GoNintendo 'End of Day' thought - Xenoblade Chronicles X review

A review for you, boys and girls! It's the last big game coming out on Wii U this year...and I do mean BIG! I really hope you enjoy the review. I also hope it gives you a unique perspective, since I'm not really an RPG player! Have a read and see what you think. See you in a few, short hours!

We almost lived in a world where Wii owners in North America didn't get to play Xenoblade Chronicles. An impressive-looking RPG for the Wii was garnering all sorts of interest and praise, but North Americans were going to be left out of the fun. For whatever reasons, Nintendo wasn't going to release the game stateside. Thankfully Nintendo revisited that initial decision and decided to reverse it. That allowed many a Wii owner to experience one of the biggest and most engaging RPGs to hit the console. Things went over so well that Xenoblade Chronicles actually sold better in the states than it did in Japan, adding to the recent chatter that JRPGs were seeing a revival outside of Japan.

That surprise success helped pave the way for a successor to Xenoblade Chronicles. Monolith Soft once again set out to make a grandiose adventure that you could only find on Nintendo's console. While 3DS owners are at no loss for great RPGs, the Wii U has been severely lacking in the genre. It was the announcement of Xenoblade Chronicles X that gave many fans reason to be excited. A follow-up to one of the most highly praised JRPGs in years was coming our way, and it was going to benefit from the power of the Wii U. The promise of everything being bigger and better seemed to be almost impossible when considering what the original game achieved. Clearly the visuals have gotten an overhaul, but does Xenoblade Chronicles X really top everything the Wii darling managed?

I've said this time and time again on the site. I am not an RPG player. I have nothing against the genre and I do dabble with it from time to time, but I know my limits. I happen to really suck at RPGs. I can hold my own in plenty of other genres, but RPGs just don't click with me. I always find them to be a struggle, which I'm sure points to my own stupidity on certain levels. The important thing is, I can realize when a game is poorly designed and when it's my own limitations that are resulting in a poor experience. I feel my lack of RPG knowledge also gives me a unique perspective when tackling a game in the genre. I might approach it in a way that your average player might not think of.

My lack of RPG prowess made me quite nervous to hop into Xenoblade Chronicles X. The developers have said multiple times that they weren't out to create a game that would baby the player and explain all the ins and outs. This was an RPG crafted for the RPG fan...the type of player that was familiar with genre mechanics and tropes. One of my biggest problems with RPGs is that I feel certain elements are never fully explained, or at least, detailed in a way that makes sense to the average player. Even someone like me that has played thousands of games still has trouble understanding what some RPGs want me to do! Again, I think this sometimes has to do with intelligent design of a game. With all that said, I somehow managed to feel more than comfortable with Xenoblade Chronicles X.

I don't even know how that's possible, to tell you the truth. The sheer number of ideas to explore, content to see and mechanics to learn is absolutely mind-boggling. Xenoblade Chronicles X is a massive game no matter how you look at it. Every aspect of the title comes off as truly huge. There's no shortage of content no matter where you look. It is just about impossible to find yourself without something to do in this universe. There's always somewhere to explore, some side-mission or storyline objective to tackle, some creature/fauna to learn about and so on. While some of the tutorials explaining the ins and outs of life in Xenoblade Chronicles X can get a bit long in the tooth, I was never left confused after the step-by-step process.

It's a very good thing that learning is an easy process in this game, as the content aspect can be truly overwhelming. There's never really a time where I felt I had things under control in Xenoblade Chronicles X. I don't mean that as a bad thing. I just mean that no matter how much content I plugged away at, I never felt like I made a dent. Everytime you take on a side objective or something of the like, you end up stumbling upon something new to do. That ends up side-tracking you and opening up a whole new collection of things to do. It's an absolutely ruthless process that gives you information overload. It really does feel like there's an endless amount of content to do. I can't decide if this game is a completionist's nightmare or dream come true!

Of course, when you boil down the entire game into its pure mechanics, Xenoblade Chronicles X is a traditional JRPG at heart. You take on battles with creatures/enemies, talk to characters to obtain side-quests, explore the world around you for usable materials and hidden goodies, level-up your armor/weapons/abilities and push forward through the main story. You're not really going to take on anything new or different here that you haven't done in other RPGs, but that's not a bad thing by any means. Again, it all comes down to the wealth of content available that makes the difference. You can even tailor that content to your liking based on which path you take.

Early on in the game, you get to decide which 'class' you are, which details part of the missions you'll be taking on. You'll still end up doing most of the same storyline content, but your focus in a class will detail what the important jobs for you to take on are. For example, the class I chose had me wandering around the content to plant probes. These probes allowed the main base to better map out the region, learning about other items they could obtain and fellow humans to rescue. I tend to like the exploration aspect of RPGs, so having an option to wander the landscape and place probes really suited me well. You don't even need to worry about picking your class and getting locked into something you don't like, since you're able to change what you do as you progress through the game.

No matter which class you take on, you'll still have to get into battle from time to time. I think a lot of my trepidation from RPGs comes from the battle systems, which never really click with me. I like to attack/react in real time. RPGs never really make sense to me, asking me to stand still when an enemy attacks and having me hack away at thin air to land attacks. That's something that will never feel right to me, and it's certainly an aspect of Xenoblade Chronicles X. While the battles in this game do allow you to move about in real time and you don't have to take turns in battle, there are still elements that put the fighting squarely into RPG category.

Your character will run in auto-pilot for the most part, only requiring you to move about and pick different 'arts' to attack. Arts are special moves you learn when you level-up that allow you to do unique attacks. Sometimes you'll be able to fire off special blasts with a weapon, other times you can use an art to heal up or help protect your team. Some of these arts do require you to be a certain distance from your enemy. For example, you can fire a gun at an enemy from far away, but you'll have to move in somewhat close to use an art that involves a blade skill. I do like that aspect of the gameplay, as it does make me feel more connected to the on-screen actions. That said, I'll still always have an RPG hang-up with how attacks look when connected with the actions you're pulling off. I want to stress that this is my own issue and not one with Xenoblade Chronicles X.

There's one aspect of the battle system that I feel deserves very special attention. I don't know about you, but whenever I saw screens/footage of Xenoblade Chronicles X, it looked insanely confusing to me. There's just so much going on on screen that I had no idea what to think. There were colored flashes, on-screen prompts, numbers flying out everywhere, an entire bar of arts along the bottom and status ailments popping up everywhere. It's an insane amount of content to keep track of, or at least it looked that way when watching others play.

All I can tell you is that for me, the battle system really clicked after the first half hour or so. The game does a good job of easing you into what's going on, but there's also a healthy amount of personal exploration needed to really grasp the entire system. The good thing is, the battle system really doesn't ask too much of you to understand what's going on. As long as you have an open mind and are willing to learn something new, you should find a lot to enjoy here. This is coming from someone that knows next to nothing about RPGs. I ended up really liking how battles flowed, and all the on-screen clutter just melted away into the background as I battled away.

Battles can get changed up even more when you bring Skells into the mix. Skells are the giant mechs that you've seen in just about every trailer for Xenoblade Chronicles X. Not only do they help you travel about in much faster ways, you can also use them to take on bigger creatures in battle. Most of the time it's up to you when you want to battle on-foot or via Skell, which helps lend a lot of variety to the action side of things. It also just makes you feel like a complete bad-ass flying/driving around in a giant Skell, transforming into 'battle' mode and taking on humongous creatures.

All of these aspects...the Skells, mysterious creatures, battling and everything else all come together with the game's story. To tell you the truth, I found the story of Xenoblade Chronicles X to be your standard RPG experience. Actually, it felt a bit more like your average anime than what you get from an RPG. There were some cool moments that I really enjoyed, but nothing that I really was wowed by. It seemed like a by-the-numbers tale that had some predictable twists and turns. You get the typical cast of characters and they all come with paint-by-numbers personalities. I honestly felt that the story really served as nothing more than an excuse for the lush landscapes and creatures you'll happen upon. I can't say it's a good thing that the story is a bit ho-hum, but I also can't complain about the gameplay itself being the star.

An area that's far less of a mixed bag is the soundtrack, which is absolutely brilliant...for the most part. There are some outstanding tunes in this game. The kind of stuff that makes you want to import an official soundtrack as soon as you can. You'll get to hear some really energetic music, as well as sweeping audio landscapes that honestly gave me goosebumps. There are times when the on-screen action and music marry so well together that it takes your immersion in the game to a much deeper level. With all that praise in mind, I do have to say that there are a handful of tracks in the game that seem a bit off. Those tracks almost always seem to have some sort of lame vocals thrown into them, or a prog rock guitar that just doesn't sit well with the rest of the composition. By and large, a wonderful soundtrack that is among the best I've heard in quite some time. The few bad eggs in there can't ruin the entire experience.

There's really only one area of Xenoblade Chronicles X that let me down. This is something I know a lot of people have been talking about since the very first trailer. The designs of this game are really pretty amazing...except for the humans. I don't know who was in charge of the faces for these characters, but they feel so strange. There's just something about them that feels off. They look like an unholy marriage of anime characteristics and realistic design. Whatever goal the artists were going for, the end result just doesn't tickle my fancy. It really was a sore point for me in an otherwise visually stunning game. It really stuck out for me, even somewhat ruining cut-scenes and story elements. Hopefully you guys and gals aren't as taken aback as I was.

Sweeping...grandiose...huge...humongous...all words that I've used throughout the review. They all play into the most impressive aspect of Xenoblade Chronicles X. The scope of this game is beyond anything I have ever seen in any game before, and that is not an overstatement. This has to be the biggest game I've ever played. It's absolutely insane how much terrain there is to cover. The grand vistas that you'll take in will absolutely take your breath away. The amount of ground you'll end up covering seems like an impossible number. The locations you'll explore will seem like they reach on forever. I honestly cannot fathom how a dev team could take on a massive project like this and not lose their minds. Just taking in the sheer size of Xenoblade Chronicles X is an experience in and of itself.

This is a theme that runs very deep with Xenoblade Chronicles X and it's crucial to the core experience. Monolith Soft obviously set out to make one of the biggest adventures you've ever been on in a game. Sure, that goes for in-game ground covered, but it also goes with every other aspect. The battles you take on will be huge, the soundtrack is big and booming, the story is told on a planetary scale, the journey you go on will take you across millions of in-game miles. Xenoblade Chronicles X is all about delivering an adventure that beats out all others you've ever taken on. It's impossible to really convey the scope of this experience by writing. It's one you have to take on yourself to really appreciate and understand.

I am not an RPG player. I went into Xenoblade Chronicles X very nervous and unsure of what to expect. I thought I'd end up getting into something way over my head. That's actually what happened, but not in the way I expected. I was not confused with the game's mechanics. I managed to tackle those and understand how things worked. It was the in-game world itself that dwarfed anything I could have imagined. Xenoblade Chronicles X is a game I could play from here until the end of time and still not see everything it has to offer. This title gave me a greater understanding of what people get out of this genre. I also think it will give longtime fans of the genre a lot to be happy with.

I don't think there's any other title on the Wii U that can offer you this much bang for your buck. Xenoblade Chronicles X isn't just a giant, empty shell. This feels like a massive, living, breathing universe. You can and absolutely will get lost in this universe. You'll wander for hours, always eager to see what's around the next corner. You might end up wandering into something that's a little too challenging for your current skills, but that's part of the fun. Finding a corner of this massive universe and logging it for your future return. It almost feels like there's always something bigger, better and more challenging to take on.

Playing Xenoblade Chronicles X makes me wish I would have played more RPGs in my life. It's going to be hard to go back to other titles and check them out now. The entire experience of Xenoblade Chronicles X is so huge that it feels like any other RPG experience is going to pale in comparison.