PROS
Gorgeous world, deceptively complex battle and character development systems, subtly immersive story
CONS
Overly long cutscenes, patchy voice work, excessive tutorials
8 / 10
Nintendo
After a year of unquestionable successes – both critically and commercially – for the Nintendo Switch, the arrival of Xenoblade Chronicles 2 as the console's last major release of 2017 is a curious one. After all, if ever a video game franchise could be accused of bad timing, it's the Xeno series.
For anyone unfamiliar – which is likely to be a fair number of people – you need to understand that the various Xeno entries have, almost to formula, done their best to avoid finding an audience... especially in Europe. Take the original game, Xenogears, a critically-acclaimed Japanese role-playing game developed and published by Square. It was beloved in the original PlayStation era for its polished anime cutscenes, mature themes exploring religion and science, and complex battle system that slotted together human-scale combat and giant robot clashes. It was never released here.
After director Tetsuya Takahashi split with Square and founded Monolith Soft, the new studio produced Xenosaga on PS2. An entire trilogy that served as spiritual successor to Xenogears, we only ever had the second game released. Then you have the first Xenoblade Chronicles, missed by many players despite getting a European release as it launched late in the life cycle of the Wii. A portable remake was only playable on the New Nintendo 3DS, limiting its scope to those who'd adopted the newer hardware. Xenoblade Chronicles X followed, with one of the widest and most successful launches the series had seen – with the caveat that it launched on the Wii U, a console which sold only 13.56m units in its life.
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All of which makes Nintendo's end-of-year gamble on Xenoblade Chronicles 2 a risky one, with more promotion than the franchise has ever seen. Thankfully, the gamble plays out in Nintendo's favour, as this is a brilliant example of the JRPG genre, adhering closely enough to the strictures of the form while modernising it enough for anyone who doesn't know their EXP from their character bond stats.
Nintendo
Although ostensibly a sequel to Xenoblade Chronicles on the Wii, the only major links are some themes and terminology, making this completely approachable for first-timers. Set on the ruined world of Alrest, players take on the role of Rex, a young salvager exploring the depths of the cloud sea that covers the entire surface.
With no land left anywhere on Alrest, the remnants of humanity now live on the backs of Titans, colossal sentient creatures that roam the void. The problem is, Titans are dying out, and the only hope for survival may be finding a way to Elysium, a fabled paradise said to exist at the top of the World Tree – the only thing to protrude from the ocean of clouds.
Nintendo
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Early on, Rex is recruited onto a suspiciously well-paid salvage mission down to a sunken wreck. Expecting to find valuable ancient artifacts, he instead finds a girl, Pyra, in stasis. Inevitable betrayal follows, but what would have been a fatal attack instead bonds Rex and Pyra as 'Driver' and 'Blade', their life-force shared and the pair now capable of unleashing incredible power.
Laid down like that, it all probably sounds like a lot of weird nonsense, but one of the great strengths of Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is its ability to draw you into its strange world. Throughout the epic story that unfolds, writers Tetsuya Takahashi, Yuichiro Takeda, and Kazuho Hyodo craft a fully immersive society, rich in its own lore and customs, and where the relationship between humans and Titans, Drivers and Blades, helps serve world building.
The World Tree is at the centre - literally - of Xenoblade Chronicles 2's complex story
Nintendo
It's a visually astounding world too, with breathtaking environments to discover and brilliantly weird characters inhabiting them. Despite the declining situation on Alrest, the aesthetic wisely avoids post-apocalyptic bleakness, instead opting for a sort of post-industrial meets sci-fantasy mash-up. There are few worlds in gaming like it, and exploring it as Rex and Pyra make their way towards Elysium is a joy.
RPG veterans may baulk at the combat system to begin with though. Rex – and later, his fellow Driver allies – attacks automatically, swinging wildly into enemies leaving the player to simply move around enemies. What feels like hand-holding quickly evolves though, with the real-time battles introducing charged attacks that build over the course of each encounter. As characters level up, these 'Arts' are expanded and active ones can be customised and enhanced. Consumable items can also be held, offering limited-time boosts to stats, Art cooldown times, recovery rates, and more.
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As the name hints, Blades here fill the role of weapons in other RPGs and, despite being sentient, are just as customisable. Aux crystals can modify each Blade's individual skills, and up to three blades can be synched to a Driver, then switched between at will in battle. Setting up the right team of Blades, and swapping them in and out to make use of their abilities at the right time further enhances the complexity of the battle system. After a while, they almost feel like dances, swapping partners to pull off the best moves.
The real modifier is the relationship between Drivers and Blades though. The weapons help their partners unleash more traditional RPG abilities – elemental attacks, group healing, and so forth – with factors such as physical distance, frequency of use, and personal rapport reflected in potency. A few hours in and the combination of Arts and Blade abilities provides a satisfyingly complex system, even allowing for the auto-pilot of basic attacks.
Nintendo
Enhancing Blades' field abilities – clearing obstacles, cooking food that boosts passive traits, finding hidden objects, and more – also makes revisiting past areas worthwhile. With a fast-travel system unlocked early on, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 mercifully avoids any sense of backtracking for the sake of it.
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There is a feeling throughout that Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is something of a reset for the series, too. After Chronicles X on the Wii U offered a mostly exploration-based, arguably more 'hardcore' experience, this leans far more into its story and world. Rex can help the development of cities and settlements on the Titans players will visit, learning more about the various cultures and species that inhabit Alreast, while even seemingly inconsequential side-quests always add to the wider narrative.
On the cloud-covered world of Alrest, living Titans like Rex's father figure Gramps house the last remnants of humanity on their back
Nintendo
There are frustrations though, even for those used to the foibles of JRPGs. Irritatingly, tutorials for minor features pop up for hours into the game, often after you've already experimented with and figured out new features yourself.
Unskippable cutscenes can be far too long at times too, something not helped by a tremendously uneven English dub. Inflections frequently land on the 'wrong' word in a sentence, making dialogue hit the ear strangely. Some scenes early on are so ropey, they feel as if the voice cast was still rehearsing. Hearing an assortment of accents from the north of England amongst the cast – notably Rex himself, and an early party member, Nia – makes a nice change from the all-American dubs often heard, though. For purists, the original Japanese audio will also be available as free DLC.
The world of Alrest is filled with stunning environments to explore, and hundreds of subquests to pursue
Nintendo
Xenoblade Chronicles 2 won't be for everyone. Its very nature means it's nowhere near as accessible as the likes of Super Mario Odyssey, or even The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – a very different sort of RPG. For fans of the genre though, it's a belter, and for anyone willing to give it a shot, it's an excellent introduction to the form.
With Nintendo expecting to shift 14m Switch consoles by the end of the financial year, and with the deserved push this is getting, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 stands to be the franchise's real breakthrough point – finally.
