If the game wants you to have a fight, you’re having a fight. The choices you make in dialogue are very much binary and often lead to the same outcome regardless of your choice. It’s weird to run combat and then watch NPCs take credit for your direction as soon as the cutscenes roll.
The story neither needs nor requires your presence. You’re a created character for the sake of having a created character. It’s not very clear why you’re afforded special privileges at first… and it never becomes wholly clear.
#Xenoblade chronicles x gif movie
This is basically a movie – or more aptly, an anime – and you get a front row seat and the ability to occasionally throw in a cheer or a dash of flavor commentary. It’s not clear at first, but you’re just along for the ride. You’re a rookie, struck with amnesia, and immediately assigned to the most elite commander BLADE has. The strangest part of the story – and of the game as a whole – is your character, newly awakened from stasis after humanity has been on Mira two months. It doesn’t help that the sound balance is often off – turn on subtitles if you don’t want the soundtrack’s lyrics to drown out dialogue sometimes. One alien race is subjected to such a horrid voice filter that I muted the game whenever they showed up. Conversations are weirdly paced, with oddly long pauses between exchanges and what characters say to each other – sometimes stretching into seconds, but never feeling natural. The game’s voice acting is mediocre, but at any given time any character could totally flub their delivery – or blow you away. They often have a complete narrative arc and individual characters – sometimes even with a twist or two. Basic and Affinity Missions are very well crafted compared to anemic side quests in some other games, which is refreshing and pleasing. It’s so blown out, in fact, that you can easily miss some of where the game’s best stories are. Every misspoken world could end a friendship forever, every attack by unknown alien creatures could drive humanity into extinction. Every conflict in the story is blown totally out of proportion and taken without nuance. It’s a story at odds with how much time you actually spend in the game wandering around and picking fights with random alien critters for the umpteenth insect jaw you need to craft your new weapon. Using that wide cast of characters, the story focuses on themes of ethics, environmentalism, and morality against an unsure scale. It’s obnoxious in long term characters – if someone’s going to be around for every mission, you don’t want to be able to say their lines before they do. It’s convenient and well utilized, if groan inducing, in minor characters.
The characters themselves are a variety of reductive stock archetypes – the hardened veteran, manic pixie dream girl, teenage prodigy, good-natured hardass, and flamboyant homosexual are the kind of shorthand the game uses.
That story is all based around setting up expectations and knocking them down using a set of key plot twists and staged reveals we won’t spoil here, but know that’s where the story is going and what its foundation is. The primary protagonists are all part of BLADE, the paramilitary organization dedicated to saving the human race.
It’s a meandering story of desperate colonists in a space opera universe, humans fleeing the wreckage of an earth destroyed as collateral damage in what appears to be some greater interstellar conflict. Xenoblade X uses the JRPG genre’s history of melodrama to lay a twisting, if shallow, plot. Overall though, it’s a superb ambassador for its genre, and will undoubtedly delight those who have been waiting for it. Xenoblade X is a superb example of world building with a decent plot and fun gameplay, but is held back by a number of questionable game systems to understand. It’s Wii U’s biggest JRPG release in the United States and Europe, and this resounding sequel to fan-requested RPG Xenoblade Chronicles is a smashing success and a rollicking good time – even for those who don’t traditionally like this genre of game. It has giant mecha and a sprawling open world. Xenoblade Chronicles X is a fantastical space opera about exploration and the humanity of heroes. Xenoblade Chronicles X developed by Monolith Soft & Nintendo SPD.