Xenoblade Chronicles is the Best RPG in 20 Years

Alex St-Amour from Link-Cable writes: "I remember it like it was yesterday. A rainy day, I had just finished working at a grocery store for the day and decided to stop by the nearest game store to ‘see what they have’. I didn’t plan to buy anything (heck I could barely afford to considering I worked at a grocery store) but maybe faith intervened that day because I spent what little cash I had and took home one of the best game’s I have ever played and the best RPG to come out since Chrono Trigger. The game? Xenoblade Chronicles."

[NewMonday]

day1 for the NX

[Rebel_Scum]

lol @ comment, dig the Captain Harlock avatar though

[Movefasta1993]

And i haven't played it yet...i'll be picking up the nx so hopefully i can play it in some form.And the last story that looks like a good rpg too.

[MrBug]

This game is an overhyped crap from day one.
Just a crappy offline mmo grinder with barely any story in it.
Go play WoW if youre into this crap. Damn, even most free pc mmo's can give this crap a run for its money.

[Sirk7x]

Have you played it? I'd go so far as to say Xenoblade Chronicles is one of the best games I've ever played in my life, and I've been at this for over 20 years man.

[MrBug]

Yep, finished it.
Epic 80 hours of pressing the same 4-5 skills in the same order for every battle and enemy in the game. You can play this game blindfolded after awhile. Just rarely theres a need to switch to other character to cast heal whens the dps arent going to your favor and ai too stupid to spam heals nonstop.
Id say thats the must be the most braindead battle system ever, if i havent seen The Last Story first :)
Soo, whats so best about it? It has big open empty spaces with tons of monsters placed almost randomly around them. Lots and lots of running between "zones", Kill X monsters or brind X loot quests. Constant rewards for everything you do to keep you playing: exploration, kills, quests, ingame achievements. They just shower you with them nonstop, you like that dont you?
pssst... youve been playing wrong games for those 20 years if thats what actully tickles you, go play Final Fantasy XIV instead, i heard its even better ;))

[Hoffmann]

Well, his description is pretty spot on. The story was very lackluster and the fighting..fun for some hours but it is getting boring too fast.

[_-EDMIX-_]

edit. Sylth01 corrected me, it is Xenoblade Chronicles and not Xenoblade Chronicles X.

Disregard.

Downvotes warranted folks.

[Rebel_Scum]

Nah its a pretty decent game. It has npc characters that for me I was interested in and could remember in each town and had a story I enjoyed for the most part. It was an interesting world to be in and had great music. The battle system was a bit of a fluff but how many jrpg's aren't though?

Name me a Final Fantasy game that you don't button mash in battles.

[nitus10]

Believe it or not but many of the Final Fantasy games had an active turn-base option that could be switched back to turn-base during a tough enemy encounter. You never ever "button mashed".

FF12 was a radical departure from random encounters in that you could see the enemy before they attacked you and if you felt they were too strong you could sometimes avoid them. In fact, you could pretty much go anywhere within reason although go into some areas and all it would take is one encounter to instantly wipe out your whole party.

FF12 was the only FF game to actually have your party (3 controllable plus one NPC) fight in the exact same area where you encounter the enemy (ie. no battle arena), not only that you could also position your party on the battlefield.

Another feature (love it or hate it) that FF12 had was the "gambit" system which virtually allowed one to program what each character would do in the field or in battle. This was simplified to the "paradigms" system for FF13 and FF13-2.

If you like button mashing try Tales of Xilla. Even though I liked the game it was the only game I have ever played that gave me RSI. I have never had problems with any other RPG which also includes the Souls games, Bloodborne and The Witcher 3 (Death March difficulty) to name a few and I can play those games for hours without my hands cramping.

[MrBug]

Ahhm, dont mix it up please. Its very hard to call that a jrpg. Its 90% just a standart mmo, compare it to a Ragnarok Online, Wow or Final Fantasy XIV. Ah well, it doesnt even matter what you call it, no big deal...
Theres just nothing really good about. It doesnt do anything new or improves on anything.
The battle system is definetly dumbed down as much as possible to "appeal to a broader audience" or something :) You say any Final Fantasy game is as stupid as that? Cmon, theres tons of spells, items and skill to use. And they do matter. You know theres those epic speedruns of dem old classic snes ff's where they beat those games in mere hours. Its amazing how much stuff you can actually do in battles :)
The game is not even original with all that mmo stuff. Cmon, theres Final Fintasy XII that does pretty much the same thing. But it does the actual jrpg part too, where its all about moving forward and telling the story. Here? It starts out with some decent story but then in just goes full open word, like, heres a shitload of locations, tons of monsters everywhere, do whatever you like, go whereever you want, no more story for next 30 hours, enjoy!

[Zeldafan64]

Are you talking about Xenoblade Chronicles X or the original Xenoblade Chronicles? Big difference.

[Rebel_Scum]

@nitus10, @MrBug: Never played FFXII but yeah, one out of 13 eh? Fair enough lol. Yeah FF has different spells and the like but in battle you can just hold the attack button and boom that's your battle.

@ZeldaFan64: I'm talking about chronicles dude.

[_-EDMIX-_]

Rebel- Zeldafan is correct, might want to check if you mean Xenoblade Chronicles X or Xenoblade Chronicles as many have made that mistake, including myself.

I thought I would like X more based on driving mechs and junk, turns out I like more of what I saw from the Wii Xenoblade Chronicles. I still have a working Wii and might do a playthrough of it.

[_-EDMIX-_]

@rebel- "Name me a Final Fantasy game that you don't button mash in battles"

No.

That is an extreme exaggeration bud. Too many status effects and strategies to say any FF you can complete that way.

[_-EDMIX-_]

edit. Sylth01 corrected me, it is Xenoblade Chronicles and not Xenoblade Chronicles X.

Disregard.

I've heard too many good things about Xenoblade Chronicles and saw the ending a while ago before the Japanese version of X released and I really liked what I saw. I'd say its indeed one of the best, can't say "best" as in the only one though lol.

[Sylth01]

The article is about Xenoblade Chronicles, not Xenoblade Chronicles X. No driving around or flying mechs plus a much better story.

[equal_youth]

If the author would have used the term jrpg for it's Headline it wouldn't be such a controversial Statement. But even if he did I would argue that the number one Spot belongs to persona even if it was also grindy as Heck especially at the end.

[_-EDMIX-_]

@Sylth- did not see the missing X, lol I desrve the downvotes, my bad.

I heard lots of good things about that game, I watched the last 20 hours or so at a friends house before they got the import of Xenoblade X, they told me great things about it and its ending was so good, I wish I didn't see it as it sounded like an amazing story.

I'd have to play it, I might actually borrow it from him to check it out, but my back log is something serious right now! Packed with soooooooo much RPGs!

I'd have to play it to really say how I like it, but I'd say just from what I've seen from ending, it has a better Story then what I've seen from Xenoblade X. I personally just want a turned based Xenosaga game.....

Might never happen though.

[Zeldafan64]

The story is one of the things that makes the game so great. That along with the incredible soundtrack and cast of characters. Also, this game has some of the best voice acting I've ever heard in a video game. Over hyped? NO!! If anything it's under hyped.

[_-EDMIX-_]

I enjoyed most of what I saw while my friend was completing it. I would play through it if I didn't have so much to finish up on my backlog. Xenoblade Chronicles very much feels like a game, 15 years from now people will recall as a lost gem.

[Kreisen]

Aww hell naw! Maybe it is if you spend the last 20 years on a island with only a Wii and XC.

[darkreno]

No it's not unless you had only Nintendo consoles than I agree.

[deafdani]

I had Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii last gen, and Xenoblade was my favorite game of last gen.

[equal_youth]

It was good for a while but got grindy way to fast. There are much better RPG's out there.

[Zeldafan64]

There are a lot of people that like to grind in rpgs, I'm one of them. Especially when you've got incredible music to back it up.

[OtakuDJK1NG-Rory]

RPG are suppose to be grindy.
Depending it's difficulty.

[equal_youth]

I know but I would have prefered some variety in the quest Design. I know the game was limited by Hardware but there where many fetch Quests.
X had the same Problem but I love it nonetheless. Hopefully monolyth will work on another entry for the nx once they're done helping out with Zelda.

[OtakuDJK1NG-Rory]

There weren't really much fetch quest at all. Only Kiria had a sidestory where you look for something for her. The NPC are the one asking to look for thing which can be ignored.

The game was limited by the hardware.

[Sirk7x]

Agreed; I hope that someday it will be looked back upon as one of the greatest games ever made.

[Ristul]

Someone didn't play Witcher 3 it seems. ;)

[Ginpachi-sama]

Lol the witcher good joke

[KTF26]

more likely someone play on Nintendo exclusively

[Zeldafan64]

I do and proud of it.

[Segata]

It has terrible combat and UI. The whole series has that problem. Not saying they are bad. 2-3 are quite good but the combat isn't very good.

[nitus10]

To really appreciate The Witcher 3 you do need to play on "Death Mach" difficulty. All other difficulties are too easy although I would recommend "Blood and Broken Bones" for beginners, any other difficulty is IMHO just too easy and you can't really appreciate the game.

For some reason, TW3 and even games like Skyrim or Oblivion have a difficulty slider which IMHO spoils the games since you are always tempted to make the game easier, rather than go elsewhere, level up or get better weapons and armour. So changing the difficulty to easy when you encounter a tough enemy is IMHO a cheat but then if you do this you are just cheating yourself.

[Zeldafan64]

Arc Rise Fantasia is perfect in the difficulty department as well as Xenoblade Chronicles.

[OtakuDJK1NG-Rory]

I have both. XBC on Wii and Wither III on PS4. I am sorry but The Witcher III isn't really all that. The world and production of the game is great but the combat is stale and boring.

[Dixiedevil]

It's a great game but towards the end it kinda turned into a grindfest..

[Servbot41]

If you ever had to grind in Xenoblade Chronicles in order to complete the story, you were doing something very wrong.

[Zeldafan64]

There were a few times I needed to grind a bit throughout the course of the game and I still did a good portion of the side quests. Never at any point was I ever over leveled.

[OtakuDJK1NG-Rory]

more like you party was too weak.

Don't blame the game for forcing you to grind.

I had no problem spending 2 hours grinding up to level 77-80 before the final boss. Which is the recommended level to be at.

[oIITSBIIo]

No it's not, the battle system is shi*.

[Zeldafan64]

What I'm hearing is it was too difficult for you to understand.

[Servbot41]

It absolutely is one of the best games of all time. Shame the sequel was pretty much crap in all aspects besides combat.

[leahcim]

yes, until Geralt arrived.
Seriously for me before the Witcher 3 Xenoblade was the best RPG of the geration (talking about Xeno-wii no Xeno-wiiU)

[NotEvenMyFinalForm]

the game's mad boring.

[noksucow73]

Nah. I think the Mass Effect series was much better, but to each his own. Good game and if you have a Wii I would say grab it.

[sullynathan]

It is not and neither is Witcher 3

[BlahBlahWhatever]

Eh.. nop it isn't, I buy a Wii just to play this game & I also buy the CE of the game just because the one behind it create one of my most favorite game of all time, Xenogears, & I also spent over 200 hours playing Xenoblade & although I like it a lot it's not the best JRPG of the past 20 years, FFVII is better, Xenogears is better, Suikoden II is better & a few other games are also better, you could definitely put it in a TOP 10 list but nowhere near the TOP 5 imo.

[desy64]

It's my fav game all time :) and i've been gaming since 1988

Anyways, sometimes a game just clicks with us, it doesn't need to be perfect in any sense. XC is not perfect but it's perfect to me

[Eiyuuou]

Shin Megami Tensei says hi.

[SegaGamer]

The best RPG since 1996 ? I'm not so sure about that, we have some amazing RPG's in that time.

[Ravenheartzero]

Wouldn't say the best but definitely a fantastic RPG imo. Hope it receives a HD makeover in the future.

[Dark-Funeral]

it depends on how rpg approach you like

1- there are people who love intense fight like dark souls
2_ and those who like immersive storytelling ( like me ) for example witcher 3
3_ or huge freedom like elder scroll

it depend on you which game is better

[Zeldafan64]

Xenoblade Chronicles has all 3 of those. There are so many tough boss battles in Xenoblade Chronicles. I died probably 50 to 60 times throughout the course of the game. I'd say I died at least once to half of the story bosses. It's important to note that I was never over leveled at any point throughout the entire game. The story is incredibly engrossing and it has huge freedom of exploration on top of one of the greatest soundtracks of all time. I'd really recommend you watch part of Cryaotic's playthrough of the game and see how much he enjoys it.

[Darkfist_Flames]

lol. just an opinion nothing more

[Metallox]

You don't say.

[SuperSilentPain]

Witcher 3 please

[Zeldafan64]

Go to youtube and listen to You will know Our Names, you're welcome.

[MilkMan]

This game is utterly fantastic.

[DeusEx-Machina]

It is.

[franwex]

The game is great, but after 70 hours I got fatigued. I mean to finish it someday...

[OtakuDJK1NG-Rory]

A lot of haters.

[BlackDoomAx]

Just no :)