Man what a game. I think I’ve mentioned in a review of mine that I don’t like giving games praise and glazing them Willy nilly but if shit is excellent shit is excellent and there’s no clearer example of that sentiment than xenoblade chronicles. Nearly every aspect of this game is brilliant. Xenoblade starts of with a bang as when I tried to play it back in 2019 the only thing that kept me around was the amazing world building. What a creative way to have your world exist, that being on two enormous beings locked in stasis from their “thousand year battle” or whatever. The first act does a great amount of intricate world building with the prologue, the monado and its rules, shulk and his dynamics with the cast, the Homs colonies and the driving instance for their quest, the mechon attack. Story remains a strong point of this game with the exception of right before the final act. It’s still excellent but it moves very quickly relative to the very calculated world building and story twists introduced up to that point. Also the disciple bosses fucking suck. But seriously I don’t know if there’s a world in a game or really any media I’ve consumed with this much attention to detail in world building. Even the most seemingly arbitrary thing (for me it was the Telethia) has some interesting facet that blindsided or intrigued me. Also the themes of pre destiny and defiance of strife are pretty sappy but very welcome, which brings me to the next huge plus for this game, the party. I’d probably have xenoblade a party in my top 3 of all time. The weakest character is Riki since he’s just silly and kind of annoying but I still fw him lowkey. Sharla isn’t like a super amazing game changing character but I still quite like her! Every other character I would say ranges from great to absolutely excellent. Melia has a cool “backstory” and a quickly and endearingly developed connection with the party, Dunban is fuckin dope and fulfills his role as the stoic father figure if the party really well, fiora and her dynamic with shulk are very sweet, Reyn is a “comedic relief” character done brilliantly and shulk is one of the coolest protagonists ever. I could talk about all these characters (cept Riki) forever but I’ll leave it with my opinion of shulk. Shulk is a perfect representation of what the game stands for. Even though I think him being the vessel of Zanza KIND OF cheapens it, I love the idea of him being a very smart but physically weak dude who defies destiny with his wits. Aside from his conviction, which by the way is brilliant since he’s very transparent about his wrath if prompted, he is the opposite of the hero archetype physically. He’s short, scrawny and reserved but his intelligence and research with monado (at least during the bionis part of the game) make him a force to be reckoned with. He’s just fuckin cool. Gameplay is overall very good but is what made me quit when I first played. Once you nail it, combat is super satisfying but it’s, in my opinion, pretty complicated. I still was learning shit about chain attacks in the second to last boss fight. Aside from Sharla, the game balances the party members and their niches very well too so it’s pretty easy to just play with whoever you’d like. My main complaint is with leveling. It’s idiotic that you straight up CANT hit red named enemies. Grinding in this game sucks also. Even thought combat is fun, it becomes much less satisfying fighting the same enemies in a given area if you’re underleveled for the boss. I think the counter is side questing, which in all fairness, I did not do TOO much of, but I still think it’s a pain in the ass especially with how hard it puts a brake on the story. Still pretty cool though. I already mentioned individual characters and I know this passage is poorly placed relative to the rest of the review, however I HAVE to mention how much I love the party dynamics. They nail the individual bonds each character has with the others and I love watching how they play out. Dialogue, as a result, is fairly organic and generally endearing or funny or whatever they’re trying to go for. I thought there’d be a lot more weird anime type shit but narratively that is not anything to worry about really. Exploration rules total ass but I already blew this games load over world building so i figure I’ve covered my grounds with how much I love exploring the two giant titans. The last big indisputable positive is the music which is fantastic. Almost all night themes are great at setting a relaxing atmosphere but the day ones are all good to peak as well. Gaur plain is the best overworld theme of all time in my opinion, you will know our names is one of the coolest boss themes of all time and Mechanical Rhythm is one of the best regular battle themes of all time. Very bright spot for the game. (I apologize for not bringing up any major sleeper hits but I’m callin it as I see it, my sleeper contribution is the agniritha I suppose). Finally the few complaints I have. (Very minor) why is there no armour to block Sharla’s cans? In fact, when xenoblade decides to censor or not censor something is really Wack and in my opinion cheapens a lot of moments that could be way better. They never show any real “death” in a way that isn’t Disney movie esque. I mean when fiora dies they don’t even show it, they just show metal face doing his stupid jab and his big dumb robot hands being bloody. There’s also this part when shulk and doors reunite and they are about to Mack on which they also completely block. What? I don’t NEED to see that but my complaint is that they won’t show the act of reunion of two people who obviously love each other but they will show Sharla and melias knockers in every armour type they can wear and made fuckin robo jiggle physics. Just bizarre. Another complaint I have is with the events after mechonis core. While narratively awesome this part of the game mechanically sucks. I know it’s my own fault for not sidequesting and shit but like a huge chunk of the game becomes completely locked out and you also have to spend like 4 hours of pure level grinding just to stand a chance against the disciple bosses. Claim skill issue, maybe it’s a me thing but it’s MY review so I’m gonna complain about it. My final complaint is extremely minor but it still bugged me sometimes. Xenoblade is in this weird place graphically (only for characters the world looks great) where it isn’t old enough to be like “charming” and isn’t new enough to look fresh. So sometimes the characters look kinda whack. However in cutscenes they’re very expressive, hence my mention if this complaint being minor. This is also very subjective, I wouldn’t dispute someone liking how the game looks in its totality. Complaints over. The ending was peak for so many different reasons but it will leave me thinking about the game for a long time to be sure. All in all xenoblade is an example of a project that is truly passionate. I clocked in at around 55 hours while doing about 30% of the side quests and not watching every heart to heart in game. The world building, characters, combat, writing, music and sheer amount of shit to do really exhibits the passion that I just mentioned. It really is a special and beautiful game that I’m so happy I revisited. Even though it’s long as shit and it didn’t breach my top 10 or anything I plan on playing and loving it again. I can’t speak to how good DE is relative to the original but if you have access to either I highly recommend this game for those of you who writing in their games because it really is one of a kind. I love you xenoblade. This is probably the new bar for my 2024 log!