Jeremy Gallen's Game Reviews

ZZZenoblade

The inaugural installment of the Xenoblade Chronicles series by developer Monolithsoft, released on the Nintendo Wii, was originally to be a Japan-exclusive release. However, the grassroots campaign Operation Rainfall succeeded in bringing it and other titles to North American shores. Xenoblade Chronicles would receive a port to the short-lived New Nintendo 3DS and a Definitive Edition for the Switch, the franchise seeing positive sales and reception. As such, Monolithsoft turned it into a franchise, developing Xenoblade Chronicles X exclusively for the Wii U and then the first numbered sequel, Xenoblade Chronicles 2, for the Nintendo Switch, which builds upon its precursors.

The sequel occurs in the land of Alrest, where the Cloud Sea tops endless waters and gigantic creatures known as Titans live, upon which humans and beings known as Nopon, in turn, reside, with the protagonist being an orphaned salvager named Rex, who becomes involved in a struggle among wielders of entities summoned from crystal cores known as Blades. As with other Monolithsoft productions, the story is deep with lengthy cutscenes; however, it somewhat puts quantity above quality and feels forced upon the player. There are also some tried tropes, among them a character fighting their inner demons and a world tree at the center of the game setting, with many scenes coming across as silly, making for a mediocre story experience.

Nintendo of Europe handled the localization, and while the dialogue is legible and free of grammatical or spelling errors, with occasional swearing, some of the choices of names for certain story elements like Drivers for Blade users come across as laughable, with a reference at one point to unregistered Drivers that takes on a different connotation in English. The translators also maddeningly use OK instead of okay in the game dialogue, which no professional writer would ever do. Furthermore, the Japanese convention of characters shouting the names of their commands in combat sounds ridiculous in English. Finally, the lip movement for the voice acting is often incredibly off, accounting for a mediocre localization.

Regarding gameplay, the second Xenoblade shares many similarities with its unnumbered precursors, such as real-time combat that triggers whenever the lead character draws their weapon or enemies notice the party. Each of the three active characters can have up to three Blades of different elements and switch between them upon scoring enough hits against enemies with their standard auto-attacks. Every Blade has three Arts requiring enough energy amassed through regular attacks to execute, along with a passive ability, with their power increased through points gained from killing enemies.

Characters also acquire other points, alongside standard experience, that the player can invest into nodes on semicircular grids to unlock passive bonuses such as increased stats. Furthermore, each Blade has a skill grid gradually unlocked through conditions like killing a few enemies of a specific type or putting one of their favorite items into a Pouch each character has. Players can obtain additional Blades to equip by having a character bond with a crystal core, which comes in a few varieties that determine the likelihood of receiving a Blade with a unique design rather than a generic one.

Although generic Blades can become abundant, one of the caveats of a large stock is the eventual ability to send up to six on Merc Missions for a time before they return with various rewards. Standard sidequests are also available alongside the main story missions that have their prizes. Players have a limit of many Blades overall they can carry that increases at points throughout the game and can dismiss any except those central to the storyline if they reach this capacity. One of the main characters, Tora, has Blades that are unchangeable throughout the game, with their abilities increased by obtaining Ether Points from a minigame called Tiger! Tiger! at his home.

The game mechanics have many strengths, but the complexity can overwhelm players, especially since many areas don’t receive good explanations. Thus, I often found myself referencing the internet to determine how to complete various sidequests and advance the Blade grids, given their requirements of killing certain enemies and the lack of in-game compendia. Furthermore, the need to collect drops from enemies, like money and items, is a dated RPG mechanic that deserves death. The battle system also doesn’t lend itself well to combat against multiple enemies, and fights against even weaker foes can feel drawn out. Granted, the second Xenoblade can be moderately enjoyable when accompanied by an online guide or two, so the gameplay has plenty of redeeming aspects.

Control could have used some work as well. While there are markers for the current storyline and sidequest objectives, one major issue is that during fast travel (which is otherwise welcome given the myriad of environs throughout the game), the maps of wherever the player wants to go lack said indicators, so players must be in a particular overall area to see them. Moreover, the “compass” at the top of the gameplay screen, if one could term it as such, can be incredibly confusing, especially if multiple sidequest objective markers are present, with no indicator at all of north, south, east, or west. Repetition of travel within areas can also occur if players die, given the frequent inconvenient placement of respawn points. Ultimately, the developers could have striven to make the sequel more user-friendly.

However, the soundtrack composed by veteran Yasunori Mitsuda somewhat redeems the second Xenoblade, with many sweeping tracks that fit the various environments and story scenes, the former having daytime and nighttime iterations akin to the first game. The voicework for the main characters is good, aside from them shouting the names of their attacks, but those for the Blades are of more mixed quality. Still, the second Xenoblade, for the most part, has solid sound.

Conversely, the visuals are of a lower standard. While the cel-shading looks nice, alongside good colors, pretty environments, and realistic lighting, many typical offenders of three-dimensional visuals exist. These include blurry and pixilated environmental texturing, terrible collision detection, occasional choppiness, reskins of enemies, and a horrid camera at its worst in narrow quarters. Another issue when battling enemies is that it can be hard to determine what direction they’re facing, with some Arts having a better effect depending upon this factor. In the end, the visual experience is middling at best.

Finally, the main quest is lengthy, somewhere from forty-eight to seventy-two hours, depending upon how long the player wishes to spend with the side content. However, the difficulty of enjoying the game without the assistance of the internet may deter many from spending additional time with the game, along with the absence of achievements inherent in Nintendo Switch games.

In summation, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 was, in my experience, a disappointing sequel, and this comes from someone who had enjoyed the first entry. The evolved game mechanics often feel like a chore, with players needing to reference the internet to get the most from them, and there abounds a deal of user-unfriendliness regarding control. In terms of narration, the second installment overstays its welcome, and the graphics suffer from the standard aesthetic and technical issues evident in most Nintendo Switch games. There are some genuine positives that include the soundtrack, and most other areas have their redeeming aspects; however, my overall experience was, as the Nopon would say, “Meh.”

This review is based on a playthrough of a physical copy purchased by the reviewer to the standard ending.