Monolith Soft is making their return to the JRPG world once again. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is the 3rd game to the Xenoblade Chronicles series (with X as a spin-off). The game was released worldwide on 1 December 2017 for Nintendo Switch. If you haven’t played Xenoblade Chronicles 1, don’t worry as the story stands for its own. Although by playing the 1st game, it will enrich your experience when playing Xenoblade Chronicles 2. Check out the trailer down below to get a close look at this game.

Now that you have watched the trailer, you already got a glimpse of what’s going on, and I’m going to talk about it down below. Let’s go to the in-depth review then!

• Story

The story set in a world called Alrest, where people lives on the back of huge creatures called Titans, and outside of that, there are only Sea of Clouds. Our Hero, Rex, is working as a salvager, one of the reason is because he wants to find a way to Elysium which is supposed to be a paradise where people won’t have to live on top of Titans anymore. Now he’s living on top of a smaller Titan called Azurda. Azurda has been with Rex since he was little, and act kinds of like his family, thus the reason why Rex is calling him Gramps (Not his actual Grandad). The scene starts with Rex making his salvage, and then he travels to sell the goods he salvaged. While there, the Chairman of the Guild, Bana, introduces Rex to a new job that needs a salvager who is a Leftherian.

The mission is to salvage “An Item” that is deep in the Sea of Clouds. After the preparations are done, Rex & the expedition team head to the place for the salvage, only to find themselves a huge Ancient Ship. After they successfully salvaged the ship, the team that consists of Jin, Malos, & Nia is heading inside to extract the item. Upon reaching the destination, the door is sealed and supposedly only a Leftherian is able to unlock it, so that’s where Rex comes in. After unlocking the door, Rex runs inside only to find a Sword & a Girl inside the room. Apparently, the girl is actually a Blade called the Aegis. And for some reason, it resonates with Rex, making him its Driver. And that’s how Rex’s journey to find Elysium started. What is Elysium? Where is it? What’s an Aegis? Play the game & find out about it.

At first, the story might seem to be a little simple. Rex wants to find Elysium so that Human can live on a proper land, not on the back of Titans (Because the Titans will wither once their life force is depleted, forcing the people living on its back to move to a new Titan). But instead, there are more to that than just a simple journey. The game really focuses on its storytelling, & there are so many times where I was trying to hide my manly tears. They give a great background story to every character in the game, including the Villains of the game. Although some of the scenes might feel a little bit cheesy, but hey it’s a video game, not a real life. It’s supposed to be that way. And yes, it’s a Xeno game so it’s not going to be simple.

9/10 for the story. This game is a very good story driven game. It’s been a while since I played a game this exciting. The bonds between Driver & their Blade, The Journey to find Elysium, what’s great about this game is that it keeps giving you a big surprise on each chapter, making you want to play more & more till the end.  And how Xenoblade 2 connects to Xenoblade 1? You’ll be surprised if you have played the 1st game.

 

• Gameplay

Blade
So the game takes place in a world where weapon called Blade is born from Core Crystal. Some of the Blades has humanoid form, while some of it has beast form. But nevertheless, the important thing is the Rare Blade. There is a total of 38 Rare Blades that you can find in the game. Including Pyra & Blades that you get from Main Story. Some of it you get by finishing side quests & some of it you can get by doing Gacha by resonating with the Core Crystal. This is one of the worst parts of the game. You have to rely solely on luck to get a Rare Blade. And KOS-MOS from Xenosaga series can only be found through resonating the core crystal. So best of luck to you who wants to get KOS-MOS. I still don’t have all Rare Blade, missing 4 Rare Blades from Core Crystal. At one point I don’t even care anymore. Opened 99 Rare Core Crystal & 99 Common Core Crystal, and all I got is nothing. But that aside, I think they really put a lot of efforts in making the Rare Blades. Each Rare Blades has a different illustrator, and they have their own Voice Actor (Some of them are pretty famous in Japan) that makes them unique to their own.

And not just that, each Rare Blade has their own Blade Artes, and not to mention their Special Attack which is different for each Rare Blade. I hope you have a lot of patience while trying to resonate the Core Crystal.

Each Blade has their own Affinity Chart, and each one of it has a condition to unlock it.

You need to equip the Blade you want to increase his/her affinity. You’ll get a great deal of Affinity Point by finishing Side Quests. By opening their Affinity Chart, your Blade will be stronger than ever.

 

Side Quests
Finishing Side Quests are the best way for you to get money & experience. Too bad though, some of the Quests feel so tedious, you have to go here, go there, take this, take that. And sometimes they have this 1 big Quest that you can complete only if you have finished smaller quests that are related to that quest. And the conversations in the sidequests are basically repetitive. I mean, they don’t prepare a fixed sentences when talking to civilians. But instead, they used repeatable sentences which you will see over & over again when talking to civilians about their quest. That’s one of the things that I hate in this awesome game.

But that’s not all there is to it. The side quests are actually divided into 3 types. The first one is the normal quests that you got from the townspeople. The other one is Blade Quests. Blade Quests are Blade specific Quests that sometimes reveal the origin of them & their past story. And it’s not just a quest because sometimes they involve a well-made cutscene as well. Blade Quests will appear once you have cleared the condition for it to appear. For example, you need to raise KOS-MOS affinity to Lvl 3 to make the Quest available to take.

That gives you a reason to raise the affinity of each Rare Blade, to get their Blade Quest and learn something about their past. It’s much more fun than normal tedious quests from the townspeople.

The last one is Mercenary Quest. At some point in the game, you will get access to a Mercenary Guild. You can deploy your unused Blades to go on a Mercenary Quest. And they will return with money & experiences. Some quest need a specific field skill from a blade. For example, they need A Humanoid, A Lance User, & Lightning element. You need to choose Blades that fits the condition of the quest. Once you send them out on Mercenary Quest, you can’t use them until they return.

Battle System
One of the aspects that some people hate in the game, but not me. I admit that the battle system is slow. All we have to do is just wait, and wait, because of the auto-attack. But yeah, that’s only at the beginning. I’ll tell you that this game has one of the most complex battle systems I have ever seen. I mean the battle system keeps showing us something new with your progress. I mean, you are still getting a battle system tutorial until the last chapter. If you only play the game for like 4-5 hours and then say that the game is boring because you have to wait & wait. Please, try to endure it because you only see 1/10 of the whole portion. By the last chapter, you’d be lucky if you have time to spare in a battle.

There is 4 type of attacks in the game that you need to remember.

1. Driver Combo. This is a combo that only used the potential from the Driver. It goes from Break→Topple→Launch→Smash, and you’ll give a destructive damage to the enemy, and also Monster will drop rare items after you Smash them to ground. You have to deal the combo in those order. You can check your weapon whether the arte have that attribute or not. As far as I know, Smash is only on Axe, while Launch is on Gloves.
2. Blade Combo. This is a combo that uses the element of your Blade to deal a great damage.

   

   The way for you to release a Blade Combo is by increasing your Ether level. It will increase each time you use a Blade Arte, and it will show what level you are in with Rome Numerals on the right below. As to the elemental combination, you can see on the top right corner of your screen. Check my screenshot above, I started with Fire, so the 2nd Element I can use to make a combo is either Fire again or Water. If I go with Fire again, then my choices are Fire again or Light element. If I go with Water, then my choices are Fire again, or Ice. (Check the element chart in the top right corner).

3. Chain Attack. Chain attack can be used when your party gauge is full (On the top left corner of your screen in battle). With Chain Attack, you can easily deal millions of damage to your enemy. Perfect for fighting unique monsters & bosses. But in order to extend the round of your chain attack, you need to have at least one elemental orb which you can get by dealing a Level 3 Blade Combo & burst it. You can only use it after the event in Chapter 3.
4. Full Burst. Full burst is a special ultimate attack. It differs with each character, and it’s a completely different move set than your Special Attack from Ether Lvl 4, You can only get this by having minimal of 3-4 Elemental Orbs and then burst it using Blade that element that’s the exact opposite of the elemental orb. By having 5 Elemental Orbs, you can easily give 5 Million damage to your enemy.

   

See? It’s not actually that boring if you played more than 4-5 hours. The game keeps showing us a new battle mechanic with the progress of your story. So you better make peace with the slow pace, because it’s only at the beginning.

Town Development
You can actually develop a town by spending money or finishing quests in that city. The highest level of the development is 5. So, when a town reached level 5, you’ll 5 stars on the skip travel map.

You can see the example above, Argentum Trade Guild development level is 3. You can see the stars under the name (Sorry that it’s in Japanese). With each level, things will get cheaper in the town, and sometimes new items will pop up. So check back into the shops when the development level is increased.

Field Skills
Field Skills are one of the most important aspects of the game. You will need certain Field Skill to unlock some area or treasure boxes. So don’t think that the Common Blade is useless. They are actually very useful, for the Field Skill. Each blade will have Field Skill that can help you in your exploration. For example, to Dive, you need Water Mastery & Fortitude. You need to equip blade that has those two Field Skills so you can access the area.

Exploration
Well, the Xenoblade Chronicles 2 world is huge. Like literally huge. You can only travel around with your feet (Fast travel too). But that’s what important. There are so many secret spots that you can find by exploring the map. I still find some secret place when exploring Gormott the other day. You wouldn’t know if you didn’t actually explore it. Try exploring the map once you have enough Field Skills to back you up.

9/10 for the gameplay. I actually do enjoy the complex battle mechanics. But of course, there is a learning curve. And also the Blade Quest? That totally blows my mind. They even included extra cutscene for it. The game is fun. There are so many things you can do in the game, and it’s fun.

 

• Graphics & Performances

Actually, a lot of people complains a lot about the bad quality of the graphics when in handheld mode. I personally never really bothered by it. It’s not perfect, yes, but still playable. But if you want a much better result, just play the game docked all the time (I did). I won’t go into something technical about the game like resolution & stuff. I think it looks great in Dock Mode & okay in Handheld mode. It doesn’t change my playing experience at all.

People are saying that the character design is too anime-ish. But hey, it actually works out okay. I mean, some of the characters are designed by Nomura Tetsuya, and also the each of the Rare Blades has their own Illustrator, so the style of the characters really differs one to another.

That aside, the world is beautiful. I stopped a lot during my gameplay just to take screenshots of the game. Check out the screenshot that I took down below.

Some of the scenery is really breathtaking. I mean looking up to the sky at night, seeing all the stars & World Tree is just mesmerizing. Not to mention the BGM to it, especially in Gormott.

One of the best quality of the game is the Cutscenes. This game has top notch cutscenes that are really really awesome. I mean they will show you an awesome battle cutscenes in each chapter and you will enjoy every minute of it. You can already see it from the First Chapter when Rex meets Pyra. That is an awesome scene. And you’ll get more of it along the way. Not like Star *cough* Ocean V which is a mess & an embarrassment to the series. You can see that they really make each cutscene with so much detail, the characters movements, not to mention the weapon they used (If you changed the form, it will change too in the cutscene). Bravo, Monolith Soft, Bravo.

And also with the latest update, they finally fixed the issue with the Map. You can now see a whole lot bigger map when traveling around, without going into the skip travel map to find out your whereabout.

8/10 for Graphics & Performances. The game has its ups & downs regarding this area. The game needs some time to load the area because it’s open world. Regardless, the game still looks beautiful. People are comparing it to Xenoblade Chronicles X, but I never played that game so I don’t really care. This game has awesome cutscenes, awesome environments, awesome character designs, and I think it’s a good thing that they lock it to 30fps.

 

• Sound & Music

The OST of the game is awesome. When I first arrived in Gormott, I can keep hearing the song in my sleep. It’s really good, not to mention that the OST is different too at night. The battle theme for the boss fights is great, making a great cutscene even better.

And also this song on the trailer above by ACE & Jen Bird, titled “Drifting Souls”. This song is set to a very powerful moment in the game, and it’s really really good. I don’t have any complaint about the OST. It’s perfect.

The bad thing about the sound is the English dub which is horrible. That British accent just throws off the atmosphere of the game. Luckily, the Japanese voice is a free DLC for you to download. But if you used the Japanese voice, you’ll be very confused about the character’s name. Because it’s totally different in English & Japanese. For example, Morag name is Melef in Japanese, Pyra = Homura, Mythra = Hikari, etc. But the Japanese voice is really awesome. Play with it.

10/10 for the Sound & Music. The BGM really fits into every scene of the game. ACE & Jen Bird really did a great job too with “Drifting Souls”. Awesome tracks. 

 

• The Verdict

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is actually on my No.2 list for 2017 Game of The Year, while No.1 is Dragon Quest XI. It’s a JRPG that we all have been waiting for. A very well made scenario, awesome cutscenes, complex gameplay, awesome music. It feels very old school, and still modern. If you have a Nintendo Switch & JRPG Lover, then grab this game. It won’t disappoint you.

The Score: 9/10
This game is the reason I bought a Nintendo Switch. And after finishing the game, I must say that I’m satisfied. The game only has 2 years of development, and look how great it is. Journey to the Elysium is one hell of a ride for me at the end of 2017.

Erhanz finished the game in 147 Hours of gameplay. Finishing every subquests, but missing 4 Rare Blades, and he doesn’t care about it cause he already has KOS-MOS.