Xenoblade Chronicles has to have been the biggest surprising delight that I have had in a while. I was never incredibly interested in the game, only finding about it through my interest in The Last Story and, subsequently, Operation Rainfall's campaign. It was an RPG, and I have a Wii, and I heard great things about it, so I ordered it and began playing.

Well, that was it. I was really obsessed with the game.

80 hours with the main story and some sidequests really satisfied me, and then I spent an additional 25 hours doing more sidequests and taking down superbosses. I kinda stagnated after getting the seventh character's 5th skill tree, and even though it's pretty badass in several aspects, SP grinding really didn't hold sway over me like it used to. After reaching level 99 and trying to find NIght Vision Crystals to take down the superbosses, I kinda just gave up, because the boss battles post-game (IMO) pale in comparison to most of the previous ones. (Side-note, this game was pretty unbalanced in the AP and SP front, sometimes showering you with EXP, but holding you back to get those other points. SP is particularly annoying, since at least with AP you can compensate with gems and skill links).

But I was really satisfied and happy with my time with Xenoblade. I spend lots more time on RPGs than I do with most other games (I actually enjoy level-grinding as long as I'm not plagued by random battles, and this leads me to play Pokemon, Dragon Quest IX, and Tales games endlessly), but this is the first time I've spent this long on one run, even if I ignore the post-game material. It was a good run, and frankly, one of the best games I have ever played.

Xenoblade Chronicles has to have been the biggest surprising delight that I have had in a while. I was never incredibly interested in the game, only finding about it through my interest in The Last Story and, subsequently, Operation Rainfall's campaign. It was an RPG, and I have a Wii, and I heard great things about it, so I ordered it and began playing.

Well, that was it. I was really obsessed with the game.

80 hours with the main story and some sidequests really satisfied me, and then I spent an additional 25 hours doing more sidequests and taking down superbosses. I kinda stagnated after getting the seventh character's 5th skill tree, and even though it's pretty badass in several aspects, SP grinding really didn't hold sway over me like it used to. After reaching level 99 and trying to find NIght Vision Crystals to take down the superbosses, I kinda just gave up, because the boss battles post-game (IMO) pale in comparison to most of the previous ones. (Side-note, this game was pretty unbalanced in the AP and SP front, sometimes showering you with EXP, but holding you back to get those other points. SP is particularly annoying, since at least with AP you can compensate with gems and skill links).

But I was really satisfied and happy with my time with Xenoblade. I spend lots more time on RPGs than I do with most other games (I actually enjoy level-grinding as long as I'm not plagued by random battles, and this leads me to play Pokemon, Dragon Quest IX, and Tales games endlessly), but this is the first time I've spent this long on one run, even if I ignore the post-game material. It was a good run, and frankly, one of the best games I have ever played.

When I read other people's playtimes I feel really slow ... just ONE run through the story including all regularly available sidequests took me about 110 hours and I barely managed to reach level 78^^