awareness of the game's demand, such as encouraging people to pre-order on Amazon and their local Gamestop stores. It worked! The game was eventually confirmed for North America release and after a delay, Xenoblade Chronicles was released on April 6, 2012 (yep, exectly 3 years ago today!). I remember seeing the Gametrailers.com review (link at the end of the review below) and planned to pick the game up someday. Later in the year, I check all over the place for this game and cannot find it anywhere! No video game shop had it as it seemed Nintendo produced limited copies so it was sold out (and even then, some shops never had the game at all!)! People on Ebay were selling it above normal prices given the demand. I did get a used - but great - copy in March 2013 off Ebay but sent it to my bear bud Kevin in Fresno and he mailed it up to me. Last year, I surprisingly found a new copy at Willow Video Games for $100 plus tax and bought it anyways. I'll either sell the previous used copy or give it away to someone. The game is also being revived this month as it is being ported to the (only) New Nintendo 3DS handheld so those who missed out on the Wii version can download and play it on the N3DS. Taking a little longer than expected, I finally beat the game last night with an end time of 77 hours and 7 minutes. I didn't do many of the sidequests and ignored the restoration of Colony 6.




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The prolouge shows the genesis of a world that was nothing but endless ocean, until two great titans, the Bionis and the Mechonis, came into existence. The two giants fought a timeless battle, until with one final strike, only their lifeless bodies remained, forever locked in combat. Eons later, new forms of life arose on the corpses of the two titans; organic lifeforms such as the humanoid Homs on the Bionis; and mechanical life forms, such as the Machina, on the Mechonis. The Homs of Bionis soon began fighting for survival against the war machines of the Mechonis, named the "Mechon". The game's story opens to scenes one year prior to the present time in the game, detailing Dunban's use of the legendary sword "Monado", to lead an effort against the Mechon, fighting alongside fellow Homs Dickson and Mumkhar. It is successful, and temporarily restores peace, but Mumkhar is killed and Dunban's arm is crippled. One year after the battle, the protagonist Shulk and his best friend Reyn return to their home in Colony 9 after surviving an attack from monsters. After meeting up with Shulk's love interest, Fiora, and helping with an errand, the Mechon launch a large surprise attack against Colony 9. Shulk and his friends return to find Dunban with the Monado. However, the Monado's power overwhelms Dunban again, and he drops the weapon in agony. Shulk picks up the Monado, showing greater control over the weapon, and exhibits the ability to see enemies' future attacks through visions. Fighting their way through the assault, Shulk's group encounters a large "faced" Mechon leading the attack, called "Metal Face". Unlike the rest of the Mechon, the Monado does almost nothing to Metal Face as it incapacitates them. Fiora arrives in a tank to save them; however, Metal Face dismantles the tank and stabs Fiora, killing her. The Mechon then withdraws from the devastated colony. Resolute, devastated, and revengeful, Shulk and Reyn leave Colony 9 in pursuit of Metal Face, to reach Galahad Fortress, the Mechon stronghold located at Sword Valley.

To see the game's opening and gameplay (European version, though I don't think there are any noticeable differences), go here or below:

Click to view

Part 2 is here.












Graphics/Art-10
+ The graphics and large scale worlds must push the Wii to its limits! The worlds are huge and expansive with little pop-up. The scenery is some of the best in a video game, with some areas looking more beautiful either during the day or night. Sunsets are especially beautiful that I stop to look at them or even change the game's clock to sunset before a cinematic.
+ Superb art direction and creativity. A good use of lush colours and environments. The titans shown in the skies' background look awesome.
+ Very good character and enemy models. Animation is pretty good too.
+ Awesome, well directed in-game cinematics. Whatever weapons and armor your characters are wearing is included in the cinematic.
- Textures are kind of hit or miss though it is likely a sacrifice given the hardware limitations.
- The game would look more incredible in a future HD remake (emulation kind of solves that problem).



Sound/Music-10
+ Surprisingly excellent soundtrack!
+ Great voice acting. All voices were done by British actors which gives the game a feeling of mystique. This most likely came about as the game was dubbed in English for the European release and they didn't bother re-dubbing with American actors for the North American release.
+ Good sound effects.
- When engaging a battle and after winning a battle, your characters repeat the same random lines that it gets irritating. You would prefer that they just shut up most of the time!

Music Samples:
Main Theme
Daily Life
Memories
Thoughts to a Friend
Engage the Enemy
Sorrow
Mystery
Reminiscence / Music Box
Shulk and Fiora
Anger, Darkness of the Heart
The Spiritual World
Zanza
Hometown (Colony 6) Day / Night
Colony 9 Day / Night
Time to Fight!
Tephra Cave
Gaur Plain Day / Night
Refugee Camp
One Who Gets in Our Way
Satorl, the Shimmering Marsh Day / Night
Colony 6 (Silence)
Imperial Capital Alcamoth Day / Night
Vision Reacts
You Will Know Our Names
On the Fallen Arm... Day / Night
Mechonis Field
Mechanical Rhythm

Control-8
+ You can use the Wii Remote and Nunchuk or the Classic Controller. I used the Classic Controller which is what most people prefer I found.
+ Controls are not too hard to figure out and after some hours, you'll pretty much master them.
- I find locking onto enemies wonky. While the closest enemy in front of you is highlighted first to begin the battle, locking onto other enemies in battle can be frustrating. Instead of prioritizing enemies in your view, enemies off screen are somewhat prioritized when moving the cursor around. This can get you and your party into trouble if you need to fight another target but your fumbling around gives enemies free shots at you.







Gameplay-9
+ Xenoblade Chronicles plays as an action RPG that employs an open world design. Exploration, quest completion, and item collection are large parts of the game's gameplay. You are encouraged to explore the large environments, which generally allows you to visit whatever can be seen in the horizon. While exploring, you may choose to take on side quests from various NPCs that inhabit the game's world, as they commonly involve locating certain items or killing certain number of enemy characters. One strong point these quests possess is automatic completion, which allows the quests to be completed immediately without having you to manually notify in-game characters of its completion, provided that the non-player characters are generic-named, e.g., Colony 9 Resident and Defence Force Soldier.
+ Item collection plays a role in the game in the form of the game's "Collectopedia." Scattered across all major regions of the game are glowing blue orbs, and upon coming into contact with the orb, you are awarded an item at random, which is added to your inventory. From there, you may add the item to the Collectopedia, and if an entire chart is completed for a certain area, you are rewarded with new items. Aside from the Collectopedia, there are also ether crystals to be found from fallen enemies or ether crystal deposits, which grants you participation in a multifaceted "Gem Crafting" mini-game, allowing for the creation of gems that may increase battle stats when equipped.
+ Many in-game systems affect the general flow of gameplay. The "Affinity" system tracks the relationships between characters and locations in the game. "Location Affinity" tracks the interpersonal relationships between all of the game's named characters, depicting to which degree they get along with one another, and a town's general perception of your controllable party. Completing quests can alter perception of the characters, and open up additional story sequences. There is also "Party Affinity", which is strictly the level of affection between each party member, ranging from indifference to love. These affinities can be raised by having characters participate in battle together, giving gifts, or using the "Heart-to-Heart" system. These "Heart-to-Hearts" are intimate moments between two characters that can show more of a character's personality, history, or thoughts, and can be initiated by having a certain level of Affinity between them. The Affinity system ties into how efficient characters work together in battle and gem crafting.
+ A day-and-night time cycle also exists in the game, with the time of day often affecting in-game events, quests, and item availability. While time flows automatically and a day cycle repeats about every ten minutes in real time, you can "set the clock" to the desired time at any point as well. Additionally, while the game is about exploration, many areas, called "Landmarks" aid in traversing the land by serving as warp points, allowing you to instantly return to that point at any time. The game also supports a "save anywhere feature".
+ The game also has extensive customization, which includes changing the characters' outfits and weapons. These changes are directly reflected in the game, appearing in the field and even during scripted event scenes.
+ The game has a real-time action-based battle system, where you manually move the current lead character in real-time, and party members will "auto-attack" when enemies enter their attack radius, most comparable to the system found in Final Fantasy XII or many MMORPGs. Manually input attacks, called "Arts", may also be performed, but in a limited fashion. Battle Arts are only available after a "cool down" period that occurs after every use, while character specific "Talent Arts" only become available after enough auto-attacks are executed. Both party members and enemies have a finite amount of health points, and attacks deplete this value. Combat is won when all enemies lose their HP, but the game is lost if all characters lose their HP. Health may be restored by using healing Arts in battle, or you may let characters' HP regenerate automatically outside of battle. Typically, winning battles (plus completing quests and finding new areas/landmarks) earns you experience points, which allows the characters to grow stronger by levelling up and learning new Arts. Arts for each character must be set by you on their respective set up, called a "Battle Palette", outside of battles.
+ Several other systems are present to affect the flow of battle. The "Party Gauge" slowly fills as party members successfully land hits on the enemy, and filling the gauge allows you to chain multiple attacks together, for extra damage. All party members have an "aggro ring" around them as well; the more actions a character performs, the larger it grows. Larger aggro rings lead enemies to focus their efforts on that respective character, leading to a strategic aspect of luring and diverting attention of enemies. The game's "Visions" system, where Shulk can see glimpses of enemies' future attacks, also factors into battles. With knowledge of an enemy's potentially-dangerous attack, you can prevent it from happening by alerting a teammate, allowing you to activate one of their Arts, or by using an Art of their own to stop the attack.
- It can get repetitive and boring having to cross and search these large worlds at times, especially your first time. Some places are fun to run through, others you wish were more linear and small (there are some but not many).
- I find the battle system to be complicated. It starts off easy but throughout the story, they keep unlocking more things that you wonder when its going to end so to force you to memorize it for future survival.
- I never much got the hang of gem-crafting and knowing which characters to use for best results.

Fun/Story/Misc-9
+ An excellent story with interesting characters.
+ I found it fun in certain environments to just run around in and explore.
+ The game also contains a "New Game +" mode, which pulls over much of your progress from their first playthrough into future playthroughs.
- A lot of areas are too big that you may end up falling asleep as it can take hours to search every nook and cranny. Areas with large bodies of water to swim through can be especially boring!
- While "New Game +" transfers a lot of your inventory, it doesn't transfer completed side-quests (or even certain ones) so you start from scratch. It feels like your many hours of work is down the drain despite the previous awards.

Total: 46/50 (Grade Level: A)



The Xenoblade Chronicles website is here and contains some basic info. The Gametrailers.com video review is here and the Wikipedia article is here.

Next Game: God of War: Origins Collection (PS3)

Currently playing: Kirby Mass Attack (DS) & Suikoden (PSone)