VIDEO GAME REVIEW
XlMliUtDI; CHONICLES
by Lucas Smith
Xenoblade Chronicles has been on the radar of JRPG afi
cionados and Wii owners for quite some time now and is
probably one of the most anticipated Wii titles of this gen.
Is it even possible for it to live up to the massive amount
of hype surrounding its NA localization? Going into this
review, I promised myself I wouldn’t jump on the “great
est JRPG of this gen/of all time” bandwagon but, after
playing through the game, I have to break that promise.
Xenoblade starts out like any other JRPG would. Shulk,
a young orphaned boy, sets out for revenge after his town
is ravaged by the Mechons, the game’s villains. Along
the way he picks up the Monado, a mysterious sword that
allows the wielder to see into the future, and he is swept
up into an adventure he wasn’t expecting. The Monadao’s
ability makes for some fantastic moments in the game as
Shulk has to constantly deal with the fact that he can’t
save everyone despite knowing the future. Xenoblade is
full of touching moments and twists that you simply won’t
see coming.
The overall presentation and visual style is the first thing
that will catch your attention. First things first, yes, this
game is on the Wii and, yes, it would definitely look better
if it were on an HD console. However, despite the graphi
cal limitations of the console, Xenoblade is a stunning
looking game and pushes the Wii to its limits; Monolith-
soft should be given props for what they’ve accomplished.
As for the setting, unlike most games that take place on a
planet of some kind, Xenoblade takes place on the dead
bodies of two giant robot gods. The organic beings inhabit
Bionis while the Mechon inhabit Mechonis. Whenever
you’re traveling and look up at the sky, you’ll see the
limbs of the mechanical beings. What this adds up to is
a game that makes up for its technical limitations with a
distinct visual style.
The game’s musical score is absolutely phenomenal. Cre
ated by four composers, Yasunori Mitsuda (Chrono Trig
ger/Cross and the Xenosaga Trilogy), Yoko Shimomura
(Street Fighter and Super Mario RPG), Manami Kiyota,
and Ace+, Xenoblade features a wide variety of music
ranging from emotional piano pieces to guitar-heavy battle
tracks.
The voice work is spot on for the most part and ev
ery voice actor is able to nail their character’s emotions
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perfectly. The only sour spot
for the voice work is one of the
main villains who sounds like a
bad Nicholas Cage attempting a
cockney pirate accent. As funny
as that sounds, the villain gets
irritating very quickly. For the
purists out there, Monolithsoft
also included the original Japa
nese voiceovers.
Xenoblade’s gameplay also
feels innovative and refreshing.
The combat takes place entirely j
on the open world with no bat
tle transitions and feels like a tactical MMO. You initiate battle
by targeting an enemy and simply moving into attack range,
and you control one character while the other two members are
AI controlled. Once in combat, your characters will continuous
ly auto attack while you choose different spells and abilities to
use. As battles progress, a party gauge will slowly fill up, which
can then be used in a variety of ways. You can use up filled bars
to help a teammate recover from status effects such as topple
and daze, or completely deplete the gauge to unleash a chain
attack. A chain attack will pause time and refresh the cool down
on all of your abilities. From this point, you go from character
to character to use abilities in combination with each other.
You can either chain status effects such as breaking an enemy,
then toppling and dazing them or you can use the same types of
attacks, such as chaining physical abilities, which builds up a
chain gauge. As the chain gauge fills up, any ability of the same
type will be grow in power.
If you own a Wii and love JRPGs, you have no excuse not to
play Xenoblade Chronicles. Not only does it deserve the mas
sive praise that it has received but it also creates a new bench
mark that future JRPGs will have to live up to. With a straight
play-through clocking in at a good 50-60 hours and with that
time being easily doubled with the game’s ludicrous amount of
side quests, you will most definitely get your money’s worth.
Xenoblade Chronicles manages to keep the core aspects of
the genre alive, all while getting rid of the genre’s more pesky
features such as save points and long pointless backtracking.
While the game does have a few technical blemishes, I feel like
the fault lies with being on a weaker console rather than it being
the fault of the developer.
The full review can be found at http://geek.pikimal.eom/2012/04/15/
xenoblade-chronicles-redefining-jrpgs-for-generations-to-come/
Image from: http://i2.listal.com/image/2241832/936full-xenoblade-chronicIes-
cover.jpg