November’s been weird, huh?
So let me talk about a video game, Xenoblade Chronicles X.
Sherri and I bought a Wii U in mid-September. We picked it
up primarily for two games: the aforementioned Xenoblade and Tokyo Mirage Sessions.
That’s not something we do for a console. We usually wait for a critical mass
of games we want to play. But the Wii U catalog isn’t getting any stronger. I
can only think of 4-5 other games on the system I’d even want to pick up. As
well Nintendo just announced the end of Wii U production and the development of
the “Switch.”
But we’ve already gotten our money’s worth out of the Wii U.
As of today I’ve played 269 hours of Xenoblade. Sherri’s played 378.
It hits our sweet spot and I’m not entirely sure why. We
like JRPGs, though we prefer turn based combat. Still we dug FF XII & XIII,
Star Ocean, and Dragon Quest Heroes, all twitchy games. But many others we’ve hated
(Resonance of Fate, Rogue Galaxy). Today
I’m going to boil down ten things I like about Xenoblade Chronicles X.
But first some backstory.
The original Xenoblade
Chronicles came out for the Wii late in its life cycle. A fan campaign barely
managed to get a US release. Sherri and I played a ton of Xenoblade Chronicles (I’ll
call it XB1 from this point on). It had a decent active-time combat engine and
(for the most part) interesting characters. But XB1’s set up and presentation
sold it. It had massive zones, giving a better sense of space and scale than any
other rpg I’ve played. It has to because your characters lived on the surface
of a colossal warrior statue- one of a pair. These titans had frozen, locked in
battle. To cross from one to the other you journeyed across their clashing
swords. XB1 remains a dynamite game and probably the second best rpg on the Wii
(after Rune Factory Frontier). Later
Nintendo would do a version for the “advanced” 3DS, but I haven’t tried that.
Xenoblade Chronicles X
(yes, they could have made a better title split) doesn’t seem to have anything
to do with the original. That’s as far as I can see many, many hours in. Instead
we’re clearly in our universe. Warring alien races destroy the Earth at the
start, though why remains uncertain. Several colony ships escape just before
the end. Aliens attack our ship, The White Whale, another solar system, shattering
the vessel. The pieces crash across a world called Mira. Gameplay begins with
our rescue from a stasis pod. We’re brought back to the single human
settlement, New LA, developed in the months we’ve been on ice. From there we
explore the world, fight monsters, do missions, develop new equipment, and
uncover the secrets of this world and the original conflict which destroyed
Earth.
It plays a little like an MMO. There’s a continuous
landscape of several enormous zones. Xenoblade
Chronicles X only loads when you fast travel across the map. In combat you
have a default auto-attack and cycle through various arts to activate special
attacks. It’s fast and chaotic, but gets manageable quickly. The AI controls your
team of three additional characters, but you can tune their loadout and special
actions. There’s a ton to do, but the emphasis is on exploration.
The Bad and the Good
(I’m limiting myself
to eleven each)
BAD This space
colony project clearly had terrible vetting. Many of your fellow human
survivors (a limited pool) turn out to be assholes. They’re venal, greedy, and
xenophobic in the face of humanity’s extinction. And they’re really dumb at
times. The game needs to have human adversaries, I get that. But the side
missions fall back on this trope way too much.
GOOD I love
exploring environments. That’s my favorite part of every MMO (Final Fantasy XI, Everquest, Secret World).
In particular I loved just flying around City
of Heroes to see what the designers had created. This is even better. Each
of the major zones has a distinct feeling: different colors, textures, weather,
monsters, verticality, pathing. And there’s always more to find. This morning,
269 hours in, I dropped down into a place I’d never seen before and nearly got
my ass handed to me.
BAD You can dress
your characters. But there are many super cheesecake-y female outfits/armor.
They have male flesh-baring clothing, but they’re not nearly equivalent (especially
in the pants department). It can get annoying. In a similar vein a couple of
the alien races fall into lazy design tropes (bulky, brute, armored males vs. svelte
sexy, scantily-clad females).
GOOD But you have
a ton of armor and costume choices throughout the game. And I mean a ton.
Some are color swaps, but even they have minor differences to distinguish them.
More importantly you can set your “Fashion Gear,” meaning your pick of visible
armor. That lets you play paperdoll to your heart’s content. I love switching
around outfits for my team from time to time, especially after I uncover a new
unique suit.
BAD There’s no
sort function for any of the inventory lists (collected items, weapons, armor).
In some cases you can filter. But that only helps a little. You’ll spend time finding
things within sub-menus. This is probably a translation artifact. As with other
JRPGs items appear on the list as they did in the original language.
GOOD Xenoblade Chronicles X fixes several of
the problems of the first Xenoblade. You
have more control in combat. You can train in different weapons sets, switching
them between fights if you want. The creation system makes sense here as
opposed to earlier random alchemy. The environments feel more full and diverse.
The annoying Nopon race from the first game reappears here, but they’re more
interesting and palatable.
BAD Though it
didn’t bother me, some critics didn’t like how long it takes to get a battle-mech
of your own (called Skells here). You’ll be well past the halfway mark before
you do. Even then you have to wait another chapter or two before they develop
flight technology.
GOOD When you
finally get your Skell, it’s awesome. It controls very differently and takes
some getting used to. By that time you’ve gotten down all the base character systems.
Piloting a Skell introduces a host of new mechanics: new weapons, add-ons, fighting
combos, tactics. It feels awesome when you can go out in your mech and beat up the
monsters that crushed you in the past. There’s a parallel feeling of hubris
when you discover Skells can’t solve every problem. More than anything since
you’ve explored on foot for so long, being able to jump higher and eventually
fly recharges the landscape. You get to explore again and uncover new secrets.
BAD Boy this game
is white. You can change your own character’s skin tone and set up whatever
ethnic identity you like. But most of your seventeen possible party members are
white. Two are definitely Asian, one might be, and only one has darker skin.
The same holds true in the human population within the New LA Colony: you see
few definite persons of color.
GOOD I love the
monster designs in this game. Of course you get the palette swaps with some species
but more often than not, you’ll spot new details across beasts in different
regions. I love watching Sherri play because I can actually see these foes.
Yesterday I noticed that one species of Lictor, a big insect creature, had unique
armor plating. I could see rune-like engravings on its plates. This game has
many moments like that. I haven’t even touched on how well animated the
monsters are. All have striking, animal-like movements.
BAD There’s a
limited ‘palett’e to the characters you can add to your party. Let me rephrase
that. Of the seventeen characters you can add, six feel interchangeable (either
milquetoast or slightly douche-y males). The female characters fare better. Despite
that you still have many great characters with interesting stories to choose
from. But it’s disappointing that they don’t feel unique or possesses more than
a basic characterization (know-it-all,
drinker, airhead).
GOOD That being
said I dig some of the richer characters and their stories. I want to know more
about Alexa, Murderess, Elma, Nagi, and L when I play them. Murderess, in
particular, is a terrible human being who stands in stark contrast to the others.
It’s great to hear her interact with the more ethical party members.
BAD There’s
little in the way of DLC. I would drop money for new things: armor, areas,
missions, characters, monsters.
GOOD You have
seventeen recruitable characters. They have different conversations among
themselves depending on your team composition. We’ve seen that in other games,
but I don’t recall there being this many. Some of the interactions are awesome
and revealing.
BAD If you’re a playing
a woman, some weird after-combat dialogue that pops up from time to time. In particular
talking about problems with your hair. Some the female characters talk about
shopping. If you’re doing a lot of battle grinding, you’ll notice it. It’s so
weird and discordant with other stuff that I wonder if it’s an artifact of the
original or something that popped up with the localization.
GOOD I love the
way Xenoblade Chronicles X handles
online stuff. And I hate console online gaming. You can go light with it, just
getting some new tasks and bonuses or heavy and actually go on missions with
other players. I haven’t done the latter, but it doesn’t feel like I’m missing
out on something vital.
BAD “Here’s your
weapons. There you go.” This game throws you in. There’s no real tutorial.
Systems aren’t explained, you just have to figure them out. When they do
finally mention something (“Hey, there’s a Collectopedia!”) that’s 20+ hours
after you’ve discovered it for yourself. Arts & Skills, key combat
elements, Overdrive, that there’s no falling damage, etc. aren’t explained. You
have to dig down to figure out that out. Potential’s a listed stat…what does
that mean?
GOOD At the same
time I kind of love that. I dig figuring out things here- and that’s not
normally my bag. I love having to go to the manual. I even love hunting around
on forums to get insight. There’s a real pleasure when you get something to
work. Like that moment when you spot signs about of a monster’s susceptibility
to a particular damage type-- important because the game has six of them
(Physical, Thermal, Ether, Gravity, Electric, Beam…with no explanation). The
system’s opaque, but that doesn’t hurt it.
BAD Xenoblade
Chronicles X has hundreds of side missions: from basic gathering, to bounty
hunts, to city-changing assignments. You meet many, many quest givers. But one
is presented as stereotypically gay: mincing, making suggestive comments,
wearing make-up. It’s clearly presented to make the NPC seem odd and weird.
That’s an off note and something we don’t see anywhere else in the game.
GOOD Combat
remains challenging for a long time. Eventually you’ll be over-leveled, but
that’s a ways in. You might smash through some monsters if you’ve tuned your
weapons and armor right. But then you hit another creature that doesn’t work with
and have to start again. If you’re like me, eventually you’ll get complacent.
You’ll see a group of bug and jump in, only to have them agro a horde of other insects.
Then Phogg dies, then Hope dies, and suddenly you’re away running as fast as
you can …
BAD The Earth has
been destroyed and New LA is the last holdout of humanity. We have a
population, I’m guessing, of a few thousand. They live in a hostile
environment, beset by alien foes, with a pseudo-military leadership. Yet Capitalism
remains the driving force. Humanity immediately builds a “commercial district” with
shops, colonists worry about their finances, and you see class distinctions. As
well, all the friendly alien races are capitalists. It’s odd and actually
becomes laughable in a couple of spots. Again, a minor note but a strange
backdrop.
GOOD Xenoblade Chronicles X is an open-world
game. Within zones animals of vastly different levels wander next to one-another.
There’s no “this is the newbie area.” You’re forced to plan and move carefully.
If you’re smart you can get by truly dangerous creatures. That allows you to unlock
riches or die quickly. This open-world approach means that the story’s loose.
You have distinct chapter missions you pick to move the story forward. That’s
complemented by several dozen normal and affinity missions deepening the world
and adding new elements. But the through-line of the story can be hard to
follow and you may find yourself just wandering. That’s the risk of a sprawling
game like this. Despite that, Xenoblade Chronicles
X has gotten me a couple of times. It’s had some twists I didn’t see coming
and at least one revelation that completely changed earlier events for me.
In short: a great game that makes the Wii U worth it.
Other experiences with it?
