Experience Points: Xenoblade Chronicles

I have been busy lately, but not only with Real Life (TM) stuff. A majority of my free time has been consumed, digested, and processed completely by a game called Xenoblade Chronicles for the Nintendo Wii. My very life and soul has been taken into its body and used for nutrients to sustain it as it slowly creeps throughout the world, assimilating all into its being and converting them into something higher...inhuman.

In all honesty though, this game really has taken over my gaming life for the most part. Occasionally I blast a few people in Nexuiz or try out a few new chronomes in Sine Mora, but Xenoblade's massive, enthralling world has been the apple of my eye. I considered writing a review of it...but I just don't feel like I can do that without missing tons of points, and even if I did cover it in its supreme glory, by the way I write reviews it would be a thousand pages long. So the most I'm going to do for now is a quick EP about it.

Xenoblade Chronicles was announced a long time ago. Originally under the name Monado: Beginning of the World, the title was switched to Xenoblade Chronicles to honour Tetsuya Takahashi, the director of the Xenogears and Xenosaga games as well as this one. The concept of Xenoblade is pretty cool...the entire game takes place on the corpses of two titans named Bionis and Mechonis who attacked and killed each other in the middle of a vast ocean millenia prior to the beginning of the game. Their bodies still stand, lifeless, as life flourishes on them. On the Bionis, there are Homs (humans basically) and other races as well as tons of animals and foliage, whereas Mechonis' residents are known as Mechon. The Mechon had been at war with the residents of Bionis, attacking Homs and seemingly devouring them...but when Xenoblade starts off, there has been a year of peace. You start the game as a young man named Shulk in the town of Colony 9, who is studying a sacred blade known as the Monado in an effort to figure out its secrets...and you can bet that they get revealed over the course of the game.

To those who say Wii can't produce good graphics: Blow it out your ass!

So Xenoblade is basically one bigass action RPG which takes some ideas from other games and mashes them together perfectly. There are multiple characters, each with their own abilities which have cooldown times and special advantages. For example, Shulk has an attack called Slit Edge which will lower an enemy's defense if you attack them from the side. Of course, the enemy needs to not be focused on you in order to pull this off, which is where the mechanic of drawing aggro comes into play. As your three active characters perform attacks, they'll draw attention from enemies which can either be a massive advantage providing you can manipulate them, or a severe threat if one character is ganged up on and overwhelmed. Managing this is key to survival and polishing off monsters quickly, and it's immensely satisfying to learn the ins and outs of the system.

The world of Xenoblade Chronicles is absolutely enormous, and is apparently equivalent to the size of the Japanese Archipelago...pretty intense stuff. As such, there is plenty for you to do in the world. People will ask you to complete quests which grant you XP, loot, and cash, and as you do this in each major area your affinity (measured by stars) within those areas will increase. This allows you access to higher level quests with better rewards, and also better trading options (you can trade with any character who has a name, rather than something like "Colony 9 Resident"). There is also affinity between party characters, so the more that your characters interact in battle, the more they'll begin to like one another. At various levels of affinity, certain characters can have conversations called Heart-to-Hearts which reveal more about them and their current relationship...and the areas you need to perform these Heart-to-Hearts are scattered throughout the massive, engaging world. There is plenty of shit to do, and after 95 hours of gameplay, I still haven't finished the game and also have tons that I want to accomplish.

Character equipment and abilities are pretty customizable. Equipment can be dropped by monsters or bought, and can also have slots for gems which increase certain attributes or trigger certain abilities. For example, an HP Up gem will boost a character's maximum health, while a Double Attack gem will increase the probability that a character will attack twice in one go. Not only can you simply get gems from shops and quests, but you can also create them yourself from raw materials you find from enemies that you take out. All of the equipment pieces look different on your character too, which is a nice touch. Your characters' abilities are all customizable too...you can level them up to make them stronger, or even equip different ones than the ones you're used to. To clarify things, battling an enemy usually involves moving your main character close to an enemy so they will auto-attack it every 1.5 seconds or so, or manually using special arts (such as the previously-mentioned Slit Edge) after moving your main character into place. You only control one character...the rest are automatically controlled, but they're not idiots. I have yet to encounter any significant AI problems and have not gotten frustrated with them whatsoever.

Anyway, the manual Arts line the bottom of your screen during a battle, and you move between them, execute them strategically, and wait for them to recharge so you can use them again. There are 8 slots, plus a special ability...and those 8 slots aren't definite. Characters will access more Arts than they have room for, so you get to pick and choose a little bit and if you find yourself not using an Art very often you can usually find a substitute that you like much more. Arts can also inflict certain status ailments as well...for example, one character's attack might inflict Break...which then makes them weak to Topple, knocking them over so they can't attack...at which point you can use an Art that inflicts Daze to further incapacitate them. There's even more customization, too! Characters also have different skill trees which grant them special abilities, usually passive. If you prioritize one, it will grow and you'll gain more abilities in that particular branch of the tree, giving your characters tons of new resistances and options...and if that's not enough, you can even link the skill trees of characters, meaning if you link one skill between Shulk and Reyn, for example, they'll both have the same benefit given by that skill.

Fuck...deep eh? Let's get into some lighter material.

The locales and environments in Xenoblade are awesome.

Graphically, this game is amazing. The landscapes sprawl on forever and you can see landmarks from miles back in the game if you look carefully. With such a massive world it's awesome to be able to see it all the time...it makes it feel more real and immersive to look down on the area you were just at and see it as a small structure in the distance. The sound is great, with enemies making awesome sounds and superb voice acting. Honestly, the vocal acting is absolutely amazing...everything is voiced in an English accent since Xenoblade was released in Europe before North America, and it gives it a terribly endearing charm and really makes you love the characters. The characters themselves are extremely well-developed and voiced, and there isn't a single bad character...which is a lot to say for a new-age RPG. The soundtrack is phenomenal, too...every single place has a ridiculously memorable melody to go along with it that not only sounds awesome, but suits the area as well. The music for the Colony 9 area actually has been stuck in my head almost exclusively since I began playing the game.

Finally, the story is awesome. I really, really love the story and it's not only because the story is well done, but also because the characters are so well-developed that it makes everything come together in an awesome, authentic way that just really draws you in. Every time I start up the game, I have a hard time deciding whether to go and accomplish some side quests to raise my levels or increase affinity between characters or to progress the story and see what the hell happens next...and that's an awesome feeling, to be torn between such a decision.

I fucking love Xenoblade Chronicles, and absolutely every RPG nut out there should be giving it a shot. It's a huge, massive game that draws you in with its sharp game mechanics, seemingly endless number of quests, incredible art design and fantastic story presentation and it will not let you go until you're absolutely done everything. After 95 hours, I'm still hooked and although I want to see the ending of the game...at the same time I don't want it to end at all.

If I were to review this game I'd give it a perfect score, easily. I can't believe how awesome this game is and I don't regret a single minute of playing it. Pick it up if you can find it and also have...a LOT of time to kill! Like an eternity's worth.

P.S. These are just the basics...there's a lot about this game that I didn't even mention...such as the multitude of tough Unique monsters to kill, the one part of the game where you reconstruct an entire city, or the awesome mechanics of the chain attack. Just trust me and get this fucking game.