CP 1: Xenoblade Chronicles #1

For a while, I've been hesitating to write about things like this, for reasons I'm not really sure about (since, just think about it, I published my food diary on this blog for several weeks). But I've been blown away so unexpectedly and fully yesterday that I really can't stop myself any longer.
So, this is about videogames.
If you know me personally, you will most likely know that I have played and still play a variety of games, though with a strong bias towards Japanese Role-Playing-Games (and Zelda!). I started with Super Mario Bros., as, I suppose, many others did, I still think Tetris is probably the best game ever developed (especially considering replay value :D), but then, one fateful day, someone handed me a playstation controller for a few minutes, and that was that (the game, back then, was Final Fantasy 7, and I just ran through some tunnels for 3 minutes, unsure what to do with that alien thing in my hands...but that's probably a different story, to be told at a different time).
Anyway. Since I was hit square in the face by something awesome yesterday, I thought maybe I could chronicle my experience with it (haha. Welcome to Bad Pun County!).
Now, the story of how Xenoblade Chronicles, The Currently Most Awesome Thing In The World, entered my life, is somewhat circuitous (yes, I had to look that one up). I'd heard about it quite some time ago, of course. I might even have seen Game One's report on it. But either it was at a time when I was preoccupied with something else (Skyward Sword previews?), or I just thought "Whatever, I will not play any RPGs not developed by SquareEnix because, you know, I'm sooo very open to new things." :P or...it was just too plain expensive for me to try (a consideration which didn't keep me from throwing my money at Skyward Sword, of course).
Enter last Saturday, when I dragged my boyfriend to the nearest electronics store so I could finally get myself a new keyboard (notebook keyboards may sometimes survive water, they will, however, not survive milk). This, of course, included my obligatory walk through the games aisles. I saw something pretty by Daedalic (we're just playing The Whispered World), namely A New Beginning, which looks very lovely indeed, and then I saw Xenoblade Chronicles. At less than half the prize I'd seen it on Amazon, at a third of the prize I'd seen it at other stores. At a prize well below the Final Fantasy Platinum Editions, even. Money you'd pay for a nice paperback.
Here's what followed:
Me: Hey, what? Xenoblade Chronicles for 14,50?*picking it up* Oh wow.
J: What's this?
Me: Uh, RPG, I really don't know much, but, the world is actually the body of a titan, and you have this sword which can see into the future and...wow.
J: Huh.
Me: Yeah, and the world is supposed to be huge, and the pictures I've seen were really pretty...
J: Yeah, for a Wii game, the graphics don't look half bad.
Me: They ARE amazing, aren't they? And it's supposed to be really good, and...
Okay, I guess you get the gist. So, I walk around with the game in hand for further 5 minutes, looking at other things, discussing with myself (silently!) whether I could allow myself to spend any more money this month (or ever). And my boyfriend looks at other games, probably thinking whether he should buy the game for his slightly obsessive girlfriend or not.
And then he notices the Lego Star Wars games, and Xenoblade Chronicles completely loses to that (you know, stuff known to appeal to inner fanboy vs the unknown). So, with some thoughts on whether I won't regret it, I put the game back down and think 'Maybe next month.' And we go home.
And once there, J plays the Lego game for maybe half an hour, is completely disappointed, I put on some music from Xenoblade (thank you, Youtube), and then listen to regretful comments from J for the rest of the evening. Who would have thought.
So, yesterday, when I collected our car from service, I checked out the electronics market next door, only to see that they sold the game for the much, MUCH higher price. And then - because I'd been listening to great game music for 5 days, and J seemed a little down, and whatever else might have come into it, I took the car, drove to the place we'd been to on Saturday, and got the game.
Which pretty much ended my day, because I got stuck immediately. I managed to go to uni, but I have the music in my head for the whole time, and I practically raced back once the course was finished (I did *not* attend the lecture before that, I admit). Then I played until J came home, and made *him* play. Then I waited until he was asleep and played some more. I was lucky to make it to bed at 3am. I could also have forgotten about the time completely and only realised once the sun came up. It's happened before.
So, here we are, and as soon as I finish writing this, I know I'll start playing again.

To finish this, why do I, after only 6 hrs, and most of these spent exploring the world instead of following the storyline, think that this may be (one of) the most amazing games I've ever played?
1) The basic concept is unusual, and awesome: Instead of the world being just another alternative Earth floating through space, it is the body of a dead titan. The village you start out in is at the bottom of its leg. Get your head around that for a minute. I may be (AM) biased,but this is brilliant.
2) The world, from what I've seen so far, is HUGE. I only explored the first area so far, and yes, you heard me right just above, 6hrs. And there will be more yet. And it's *pretty*. There are hidden places. There are all sorts of animals. Which leads to...
3) As I just mentioned - I was able to play, and with gusto, for 6 hrs without feeling any *need* to follow the storyline. Actually, I only chose to progress in the story after the first few auto events after around 4 hrs of running around and doing other things. This is unheard of.
4) It has elements from other of my favourite games: Day and Night rhythms with certain people only appearing at certain times (hello, Zelda!) with the added bonus that you can set the time whenever you please; a huge amount of missions, which combine the hunts from FF 12 with those optional sidequests you get in any RPG; a battle system a little similar to FF12 but with, I think, more fun and less tactics (just a little less...FF12 was just too focused on those); it has a substance called ether (at least in German) which reminds me both of FF7 and FF10, in a way; you can customise weapons and armour with ether crystals (helloooo, Materia!), and the relationships between characters matter a lot (as they do in Dragon Age, which I have not played myself, but watched on as J did, and which I think must be one of the most amazing PC games out there). There's more, I think, but this post is already overlong.
5) It is insanely pretty, and has great music, and the English dub is quite amazing, too. Also, should I wish to do so, I *could* switch to Japanese anytime. Freedom of choice in those matters is one of the best things ever. 

Now, I wouldn't be too surprised if this turned out to be my longest post yet. I had to take a break in the middle of writing it and just thought of at least ten other things I'd like to write about, all to do with videogames. So - be prepared. Some sort of dam has definitely broken. The CP posts will follow me through my experience of playing this game, and will talk about other games I'm currently playing. Next up for Xenoblade will be some general background, and maybe some videos.