Narumi Nitpicks: Xenoblade Definitive Edition

Xenoblade Review

[Author's disclaimer: Due to the nature of the game throwing around plot twists every hour or so, this review will be split into parts: A relatively spoiler-free review focusing more on the gameplay, a filler section, a section chronicling my thoughts on the story will unmarked spoilers, and finally my overall thoughts on the epilogue chapter Future Connected.]

Spoiler-Free Review

If I were to sum up my overall thoughts on this game in one sentence, it would be "Impressive, but lacking impact." As a beloved 10-year old game exclusively released to a console that otherwise has a paltry library of JRPGs, Xenoblade 1 has finally been remastered on the Switch. It's an incredibly beautiful game that doesn't look out of place with the Switch's library, but looking closer and noticing the lack of details in certain aspects (such as clothing or the like) do lessen the impact a bit. Shulk and Fiorung do look noticeably less polished than their appearances in the Xeno 2 DLC, the Nopon's faces being all 2D textures compared to actual modeled features from 2 for instance. If anything, the graphics, cutscenes or the like are impressive to me because I keep thinking how Monolith accomplished such a feat in the past on the Wii as opposed to how impressive it is on the Switch. Though saying this, one thing Xeno DE does unquestionably well compared to Xeno 2 is Portable Play and loading times. Xeno 2 already has short loading times for its massive worlds, but Xeno DE makes them near instantaneous. Portable Play actually holds up decently well and rarely drops frames or resolution to achieve a playable state, very much unlike Xeno 2's very very poor optimization.

Gameplay-wise I did enjoy Xeno DE's a lot more than 2. Whereas 2 was plagued by management bloat starting from the middle, Xeno DE provides just the right amount of variety and choice for character builds that it doesn't become overwhelming. While I ended up using some characters more than others and neglected my tanks, it was still a far cry from my experience in 2 where the overwhelming amount of Blades and items led me to only using the few combat oriented or critical-hit oriented builds without much change in the end. The combat is thrilling, being able to attack while moving does add some strategy into the proceedings, providing a lot of depth into most enemy encounters. While DE makes it very easy to overlevel, playing at the intended level is immensely fun regardless. The AI is generally quite poor however. It's not much of an issue when the AI is controlling a character who needs only to get in the enemy's face, but whenever the situation requires more nuance, like having Shulk cast Monado Breaker on the mind-reading flying Telethia, the AI will struggle to perform these actions. And woe on the AI playing as Melia, where she would ready up a gamut of random spells only to perform suicidal charge with a physical attack with her puny stick and get herself killed. 

The are a lot of Quality-of-Life improvements (or maybe it would be more appropriate to call them returns to form?) in DE that were sorely missing from 2. For one, it actually has a real tutorial section, not the awful two-lines 2 gets when you buy the tutorial from a secret informant. Being able to actually return to the title screen to view cinematics or whatever is something that should be in, but the fact that I actually have to give praise for this is another knock on 2's lack of basic QoL features. Combined with a cleaner UI, a cleaner font, a real options menu, and the aforementioned walking-while-attacking, DE makes for an exceedingly polished experience.

One of my favourite aspects of any given JRPG is the exploration element to them. It's why I regard Xeno 2 so highly among my collection. DE holds up the premise of a massive open world to explore just as well only with a different approach than 2. DE favours wide open spaces more than 2's stacked level design. I do prefer 2's approach simply due to the fact that secrets are much more difficult to find and the joy of unraveling a complex level is less present in DE, but I'd be remiss to neglect mentioning the awe I have when gazing upon the sheer magnitude of some of these levels. The most memorable moment for me was in Makna Forest where the critical path involved crossing a narrow bridge across two cliffs in order to reach a village deep within the forest. What's impressive is that the waterfalls several miles into the distance, or the river delta even further on the complete opposite end can be reached. There is no real reward for swimming all the way to the waterfall, but the fact that you can adds a lot of immersion to an open world and I truly applaud the developers for allowing us to do such a feat. The "You can reach that mountain over there" trope has been a well-worn cliche at this point, but the artstyle of Xenoblade elevates each environment to such a degree that it easily eclipses most open world games who offer larger, but blander, emptier worlds to traverse in. All of the levels being interconnected with each other means that you can travel the entire playable space of the game on foot without needing to fast travel. Just walking from Colony 9 all the way to the Mechonis is just an incredible experience that just can't be replicated in most other games. My only gripe is that the jumping is really wonky and really useless. Being the wielder of a future-predicting Blade doesn't entail jumping over small fences as an ability it seems.

There are numerous sidequests in this, all tying into the impressive affinity system where NPCs have realised schedules and relationships with each other. It's all very impressive, however I wasn't all too invested in it since, by nature, not everyone can receive as much development as each other, and the sheer number of NPCs makes it difficult to remember who's who coupled with reused character models and the lackluster presentation of it all. There are some interesting sidequest chains in this one, including a long-form sidequest which no doubt is the inspiration for Breath of The Wild's own long form town restoration sidequest, but the presentation of every sidequest means that I was half-heartedly skipping through most of the dialogue in order to perform what is mostly a dry and poorly disguised kill/fetch quest. Very rarely will the sidequests have you do anything special, but I do like it when it does. The nature of triggering each sidequest is can be very cryptic on its own, and I do admit I relied on a guide to get most of them done (and to alleviate item gathering chores). Needing to talk to every single NPC who spawns and despawns at very specific times (it's not just a morning/night thing either, some NPCs spawn at very specific hours in the day for instance), only to be rewarded with a basic fetch quest with some basic throwaway dialogue isn't something to be commended for. The thing is every sidequest, good and bad, follows this format, which can lead to situations where you inadvertently read over some interesting dialogue concerning worldbuilding and foreshadowing, just because it's presented in the same way as "Kill 3 bunnits for me" from other lesser quests.  

Without spoiling much, the story of DE is fairly interesting but I wasn't captivated much up until the second act. Unlike 2, DE is very much more serious with lighthearted moments in here and there compared to 2's approach of having a generally lighthearted story with some serious moments in. While I ended up liking the main cast, I wasn't as attached to them as I was in Xeno 2, and I must admit the story wrapped up too quickly for my liking. I do think it's a fine story, it's just not particularly amazing or anything. And unlike 2, I can't overlook the weaker moments in the story simply because the story takes itself too seriously most of the time. It lacks a lot of the emotional impact of 2, whereas I was fist bumping and screaming even in the dumbest and stupidest moments in 2, here I just barely emoted. To put it simply, 2 has higher highs and lower lows, but the highs are so high they make you sing and shout, whereas 1's consistency makes for a more mellow experience.

For as long as it gets the music in the game really holds up especially comparing to 2's. While I'm personally more fond of Sawano's composition in X, I must say the music in 1/DE does an excellent job in setting the mood without being overly repetitive. The fact that I didn't mute anything while grinding is a testament to that.

MEASURE! TREASURE! NOPONGER!

As with Xeno 2 I played the whole game in Japanese, partially also due to dub name changes which would be offputting to hear had I overlay the English subs over the original audio. Unlike with 2 I must admit that the English dub is surprisingly decent, although due to language discrepancies you would obviously have moments where certain scenes completely lack impact due to the way each language is structured, see Egil's reveal for a comparison. 

Overall I did enjoy Xenoblade DE, my 100 hours and sidequest completion statistic is a testament to that. It's been a fun game and while the story isn't that amazing, it did compel me enough to see it through the end. 

7/10

Filler Images. Complete Spoilers after this grace period.

CUTE pictures of Fiorun

Exploring Space with Fiorun!

Finding the Giant's Treasure with Fiorun!

Contemplating the meaning of existence with Fiorun!

Exploring Mechonis with Fiorun!

Fiorun!

Further thoughts on Xenoblade

It may have taken a second viewing of the ending cutscene to truly get me onboard, but I ultimately enjoyed the story for what it is despite it lacking a lot of punch or any hype-inducing moments. When Fiorung gets revealed to be beneath the White Face Mechon at around the end of the first act, I honestly didn't feel that much despite it being a plot twist that had been heavily foreshadowed up to that point. A lot of key moments just lack a lot of emotional impact that the developers were going for, mostly also because this isn't my first JRPG and I have seen moments like these done before, not necessarily better, but just done before. I suppose at most I did feel something when Dickson is revealed to be a traitor all along, but I didn't flare up as much as I thought I would. I just reacted to most scenes with a general "Oh, okay. So that happened.". Which was a far cry from how I generally reacted to Xeno 2's shenanigans.

Part of this may be due to a lack of connection between myself and the main cast. With Xeno 2 despite its mostly by the numbers plot I still enjoyed the story immensely due to developing a bond with the main cast, protagonist and antagonist alike. While I did like Shulk, Melia and Fiorun, none of the other members of the main cast have enough time to shine under the spotlight for their presences to be made known. At best they get half a chapter's worth of development and focus before being relegated to the sidelines more or less permanently to prop up the rest of the story. Because of this lack of focus I end up distilling most of their characterizations in my mind, creating a sort of flanderized image of them where for instance Carna is the Colony 6 Girl. Shulk and Fiorun's story is ultimately the main spoke where the plot revolves around, so it's fitting both of them receive all the development they have, and Melia's life being toyed around so cruelly to an almost comically fashion does make sure her character gets good mileage.

The foreshadowing is brilliantly done and I can't commend it enough. A lot of major plot points are alluded just enough to make you notice something's off and commit to the back of your mind, so when the twists do happen, they never feel like they came out of left field and thus feel satisfying to experience. I do wish the sidequests were presented better since some major elements concerning the High Entia-Telethia regression and Bionis being evil are foreshadowed in this one sidequest, but since I was speedreading through dialogue I only vaguely picked it up. Still, cutscenes being reviewable makes it fun to revisit previous scenes to check out what the game has foreshadowed and which point in time.


There is some irony that Xenoblade 2 concludes the plot of Xenoblade 1 better than 1 ever did. The final revelations of the plot came across too quickly to make any significant impact beyond making the player confused for no good reason. The final twist being that Alvis is a supercomputer aboard a research station Zanza and Meyneth's previous selves worked in came right out of nowhere with little to no build up leading to it. Xenoblade 2 expanded on this final detail so well that not only it became the cornerstone to that game's plot and setting, but also provided more context and clarity to the situation as well. Which lead to Alvis' design being retconned in the Definitive Edition, now sporting a red core crystal in his chest confirming he is the missing third of the Trinity Processor. Of course this all boils down to the fundamental theme of each game, Xeno 1 being more purely fantasy with some sci-fi elements embedded in, while Xeno 2 is a fantasy that gradually evolves into sci-fi with magic being explained as technology and so on. The sudden research station and interdimensional experiments all feel like such sudden last minute additions, that they could be removed with little to no impact on the overall narrative. But I'm glad this wasn't the case and that Monolith was able to build upon this for Xeno 2.  

Future Connected

Future Connected is a belated happy ending epilogue for Melia who as you might recall in the main game had been tossed around like a cosmic plaything with all her friends, family, country, etc dying and generally meeting horrible fates. The story is almost wholly focused on Melia while Shulk and Riki's kids, Nene and Kino just exist around her. They don't do much if anything significant at all. The plot itself is basically nothing, so much so that even in the 13 hours I spent 100% the epilogue I struggle to remember any details of it. The story does hint at some interdimensional plot elements, which may or may not play a role in future Xenoblades, but it's just a tease at most, without proper resolution. 

Gameplay wise it's identical to the main game except Carna and Reyn are replaced with their Nopon counterparts, and Chain Attacks are replaced by the Nopongers who offer either a super-attack, a super-debuff, or a super-heal depending on your choice. The new long term sidequest involves doing errands for each of the 12 Nopongers, and they are in general a cut above the standard sidequest of the main game. Having a fixed cast does allow for mid-quest cutscenes and dialogue to occur with the party. It doesn't happen as often as Xeno 2 nor are they up to the standards of a typical Blade Quest from 2, but it's still miles ahead of the main game. 

The new (technically repurposed) map is pretty fun to explore, it inherits some design philosophy from 2's maps where verticality is more pronounced and yet is also the widest map in the game. Of course this also means the epilogue really chugs on portable mode, churning out performance as bad as Xeno 2 at times. There is a real lack of content and as such leveling up beyond 75 is pretty difficult, which is how that one bonus boss in the Noponger quest gave me trouble at lvl 80. Still despite that the epilogue is still pretty easy regardless. 

I liked Melia and I like how 10 years on she finally gets her happy ending, so I liked this final epilogue, shallow as it is, anyway. While it does little to bridge the gap between 1 and 2, teasing that interdimensional portal is enough to generate some hype for the next Xenoblade.

Stray Thoughts

• As with 2, the game is heavily imbalanced for low level play, to the point where the game will give out agility penalties to a low level party, making fights impossible without equipping specific gems. That said this also goes both ways, and as such by the time I reached the final boss, he was missing every single of his own attacks as my party ended the fight in seconds.
• Of course the final boss of Future Connected did provide slightly more challenge, but only because it was able to hit me occasionally. When it wasn't being toppled. Starlight Kick is pretty versatile it turns out.
• Baan/Bana is the true MVP of the game. I'm glad they brought him to Xeno 2 too.
• Needing to talk to absolutely everyone in order to receive quests from the region is pretty tedious all things considered. If the quests themselves weren't so mediocre I would have put in more effort to doing this without a guide.
• The NPC Affinity Chart is impressive, but since most NPCs share common models, and the sheer number of NPCs make remembering each of them difficult, I ended up not paying attention to the relationships between each NPC. Again, it makes for a very insignificant impact on gameplay whether two NPCs like each other or not. The quests rarely provide any reward to make them worth doing, and the presentation rarely makes the sidequests worth doing on their own.
• Still, when Alcamoth goes to shit in the third act, seeing all your former quest givers just straight up die and get turned into grey icons is pretty morbid.
• What's worse is that you eventually get quests to mercy kill the survivor's friends. This is one of the few times I actually paid attention to the quests and the massive web of relationships.

• Rebuilding Colony 6 was surprisingly rewarding.
• Shulk's voice is almost never consistent between his various appearances in this game, in the epilogue, in Smash, and in the Xeno 2 DLC. It can get really jarring in the epilogue as you go from his canned battle dialogue to newly recorded post-battle lines.
• The one retcon I was expecting that didn't happen involved the Rhadamanthus station still being a satellite as opposed to its depiction in Xeno 2 as a Space Elevator. I guess you can rationalize it as Alvis' memories being imperfect since he was inside the Trinity Processor and lacked outside context.
• My favourite regions of the game were Makna Forest, the Nopon Village and of course Eryth Sea. I liked Mechonis' levels, but them being one-time dungeons with minimal quests do diminish their impact. They are still gorgeous though, and have great music backing them.
• Valak made me sick. It's really disorienting owing to very steep slopes and the fact that it turns piss yellow at night doesn't do it any favours. Overly spread-out landmarks and difficult-to-judge heights where you can safely jump off of also add to the tedium.
• Melia is best girl but Fiorun is cute too. It also helps that Fiorun doesn't die every 10 seconds from my suicidal strategies.
• The part where Egil controls Mechonis and you get a vision of him slashing Bionis is totally badass.
• Melia being able to actually jump over small obstacles in Future Connected was great.

Truth be told this wasn't that tedious. Especially considering the grinding I did for Xenoblade 2's Blades and Nanakoori's awful awful affinity chart.

Conclusion

All in all, I still thoroughly enjoyed my time with Xenoblade 1, but overall I still preferred Xenoblade 2 owing to a better focus on its cast and characters. Xenoblade 1 is for all intents still very impressive from its visuals to its cinematics to its technical feats, but a weak third act and conclusion does sour things considerably.