PixlBit

 Number 5

 

I love rpg’s. They are tied with platformers as my favorite genre of games. My go-to rpg has always been Pokemon, and like I said before, Pokemon was my introduction to the genre. I never really played any other rpg besides Pokemon on my handheld. On the console side was the Paper Mario games and Pokemon Coliseum and XD. I never really tried anything else when it came to rpgs.

I got to try lot’s more rpgs when I got a DS. And there’s plenty of those on the DS. I’ve played Dragon Quest IX which I’m still playing, Phantasy Star Zero, SMT: Strange Journey, Sonic Chronicles and more. On the console side, not so much.

The only other console rpgs I’ve played are Fallout 3, New Vegas, and Mass Effect. I haven’t finished the latter because I only have one tv for playing and I’m not sure if there’s anything that I might find innapropriate for my bros. Especially my little brother. That’s really the only thing that’s stoping me from playing it, otherwise I’d be discussing the games because I know a lot of people here are huge fans of the games.

It was around 2010 and I was reading a Nintendo Power Magazine that I had bought along side my pre-order of Super Mario Galaxy 2. I was reading it and a game did pique my interest. It was a game that they only had one screen shot of. The game was known as Monado: Sword of the New World or something and NP described it as an open world rpg of some sort. The game is better known as Xenoblade Chronicles.

I remember this caused a lot of uproar because Nintendo of America had no plans to bring it to the west. The complain was that it was released in Europe and the voice-acting was in english as well as the subtitles and the menus and text, so Nintendo didn’t need to redub the game or redo the text. That and a few more other rpgs weren’t going to make it here. This caused fan movement Operation Rainfall to take action. Nintendo and Reggie of NOA say they were aware of the demand for the game here as well as Operation Rainfall, and they eventually released it here. But Reggie said that the fan movement didn’t do anything to release it here. I have a feeling that the uproar did have something to do with it, or Nintendo just got tired of people sending them letter and emails asking about a localisation of the game. But we thank Operation Rainfall for all their efforts.

The game was a Gamestop exclusive when it was announced that it would be released here. I remember pre-ordering it at my store as soon as pre-orders went live. A nice perk you got with it was an artbook if you pre-ordered it. I remember it released the week of my birthday. My birthday had already passed but my folks decided to throw me a birthday party and they invited a few guests. I got my copy the day before the party, I got my artbook, and I even got a free game too. I think the problem was that I had 2 games on pre-order on that receipt. I had Xenoblade for me, and my brother had Mario and Sonic on the 3DS. I had already picked up Mario and Sonic a while back, but a free game is a free game and I gave that extra copy to my little brother instead. I didn’t flip through the artbook because I knew I was bound to spoil something since his was an rpg. I played it for a bit and I liked the bit that I played.

          
I couldn’t play it the day of my party, and I never came back to it ever again cause at the time, I bought Halo: Reach with some birthday money I had gotten so I could play some co-op with a good friend of mine. And at the time, I had set up a 360 I got courtesy of that same friend and I was playing games I might have missed and always wanted to try, most notably Nuts and Bolts. I got more games too for the other hardware I had that I forgot about Xenoblade.

Last year I decided to play it again since I had been putting it off for far too long. I played it again and I knew I had goofed for putting off for 2 years. It is a game that has been on the top of my mind and probably one of the most important of my dreaded backlog. Any rpg on your backlog is something that you’ll dread because of how long those games are. As before, since a lot of people here haven’t played it, it will be difficult to talk about it, but I’ll try to not give any spoilers away.

As I’ve stated before, Xenoblade Chronicles is an action-rpg with sci-fi elements that put’s you in the role of our protagonist Shulk, with along with his friends, quest to stop the Mechon, a race of mechanical beings while also learning the mystery surrounding the Monado. That’s about as much as I’m giving away, which is probably what the back of the box says anyway.

As I’ve said before, the world is massive. The game takes place on the Bionis, a giant dormant titan/giant or whatever you want to call it and you travel in different areas of the Bionis. For example, you might all be familiar with Gaur Plain from Smash 4 right? Well all of that is a section that you’ll be travelling on the Bionis. I can asure you it is way more bigger than Smash shows, and that is just one area you’ll be traveling on. 

As with every rpgs maps comes enemies you have to fight. Each sections/areas you’ll be traveling on have their own enemies. Enemies aren’t hard at the beginning, it’s when you probably reach Gaur Plain that it probably might step it up a bit. I don’t remember what level I was at that point. But you’ll need to level grind often because there are some tough enemies. And with tough enemies, there are also enemies that are way out of your league and are often like maybe 30-50 levels above you.

The fighting is really addictive. The game is played as an action-rpg. When you fight, you are locked in battle with an enemy, but you can switch to attack another enemy if you’re fighting more than one. You can auto-attack by just being close to an enemy, but you also have access to a variety of different moves for yourself, and your team mates. Each of you have access to Talent Arts, or special moves each of you can use during a fight. Shulk has access to Monado Arts and each one has its use. For example, Shulk has a move that is called Back Slash, this is a move that gives more damage if you use it and attack the enemy from behind. You also have arts that can also have various effects on you, your team, and the enemies.
There’s also customization and it’s not only to alter the looks/clothes of your character, but whatever you equip can have various effects on your stats in battle. You can also give your party members better weapons too which are usually found in shops or are dropped by enemies. Equipment also have slots for Gems which are items you can equip on your equipment to boost stats and various effects during battles. You have to craft them yourself with special gems and cylinders that enemies drop by playing a special mini-game.

As for the story, sorry but can’t say anything, there are a lot of twists and turns in that game and a lot of plot twists that it throws at you that you would never expect. It is really a game you need to experience yourself.

Final thoughts, it’s a very great game. A lot of people say it is the best Japanese rpg in the last generation. I don’t know since I don’t try a lot of jrpgs on a console, but I’ll agree that it is a very good game. The game is very addictive. Sometimes I was under leveled and I was so stubborn to level grind that I died a few times on bosses. Sometimes I would win by luck, or changing my strategy, but sometimes I would make a tactical retreat to grind more. I just got addicted to it. Sometimes instead of grinding, I would just explore the world map and find new areas, or I would complete side-quests. Yeah the game has a lot for you to do. It’s worth playing, but be warned, the game is long, which makes the New 3DS port a solution to this if you’re not too keen on playing it on tv.

So, that’s it for this one. Did you ever play Xenoblade Chronicles? Are you getting the N3DS port? Thanks for reading and later.