Since playing Xenoblade Chronicles (1) it instantly became one of my favorite games. Everything was working so well and I could hardly put it down. The next installment, Xenoblade Chronicles X, wasn’t as amazing, but still incredibly fun and exciting to play. Once I heard about Xenoblade Chronicles 2, I rode the hype train until the day of its release and while the game certainly had its hiccups, I thoroughly enjoyed playing another installment in one of my favorite series.
Story: 9/10
The story in Xenoblade is definitely something that I believe will cause you to play through to the end. Throughout your play, you will feel a great sense of the world and how the people in it are affected. Without giving away any spoilers, I will say that the game does a great job of wrapping up everything nicely and rewarding you with a great story throughout your experience.
Score: 10/10
Xenoblade is known for its outstanding music and this game is no different. There are truly incredible pieces of music embedded into this game which adds so much depth to certain moments of the game. Hell, I got the soundtrack and listen to it frequently.
Characters/Character Development: 7/10
Rex is a derp. As the main character, he does have depth at certain moments which help his character, but Nia, Morag, and Zeke are all much more interesting characters than him. There are some very deep interactions that many of the characters have during cutscenes which helps you connect to them and allows you to understanding their reasoning for their actions. On a side note, many of the female characters are so scantily dressed that the game becomes embarrassing to play in front of others.
Graphics: 8.5/10
Xenoblade’s anime style works well for the game. Xenoblade has always been a game that has been a little behind on the graphics front, but by using this style, Xenoblade 2 was able to mask its fault.
Gameplay: 7.5/10
The gameplay is something very difficult to put in simple words like good or bad. What I mean by this, is that the combat here is very intricate. While fighting, there are so many things you can do and combos you can build up to deliver big damage to enemies. However, these systems are very complicated and while the game tries to teach you about it in strides, it can take almost the whole game to truly master the system. Also, because the game doesn’t let you use the whole system in order not to overwhelm you, the beginning of game moves very slow and you are stuck not being able to overcome early enemies with many options, dragging these battles out to a snail’s pace at times.
Difficulty: 7.5/10 (0 being the easiest, 10 being the hardest)
Difficulty here was a major issue. If you’re someone that enjoys games where you have to grind, I would definitely recommend this one, but there were certain points (especially boss fights) where combat just became more of a chore than actual fun. Defeating these enemies made you feel like saying ‘finally, I’m done with that’ than feeling any actual sense of accomplishment. I eventually just had to drop down to playing on easy just because I wanted to progress without wasting hours of my life just trying to get any further in the game.
Fun: 6/10
Exploring the world is fun and endearing, but many parts of what make it an open world can’t be explored until later in the game; usually by the time you’ve forgotten all about certain areas. The game guards these areas behind enemies way above your level, making the game turn into one much more linear than intended.
Recommended for-
- · Fans of Anime Style Games
- · Fans of Games with in-depth stories.
- · Fans of Grinding Games