The seventh main installation in the Xeno Series, Xenoblade Chronicles 2, is one of the best action role-playing games I have played in a while. Developed by Monolith Soft and published by Nintendo for the Switch console, the game delivers a good message in the package of great gameplay and graphics.

It is similar to previous titles in the Xenoblade series but has an improved mechanic. The setting and characters are also different, which is refreshing. It is more story-driven than the two previous installations in the Xenoblade Chronicles, which focused more on gameplay and world exploration.

Great Gameplay Experience, Clunky Map

This game is set in a fictional land called Alrest, where Rex, a young salvager, falls into a symbiotic relationship with a sentient living weapon (or a Blade) named Pyra. Like in the previous games in the Xenoblade series, the player gets to control one main character out of three characters. There is a brilliant depth to the storytelling in this Xenoblade Chronicles 2 as you watch a villain like the Special Inquisitor Morag change beliefs when confronted with compelling evidence.

A short while into the game, some enemies want to obtain Rex’s unique Blade, which leads to a lot of combat. One of the best things about Xenoblade Chronicles 2 in this regard is that boss fights do not feel repetitive, even though you fight some bosses multiple times. The combats begin relatively simple and gradually become complex, requiring more thought and precision. Every time you fight a boss, a new element is thrown into the mix, which elevates the battle.

The interface definitely needs a lot of work, especially with accessing the world map. The map is situated in several layers within the submenu, and when trying to get your bearings in the big RPG world, you need to scroll repeatedly to reach your location. It starts like a tiny, manageable oversight, but when you go deep into the game, you realize just how often you need to view the map.

As vast as the world is, you could get lost because of the lack of a map on your screen, except for an arrow indicating that you are in the right direction. The world has so much depth that you cannot tell if an objective is above you in the trees or cliffs or below you in the seas. It would usually take many minutes of trial and error to decipher the actual location of the objective.

The Secret Is In The Blade

A great deal of your success in the game depends on the Blade that accompanies you. It determines the special attacks, combat stats, and combo you deliver on the enemy. It is so important that you need to build alternative Blades to Pyra. You can switch between Blades in the heat of battle, expanding the possibilities available to you.

You upgrade your Blade by playing a retro arcade game. Combat comes with auto-attacks like the four-step super-move option or the three-phase party combo. You can also break enemy defenses by knocking them down and roughing them up.

Cool Anime-Esque Graphics

The game’s art design combines dark and light-hearted themes, which gives it an interesting balance. The characters have a smooth and fluid anime-like appearance, and the NPCs move in a predictable 3D model manner. However, some of the 3D games seem clunky and hard to look at, like their render was unfinished.

The world is immensely expansive and feels as open as possible. This allows you to explore the colorful world. It also flows through a series of terrains, from white snowy hills to tropical villages and the belly of a beast. The world-building is simply out of this world, and the designers want you to take it all in. 

The world is made up of ocean clouds, humans, and other species living on the tiny continents, which are the bodies of large living creatures called Titans. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 also does not shy away from being weird. It comes with all the predictable cliches of an anime-inspired RPG, such as the prevalence of combat lingerie and goofy character intros. 

You can see the many anime influences scattered all over the game. The graphics sometimes drop in quality when there are too many characters on the screen, which is simply disturbing. The developers need to do much work to maintain the great graphics in open-world scenes. In the same vein, some female characters are just downright bizarre and so exaggerated that they don’t count as sexy.

Most Exciting RPG Soundtrack

The soundtrack behind Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is beyond phenomenal. The music is arguably one of the best aspects of the experience, which is saying something because of how good the original Xenoblade Chronicles soundtrack was. The music is always perfectly timed to convey excitement or intrigue as you play.

Throughout my almost 70 hours of playing, the soundtracks continued to match the pace, location, and dialogue of the game, which is great. The soundtrack is perfectly matched to the world-building, from the sweet English horn solo to the strings and choir combination. I also liked the character theme song that gives more depth to the characters. There is a touch of Celtic-inspired music, string synths, battle tracks for combat, etc.

The vocals of the characters were excellently done such that the characters felt real and three-dimensional. You can download the Japanese language pack. The game also delivers on thorough character development.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 portrays evil, darkness, and death in the most cinematic way possible. It also manages to squeeze in a note of optimism that the world can unite despite the differences in our cultures.

However, it fails at combining the elements of open-world RPG and traditional narrative-driven JRPG, which makes the game feel disjointed. Also, the narrative falls through in many aspects of the game, but all the flaws of Xenoblade Chronicles 2 seem tolerable.