Each titan exists in a wash of clouds and sky with only the distant world tree serving as reference for your current position. The only downside to having multiple titans to explore is that the world never feels quite as unified as previous titles. This means that even the smaller titans can offer plenty of hidden areas and secrets. Nearly every titan sports giant foliage, land bridges, or some other structures high above the base plain. On top of being expansive horizontally, Monolith Soft has as usual, developed worlds that are equally interesting vertically.
Another offered a series of tunnels and cliffs so deep that the average player likely won’t be qualified to fully explore their depths until long after completing the primary quest line. One snow-covered titan expanded so far into the distance that I still haven’t made it all the way to the other side. The explorable areas of these titans are often monstrous. These giant life forms roam the cloud sea circling the monolithic world tree. It takes place on the backs of giant creatures called titans. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 takes these ingredients and puts a fresher spin on them than one might expect for a numbered sequel. It is an oversimplification but the Xenoblade games could be compared to an MMORPG like World of Warcraft or Guild Wars, minus the other players. The player journeys over vast distances and engages in real-time, menu-based combat. Xenoblade, as a franchise, is a series of open-world, or at least mostly open-world, action JRPGs. Yet beyond the conflict of story versus exploration that has loomed over the development of the series, battle steps out as a new highlight in Xenoblade’s wheelhouse of excellence.įor those who couldn’t find a copy of the original Xenoblade back on the Wii, didn’t want to buy a New 3DS XL to play it in 3D, and didn’t bother with a Wii U to play X, it may be helpful to start with the basics. At the same time, the mantra of exploration first that X brandished so proudly has been pulled back in this entry, leading to some moments feeling like an odd step sideways. Something about the story rings with a magic that X never quite captured.
A sense of familiarity rises up as you return to the backs of giant titans after exploring the gritty world of Mira for so long. As in the first entry, Xenoblade Chronicles 2’s primary concern is telling an incredibly rich and detailed narrative in a world that is unlike anything else. This works to the game’s credit in many areas and unfortunately to its detriment in a few others, but overall it speaks to one very important quality: story. While that number hanging off the end may seem confusing to some as this is in fact the third entry in the Xenoblade series, this is absolutely a sequel to Xenoblade Chronicles and not Xenoblade Chronicles X. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is a very accurately titled game.