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Games of the Decade: Expansion Pass #4/Blog a Day #27

Hello everyone, how are you?

The Wii U, Nintendo's most misunderstood system. No one knew what to do with it or what to make of it, and in a way Nintendo didn't either. But the Wii U was in fact home to some of the best games Nintendo has put out. There's a reason Nintendo is porting them to the Switch, besides putting them on a successful system so they can charge you full price for them with little to no extra content. But that's beside the point. Today we are going to look at the last game that is waiting to be ported on the Switch, and one I can't believe hasn't already. It's  what I think is the most ambitious game on the Wii U (besides Breath of the Wild), the sci-fi rpg epic known as Xenoblade Chronicles X.

             The music in this game is fantastic and matches the scope of the game

I remember Xenoblade Chronicles X being teased on a Nintendo Direct back in 2013, which at the time the game simply went by "X". Then we got more info as time went by. My biggest question was if the game was a sequel to the first game? Well I wouldn't have to wait too long to find out once I got my hands on it and here is what the game is like.

Before the game begins you are tasked with creating your character. This character will be your avatar for the game. The character creator is surprisingly robust as there are various options to choose from like hair styles, skin color, gender, facial features, and even the voice of your character to name a few of the options. You can create yourself or pretty much anyone you want and the decision is up to you. 

In the game, humanity is on the brink of destruction when Earth is caught in the crossfire between two alien races who are at war with each other. The nations of Earth managed to build arks that would then try to transport and save as many humans as possible by escaping the planet. However only a few handful of ships survive the exodus from Earth. The White Whale, one of the arks that escaped is then suddenly attacked and has to make an emergency crash landing on a nearby planet known as Mira.

The game has received many tweaks to its gameplay. The fights are played in real-time like in the previous game, but the gameplay has been sped up to make them go by more quicker. But at the same time you have to quickly think on your feet to see what the best course of action. Like do you use your ranged weapon or switch to your melee weapon? In the game you also have access to a Skell, which is a transforming mech that is used for both mobility, exploration, and combat. It adds a new dynamic to fights as you can attack with your Skell and you can enter and exit it at any time as well. 

 

                                        Not going to argue with that Free Report

The game has an open-world map and trust me when I say this game is massive. The planet Mira is divided into 5 continents, Primordia, Noctilum, Oblivia, Sylvalum and Cauldros. Each continent in the game has its own theme and its own ecosystem. The wildlife in the game ranges from really small to really massive that tower over you. There are also bosses known as Tyrants and there are many times that you will get attacked on sight. You'll now you are getting attacked by a Tyrant once the song changes. I really love the map and the best part is that there are no load times either so you can come and go between continents as much as you please without any lag or any technical issues. Everything is all seamlessly connected. An impressive feat for a map this large.

The game also has online functuality as well. If you opt to connect online, your character can appear at another player's session and theirs can appear on yours as well. But not just one person but up to 32 different player created characters can as well. You can also temporarly hire them to be part of your party for a short while. You can partake in limited-time missions that involve gathering resources to defeating a number of specific enemies. Completing these tasks unlock rewards from items to equpment. Or if you are feeling bold enough, you can try your hand at the online mp where you and a Squad of 3 other people can take on the Global Nemesis, which happens to be a really powerful boss. It works like in an MMO, as in the boss here has a million of HP bars and your job is to drain as many as possible. At the end of your session that total gets updated back to the server so it gets updated in real-time. But you aren't the only one taking it on as there can be multiple poeple tackling this boss at once and all that progress gets updated in real-time as well. So it's a team effort with everyone who is playing the game.

"But Captain N, where can I play this game?" The only place you can play it is on the Wii U, so it'll be expensive to play if you don't have one. Prices for a new physical copy seem to still be full priced, or above for the most part. However a used copy can go from $20-30, so your best bet is a used copy if you want to play this game.

 

                               There are far bigger enemies than this in the game

Final Thoughts: Xenoblade Chronicles X is one of the best rpgs that I've ever played. Sure the story of a game will sometimes take a backseat when the protagonist is a created character, but I feel like they managed to make a great story regardless of that. I also love how the gameplay, at least the fighting is sped up, which I love which gives it a more action feel to it. My favorite parts of the game are the Skells. The Skells are what immediately sold me on the game, I had never played an rpg that allows you to pilot a mech, especially one that transforms into a vehicle. I always shout "TRANSFORM!!!" when my Skell changes forms, cause Transformers, yes even the transformation sound. (Yes I'm weird.) There is no greater joy than the first time you got to pilot it in the game. It's just fantastic. I love how each area in Mira was different and how each area had its own ecosystem. Combine that with a Skell and you get no greater feeling once you're traveling by land or air around the huge map. Honestly, Mira might be in my Top 5 open world maps. It is packed with content and you'll be playing for a very long time and I feel this might be the most ambitious game on the Wii U.

One thing I fondly remember is the huge grind I undertook for preparing myself to fight the Global Nemesis, I remember all the countless nights I spent gathering the materials I needed to craft the best augments in order to optimize my character in order to fight the global boss. I think it took about 6-7 months of preparation, which is a really long time. I also had to bide my time time since there are online players challenging it too and the health of this boss gets updated in real time. That means it could have 100 or 50 HP Bars left and the game would announce when it was close to being slain. Once I saw that message I knew my time had come so I stepped up and tried my hand at it. I fought it and once I drained its last HP bar and once the monster fell to the ground then I knew I had finally done it.

I was returned back to the lobby and I got an achievement called "A True Hero", proof that I had defeated the global boss of the game. Months of grinding, preparation, and my patience, it all paid off in the end. I was obviously not the first to take down the Global Nemesis, but I was among the small few who had.  And I certainly won't be the last either. The game doesn't show which player took it down, but in the chat I saw messages that said congrats to whoever took down the boss. It made me happy. You'd think after months of preparing that I'd finally retire, right? Nope. I got started again to continue on to the next big challenge which was getting 100% in the game. I hope one day this game gets ported to the Switch, and if you're wondering if I would grind and take on the Global Nemesis again, you bet I would.

                                 Yes. You can bet we are. We are fighting Telethia.

The end of the world is often largely exaggerated, but for all people the end of the world can take any shape or form. It depends on what they are going through, but it doesn't have to be the end of the world, it's only the end if you let it. There is a sun rise.

That's it for this one. For #3 we have apparently come to the right place as we are going to try to wake up from the never-ending nightmare. Thanks for reading and remember...

 

 

*All images were taken by my Wii U and my copy of the game*