Xenoblade Chronicles

Amidst the far-reaching mountains and appropriately adjacent colored sunset is you - a tiny speck on what is basically just two monolith creatures interconnected. Throughout your time while playing, you will travel along all portions of these goliath figures across your nearly one hundred hour journey, but during that time you will never feel fatigue. You will want to see the story to its end. You will want to construct a home for the unfortunate. You will want to do as many generic monster hunt quests available to you. You will not want to put this game down.

At the dawn of the world, two colossal deities, known as the Bionis and the Mechonis, were fighting in an endless sea; the battle ultimately lead to a stalemate. Their entire bodies would freeze in place, and life began to surface on each colossi. Bionis became primarily inhabited by the Homs (the equivalent to human beings) while the Mechonis housed the machine-based Mechon. For the next millennium, the Homs and the Mechon would be ongoing sworn enemies in an unwritten war. Half of Xenoblade Chronicles' story revolves around the ideas it presents its world's set-up. Through the entirety of the game's progression, you learn more key ideas about the world's past, its secrets, and the very supposed gods that rule over it. Talking to certain NPCs during specific portions of the story will also provide you with additional background information if you're still intrigued. It's all about the lore, and Xenoblade Chronicles is more than happy to add way more than you'd expect. I can't exactly say that I was looking for every single nook and cranny to find my next bit of information on the origin of the titans, but I can say that the amount work into this aspect is absolutely extraordinary. Not to mention that some of these elements call back to the original titles in the Xeno franchise, specifically Xenogears in the form of its occasional large mechanical designs.

Shulk takes on the role as the protagonist in Xenoblade Chronicles as a confident and gregarious eighteen year-old. After a severe and disastrous attack by the Mechon upon his home, Colony 9, he gains the ability to wield the legendary Monado - a powerful sword that local veteran Dunban lost movement in his arm as a result of using it. With the Monado in hand, Shulk sets off for revenge with friend to track down and destroy the Mechon that killed many of the people he cared about. Along the way, you'll meet additional characters that will help you inch forward throughout the narrative; a narrative that spirals way out of proportion from the initial set-up. That's not to say that the plot is particularly convoluted, but more so ever-changing. The actual story regrettably has some portions akin to others in the vast sea of JRPGs and the writing can occasionally be cringe-worthy, but the wide majority of the game easily sufficed to keep me intrigued to move onward. What this game does better than others in the genre is how it handles its characters. Interactions between the core group enhances how effective the narrative can be, portraying a wide array of personalities that vary but show a notable amount of chemistry as well.

Xenoblade Chronicles evokes so many systems within its gameplay that it almost becomes too hard to keep track of - but that's not a criticism, it's a compliment. Combat takes on a form akin to that of an MMO, situating real-time battling along with outfitting your characters with technical abilities, referred to as Arts. Personally, to see such a battle system implemented in a JRPG like this is a breath of fresh air; not that turn-based combat is lackluster, but the way Xenoblade tackles its battles is what seals the deal for me. If you're not performing any arts, you will automatically physically attack the enemy as long as you're within a reasonable vicinity. For most battles, your ultimate goal is to perform a topple onto the enemy, which will leave them unable to attack and completely vulnerable for you to launch damage. Achieving a topple never ceased to provide me with a sense of accomplishment, even if it became a standard of battle. Not every action in battle has to be performed in real-time per se, as the inclusion of Chain Attacks complicates this notion. When the Party Guage in the top left fills up, you can perform a Chain Attack with your partners. This action stops time in order for you to perform an action of your choice, whether it be a special move or an Art. You're practically guaranteed to get three different Arts from each character in your party respectively, but sometimes you can pull off more moves; the highest I ever got was seven. However, I'll admit that I could not figure out what precisely extended this, but nevertheless, it was almost always just three.

Chain Attacks still aren't the end of it though, as you'll also occasionally get visions from the Monado. These occur during generic collection quests as a gameplay element as well, but the way it's used in battle is truly unique. Sometimes an enemy will trigger a setup for an attack that will incapacitate or badly wound a party member, and you will see that fatal attack and what will happen in about fifteen seconds. However, you can change the future and appropriately try to stop it before the time's up. This mechanic to the combat pleasantly caught me off guard, and it was utilized with extreme effect, complete with some extraordinary implementations in later boss fights.

Streamlining is the name of the game in Xenoblade Chronicles, as it borrows several components prevalent in Western RPGs such as The Elder Scrolls, and implements them in pristine ways. For instance, you can fast-travel to nearly every landmark you've discovered unless the story prevents you in some matter. But perhaps the most significant progressive element found in Xenoblade is the way it handles quests. There is a multitude of quests to experience in this game, probably the most I've ever seen, and they're handled perfectly. Throughout your travels, you come across various generic citizens that will throw at you a wide array of fetch quests that send you off to defeat several monsters across the entire world. Have no fear though, it removes a portion of the monotonous turmoil that it exhibits by automatically handing you the rewards upon completion. No more tedious backtracking to the original task-giver, and I feel that this addition so great that I can't imagine another game going back to the old format.

Controlled interactions between characters also carry consequences of themselves into the gameplay. Optional scenarios known as Heart-to-Hearts and encouragement in the heart of battle help dictate the affinity between your party members. Affinity is essentially the scale of how much your friends like each other, and the amounts transfer into battle, particularly when dealing with the Party Gauge. Although the Heart-to-Hearts were a noble feature, I almost exclusively gained high amounts of affinity through commonplace battles. That said, I can't begin to stress enough how much I adore the inclusion of affinity here. While it's a quite subtle addition amidst the grand scope of the other portions of the game, it adds a bit of extra incentive to change up your party often and just adds more flavor to the package especially in regards to how it effects every named NPC as well. If all that wasn't enough, Monolith Soft has included an ongoing optional task which has you rebuilding Colony 6, including recruiting a large amount of its residents. The rewards for upgrading the settlement were always great, and it was just a great feature to implement. That's not even everything, I haven't even mentioned the Gem system akin to Final Fantasy VII's Materia, the specific special arts from each character, the achievement system, the day-night cycle, and its masterclass use of experience which eliminated grinding. To simply call this a "grand" game, would be an absolute understatement.

Xenoblade Chronicles doesn't care in the slightest that it's on the Wii. While sometimes the draw distance conflicts, the game simply achieves a sense of scale better than most with the clever utilization of its aesthetic. This aspect adds to the impact the world has as a result, thus feeling more believable than it would have otherwise. Even though the game is almost undoubtedly one of the best looking games on the hardware, to call it 100% eye-pleasing would be somewhat of a lie. Textures are often muddy, environmental effects are seemingly lacking, and the facial animations are horrendous. Of course, this was a limitation of the Wii and Xenoblade was born into an HD world, so it's easy to criticize that aspect in conjunction with its hardware. Sound design, on the other hand, is absolutely killer. Voice acting is apparent for nearly every major event and while some it is really good, and some of it isn't, the overall European voice work is competent. The game's OST, however, is on a completely different level. Its music is quite simply one of the best out there, just under the impressive works found in Final Fantasy, Zelda, and Chrono Trigger/Cross.

Xenoblade Chronicles is the best Final Fantasy game made within the past decade, and that's coming from a fan of the series and someone who likes XIII. Just look at the similarities: a new experimentative battle system, an emphasis on the world, scantily-clad women, and even an undeniable equivalent to the Moogles. Trust me, I mean no hate on Final Fantasy at all, but this is a true classic JRPG akin to likes you'd expect from the Final Fantasy franchise. Xenogears was great, and I admitiedly haven't touched the Xenosaga trilogy yet, but the franchise has simply outdone themselves with this entry, and despite nearly one hundred hours, I still want more. To me, the final product of Xenoblade Chronicles is one that represents not only time and effort, but heart.