I know we had a thread about this a while back, but it was only out in Europe and Japan so nothing really came of it.
Xenoblade Chronicles for the Wii has officially come out in the US on limited release, that means copies will be rare – in fact, I believe only Gamestop and Amazon are selling them, and several Gamestops have reported they’re only getting in copies for pre-orders. Mine has several up for normal purchase so that’s not universal, either way, it may be hard to find a copy if you’re interested.
For those not in the know, Xenoblade Chronicles is being heralded as one of the best JRPGs of the generation, if not all time. It did excellent in Japan and reasonably well in Europe, and everyone was baffled why they didn’t bring it to North America. It sparked Operation Rainfall, which was another silly, ill-fated “localize this game” campaign people like to start. This one, however, actually had money behind it and not just a few hundred angry nerds writing letters, and so it’s been released.
The game itself I’m not 100% sure about, I understand it fixes many complaints about modern JRPGs, no more waiting around for a certain time of day, you can change the clock yourself. You can save anywhere. Your equipment choices actually change your character’s appearance, etc. Yeah, these are standard for WRPGs, but JRPGs have been behind.
I’ll post a more thorough impression of gameplay and story one I, you know, play it, but that’s the general background.
I don’t buy many Wii games. I prefer portables so I can watch TV and stuff while playing, so my 3DS has been seeing a lot of action lately while the Wii is used mostly for Netflix and Hulu Plus. This game however has so many incredibly glowing reviews that I was I was convinced to take the plunge. I’ve only played very little so far, but I should have some good time this weekend to really dive in and see if it lives up to the hype.
So I will also come back with impressions once I really sink my teeth in.
Well it turns out that the hours I’ve spent with it this weekend weren’t enough to even begin to scratch the surface yet. This is the sort of game that I’ll constantly sidetracked by power leveling and sidequests, and that a good thing since I’ll obviously be playing it for a very long time.
The graphics are very impressive for Wii, I’d say the best ‘realistic’ style graphics on the system. So far the mechanics and presentation and such are entirely competent, I don’t quite see yet what makes it so darn special but I have every confidence that it will as I really begin to make progress through the story.
Even just based on what I’ve seen so far I’d recommend it to anyone who likes jRPGs and has a Wii. I don’t quite know If I’d recommend buying a Wii for it yet, but we’ll see.
I’ll admit I haven’t even gotten through the first town, but I’m underwhelmed. So far the battle system doesn’t seem really special, the story nor the world have grabbed me at all, and the sidequests seem at the same level as MMO sidequests.
Again, I haven’t even really touched it by any standard, but it’s a chore to pick it up again, and I generally don’t like playing games that take a while to “get good.” I’m definitely going to push and see if I like it, but it’s not looking good so far.