Genre: RPG
Year: 2010 (sort of, it’s complicated)
Developed by: Monolith Soft
Published by: Nintendo
Platforms: Wii, Wii U, 3DS, Switch
#159
Feeling Like: Future Imperfect
There’s a lot to unpack here. I’m not really sure where to start.
I’d heard rumblings that an RPG was being released by the creators of Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean, an all-time favorite. I’d also heard that for some reason, it wasn’t coming over to North America.
Nuts to that.
So then I dug in and found, ahem, ways to play it on my North American Wii and we’ll just leave it at that. Sorry corporate nonsense, I don’t have time to wait a few years for Xenoblade Chronicles to be officially released two years later in North America.
Had I been more patient, I would have enjoyed the definitive version on the Switch, but that was released in 2020. Asking me to wait ten years for anything would be incomprehensible. I can barely wait for cricket practice this afternoon.
With a few tweaks here and there, Xenoblade would be one of my favorite games. It has so much going for it that I relish in an RPG: a fantastical world, endearing characters, an epic story, addictive exploration, thrilling combat and, most importantly, an incredible soundtrack. More on the songs later, but this nearly has the whole package, as long as you’re willing to negotiate traditional headaches that come with most role playing games from Japan.
The initial premise is one I’ve never seen before; two enormous figures are locked in combat. Neither gains an advantage, as the killing blow to each happens simultaneously. As a result, they are eternally linked, frozen in combat. The world you traverse is literally on their bodies. Entire civilizations spawn on the dead titans and the story weaves the trials and tribulations of the denizens on the Bionis and its counterpart, the Mechonis.
Yes, it is a stupidly zany idea and yes (yes!) it’s an amazing concept. The bridge from one titan to another is a giant sword that is permanently etched through the Bionis’ mid-section. There’s a sea on top of the Bionis’ head. There’s a swamp where the…uh, well you can guess. It’s infinitely creative and spins the farm boy goes on an adventure trope on its heels. Brilliant.
Exploration is another highlight. There are very few loading screens, an impressive feat considering the hardware that the game originated on. You can run for dozens of minutes straight before you hit any kind of wall. You can jump down holes, explore caves, sprint through grasslands, careen down slopes, rush past waterfalls and head towards a village with absolutely nothing interrupting the journey, no invisible fog or limited draw distance. When it comes to vistas, the Xenoblade franchise is peerless. The views are awe-inspiring, truly breathtaking. There are certain spots that will even credit you with experience points for finding them, double the reward since what you can see is worth the journey alone. It makes you want to explore every nook and cranny of the entire game. Modern RPGs tend to be so bloated in this regard, it’s refreshing that a game will, from both a design and emotional standpoint, encourage you to stray from the main path.
While Xenoblade does prescribe to the gameplay loop of fight enemies – gain experience – level up, it frequently keeps you on your toes in a number of ways. Primarily, you can see every enemy on-screen, ie, no random battles. This means if you want to skip a fight, or try to sneak past a particularly threatening group of lizards, you can do so. However, there are also some enemies that will ambush you. I shudder when I think of the arachnid-type monsters that will slink their way down from the ceiling to pounce on you. Even more terrifying is the fact that the game is not afraid to throw massively powerful adversaries your way, regardless of your level. It’s not uncommon to see a Level 80 Gorilla stomping around the starting area of the game when you’re barely Level 5. It makes the world seem that much more organic, not just catered to your progress. Bon!
While the combat wasn’t my favorite part, it was still unique enough to draw my interest. No single character plays the same, you’ll have a mix of the holy trinity of tank/dps/heal, but each tank or healer have different ways of going about their business to make each party combination feel fresh. I know I’m playing a great RPG when I have a legitimately difficult time picking who comes with me and who stays on the bench.
Your sword, the Monado, enables Shulk to see into the near future, something you’ll see both in cut-scenes and mid-combat. When a boss is readying for a massive attack, you’ll get a glimpse as to what that will look like. This gives you precious moments to press the attack, or try to stun the enemy, or heal up and move out of the way. It’s an odd spin that plays on telegraphed attack animations in an interesting way. Points for Xenoblade!
This is a massive game, in every sense of the word. There’s no speed-running here – by the time I saw the end credits, I had spent 88 hours crawling over the titans, rebuilding towns, rescuing villagers and uncovering nefarious schemes. And fighting God, let’s not forget that.
Sigh. Let’s get into that.
As much as I love this genre (if I ever get to number 2 and 1, you’ll know I mean it) I can’t ignore the blemishes that seem to plague almost all of them. An overabundance of useless items. Expositional, strange dialogue. But the biggest sin, to me, is pacing.
Some games get it right. Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy 6 are the peak of the genre and have retained respect over the years largely due to how lean they both are. There’s no fat, the plots hum along at a terrific speed but still manages to let the player breathe once in a while. They’re also well under 40 hours of gameplay, even if you go for all the endings or secret weapons. There’s very little time wasting.
Less is more, and I don’t think I’ve ever played a role playing game that felt too short. Much like a wedding speech, the longer you go, the more you risk losing your audience. Hey, I love spending dozens of hours on snowy peaks or surviving an onslaught of mechonis soldiers, but when the hours start to tick into the 70 or 80 range, you better be on your way to wrapping up. In Xenoblade, the plot goes wonky bananas in the final 20% and every time I thought I’d taken out the Big Bad, there was another Bigger Badder behind them . Even reading a plot synopsis, I’m totally following the first two paragraphs, but the third goes off the rails. I get that a fantasy/science fiction world that involves journeying through a colossus’ knee is not steeped in realism, but when you start third act revelations like killing God and rejecting fate and listening to speeches that are rife with philoso-talk and wiping out humanity to start over with a new, pure world, I fade. I’ll beat the game, sure, but it’s a real shame. Since I held the rest of the game to such high esteem, this mild detraction really did sink my appreciation for it. Why do so many RPGs do this? You don’t need yet another villain behind the curtain, you don’t need to make your game this long. Grumble, grumble.
Combat felt too MMO-y for me to fall in love with it and the story sank like a stone near the end, but the rest of the package is terrific. I still can see the opening areas in my head, the white glowing dots that signify collectibles in an area trigger every Pavlovian response in my brain. What’s that over there? Ooohh, a level 25 monster. I’ll come back later. I wonder what it’s hiding? I’m so rarely interested in returning to an area in an RPG but in Xenoblade it’s constantly urging you to come back. Hey, this area of the map is uncovered. You can probably take that robot that’s guarding the passage now. What’s behind it? Come find out!
All of this would be enough to warrant a high spot on the 500, but it wouldn’t be nearly as high without the soundtrack. I mention game soundtracks quite often on this blog, largely because of how important they are to me. When it comes to regular music, I’m a pedestrian. I get it, but I don’t really get it. I don’t have the passion that fans do when they see their favorite band live, or listen to an entire album over and over again.
But when it comes to video game music, I’m a borderline fantatic.
Looking at my Winamp playlist (yes, I still use Winamp) I have 1,387 video game songs. Some are from the official soundtracks, many are from the delightful website OCremix.org. I listen to video game music all day, mostly while I’m working. When I hear a remix of a particularly beloved song, like ‘Watercolours” from Donkey Kong Country 2‘s Stickerbush Symphony, I get frisson everywhere. I cannot get enough.
Xenoblade Chronicles may have the best soundtrack of any game I’ve ever played, ever. It is impossibly good. If I ever do a rankings of video game soundtracks, and I sincerely hope that I never do, this would be a legitimate contender for number 1. While I do mention soundtracks often on the 500, I don’t make that claim for very many other titles. This can hang with the best of the best: Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, Secret of Mana, Flower, Shadow of the Colossus, Final Fantasy 6, Final Fantasy 10…hmm, you know this might be more difficult than I thought. Maybe I’ll skip the soundtrack rankings.
To list all the tracks I love would be exessive, so I’ll just link a few.
Colony 9 is brimming with hope. That guiar!
It even has a “nighttime” version!
Gaur Plain hits you with an Irish sounding beat and never lets go.
Central Factory is unassuming, eerie but unforgettable.
But Mechonis Field is the grand daddy of them all. I knew the instant I heard it that I would love it forever. I would listen to it a hundred times and not be sick of it. It sounds like the end credits of some anime I caught on some random channel that nobody’s heard of. It builds in just the right way, the melody is there, the instrumentals are strange, robotic. And then 1:25 kicks in and you’re completely, utterly transported. I am getting chills just typing this out as the track accompanies me. Phenomenal tune, one of the best. Whenever I read some Top 25 gaming tracks list, or a Reddit thread about what the best game song is, I never see this mentioned and I shake my head. Obviously, the editors and commentors haven’t played Xenoblade Chronicles.
I played this game at a tumultuous time in my life. I wouldn’t meet Kyla for another few months. I was living with a couple that was on the verge of breaking up. I hogged the living room TV (why didn’t I just move the Wii into my room?) for 88 hours while they were trying to resolve their issues. Selfish on my part, but I was a selfish person in my 20s overall. I think this reflection, along with external factors, also dips my experience with Xenoblade Chronicles a tad. It’s not the game’s fault, that’s just how it was/is.
Still, with a few points taken off, this is still an amazing experience. It’s a role playing game that goes all in on its premise and I can’t even imagine how much better the definitive version was in terms of updated graphics, a new area, more songs and some quality of life updates. If only I’d waited, I could have had an even better time.
But come on, I’m not waiting 10 years for a song as good as Mechonis Field. Or for a game as good as Xenoblade Chronicles.
The 500 