{"id":414,"date":"2018-01-13T21:39:45","date_gmt":"2018-01-14T02:39:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/?p=414"},"modified":"2018-01-13T21:41:33","modified_gmt":"2018-01-14T02:41:33","slug":"game-ramblings-62-xenoblade-chronicles-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/?p=414","title":{"rendered":"Game Ramblings #62 &#8211; Xenoblade Chronicles 2"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/xenobladechronicles2.nintendo.com\/\">More Info from Nintendo<\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Genre<\/strong>: JRPG<\/li>\n<li><strong>Platform<\/strong>: Switch<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>TL;DR<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Visually spectacular JRPG filled with large monsters and even larger environments<\/li>\n<li>Overly complicated level and gearing systems that could have worked much better if the UI wasn&#8217;t so frustrating<\/li>\n<li>Solid battle system that has been smartly streamlined since the previous titles, but still has late-game issues with overuse of one-hit mechanics<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I&#8217;m going to open with what nearly had me shelving the game, because it was the same type of weird late-game design pattern that plagued both Xenoblade and Xenoblade X.\u00a0 For reference, I was at 84 hours in and on the final sort of boss run before the end of the game.\u00a0 That late into the game is not the kind of place you want to turn the design on its head.<\/p>\n<p>Throughout the game, I had basically setup my party to where I was a DPS\/off heal, one of my characters was a full time tank, and my third was rotating between pure DPS and mixed tank\/heal, depending on my needs.\u00a0 Basically, the main character was in no way setup to actually BE a tank, but that&#8217;s what the end game expects of you.<\/p>\n<p>The TL;DR without spoilers is that your entire party gets taken away, and two of the main blades that you develop through the story get taken away, leaving the main character on his own to fight a chain of 1v1 boss battles, without the two blades I&#8217;d built my gameplay style around, and needing me to scrounge together what blades I had to try and bullshit my way through the boss fights.\u00a0 Looking on Gamefaqs and looking at my roster I barely had what I needed leaving me with one choice; bullshit around mechanics to get through it.<\/p>\n<p>I threw on two hammer tanks that have a shield move containing major block percentage and health regen, swapped between the two of them only attacking while the shield was down and the other blade was recharging, and made the fight trivial.\u00a0 Was it fun? No.\u00a0 Was it doable? Yes.\u00a0 That right there is the main problem.\u00a0 And that&#8217;s to say nothing of the final boss, which had some fairly RNG-heavy mechanics that made an otherwise easy fight into a dance of potential instant death.<\/p>\n<p>So with that said, if I&#8217;d have known 20 hours ago what to prepare for to avoid having to do that, is this a good game?\u00a0 More or less, but it&#8217;s definitely not without its issues.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_417\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-417\" style=\"width: 474px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/xenoblade2_environment.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-417\" src=\"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/xenoblade2_environment-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"474\" height=\"267\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/xenoblade2_environment-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/xenoblade2_environment-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/xenoblade2_environment-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/xenoblade2_environment.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 474px) 100vw, 474px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-417\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Xenoblade 2 follows the pattern from the previous titles where it looks way better than most games on the platform, even in portable mode.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Like its predecessors, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is a large scale JRPG with huge environments, too many different systems that go into the character&#8217;s power, and a somewhat shoddy UI.\u00a0 It uses the same battle system as the others where it&#8217;s technically in real-time, but more or less plays like a turn-based RPG in practice.\u00a0 However, it&#8217;s streamlined a few things for better overall flow.\u00a0 The biggest problem that it has is that it doesn&#8217;t really attempt to fix the problems with its predecessors, instead adding more systems that didn&#8217;t feel needed.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_418\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-418\" style=\"width: 474px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/xenoblade2_largecreatures.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-418\" src=\"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/xenoblade2_largecreatures-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"474\" height=\"267\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/xenoblade2_largecreatures-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/xenoblade2_largecreatures-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/xenoblade2_largecreatures-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/xenoblade2_largecreatures.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 474px) 100vw, 474px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-418\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">While not everything is this large, the scale of the top enemies continues to impress.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Since it is the core of the game, the battle system is the thing that made\u00a0<em>XC2<\/em> last as long as it did, despite some of the problems I mentioned in the opening.\u00a0 The battle system in place is very much a JRPG-style one, but more in the vain of\u00a0<em>Final Fantasy 12<\/em>.\u00a0 The player has real-time movement, but doesn&#8217;t attack while in active movement.\u00a0 Each player character (driver) is joined by a passive character (blade) and work as a pair in battle.\u00a0 However, it is a deep system, and I&#8217;d argue very nearly too complicated for most players.\u00a0 I&#8217;m bolding a few things here for reference of how many things are in place.\u00a0\u00a0<strong>Basic attacks<\/strong> happen automatically, charging up <strong>driver artes<\/strong>.\u00a0 Successful driver artes charge up <strong>blade arts<\/strong>.\u00a0 Successful blade artes can be chained to apply elemental orbs that can then be used to extend the length of a <strong>chain attack<\/strong>.\u00a0 Driver and blade artes are tied to swapping out <strong>blades<\/strong>, which can be done in real-time.\u00a0\u00a0If this all sounds complicated, it is, but it&#8217;s all very easy to activate thanks to some smart changes to the battle system.<\/p>\n<p>Previous\u00a0<em>Xenoblade<\/em> titles used a scrolling list to activate artes, so there was always a bit of a fight of scrolling around in menus to activate things.\u00a0\u00a0<em>XC2<\/em> changes this to be much easier.\u00a0 Blade swapping is on the d-pad.\u00a0 Driver artes are on B\/X\/Y face buttons.\u00a0 Blade artes are activated with A for the player character, and LZ\/RZ for party members, then use small quick time events for success chance.\u00a0 Chain attacks are activated with the Start button, and then use the blade artes for damage.\u00a0 Basically, if there&#8217;s a button around, it&#8217;s used for an attack.\u00a0 There&#8217;s no scrolling, no in and out of menus, no looking around to figure out what&#8217;s going on.\u00a0 It&#8217;s all extremely fluid, so even with the huge amount of things going on, it&#8217;s easy to do what you need to do.<\/p>\n<p>This is backed by continued fantastic variety in what can be done with artes.\u00a0 There&#8217;s a whole mix of artes based around damage bonuses for hitting at certain angles.\u00a0 Heals can be either direct for healer blades, or incidental potion spawners for attackers.\u00a0 Tanks have a variety of threat-generation and damage mitigation for good back and forth timing play.\u00a0 Reaching into blades, a wide range of elemental types means that running a wide variety in your party will benefit your ability to maximize damage in any situation.<\/p>\n<p>Despite everything going on, the rhythm of the fights always feels really good.\u00a0 Swapping between blades is fast and used often.\u00a0 Both driver and blade artes charge quickly and always feel impactful.\u00a0 Chain attacks offer a nice way to interrupt the enemy flow, and also offer the player a fun dance in trying to burst elemental orbs and extend the chain attack.\u00a0 Basically, the act of fighting is the best part of the game and will keep you coming back to do all the little side things that can be found.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_419\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-419\" style=\"width: 474px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/xenoblade2_outfits.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-419\" src=\"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/xenoblade2_outfits-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"474\" height=\"267\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/xenoblade2_outfits-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/xenoblade2_outfits-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/xenoblade2_outfits-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/xenoblade2_outfits.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 474px) 100vw, 474px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-419\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Blades come in a large variety, though they do have some hilarious outfits.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>However, when you start getting into the rest of the game systems,\u00a0<em>XC2<\/em> starts to feel like a game that has added systems just for the sake of adding them.\u00a0 This is best illustrated by all of the different forms of experience-based things that have to be gained to truly increase your party&#8217;s power.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>There&#8217;s core XP from kills that goes into the character levels like most JRPGs.\u00a0 However, there&#8217;s also rested XP earned by completing quests and other side items that can only be earned by resting at an inn.<\/li>\n<li>Killing enemies also earns SP, which is a currency for drivers to apply to passive skills, such as core stat boosts, ability to use certain abilities at the start of battle, etc.<\/li>\n<li>Killing enemies ALSO earns WP, which is a currency earned per-blade to increase the level of the driver artes tied to individual blade types.<\/li>\n<li>Every single blade has a unique affinity chart that has to be leveled up.\u00a0 This can be done in any number of ways, whether it be kills on specific enemies, collecting things in the environment, completing blade-unique side quests, and more.\u00a0 However, you have to go into the affinity chart of the blade to activate things they earn; it isn&#8217;t automatically activated when earning is complete.<\/li>\n<li>Trust can be earned by completing quests and battling with blades.\u00a0 For most blades, trust is used to unlock new tiers in their affinity charts.<\/li>\n<li>Some blades have multiple forms, which each need to be leveled separately.<\/li>\n<li>For those who don&#8217;t care about spoilers, there is a unique leveling scheme: \n<div class=\"sp-wrap sp-wrap-default\">\n<div class=\"sp-head\" title=\"Expand\">\nSpoiler\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"sp-body folded\">\n<p>One driver can also be a blade, but can only level one of those forms at a time.<\/p>\n<div class=\"spdiv\">[collapse]<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>One of the main characters also uses an artificial Blade, which as all the normal leveling systems, but also has a unique minigame that has to be completed in order to earn a unique currency that goes into core upgrades specific to these blade forms.<\/li>\n<li>Part way through the game, the player inherits a mercenary guild, opening an option to send out unused blades on missions to earn XP, rewards, and affinity chart leveling.\u00a0 It basically becomes mandatory for leveling more than just your core set of blades.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If all of this doesn&#8217;t make your head spin, then you&#8217;re probably as much of a JRPG fan as I am.\u00a0 However, the problem is that these systems are all in separate menus found in separate places, and often interrupted by multi-second loads.\u00a0 At best it can be described as clunky, and really adds a lot of unnecessary hassle to a bunch of systems that probably could have been largely combined into passive earning through battle.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_416\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-416\" style=\"width: 474px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/xenoblade2_banter.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-416\" src=\"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/xenoblade2_banter-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"474\" height=\"267\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/xenoblade2_banter-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/xenoblade2_banter-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/xenoblade2_banter-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/xenoblade2_banter.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 474px) 100vw, 474px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-416\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">It&#8217;s a good thing the banter is fun, because some comedy breaks are needed after dealing with endless menus.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>That said, the story kept me coming back, even when I wanted to shelve the game near the end.\u00a0 Although playing the first title isn&#8217;t necessary, the end of\u00a0<em>XC2<\/em> does tie the two games together nicely.\u00a0 The game&#8217;s overarching story is also fairly cliche as far as JRPGs go (boy finds girl, wants to help her achieve her goal, drama, betrayal, etc), but the interplay between characters is generally entertaining enough to rise above it.\u00a0 This is further extended in the return of the Heart-to-Heart segments, where specific drivers and blades act out little skits to the side of the story.\u00a0 It&#8217;s a lot like the\u00a0<em>Tales of\u00a0<\/em>series in that regard, but it&#8217;s always a nice little break from the rest of the game.<\/p>\n<p>In general,\u00a0<em>Xenoblade Chronicles 2<\/em> is a tough game for me to place.\u00a0 I enjoyed the hell out of a lot of it, but the last 10 hours of the game were frustrating as hell for no good reason.\u00a0 I enjoyed the depth of the systems in place, but they make it hard for me to recommend to anyone but core JRPG fans, and the menu systems backing them were clunky as hell.\u00a0 If there&#8217;s any single thing I can point at that anyone would enjoy, it&#8217;d be the soundtrack.\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=xuJdMakd_DQ\">It&#8217;s phenomenal<\/a>.\u00a0 If nothing else, this is another point that Nintendo had one hell of a 2017, giving us one of the best JRPGs of the year, warts and all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>More Info from Nintendo Genre: JRPG Platform: Switch TL;DR Visually spectacular JRPG filled with large monsters and even larger environments Overly complicated level and gearing systems that could have worked much better if the UI wasn&#8217;t so frustrating Solid battle system that has been smartly streamlined since the previous titles, but still has late-game issues &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/?p=414\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Game Ramblings #62 &#8211; Xenoblade Chronicles 2&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":422,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,83],"tags":[5,140,86,84,139],"class_list":["post-414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-jrpg","category-switch","tag-jrpg","tag-monolith","tag-nintendo","tag-switch","tag-xenoblade"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=414"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":420,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414\/revisions\/420"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}