Part of the Famicast crew gets some hands-on time with the Japanese build of Xenoblade.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/impressions/26347
On June 10, 2010, Xenoblade launched in Japan. Famitsu gave the game a review score of 36/40, and the game debuted at number one on the sales charts. Nearly a year later, Nintendo of Europe announced that they would be bringing the game to Europe featuring both English and Japanese spoken dialogue and subtitles available in English, French, Italian, German, and Spanish. Monolith Soft's epic action RPG promises tons of content, great audio, and a killer experience. While it is a tall order to fill, the crew gets a ton of things right in Xenoblade.
Xenoblade starts off by showing a battle taking place between two colossal robot-like characters who are trying to hack each other to pieces. After watching the two giants duke it out, you are brought to a different area where warfare has broken out between humans and an army of incoming machine-like creatures, who are slaughtering soldiers left and right. Shortly thereafter, the humans bring in their heavy hitters, one of which is named Dunban, the original wielder of the Monado (the red sword seen in the artwork). After having a chance to fight through the enemies, you then witness Dunban getting mauled by incoming forces as the screen fades away and time leaps ahead to a year after the fateful battle. From there, you meet the game's main protagonist, Shulk, who is joined shortly thereafter by his close friend, Rein. After making your way back to their home in Colony 9, you also come into contact with Dunban's younger sister, Florung, who is also a childhood friend of Shulk. From here the story begins to unfold as Shulk has to follow the footsteps of Dunban by wielding the Monado to protect his friends and family from a mysterious mechanical enemy.
The first thing the player will notice about Xenoblade is the visuals. The worlds are extremely rich with color and really come to life with vivid detail. In the fields, for example, you can see clumps of grass and great detail put into simple things such as rocks or trees. The stark contrast between the towering structures in the cities and rural backdrops are awe inspiring and show what the Wii is capable of visually. While the character models might not look quite as good as the architecture or fields, they are pretty well designed and feature pretty impressive facial animations. The soundtrack is top notch, and from what I have heard so far, is extremely well put together. Tetsuya Takahashi, president at Monolith Soft and executive producer for Xenoblade, went into the project wanting to deliver a unique, five-star audio experience for players, with superb voice acting and wonderfully constructed soundtrack; he has achieved this goal. Xenoblade offers one of the best visual and aural experiences on the Wii.
Controls in Xenoblade are easy to grow accustomed to and are put together very well. Monolith Soft has given gamers the option to control the on-screen action with either the Wii Remote and Nunchuk, or the Classic Controller (Pro). During my playthrough, I played exclusively with the Wii Remote and Nunchuk. Players move around the characters with the analog stick on the Nunchuk controller and can jump by using the B button on the Wii Remote. When the player presses the C button on the Nunchuk, they have the ability to position the camera with the D-pad and can also choose to zoom in with the A button and zoom out with the B trigger. You can reset the camera behind your character by either holding the C button and pressing the Z button, or you can double tap the C button. Character controls and the camera feel tight, rarely giving the player any problems.
The battle system is straightforward, and after a short time with the game, you will be able to grasp everything in it without any issues. If an enemy is in sight and you would like to engage them in battle, you simply press the Z button. Once in battle mode, there are several commands, called Arts, located across the bottom of the screen that you can choose from by cycling through with the D-pad. These Arts range from various types of attacks to healing abilities and more. After you use an attack, the character cannot use the same Art for an allotted period of time. However, during this period the characters can do an auto-attack, though it is much weaker than one of the Arts. Being at a fairly early point in the game, there are not many Arts to choose from, however, this will more than likely grow deeper the further you get into the game.
One other interesting feature that I came across early on in the game is the “bonds system,” which gives you a chance to talk with and reminisce about the past with some of the characters. Early on in the game, as Shulk, you have chance to have one of these “bond” experiences with Folrung (Shulk's hot, female friend). After talking about specific events, you can choose to totally ignore her feelings and spout off an answer about wanting to be like her brother, or you can try to flatter her. If you choose to entertain her by flattering her, she takes notice and likes your comment. This early on in the game, it is hard to tell where these kind of relationships will go with the characters, however it is an engrossing feature that has potential.
From my short time with the game, Xenoblade is a very well put together Japanese RPG that will appeal to fans of the genre. Luckily, the game is being localized for English speakers (as well as other languages across Europe) so knowledge of the Japanese language will not be a prerequisite to play this title. Monolith Soft's epic is said to take gamers anywhere from 50 to 80 hours to complete, though completing the main story, side quests, and numerous other activities could stretch this number out even further. For more information about Xenoblade, please feel free to visit the official site for Japan or the official site for the UK/EU.
Topic: Xenoblade Impressions (Read 1444 times)
