Xenoblade Chronicles 2

Genre: JRPG

Players: 1

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Review:

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is a game that seems to elicit strong reactions from players. When it came out on the Nintendo Switch in 2017, it was technically the third game in the series, but for many this would be their first exposure to Xenoblade, with the original game seeing a very limited release on the Wii and then the New Nintendo 3DS, and the series’ second installment, Xenoblade Chronicles X releasing on the underselling Wii U. But whether you’re a series fan or someone new to Xenoblade, this is a game that gives players a lot to love… and a fair amount to hate.

With the release of Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition on Nintendo Switch in 2020, players who missed out on earlier releases are finally getting a chance to at least play two out of the three games, and paradoxically these releases manage to each make the other game seem dated in different ways. Xenoblade Chronicles 2, made from the ground-up for Nintendo Switch, improves on the visuals of the first game in numerous ways (though not without caveats that I’ll detail in a moment), while the Definitive Edition takes quality-of-life improvements designed for the second game and further improves upon them to the point where in some ways playing these games in order on the Nintendo Switch seems like taking a step backward. And then of course there’s the fact that in some ways, these two games feel like completely separate titles altogether, thanks to the changes in the battle system, world, main cast, and story.

Where the first game took place on a pair of nations built on the remains of two standing continent-sized battling humanoid titans, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 re-imagines that idea to depict a world covered in a literal sea of clouds, with nations on floating continent-sized dragon-like titans. While the seed of the idea of the world from the original game is still present here, things are so drastically different that it would be easy to think that this game takes place in a completely different continuity. Suffice it to say that the games are tied together in ways that one discovers only upon completing both games, and otherwise players are probably best off looking at these as two separate games that share only some elements of the presentation, some of the same races, and some similar themes.

This of course extends to the game’s cast of anime-esque characters. Apparently, this is one of those points that has been divisive among players, but I’ll say that I really liked this game’s characters, and mostly even preferred them to the first game’s cast. Having said that, I’ll take the first game’s multilayered protagonist Shulk over this game’s terminally uninquisitive and naive protagonist any day. But I did thoroughly enjoy most of the main other characters in the game.

The story follows Rex, a young teenager who makes a living by recovering salvage from beneath the cloud sea and selling it for scrap. Rex lives on a titan the size of a small boat, the latter having practically raised Rex and the former affectionately calling the elderly titan Gramps. Rex worries about the seemingly unavoidable fate of all titans – to eventually weaken and fall beneath the cloud sea, leaving the humans above with no land to live on. He dreams of one day discovering a way to the mythical place called Elysium, said to be a paradise atop the massive World Tree, which he feels would provide humanity with a permanent home, and lead to world peace as it ends their struggles for resources. Meanwhile, he scratches out a living and sends a portion of his earnings back to his homeland to help others.

His fortunes change, however, when he is enlisted on a salvage expedition that promises to pay him an outrageous amount of money, a task he gleefully accepts without even asking one question of his suspicious new employers. As one can easily predict, this expedition causes events to unfold that completely blindside Rex, and result in him unwittingly bonding to a Blade, Pyra.

This ties into one of this game’s core combat mechanics, something that differentiates it from the first Xenoblade Chronicles. Characters in Xenoblade can become something called a Driver by forming a spiritual bond of sorts with an intelligent helper called a Blade – roughly the same basic idea you see in anime franchises like Fate. As in that franchise, this connection is symbolized through a literal weapon – in Rex’s case an actual blade known as The Aegis. And as required of any anime-inspired franchise using this plot device, his anthropomorphic Blade of course takes the form of a lithe, voluptuous girl wearing skin-tight armor, calling herself Pyra.

As it happens, Pyra clearly has a mind of her own, but thankfully her interests align pretty well with Rex’s – not only is she adamant on finding Elysium much in the same way that Rex dreams doing someday, but their relationship is instantly a symbiotic one as it’s clear that each of these two need each other to fend off enemies seeking to keep this from happening for mysterious reasons. Of course, as is made pretty clear, there’s much more going on here than Rex is aware of.

In the game, this Driver-Blade dynamic is one that works to enhance each of the party members capable of forming such a dynamic. As in the first game, combat takes place in real time, and players who engage in combat will automatically attack enemies while moving around freely, intervening only to use special moves or change targets. However, characters can now swap out Blades to instantly change their stats, move set, and elemental affinity, even combining their special moves in a gradually-building chain to create custom combos over time.

This whole system is unfortunately needlessly-complicated and poorly-explained. Players will have what feels like hours of tutorials thrown at them one after another as the game keeps piling new systems on them without doing a very good job of making sure they actually understand what they’re being told. While I feel like these complex and poorly-explained game systems were a bit of an issue in the first Xenoblade game, in Xenoblade Chronicles 2 they are a major problem, and even veteran JRPG players may quickly feel overwhelmed by this game’s various systems, made even more chaotic with the sheer number of characters that can be involved in combat – as many as three drivers, three blades, and at times a half dozen enemies, all scurrying about and shouting out to each other as they fight.

Having said that, once the player becomes acquainted with how combat works, it can be surprisingly deep in rewarding ways – players can time the use of their abilities to get a boost, and can coordinate their characters’ attacks to build on them to make for even more devastating attacks. This makes for an experience that grows on you over time, making it somewhat easier to forgive its flaws.

Something similar seems to be the case with this game’s progression, with the combination of unhelpful maps and lack of information in the game’s quest system can make the game’s many quests needlessly difficult and will likely have players scrambling around looking at various menus to try and figure out what they need to be doing. While Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition allowed players to see the route to the next main quest, and could easily see side-quest goals on the area map, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 does neither of these things, and the result is chaotic and frustrating.

However, players who stick with it will likely grow to appreciate the detail and personality put into the world and its denizens, with quests having far more substance to them than the first game’s “Go to place X and collect/kill Y” quests. Also, the day-night cycle of the first game is now joined by a tide system, where the cloud sea has high and low tides that make some areas inaccessible at different tides. This is another fun addition that adds life to this unique world. Overal, despite all of its frustration, this is a world that absolutely begs to be explored.

One of the main reasons I think that many players were turned off by this game is because none of this game’s greatest strengths seem to be revealed to the player early on, and the game’s problems all seem to be on full display during the game’s first few hours, which are an absolutely abysmal start to this game. It is only when the game starts to open up and become something closer to an open world game full of exploration that this game’s strengths start to shine.

However, even in its open-ended nature, the game once again frustrates players. The original Xenoblade game was not shy about placing monsters of various levels in all areas. Players needed to be aware of their surroundings so they didn’t wander into the path of a high-level enemy. Unfortunately, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 takes this idea way too far, apparently mixing enemies of wildly differing levels almost at random, and making enemies far more likely to attack you if you’re in the area, and far more difficult to escape once they target you. Players in Xenoblade Chronicles 2 will die many, many times trying just to walk past areas like this, even if all they’re trying to do is get to the next main quest location, and even in the earliest parts of the game. Eventually, you learn to hug the walls of an area to get to your destination in one piece.

In terms of presentation, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 once again impresses… but once again that statement comes with caveats. Like the first game, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 features a vast world that, while not quite an Open-World design, is nevertheless so huge that it can be staggering. What’s more, this game steps up the level of detail in the environments, as well as adding some extremely nice lighting effects, nice-looking water, lively clouds, great weather effects… for the most part, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is an absolutely gorgeous game.

However, these improved visuals come at a cost. Plenty of pop-in, including enemies popping in way too close for comfort, some clipping in places, and in handheld mode this game has some pretty ugly aliasing as well (it’s not as evident while docked, at least). The game as a whole runs at a 720p resolution, dropping down to a dynamic 540p resolution in handheld mode that can go as low as 368p at times, with framerates ranging from 20-30FPS (thanks to Digital Foundry for the numbers!). I also noticed some brief but sizable slowdown in a few busy areas. It’s still perfectly playable, but it’s clear that the Nintendo Switch is struggling to keep up with this game.

The other element of the presentation, the music and sound, is also mostly excellent, though I do have a few caveats. The role of composer for this game has been given to Yasunori Mitsuda, composer for Chrono Trigger and Cross, as well as Xenogears and Xenosaga Episode I, after Mitsuda contributed the ending theme to the first Xenoblade Chronicles. His work here retains a similar orchestrated style to what was in the first game, and while what’s here is beautiful, I can’t point to any one track as being memorable in the same way as, say, the first game’s Gaur Plains, and certainly nothing on par with Mitsuda’s best work. However, tunes like Gormott, Torigoth, and Omens of Life are all quite good, coming in around that time I said the game starts to get better.

As for the voice acting, where the first Xenoblade Chronicles game was notable for its use of British accents, Xenoblade Chronicles 2’s characters’ voices feel like a tour of the UK. Characters in this game have accents ranging from a Manchester and Welsh to Scottish, and much as in the first game, this results in Xenoblade Chronicles 2 having a very distinct feel to it that distinguishes it from the majority of anime-inspired content.

One final thing to note on here before I wrap this up – as with Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 doesn’t make any use of gyroscopic motion controls, touchscreen, or Amiibo functionality.

Okay, so all things considered… wow, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is a messy, uneven release compared to the first game. Make no mistake, it is an absolutely beautiful, compelling, massive, ambitious JRPG, probably even more so than the first game, but it is a game that also has a multitude of issues that are sure to frustrate players. This is a very, very flawed game in numerous areas, and yet even with this being the case, it remains extremely compelling in ways that most entries in the genre never come close to. Its wondrous and imaginative world begs to be explored, its characters and story are extremely compelling and likeable (save for a few exceptions), and the presentation manages to impress even as the Nintendo Switch struggles to keep up with it. I found myself constantly frustrated by this game, yet compelled to keep playing, wanting to take in more of this game’s story and its delightful creativity.

I can say that Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is definitely not going to be a game for everyone. Even fans of the first game may find themselves struggling to make sense of this game’s combat systems, frustrated by the way this game handles its quests, or exasperated with repeated deaths due to some high-level monster straying too close and picking off your party while you were just trying to get from one place to another. Yet despite all of this, those who stick with this game should find it to be a deep, rewarding experience that’s an absolutely fantastic entry in the genre that mostly rises above its flaws. Mostly.

tl;dr – Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is a JRPG that, much like its predecessor, is massive in its scope and ambitions. This game features a sprawling, beautiful world of countries built atop massive dragon-like titans floating in a sea of clouds, and an anime-esque story about a teenage boy who unwittingly finds himself forming a pact with the personification of a mythical sword. The world here is awe-inspiring and imaginative, the story and characters are compelling, and the gameplay is deep and rewarding… as long as you can get past the many, many flaws dragging down the experience, including a terrible opening and sorely lacking tutorials. This is not a game for everyone, but those who have the patience to put up with its flaws will find it to be an extremely rewarding experience.

Grade: B+

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