Another year, another Xenoblade Chronicles remaster, and it's the black sheep of the series. I don't actually mind, there's so many different and interesting aspects that elevate the game's exploration and mechanics. Monolith's greatest strengths be world-building, and deep RPG gameplay.
Still, much like prior titles, kind of chore to go through. This definitive edition didn't fix the mundane exploration, chores, and the overwhelming amount of RPG elements so cluttered. This is a spin-off with a tangible real world possible scenario and while I do get the 'Independence Day' vibe, I got to say, this one slowly started to actually grow on me.
The rest of the mechanics eventually do as well, but hey, there's one big reason why anyone would want to play this; you see that flying mech on the left? Yeah, there you go. I so badly want to fly the damn thing, and it takes such a long time already to get there.
Welcome to New L.A. (Los Angeles), the old one got blown up by two warring alien factions and now the surviving humanity from the White Whale crashed landed on a planet called Mira. Here, you get corrupt politics, military that doesn't get respect or paid well enough.
Playing as an amnesiac was bad enough, I have to be in the middle of fixing humanity's problems in a completely unknown planet. There's only so-much that could go wrong. Like a Lifehold that contains all the DNA code for every lifeform from earth, and the humans that lived. The aliens who attacked us found their way here. And it turns out they're one of the lowest hierarchy.
That Lifehold is lost somewhere, turns out everybody is a walking consciousness in an android body, and that their human bodies are inside pods within said Lifehold, and that the clock is ticking before power runs out, and they all die. Also, I found a Nopon. That's the worst one of all!
So much is at stake, and besides the cookie cutter plotlines, it does its best to get you involved in an intergalactic war while being part of the greater whole of the cause. There's a lot of ground to cover when it comes to the gameplay, PRG parts, powering up, unlocking things, managing your resources, doing chores, charting new areas in the planet, fighting alien baddies, etc.
The world of Mira is immense, interconnected with large regions. Each of them: Primordia, Oblivia, Noctilum, Sylvalum, and Cauldros offers their own distinct geography, ecosystems thanks to great environmental design, and highly varied enemy types. The use of verticality along with the massive scale of these areas with high mountains, upper altitude terrain, hidden caves, makes the journey all the more perilous. Which is why I skipped fighting 50% of the monsters.
But hey, the entire districts of New L.A. have so many errands for you to run. You're also tasked with finding Miranium deposit sites that allow you to switch between Research, Mining, Storage probes, and many more. So that you can earn various currencies.
All of that, along with doing quests, finding relics, and taking out tyrants, they are part of me surveying each of the regions. Which gives me rewards the more of they're covered. That sounds like a great incentive, right? Here's the thing. Traversal in here is maddeningly challenging. Some of these things are hidden or just way out of reach. Not to mention stronger wildlife. I get that it's creating this sense of danger and putting things at stake, despite how of a chore all of it is.
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The approach to how you play is plenty. You can fine-tune Arts, upgrade equipments and abilities, and the class system allows experimentation with different playstyles. If you deposit minerals, it unlocks new equipment and weapons of different companies.
Capitalism sure is alive in colonized planets as well. Not that I'm playing as the bad guys, other alien species under threat join our cause, and together we figure so much about what's going on. During interaction, you pick between dialogue choices and this is important as they become junctions leading to different outcomes. While also increasing affinity with teammates.
Combat is the same as Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive, but with quite a number of tweaks here and there. Enemies can be toppled here too, but with so much military might, you'll definitely have a higher kill count than Shulk himself. What's different is that you can target different appendages, breaking those do make them easier to kill. Rest is sheer damage factor.
Much later on, Overdrive is unlocked. It's like under a limited time, every art and skills has less cooldown, damage point increases, and you're like a team of Super Saiyans going hard against anything that moves. Follow the exclamation marks, and keep up with the combos guidance.
You have all kinds of missions to do as well, including Affinity missions, which are for your main party members, including new ones getting added to the roster, and you cannot do the story quests while these are active. Tough luck. Plus, the rewards aren't really worth going for it.
Look, once you've established enough probes, you'll have enough mining resources and currency that becomes residual income, enough to buy almost anything you want. But you know what I really wanted? A freaking mech. It took, dear god, dozens of hours. I died a lot, got lost and wandered back, thank god for teleporting. But give me a break, I'm bored out of my mind here.
Ok, then if the mainline RPG stuff isn't enough, piloting a Skell will change everything. These behemoths, once unlocked and finished a side mission for a license, allow me to traverse out-of-reach areas and can convert into fast moving buggy even.
Skells can have customized weapons, armor, and paint job options that are incredibly detailed. All I have to do is continue to finish the main story missions, one after the other. Next thing I know, it has thrusters and can fly several hundred feet by mission 9. Remember, out of reach areas for probes, tyrants, and even relics are accessible easily right after that.
It's there that I started to see what's around to appreciate. X depth of content is deep and wide. The character writings are pretty engaging at times, and for a Switch exclusive, it doesn't look bad at all. All I had to do is play 30+ hours to reach at the level that complete shifts the game as a whole. Man, I just realized, my mech is a literal Transformer now.
