.story
Monolith is back for the joy of all the fans with a new massive JRPG. After their masterpiece, Xenogears, under SquareSoft, and the mixed received Xenosaga they released Xenoblade exclusively for Nintendo platforms. Originally made for Wii, Xenoblade now features a 3DS downgraded port and a Switch remake. Xenoblade follows the story of Shulk, a teenager living his normal and quiet life on Bionis, one of the two fully explorable titans that serves as game world. Bionis and Mechanis, once living titans, fought a tremendous battle in the past, now are host of multiple species along with Homs, Nopon, Hentia and various monsters. Shulk is the main character of this story. An uncommon hero for a JRPG as he has no talent or combat skills and he is not even the classic Chosen hero, although he has some mysterious connection with the legendary Monado, a blade capable of defeating Machinas, a race of evil mech that killed many inhabitants of Bionis. Xenoblade starts with a basic JRPG plot of revenge agaisnt the Machinas that attacked our home, Colony 9, and ends up with a plot agaisnt God itself. Monolith classic formula never fails. Where Xenoblade is a bit lacking is the characters rosters, most of them are derivative and lack of any substance other than having poor and short backstories. The party is composed of 7 members and half of them fit well into the story while the others have minor plot points that are squeezed to the limit just for the sake of giving them a purpose. We also have a Skits system exactly like the one we see in the Tales of franchise but here they are hidden behind some requirements and, other than not being dubbed, these dialogues don't often show that kind of insight I would have expected. Despite sharing the prefix Xeno- in the title there are no connections with the past Monolith titles apart from some similarities like characters with multiple identities. Xenoblade features lots of dialogues and cut-scenes that will keep the players busy for around 45 hours just for the main quest.
.gameplay
Xenoblade is one of the biggest JRPG I have ever played. It features many massive areas to explore, all dense of enemies to defeat of every kind of level, so you might wanna come back later with better gear and, especially, gems. Gems that are not much of use iniatially but that becomes essential for late game and optional high level bosses. These special accessories gives cool stats bonuses like HP/Def UP and Agility, an essential stat that rule the chance to avoid damage. Usually in JRPGs we0 take damage, heal, attack. Xenoblade is nothing like this. It is actually recommended to have a full DPS party that can avoid most of the damage, inflict debuffs and end the combat in a couple of minutes. You will soon notice this approach starting from the fact that there are no consumables in the game or healing item of sort. The combat is similar to many MMO where you select different skills to use from a set selection. Every member has a distinct role but unfortunately some are distinctly better than others. The enemy presence is very, very large through the various areas and it becomes quickly boring unfortunately as there are not many options and all the fights require similar strategies if not at all, just a good gear. Xenoblade has TONS of sidequest. Basically all of them are fetch quest and they murder the spirit of completing them. Yes, especially in late game they offer good rewards but the cost is your mental sanity. Xenoblade offers an affinity system with all the unique NPCs spread around the multiple cities you will explore in your adventure. It is very unfortunate that all these side characters are empty vessels.. otherwise would have been great to talk to each of them and connect them maybe with sidequest of a bigger scope. Despite being a 10+ years old title Xenoblade has some cool features for a JRPG to kill the frustration. I am talking about the chance to save the game anywhere a teleport system with frequent spots. All this goes in favour of a specific matter that JRPGs have never approached before: that something called Exploration. In Xenoblade you will get easily lost and it is nice for once in a non WRPG.. but thanks to what I mentioned before there is no frustration on losing or taking a different path from the main one.
.sound
Xenoblade screams Adventure with every single track of his amazing composition. I think Gaur Plain is easily the best OST for farming I have ever listened to. Like every Xeno- title Xenoblade have a beautiful and emotional ending song. Beyond the Sky is probably on par with Small Two Pieces from Xenogears. English dubbing is globally very good and some of the characters use a funny slang that is hardly forgettable. That said the dialogues are rather meaningless apart from very specific part of the story. The endgame has a very different take on the story, with an epic God arc.
.graphics
I didn't have the chance to play it on Wii so I bought the 3DS version to play it on the go. To be fair it is playable as long as you don't watch the screen or your eyes will bleed from the quantity of polygons and stuff that the poor 3DS needs to load in such a tiny screen. I played it on a regular New Nintendo 3DS but I hardly think it changes that much on a XL model. I am sure I lost some of the charm of this amazingly crafted world just because of it. It is identifiable as a giant aliasing texture with some characters moving in it. Especially when you start one of the huge open world areas of the game everything feels claustrofobic and castrated. Shulk walks rather slowly and I kinda understand that the point is to appreciate the beautiful scenarios and great art design but on 3DS is just painful. My advice is to totally skip this version in favour of the remake for Switch. Xenoblade in meant to be played on a console with a big TV or screen.. but I am still grateful for the effort they made to develop it for portable.
.verdict
Xenoblade is probably the biggest JRPG ever released with a colossal scale that is chained by the 3DS screen and specs. Combat feels repetitive very soon but fights tends to end quickly and it is nice to break the old 'healing formula' we are so used to see in all JRPGs. Characters are not the best out there and the plot neither but the final arc is mindblowing and the player is gonna breath that Xenogears feeling again with an intricate plot that we are going to see expanded in the future installments. OST is a pure masterpiece and a letter of love to all the fans. I am happy Monolith is back on track with the Xeno- titles. We all missed our God Slaying plots, giant mechs, epic soundtracks and a world building that promises a lot for the future!
