Xenoblade Chronicles

Ok, before I start with the review, I'd like to say that this is one of the rarest games to find in the market nowadays.. But luckily, I got the last copy at the local ye-olde-game-shoppe! I'm glad I managed to get it, because it sure is a masterpiece of a game.. And that, is my review of Xenoblade Chronicles! ..that would be the easiest way to describe it.. However.. that's just not my style! I'll gain the power to make this review into a masterpiece aswell!

That pretty much sums up Xenoblade Chronicles, a typical jrpg with melodramatic characters, huge lazor swords and big breasted women. For some people, this would be a turn-off.. But is that really a bad thing? Not at all! It's like watching anime series, and a damn interesting one.

I don't want to spoil anything of the story, since it is well told in my opinion. I feel that it would be like ruining a perfectly good anime show. However, I can tell you that you live on a HUGE titan named Bionis and your enemy is Mechonis. The main protagonist is the "average boy who lives in a backwater town, always studying, rarely leaving the lab". Then something terrible happens, turning his life upside-down and then he is determined to take revenge. Yup, that's about how the story is, but I was always hooked at what would happen next. You can also choose whether you want the characters to speak english or japanese, since I've been backstabbed by the english voice actors countless times, I automaticly picked japanese, since they sound more convincing. So, I have no idea if they managed to get good english voice actors this time around.

When you're not doing the story sequences, you'll spend most of your time running around this huge titan. But that's really where the game shines, it rewards you with exploration, there are always stuff to collect while you're running around, and not only does it reward you with exp and such. You'll be sitting there, gaping -at least I did- at how beautiful the landscapes are, which indeed are vast and impressive. You can explore almost everything you see and this game has always some way of surprising you. When you find new landscapes, you can always just teleport in-between locations.

The combat is fun at times, not the best, but it works. It has an action-based battle system, which means that normal attacks are automatic ala mmorpg-style. While special attacks known as "arts" each have their own cooldown time as opposed to being on a continuous time queue with normal attacks, and these "arts" are manually performed by the player. When exploring you may also find "rare" mobs which are somewhat hard, but they often drop "phat loot", and that's always nice and helpful. There are also different kinds of talent tree's which lets your characters unlock passive skills. Combat can be hard at times, especially when the game decides to throw a boss battle right after certain cutscenes. You will die at times, but there won't be a death penalty, you'll basicly just spawn at the latest landmark you've discovered.

Ohh, and did I mention this game has A LOT of sidequests? Well, if I didn't.. It sure has A LOT of sidequests. There are typical quests like "kill x enemies-of-that-type" and fetch quests. You may think this is tedious, and I agree, they can be at times. But usually the rewards are worth the effort, and the npcs manage to be interesting because of the "bond system". Which lets the player partake in many optional sidequests. Completing these quests can alter the perception of the npcs in towns and open up additional story sequences. I felt like the npcs are people who do daily things and some of them might even like others, you won't know until you do some of their quests. This is by far better than the npc-system -dare I say it- Oblivion had.. *raises flameshield* But that's just my opinion! Another interesting thing is the day and night cyclus, there might be some npcs that are out only during the night, the same is also for certain enemies, you can always choose whether it should be day or night by winding the in-game clock. The music also changes from upbeat-day-music to serene-night-music, and the night-music is really beautiful, in certain areas I always played during night time.

This game also has a somewhat decent crafting system, though, you can only craft gems. I didn't think it was that interesting, but it's a nice addition. The gems you find/craft can be put into armour and weapons and they usually add a nice bonus. You can also customize your characters, though this only applies to armour and weapons. There are a lot of cool clothes/armour, also a lot of skimpy ones for the female characters.. w-what?! don't give me that look! I'm just saying what to look forward to, err.. I mean.. nevermind.

This may be the typical jrpg, but it sure is a helluva good one. Xenoblade Chronicles has about everything, from fun combat to jaw dropping locations, interesting characters regardless whether or not they are in your party, A LOT of side quests(yes, capslock is needed) and a huge world just waiting to be explored. Oh, and you will be rewarded. This game will make you laugh, feel the pain and confusion of the main protagonist, shed some tears every now and then, it locks your jaw and keeps you hooked till the end.

Xenoblade Chronicles is by far the best Japanese RPG of this generation, and every Wii owner should at least try the game.

As bonus, I'll link this serene soundtrack as a final "closing thought". Good night!