Reviews are in for Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition! 9/10 GS | 89 on metacritic!

The atmosphere has always been incredible thanks to good art design. Now that the game has such a graphical upgrade, the art design translated over is just that much better.

I played it back in college lol. I think I still have my memory save. It's a great game, and so unique too. They really should either do a sequel or remake it! Btw, it has nothing to do with any of the "Xeno" franchises that came after it. As for Xenoblade DE, I haven't put much time into it yet. I spent the past couple weekends finishing a couple games from the backlog. I had started them over a year ago and finally got around to getting through them. Definitely want to get to Xenoblade eventually. Never played the original.

Switch is all about games.

Cool :)

Finished the main story today. Great game. Gonna move on to Future Connected tomorrow... Just started and got through the first cutscene.

Damn that was quick! I'll be putting some time into it this weekend. And then Last of Us 2 comes out next weekend lol.

Yeah, I clocked in at just over 40 hours, and I did a large amount of sidequests. Didn't bother to much with the Affinity stuff. All-in-all, well worth the ride. Future Connected is also pretty goood, though i'm only a couple hours in.

Better put some of those hours in before TLoU2 then lol.

Oh, I thought the game was longer than that. That's actually good though. Yea, I know lol. I always have a backlog, but I like it that way. Having games to play is better than not having any lol.

@lundy86_4: wow thats quick. I'm just 40 hours and have just reached mechonis. Bit to go yet i think (I finally caught up with where i stopped on the wii version a decade ago :P).

@osan0: Oh man, you'll probably hit the 60-70 hour mark, which is by-and-large how long it takes. Not sure what I did lol.

@SolidGame_basic:It is, so not sure how I finished so quick.I didn't explore every inch, but I was pretty leisurely up until the last quarter.

I would say Xenoblade Chronicles is a pretty perfect length, about a 40 to 60 hour game is pretty perfect in my opinion, and you can easily stretch beyond 60 hours you choose take on all the side content.

One of the worst sins an otherwise good game could do, is overstay its welcome. Xenoblade Chronicles does not overstay its welcome and I think that's part why it's so memorable and a game people actually go back to.

I'd rather play a game so good that I could only dream of having more, over a game fulfilling that dream to the point it's crushed.

That's why I could never love Rockstar games. Sure there's cool things going for them but every Rockstar game I've ever played became a chore to the point I just can't enjoy them anymore.

@jaydan: I can definitely agree there... Apart from some long-winded stretches for exploration, I found the pacing was largely consistent and the story stayed engaging. I hate nothing more than long stretches of story that just you plod along with, just to get to the good parts.

Funnily enough, i'm kinda the same with Rockstar... I couldn't finish GTAV, and i've tried 3 times. Sadly, even RDR2 lost me, and I loved the first.

@lundy86_4: Some of those longer stretches in XC were still very tolerable for me because the music is so goddamn beautiful in this game. One of my personal favorite video game music scores, ever. The atmosphere is so goddamn good too.

I remember when I first ever played XC, all too often I found joy in just taking a pause and soaking in some of the incredible views the game has to offer, and that soundtrack.

The funny thing about Rockstar games is their lengths are about average to the length of XC. Most Rockstar games are about 60 hours in length too, yet somehow I have issues with it.

I think that just goes to show the quality of a Rockstar game, the fact their novelties wear thin very quick. I've always thought, if a Rockstar game is just 30 to 40 hours long, I'd probably enjoy them a lot more, because I would say that's about the amount of time it takes to fully embrace Rockstar mechanics before they begin to reveal how shallow and limited they really are.

@lundy86_4: @jaydan:

Spent an hour just walking around, doing side quests, and started one main mission.You're right, the music is so good. Makes every battle worth it lol. I never played the original, but did play Xenoblade Chronicles 2. The battle music was good, although different from this game. Also enjoyed the combat in Xenoblade 2 as well. But from what I can tell about this game, the story and characters are really good. I felt like that was lacking in 2.

There is so much range in the game's music and yet it's cohesive.

"I'm really feeling it!" Is a true statement the game makes with that battle music. Every time the battle hype music starts to play, it genuinely brings out that excitement to jump into battle.

I can't ignore the quaint music in the game either. There is so much beautiful, serene music in the game.

Like when I first heard this in the game, it actually gave me goosebumps:

@jaydan: Nice. I just did the first mini boss/boss. Can't believe they killed someone already. I like the pacing though, as someone in the thread mentioned. The graphics aren't actually that bad. They're actually pretty good for a Switch game.

That's because Xenoblade Chronicles always had gorgeous art direction and world building, and it was even clear on the Wii despite having poo-poo graphics.

I will always say this, but art direction will always be more important than graphical horsepower. Why? Because graphics will always hit its limitations yet artistic vision will always be limitless, and Xenoblade Chronicles is an excellent case study on this matter. Graphics mean nothing without the vision.

I think Nintendo understands this more than most companies in the industry, and why they consistently make visually pleasing games despite never being praised for having the powerful hardware.

@jaydan: It does have great art direction. True, Nintendo games never really look bad. Breath of the Wild is still a beautiful game, despite it being pushed to its limits.

I'm hooked on the battle system! I like how it encourages tinkering. Still need to figure out the chain system. Haven't gotten to Colony 6 yet. Have just been doing a lot of sidequests lol. I think I'm like level 19 now.