Review for Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition. Game for Nintendo Switch, the video game was released on 29/05/2020
The impact with Xenoblade Chronicles, in this Definitive Edition as in the original Wii software, is as fascinating as few. Two giants fight to the death, in a world where the sea is the only thing that accompanies their existence; thousands of years after their battle and subsequent death, the life forms that inhabit their bodies continue the battle for survival. The Mechanics, mechanical beings from the body of Mechanis, feed on the Homs, biological beings from the body of Bionis, and in the climax of their battle the story of Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition was born. When we collided with this concept in the days of the Nintendo Wii we were immediately involved in the story, and after finishing the prologue we were already conquered by the world of Bionis.
Nine years later, we are happy to say that the epic of Shulk and his companions remains a unique and above all wonderful experience, which is not only worth the time it takes, but which should not be ignored by any player.
The biggest news of Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition is the graphic re-style. Welcomed with a mix of concern and excitement, the new style fits the game perfectly and brings the characters to life in an excellent way. The Wii models were genuinely unsatisfied, particularly the faces that nine years later have aged much worse than other titles and even older products like the excellent Shin Megami Tensei of the PS2 era. (excluding Person). Fortunately, the new style does not take away the soul from the models, giving relief to the concerns of many fans, but rather gives them much more expressiveness and character, thus helping the most important scenes to have the necessary impact..
We have no complaints about it in all sincerity: every character gives the right feeling and every expression fits the context, avoiding the terrible unnecessary or even awkward design situations of Xenoblade Chronicles 2. Unfortunately, however, there are some details of the re-style that seem to have been left as in the original title, in particular a secondary character did not have an updated model, but only a remaster of the old model. The graphic work is great, but sometimes it seems partial, with NPCs and some textures that for some reason have not been changed, and definitely clash with all modern models.
However, the end result is absolutely worth promoting, as it manages to tap into the true potential of the Xenoblade Chronicles aesthetic, and that alone would be worth the price of the Definitive Edition. Re-style is also essentially the only real added strength of the Definitive Edition, as well as a noticeable performance improvement over the original Xenoblade Chronicles.
The rearranged soundtracks are good, but don't have much room for improvement on the already excellent originals; the combat system remained unchanged; remains the Future Connected which we will talk about later. What we will analyze so now it will also apply to the Wii title, and will primarily target the new fan approaching the work for the first time.
As anticipated in the tried, published two weeks ago, the great strengths of Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition are two: the fascinating exploration and well integrated with the gameplay loop that develops around it, and the epic narrative and full of well integrated twists and memorable moments. Exploration is the real jewel of this software, the concept of being able to explore worlds born on the dying bodies of old gods is not only fascinating for narrative, but also for the possibility that it gives as variety and spectacularity of the environments that can be visited.
This aspect was absolutely hit by the Monolith Soft team, as the worst environments we will visit in Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition, would be the best in a good 95% of the other video games on the market.. The progress of the player in the adventure is not only the push given by the curiosity for the next big twist, but also the desire to visit the next entrancing setting.
Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition does not hold back in this aspect and uses everything possible to amaze the player: multiple color palettes, completely different settings based on the time, extremely varied magical concepts, from seas suspended in the sky to gigantic cities built in the trunks of millennial trees; each area is completely different from the previous one and above all they are all breathtaking. Exploration is integrated into the gameplay loop in two ways: from the XP earned by discovering spawn points, to the dozens of “MMO-Like” side missions that aim to make you explore every corner in search of various objectives.
Regarding the side quests, a common criticism of Xenoblade concerns the lack of relevance in most of them, but we honestly find their superficial essence to be suitable for the scenario, as it works in tune with exploration rather than creating digressions in the narrative. . Finding new things and people also helps the world building of the world, forming the "network of interest": a set of connections between the various NPCs in the game that indicate the s between them and when they are possible to find.
Let's move on to talking about the narration, where in reality we have little to say except that it is really beautiful and must be discovered. Talking in detail about the plot of Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition, would mean depriving you of some surprises, so we will just say that the story is really interesting from start to finish and the cast of the game proves to be up to its epic plot. However, the deepening of the characters is less deep during the main quest line: to deepen it you will have to take advantage of the optional dialogues that can be unlocked through exploration and use in combat of the characters themselves.
In this we find the only real flaw of the Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition narrative: limiting the in-depth dialogues by tying them to a system of s that involves the use of the characters pushes the average player not to deepen much of the party, weakening the best moments of the game. Another defect is the terrible English dubbing, which fortunately is obviated by the presence of the good old Japanese.
Speaking of the gameplay, we have mixed feelings. When it works it's exciting and the mechanics of being able to change the future is always a source of tension and satisfaction. However, it doesn't always manage to be fun, as it is basically limited and mundane. The game has a lot of micro-mechanics that, however, do not revolve around a pillar that can usually keep them standing, and are rather dispersed when not completely useless. The characters themselves are emblematic in the duality of the game: on the one hand each character is different and fun to use, as well as it is possible to combine many different and effective teams, on the other hand, however, Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition pushes you to always have to use Shulk, a partly because he is a very strong and indispensable character to fight certain types of enemies, partly because the AI is terrible on certain characters.
Although artificial intelligence is all in all competent in general, in some situations it is insufficient. In fact, it is not possible to use Melia in a party unless you directly control it, and Shulk himself can take on extremely stupid behaviors when controlled by the CPU. While the game always remains enjoyable to play and the combat system works very well when you understand how to make it work, We can't get the thought of how much better this game would have been with a combat system more akin to a Legend of Heroes or Final Fantasy XII. This in fact is the main flaw that precludes Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition from the perfect score, however we invite anyone who has been burned by the gameplay to give it a few hours, since it has its strengths.
Another, much more personal complaint is about the music. The musical score of Xenoblade Chronicles is fantastic and the Definitive Edition does not contradict this, however it is a victim of its own choices. In fact Xenoblade uses dynamic music, which in some cases have a positive effect on the experience, especially when it comes to the exploration OSTs that change according to the time of play, other times they ruin certain moments.
In battles in particular, the music varies according to the situation, which is very nice, except it only uses two tracks to indicate dangerous situations. When there are the rare occasions when a fight has something original, everything is ruined by the lack of variety of the various tracks it is put in full light.
So let's talk about the Future Connected node. Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition has a new epilogue: Future Connected, playable directly through a special section in the initial menu. We won't go into the details of the story, as it obviously deals with very heavy spoilers, but we can tell you that in general we are quite disappointed. This ten-hour expansion brings simplifications to the very popular base game formula, such as special attacks or being able to attend optional dialogues without having to strengthen the bonds between the characters. But at the level of the main narrative it's just very mundane. The twists and epic battles of the original give way to a more intimate story, which isn't bad at all except that it has a short and superficial substance.
A certain character in particular is covered a lot in this chapter, but unfortunately he is the only one to benefit from these additional 10 hours. The trick to making such a personal story work is to fool the player by making the stakes feel extremely high even when in reality they are very low - a good example is the first, and best, dungeon in Persona 5.. In this case, however, the characters say they are interested in what happens, but aside from the protagonist of the expansion, no one seems really involved in the adventure.
The presence of Future Connected is not a defect of the game, it is after all extra and substantial content in terms of gameplay; but let's admit that after the exceptional Torna the Golden Country, we expected a little more. This expansion of Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition feels more like something added to justify the full price again, more than part of Takahashi's artistic vision.
Xenoblade Chronicles, nine years ago, was a masterpiece. One of the best JRPGs ever created, with a powerful story, compelling cast and aesthetic that represented the pinnacle of Japanese fantasy in a video game. Today with opponents such as Persona 5, Dragon Quest XI and the lesser-known but equally exceptional Trails of Cold Steel, Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition remains a masterpiece. Aesthetics is still never achieved by another title, both for quality but above all for quantity and variety, and the story remains one of the best demonstrations of how to take various clichés of the JRPG genre and make them accessible even to those who JRPG them he hates. The 70 hours it takes Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition to complete are among the best you can spend using the Nintendo Switch, and in general it remains one of the best Nintendo titles ever, earning a place alongside Breath of the Wild and Mario Odyssey .
► Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition is an RPG-type game developed by Monolith Soft and published by Nintendo for Nintendo Switch, the video game was released on 29/05/2020
