Impressions | Xenoblade Chronicles 3D

I've had Xenoblade Chronicles 3D (the New Nintendo 3DS port) for three years, but only last month did I pick it up to play more often. The last time I had played was about a year ago, when I had close to twenty hours played. At the moment, I have over thirty and it feels like only now have I reached the halfway point.

But I did not stop playing because I wasn't enjoying it, rather it was a combination of conditions, namely having the Nintendo Switch on the horizon and me not enjoying playing 3DS games a great deal because of the systems’ not-so ergonomic design.

But what is Xenoblade Chronicles after all? It is a gigantic Wii game and having it now on a portable console is something fantastic, as I wouldn't have a chance to play it otherwise. Its real time combat of automatic attacks with Arts that recharge over time (the usual special attacks that deal big damage or inflict special effects) is fairly engaging as the player must keep its attention on the screen. Arts' effects and/or damage can, for example, be affected by the position of characters relative to each other, which means managing aggro, remaining health and Arts' cooldown is a must throughout the entirety of fights.

Speaking of fights, these are started seamlessly in the open world, be it with the party's initiative or the enemies'. One thing I do notice as I move along the titans' bodies (I'll get to that in a second), is that foes start to appear in groups quite often and dealing with them one by one is, for the most part, not possible. Combined with the fact that fights are prone to drag on, sometimes I face frustrating situations where I'm almost done with the fight and the last enemy uses an AoE attack that wipes the party. Thus, sometimes I just run through the enemies to reach my objective instead of repeating the fights.

For the story, it is nothing out of this world, but it is an enjoyable companion to the gameplay. To put it simply, organic and mechanical life forms are separated to live in the Bionis and in the Mechonis, respectively, two massive titans that host a plethora of different environments along their titanic landmass. But, one day, the Mechons (Mechonis’ inhabitants) invade a Bionis colony and a particular Mechon kills a dear friend of the main characters. Thus, they head out on a journey to avenge their lost friend.

In the midst of the fight and heading out, Shulk, the protagonist, ends up as the new Monado wielder, the super sword that can do everything in battle. This sword is very important, not only from a story standpoint as it is related to the conflicts between the two titans' inhabitants, but also because its wielder can see visions of the future. For the story, it usually means getting a "preview" of what's to come in the next few hours of gameplay and how the party will try to avoid it or make it happen; for the gameplay, it means receiving a warning when a party member is about to receive a fatal blow and be able to alert them.

Even thirty hours later, the Monado is still wrapped in a lot of mystery and potential. At this point, Shulk is still drawing out more and more power from the sword, so I wonder what its ultimate power cap will be. But, in battle, given I am currently in Mechon territory, the Monado is literally the supporting pillar of the party because it is the only weapon able to damage them and enchant the party's weapons so everyone can hurt the machine bastards.

Exploring this world (or titans) is a lot of fun for me. I like the feeling of being just a tiny human in an open world that is so big I will never explore all of it, and the diversity of environments as I move from a titan's torso to its arms and then to its head is quite engaging. That screen that shows where precisely I am in the titan's body upon reaching a new body part never gets old.

The drawback of having a world so big is that it's not rare for me to get lost. Even with an on-screen arrow that points to the next objective, it's easy to get lost and take the wrong path. It's a shame, but the only thing I can do about it is look at the environment and the guiding arrow and try to find my way to the objective.

Since these are just my Impressions and not a full review, I will wrap them up with my overall impressions on the first thirty hours played instead of detailing further some elements. Xenoblade Chronicles is truly a gigantic game, no doubt about it. Not only physically, but also for playtime, hell, only now have I reached the halfway point and I’m still getting plot twists and major events left and right. Because of these two points, and because of other gameplay systems like upgrading Arts, managing the party’s equipped gear and, inevitably, making sure I am leveled up to face incoming fights, the game can feel daunting and never-ending. Ultimately, this lead to my lack of interest, where there was a one year gap between the twenty hour mark and the thirty hour mark.

However, now that I am playing Xenoblade Chronicles more consistently, I am enjoying my time with it and looking forward to the next story event. In part, I’m very curious to learn about the whole story of this first game, after all, I loved Xenoblade Chronicles 2 on the Nintendo Switch and now I want to know what type of characters and story led to that sequel. But, on its own, this first entry in the series is definitely an interesting game, with a good cast of main characters, an engrossing open world to explore, an amusing story and an entertaining combat system. This time, I’m finally aboard to see this game’s credits and watch with my own eyes the evolution of the Monado Boy, I mean, Shulk.

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