Once upon a time, this was my favorite game of all time. Even though it has been topped, I still absolutely adore this game. This was one of my first awakenings to the jrpg genre as a dumb stupid kid and it still holds up to this day (this will be combining my views from my previous og version adventure and my time up to the remake on the switch). I know this game isn't perfect. Side quests are boring and the combat is outdated, but there are still so many pros that outweigh all. But on top of it all, it's the story that holds for me. I wouldn't say it's anything genre pushing, but it by far holds it's own and sets a very high bar for what a game of this genre can be

Beat: a LONG ass time ago

Best RPG on the Wii, hands down.

I never really liked overly anime stuff in general, hell I don't watch anime at all. This totally does feel like an anime type game. But a good one.

It's basically an RPG, just not in turns. Real time combat, combined with turns...sounds weird. Imagine a MOBA like League of Legends or something like that if you ever played something alike. The character and the party attack automatically every 2 second or so. But you can do special attacks as well, those have a cooldown depending on the what the attack in the menu is.

Position is key in this game. Or where you hit the enemy. Or where are you currently are. For example, a healer doesn't need to be in the center of the battle. It can be somewhat far from from it, but unless an enemy goes towards that healer you might need to protect him/her. Same goes, for example to characters specialized in long-range attacks.

The OST is godlike, pure orchesta goodness. For sure you'll find something you like here.

In short. It's a beautiful big adventure. Don't miss it if you own the Wii still. Can't say much about the Switch version since I haven't played it.

I was so confused playing this not long after English release, thinking it was ass, and then a few years later learning that people actually liked this game after it exploded in popularity. Humbling experience.
I thought this game had w/e combat made tedious due to the constant vision interruptions, a cast of mostly nothing characters with the characters that are actually relevant (like 3 of them in the main cast) still not being great, a fairly lame and cliche story only made only slightly better due to the cool setting, and a completely fucking lame final act. But clearly I went wrong somewhere because this is actually one of the greatest games ever made.
I cannot lie though, some story beats really hit me in the feelsies like when Dickson said "Can't say I feel too good about deceiving those kids." near the beginning of the game, powerful stuff.

Xenoblade Chronicles came at the right time for me and really set itself apart from JRPGs coming out at the time. I do find Xenogears to be one of the most complex and ambitious games ever made but Xenoblade is a more condensed yet cohesive experience, in my eyes. His other works, Xenogears and Xenosaga, are all phenomenal, don't get me wrong, but both were way too ambitious to complete and end up not living up to the creator's expectations. The creator, Tetsuya Takahashi, refined and polished Xenoblade to the point where I felt his ambition was finally met. Honestly, I can gush about this game forever. I still don't think it has been receiving the praise that it truly deserves. The characters are all loveable and have a place to be in the plot (they don't just exist and have a reason to be there), the worldbuilding is the most imaginative I have seen in a video game and half of the soundtrack still gets me emotional. I am forever grateful for playing this gem of a game.

Now, I understand the criticism of this game's story, especially in the final chapters, about how it was rushed and had multiple plot twists at once, making it feel unnatural and a rollercoaster of a plot. I have the same sentiment; I really was disappointed with how the storytelling was handled and how nonstop the plot twists were at the end of the game; but, compared to the team's previous games, Xenoblade is still the game where it felt finished. No disc 2 that made the story into a visual novel like Xenogears, and no multiple games being dumbed down to half of its length due to its sales and over ambitious plan of spanning for over 10 years like Xenosaga, Xenoblade was a complete package.

This is a game everyone needs to play at least once in their lives. Whether you'll expect to love it or hate it, atleast play it once and just to see which opinion you side on

Let me preface this by saying I have completed the game, but it was Definitive Edition. if you want my review of Xenoblade Chronicles, check Definitive Edition when I post it. I was working through this one initially, but stopped when Definitive Edition was announced and released. All I will talk about here is graphics and controls. The game follows that realistic sort of style that RPGs were following in the late 2000s. The best examples I can think of that are comparable are Final Fantasy XII and to a very slight extent Twilight Princess, but primarily Final Fantasy XII. The controls are special in that this is a Wii game that does not use motion controls for anything except camera freelook. Anyone who has looked at the Wii games I review and especially the Skyward Sword replay review when it goes up will notice that I am not exactly a big fan of motion controls. They are good when used well and in moderation, but when in excess or haphazardly shoved in 'cos "Wii game, therefore MUST have motion controls" for the sake of the gimmick I despise them. Monolithsoft realised that just because a game comes out on a system that heavily promotes motion controls doesn't mean that it NEEDS to have motion controls. The game is all the better for it. They could take the time to have the controls and gameplay refined without sacrificing resources to learn how to program motion controls or find a mechanic for the game that suits them outside of the obvious option of motion-controlled freelook. Anyway, check Definitive Edition once it's up.