Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is still one of the biggest and most successful action-RPG games currently out on the Nintendo Switch. It offered a vast world to discover filled with interesting quests. The world of Xenoblade Chronicles still holds a lot of unsolved mysteries and untold stories. The first big expansion, Torna ~ The Golden Country, shows us things we haven’t seen before.
Let’s go back in time
Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is a great game, as we already told you in our initial review. Although the game left us with some mixed feelings. The story was great and fantastically told but the ending could have been a lot better. The way they solved the problems was a little too easy and they mentioned the Aegis War that took place 500 years prior to the events of Chronicles 2 a lot. Of course, those flashbacks were needed to flesh out some of the characters but it’s a shame the war never got explained, this is exactly why Torna ~ The Golden Country is here now.
Torna ~ The Golden Country takes place 500 years before the events of Xenoblade Chronicles 2. The Aegis War is at full power and the evil Aegis Malos is on a quest to destroy all the humans and titans on Alrest. It’s not a joyful time, it’s a time where humanity needed a hero to stop it all, they needed someone who could act up and stop this madness once and for all. You’ll find this heroin in Lora, a mercenary accompanied by her loyal Blade called Jin. If you’ve played the main game before, you already understand the importance of those characters. Although you’ll get to know Lora a lot better thanks to her amazing story, you’ll also find out how Jin ended up as one of the enemies in Chronicles 2. An interesting story for the more hardcore fans. Later on in the game, you’ll meet two powerful and loyal friends who are willing to team up with your, resulting in a game that feels more like Xenoblade Chronicles 2.5 than just another expansion.
Bring them down
Torna ~ The Golden Country feels more like a completely new Xenoblade Chronicles games thanks to its scale. It offers a new vast world to discover, including a lot of extra quests. Besides this, the story is also entirely new and is told in true Xenoblade fashion, meaning you’ll learn to love each and every character after spending a lot of hours with them. Although it continuous the franchise using the same mechanics, this expansion even dares to improve some of them.
At first sight, the battles are the same as the ones in Xenoblade Chronicles 2. Your characters still automatically attack the enemies when they are in range and you can still activate your Arts to deliver special powerful attacks. The Blade Specials also make a return but offer an interesting new mechanic. These attacks are unlocked if you manage to successfully land a couple of Arts in order to build up the momentum of a Blade Special. Just like before, you’ll have to clear a short quick timed event to nail those special attacks but if you do it right, you’ll get some orbs. You’ll need those to activate chain attacks and deadly combos to bring down your enemies faster. New in this expansion is that you gain those orbs by performing Blade Specials, not in a set order like before but by just randomly performing them. Every character can activate them and since there’s no longer a set order needed to clear, you’re able to bring down your enemies a lot faster.
Thanks to this, battles feel more natural and are a lot more fluent than before. To make it even better both Driver and Blade can fight in the front or support in the back. You can easily shift between them and it’s clear that the team listened to the feedback of the fans. The fans wanted more fast-paced and fluent battles, this is exactly what they get in this expansion.
The perfect Xenoblade Chronicles?
On paper, Torna ~ The Golden Country sounds like the perfect Xenoblade Chronicles game and if we take a look at the different aspects of the game, it really is to some point. The story is breathtaking and the story of your main characters is a harsh one that won’t leave you untouched at the end. Combine this with the more fluent battles and an interesting new open world and you understand why this is so much more than just an easy expansion. The team even invested in the graphics as they are boosted slightly to deliver the best possible result on Nintendo Switch, however you’re playing this.
This all sounds good but it’s not a perfect game on the other game. First things first, although it’s marketed as a standalone product, you’ll need your knowledge of Xenoblade Chronicles 2 to truly understand everything that’s going on. Sure, you can easily enjoy the story without any foreknowledge but you’ll miss out on some small and yet crucial references. The game also became a bit easier due to the new battle mechanics, and although this is good news for the newcomers, the veterans might not like this at all.
Conclusion:
Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna ~ The Golden Country is the perfect entry point in the franchise since it offers the best-looking and most fluent experience to date. It does come at the cost of not always truly understanding what’s going on if this is your first Xenoblade Chronicles game. If you’ve played the other games before, you’ll adore this new story and the world to discover. It’s a little easier than you’re used to but it’s still an amazing journey from start to finish. Definitely a game worth owning on your Nintendo Switch.
