Nelson Schneider's Game Review of Xenoblade Chronicles

The Hype Train has Left the Station
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 11/26/11

“Xenoblade Chronicles” (“Xenoblade”) is one of the most anticipated RPGs in recent memory, developed by MonolithSoft, the Square-Enix breakaway company behind such titles as “Xenosaga” and “Baten Kaitos.” The fact that North America has thus far been denied localization of this game, in a time when RPGs are few and quality is overall low, has been seen as an enormous mistake on the part of Reggie Fils-Aime, even spawning an online movement known as “Operation Rainfall,” which attempted to badger Nintendo into publishing “Xenoblade” and two other interesting-looking games outside of Japan. While Nintendo of America may be oblivious to the cries of its customers, Nintendo of Europe has stepped up and, in an attempt to rectify years of Europeans not getting localizations of acclaimed games, announced localizations of ALL the “Operation Rainfall” games, including “Xenoblade.” Thanks to a hacked Wii and the Internet, I was able to import this game to see whether Nintendo of America is denying its customers a once-in-a-generation gem or sparing them disappointment.

Presentation
“Xenoblade” is one of the most impressive polygonal games on the Wii. While it still pales in comparison to the big-budget polygonal games in HD, it’s impressive how much MonolithSoft was able to squeeze out of two-GameCubes-duct-taped-together (as the old joke goes). Characters and environments both look good. The characters look interesting but not fruity, while the environments are enormous, sprawling landscapes that stream off the disc in real time. There are some issues with pop-in, but it’s mainly when a low-poly-count model is abruptly replaced with a higher-poly-count model – it’s not so much ‘pop-in’ as it is “Wow, that tree just twitched, and now it has a lot more details!” “Xenoblade” also has the normal issues with jaggies that appear in most Wii games, as well as a problem with smoothly-rounded edges. While these aren’t problematic with the environments, characters’ hands have noticeably-square fingers (but at least they do have 5 individual fingers, unlike some games (like “Xenosaga”) that provide characters with hand-textured mittens and a thumb). The textures draped over the game’s polygonal models look decent for the most part, but I noticed far too many instances of blurry textures… on everything. Walls, floors, characters’ faces – there’s no good excuse for using blurry textures on such otherwise-well-designed objects. And these aren’t placeholder textures that ‘get better’ after a few seconds, like the previously mentioned polygonal tree, these are THE textures. Other moments of graphical weirdness I noticed mostly occur during the dawn and dusk periods in the game’s day/night cycle. While the day scenery looks good and the night scenery looks amazing, the transitional periods between them have lighting effects that don’t work quite as planned, looking instead like someone has stretched pastel-colored cling-wrap over the camera (speaking of which, the camera is surprisingly good, for once).

The sound in “Xenoblade” is exemplary, and probably the game’s strongest feature. The soundtrack is excellent – but then what would one expect when the legendary Mitsuda was a contributor. Each area has a ‘Day Theme’ and a ‘Night Theme,’ which are based on the same basic rhythms and melodies. There are no areas with ‘bad’ or annoying music. This is a soundtrack worth owning.

The voiceacting in “Xenoblade” is also wonderful. The game was localized in the United Kingdom using British actors, all of whom fit their characters and all of whom are perfectly understandable. After enjoying my fair share of British television and movies, I have found that, more often than not, I need subtitles to understand the mush-mouthed diction as it is filtered through a variety of thick accents. Not so with the “Xenoblade” cast: They really nailed it. The fact that “Xenoblade” uses (as far as I know) unknown voiceactors is nice as well. I have become incredibly annoyed with North American localizations of Japanese games that feature the same stable of anime dubbers over and over. While they are certainly accomplished actors, just hearing the voices of Crispin Freeman and Wendee Lee makes me facepalm due to their ubiquity.

There is one small problem, however, with the voiceacting in “Xenoblade”: There is just too much of it! The characters never shut up during battles, prattling on and on at each other with words of encouragement in addition to the expected practice of shouting the names of their special moves. It gets kind of annoying.

Technically, “Xenoblade” is rock solid, despite its complexity. However, one thing that bugged me about the game is the constant lag when moving between menus or opening treasure chests. While everything else streams smoothly, these simple actions invoke hidden load times that aren’t very well-hidden at all.

Story
“Xenoblade” opens with a scene from the game world’s distant past, in which two gods, one of flesh and one of metal, war with each other over an endless sea. As the two Titans, Bionis and Mechonis, deal fatal blows to each other, the scene changes to the game world’s present day, in which human-like Homs and robotic Mechon duke it out in Sword Valley, a place that is literally made from the ancient sword of Mechonis, lodged in the side of Bionis. As this battle plays out, several important characters are introduced, as well as the game’s magical MacGuffin, the Monado. The probably-cancelled North American version of “Xenoblade” was to be retitled “Monado: The Beginning of the World,” which hints at just how important and central to the narrative this particular magical sword is. The Monado is a blade said to have been wielded by the Bionis in that ancient clash of Titans, and is the only weapon in the world able to penetrate the high-tech armor that sheaths every Mechon unit. The Monado is also a finicky tool, as it currently can only be wielded by Dunban, the grizzled hero of Colony 9. Yet as he uses the Monado to dispatch wave after wave of Mechon, the power of the blade wracks Dunban’s body, ultimately costing him the use of his right arm.

One year after the Battle of Sword Valley, the narrative resumes. Colony 9 is at peace and the young protagonist, Shulk, and his meat-headed best friend, Reyn (pronounced like the river in Germany) are living ordinary lives in their colony at the base of the Bionis’ leg. Shulk is a nerdy researcher at the Colony 9 Defense Force and has been trying to unlock the secrets of the Monado in an attempt to make it useful in the event of future Mechon attacks, now that Dunban can no longer wield it. In his free time, he searches through scrap heaps of destroyed Mechon looking for pieces that can be salvaged and turned into useful equipment for Colony 9, hangs out with Reyn, and aggravates Dunban’s younger sister, Fiora, whose secret crush on Shulk is continually stymied by his obliviousness.

Before long, the protagonists’ illusions of peace are shattered as a massive force of Mechon, lead by a sinister, humanoid Mechon, invades Colony 9. These Mechon aren’t just content to kill Homs, they want to eat them as well. Shulk, Reyn, and Fiora meet up with Dunban, who stubbornly insists on wielding the Monado again… until he no longer can. In the face of certain death, Shulk snatches up the Monado and finds, to his surprise, that he can not only wield it, but that it provides him with the ability to see the future. As they confront the humanoid Mechon, Shulk discovers to his dismay that the Monado can’t harm it. The humanoid Mechon proceeds to kill Fiora, allowing Shulk to build up enough rage to jam the Monado into its eye while smaller Mechon units swarm over Fiora’s body. Waggling a finger derisively at Shulk, the humanoid Mechon retreats, calling off its invasion.

Swearing vengeance for the death of their friend, Shulk and Reyn set off on a journey to find the humanoid Mechon and take the battle to the Mechon on their own turf. Their travels will take them across the whole of Bionis as they make new friends, meet strange peoples, uncover the mysteries of the ancient past, and struggle to unlock the secrets of the Monado and stop the war between the organic and the mechanical. Yet they will also find that when dealing with gods, whether they are dead or not, nothing ever happens quite as expected.

The game world, built on the corpse of the Bionis, is incredibly detailed, unique and interesting, which is a rarity in a game development environment where every RPG either resembles Tolkien or anime. If anything, I’d say the world of “Xenoblade” reminds me quite a bit of the world of Pandora in James Cameron’s “Avatar,” in that it is utterly alien, but with detailed ecology that makes it a joy to explore.

In addition to the Homs and the Mechon, the game world features two other races, both of which have playable representatives that join the protagonists’ party. The first is the obligatory ‘cute’ race (this is a Japanese game, after all), called Nopon, who resemble short, fat rabbits, only their ‘ears’ are actually prehensile wings that they use for limited flight and for manipulating objects. The second is the elf-like High Entia, who are differentiated from Homs only by the large, white wings sprouting from the sides of their heads. While the Nopon are close to nature and fill the role of bees in their jungle home (collecting pollen), the High Entia are a technologically advanced race with access to teleportation, anti-gravity, and other science fiction gadgets.

“Xenoblade’s” cast consists of the nerdy Shulk, the beefcake Reyn, the ‘I’m old and washed up, but I can’t be older than 35’ ex-hero Dunban, the achingly beautiful combat medic (who shoots healing spells at her friends out of a rifle) Sharla, the excessively cute but also excessively awesome Nopon ‘Heropon’ Riki, and the noble spellcaster Melia. These characters all fit into established archetypes, but they play their roles well, without becoming stereotypes or tropes.

Fans of the ‘Xeno’ series have come to expect these games to explore some facet of philosophy or psychology. “Xenogears” explored Catholicism and reincarnation while “Xenosaga” explored Jungian psychology and the collective unconscious. “Xenoblade” is no different, taking on the ancient philosophical concepts of dualism and predestination with a science fiction twist. The narrative itself, however, suffers from two major problems.

The first problem with “Xenoblade’s” narrative is the fact that Shulk’s ability to see the future results in far too many ham-handed attempts at foreshadowing that instead simply spoil upcoming plot twists. While there were a few twists that were still able to surprise me, those largely took place in the last 25% of the narrative, a point at which, coincidentally, Shulk’s visions take a much-needed leave of absence.

The second problem, and one that is closely tied to the gameplay, is the fact that, upon arriving in every new location in the game, the characters must run around talking to random ‘special’ NPCs in order to take on side quests and raise their ‘Affinity,’ or level of trust, among the populace. This aspect of the game means the narrative hits a wall and the pacing grinds to a halt whenever the characters reach a new area. While it is true that none of these quests are mandatory, not all of them can be postponed and skipping all of them screws the player out of unlocking extra skills for the characters. And these aren’t even fun or interesting sidequests, for the most part, but simple MMO-inspired fetch quests. In a word: Padding. “Xenoblade’s” story has so much unnecessary padding in the form of quests that or borders on insane. There were numerous times when I spent an entire play session (typically 4-5 hours) doing nothing but side-quests and not advancing the main story at all. The enormous gulfs of time between main story events made them feel more disconnected than they should. Obviously something is wrong when an RPG takes over 150 hours to complete, but only 20-30 of those are spent advancing the plot.

Gameplay
“Xenoblade” is like the bastard child of “Final Fantasy 12” and “Dragon Age: Origins,” conceived whilst “The Elder Scrolls” sat in the corner and watched. Like most RPGs, the central gameplay mechanic is the battle system. “Xenoblade” adopts the organic, granular encounter system introduced by “Final Fantasy 12” (and a large number of different MMOs), in which all monsters/creatures are visible in the game environments. These enemies can be engaged (or fled) freely by the characters without a battle transition, which allows more enemies to join the melee if the tide of battle moves the conflict close enough that they feel threatened. Each enemy is also marked with a color-coded icon that reveals its strength relative to the party (black = pathetic, blue = weak, gray = equal, yellow = strong, and red = overwhelming) as well as whether or not it is aggressive (black icon enemies will ignore the player regardless, until attacked). “Xenoblade’s” actual fighting is very similar to “Dragon Age: Origins,” with characters automatically performing weak ‘auto-attacks’ in real time against the enemy they are targeting, and the player responsible for assigning targets and activating not-so-special special moves (called Arts) that operate with cooldown timers. Where combat differs from “Dragon Age: Origins” in catastrophic fashion is the complete lack of guidance available for 2/3 of the active combat party. “Xenoblade” allows the player to chose three active party members at a time and control one of them. The other two party members are controlled by frequently-moronic AI that sometimes works, but frequently behaves in the most inefficient manner possible. There are only two opportunities to provide guidance to AI-controlled characters: Vision Warnings and Chain Attacks.

As previously mentioned, one of the major story elements of “Xenoblade” is Shulk’s ability to see glimpses of the future. He can do this in battle as well, receiving advanced warning of enemies using Arts. Once he has seen a Vision, the player can move the character they are controlling near one of the two AI characters and press a button, which pops-up that character’s full roster of Arts with all cooldowns cooled-down. The player can choose one Art to use in the hope that it will change the battle circumstances enough that the enemy’s Art will be nullified.

Chain Attacks are another central battle mechanic, in which each character attacks a target in succession, outside of real time, and with Arts chosen by the player. Performing a Quick-Time Event (QTE)-like timed button press sometimes offers the opportunity to make multiple loops through the party, activating different Arts each time, adding up to massive damage.

The caveat about Vision Warnings and Chain Attacks is that they both require the Party Gauge to be at least partially full. The Party Gauge contains three segments. A Warning uses up one segment while a Chain Attack uses up the whole thing. The only way to fill the Party Gauge is to perform more QTE-like button presses whenever a character misses with an attack, scores a critical hit, or dodges an enemy attack (there is also an opportunity at the beginning of each battle). One segment of the Party Gauge can also be used to revive a KO’ed character (the AIs will attempt to revive the player’s character if there is at least a segment in the Party Gauge), but it’s also the ONLY way to revive fallen characters, since the game is completely devoid of consumable healing and revival items. Indeed, the only way to heal in battle is to use characters with healing Arts (which means Sharla and Riki, as Shulk and Melia have pathetic healing Arts and everyone else has nothing).

The only other input the player has in what the AI characters do is limited to three commands: ‘Follow Me,’ ‘Focus On The Enemy I’m Attacking,’ and ‘Do Whatever The Hell You Want.’ The first is used primarily to keep AIs from falling off ledges during battle, the second is primarily used to keep AIs from getting sidetracked, and the third is primarily used never. There are no “Final Fantasy 12”-like Gambits, no “Dragon Age: Origins”-like Tactics. It’s just a giant free-for-all which leaves the player wondering if they are actually ‘playing’ the game at all. This lack of combat strategy reaches even deeper into the core of the game, as accuracy and evasion seem to be relative-level-based, meaning that lower-level combatants will not even be able to land a single blow against higher-level combatants. It’s futile to battle enemies that have red icons and, until the last third of the game, futile to battle yellow and gray enemies as well. Accuracy is also governed by each character’s ‘Tension,’ which increases by landing hits and decreases by missing, which makes not hitting high-level enemies a self-fulfilling prophecy. Of course, the other side of the coin is that the characters don’t need to rely on healing Arts very often, as most enemies encountered are in the blue and black categories and almost always miss.

Despite this spastic combat, one aspect of “Xenoblade’s” battle system is really good, and that is the equipment system. Each character gets a weapon (each character wields a unique type), helmet, body armor, gauntlets, leg armor, and boots. Equipment comes in three different weighs (light, medium, and heavy), each with its pros and cons. Each piece of equipment also has the potential to have Gem Slots, which allow the player to add Effect Gems to the characters’ gear, with up to 3 Gem Slots per weapon and up to 1 slot per piece of armor. The Gems themselves can add a huge variety of effects, many useless, but many invaluable. These Gems can be found as enemy drops, received in trades, or received as quest rewards. They can also be crafted in a tedious and pointless mini-game by using raw Ether Crystals and choosing two characters to operate an Ether Furnace. The better the characters’ Affinity for each other, the better the crafting process will turn out.

And then there’s Affinity and the quest system. As I mentioned in the ‘Story’ section, “Xenoblade” features an obscene number of side quests, mainly for the purpose of building Affinity between the characters and NPCs as well as among the characters themselves. Unlike most modern RPGs, “Xenoblade” has an organic quest system, in which quests must be found by seeking-out characters in need of help and helping them, instead of simply going to a shop and ‘buying’ quests at a counter. While I typically hate ‘Quest Shops,’ “Xenoblade” has so many quests and so many NPCs that I found myself wishing for a centralized location to deal with all of it. “Xenoblade’s” problem in this respect is that it wishes it were a Sandbox game like “The Elder Scrolls.” “Xenoblade” has a huge world and a huge number of characters… and none of them stay put! I wasted a large amount of time wandering around looking for people I was told to talk to by OTHER people as part of a quest. While the game does have an enormous Affinity Chart that keeps track of all important NPCs, their hours of activity, their appearance, and general location, it’s not enough. I would have been much happier with EXACT locations or highlighting them on the area map, so I would know to look for a certain Nopon near the Prophecy Hut or near the Diving Board instead of just somewhere in the entire 9 floors of Frontier Village. At least the game has a fully-adjustable clock, so waiting for someone to show up at a certain time never becomes unbearable.

What else does Affinity govern? It also determines how many skills the party can share with each other. Each character begins the game with 3 skill trees (with 2 more unlockable by doing an insane number of side quests). As the characters explore the world, find landmarks, complete quests, and kill enemies, they earn standard Experience points as well as AP (for improving Arts) and SP. SP automatically gets dumped into whichever skill tree branch the character has active. Each branch has 5 skills that are always active for the character once learned as well as an extra ability for setting a given branch as active. Characters who have Affinity for each other can equip each others’ skills to blank skill slots, which increase in number with Affinity. Each Affinity skill requires a specific number of Affinity Coins to equip, however, which can be earned through normal level-ups as well as by defeating rare and unique monsters (more questing!).

Affinity also determines how many items NPCs will have available for trade. In addition to the standard shops, “Xenoblade” allows the player to trade with most named NPCs for a variety of items, including weapons, armor, and Gems. For the most part, though, NPCs just offer random monster drop garbage (which is really common since enemies don’t drop money, but instead drop garbage that can be SOLD for money), which frequently turns out to be quest objectives for other characters. Overall, the game world does have a decent economy, though it tends to throw way more money at the characters than they could ever possibly spend (mainly because, as previously mentioned, there are no consumable items).

Overall
“Xenoblade Chronicles” sadly doesn’t live up to the massive amount of hype it has generated. While it is still a decent RPG with an intriguing story, the gameplay – the reason to actually play a game instead of just read a story – is decidedly lacking. The huge amount of tedious side quests don’t serve as a counterbalance to the flaky, AI-centric battle system. By cutting 80% of the side quests and allowing the player to switch between characters during battle, MonolithSoft could have dealt a crushing blow to the likes of BioWare and Square-Enix with their current crop of mediocre RPGs. Instead, MonolithSoft just showed that they are themselves among the poor developers who have forgotten how to make great games. “Xenoblade” is, overall, still good, but it could have been so much better.

Presentation: 4.5/5
Story: 4/5
Gameplay: 3/5
Overall (not an average): 3.5/5