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Xenoblade offers a compelling story, fresh game mechanics, awesome exploration, easy questing, and a return to quality RPG gaming since the first Dragon's Age.
In this day and age of AAA blockbuster high budget video games, Xenoblade Chronicles comes as a welcomed return to simplistic casual gaming. The game features one of the most fluid gameplay ever, offering absolutely no loading during play.
This game was brilliantly polished in terms of pace, combat system, and the whole RPG theme. The graphics are quite lackluster and blurry but, it's still a beautiful game.
Narrative:
The story runs deep so I hear, I am only on the fourth area and it took me about 10 hours to get there while doing almost every single side quest. The intro starts off with the usual, big ass machines arriving and wrecking up the place and it's up to the lone hero who wields a unique power to defeat them, after a certain incident that almost had me in tears, the hero heads off in search of vengeance. Several characters and an interesting relationship web of every named interactive character creates some fun side missions and additional dialogue. The story thus far of my play time perfectly guides the player forward and will definitely excite anyone. The game world is set on two titans, yes you are running around on two massive titans that have long been dead, this just blows my mind more than as a planet within a planet like FFXIII.
Characters:
The most irritating yet enjoyable thing is the voice actors, unfortunately we don't have any north american voices and we get the whole UK dubbing, which is a bit annoying outside of cutscenes with their extra dialogue. Having UK voice actors somehow makes the game a bit more enjoyable and the voice acting is well done and helps create the mood, but the voices themselves irk me slightly, but also gives off a unique charm. The characters themselves are well defined and their combat styles reinforce their character types, so all around the characters are enjoyable.
Questing:
So the game is pretty linear in terms of story, but the amount of side quests and exploration makes this game incredibly open. You are never forced down a linear path following the story quest like FFXIII. The game allows you to simply delay the main story and start side questing, but the side quests are completely optional and act as ways to level up and get cash without having to grind. Often do the quests require you to gather a certain amount of loot from a specific enemy, but what makes this amazing is that you can gather the loot before even accepting the quest. I usually kill all new enemies about 3 times and by the time I get the quest to gather the needed items, I already have them.
Combat:
The combat is flawless, each character you play has a completely different way to fight, and each character can be played four ways as a support, healer, tank, or assassin. I even got to play as the game's tank and dish out massive damage with a set of attack spells. The combat has a bunch of QTE (quick time events) that are so well suited that they feel like a part of the combat rather than a gimmick like Prince of Persia 3. Also several ways of customizing each character's ability slots to suite a role you want them as and level up each character however you want.Yes you can play as any character in your three man party to explore different play styles which makes grinding and questing plenty of fun.
Pros:
- Great open world to explore at your own pace.
- Casual grinding that has great pace and flow.
- Unique combat experience and character roles.
- A very interesting story despite starting off stereotypical.
- Constant graphics so we are never torn between higher and lower quality cutscenes and gameplay.
- Plenty of additional quests to help you level without the need for mindless grinding.
- Plenty of items to customize your character's attire and armour.
Cons:
- It's only on the Wii so low quality graphics, but it still looks good and is immersive.
- Side quests don't add much to the story or create enough side story appeal like Dragon Age 2.
This game is easily top 5 games I have played over the past few years and possibly sits at number 1 on my list. Anyone who has a Wii, MUST get this game if they enjoy any form of RPG or fantasy games.
~Djr7
