Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition Game Review – Nintendo’s revisit to the Xenoblade world is masterful
Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition is an absolutely superb addition to the Switch’s catalogue! It is a re-release of the original Xenoblade Chronicles game. With a ton of extras thrown in for extra measure!
For the sake of fairness I’ll be basing my opinion of the game on it’s own merits without taking the original into account.
Story
The game revolves around the war a year prior between the “Homs” (humans basically) and the “Mechon.” The Mechon being newly arrived Invaders to the planet are only really vulnerable to the Monado. A mysterious blade with magical unknown, even dangerous, power. There’s not much of the story I can get into without going into spoilers and I don’t want to do that. However the basic outline should be enough to get anyone interested.
I mean. All of this fighting happens on top of 20 mile high stone giants that were once at war themselves. And if that doesn’t pique your interest then I’m not sure what will!
Gameplay
The gameplay for Xenoblade Chronicles DE is pretty basic. The thing that really makes it different is it’s combat system. The “arts” system. That you can use between auto attacks. Bring an air of strategy that wouldn’t be there if it weren’t for the fact that some enemies are more susceptible to certain arts than others. Some arts are better to use depending on where your character is situated, too. So it’s best to run around the field and use the vast environment to your advantage.
There are NPCs that you can talk to and pick up various side quests from. They often link to other side quests that you can complete on the way to your destination in the main game. It’s all very polished and streamlined. None of it feels clunky or like you’re going out of your way to complete a bunch of side quests that will get you nowhere.
Review
Generally Xenoblade Chronicles DE is an astounding game! I’m almost certain that when it was originally released the developers didn’t think to themselves “when we re-release this it’ll still be unique.” But it really is! As HD as the graphics are it’s obvious this isn’t a modern game but that doesn’t hurt the game, rather it helps it. It gives it a charm that having hyper-realistic models would possibly strip it of.
I think it’s a genuine testament to the quality of the game itself when, not much has changed but it still feels fresh and new. You could easily play this game without having even heard of the original and still love it.
It doesn’t suffer from the “JRPG stereotype” that alot of JRPGs do. It’s different enough that you can’t just go “of this is a bit like xxxxx” because it’s not really like any other game out there.
I would a million percent reccomend this game to anyone who asked. This is what we call a system seller. It got me to pick up my Switch for the first time in a very long time again, thank you Xenoblade!
Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition can be bought on Amazon, Game and all other major retailers.
