I just beat Xenoblade Chronicles. It is a fantastic game that deserves all the attention it can get. Especially, in this current generation with lackluster JRPGs. It’s beautiful, well-written and captivating to the end. It goes down as one of my favourite games ever.

It has a similar feel to FFXII. Which is great, because I loved that game. The battle system, story, and environments remind me of it. But it feels like Xenoblade did it right.

The game cuts out a lot of the bullshit of other JRPGs. Quicktravel is locations is a big thing. You can explore more, but you can always go back instantly to already discovered landmarks. I hate useless walking, so this is wonderful. Also, some fetch quests don’t need you to return the items to the requestee. As soon as you grab the items or kill the baddies, a screen pops up that says you completed the quest and gives the result of it and the reward.

English VAs are awesome. Usually, I switch to JP voices as soon as possible, but they were great and create a wonderful experience. I thought they fit the characters well. In cutscenes, you can just sit back, relax and watch it.

The battle system seemed weird and slow at first, but it gets better as you have more options later in the game (more characters and more arts).

Graphics are ‘meh’. But you get used to it. Still, they have created absolutely gigantic worlds that are beautiful. It blows my mind that they were able to do this on the wii.

The only thing that bothered me is the loading. It actually loads fast(!), but it loads a lot. And it is just nonstop sounds from the disk reading (which for the wii is loud as fuck!). This is not a problem about the game, but more of the hardware. I think easiest solution would be if there was an install option, which the wii obviously does not do ;_;.

Nothing really else to say, it’s just all fantastic. Please, if you have a Wii, do yourself a favour and pick this game up.

Just buy it. It will be good for you.

Also, why isn’t there more fan art of this game…