[950th Review!] Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition (NSW) Review

It's here! It's SuperPhillip Central's 950th review, and boy, is it a big one! I don't just mean big as in a big-name game, or big as in a big review, either. It's more like, "this game took a long time to beat because it was so big" type of big! Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition launched this past May, and I finally completed both the base game and the all-new epilogue, Future Connected. Here is my review on the game.

A Vision of Beauty

There's always these games that you play, you love, but you never get the chance to finish. For nearly ten years, Xenoblade Chronicles was my Moby Dick, a great gaming whale that I just couldn't overcome. I played a decent way through the Wii original, and then with the hope of the game coming to a handheld with the New Nintendo 3DS version, I failed to even touch the game. Now, Xenoblade Chronicles arrives on the Nintendo Switch with Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition. Complete with a new epilogue (as if I needed more game to play), new quality of life features, and the same stuff I adored about the original game, could I finally play through Xenoblade Chronicles completely? The answer is yes. Not only that, but I absolutely LOVED it.

Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition is set in a fantasy world where a long time ago, two titans clashed blades in battle, the Bionis and the Mechonis. Eventually they critically injured one another in combat and grew dormant. Afterwards, life began flourishing on their colossal bodies, and becoming home to various races of people and creatures. It is on Bionis that intrepid engineer Shulk, his best friend Reyn, and longtime acquaintance Fiora live peacefully at Colony 9, a village surrounded by beauty and peace. However, one day that peace turns into violence when the mechanical and robotic Mechon invade and attack the colony. During a skirmish with the Mechon, Shulk harnesses the power of a sword called the Monado to engage with the enemy and helps repel them. Now, with revenge fresh on their minds for the Mechon's attack on their home, Shulk and Reyn set out from Colony 9 to explore the Bionis, seek justice against the Mechon, and further understand the mysterious power of the Monado.

Shulk answers the question, "Did Phil really enjoy Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition?"

It's hard not to grow enamored with the world and characters of Xenoblade Chronicles. Shulk is a hard worker who is always willing to lend a hand and help out when the going gets tough. His ability to wield the Monado comes up as one of the main focal points of the story, especially when he witnesses a vision yet cannot help with the outcome regardless of the fact. There is a particular moment early on in the story that serves as a catalyst for the adventure. Meanwhile, his best bud Reyn is a cheeky chap, headstrong, bold, and a bit of a numbskull sometimes, but you can bet he's always looking out for Shulk. The rest of the party members that join Shulk's cause are similarly likable. Better yet, they each serve a purpose in and out of battle, too, so there's no superfluous party members to speak of in Xenoblade Chronicles.

You can say that again, Reyn.

The world of Xenoblade Chronicles is extraordinarily vast and expansive, and most of the time in the game is spent exploring the huge, open-world-esque areas of the Bionis and later Mechonis. Your curiosity is generally rewarded, too, either by finding new discoveries like landmarks that can be warped to at any time and other points of interest, or encountering impressive vistas. And believe me, there are a lot of great views to take in. One of the first major areas of the game, Gaur Plain, offers beautiful, natural land bridges, while the Satorl Marsh is unassumingly dreary during the day, but by nightfall it glows with tremendous brilliance. 

Gaur Plain is an early delight to explore and find new discoveries in.

Of course, it pays to be careful while exploring as if you get too close to a particular strong enemy, they won't be as shy in coming after you. It's quite normal to be wandering about with your party at level 10 while some parts of areas feature monsters well in the 80s. Thankfully, dying doesn't have a tremendous penalty, other than taking up some of your time. You're placed at the last warp point you reached, and you can pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and pick up from there.

Battles play out in real time in Xenoblade Chronicles. They begin either by you locking onto a foe and engaging in combat or an enemy becoming aware of you and attacking. Normal attacks happen automatically as your characters are in close proximity to enemies. You can select specific Battle Arts that work best when positioned correctly in relation to a targeted enemy. For instance, Shulk's Back Slash attack understandably works best when a foe is facing away from you with their back towards Shulk. Each move possesses a "cool down" period before they can be used again. When you auto-attack an enemy enough times, you can eventually use your character's Talent Arts, which are specific moves tied to that character. Shulk utilizes his Monado for all of his, performing feats like allowing the other party members to damage Mechon-based foes, or defending characters against enemy Battle Arts. 

Position yourself well in battle to deal more damage to foes.

As you successfully use Arts in battle, a blue Party Gauge at the top left corner slowly builds up, up to three segments. If a character falls in battle, you can pick them up using one of these three gauge segments. If all three segments are empty and all characters die, it's game over. The Party Gauge isn't just for defense, however; it's also used to perform a Chain Attack, allowing you to use multiple party members' moves one after the other to inflict heavy damage at once to an enemy. This depletes the Party Gauge completely, though. In harder battles, it becomes a strategy and choice between keeping the Party Gauge full in case you need to revive a party member or going for a full offensive on a boss, for instance.

Speaking of boss battles and just tough battles in general, when a party member is about to hit with a devastating attack, many times Shulk will have a vision during the battle. This allows him to alert a party member, which in turn grants them the ability to prepare a defense or way to counter it, or gives Shulk the opportunity to put the brakes on the enemy's impending assault with Shulk's own Monado Art. Like reviving allies and performing Chain Attacks, warning other characters costs a segment of the Party Gauge. The only big issue with this mechanic, however novel and cool it is, is that it can happen way too often in certain battles. Sometimes visions can happen multiple times within a short time span, really breaking the flow of battle, especially because you have to watch the enemies' foreseen attack play out in real time. Still, though, it's a small gripe to an awesome and otherwise well executed concept.

Early on, the Monado is the only effective weapon against the Mechon.

When you're not engaged with epic battles or exploring the expansive lands of Xenoblade Chronicles, you're probably going to have your hand in quests. There are a tremendous number of side quests in the game, which might make a completionist go insane, but for everyone else, they're a terrific way of gaining experience points, money, and equipment. Side quests generally fall into one of three categories: eliminating a certain monster or monsters, collecting specific materials, or conversing back and forth with various NPCs. Thankfully, Monolithsoft has made tracking quests much less of headache than compared to the Wii original and even the New Nintendo 3DS port of the game thanks to being able to track quests, see exclamation points on the map to see where you need to go, among other helpful information that was lacking in past iterations of the game. It's also all easily accessible with a simple press of the down direction on the D-Pad to instantly pop open the Quest Log. 

Exclamation points on the mini-map indicate where quest items and enemies are located.

The Quest Log isn't the only place that things have been streamlined for a better, higher quality, more efficient experience. The menus in general are simple to use, conveying information that is readily available and accessible at any time. It was an utter pain in the original Wii game to view how equipment changes would affect your character. No longer so in the Definitive Edition. Not only can you see the detailed effects of newly equipped weapons, armor and crafted gems in an easier way, but you do so without as much menu-surfing. It's especially cool that you can set a base armor set for your character, so no matter what you equip to them, they'll stay visually in the same outfit. Though I preferred to change things up for aesthetic purposes, myself.

The quality of life improvements don't stop there, either, as the Affinity Chart provides an abundance of info that the past Xenoblade Chronicles incarnations failed to share. For example, the location of characters is properly displayed, so there's no running to a FAQ or making your own out-of-game Excel spreadsheet to keep track of things. Plus, each glimpse of an NPC provides a look at what materials, gems, weapons, and armor they are up for trading. All of these changes make for a much more enhanced experience, so much so that I can't imagine going back to the old versions of the game--even for novelty reasons. If only they were there in the previous versions, but I guess the old saying is true--the third time IS the charm!

Other changes to this new and improved edition of Xenoblade Chronicles include "super quick" fast travel, allowing you to warp to locations across an area quickly, or change areas entirely in a speedy manner. It makes clearing side quests a less laborious and most importantly timely effort than in the Wii original. There's also difficulty options, such as Casual mode, where enemies deal less damage and you have a sporting chance against enemies that are twenty levels ahead of you. There's also Expert mode, which allows you to lower your party's individual experience levels to make the game more challenging, yes, but also to give your characters more experience from defeated enemies. Either way, with Casual and Expert, now the need to grind and boost your party's levels to reasonable heights for end-game quests and areas is also a less laborious and more time-saving one.

There's far less clutter on screen in battle, and it's easier to read everything, too.

Finally, there's a 10-15 hour epilogue to the main adventure of Xenoblade Chronicles in this Definitive Version with Future Connected. It sees a new area of the Bionis to explore, as well as a snappily paced story that features Shulk, Melia, and two Nopon companions, Nene and Keno. It's a satisfying cap to the adventure, offering a start at level 60 for the party, as well as an engaging story with new characters and the wonderful exploration and discoveries of the new Bionis Shoulder. The latter is especially enjoyable thanks to all of the unique areas spread about the relatively small region. There's plenty to see and do across the shoulder, and it's particularly great to have Quiet Moment interactions between party members be fully voiced this time around unlike the main game. To be fair, the main game featured a heck of a ton of a lot more of these events, so that would have been an obvious logistical nightmare to voice them all on top of the utterly immense script. 

The gameplay is similar to Xenoblade Chronicles' main game, save for some aspects, such as Shulk not having his visionary Monado abilities, for instance. Additionally, the main side quest this time around is the search for various Nopon Ponspectors, who after you perform a mission for them, they join your team and form a nice line of miniature attackers in battle and as you explore. Instead of a Chain Attack when the Party Gauge is full, you can unleash a Ponspector Union Strike, granting one of three different abilities. These are regen, de-buffing the enemy, or an all-out heavy attack on the enemy. These attacks are a great reward for acquiring every Ponspector on your team, not just for the destination of having a powerful team on your side, but because the journey is fun, too.

I'm quite impressed by how good Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition looks on the Nintendo Switch compared to the Wii original. The characters and enemies have the most sensational enhancements, looking absolutely fantastic in both detail and animation. Meanwhile, environments are even more jaw-dropping than they were on the Wii, and they were also amazing to look at then. From the added shaders in play to the new lighting and improved textures, this game looks gorgeous. The voicework is excellent, too, and quite possibly one of my favorite dubs period. Meanwhile, the music has been rearranged to fantastic effect, harnessing even more emotion than before. 

Don't mind me. Just admiring the vegetation here while running around in Eryth Sea.

The "Definitive" part of Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition isn't just there to make for a fancier game title. It's there because it's absolutely true. This is the best version you can play of Xenoblade Chronicles, one of the absolute greatest JRPGs on not just a Nintendo console, but any platform. The epic 70+ hour journey will delight, surprise and mystify you with its excellence, the exploration and sense of discovery will constantly reward you, the battle system will engage you from beginning to end, and the new QoL features will make you wonder how you ever enjoyed the Wii original. Even the epilogue in Future Connected delivers on more terrific goodness if the base game isn't enough for you. Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition makes a great game from the Wii an even better game now on the Nintendo Switch.

[SPC Says: A]

Xenoblade Chronicles X (Wii U) E3 2014 Trailer

After multiple trailers and teasers, the mysterious project "X" now has a name to it-- Xenoblade Chronicles X. This Wii U exclusive features multiple mechs, sci-fi action, and expansive areas to explore.

Project X Zone (3DS) Review

Thursday on SuperPhillip Central delivers to you a brand-new review. Project X Zone was a game we really wanted to see localized, and now that we have it available to us.... well, be careful what you wish for. Not to say Project X Zone is horrible. It's just that we were expecting so much more. Here's Phil's review.

Come for the fan service, 

stay for the... Wait. Don't stay.

If you remember my Tatsunoko VS. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars review, I mentioned that many, including myself, believed that the localization of such a game could never be done, but Capcom surprised the world by releasing it in the West on the Wii. Now, Namco Bandai has released another game that many, including myself, believed never had a chance to hit our side of the Pacific due to all of the licensing and character issues involved. However, that game, Project X Zone (pronounced Project Cross Zone), has arrived, featuring characters from three of the biggest video game publishers in Japan. Unfortunately, unlike Tatsunoko VS. Capcom, Project X Zone was not well worth the wait.

Project X Zone's plot revolves around characters from a myriad of worlds being transported to and fro with the desire of each character to return to their home world. Things get dicey when a villainous group wishes to cause nothing but trouble. It's a simple story... being you know many of the characters involved. Otherwise you might be left in the dark, as Project X Zone does little to shed some light on what's really going on. Still, if you think you can enjoy the various character reactions to one another and the sometimes funny dialogue, then you may actually like the story that Project X Zone has to offer.

Many players in the West will
probably not know too many faces here.

Project X Zone is a strategy RPG consisting of friendly units in the form of character duos. For instance, Mega Man X and Zero join forces, Ryu and Ken of Street Fighter fame are partners, Jin Kazama and Ling Xiaoyu from Tekken are a team, and so forth. Maps in Project X Zone take place on grid-based stages based off the numerous locations of many of the crossover titles featured within the game.. Every unit on your side of the game is made up of two characters with a third unit being optional, able to be called in once every confrontation.

The map sizes range from big to too big.

When moving near an enemy unit, you can enter battle. Known as the Cross Action Battle System, the battle system in Project X Zone utilizes the A button in conjunction with up to five different directions on the Circle Pad. While this might seem like plenty of options, if you want to gain the most amount of attacks in a given battle you need to use each different direction once to earn an extra attack. This means there's little strategy involved in choosing which attacks you wish to use, and seeing as how you have to watch these battle animations each time (they're in real time, after all, since you're directly controlling them), things can also get rather dull quickly.

"I'm an upper-cut above the rest."

If a friendly unit is to an adjacent square on the grid, you can summon them during a battle to serve as a support attack, dealing extra damage to your target. While your characters are dishing out damage to a given target, your Cross Power gauge increases. This gauge can grow up to 150% in length, and be used to unleash a powerful dual attack on a foe, be used to access character skills, or be used to counter or defend a foe's attack.

Project X Zone's chapters, all 40+ of them, are more like marathons than sprints. Chapters take an absurdly long time to complete, and while you can save during each mission, tedium sets in rather quickly when you're utilizing the same commands in battle and using little actual strategy in a strategy RPG. You can pretty much force your way through most chapters without much in the way of a challenge. Furthermore, bosses are merely the SRPG equivalent of bullet sponges, possessing ungodly amounts of hit points.

Unfortunately, my favorite characters,
X and Zero, don't show up in PXZ until midway.

And that is a common theme with Project X Zone. It's a game that wears you down while not providing a lot of fun. Yes, it's cool to have characters that you are and aren't familiar with from gaming's past join your party of interworld fighters, but that just means more characters, meaning turns go on even longer. Then there's the fact that after the initial ten or twenty enemies on a given chapter's map have been defeated, twenty more show up. Is this really necessary? It just prolongs the already repetitive battles and makes that negative of the game shine even brighter than before.

Slice and dice!

While there isn't much to be amazed at sprite-wise on the various maps of Project X Zone, battles are just insanely fun to watch. The sprites have a seemingly endless amount of animation frames to them, their attacks are entertaining and cool to see, and by far the most impressive visual showing is the special attacks. The sprite-based animation of Project X Zone is simply sensational. The voice work uses the original Japanese voice actors, as obviously there would be too many legal hoops to jump through otherwise for a release in the West. The music is a combination of original and remixed tunes to get you energized for the game's chaotic confrontations.

These new boxers are
Fruit of the Loom.

Overall, Project X Zone is a strategy RPG with little actual strategy involved. Chapters are way too lengthy, certainly going on for a duration that will put many players into a deep sleep due to all of the repetition involved. The chance to see a cast of characters from Namco Bandai, Capcom, and SEGA interact with one another is great, but a potential buyer of Project X Zone will have to think long and hard about whether the tedium of the game is worth the experience. Project X Zone isn't a bad game, per se, it's just not as fantastic as I would have hoped. Those who have long put away Fire Emblem: Awakening and are looking for another brilliant strategic RPG to play should keep looking.

[SPC Says: 6.0/10]

Unnamed Monolith Soft Project (Wii U) E3 2013 Trailer

We originally saw this game debut at a Nintendo Direct earlier this year. Now, we have our second glimpse at this game, made by Monolith Soft, the terrific minds behind Xenoblade Chronicles. Take a look at this open world RPG that does nothing but impress us.

The Latest Nintendo Direct, Double Standards, and Being the Underdog

Wednesday's Nintendo Direct was focused solely on the Wii U. For months we have been hearing and reading statements from Nintendo that they were just dealing with the launch period. That was fine and all, but many of Wii U owners wanted to know what was coming in the future, outside the launch window. The hardware manufacturer and software-making extraordinaire finally let loose some gems during their Nintendo Direct. It seems E3 had come early for Nintendo fans.

Now it's important to note that there was a fairly decent sized amount of software to look forward to already, such as Rayman Legends, LEGO City Undercover, Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, Pikmin 3, The Wonderful 101, and Bayonetta 2. However, many Wii U owners like myself wanted to know when the so-called "blockbusters" and real system sellers were coming. The fact of the matter is that early adopters were most interested in the tried and true types of games Nintendo is known for and the ones that fans were most hyped for. I am referring to a 3D Mario, a new Zelda, and games along those lines.

A new trailer for The Wonderful 101 

renewed interest in the title. 

Although we knew that eventually games like the aforementioned Marios, Zeldas, and Mario Karts were coming as those are the titles that never miss a Nintendo console, it was just nice to get a confirmation from Satoru Iwata that not only were they coming, but that they would be playable at this year's E3.

Nonetheless, some argue that without release dates and vague "these games are coming" type announcements with no trailers to speak of that Nintendo is just giving out "empty promises." Those are not my words, by the way. It seems that when Nintendo did not announce they were working on future titles beyond the launch window, people said the company had no long-term vision. Now that Nintendo has announced titles outside of the launch window, it appears that these same people are saying that the company is giving "empty promises."

This is all the while these same people getting amped for the new Xbox and PlayStation consoles. We know very little about the platforms, but that doesn't stop people from getting excited despite the rumors and "you'll see soon what is in store" statements that surround them basically amounting to "empty promises" as well. There's a big double standard here.

The thing of it is is that even though Nintendo heavily relies on its legacy and historic franchises, these franchises are constantly evolving. Generally (big emphasis on "generally") each game in the series tries something new to give the series a fresh feeling. Well, not New Super Mario Bros., but you can get what my point is regardless. The Legend of Zelda series introduced Z-targeting, touch controls, sailing, trains, playing as a wolf, near 1:1 motion control sword combat, and other concepts to keep the series progressing.

1:1 swordplay was just one new thing

added to the storied Zelda franchise.

While we have countless new franchises from other studios that are just the same games we've been playing for a decade now only with a new coat of paint and new IP attached to it (looking mostly at first-person shooters here), Nintendo's games attach old IPs and create new experiences that haven't been seen before. And again, not New Super Mario Bros., but you can get what my point is regardless.

At that same token, Nintendo does create new franchises. They've made new IPs like Xenoblade Chronicles, Brain Age, Pushmo/Crashmo, Sakura Samurai, Dillon's Rolling Western, Rhythm Heaven, Elite Beat Agents, Steel Diver, Fossil Fighters, Disaster: Day of Crisis, and so forth. They might not be at the caliber of or use as many resources as Mario or Zelda, but they're still all-new franchises.  Then the excuse is that they don't market them as much as Mario or Zelda so those games don't count, or they're too casual so those don't matter either. It's a simply put ridiculous stance to take.

What excited me most about the Wii U Nintendo Direct was confirmation that my purchase was a fruitful endeavor. It is always a risk to buy a console at or around launch. It didn't help that Nintendo was playing its cards incredibly close to its vest, but now we know that the big notable system sellers are indeed coming, and they are arriving relatively soon. The Wii U purchase was redeemed for many, or for those who don't own one yet, gave these fine folks a reason to look into the console.

Then there were the completely new announcements with screens or trailers to go with them like the tentatively titled Yarn Yoshi, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD remaker, and most impressive of all, Monolith Soft's brand-new and unnamed RPG project, which really proved to me that developers can make next-gen looking software on the Wii U if they try.

A new Yoshi game was rumored a while back,

but it's official announcement still surprised.

With all of the "Nintendo is doomed", "Nintendo needs to go third-party", and "Nintendo is living in the past" nonsense articles and analysis assessments going around from people and sites desperate for clicks and hungry to see a console fail, despite that not being good for the industry they are involved in and are supposed to enjoy (someone who wants to see a console fail is not someone who cares about this industry), it is an awesome sight to see Nintendo continue to thrive and prove doubters wrong.

Looking good, Link!

Even when they're leading the pack, Nintendo still seems like the underdog. They don't have billions of dollars in resources to pick up every third-party game out there. They don't have the money to spend on ridiculously-sized marketing campaigns. They also don't have a computer or television division to fall back on when their game division fails like Sony or Microsoft. Case in point, Nintendo lives and dies by gaming. That is their only avenue of business.

Giant monsters and mechs? 

You had me at hello.

The Wii U Nintendo Direct showed that Nintendo is not going to lay down and die. Wii U sales might not be at the level of the Wii during the same time frame, and the system might be harder to advertise than its predecessor, but Nintendo is showing once again that they are all about gaming and delivering unique experiences that are difficult to find anywhere else. As a Wii U owner, the Nintendo Direct gave me solace in knowing that my purchase no longer had to be majorly dependent on announcements that hadn't happened yet. Now I know that the Wii U has a future, and it certainly looks like a bright one at that. Whether it wins the generation or not is something I couldn't care less about. Leave that pissing contest for the console warriors and zealots that frequent gaming message boards and comment sections. What I care about is receiving a good stream of quality games, and that appears to be exactly what is going to happen with the Wii U.

Unnamed Monolith Soft Game (Wii U) Debut Trailer

If you're looking for something stunning for the Wii U, then look no further than the final game shown during the Nintendo Direct this morning. It's Monolith Soft's latest RPG project, currently unnamed. You had me at mech combat, folks, and I'm sure a lot of people are saying the same thing.