Revisiting Xenoblade Chronicles

​Last month I shared My Top Ten Favorite Games Of 2020 blog. Through my annual blogs, I love talking about which new games made each year special to me and this year was no different. By nature, my GOTY blogs exclude games from prior years and straightforward remasters from consideration and discussion. One game excluded last year was the excellent Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition. The remaster enhanced the same core Xenoblade experience with welcome quality of life updates, new graphics, a rearranged soundtrack (though I stuck with the original), and added a new epilogue story, Future Connected, that was eligible for my GOTY blog. Before I let this chance escape me, I wanted to share my experience revisiting Xenoblade Chronicles in 2020, one of my favorite games of all time, and discuss how it has held up more than eight years later as well as share my thoughts on Future Connected.

​I’ve discussed this before so I’ll keep it brief here, I have extensive history with Xenoblade Chronicles. When it appeared Xenoblade was destined not to come out in America, I participated in a letter writing fan campaign, Operation Rainfall, and I actually received a letter back from Nintendo in response which was cool. When it eventually released in America, I reviewed Xenoblade for my college newspaper in my column, The Gamer’s Corner. At the end of the year on my personal blog, it was obvious Xenoblade towered over the competition and I confidently declared it my 2012 Game of the Year.

A few years later, I revisited the original Xenoblade in a cool way as I played it on Game Informer’s RPG Grind Time livestream when I interned there in early 2015. It was awesome to be able to chat about the game with the editors and the community watching the stream live. This episode of Grind Time occurred around the release of the New 3DS version of Xenoblade Chronicles, which I ultimately didn’t get too far in as I’ve had less obvious time for handheld gaming ever since I graduated from college.

Aside from the first five hours or so, it’s been a long eight years since I’ve really played the original Xenoblade, so I was glad the new Definitive Edition gave me an awesome excuse to do so. While it took me roughly 80 hours to finish the original version of Xenoblade Chronicles when it released on the Wii in 2012, I decided I would try to achieve close to 100% completion this time. It took me 93.5 hours to play through the main game and an extra 12.5 hours to play through Future Connected. With the exception of the new Expert Mode which I used throughout my latest playthrough, the core experience of the Definitive Edition largely remains the same from the 2012 original Wii game. So how does Xenoblade hold up?

​After sinking more than 106 hours into Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition, it’s obvious to me why Xenoblade connected with me so strongly in 2012 as all of the elements that define it, the wonderful characters and story, amazing setting, incredible music, and engaging combat and exploration, synergize together to elevate the experience as a whole. The journey feels so grand, yet so personal every step of the way in a way that feels effortless. While the effect remains, I think what’s interesting and why I’m here today writing this blog is that I feel differently about the individual elements of Xenoblade in isolation and in relation to the Xenoblade games that followed including Future Connected. While my enthusiasm has dimmed for certain elements of the game, I found greater appreciation elsewhere and ultimately overall.  

If there is one element that I feel the most differently about it is definitely the story and characters. Xenoblade Chronicles takes place on the remains of two robotic titans, the Bionis and the Mechonis. The opening cutscene, set hundreds of years prior to the start of the main story, depicts their duel to the death. It then cuts to a scene of war between humans and an army of robots called the Mechon. This war is revealed to be waged on the sword of the Mechonis that remains lodged above the waist of the Bionis and thus connects the two titans. The tide of battle begins to turn in favor of the humans when a hero named Dunban arrives on the battlefield wielding a sword of light called the Monado. The blade grants him exceptional strength, but seems to be wreaking havoc on his body as well, especially as he is not fully in control of it. Dunban is able to gain a decisive victory for the current battle, before he loses the use of his right arm. One year later, the main story begins on Colony 9 following a young man named Shulk and his friends Reyn and Fiora. The peace of the last year won by Dunban is abruptly shattered as a fresh wave of Mechon launch a surprise attack on Colony 9. In the chaos, Shulk comes to wield the Monado himself and begins to see visions of the future, but even with a vision warning him, Shulk is unable to save Fiora before she is killed by the Mechon leader, Metal Face. Shulk vows to avenge Fiora and sets off with Reyn on his journey to destroy the Mechon.

I still love the premise and setting of Xenoblade. It sets the stage early for an epic adventure by showing you both Titans so you’ll know you’ll eventually explore both of them thoroughly. The first area of the game, Colony 9, is expansive, especially for a Wii game, but Xenoblade really comes alive the moment you visit the Gaur Plains that cover the Bionis’ Leg. This area is exceptionally vast and has wonderous terrain to explore only possible in a fantasy game. The way the rocks overhang over the valley is so visually interesting, it’s no wonder Monolith reused the idea and executed it on an even grander scale in Xenoblade X. I love the way the valley progresses from open plains, to a lake you can cross at three different elevations (swimming across the water, walking atop the mushrooms growing out of it, or by crossing the large stone bridge above), and finally to the rocky caves that lead to perilous cliffsides. The most fascinating view is the constant view of the Mechonis’ sword that looms and blots out the sky overhead since it remains firmly lodged into the Bionis above. Monsters range in level on the Gaur Plains from the level 10 enemies that you’ll fight as you first arrive to the level 75+ monsters that you can only defeat towards the end of your journey. The Gaur Plains theme that accompanies your exploration is appropriately bombastic at the start, but becomes introspective if you hear it play long enough. These larger outdoor environments, including Satorl Marsh, The Eryth Sea, Valak Mountain, and the Fallen Arm, are my favorite parts of Xenoblade by far as they offer so much to explore, discover, and conquer.

I loved the main party of Xenoblade the first time I played it and I have an even greater appreciation for them now as I decided in this playthrough I would include everyone enough to max out their affinity with Shulk. The characters are developed across the many voiced cutscenes (some of which contain super exciting developments and action), Heart To Heart events between individual pairs of characters, and through the extensive amount of repeated voiced dialogue in battle that will stick in your head long after you’ve finished the game. I never actually engaged much in the Heart To Heart events originally since I didn’t shuffle my characters around too much, but I was really happy to experience them in the Definitive Edition. On replay, I was surprised to discover just how story focused most of the story cutscenes are as many primarily introduce new areas and objectives. The Heart To Heart events meanwhile are essentially role-playing exercises as they are two question dialog trees. The two answers to the first question of the Heart To Heart will lead to separate second questions being asked and every answer will either boost or lower affinity between the characters. While I don’t like that you frequently have to guess the right responses to questions in the Heart To Hearts when they ask you to recall events and what they meant to each character that you’ve never seen, overall they do round out the personalities that otherwise shine through in the repeated battle dialog. I especially appreciate that a lot of the questions in Heart To Hearts ask the characters how they’d respond to certain dilemmas and inquire about their plans for the future since they each prompt you, the player, something to think about as well. As for the repeated battle dialog, my long time favorites all hold up including Shulk’s “I’m really feeling it!” and Reyn’s “Now it’s Reyn Time!” and “Man, what a bunch of jokers!” I think my new favorite during this playthrough was Reyn’s “OH YEAH BABY!”

The characters in the party that I liked in my initial playthrough I still like today. My favorite character is the main protagonist Shulk who is older and more mature than most RPG protagonists. While he can be a bit dense at times, he is kind and caring, and works especially hard to do the right thing even during his quest for revenge. My second favorite character is Melia, who is quickly revealed as the princess of the High Entia. She receives a ton of character development throughout the journey as she opens up to the party and various dramatic developments happen in regards to the High Entia that affect her role as a leader. I was especially pleased to check in with her as the main character in Future Connected and I’ll cover that in detail later. As for the rest, my next favorite is definitely Reyn who you can tell from his battle quotes is bursting with infectious enthusiasm. I am a little bummed still that he doesn’t get too many moments to shine in the story cutscenes, but overall I like him a lot. I also appreciate both Dunban and Fiora who are brother and sister. Dunban is wiser and more mature than the rest of the group and he shines best in action scenes. His sister, Fiora, makes the most of her screen time with her upbeat personality.

The big turnaround I had in this playthrough was of Riki, the Nopon. He’s an odd, goofy character who became the Heropon in his village to pay off his debts accrued by having too many children. He feels ill-fitting for the main quest because he is barely in any of the cutscenes after his introduction and has less personal stake in the journey. I really changed my opinion of him when I played through Future Connected in the middle of my playthrough (my curiosity of what it was made me not want to wait to the end of my replay of the original adventure) and I saw the positive impact Riki had on two of his children, Kino and Nene. Afterwards, I started experiencing more of Riki’s Heart To Hearts and dedicated sidequests in the main game and by the end I was really won over as you can see how much he tries to do his best and cares for others. Aside from potentially his children, there is no question Riki is the best Nopon in the Xenoblade series.

I am a little bit more down on the main story overall, but I still absolutely love the journey. I can’t quite recall the initial impact of every cutscene, but even though I was disappointed the voiced cutscenes were more story focused than I remember, they do a better job at foreshadowing the big reveals in the story and the big action scenes when the music swells still have impact (I always love when Engage The Enemy plays!). I appreciated discovering in my second playthrough that you actually can directly visit many of the areas shown in cutscenes with characters outside your main party if you are thorough enough. While I love the reveals and twists in the narrative, I didn’t appreciate the big villain position shuffling too much. Metal Face is the best villain as he loudly remains selfishly evil and underhanded to the bitter end, but the later ones like Egil despite having grander ambitions and impact on the greater story don’t feel as interesting to confront. There are a few characters that betray the group and one in particular given great focus is just so goofy that I couldn’t take them seriously in my replay. 

While I did have new feelings and insights for the story and characters on replay, the combat and exploration, the main gameplay elements of Xenoblade, remain as excellent and forward thinking as ever. The combat is modeled after traditional MMO combat and puts Xenoblade and its sequels in the rare “Offline MMORPG” genre shared with Final Fantasy XII which preceded it. In Xenoblade, as you explore large zones you’ll encounter enemies of varying danger. Without proper set up, enemies too far above your level can’t even be hit by your party members let alone how most of them would probably wipe you out anyway. When you enter a fight with multiple enemies, managing their aggro/aggression is important to survival. The roles of your party members are roughly divided into the three main archetypes in MMOs, DPS, Tank, and Healer. I had heard about it and learned it myself playing the Definitive Edition, you can interestingly forgo the dedicated healer, Sharla, with proper set up and still triumph.

When you are fighting foes your characters automatically perform basic attacks (auto attacks) against the enemies you are fighting. You are directly in charge of positioning your characters and choosing when to use your Arts that are displayed on a palette at the bottom of the screen. With the exception of Shulk who has access to a second palette dedicated to his Monado skills, every character has one unique special skill and eight slots to fill from the growing pool of Arts that you have learned which gives you plenty of possibilities to approach battles. While I was sad to realize I had misremembered that the terrain doesn’t terribly matter outside of the tighter battlefields, the importance of your position relative to your enemies still very much does. Certain arts, like Shulk’s Backslash, deal bonus damage if you are in proper position. In Backslash’s case, you obviously deal more damage to enemies if you are behind them. Here’s where you need to pay attention to enemy aggro, because if the enemy’s aggro is directed at Shulk he’ll be unable to sneak behind the enemy to deal immense damage. When you are in the heat of battle, you can only control the character you had selected as your leader walking in, but you can still direct your characters to help you by expending bars from your chain attack gauge. This especially comes into play when Shulk sees visions of the future in battle, typically when an especially nasty or fatal attack will strike your party, because you can activate a specific skill to prevent or lessen the damage. The AI still does a good job of working with your leader undirected, as they regularly participate in setting up basic combos (inflicting Break, then Topple, then Daze) to effectively dispatch foes. Altogether, these various elements all keep combat engaging over the course of the roughly 80 hour journey and is further accentuated by the awesome music and lively battle dialog.

Building your characters off the battlefield is fairly laid back, but it can still have a good impact on your performance. You’ll collect a lot of different items over the course of your journey and all of them have different appearances and stats. Armor is divided into three categories, light, medium, and heavy, and often has slots where you can set stat enhancing gems in while some come locked in. If you choose to engage with it, gem crafting is a fairly simple minigame to play with and can reliably yield powerful gems. While you have to fast travel back to the forge early on, there soon is a quest that conveniently grants you a portable forge to forge gems whenever you want. Two other systems you can invest in are leveling up arts which is fairly straightforward (it yields faster cooldowns for art usage and more damage/buffs/healing etc.) and leveling up your skill trees. The latter is very straightforward as you choose to linearly level up one of the three to five available trees per character at a time, but where it becomes interesting is that you can share skills with your party members based on their shared affinity rank (level 2 affinity for example in one pair gives you two slots to share skills for each character). There are limitations of course as each skill on the tree is shaped like a geometric shape and can only be shared into matching shapes on the paired character’s tree provided you have enough skill points. You can easily re-spec and it’s cool to shore up weaknesses and make strengths even stronger.

I think my favorite part of Xenoblade remains Exploration in general. All of Xenoblade’s various zones are vast and vertically oriented. Raised paths and cave networks elaborately wrap around and connect these various spaces which keeps exploration interesting. Often you can see elevated areas in a distance and it is not always obvious how you’ll reach there. I described the Gaur Plains earlier, but I’d also like to discuss a few other areas. Satorl Marsh for example offers a mostly straightforward path to the next area, but it contains various lakes, mountain paths, and even a small fortress to explore just off the main road. It’s easy to be pulled off the path because while it looks drab and dreary during the day as you’d expect from swamplands, at night all of the plant life begins to glow in the dark and offers a spectacular light show. The Eryth Sea is another fantastic location to explore as a series of islands are suspended over a vast sea with tropical vibes. All of the crystals that dot the landscape glow in the dark and on certain nights an amazing meteor shower fills the sky.

​Even with an 80 hour playthrough back on the Wii there were still areas I hadn’t fully explored in the game. In my playthrough in the Definitive Edition I made sure to explore 100% of every map and I paid more attention when I was exploring because I was determined to chart a course through all of the postgame content when the time came. For example, it was awesome finally exploring the full Tephra Cave to see what horrors lurked in its darkest depths and to discover how the uncharted areas would surprisingly connect with the areas I was familiar with. Another amusing detail I noticed in this playthrough, was that I realized the map of the whole Eryth Sea area is actually shaped like a fish! In my Definitive Edition playthrough I discovered so many more optional bosses to fight because I found all of their hidden hiding places. Incidentally, discovering a boss is always an event that brings immense hype not only for the challenge, but because the glorious boss battle theme You Will Know Our Names blares out and gets your blood pumping.

There are some benefits from scoping out every area in its entirety beyond the immense satisfaction of doing so because they can add landmarks to your map for fast travel and you can become familiar where monsters and the respawning collectibles are. There’s a lot of nice QOL features in Xenoblade and landmarks are one of the main ones. When you die in Xenoblade you merely get sent back to the nearest landmark which was far less punishing than most RPGs at the time which usually sent you back to your last save or would rob you of items and money. Incidentally, you can save anywhere in Xenoblade so you can jump right back to where you left off. One final note about landmarks beyond fast travel and respawn purposes, you actually gain a hefty amount of experience just for discovering them which is pretty neat.

The monster and collectible knowledge you gain from exploring is most useful when tackling side quests in Xenoblade. There are a handful of different side quest types in Xenoblade even if they aren’t marked as such. First off are the basic quests that actually auto-turn themselves in (another forward looking idea in Xenoblade) that revolve around slaying a certain number of monsters and collecting a certain number of collectibles. In the Definitive Edition you actually can track a lot of these on the minimap which makes it easier to complete basic quests alongside other quests that require more attention. I do want to mention, I enjoy picking up the collectibles in Xenoblade since they are presented as little blue fire orbs scattered across each area. Some of them are situated in unusual locations and because there are so many the hunt for them can be evocative of collecting coins in a 3D Mario game.

A second kind of quest are the Affinity Chart quests that have named characters as the quest givers. After completing your objective (usually collecting materials, killing monsters, or talking with another NPC) you need to check back in with quest givers for these since they have a story to tell. Not every character is interesting, but you start to get to know some of the NPCs who inhabit the world with you to the extent you begin to feel a sense of community especially as you begin to track their schedules in your head (thankfully you can alter the time of day at any time to warp characters to locations you are familiar with). Some of these Affinity Chart quests have actual roleplaying involved and puzzles to figure out with Shulk’s visions of the future and completing quests in certain ways can lead to unique follow up quests. I think the most interesting way the sense of community manifests is there is a destroyed colony of humans called Colony 6 that you are tasked with optionally rebuilding. In addition to providing the colony with funds and supplies, you’ll eventually be asked to invite people across races that you have met from your affinity chart to move to Colony 6 where their stories often continue as they meet their new neighbors. While rebuilding Colony 6 with your own hands is neat and satisfying, finding the supplies they need can be a nightmare as the items and monster drops are not tracked like the basic quests. I highly recommend looking up the information for some of the especially rare drops and collectibles because it is otherwise looking for needles in a haystack big enough to contain 80+ hours of adventure and even worse they never consistently appear which obviously sucks. The new and fun Time Attack / Combat Challenge Arena Area in the Definitive Edition is very welcome here as you can put your rewards points from clearing challenges to collect some of the hardest to find items in addition to new outfits for the characters.

That covers the majority of the Xenoblade experience, but I do want to briefly discuss some of the new additions to the Definitive Edition. I’ve mentioned many of the new QOL improvements along the way and I just mentioned the Combat Arena so I’ll skip over those. The new graphics and arranged music are the most immediate changes here. I love the new graphics overall even if it makes the characters look a bit less mature. The environments always looked amazing, but the character models just looked so primitive by comparison and could never fully emote the way the newer models can. I also highly appreciate the new Vanity Gear option that lets you don the appearance of any gear you have come across because the tone of cutscenes (which are virtually all in-engine) can be wildly ruined when you equip the weird scraps of clothing that have the best stats. While most of the outfits look fine and cohesive when all the pieces match, it’d always be bizarre when you were wearing full armor for pants for example paired with a bathing suit top. I mentioned at the start of this blog the Definitive Edition does include a new arranged soundtrack, but I stuck with the punchier original soundtrack. I absolutely could not listen to the more muted You Will Know Our Names when the bombastic, blood pumping original is right there. Some of my other favorite tracks on the soundtrack are the Gaur Plains theme, Engage The Enemy, and Mechanical Rhythm. Perhaps the most impactful addition to the Definitive Edition that I highly recommend for thorough RPG players is the new Expert Mode which takes all of the bonus experience you get from discovering landmarks and completing quests and stores them aside for you. In other words, you only get experience from fighting monsters which is ideal if you want to keep zones more balanced/relevant to you for a longer time especially if you want to explore everything and clear every quest. I enjoyed applying that bonus XP during my final stretch leveling up to 99 to tackle all of the postgame content immediately.

Finally, I do want to discuss the new Future Connected epilogue set one year after Xenoblade’s ending. Melia and Shulk use their airship to explore the previously unexplored Bionis Shoulder that looms in the sky above. Two of Riki’s children, Kino and Nene, had stowed away on their airship and join the two on their latest quest. The Bionis Shoulder was apparently a repurposed test map for Xenoblade, but you would hardly know that from looking at it. There are wonderous sights to see and elaborate mountains with winding paths to explore that are even more twisty than the ones in the base game which makes them even more satisfying to explore and conquer. While monsters dominate the landscape, there are two towns filled with characters to meet, and most interestingly numerous lost Nopon to rescue who are part of the Ponspector explorers. The combat of Future Connected largely resembles the main game, especially as Kino and Nene essentially just fill the roles of Sharla and Reyn respectively. However, one key difference is the absence of visions and the chain attack gauge. Instead of the latter, you can team up with the Ponspectors you rescue for a devastating super attack. The more you have rescued, the more powerful your attack is, so it is very worthwhile to seek the little guys out (also it’s silly to see them all march in a growing line behind you).

That engaging mix of elements that define Xenoblade, the awesome exploration, combat, characters, music, etc., all work together again just as well here in this smaller 12 hour adventure. One standout element of the experience is the new story of Future Connected. The name of the epilogue might lead you to believe the adventure is hinting at Xenoblade 3, but it is actually the epilogue’s theme as various characters in conflict need to unite to reach a better future and stave off new threats. At the center of this is Melia who stands uncertain of her new role in the world following the dramatic story of Xenoblade. She interacts with her people here who have conflicting desires of where their future lies and what they must stand together to protect. I really appreciate Melia gets more time to interact with not just Shulk, but her sister Tyrea as well with whom she has a strained relationship to put it mildly. I mentioned it earlier, but I really came to love the new characters Kino and Nene and seeing what a positive influence Riki had on them when he raised them as their father since it really gave me such a great new perspective on him. Nene in particular is my favorite and she is especially fitting as the Reyn stand in, as she is bursting with confidence and has many of the best new battle dialog quotes. I also appreciate that she can offer surprisingly poignant insight as she assists Melia on her journey as a friend. My favorite improvement over the base game is that all of the Heart To Heart Scenes in Future Connected all feature voice acting which helps everyone’s personalities shine through even with limited screen time.

I’m happy that as I replayed Xenoblade last year with the Definitive Edition I came to appreciate all over again how amazing it is and just how much it still means to me. After a rougher, but still fun journey in Xenoblade 2, both Torna and Future Connected give me such optimism for the future of Xenoblade and I can’t wait to see what Monolith will make next.

I hope you enjoyed reading my latest blog! I do have a separate blog on my website dedicated to Xenoblade Chronicles X to read if you are interested which is a much messier, but still very interesting, fun, and worthwhile game. Also, I always love discussing Xenoblade, so if you do too or if you have any comments and feedback, I’d love to hear from you on Twitter @JustinMikos. Until next time!