There are some games that I play that just hit me like a lightning strike. I play them and I immediately think, “Yeah, I could probably write 2,500ish words about this game.” And I’m not going to hide my intentions here; I like Xenoblade Chronicles. Like, I really like it. Despite being slightly annoyed at how weird Shulk is to control in Smash Bros., I’ve come around to fully embracing the game as the classic title that it is. Developed by Monolith Soft and released back in 2010, this game went through some trials before it was allowed to make anchor on NA shores. And I’m really glad that it did. I don’t think that I’ve played something recently that’s really hit all the points I care about like Xenoblade in a long time. I’m going to try to not gush too much, but just know that these following words come from a place of recency bias, which, according to the Google Search I just made, may result in bad investment decisions. I’ll try to rein in my words but you’ll have to excuse me as I have fun writing about something that really gave me some serious dopamine massages.
Before we begin, for this run that really clicked with me, I played the Definitive Edition on Switch. I had dipped my toes into this game before, having played about two hours back on the Wii. It was still compelling, but it fell to the back of my mind like so many backlog games before it. But after pushing myself through the opening hours of the Switch version, I was hooked. I’ll get into the many, many reasons why later, but I should go over the changes that this version has over the original. Beyond a re-recorded soundtrack and new graphical style, there are little quality-of-life additions here like UI changes and the ability to change the fashion of your characters without impacting stats. But one of the most substantial additions comes with Future Connected, an epilogue story that I’ll touch on a little later, which provides about ten hours’ worth of additional gameplay. As if this game was too short, but I digress. Just know that the visuals are crisp and clean, the sound is nice and booming, and the Xenoblade is easier to play than ever.
It’s Reyn Time
Xenoblade Chronicles is a story of creation and destruction. In the distant past, there was a long battle fought between two gargantuan beings known as the Bionis and the Mechonis. Surrounded entirely by ocean and cloud, the two battled endlessly. Eventually, the battle ended, with both figures simultaneously defeated by the other. Over time, life and further civilizations sprung up from the remains of the god creatures. Organic creatures grew from the Bionis while mechanical creatures lived upon the Mechonis. This is where our story actually starts. Many, many years after the deaths of the two giants, you take control of Shulk, a researcher and member of a tight-knit community. He is a good boy. He deserves good things. Unfortunately, what he gets is a mass swarm of deadly Mechons, robotic creatures from the Mechonis, that sack his home and end up killing a childhood friend of his. From there, Shulk grabs his friend Reyn and sets out from his home to get revenge. As it usually goes with all games of this nature, that barely covers a hundredth of the plot this game covers. You learn so much more about the world, the nature of the two giant creatures, and the history of, well, everything. As you journey across the bodies of the two behemoths, gathering companions and gaining more insight into life outside your little colony, the scope of your journey increases dramatically. But, this is normal JRPG stuff. You’re always saving the world in these games. The thing that matters is the dressing around that concept. The characters. The world. The flavor. And brother, the flavor here is good.
Xenoblade’s characters are very impressive. It’s always good to be interested in your cast with these types of games. And this gang might be some of the most personable I’ve seen in quite a while. The voice work on display here has to be commended. There’s not a bad performance given and that’s a good thing because your characters literally never shut the fuck up. During battle and out of it, they’re constantly exchanging quips and banter with one another. But instead of feeling overwhelming, it adds to the camaraderie between them all. And by the end, you feel a lot of affection for this motley crew. When I wonder why these goobers stand out so strongly, I think it comes down to two aspects: a willingness on the part of the writers to take their time in drawing out the motivations from their creations and a general sense of emotional intelligence from the cast. Take for example Reyn, the classic jock foil for the brainy Shulk to bounce off of. In lesser hands, this character would only make a few stupid remarks for Shulk to correct or say something crass that ends up landing the gang into trouble on occasion. And to be fair, this does happen. But there’s more to him than that. You can trace his journey through the story. As Shulk becomes more self-assured, he doesn’t require Reyn’s protection half as often. However, this doesn’t cause Reyn to sink into despair. Losing his role in their dynamic doesn’t break him. Tapping into the competitiveness baked into his character, he accepts Shulk’s new confidence but also resolves to be the best at what he does so he doesn’t get left behind. In that act, what could potentially be a useless piece of melodrama turns into a moment of self-affirmation. And although not all characters are equal in terms of quality or screen time, there is a palpable sense of effort in place. No characters are just filler. There are also scattered “Heart-To-Heart: scenes, where two characters just chat for a bit, showing off their personality and how they come to care for one another. In their quieter, ordinary moments, the characters of Xenoblade really come alive. And by the end of it all, they’ve taken what could be a more bog-standard JRPG story and turned it into something worth remembering.
Regarding the story as a whole, while there are a good amount of anime writing tropes, the main plot and motivations are treated in a very nuanced and understated way. As the game progresses and the stakes get higher and higher, you start to question the conviction that the characters show in their goal. You start to ask if this entire journey is even noble. And to the game’s credit, it does not place a point on these scenes, it just allows the drama to play out and for you to come to your own conclusions. Of course, Xenoblade eventually does say something regarding the themes they’ve been teasing. But going through the game having to really interpret the characters and their choices without a narrator self-insert going, “And that’s bad” makes the story feel like something that needs to be engaged with rather than just taken in. It’s a refreshingly mature way of storytelling. So even in the more rote storytelling paths, there is still an effort to elevate it above the mundane and engage the audience. Ultimately, this is still puppet theater after all is said and done. Big dramatic moments happen and sometimes the game throws its action figures against each other while making pew pew noises. But while this is still puppet theater, and some of the characters and individual plot points could have used more fleshing out, it’s still very very good puppet theater.
Born In A World Of Strife
So what do you actually do in Xenoblade Chronicles? Well, you control a group of up to three party members and run all over, completing various quests, and battling monsters in real-time combat. And I’m not gonna lie to you; the quests are pretty basic. Story quests have pretty excellent cutscenes to propel them forward, but if you want to tackle the side content, you’ll have to learn to love finding pieces of junk on the ground or defeating three of a certain type of monster. Thankfully, the combat carries the whole experience. You can see enemies in the field, so all you have to do is go up and start swinging and the battle will commence. The enemies in this game are pretty varied and all follow this absolutely mental naming convention of “[title/adjective] + [proper noun].” So get ready to duke it out with the likes of Air Marshal Reisenbach and Immovable Gonzalez if you want to reach the end of this adventure. You have a bunch of abilities at your command and if you’re close enough, your character will auto-attack with just a basic swing. All the characters have abilities that suit specific roles, with Shulk being more of a rogue tasked with debuffing the enemy and Reyn being the attention-grabbing tank. Each character plays differently from one another, with some characters practically requiring you to relearn the entire gameplay flow. You can also outfit your characters with weapons and armor that can improve certain parts of their kit. And then these pieces of equipment can further be improved with gems that grant special traits like Bleed damage or HP Up. There’s a lot of room for tweaking and customization. While all of this is great, one of the defining features of Xenoblade comes from its future sight mechanic. Occasionally, you’ll receive a brief vision of an attack coming for an ally and are then given a timer until that action plays out. However, the way you choose to respond to that information is up to you. You can warn teammates, having them perform an action to draw the attack away from weaker party members. Or you can increase their speed, allowing them to dodge the attack. Or you can just let them die and then heal them afterward. There’s usually an optimal solution to these situations, but you’re not locked into any action and have total control. It’s really moments like this that keep up the pace of combat and keep you fully engaged with interesting decisions.
As good as the gameplay is, it’s pretty easy to approach it the wrong way and not have a great time. The beginning hours of the game throw a lot of tutorials at you, so it’s pretty easy to get overwhelmed. There’s a topple mechanic, which requires certain moves to be done in order and oftentimes needs multiple characters to coordinate attacks together. This leads to you relying on the AI of your party members which will occasionally suck all the levels of ass. Most of the time, teammates will do what you want, but there will definitely be times when they just leave you high and dry, leaving you to get wiped. There’s also a chain attack once you fill up a bar, which allows you to link attacks from teammates together in one swift motion. But should you go for a topple attack or just stack the same move type in order to increase the chain level? Also, did I mention that the likelihood of you getting a chain attack opportunity relies on how much your team members like each other? Which can then be improved by having Sharla give Dunban fruit?! There’s a lot, in other words. And I totally don’t blame anyone for having their eyes glaze over and just pressing Back Slash on a monster four levels higher than them, dying immediately as a result.
Speaking of, there’s the issue of levels. Cards on the table, I like how levels are dealt with in this game, but it can be a little brutal if you don’t know it’s coming. So, in Xenoblade Chronicles, levels matter. Like, a lot. A level or two difference can be the difference between a fairly comfy battle and cortisol overload. It’s easy to walk into a situation that looks doable only to feel like the game is stone-walling you. But that’s just the thing. There are a lot of systems and nuances to this game, but once they start to click, the experience is euphoric. You’ll be able to make a team composition for any situation. You’ll set up gems to fully take advantage of a playstyle. You’ll effectively position characters and quickly build up chain attacks. And you’ll be able to turn around losing battles with higher-level enemies around and feel like you’re the boss fight. There’s a lot of depth to what’s on offer here, and believe me, it’s a lot of effort to dig through some of this. But the reward you get at the end is so worth it.
But Wait, There’s More
If there’s one trait that sums up all aspects of Xenoblade Chronicles, it’s scale. You never forget the sense of scale present in any part of this game. As the game takes place entirely on the bodies of giant, dead god figures, you can really feel how small you are in relation to the world around you. Environments are huge. There is a fast travel system in place to cut things down, but you will be running across locales that absolutely dwarf you. The vistas are vast, oftentimes allowing glimpses of far-off structures that you assume must be part of some out-of-bounds background. And then you end up walking over to it and seeing that there’s even more beyond the ridge. There’s a special joy in simply walking around these areas and just swinging your camera around. I’m not the type to really sit and drink in a digital space, but in this case, I just need to indulge. There are storylines here, told silently through every slope and every landmark. Then another layer of appreciation comes in when you consider what these features are supposed to represent on the Bionis’ body. I can understand the criticism that having these unnecessarily large areas is boring. Forcing you to make long treks through areas that, admittedly, aren’t the most compelling in a gameplay sense isn’t for everyone. But I would argue that the scale is the point. In order to make you really buy into this setting, Xenoblade Chronicles forces you to come face-to-face with the entirety of it. This is one of the only games I’ve played that doesn’t feel like a bunch of rooms placed side-by-side; it feels like a world. Undoubtedly, Xenoblade is a game that is dependent on its characters to create a compelling experience. And its greatest character is the world itself.
The soundscape of Xenoblade is also something that should be commended. If you’ve played a JRPG before, you probably know the musical tropes associated with the genre. Quaint, cozy music for the starting town. Guitar butt-rock during battles. A choir brought in for the final boss theme. And all the tropes are here. I think that what sets Xenoblade’s soundtrack apart from its siblings comes from the execution. In keeping with the theme, the difference is scale. The game takes the base elements that go into all JRPG soundtracks and just blows it up. The songs on display here are sophisticated, having many interweaving parts and various instruments. When this is further expanded with the Definitive Edition recordings, the effect is only amplified. In many cases, the soundtrack is not in any rush to reach its conclusion. The pace of the music generally fits the action that you’ll be involved in. You’ll find yourself running across these massive environments, only being accompanied by a serene orchestration and the sounds of footsteps. At times, it can almost lull you into a state of quiet awe. Then when you throw in the fact that many of the tracks have day and night versions, the effort on display is palpable. The environment undoubtedly elevates the soundtrack. And in turn, the soundtrack gives just as much back to the environment. With the talented efforts of ACE+, along with pieces from the likes of Yoko Shimomura and Manami Kiyota, there’s no surprise at the quality. It’s really just a sound that’s nostalgic, even on first listen.
With all that being said, it seems like Xenoblade Chronicles is a pretty full plate, right? Well yes, arguably overstuffed, but get ready to purge because here comes the dessert in Future Connected. As mentioned a few rotations of the Earth ago when I began this novel, the epilogue was added in the Definitive Edition. It picks up a year after the culmination of the original title and has Shulk and company explore a completely new area that was cut from the original release. With a new massive area to explore and a few new musical tracks, you can see the quality level hasn’t dropped on the presentation side. The story here isn’t quite as compelling as the main game, with some new threat to the world introduced and disposed of over the course of the ten-ish hours of play. However, there are several smaller pieces of storytelling going on as B-stories that paint a very interesting and nuanced state of the world. As always, the people and world of Xenoblade stand as its highlights. Gameplay is largely the same, except you only get access to four characters through your time on the Bionis’ Shoulder. You also get the chain attack removed, it being replaced by three combat options that you can increase in efficiency by doing some side missions. And yeah, there are side missions here too. Don’t ever try to say Monolith Soft sells anything less than a full product. In all honestly, the entire epilogue is good fun but not exactly essential to the experience. Aside from giving a well-deserved arc to one of the most abused party members in the main game, this is a package that’s only here if you really enjoyed your time with Xenoblade Chronicles and you wanted a little more. Otherwise, you’d be set just watching the cutscenes and “Heart-to-Hearts” on YouTube.
The Softest Of All Nopon
Welp, that’s Xenoblade Chronicles. And boy how, this ended up being a little more than 2,500ish words. I don’t really know how else to describe this game besides grand. Everything is grand; the scale, the amount of content, everything. It’s as close as I can imagine to be a perfect JRPG. But more than that, it’s a perfect JRPG for those of us who have experience in the genre. At a certain point playing these kinds of games, you’ve seen it all. You recognize similar story beats, the character tropes, the stupid mascot characters. It’s all been done. And Xenoblade doesn’t push back against that. Everything that you’re familiar with is here. The towns, the characters, the story beats, it’s all here. But it’s just done with such confidence. There’s enough of a twist that breathes life into stale concepts. It makes these tired old tropes feel fresh. Xenoblade Chronicles is a game that can take a cynical JRPG fan and make them feel cozy. Because it feels familiar. Because it feels like home. At the end of all this, I don’t think this game is for absolutely everyone. But for my money, it’s harder to find a piece of interactive art more worth your time.
If you want to try your hand at the Territorial Rotbart, you can find the Definitive Edition here. You can also play this game on the Wii and the New 3DS. Personally, I’d just stick with the Definitive version, but it’s your life.