Screenshot: Nintendo (Kotaku)
Kotaku’s Mike Fahey put it best when he said that Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition “makes an excellent third impression.” As a newcomer to the series, I’d like to add to that: It makes an excellent first impression, as well.
Nintendo’s latest Switch game isn’t exactly full of surprises. Monolith Soft’s venerable role-playing game, spiritual successor to Xenogears and Xenosaga, first released stateside on the Wii in 2012. A few years later, it came to the New Nintendo 3DS. As of last week, it’s out on the Switch. For many, playing Xenoblade is less like trying out a brand-new cuisine and more like re-re-reordering that meal from that one place where you know it’ll hit the spot.
Not for me! Before last month, I only knew of Shulk, the main character, as a fun if overpowered fighter in Super Smash Bros. I’d also heard some horror stories about Xenoblade Chronicles: nigh-unmanageable inventories, a dull combat system, and, of course, the staggering amount of sidequest padding. But I’d also heard that the game world is lovely, the plot beats contain some genuine surprises, and the music—a must for any JRPG worth its salt—is truly best-in-class. This thing’s not considered a modern classic for nothing, right?
By and large, those preconceptions have borne true. And everything that’s upended expectations has been a positive. If you, like me, haven’t played Xenoblade Chronicles and want to see what it’s all about, then Definitive Edition is a great starting point.
The first thing you’ll note about Definitive Edition is how good it looks. Xenoblade Chronicles starts off with a simple story in a fascinating setting: In the opening cutscene, two gods, the Bionis and the Mechonis, fight to the death. Ages pass, and life starts popping up on their long-quiet bodies. There’s a war between two species: Homs (humans) and Mechon (machines…I think). You play as a young Homs named Shulk.
As you guide Shulk and his ragtag team of RPG party tropes on their quest for vengeance, it’s impossible not to stop and take in the …….
Source: https://kotaku.com/if-youve-never-played-xenoblade-the-switch-version-is-1843909017