Xenoblade Chronicles has been one of the broadly popular JRPG series as of late, particularly within my own social circles. I have heard mostly good things about the games, and some vocal criticisms about the second game in particular. After finally picking up a Switch last year, I have now made my way through most of the series.
Before trying Xenoblade myself, I had a mixed history with Xeno series creator Tetsuya Takahashi. He’s had quite a career, having worked on games in the Ys, Final Fantasy, SaGa, Mana, and Chrono series. Xenogears was his first project as a director, and I knew next to nothing about the game when I picked it up at release in 1998. It surprised me in a lot of ways, being my first real dip into the mecha genre, accompanied by a truly massive and thought-provoking script (both big changes from the SNES’s smaller scripts and censorship). My continuing experience with Xeno was less successful. Xenosaga’s move to a more cinematic style gave it a plodding pace, packed with jargon and word salad. I also didn’t connect with most of the trilogy’s characters, I found most of the gameplay boring, and I’d somehow missed the memo that Xenosaga was a reboot and not directly connected to Xenogears, souring me on the experience in general.
I didn’t have a lot of success with Xenoblade Chronicles for a while. I came to the first game late in 2017, spurred by positive word-of-mouth that had resurfaced after the announcement of XC2. While I got along with the characters better than I did in Xenosaga and enjoyed the excellent setting, I ultimately had to make an effort to avoid the game’s numerous sidequests. Being an MMO player, they would have felt dated to me even back at the game’s release in 2010, and their supporting elements in the UI were extremely basic. The game’s saving grace for me would be the gameplay, a fun romp with a squad that I enjoyed tinkering with.
My experience with Xeno changed with XC2. I had a rough start at first when I picked the game up last year, not really sure what to make of the main character and light-hearted tone of the game, a huge departure from the previous games in the series. But when the conversations with Pyra started, a deep hook set in. I immediately connected with this character, someone that seemed eminently competent but had a pensive demeanor, hinting at a darkness within. After I learned more about this character as her whole story unfolded in both XC2 and its DLC Torna, Pyra became my favorite character in the series. For the first time in 25 years, Xeno was finally starting to hit some of those same emotional notes it did for me in Xenogears. Hitting on that nostalgia also led to me thinking about interesting similarities between Fei from Xenogears and Pyra and Mythra.
In hindsight, making those connections across the series seems to be half the fun. Xenoblade Chronicles 3 and Future Redeemed are packed with little (and not-so-little) nods to much of past Xeno. I had a good time with this aspect of XC3, and in some ways it picked up where XC2 left off with getting me to be interested in this cast and world. I also really enjoyed the gameplay, seeing the results of refinements to the UI in particular that were sorely needed, culminating in my being thrilled at controlling A and seeing her flip around the battlefield in the DLC. An impressive achievement, considering I almost always hate playing healers in this type of gameplay!
I know fans of Xenoblade Chronicles have strong opinions about their favorites, but there were things that I loved (the setting in XC1, the cast in 2, the gameplay and Xeno callbacks in 3), and there were things that drove me nuts in each of the games. I’ve given up on the stories getting some much-needed pruning (every Xeno game and DLC I’ve played has padding or spots that just don’t work), so I can roll with that. I also don’t know if I’ll ever get to XCX or Future Connected. Xeno isn’t exactly my top ongoing series at the moment, but I’m still interested in what Takahashi is cooking up next.
Any thoughts on Xenoblade Chronicles? Or the Xeno series at large?
Xenoblade 1 has the most interesting setting and best large scale story, but I feel like it falls short of the other games everywhere else. I really feel like default movement speed is too slow, or that the world desperately needs more in it. The world feels huge, and your people feel slow, and it just feels bad to go places. Combat is also slow and generally the worst of the series, but I really like the inclusion of the monado and its abilities.
1's DLC was better, but I'd still rank it below the other games.
2 is rough around the edges with controversial character design, but I loved the characters, story, and end game combat. The combat started very poor, and took most of the game to get good, but somewhere near the end it finally clicked and became my absolute favorite combat system of any game. I found myself wanting enemies to have as much HP as possible for fights to last as long as possible. I wasn't personally bothered by the "waifus", and I actually kinda enjoyed the gacha system since it was separate from any microtransactions and cores are easy to get.
2’s DLC Torna was really fun. The combat is much better starting out than 2's combat, although it doesn't quite reach the same heights either. Overall very fun though.
3 is the most polished by far, but while it's overall combat is more polished than 2's, it doesn't quite reach the same levels of or fun as two's late game combat does. I enjoyed the story most of the way through (especially chapter 5) but I thought the ending was maybe weaker than it should have been.
3’s DLC was super fun, the way that everything I did turned into skill points was super engaging. It was also great to play as Rex again after bonding with him in 2.
XCX was the first game I played in the series. The larger story has some significant issues, but the side stories are often really good. The combat is an improved version of XC1's, and I found it much more tolerable. The world is amazing, one of my favorite open worlds. The mechs are awesome. The game has insane power scaling, you'll go from dealing 6 damage with an attack to millions with a late game build, and it feels amazing. You get a real sense that you're growing exponentially, and it feels good. Movement is the best of any of the xeno games, it just feels good to run around. It makes me kinda confused why movement in the other games is so slow when they can make it feel this good. Overall a great game, just very different from the others.