I remember the Wii era like it was yesterday. Nintendo’s family console, as it was often called, included a lot of unforgettable moments. Bowling with the family, destroying televisions due to unsecured Wii Remotes… The Wii was a tremendous success and not only for mainstream gamers. Next to the family-friendly games such as Wii Fit and Wii Sports stood titles like The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and Xenoblade Chronicles. Both extremely impressive, and both considered as some of the best in their genre. If you’re a fan of action RPG games and missed out on the masterpiece that’s Xenoblade Chronicles, the Nintendo Switch gives you a chance to play it in the best way possible. Time to discuss the Definitive Edition of one of the most memorable RPGs under Nintendo’s banner.
What is Xenoblade Chronicles?
Xenoblade Chronicles is developed by Monolith Soft, the team that brought us Xenogears (PlayStation), Xenosaga (PlayStation 2), and Baiten Kaitos (Gamecube). They know what they are talking about when it comes to the JRPG genre and really understand the combination of an emotional story with open-world exploration and innovating combat. Xenoblade Chronicles was supposed to be a masterpiece in the genre and it really reached that level. When you first play Xenoblade Chronicles you’ll see that the design philosophy is pretty old-school, resembling games from the PlayStation/GameCube era. It really feels like an old-school JRPG if you take a look at the characters, the environments, narrative, and the pursuit to innovate the genre.
The innovation comes in the form of the battle system, it’s truly unlike anything else out there. If you see it in screenshots or gameplay videos, it’s hard to understand what’s going on. Unlike traditional RPGs where you attack in turn, you attack in real-time, with a twist. If you engage the enemy by locking on to it, you’ll enter the combat mechanic. In here you’ll have to select a so-called art, which is the game’s special attack. While selecting these, you can move freely in combat and that’s crucial to master. The effectiveness of your attacks often depends on where you and the enemy are positioned; for example, some attacks are better when performed from behind. Thanks to this interactive battle mechanic, it never gets boring and it’s something completely different from what you’re used to. But don’t be mistaken, although the combat might seem fast and rather straightforward, it goes pretty deep. The longest a battle might take is around five to seven minutes for unique monsters or bosses, and it really includes a lot of different attacks and mechanics to master. Xenoblade Chronicles is a game you’ll spend hours in before you’re actually good at it and this didn’t change at all in this new Nintendo Switch version.
Better than ever
At its core, this still is the same Xenoblade Chronicles you played on Nintendo Wii or New Nintendo 3DS (Xenoblade Chronicles 3D), meaning you’ll still get to meet Shulk and go on a tremendous adventure in one of the best open worlds ever created. But, this is also the Definitive Edition, meaning there’s a lot of improvement too. The most noticeable improvement is the new visual style of the characters. Where the old games were often called blurry or even muddy when it came to facial expressions, the Switch version really nails it. The characters traded their realistic yet blurry face for colorful cartoony versions in this Definitive Edition. As you can see on the screenshots, this works a lot better. The story of Xenoblade Chronicles is filled with emotional and even harsh moments, thanks to the new visual style, you’ll be able to really connect to the characters even more. The characters are not the only improvement, of course, the game is bumped to true high definition, which results in brighter graphics and better environments. Where it wasn’t always clear where you needed to go in the original, these improved visuals really help you out a lot as it’s so much more fun to explore this time around. But, visuals aren’t the only improvements here.
Overall, Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition is a far smoother experience than it ever was before, a reason for this is the renewed menus. For those who played the original, the placement of the menu was a bit off, trading a classic menu for a navigation bar. In this version, the menus are a lot more traditional and easier to access. Thanks to this, you can easily take a look at your party or the side-quests you’re currently tracking. Everything about it is just plain simple in this new version and it’s for the better. Not only is the game a look prettier to look at, but it’s also a lot smoother to navigate, which really leads to a lot more joy in the end. It also doesn’t matter how you’re playing this title, both in docked and handheld mode, the game is here to impress. In handheld mode things get a little more blurry and less visible but it’s a huge leap forward compared with Xenoblade Chronicles 2. This port is handled pretty well on Switch and if you’re a handheld gamer, you won’t be disappointed at all, as proven in the video above.
There’s more to the story
If the original Xenoblade Chronicles should be the only content in its reworked form here, we would already be impressed. It’s one of the best games in the genre and it’s finally in its most impressive form. Gameplay and impressive graphics finally go hand in hand to result in hours of fun. But, there’s a lot more to discover here. Instead of just reworking the main story, the team also added a brand-new epilogue called Future Connected. This epilogue is playable from the start and accessible at any time as it has a separate save slot. This means you can jump in the main story and boot up the epilogue just minutes later. A smart decision for returning fans of the original who want to see and play the new content first. If you never played the original however, it’s advised to go through the main adventure first as this epilogue is a direct sequel on the final moments of the main game. If you don’t like to spoil your story, you better stay away from Future Connected until you finished Shulk’s main quest.
For the sake of the review, I won’t go into spoiler territory for Future Connected’s story but I do wish to point out the difference with the main story. First things first, you’ll focus on Shulk and Melia in this story, Melia clearly taking the lead this time around. Both characters kept their iconic attacks from the main game and are at the powerful level 60. One of the biggest differences however is the missing of Shulk’s Monado, which he replaced with a mechanical version. This heavily impacts the gameplay as Shulk can no longer look into the future and anticipate hostile attacks. Most of the other Monado arts are still there to inflict damage but the ability to chain them together is also gone, giving you a lot less attacking power. Due to this, you’ll have to be a lot more calculated and careful during combat as you can easily be overpowered by the enemies. To help you out a bit, you’ll get help by the new characters Kino (support) and Nene (attack) who easily balance things out to your advantage. The biggest advantage however are the special Nopon surveyors, which come in different variations: Red (offensive), Blue (healing), and Yellow (debugging). By completing quests, these little creatures will join your cause and aid you in combat. If you play things correctly, they can even perform a new special attack that can be considered as the perfect replacement of the old chain attacks. At its core, the combat remained a bit the same in this epilogue but due to some restrictions, it all gets a little harder to master and learn, don’t be surprised when you fail in combat the first couple of times.
Besides the new way of battling, this epilogue is also set in a different environment, taking you to the Bionis’ Shoulder and Alcamoth, which is a lot more compact than the environments in the main game. This is nothing to worry about however as the environment is jaw-dopping gorgeous and has plenty of small details for you to discover. Just like in the main story, you’re free to venture where you want and you can easily discover the secrets at your own pacing. Everything about Future Connected feels like a distilled version of Xenoblade Chronicles, keeping the essentials but innovating them enough to keep you entertained. It’s not the biggest or longest expansion ever but it’s a fun epilogue that truly demonstrates what the franchise is all about. I’m sure you’ll enjoy it from start to finish, as I did.
Packed to the brim
This Definitive Edition is really packed to the brim with content. Besides the reworked main story and brand-new epilogue come other improvements such as time trials where you can unlock new armor pieces and different levels of difficulty so everybody can enjoy the game at his/her own pace. We won’t go into full details about these nice little extras here as its part of the charm to explore and discover those for yourselves. One thing’s for sure, this game will keep you entertained for the coming months, easily. It offers a tremendous amount of content and fun for its price and it’s all optimized to run extremely smoothly on your Nintendo Switch (Lite).
Conclusion:
Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition is the perfect example of how a definitive edition should be handled. It improves its main story with better visuals and smoother gameplay and even adds tons of new content to the deal. The original was considered as one of the best games in its genre and this Definitive Edition is by far the best possible way to celebrate that success. If you’re into RPGs, this is a masterpiece you can’t ignore. It feels right at home on the Nintendo Switch and I’m pretty sure you’ll feel right at home in these gorgeous environments too. A classic masterpiece reworked to perfection.
