Xenoblade Chronicles Review

I've always been a huge Japanese RPG fan and that will probably never change. However, for a while now, I've been feeling that the games on offer fail to offer up a reasonable standard of immersion, story and longevity. This drought has now ended with the release of Xenoblade Chronicles, brought to us by Monolith Soft and Nintendo.

Xenoblade Chronicles follows the war behind the Bionis and Mechonis, two gigantic entities which were locked in a huge battle. The battle between the two forces was fierce enough to allow for the shaping of the civilised world below them. With the entities battle having come to an end after many thousands of years, a battle rages on the lands created by them. The Humans (known as Homs) are fighting for survival against the Mechons.

The story itself revolves around a young man named Shulk and a powerful energy-blade called the Monado. The blade is the only weapon that can kill Mechon's and was used by a man named Dunban but in the end left him with severe wounds. Shulk made it his life's work to unlock the secrets to the weapon but had to take up arms using the weapon when his home, Colony 9 was attacked by the Mechon's.

Xenoblade Chronicles is massive. It's hard to put the game's longevity into words but if you can imagine playing for 100 hours then you would certainly be on the right track. The game has side quests everywhere, there's literally no end to side content which will see you re-building people's homes to saving characters which will help you on your way. While the side quests can be skipped, it's not recommended as the higher the level the characters are, the better paced the game becomes.

The story itself is an intricately weaved experience that threw snippets at me in nice chunks. There was never too little to go on and by the end having seen all of the twists and turns... it was truly a feeling of having played something intensely invigorating. I now wish it hadn't ended and am left wanting much more from this series in the future.

The games battle system isn't anything new in itself but it's execution is completely unique. All characters auto-attack with a basic hit but the AI controlled characters do special moves on a regular basis. There are also points where if I chose to daze a character using the appropriate move from Shulk's action bar, another character would inflict break allowing for much more damage to be dealt. In saying that, it's possible to change the party leader allowing for a different style of playing the game.

The games battle system takes place on the over-world meaning there is no random battles, the enemies must be approached to be attacked. It's actually a good aspect as many high level enemies hang out in low level areas. I'm sure I seen a level 25 enemy in the beginners area, so it was a good to keep watch of every enemy so that aggro didn't immediately wipe out my party.

I found the battle system to have a lot of depth based on positioning and action choice. Attacking from behind dealt more damage and specific moves allowed for specific effects to take hold from the target's flank. It was interesting to see how quickly I could kill enemies using specific abilities and character placement. This kept the battle system interesting throughout, especially during the bigger boss battles where damage is key surviving the encounters.

The character customization comes in the form of equipping new armour and weaponry. In the beginning, the game provided a lot of the gear I needed for each character but this changed once I left the starter area. From then on, some gear will drop from enemies but much of it will come from the vendor's scattered throughout the world. Along with gear, you can collect and craft gems for the party member's gear which increases strength, defence, speed and much more.

The game has many others interesting features. The heart-to-heart system lets you have conversations with various party members dependant on their affinity to each other. The bonds formed between characters allows them to encourage each other during battles allowing for better connections based on the abilities chosen and combination moves which allow for high-damage.

Xenoblade Chronicles also has achievements that can be worked towards throughout playing. Unfortunately, there is no uploading of these scores to show how well the game is going but it's a nice feature adding to the longevity of the game as they are never lost, even if a new game is started.

Last but not least, the game has a collectopedia which has you gathering up small blue orbs which unveil an item. These items -- once all have been collected for each region -- award you with gems for party member's gear.

The graphics are very well done, especially for a game on the Nintendo Wii. The game reaches new highs for the platform and I praise Monolith Soft greatly for their advancement on the older hardware. The game looks like a low-resolution XBOX 360 game which amazing in itself considering the game rarely has loading screens while out in the expansive areas. The game is lush, visually astounding and a real site to behold -- especially when played using the component cables.

The soundtrack is inspired. In fact, I love the soundtrack so much that I listened to it for days from the free download offered by Nintendo for pre-order's of the game. There's many power-ballads, instrumentals and techno-style tracks littered throughout the game. With tracks by Yoko Shimomura (Kingdom Hearts) and Yasunori Mitsuda​ (Xenogears and Xenosaga), it wasn't hard to find tracks that were both empowering and epic on so many levels.

It's a shame the English vocal track didn't live up to the standard I'd expected. While some of it was perfectly fine, other bits were jarring and just didn't fit in with the scenes shown. It was rather hit-and-miss for most of the game. It's possible to switch to the original Japanese voice acting but I opted for a purely English play-through.

Xenoblade Chronicles is an exceptional game. Its well-woven storyline, polished visuals, inviting soundtrack and likeable characters make this title one for the ages. It's by far the best RPG this generation so far and should now be a staple for how Japanese RPG's are pushed forward in the future.

If you're Nintendo Wii is in the cupboard waiting for some real action, grab a copy of Xenoblade Chronicles and show it some love. Both you and the console will love this game. It's well worth the price of admission.