Game Review: Xenoblade Chronicles 2 - RPG #28

In Year 2017 is the year of Nintendo, this one sentence can not be denied anymore. To make sure it does not repeat the same mistakes that happened in Nintendo Wii U, Nintendo managed to make the first year's release game line fantastic ending Switch. Not only bombarded with indie games who try their luck here, but also exclusive game projects with quality that can not be underestimated. More cool? This happens year-round. Not even the age of one year, Nintendo Switch has been flooded with first-class games that are able to become the candidate Game of the Year. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is the first large-scale JRPG specifically aimed at exclusives for this new Nintendo console. Still developed by Monolith Soft, the developer responsible for Xenogears and Xenosaga in the past, they bring the latest Xenoblade series, exclusive to the Nintendo Switch. Still overshadowed by the success of the prequel, this game brought great hope since it was first announced earlier this year. Opened with Breath of the Wild, filled with Splatoon 2, reinforced with Super Mario Odyssey, and finally closed with one of the most anticipated exclusive games for JRPG gamers - Xenoblade Chronicles 2. A game with a hum of weak popularity, but provokes a great curiosity.

We pay special attention to the design of his character, especially to the seductive female protagonist figure, as well as the MMO-like battle system but with slower pacing. Trope anime cliches are scattered and felt so familiar, above a world that holds the mystery and at the same time a challenge waiting to be conquered. There are many other activities that you can pursue through a series of side missions on offer. Admittedly, this execution is not perfect. Some feel right on target, but others deserve to trigger their own criticism. So, what is actually offered by Xenoblade Chronicles 2 this? Why do we call it an imperfect game that keeps flirting? This review will discuss it more deeply for you.

Story

This game laid out a world above the cloud called Alrest. Alrest's people live on an impermanent Titan. Rex, a young man raised by a Titan called Azurda, aspires to be a Driver, a designation for weapons control called Blade. Rex who was killed in the Blade quest, suddenly came back to life after he met the legendary Blade named Pyra in different realms. Rex promised that Pyra would take him to a place called Elysium which is believed to be a paradise of mankind and home to Pyra. In a world called Alrest, life is no longer active and growing above ground. Almost all living things, including humans in them, live on the backs and body parts of a gigantic monster named Titan who never tires, to move over a sea of clouds. You play the role of a Scavenger named Rex, who, like his job name, is assigned to "dive" into past civilizations to explore technologies that can be sold to recepters. Rex himself lives on a Titan in a smaller size that he calls "Gramps" or grandfather. Like all the remaining cultures today, Rex also lives on Titan, a giant creature that continues to move along the ocean of clouds in Alrest. But unfortunately, Alrest is a world headed for destruction. That like all other living things, these large Titans are living beings that can age and die. While on the other hand, civilization and the countries that are formed also do not make things better. War continues to rage and even more risky accelerate the death of these Titans. With the rest of the Titan being limited and the war going on, the hope of finding a solution to save Alrest comes to Rex's mind. Legend mentions that the only way to do this is to climb a towering giant tree located in the middle of the world - the World Tree. Reportedly, at the top of the tree lived a mysterious architect named who became the source of all kinds of life in Alrest and is believed to restore the world back to its proper form.

Rex's dream of reaching the World Tree and saving Alrest into an irrational dream becomes possible within a short time. A job that promises huge amounts of money puts it in a group containing characters like Jin, Malos, and Nia. The three new members hired Rex to take a treasure in the ancient civilization's ruins. This trip opened Rex's eyes to a technology he never knew. At the end, he saw a graceful woman locked behind a mirror. Before being able to dig further information, Jin's sword wielded his heart, and Rex was killed. Recruited for his ability as a Scavenger by a mysterious group, Rex actually meets a destiny he never predicted. He meets a mysterious Blade tucked away behind a glass coffin. But Rex's intersection with the woman behind the glass gave rise to a second chance that sounded like a miracle. The woman who had the Pyra name turned out to be a Blade - a "living weapon" that was indeed presented in so many shapes and types. Pyra is ready to give up half his life to revive Rex, and the two will share an inseparable relationship. As a replacement? Rex had to promise to bring Pyra to the World Tree for a reason that he did not understand either. Both agree, and Rex is "reborn" as Driver-a Blade handler, which in this scenario, of course is Pyra. Both managed to beat back Jin but ended up injured and stranded on a different Titan.

Betrayed and dying, Blade is apparently named "Pyra 'is apparently ready to share his life with Rex. Instead, he asks Rex to take him to the World Tree - a gigantic tree in the center of Alrest that is believed to be the source of all kinds of life there. As predictable, Pyra is not a "regular" Blade. Save himself and find Nia as a member of the team who also defected to help Pyra in the latest conflict, a new adventure begins. Slowly but surely, Rex realizes that he has become a Driver for an unusual Blade. Blade is being pursued by everyone, Blade is mentioned to have a fantastic ability, Blade is also reportedly killed many Titan hundreds of years ago. Pyra becomes a magnet for problems. Did Rex manage to bring Pyra to Elysium?

Gameplay

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is the first large-scale JRPG to be released for the Nintendo Switch. Previously, we apologize if our review does not include a comparison with the prequel, as we are a newcomer to this franchise. This game is still developed by Monolith Soft, which also handles Xenogears series, Xenosaga and Xenoblade Chronicles before. For additional information, Monolith Soft is a different company with Monolith Productions that developed the game Middle-earth Shadow of War. Despite being named Monolith, they have no attachment to each other. Here we cover in full every aspect of gameplay in this game:

Exploration

Rex and his friends will explore Alrest's world on foot. Each area itself is very wide to be explored to the corners. When exploring, various types of monsters are scattered throughout the area, ranging from low to far beyond the character level. This of course gives a thrilling sensation when you have to pass through certain areas that contain these vicious monsters. The only way is to avoid their sight or to wait until they move. Fortunately, you do not need to travel long distances, just to get to a certain point. By visiting an area called Landmark, you have enabled the Skip Travel feature that allows you to switch places in an instant. One thing that is very annoying and complained of many parties is the map system in this game. In fact the system, it will make you more lost and very confusing. This is because the map is zoomed-in so you can not see the map of the area thoroughly. The only way to see the map thoroughly, when you want to do Skip Travel. This is further compounded by the compass presentation along with its confusing elevation system. In the objective icons located above the screen, there are sometimes up or down arrows, indicating that the location is at a different level than the character position. In fact, we often feel that the placement of the arrow is slightly misleading and makes us lost. When exploring, you will find several places, obstacles or treasure chests that require Blade skill to pass through it called Field Action. If you have met the available Field Action criteria, then the path or crates will open. In addition to Field Action, there is another mini-game marked with an anchor icon and is called Salvaging, a treasure-saving process that requires a special item called Cylinder. When the Salvaging process occurs, a QTE button will appear on the screen that will determine the scarcity of the items obtained. In addition to the main mission, there are also various types of Side Quest that you can live in order to pursue the prize offered. However, the variation of the existing side quest is quite monotonous, such as searching items or eradicating certain monsters.

Battle

The fight happens in real-time, where every time you meet with the enemy, then in that place also who will become the battle arena. There is no displacement field and loading screen as well as serial Tales. The fight will begin with a change of background music, when you pull out a weapon or an aggressive enemy first. Tempo battle in this game is quite slow. In the early chapters, you will feel a bit bored with the battle system. However, as adventure, the variation of the fight will gradually grow. Rex and his friends will attack automatically with a system called Auto-Attack, if its position is within range of attack. As the number of Auto-attack combos increases, the damage is also increased. During Auto-Attack, on the right side of the screen there is a special attack bar that will be filled. Once the bar is fully charged, you can press the action button to launch the Art Driver. There is one familiar mechanism that is often implemented in fighting games, namely Cancel Attack, an animated cancellation attack that can be continued to another attack. This attack is declared successful with a blue circle as a marker if you press the Art button after the Auto-attack attack comes in. In addition, the entry of this attack will also fill the Blade Art bar which has four levels. When the character launches Blade Art, he will remove his weapon temporarily and can move faster that serves to move positions or just take items scattered. At that time too, will appear QTE button in the form of a circle, which if successful will provide extra damage to the enemy.

Driver Combo

The battle will be more interesting when you already understand the combo system is divided into four phases, namely Break, Topple, Launch and Smash. To trigger a combo, you must first launch Art that has the Break attribute. This attribute is located under the name Art on the screen. If the enemy has entered in the Break condition, above their health left, an additional bar will appear indicating the ongoing phase. Before they return to normal conditions, you should immediately launch the next attack with the attributes of Topple, Launch and Smash in sequence. This combo can be done by all active party members. For example, combo starts when Nia launches Break, then resumes Topple attack by Rex that will make the enemy fall. Later, Tora proceeds with a Launch attack that will catapult the enemy in the air and last closed by Rex with a Smash attack that will throw him to the ground. Art Drivers without these four attributes will not be counted in combo.

Blade Combo

Unlike Combo Driver, Blade Combo can be triggered when the character launches Blade Art on enemies. After the attack comes in, then on the top right side of the screen there is a combo series that tipped extra effects. The combo circuit must be read from left to right with respect to every element present. If there are icons of fire, wind and water, it means you have to launch the Blade Art 1st level of fire element, Blade Art level 2 wind and covered with Art Blade level 3 berelemen water. This combo can be waged by all the party members who are active in the fight.

Chain Attack

On the top left side of the screen, there are three white bars that will be filled during the fight. In addition to functioning to evoke fallen party characters, it can also be used to launch a Chain Attack that will involve all three party members and its Blades. When three bars are fully charged, press the + button to extract Chain Attack. You will be prompted to select Blade from each character, followed by the appearance of QTE on the screen. This combo will stop the fight temporarily and is very appropriate to be a counter attack. After the combo ends, a combo statistic will appear showing the resulting damage.

Blade

The name for the weapon that became the partner of the party character. Each character has three Blade slots allocated to the D-Pad button. Each Blade has its own role, such as Attacker, Healer or Tank. They can continue to grow stronger as the completion of a number of quests are available on the Affinity Chart and can be given additional accessories called Aux Cores. Blade is divided into two types, Common Blade and Rare Blade, where Rare Blade usually has a special shape and sound, while the Common Blade has a similar design to each other. You can raise a new Blade using Core Crystal earned through the fight or complete the quest. The Blade generation process itself uses a gacha or random system, where the percentage of Rare Blade gets greatly dependent on the type of Crystal Core you use and Booster as a supplement. Ownership Blade can also be transferred to other characters using items that are quite rare. For example, if you raise a Rare Blade named Kora using Nia, then only Nia is entitled to use it. However, it can be transferred to Rex using a rare item called Overdrive Protocol. Especially for a Tora character who is not a Driver, he can only control the Blade and not be able to transfer his Blade or receive Blade from other characters. Upon the limitations of the Artificial Blade of their creation, they can only be customized using a special resource called Ether Crystal. This is where there is a significant difference, where Ether Crystal can only be obtained by completing a mini game called Tiger-Tiger located in Tora's house. Later, these resources can be converted into additional accessories for Tora's proprietary Blade.

Merc Group

This feature is similar to the Expedition feature available in Tales of Berseria. The unemployed Blade collection in inventory, you can assign tasks to complete within a certain time frame. Each mission within the Merc Group has specific criteria for Blades that you will choose such as gender or species type. During the duty, they can not you use until return. The rewards of these missions are quite useful as extra income.

Presentation

Visual

There is a pro contra to the character design changes that are now more directed to the anime style. However, we ourselves are not too concerned about it because it depends on the taste of players. When you play on TV Mode, this game runs very smooth with a sharp visual resolution, both the character and the environment. However, in order to maintain performance, there is a significant decline when you switch to Handheld or Tabletop mode. Using dynamic resolution techniques, the results are quite disappointing because the visuals will turn out to be slightly opaque. Another problem that many gamers complain about (including us) is the very confusing map presentation. Despite providing the option to zoom the map while exploring, in fact it does not help much and actually makes us end up misdirected. The map displayed on the screen looks too zoom, until you can not see the whole area. This also makes you have to go back and forth to the Skip Travel menu, just to see where the current character position and in which direction the next destination.

Audio

Yasunori Mitsuda, a composer who also handles music on legendary titles such as Chrono Trigger, Xenogears and Xenosaga, returns fully responsible for the music in this game. Although the music variation is not counted much, the distinctive touch will give a sense of nostalgia, for you who love the series. The beauty of the musical arrangement, it is slightly tarnished with the quality of the English voice speakers who berlogat ala Northern Europe. It is also very dependent on the taste of players and we are one who is quite disturbed by his dialogue accents. Luckily, since the day of its inaugural release, Nintendo directly provides a Japanese language dub that can be downloaded for free via eShop. This Japanese version of the voiceover managed to save the audio side and sounded much better than the English version. And has become the hallmark of Japanese games, where the voice of characters will be mutually bersahutan when the fight is underway.

Value

Before reading this review, you may have heard some of the pros and cons contained in this game or even experienced it yourself. Then, is this game still worthy of yours? The answer is very worth it. As we all know, at the age that has not even stepped on a year, not much choice JRPG genre game for Switch. While other consoles are entering a break at the end of the year, Nintendo just released this game to fill the year-end holidays. You need to spend about 60-70 hours just to finish the main story alone. If added with all available side missions, you will spend about 165 hours of adventure with Rex and friends altogether. However, of course you have to get away and survive from the saturation of the very early start of the game. Unfortunately, this game does not have New Game Plus mode like JRPG games in general.

Conclusions

So, what can be deduced from Xenoblade Chronicles 2? Calling it a tempting discrepancy seems like the most appropriate sentence. As a JRPG game, he is not a perfect product. But on the other hand, it offers another extra appeal which, though not necessarily annuling all the flaws that are still attached to itself, is enough to build a list of attractions that are too dear to miss. From combat systems that actually have their own level of complexity, character designs are ready to keep you entertained, to a myriad of other activities that can offer content for up to hundreds of hours. If you're a pretty familiar gamer and do not mind the anime trophies from characters to stories, this is a JRPG game that will satisfy what you need.

However, of course, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 still holds a myriad of problems that are hard to ignore. From the English voice acts in our ears, it feels below standard until the implementation of the RNG system to get the Blade easily, triggering frustration. In the middle of the side mission design is also not special, there are some other things that also feels unfriendly. Like the map system he offers, for example. Instead of loading the information needed to help you complete an existing side mission, for example, most of the icons offered end up not contributing much to the navigation you need. Imagine, for example, if like a map system in Far Cry for example, it also shows what ecosystems are like in each region to help you hunt when a side mission or an extra task you are pursuing. Of course, beyond those weaknesses, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 still appears as a stunning JRPG game. Although he is not perfect, he carries an attraction that will be hard to ignore. A JRPG game that offers hundreds of hours of gameplay from the content side, with super tempting character designs, compelling stories, and a fairly complex gameplay system. A "classic" JRPG appeal in a unique and different format.

Advantages

The story is pretty interesting
Pyra
The battle system has its own complexity
Unique blade design unique
Side mission content and activities that can be completed
Design the world and character as a whole
Cut-scene bout cool

Deficiency

Against an enemy whose level is below us though it will take time.
Voice acts English well below standard
Blade System based on RNG + Animation that takes time
The map feature does not help much
Most side mission designs come with standard challenges
Pacing battle that feels slow

Game Information Xenoblade Chronicles 2

Developer: Monolith Soft

Publisher: Nintendo

Director: Koh Kojima, Genki Yokota

Producer: Koh Kojima, Hitoshi Yamagami

Designer: Koji Hayashi

Programmer: Toshiaki Yajima

Artist: Eiji Takahashi, Masatsugu Saito

Writer: Tetsuya Takahashi, Yuichiro Takeda, Kazuho Hyodo

Composer: Yasunori Mitsuda, ACE, Kenji Hiramatsu, Manami Kiyota

Series: Xeno

Platform: Nintendo Switch

Release: WW: December 1, 2017

Genre: Action role-playing

Mode: Single-player

Source 1,2,3,dan4

Writing By: @motivator1mtk

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