The Game That Made Me Dust Off My Wii
The tale of getting Xenoblade Chronicles anywhere near my Wii is almost as epic as the game’s story promises to be. Two weeks before release in Australia, I took a gamble and ordered from Ozgameshop. Well aware that it would take two weeks to reach me, I was quite justifiably chuffed with myself for saving $50 and most likely receiving the game close to the official date.
Those two weeks came and went. The game sat on store shelves as I waited. I’m still waiting – in fact, this Friday will be over 30 days since my errant package was sent and I can finally claim it lost in the post. No longer willing to wait, and possessing more money than sense, I took a further gamble and grabbed the game from EB yesterday (hey, I always have the option of returning it if my wayward copy shows up).
An hour is not long enough to get a complete grasp on Xenoblade Chronicles, but a few things stood out. Firstly, the soundtrack is great. One song that played as I was out in the field chasing down glowing blue collectibles featured a lightly strummed guitar and dulcet piano tones, which shifted seamlessly to a different, slower arrangement as I entered the first town. JRPGs are well known for their great tunes so it’s a comforting audible layer blanketing my first impressions of the game.
Visually, there are limits. Graphics are what some would call blocky and textures do tend to look stretched or smeared across things. Small creatures scrurrying through the grass can be hard to discern, but by and large the Wii’s capabilities seem to be utilised fully. The environments, from what I’ve seen, are beautiful and lush and everything feels very open, almost like an MMO, a comparison I’m sure I’ll keep making due to the general design of quests and NPC interaction.
The last thing I’ll touch on is the element that took up most of my first hour – hunting down small blue spheres that serve as the game’s collectibles. You have a diary of sorts that tells you how many of each collectible you need to find before a prize is awarded. I gained two skill enhancing gems in this way, which socket into my equipped weapon. These collectibles seem as addictive as Crackdown’s orbs, scattered as they are throughout the world, leading you like breadcrumbs from the path you were on a moment ago.
The beauty of this is that although you can see enemies in the world, they don’t seem in a hurry to attack at all. This is a JRPG where the overworld is no longer a random gauntlet to rush through lest you be reigned in by a random battle. The world is open to exploration and this is honestly the single most exciting thing that I’ve gained from playing Xenoblade Chronicles so far. Other JRPGs have flirted with non-hostile overlands, but this feels like a game that actually recognises that it exists beyond 2000. Can’t wait to play more.
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