It has been quite a while since my last post. For those of you familiar with Xenoblade Chronicles it probably makes sense to you all why I haven’t written in a while. If you are unfamiliar with Xenoblade Chronicles, like I was when I started it, consider experiencing it for yourself before reading on. I try to write as spoiler-free as possible, but everyone’s version of spoilers is different. Regardless, I am back and ready to dive right into my experience with Xenoblade Chronicles.
An RPG Experience Long Forgotten
I am not sure about you guys but it has been a while since I have picked up an RPG and immediately felt captivated by the world and story. Sure I felt that way with the likes of Octopath Traveler II and Final Fantasy VI but few still grab my attention quite like the RPGs of old. Thankfully, I own a Nintendo Switch and that console has some of the very best RPGs within its catalog. One of them being, as I quickly discovered, Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition.
I do enjoy a good remaster, especially one that comes from a console that I never had the pleasure of owning. I may have grown up a Sony kid, but I sure am a Nintendo man now. Xenoblade Chronicles originally released on the Wii. I picked this definitive edition up knowing it was supposed to be a good RPG but never got around to playing it. That changed this year.
Despite having played and beat Final Fantasy XVI right before playing Xenoblade, I was left feeling like I didn’t quite get the full RPG experience. While Final Fantasy XVI had a lot to offer, it was such a big step away from the Final Fantasy I grew to love that I was still itching to play a classic RPG. Xenoblade Chronicles certainly scratched that itch and then some. It is going to be extremely hard for me to pick a favorite game from this year, but let me tell you Xenoblade is in the running.
Bionis and Mechonis
As the story of Xenoblade Chronicles unfolded, I was in awe. Monolith Soft built a fantastic and deeply rich world to explore. Every biome was unique and extremely huge. I had no idea what to expect from this journey, but I was satisfied with every second. As Shulk set out to save Bionis from the Mechon, I buckled up for the best RPG experience I have had in a long time.
Each area brimmed with possibility. Enemies roamed the lands and items were scattered about the seemingly endless fields. The soundtrack was excellent, providing each area with its own theme song. A good soundtrack breathes life into its game and this one did just that. I found myself stopping just to take in all of the scenery and accompanying music. Honestly, I was enthralled from start to finish. Don’t worry, I took plenty of screen captures.
The journey on offer here is exceptional. I can’t believe it took me this long to finally take it. I am glad that I went into it relatively blind because I was pleasantly surprised. The world is absolutely massive with so many different zones to explore. Somehow though, it was never overwhelming. Instead, I was just excited to see the next new area and explore it. It also helped that each time the party discovered a new area or landmark they were awarded with EXP. This helped fuel my desire to see what was around every corner.
Combat
As you explore these vast areas in Xenoblade, Shulk will come across new party members. You can have three members in your party at a time and each character has a role they are best suited for. You will begin Shulk’s journey with Reyn who makes an excellent tank. He will generate an adequate amount of aggro and keep the enemies off of Shulk. As you progress through the story, you will unlock more members. Since finding these party members were one of the most exciting things for me in this game, I really don’t want to ruin it for you guys if you haven’t played it.
I found it fun to experiment with party formations until landing on one that I rather enjoyed. Regardless of who you use in battle, everyone will gain EXP. This helped make it possible for me to try new members without having to grind them up to my current level. I really appreciated that since I am, in fact, an adult and can’t spend forever on video games like I would like to.
I found that playing as Shulk was the most enjoyable and flexible, but you can make anyone the leader. Combat is automatic if you are in range of the enemies, and you can cycle through abilities called Arts. Regular attacks happen periodically on their own but Arts must be activated. Once activated, each Art has a cooldown. Because of this, there is no MP to worry about. Instead, Arts can be leveled up to improve things like cooldown and damage output. Even though I never found myself too underleveled, I did grind a bit to gain AP and upgrade my Arts.
Combat is also incredibly streamlined and there are no combat items whatsoever. This means that, ideally, you need to have at least one party member out who can heal. It was a bit jarring at first, but I soon found that I really enjoyed an RPG without healing items. Your party regains health after every battle and I never had to pause the game to enter a menu and heal anyone. Less menus and more gameplay was fine by me.
Skills and Affinity
As you explore the land you will come across many, many side quests. While they are certainly skippable, they are also the main source of making money in this title. They will also award the party with EXP, SP and AP. Yes, every character has a skill tree that can be leveled up. Each character starts with three rows you can choose from. The row you choose will be the one that earns any SP. Once one row of their skill tree is completed, you can begin working on another one.
Certain quests will be specific to individual characters and will unlock more rows to their skill tree. The goodness doesn’t stop there though. The game features an Affinity Chart which keeps track of everyone’s relationships with each other. As you increase the relationship between each character, they are able to share skills with each other as you see fit. It is a bit hard to explain but I found it to be a really interesting take on skill trees.
Affinity also applies to certain groups of people throughout the story. Just like each party member can increase their affinity with each other, the party as a whole can raise its affinity with an area by completing the side quests there. I can’t even tell you how many side quests I did and I’m not even sure I completed them all. I certainly did a lot though and loved every minute of it.
That Which Will Be Will Be
When I think of my favorite RPGs a big contributing factor to them becoming a favorite is always the story. It is incredibly disheartening when a game gets everything just right, but you don’t find yourself invested in the story. Luckily, Xenoblade Chronicles wasn’t one of those games. In fact, I would argue that the story of this game is one of the best I have ever played.
This is where I could spoil a lot but instead, I’ll just say that I was extremely invested in each and every party member in this game. Not only that but the story kept me on my toes. I felt every single emotion while I played this game and that is how I like my RPGs. I wasn’t just playing a game that was masterfully made, I was living through the journey of what soon became the cast of beloved characters. When the credits rolled on this game I actually watched them all because I was still processing the experience this game gave to me.
I can now confidently say that I am a huge fan of Xenoblade Chronicles and am eagerly looking forward to the day that I begin my next journey in the franchise. I almost started Xenoblade Chronicles: Future Connected but I wanted to begin my spooky season for the year. For now, my future with this franchise is on pause but I cannot wait to resume it.
