[Impressions] Xenoblade Chronicles 2

You know when there’s a game you bought and you think “this game is awesome, can’t wait to play more”, but then this and that happen and you end up not playing much more of that game in the end? Well, that’s what happened to me with the original Xenoblade Chronicles when it was ported to the Nintendo 3DS, I loved (and still do) playing the game but as time passed I played less and less until a point where it’s been months since I last played it.

Enter the Nintendo Switch and Xenoblade Chronicles 2! With a sequel available on my favorite portable-home console hybrid, I had to take this chance. Of course, it isn’t the same game (duh) but I figured the game had to be good too, and was I right. So far I’ve played over 30 hours of Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and the game keeps ramping up, both the story and the gameplay.

Starting with the story, it may not have the best introduction of all time (not even close), but the more you play the more you want to play to see what happens next. It is an ever-evolving engaging story with well-written characters that complement each other. However, one thing that surprised me, in a positive way, is the fact that the game doesn’t shy away at all from dealing with darker themes, specifically with death. Maybe from the game’s appearance you think “everything will go fine, they will make it out of this battle alive one way or another” but then it pulls the carpet from your feet. Beyond this, one thing you can judge from Xenoblade’s appearance is that this is far more anime-ish than the original game. If the first game tried to be a bit more realistic graphics-wise, the sequel is much more anime-ish, from its graphics to the type of humor and character traits. Thankfully, this doesn’t get in the way of the story the game is trying to tell and, at least for me, the anime inspirations are a strong point rather than a flaw.

On the gameplay side of things, that is one of the best things in the game. You see, the Xenoblade games emulate, to a certain degree, MMO mechanics, in the sense that during battle you focus on the different skills (touted as Driver Arts) you have available to manage the battles, while playing in a team of three characters (Drivers) with specific roles (Attacker, Healer or Tank). During battle, besides the Arts, your characters use auto-attacks, three hit combos that deal increasing damage and can be chained into Arts to deal more damage than usual. Then (get ready for a mouthful of gameplay mechanics), on top of it, each of the three characters in your party can have up to three different Blades, with each Blade having its own three different Arts. This allows you to, for instance, swap Blades mid-battle so that you can adapt your role from an Attacker to a Healer or simply use a Blade from a different element. Speaking of elements, by using specific sequences of elemental Special Arts you will not only deal much more damage than usual but you will also create an elemental orb for the enemy. If you then use a chain attack and manage to break that elemental orb you will be able to output seriously high damage numbers. It is indeed a lot to of gameplay systems to digest in this small paragraph, but in practice it is much simpler to understand thanks to a well-implement combat UI.

Going back to the aforementioned topic of Blades, Blades are weaponized life forms linked to a Driver, originated from Core Crystals (we’ll get to these in a bit). Due to their nature, these Blades come in the form of different weapon types with different Arts and roles, which change the way a Driver behaves during battles each time he/she swaps Blades. Each Blade then has its own Affinity Chart, a tree of upgradeable skills to unlock for that Blade the more you use it. Recovering the topic of Core Crystals, these are a sort of loot box, with varying tiers of quality. You can only obtain them in-game as monster drops, chest rewards, quest rewards, etc., meaning there are no microtransactions involved. The higher the tier of a Core the higher the chance of obtaining a Rare Blade, unique Blades in appearance and almost always in Affinity Chart, that is, they’ll have specific requirements to upgrade the skills in their Chart, making these much more desirable and memorable for the player.

There are still two more topics I’d like to mention: Merc Group and side-quests. The first is a mechanic that makes use of the Blades you have but are not assigned to any Driver. You simply choose a mission from the menu, pick what Blades you want to partake in that mission and then just start it. Each mission is completed after a designated in-game time has passed and its rewards are money, experience and items, but above all, the involved Blades are rewarded with a lot of points for their Affinity Chart, meaning you can still upgrade the Blades you’re not using while playing the game, at a steady pace. On the other hand, the side-quests, are one of the low points of the game. Generally, these are your typical open world busywork such as fetch quests or going from point A to point B. Fortunately, as you progress in the story, better side-quests are unlocked, some may even net you a Rare Blade at the end or may be a part of a Rare Blade’s Affinity Chart progression.

All in all, I’m over 30 hours invested in the game and I just can’t wait to play more. The story keeps me on the edge of my seat, leaving me with the desire to learn more about the characters or, once in a while, it decides to surprise me with a brand new character, while on the gameplay front I am always trying to improve my combos so that I can break through my previous damage records. And let’s not forget there are still a lot of Rare Blades for me collect!

#impressions #nintendoswitch #xenobladechronicles #xenobladechronicles2