The original “Xenoblade Chronicles” is one of my favorite games of all time, and while the sequel doesn’t soar to the same heights as the original, “Xenoblade Chronicles 2” is an amazing game with a good story and beautiful world. The soundtrack in the game is also amazing, and even better than the original “Xenoblade Chronicles.” That game’s soundtrack was one of my favorites in any game, and was only behind “Chrono Trigger” for best music in a game.
The characters in the game are interesting as well, but the designs of those characters is terrible, some of the worst I have seen while playing a game. There was one character who especially had this problem, and whenever she was on screen, I lost any immersion I had for the story. However, this was the only problem I had with the game, and I learned to deal with it.
The best part of the game is the world, and every environment is an absolute joy to explore. The exploration is perfect, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with it. The variety in the environments is great as well. It made me want to keep playing the game for hours and hours to see the next area. I can’t state enough how amazing the world looks and the fun I had exploring different areas. It legitimately did not get old going through these environments. I’ve already played 20 hours in the last few days, and the exploration was fun every single minute. The amounts of color and diversity in the environments are some of the best in a game ever.
The story is pretty interesting as well, but the characters’ importance in the story is one reason the story isn’t great, at least where I am in the story at 20 hours. Whenever something important happens and I’m supposed to care about the characters, the ugly problem rears its head.
The problem mentioned earlier in the review addressed the bad fan service in the game. It took me out of the game and made me not want to care about the characters.
The story is pretty good, as it doesn’t reveal everything at once. It tries to foreshadow some things, and those actually work. It’s just disappointing that a lot of the more important characters are hurt by the bad character design.
Overall, “Xenoblade Chronicles 2” is a very fun game in the minute-to-minute game play with the amazing environments and outstanding soundtracks. However, when it comes time to actually worry about the characters and their motivations, that’s when the game goes a bit downhill. It doesn’t ruin it, but it really hurts my enjoyment of the story. If Japanese role-playing games are your things, this is the perfect game for you, but if that isn’t your type of game, “Xenoblade Chronicles 2” won’t change your opinion.
