Xenoblade Chronicles 2 a huge disappointment
Baffling design choices and horrible voice acting have transformed what is supposed to be a massively epic Nintendo Switch RPG into a title brimming with unspent potential.
Playing as unimaginatively-named cliché rags-to-riches hero, Rex, you almost immediately bcome emrbroiled with the game’s soon-to-be antagonists. Once you ascertain that what you seek is some sort of legendary sword, Xenoblade Chronicle 2’s story begins to manifest. While the plot of this game is almost without fault and often rife with surprise and subterfuge, it is let down massively through lazy craftsmanship.
Disregarding the admittedly hard-to-disregard voicing, it could be argued that Xenoblade’s most crippling pitfall is the extremely steep learning curve. Breathlessly fast tutorials do a paltry job of detailing the already overly-complicated game mechanics. To make things worse, each tutorial is gone as soon as it comes, only accessible again through a shady in-game vendor
If, like me, you found the junctioning mechanics of Final Fantasy VIII unnecessarily intricate, then you will not be a fan of Xenoblade’s similarly obtuse battle system. Blade seal combos, team chain attacks and various meters that serve more than one purpose all come into play in an oft rewarding and enduringly stressful dance of chaotic micro-management.
Variety is the spice of life, but Xenoblade 2 even manages to homogenise variety. The vast collection of accessories and options in the game, coupled with the atrocious item-management system means that even simple merchants are a frustrating facet of the game experience. Xenoblade’s companion system, known as Blades are one of the main paradigms of the Xenoblade series, but even the vast majority of the blades you acquire look almost identical.
Another incredible oversight in Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is the baffling ability to fast travel, instantly, to any major location in the game, to hell with the current context of the story. Even if you find yourself imprisoned in a remote location, chances are Xenoblade will allow you to warp out of the location and back so that you may buy equipment from a location on the other side of the world.
There is enough about Xenoblade Chronicles 2 that at least make me want to like this title. Admirable as it is in its scope and ambition, terrible execution of the majority of gameplay mechanics makes this a huge disappointment for the second game in the series.