7.10.2016

Firstly, let's just cover the special edition. Having finished the game I can honestly say it's not worth it for the extra cost. The steelbook looks nice, and the artbook is nice but very small, and very short. They certainly don't add the value that you'd want from the extra cost. As other reviewers have pointed out, we didn't get the Xenoblade-esque in design USB stick with the soundtrack on it that the Americans did, which in my view would have made the special edition worth it.This five star review comes with some major caveats, as this game is certainly not going to be for everyone. However I can say a few things that may be helpful.The reason I was drawn to Xenoblade Chronicles X was from the trailers,not from being a huge RPG fan or having played the original Xenoblade Chronicles (which I haven't- and it's worth pointing out this game is a completely unrelated story).and from the premise of exploring an alien planet with near absolute freedom. The trailers showed beautifully and distinctively designed worlds filled with bizarre and unusual creatures. I was sold and really wanted to go and explore planet Mira.On that promise of the trailer the game absolutely 100% delivered. The best thing about this game is that in theory you can go almost anywhere from the very beginning and explore to your heart's content. There is a great sense of freedom, and you are compelled to explore, just because you want to see more of this amazing world. Exploring is an end in and of itself in that it's what you as the player want to do, and what the game incentivates you to do.Now for minuses- which may be too much for some to overcome. Firstly the game is incredibly obtuse. I love the combat system, it's engaging and fast paced so that even battles lasting a few minutes just fly-by without you noticing. However, I had been playing the game for about 20 hours before I really had a hang of how the basics of the combat system worked. This was just from observing what seemed to work in battle- but more importantly reading the game's instruction manuel (I foud a copy online and just read it on my phone when not playing). I was incentivised to put in this research to progress through the game because I was sucked in by the world and wanted to progress past the points where my backside was being hadned to me, but not everyone will. Now that the game has been out a while it may be worth players going to youtube for tutorials.The crafting and item collection systems are also VERY obtuse, to the point where unless you want to sit down and do some serious research about the properties of various weapons, armours etc.. you, like me will not be bothered to try and take on many of the largest and most impressive monsters of the game, as to try them would take hours of finding the right materials (which the game does not tell you how to find- you must go online- still can't figure out why they didn't patch this), crafting the right equipment and then equipping to your party. You have several in your party, and each has several equipment slots.Other minuses are- the game can be very grind-heavy at certain points. The worst offender being the affinity (relationship between characters) grinding. This can be a 100 hour plus game if you want to explore Mira, rather than just blast through the story.The music, for me, is a highlight and I love it, though has received a mixed reception.The graphics are incredible and the game runs smoothly at 60frps throughout. Moving objects are not solid, so collision detection is never a problem. This breaks immersion the first few times a car or monster ghosts through you then you stop thinking about it. The game never crashed or glitched out on me. You will sometimes see textures popping in on environments and creature model, especially moving at speed.Load times are long- unless you download the quick-load memory patches and this is essential as every time you fast travel, which you will do a LOT, the game loads. This takes up just over 10GB of memory, basically meaning that you might as well buy memory expansion for your Wii U (any USB stick or hard drive really) when you buy this.The story also is a mixed bag, it has great moments, silly moments, funny moments and cringey moments. The voice acting, in all honesty is a bit rubbish, but doesn't take you out of the game.Online play- to be honset I largely avoided it. It was another thing that wasn't that well explained in the game and I couldn't be bothered to research it. The connection would drop out every now and again and once it was gone I couldn't figure out how to get it back (though this apparently can be done). Maybe online play would help with the endgame. I don't know.I don't usually play overly long games and Xenoblade Chronicles X had me for over 100 hours. I couldn't put it down. For me, the big positive of that exploration outweighed every other negative. Even now a few months since I've put down the game I can still recall the topography of the areas- because I discovered each area myself, and often had to work pretty hard to do it it, which made it feel special.So to summarise:Positives-Massive and gorgeous in game world that is great fun to exploreIncredible graphicsGreat and engrossing combat systemRuns smoothly at 60fpsReasonable load times (with download packs)Hours of contentNegatives-Difficult to get into combat, crafting and item collection systemsOccasional pop-upOccasional unbalanced enemiesHamstringed collectors editionStory and music are a mixed bag, with excellent and pretty naff moments for eachYou don't need to be an RPG nut or to have played the first one to enjoy this game- but be prepared to do some studying if this captured your imagination. Also worth noting the original Xenoblade Chronicles is now available on the Nintendo eShop for Wii U and there is a port of it for the New 3DS (will only work on the "New" version of 3DS)

2.12.2016

This is a review primarily for people who have no specific interest in Japanese RPGs, or “JRPGs”. People like me.First off, you’ll be struck straight away by how inaccessible this game is compared with modern Western RPGs. Whereas a game like Skyrim or Mass Effect will include a tutorial that will show you the basics of everything the game has to offer, your introduction to Xenoblade Chronicles X (XCX) will barely scratch the surface. After 12 hours, there are still systems in this game that I haven’t touched and do not yet understand. But this is the thing: it doesn’t matter. The game is still fun and rewarding however you choose to play it and however much you want to learn.Read the manual.That’s the best piece of advice I can give. It’ll take you 30 minutes and will save you many headaches later on.The story is set in the far future. Earth is ruined when a pair of warring alien factions has a scrap just outside our atmosphere. Humans escape the imperilled planet on “arks”. One such ark makes its way to an alien planet called Mira, where it is damaged by one of the alien races involved in the original battle. The White Whale crashes down on Mira with the remainder of humanity. You begin the game being rescued from an escape pod, and you are thrust straight into the struggle: to defend New Los Angeles from the indigenous wildlife; explore the world; rebuild; and locate remaining survivors.Let’s get the negatives out the way first. The storytelling can be clunky at times, and not all the voice-acting is top notch. The script suffers from an excess of exposition, and frequently characters will make the same point three different ways before the conversation moves on. Then there’s the music, which is a strange mix of sweeping orchestral and lightweight hip-hop and rock. These choices are amusingly incongruent at first, but in a 100-hour+ game the inability to switch off the music (or the overbearing footstep sounds, for that matter) is a strange omission.The core gameplay involves picking up missions from a central hub in New LA (NLA) and then heading out into the dangerous world to complete those missions. The size of the world is vast (think World of Warcraft massive) and very varied. The alien geography and architecture is reminiscent of Metroid Prime, which is obviously a good thing. Combat plays a large part, and this is done through auto-attacks supplemented with “arts”. These are basically skills that you activate periodically (depending on cooldown) and string together to create powerful combos.There’s plenty of loot, weapons, and armour. And there is micromanagement if you want it, although it is also possible to allow the game to auto-select your strongest loadout. Everything you do gives you experience points, so you can level up just as quickly through exploration as through fighting. Personally I’m enjoying doing both. We are given a beautiful world and a robust combat system.Later on in the game you get to pilot a “skell”, which is the big mech suit you see on the box art. I haven’t got there yet, but essentially this unlocks the ability to fly, allowing you to access parts of the world previously not available.XCX is a staggering achievement on Wii U hardware. The sense of scale is awe-inspiring, and exploring the alien world never gets old thanks to smart design choices and a satisfying gameplay loop. It may seem like a huge undertaking – and in terms of being a time-sink, it is – but it’s also very scaleable when considering how deep you want to dive, and is perfectly accessible to players (like myself) who just want to run around a wonderful world, leap off mountains, and shoot monsters. Highly recommended.

29.12.2015

Be warned that this game is not without its flaws, and is not for everyone, but if you like complex JRPGs and you're looking for a totally immersive experience, this will probably be one of the best games of 2015 to you.There is so much to explore, so much to do and so many ways to level up and upgrade. In the beginning this is totally overwhelming, which isn't helped by the fact that there is zero hand-holding, which is almost unheard of in a game released today. So, even if this is the first time you ever do this with a video game - read the manual, either on screen via the Wii U, or by searching out a PDF online. I played the original Xenoblade on the Wii and while exploration,affinity missions and combat work in a similar way, X feels like an evolution of this, even though some elements of the combat are quite a departure from its spiritual prequel.Also, if you're into giant mechs and expect to be flying around the massive open world of Mira then cool your jets - you're required to complete half of the story and complete a lengthy and often quite annoying series of imitation missions. In fact, I'd clocked up around 57 hours before I had been granted by Skell, not all of which time was well spent. That said, players can be in their Skell within about 20 hours if they're better at games than me!Also, as others have mentioned, the soundtrack can be really annoying. The in-battle tries to be hip ends up sounding dated, like early noughties nu mental, and because you'll be fighting in a lot of battles, you're gonna be hearing it a lot. Yeah, there are bad rap vocals and shockingly bad lyrics to boot. When you're running around the game's central hub, the two tracks that accompany again can be particularly awful. That said, when you're exploring Mira's dense forests, island vistas, arid deserts and other areas, the incidental music is much better, being epic and orchestrated in the day, with a cool, soft jazz variation on that respective theme during the night.The final gripe I have with this game is to do with the random encounters with enemies way above your level. Most of Mira is accessible from the start of the game, and the various missions will sometimes take you deep into one of the continents. Enemies of any level could be anywhere on the trail of where you need to go to complete your objective. Some enemies show no interest in attacking you. But there are some where seeing or hearing you can cause them to attack and potentially kill you and your party in one hit. You're then re-swawned at a point very far back from where you were when you were killed, and finding an alternative route is occasionally not an option. It's frustrating. There is an escape option but this doesn't usually work for me. So be prepared to cover a lot of ground, and be prepared to try being stealthy. A lot. And this isn't really a game designed for stealth.However, when all's said and done this game is amazing. It's immersive, it's filled with missions, and you can lose hours in just wondering around discovering new areas, treasure or items. Once the battle system becomes second nature, the sort of turn based, strategy heavy combat system is fluid, intuitive and satisfying to use. If you don't mind a bit of grinding and you're prepared to put in the effort then this will be right up your street. It's a positive experience and one you'll love if you're willing to put the effort in.

16.3.2016

Like other reviewers here, I haven't found a whole lot of use for my Wii U over recent seasons, but Xenoblade Chronicles X (let's just call it XCX) turned this around in a big way: I'm well over seventy hours in and nowhere near finished. (I strongly doubt that I'm even half way.) If you value your games by how many hours of play they offer, this game is a massive bargain. But then ... everything about this game is massive.I couldn't give XCX five stars due to its obvious and nagging flaws. The game is intimidatingly complex (second only to Monster Hunter) and the various systems are barely explained at all. You *will* spend a lot of time online searching for information, such as where to find drops,or enemies, or how combos work, etc. etc. Also, there's a lot of busywork here and - although there are excellent convenience features in terms of generous quick travel points or the ability to alter the in-game clock - you will have to grit your teeth from time to time to get things. Worst of all, the game contains one of the most irritating "cute" companions since Jar Jar Binks!BUT nothing beats this game when it comes to the joy of exploring a fantasy open world. The old cliché ("if you can see a mountain you can climb it") doesn't really apply because you can't even see to the horizons that you can travel to. The world of Mira is big in the same way as the worlds of other immense RPGs: big like Final Fantasy XIV or Elder Scrolls Online or World Of Warcraft. It's also imaginatively designed: the standard repertoire of deserts, grasslands, volcanic landscapes and forests may sound bland, but actually they are all tremendously inspired in design. Moreover, the biosphere is genuinely awe-inspiring, with beasts that range from some that are of human height to others that tower over the landscape. The first time that you see a giant beetle clamber out of the earth next to you is one of many signature moments here and since many are not innately hostile, just stopping and watching the animations is fun. Fast running, big jumps and no falling damage means that the most fun you can have in this game is probably just picking a direction and going for a run, with nearly everything that you can find along the way providing experience and making it easier to complete gathering missions when you get them.In terms of gameplay, I've treated the game entirely as a single-player game and, sensibly, you can tune how much of the online component that you want to experience when you log in. There is a good range of activities, including a large affinity component that enables you to raise the disposition of your many potential team members.XCX is one of the largest games of the generation and that it can run at all on the Wii U is remarkable.

29.4.2016

I bought my Wii-U in anticipation of three games; Hyrule Warriors, Zelda WiiU, and Xenoblade Chronicles X. After having played and adored the first Xenoblade game on the Wii, I was duly hyped for this and loathed waiting for the English localization for months. Let me tell you; it did not dissapoint. An absolutely incredible game that I instantly became addicted to, and one of the few games that make this console worth owning.Gameplay:It's very heavy on the exploring and possibilties of seemingly endless side quests aside from the main story to the degree there is a simply huge amount to do with numerous characters you will come to love. The combat has changed only slightly from the last game,

6.12.2015

In this section I will only be reviewing the Limited Edition products it came today from my order because I can't really say much about the game due to not having played it yet. So, to start off the Outer Box looks terrific, and while admittedly does not feel very sturdy as the European Project Zero box did (the Australian one was too thin and flimsy) it's still pretty good. The Steelbook (same artwork as the normal plastic case except no logos or rear text) looks beautiful and any Xenoblade's fan should definitely own it but just a small nitpick, the text on the spine is aligned down-up (as you can see on the photo attached below) rather than upside-down so if you put it together with the rest of other games (Steelbooks,

7.3.2016

Had to dust off my Wii U after 2 years of inactivity because of all the positivity I heard about this game, and it did not disappoint. I hadn't played the prequel (though I probably will now, as the story is unrelated) so wasn't sure what to expect.Well, it has been a long time since I seriously enjoyed an RPG - and this is a true RPG. Character development is interesting and gets you excited to unlock the advanced classes. The equipment system (and loot system - where you have a chance to get weapons from animals even) allows you to decide what kind of armour do you want, and this allows you to maximise to your class' playstyle. For example,

27.1.2016

My journey towards buying this game was a strange one really. I was initially very excited by it, after first seeing and hearing of it and it remained on my radar throughout 2015. Then as the game neared release, i started to read some the reviews and opinion on the game. Sometimes I feel that I should just follow my gut and ignore the reviews and opinion (which is kind of ironic given that I am writing a review here), but they do often provide useful feedback and information.Anyway, the feedback was that the game was very complex to pick up and that the menus were clunky and not very clear to use, but under the surface, there was a good RPG in here. OK, the menus may not be the best in the business,

11.1.2016

It's not often a game comes along with a world that blows you away like Xenoblade Chronicles X does. I see the words 'immersive open world' thrown around quite often however it mostly amounts in a game with a plain boring world that you've seen all those times before. Xenoblade X puts you into your own avatar having to explore the entire planet of Myra. From gathering resources to planting probes to defeating the wild monsters that roam the surface you have your hands full. But the world feels completely alive with each creature having its own mindset and behaviours while out in the wild.Stepping away from the world the overall plot of X is, while a downgrade from Shulk's adventures in the previous title it still has scope.

16.2.2016

I can only really echo what so many people have said so well about this game. It is absolutely fantastic. I cannot believe how huge this is. I have put in a lot of time with this and it feels like I have barely scratched the surface.There is something about the freedom to run at full speed and jump insanely high across an alien landscape that is just so compelling (I am assuming that it's because the gravity is a lot weaker). I feel like spider-man without the webs. It's single player, but my kids love just watching it as it is so stunning to look at.There are some bizarre faults that I am really surprised that user testing didn't sort out before it was released,

12.12.2015

SummarySpent 40+ hours in this game in the last week alone, it is a single player MMO by most rights.More than the sum of it's parts. Not an easy game as it relies on previous MMO/RPG experience to be able to get used to the systems behind character setup and combat synergy but it is nice to occasionally have something complex to dig into.Not got a robot/skell yet (been taking my time with the main quest line) but they look to be a step up in how much control and variety you have over your combat options.SpecificsThe world/setting is probably the best open world design I have seen in a JRPG, something like skyrim combined with monster hunter (5 large zones that I know about)

3.1.2016

I haven't played a proper role playing game since Tomb Raider on the ps2. The Wii U was bought for the children really and has been great for them but I couldn't find a more adult game for it that tempted me and wasn't too intimidating. My husband bought me this for Christmas and the first time I played it I was nearly put off as there is a bit of a steep learning curve in learning how to fight and working out how all the controls and weapons etc work. Quite a lot of chat and story to sit through.Had another go yesterday though and it has sucked me in. You can access the manual on screen at anytime which I'm finding useful and once you've got through the bumph at the beginning its quite open

5.12.2015

The game is amazing a huge world to explore with a lot of customization and options a deep battle system and an amazing and huge OST the game is so long and after 30 hours something fresh is ready to keep you playing : the skell giants mech with change the gameplay and they are customizable too from equipment and weapons, the grapich for this huge world is amazing and there are almost no loading screen just after a fast travel, and the game pad function is deep used. There is a online asynchronous with you and 32 player can join and compete some challenges to kill specific monster ad collect items before the time expired this will unlock specific squad mission when you and 3 players can directly join to complete in a coop mission and take down the most big and powerful special bosses.

9.12.2015

The game is not only a beautiful testament to its expansive open world but it is also extremely emersive and the combat is very engaging (dare I say more so than its predecessor) and can be quite challenging especially against Tyrants. I was one of the people who didn't want to get their hopes up for the game in fear of it not comparing to the original; but upon playing it you I couldn't help but fall in love with the characters, the design and the soundtrack.However, the custom character results in awkward situations because of the lack of any speech during cutscenes, although they do talk during combat. And the constant cramming of information at the beginning of the game can leave you lost and confused,

10.1.2016

To be honest my Wii U has been gathering dust for a while, due largely to a lack of decent non childish titles, so PS4 it has been for a while now until my son took over that console. Then Xenoblade Chronicles x turned up in the post, I had completely forgot about this pre-order from 19 months ago. Being that my PS4 is otherwise occupied I thought I would fire this up and play on the controller, this has now become the game i want to play every time, my son can keep hold of the PS4, for now anyway!Great game, beautiful and huge, combat is excellent and an improvement as to expected over the Wii Xenoblade, I just can't stop exploring and the huge dinosaur like monster roaming everywhere look so good.

Xenoblade Chronicles X - Reviews

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