Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition

Genre: JRPG

Players: 1

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Review:

Xenoblade Chronicles is a JRPG with a somewhat complicated history. The spiritual successor to the beloved Xenogears and Xenosaga series, this was a highly ambitious release for any game platform, but even more so for the Nintendo Wii, the exclusive recipient of the game. Massive, epic in scope and in its story, Xenoblade promised to be an epic game the likes of which was unheard of for a Nintendo-exclusive outside of the Zelda series. And yet, this game’s epic nature was seemingly rivaled by the monumental lack of interest Nintendo showed in the game.

Released in 2010 in Japan and 2011 in Europe, the game wasn’t brought to the US until 2012 after a massive fan campaign pushing for them to do so. Even then, Nintendo’s American branch gave the game only a very limited release, making the game exclusive to Nintendo’s own store and Gamestop, where it became common practice for Gamestop’s employees to open up the new copies of the game and re-sell them as used at an inflated price.

The game got a second shot at life in 2015 when it was re-released on the New Nintendo 3DS as Xenoblade Chronicles 3D. Again, it’s noteworthy that such a massive, epic game could be scaled down to fit on Nintendo’s diminutive dual-screened handheld… and that ambition may have once again kept this game from getting into the hands of gamers, as this was one of only seven games that required the New Nintendo 3DS to play, meaning owners of the regular Nintendo 3DS wouldn’t be able to enjoy the game on their hardware.

So it is that in 2020, after the game has received two full sequels, Nintendo arguably did right by Xenoblade Chronicles for the first time by finally giving it the wide release it deserves, on a platform with a healthy userbase. However, more than just a port, Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition on the Nintendo Switch is extensive enough of a reworking of the game to be considered a full remake – the graphics have been redone, the music re-recorded, the game is filled with quality-of-life improvements not seen in prior versions, and there’s an entirely new 10-hour epilogue called Future Connected that restores content that was cut from the original release.

Let’s address the first of these changes right from the start. As previously mentioned, Xenoblade Chronicles was a highly-ambitious game on the Wii, featuring highly-detailed, sprawling areas. This game isn’t quite an Open-World game, but its connected areas are so massive that I wouldn’t fault someone for thinking it was. This game’s setting takes place on the standing corpses of two continent-sized titans, and its locations make use of this to spectacular effect, with bizarre level geometry indicative of the somewhat alien nature of the terrain.

The game has received some significant upgrades to its visuals, but many have bemoaned areas where it could have been improved further still – the resolution in docked mode is 720p (occasionally dropping to 504p) and in handheld mode it’s 540p (occasionally dropping to 378p) (thanks to Digital Foundry for the numbers!). This is a step up from the Wii’s 480p resolution, but not nearly as much of a step up as many undoubtedly hoped for. Also, this game’s 30FPS framerate is lower than many would expect from a modern release of a 10 year-old game. I also noticed some pop-in in places, usually bits of foliage and smaller bits of terrain that weren’t too noticeable unless I was looking for this issue.

Make no mistake, I am by no means saying that this remake is ideal, and there are absolutely areas where it falls short of what one could hope for. However, even though these particular elements of the presentation aren’t as improved as might expect, they are still generally well beyond prior versions of the game, and the limitations do not adversely affect gameplay. And this is not to say there haven’t been significant improvements made – it’s just that the biggest improvements are to be found in other areas.

There have been absolutely fantastic improvements to the game’s textures, better lighting and shadows, nicer-looking water, reworkings of characters and architecture to give them more detailed polygon models (especially characters’ faces). I will say the more detailed look results in the characters looking more anime-esque in their design, but it’s a matter of personal preference whether this is a good or bad thing. Overall, the result is a far more detailed, cleaner-looking game that’s impressive even by today’s standards, despite being built on the foundation of a game that’s a decade old. And while I wouldn’t go as far as to say this is one of the best-looking games on the Nintendo Switch, I would say that Xenoblade Chronicles Remastered is a game that looks absolutely fantastic, even despite the areas where it could have been better.

The reworking of this game’s presentation also of course extends to the soundtrack, which has been re-recorded and is a wonderful treat for JRPG fans with absolutely beautiful orchestral and acoustic themes. Some good examples are the Main Theme, Hometown, Colony 9, Time to Fight!, Unfinished Business, and possibly the game’s most well-known track (thanks to Super Smash Bros.), Gaur Plain. In addition to this wonderful soundtrack, the game has some excellent voice acting by a cast noteworthy for their British-sounding accents. At times the dialogue can be a little stilted due to an uneven localization (it doesn’t help that characters’ English speech isn’t matched up with the characters’ flapping mouths), but mostly it’s excellent and the British accents set this game apart from most anime-esque releases.

Before moving on to the gameplay improvements, I should probably detail this game’s story and gameplay for those who haven’t played prior versions of the game.

As I say above, this game takes place on the continent-sized standing corpses of two titans, Bionis and Mechonis, with each of these towering figures becoming host to its own ecosystem and civilization. The titan Bionis, in addition to a variety of strange life-forms, became the host to a civilization of human-like Homs, along with other intelligent species like the Nopon and Entia. The titan Mechonis, meanwhile, would form the homeland of the Mechons, a race of machines seemingly dead-set on eradicating Hom civilization. This war would prove to be hopeless for the Homs, whose weapons are largely ineffective against the Mechons. That is, until the discovery of the Monado, a blade said to have somehow been wielded by Bionis itself (perhaps as a toothpick?).

Unfortunately, at the game’s outset, it has been made clear that the Monado’s incredible power has only been successfully wielded by one man, Dunban. Even he is ultimately unable to control the blade, his arm crippled in a fierce battle with the Mechons. Years later, with Dunban still in recovery and the Mechons seemingly quelled by the Monado’s last show of force, the blade is being studied by this game’s protagonist, Shulk, who finds himself taking up the blade himself when the Mechons unexpectedly attack his village. In doing so, he discovers that he is not only able to wield the Monado, but that somehow he seems able to unlock its hidden potential, which gives him visions of the future.

Those two paragraphs really only describe this story’s opening. Suffice it to say that Xenoblade Chronicles is a massive, sprawling epic, on par with just about any game in the genre, with an estimated 50-130 hours of gameplay, depending on how much of the game’s optional content you want to explore.

When it comes to the gameplay, Xenoblade Chronicles has been described elsewhere as playing similarly to MMORPGs, but this description doesn’t feel quite right. Probably the closest game to this in terms of gameplay is Final Fantasy XII, but even there this game has distinct differences. Monster encounters in this game are visible on the overworld, with players able to attack a monster to start a battle, and some monsters actively engaging players. When combat begins, characters in your party will automatically attack whichever opponent they have targeted, as long as they are within range. Meanwhile, players can make use of various skills and abilities, each operating on a cooldown. This takes some getting used to, but gradually you’ll learn that you need to keep an eye on your own health while watching your abilities to see when they can be put to best use, rather than keeping track of each individual attack in combat like you might in other JRPGs.

Doing so in the Definitive Edition of the game is much easier thanks to the way this game re-works the original’s interface to indicate which of the special attacks is extra-effective at any given moment – you won’t be left wondering if your back slash attack is actually targeting an opponent’s back, or if your strange enemy is merely facing to the side.

I will say that one of my bigger complaints about this game is that even with these helpful improvements, there’s still a lot of information to take in during combat, and newer players in particular may find keeping track of it all to be daunting. Perhaps because of this, the Definitive Edition adds another improvement over the original, with a new casual difficulty setting, as well as an expert difficulty setting for those looking for a challenge.

Another improvement this game has received is to its quest system. Previously, players could get absolutely overloaded with quests. I recall seeing that this game has over 400 of them, with seemingly every named NPC offering players multiple optional quests. This could get daunting, and it would be easy to forget just what you were looking for and where. This version of the game cuts through much of that confusion by helpfully marking down the locations of these quests on the map, as well as where a quest-giver can generally be found, and when they hang out there during the game’s day-night cycle. This does have the unfortunate side-effect of reducing most quests to a simple “go here are get X thing or kill Y monster”, but I suppose that’s better than the alternative. Combining this with convenient fast-travel (instantaneous if it’s within the same area) means that completing quests has become far more streamlined… though the flipside of this is that quests also seem far less significant in this version.

One gameplay feature I don’t see enough people talking about is the ability to manipulate the camera to the extent that players can effectively play the game in first-person. Initially, this may seem like a terrible idea for a JRPG that was never intended to be played this way, but I actually strongly preferred playing this way, as it not only made me feel even more involved in the world of the game, but also helped me to focus my efforts in combat.

Time trials, cosmetic armor options, improved menu navigation… seemingly every part of this game has received loving attention to ensure that this game not only looks and sounds better than every prior version of the game, but also plays better too. And then of course there’s the game’s new epilogue section, Future Connected, a new 10-hour quest that takes place after the events of the main game and is selectable from the main menu right from the game’s outset. Nintendo and developer Monolith Soft have done seemingly everything in their power to not only ensure that this game is as welcoming as possible to newcomers, but to give those who played a prior version of the game a reason to come back and play it all over again.

Wellll… they’ve done almost everything possible. Despite the 3DS version of the game supporting Amiibo figures, this version does not. Despite the new combat interface seeming ideal for touchscreen integration, this game does not support the touchscreen. Despite that being able to bring the camera into first-person would seem to make gyroscopic motion controls a nice option, this game does not use motion control. Add to all this the underwhelming resolution and framerates, and this is a Definitive edition that seems like it could have gone just a little bit farther to be truly definitive.

Still, these complaints are minor nitpicks for what is otherwise still a massive, ambitious, epic, beautiful, must-play entry in the JRPG genre. If you’re a fan of the genre who missed out on prior releases of Xenoblade Chronicles, now is the perfect opportunity to make up for that mistake. If you played a prior release of the game, you may want to give this version a look due to all of the improvements made here. Either way, this is a spectacular JRPG that has now, after ten years, finally received the release it truly deserves, and a game that is still impressive even a decade later.

tl;dr – Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition takes the epic, sprawling JRPG from 10 years ago and finally gives it the release it truly deserves, updating the visuals and music, adding in tons of great quality of life improvements, and adding a brand new 10 hour epilogue. The result is the best version of a spectacular JRPG. There are some areas that could have been improved even further, but overall this is a must-play entry in the genre.

Grade: A-

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