Xenoblade Chronicles X

I’ve been playing Xenoblade Chronicles X lately, and I’m currently about five hours into it. It’s a role-playing game with a huge world to explore. You play as a character that has no memory of his identity or past. But you quickly find out that you’re a human that crash-landed on planet Mira (along with a city full of others) after escaping from Earth shortly before it was destroyed.

The planet is full of native creatures known as indigens. Some of them are harmless, but others pose a significant threat to the humans’ base. But as you’ll soon find out, they aren’t the only things you have to worry about.

I haven’t played the first Xenoblade Chronicles, so I’m not familiar with the combat, menus, etc. So the complexity seems a bit overwhelming at first (as is often the case with RPGs). It takes time to learn the combat system, how to properly equip your characters, and so on. I’m starting to get the hang of the basics, but I clearly have much more to learn. I really wish the game had some tutorials to help explain these things.

The graphics are amazing (definitely the best I’ve seen on Wii U so far) and they really make you feel like you’re exploring this huge world. If you see something in the distance, you can go there. Well, maybe not the moon.

The graphics aren’t perfect, though. There is a fair amount of pop-in, where background items seemingly pop up out of nowhere. And some of the text in the game is a bit too small–but that may not be a problem if you’re playing a large TV.

The game gives you a lot of freedom to do what you want. Once you become a member of BLADE, you can choose which division to join. Each division deals in different types of tasks/missions. I chose to be a pathfinder, which means my primary duties involve heading to unexplored areas and installing data probes. But you can still perform other duties as well, and you’re free to go off exploring when you want.

As I was finishing up Chapter 3, my team encountered this creature named Tatsu hiding among some other vegetables. We invited him to come along with us, and initially, he seems to be added just for comic relief. Characters refer to him as a potato or a turnip, and they repeatedly threaten to put him in a salad. For some reason, he reminds me of Cait Sith in Final Fantasy VII. I find it hard to bake take him seriously; I don’t think I trust him.

As I returned to base, the game started telling me about squads and online play. But I’m going to focus on the main one-player mode for the time being. I am enjoying the game so far, but I’m not addicted…at least not yet. For me, RPGs pretty much always take a while before they really draw me in. But so far, so good.

Looking to buy Xenoblade Chronicles X?