Xenoblade Chronicles was overall a good game. I really enjoyed the story, the music, and found the combat initially very engaging. However, samey combat over a span of the game, even when switching characters, and some amount of level grinding, the world being actually smaller than it seems, found me less immersed and ready to get to the next story beat. Overall I enjoyed this game and I would definitely recommend playing it and experiencing the topsy turvy story. If you are new to JRPGs, like me, there is no better place to start! I will offer some tips that will enhance your experience. Lets dive in!
🎮 Platform: Switch OLED
⌚ Time to finish - 36h (some side questing to grind out lvls, switched to casual for last 2 chapters to avoid grind)
🏆Trophy completion - Not sure but its lengthy and long. I do not think this is the sort of game i would want to 100%. The strength of this game is the story and in the first 25% of the game i tried to 100% everything and i did not find it added to the story. Most of the side quests are there to get you $$ and grind out lvls. So use them simply for that and try to get back to the main story asap.
🤬Difficulty - easy. Initially every fight something new is thrown at you, and then slowly it stops and you get use to everything. The game does have the standard rpg issue of being under leveled, and the game ramps up levels quickly especially towards the end. The combat did get very repetitive after 20h so at the end when the enemies are over 10+ lvls more than you, i did not want to grind and I switched to casual so the level diff. penalty is not there. I suggest you do the same unless you really enjoy the combat.
🌄Graphics – On switch the graphics were good. There is a huge open world feel and you transition from area to area without much down time. Pretty impressive. I especially liked all the mech designs and cut scenes. Even if they weren't technically beautiful vs like a ps5, the model design was awesome!
🌦 Atmosphere/Music – Super fun score. the main theme still rings in my head.
📚 Main Story / Characters – This is the highlight of the game! It does eventually turn into super natural, philosophical, sci-fi things as you expect all Japanese stories to turn, but it wasn't overly done and wasn't super pseudo-sciency. You get to explore most characters back story in the party and get to know and learn about them and their motivations. I really liked all the characters and the transformations they go through.
🤺 Combat – Its fast, hard hitting, and flashy! Even the bosses don't feel like a long grind to kill. Its engaging in the beginning, repetitive mid-late. Combat wise apart from the mage, everyone pretty much plays the same. I tried to use the mage, but her spell rotation is convoluted and very risky in boss battles. I just stuck to a 3 tank build with heavy topple focus. Topple is super op. Every battle is the same, press all the cool down buttons, respond to the QTE, throw up shields. What the boss is doing in most cases is irrelevant. Also because of how the game works, i had most of my focus always on the actions bar and not much on the action itself. You need to navigate to press the abilities, so you can't do that if you are staring at the screen, you have to be staring at the bottom of the screen to see when things are coming off cool down, which means you miss everything else. This also means i missed a lot of the flash and cool animations they put in. I wish they went with a tales of arise like style, where an ability is attached to each button.
Shulk was easily my fav to control as you keep him moving. rest are boring press buttons on cool down in right order. if you have any experience with rpgs and ability juggling like in MMORPGs this will be cake.
🧭 Side Activities / Exploration – Not worth it except to close lvl gaps and get money. Initially i was looking at the world and saying wow this is huge! but as i started to explore i realized you don't get much from exploring apart from collectibles. There are no interesting characters there, no extra story beats to add, really nothing. its actually deceptively large.
The game also has a wide array of things i never used. What was the point of collecting mats from mines? I never needed to upgrade my gems, though that system existed.
🚗 Movement/Physics – Great no issues. I wish there was a way to move faster apart from using abilities.
📣 Voice acting – Great voice acting! Really added to the story!
🥇 Best thing about the game - the story! I really enjoyed it. This is why you are here.
👎 Worst thing about the game - none. Its JPRG standard, but I don't like lvl grinds. Switch to casual if you are bored of combat and don't want to lvl grind so you don't loose out on the game experience!
[ if you liked the review throw me a like! ❤️ ]
🎮 Platform: Switch OLED
⌚ Time to finish - 36h (some side questing to grind out lvls, switched to casual for last 2 chapters to avoid grind)
🏆Trophy completion - Not sure but its lengthy and long. I do not think this is the sort of game i would want to 100%. The strength of this game is the story and in the first 25% of the game i tried to 100% everything and i did not find it added to the story. Most of the side quests are there to get you $$ and grind out lvls. So use them simply for that and try to get back to the main story asap.
🤬Difficulty - easy. Initially every fight something new is thrown at you, and then slowly it stops and you get use to everything. The game does have the standard rpg issue of being under leveled, and the game ramps up levels quickly especially towards the end. The combat did get very repetitive after 20h so at the end when the enemies are over 10+ lvls more than you, i did not want to grind and I switched to casual so the level diff. penalty is not there. I suggest you do the same unless you really enjoy the combat.
🌄Graphics – On switch the graphics were good. There is a huge open world feel and you transition from area to area without much down time. Pretty impressive. I especially liked all the mech designs and cut scenes. Even if they weren't technically beautiful vs like a ps5, the model design was awesome!
🌦 Atmosphere/Music – Super fun score. the main theme still rings in my head.
📚 Main Story / Characters – This is the highlight of the game! It does eventually turn into super natural, philosophical, sci-fi things as you expect all Japanese stories to turn, but it wasn't overly done and wasn't super pseudo-sciency. You get to explore most characters back story in the party and get to know and learn about them and their motivations. I really liked all the characters and the transformations they go through.
🤺 Combat – Its fast, hard hitting, and flashy! Even the bosses don't feel like a long grind to kill. Its engaging in the beginning, repetitive mid-late. Combat wise apart from the mage, everyone pretty much plays the same. I tried to use the mage, but her spell rotation is convoluted and very risky in boss battles. I just stuck to a 3 tank build with heavy topple focus. Topple is super op. Every battle is the same, press all the cool down buttons, respond to the QTE, throw up shields. What the boss is doing in most cases is irrelevant. Also because of how the game works, i had most of my focus always on the actions bar and not much on the action itself. You need to navigate to press the abilities, so you can't do that if you are staring at the screen, you have to be staring at the bottom of the screen to see when things are coming off cool down, which means you miss everything else. This also means i missed a lot of the flash and cool animations they put in. I wish they went with a tales of arise like style, where an ability is attached to each button.
Shulk was easily my fav to control as you keep him moving. rest are boring press buttons on cool down in right order. if you have any experience with rpgs and ability juggling like in MMORPGs this will be cake.
🧭 Side Activities / Exploration – Not worth it except to close lvl gaps and get money. Initially i was looking at the world and saying wow this is huge! but as i started to explore i realized you don't get much from exploring apart from collectibles. There are no interesting characters there, no extra story beats to add, really nothing. its actually deceptively large.
The game also has a wide array of things i never used. What was the point of collecting mats from mines? I never needed to upgrade my gems, though that system existed.
🚗 Movement/Physics – Great no issues. I wish there was a way to move faster apart from using abilities.
📣 Voice acting – Great voice acting! Really added to the story!
🥇 Best thing about the game - the story! I really enjoyed it. This is why you are here.
👎 Worst thing about the game - none. Its JPRG standard, but I don't like lvl grinds. Switch to casual if you are bored of combat and don't want to lvl grind so you don't loose out on the game experience!
[ if you liked the review throw me a like! ❤️ ]