CP 2: Xenoblade Chronicles #2

As promised, some research and actual pictures/videos from the game. I have by now played for around 30 hours and reached/explored what I suppose must be the largest area in the game, although going further might prove me completely wrong. I'm still stunned by the actual size of this world. This is only the third area, after all, and it's huge. I've never seen the like.

Anyway, background information. Very alert ones among you might already have guessed that this game was produced by Monolith Soft, a company founded by former Square employees. They're best known for the Xenosaga trilogy, which, of course, is related to Xenogears, one of those excellent games never to grace the European games market (a source of deep regret for me, as the more I look into it, the more I wish I could have played it/could still play it some day). Previously mostly owned by Namco Bandai, it changed hands over to Nintendo in 2007, which offers the explanation of how I managed to find myself playing an RPG on the Wii (something I really never expected I would do).

At this point I'd really like you to check out the Xenogears OST, and especially the MYTH orchestral album. I got these a couple of days ago, and am deeply obsessed. At least, listen to these two, which are basically the opening and the prologue music of Xenogears. Or just watch the whole opening, really.

I listened to these two on eternal loop, together with this, this and this, the whole of yesterday afternoon, evening, and a large part of night. Insane, but oh, the prettiness of it all. [The day I originally wrote this not being the same I posted this, but...I'm still listening to those songs, hehe.]

Music is also one of the strong points of Xenoblade. The Xenogears OST was composed by Yasunori Mitsuda, one of my absolute heroes ever since I played Chrono Chross (listen to the Chrono Chross opening here - honestly, do!), and he apparently supplied some material for Xenoblade as well.
Actually, several composers have done work on the Xenoblade OST, and in comparison to what happened with the Final Fantasy 10 OST (where I felt a harsh contrats between those tracks done by Nobuo Uematsu and those by the others),the result is really quite organic and smooth.

But then, this is not supposed to be a post about music. I just get really carried away with RPG music (and probably music in general). There might just be a separate post about the Xenoblade OST, as I have had deep feelings for that ever since I started playing. Yes, really. I'm in love. ;)

The place you start - Colony 9. I actually did a piece for the "Travel Writing" homework in my creative writing class this semester on Colony 9. So pretty. So. Much. Fun.

Now, since anyone can just read up on certain facts on the relevant Wikipedia-Pages, here's some of what I think about story, gameplay etc. so far:

1) Story: After the intriguing intro (the end of which gives me goosebumps every time), the story seemed to move rather slowly for me, but that was just due to me just exploring the world and doing missions for *hours* before progressing. It then, of course, got very interesting very quickly. War between two very different races? Magical (?) weapons which suddenly don't work as the heroes thought they should? The pros and cons of seeing glimpses of the future? Wooo! I think it's really going to be a lot of fun, and interesting in a philosophical way as well.

2) Gameplay: Geez, I never thought I'd get really excited about gameplay stuff. I really thought of myself of being there for the story, most of all. I'm not much of a tactician. A lot of the time, I didn't need to be when playing games. But here...The battles move quickly, and a lot of the time you can actually decide whether you want to enter into them or not. I admit that when fighting more than one enemy at once, they get chaotic and a little obscure, but they're still mostly a lot of fun, so I'll forgive them their failings. There's so many features, so many things you can do, and I've only 'collected' half of the playable characters so far. First of all you can choose freely which characters to place in your party (yes, you can switch out your main character with the magic sword :P). You can choose freely which of them to control. Then, you can choose which choice of 8 skills the characters have at their disposal (they learn new ones all the time). You can choose what other support talents they learn in what order. You can choose whether they learn talents someone else has learned. Then, you use those skills in battle in a way that makes sense when working together with your teammates. You can do chain attacks, you can do battle calls to motivate your friends, you can help them up when they fall, you can...it's almost absurd. You can customise your outfits (ie armour and weaponry) to a degree I didn't think was possible. You have so many options, I really do see the replay value here. I think you might need the first playthrough to just get an idea of what's possible, and then have fun with it all during your second playthrough. I don't know. Maybe that's just insane (because, after all, the game is HUGE). But maybe...

In battle, controlling Shulk. Look at all those symbols!

3) Harmony system: I admit, this is part of gameplay, to a degree, but it deserves an extra section. The harmony system traces the relationships between the characters in your group as well as those you meet around the world. You first have to make the necessary links, then, doing missions or whatever, you can change the status of those relationships (so far only for the better). In your group, you can improve the relationships by: doing missions together, fighting together, helping each other in battle, having little private talks (at predetermined spots throughout the world, at certain levels of like/dislike set by the game) and who knows what else. It's intriguing, and it's also hugely fun. In, for example, Dragon Age Origins, you could also influence relationships between your characters, but only by talking to them in camp and giving them presents. However, I think the system here makes so much more sense. I mean, helping someone up when they've fallen in battle must surely be worth some sympathy? Telling them they did a beautiful attack or comforting them when they missed must surely be a massive improvement for the relationship? And it is. I love it. (Although, if I've read correctly, you can also give them gifts.)

Part of the harmony diagram. Those little smiley symbols go orange-yellow-green-blue and then either pink clouds (non-love super relationship) or hearts (LOVE)

So, I think this concludes my 'short' introduction on some of the background and some of the features, and the music (tehee). And maybe offers some more explanation on why I love this game so much. I don't really know how that happened, or rather, I do know, but I'm still surprised, awed. Other games I often really just played for the story. This here...I don't know. Words somehow fail me. But since there's a sufficient amount of them already in this post, I guess that's quite alright.
Now go listen to that music.