I'm surprised that, with the release of this game only two days away, there is absolutely no discussion of this title.
That's right, the original innovator of "big world with collection quests" on Nintendo consoles is back for another round with a fiery sequel(?)! Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is all about a boy and his blade, who is a super special blade, trust me, because its red and has a Zohar on it. So! Let's highlight some of the key elements, shall we?
Exploration:
A major difference, and perhaps a key factor in the speedy development of the title, is the segmented nature of the world. Each different biome is actually atop a flying creature called a Titan, proof that, in any sequel, more is better. Titans vary in size, and many are used as airships to travel from one place to the next.
While time of day will affect the ecosystem, another element is the cloud sea itself, which has rising and falling tides that will allow access to certain areas. Likewise, there are diving points where Rex will be able to recover materials and other surprises...
Combat:
Some new innovations to combat mean that Arts selection is... easier, I guess. But it's more committal in regards to positioning and auto-attack combo chaining, in addition to a revelation regarding secondary and tertiary "levels" of specific blade arts. Not only will raising a blade art level in combat change its effects, but it can be chained with party blade arts into even more devastating attacks. Chain attacks from the first Xenoblade also make a return, although with an added layer of complexity found in the blade art chaining.
With less of a focus on equipment, the main area of customization comes from Blades themselves, as each character can wield up to three at a time, switching between them in combat. A fun aesthetic note is that, as with several character designs, Monolith reached out to prolific Japanese character designers and artists to create a vast amount of unique designs for rare Blades that can be found throughout the world.
Quests:
According to hands-on experience, the quest system in Xenoblade 2 is even more streamlined than XCX, with objective markers and character portraits featured. If you have excess Blades that are of a weaker level, you can rent them out to a mercenary group in order to complete missions on their own and improve their abilities. there's a specific Titan full of Nopon merchants with special accessories for your party members, and even townspeople may be suspicious and challenge you to battles.
Aside from these aspects, there are some elements of the story that I find particularly curious, but I won't go into any storyline specifics, as two major points that I would consider rather spoiler-ish were revealed in the last Direct. Is anyone planning on picking this up? I'll admit, I told myself I would pick up a Switch when Monolith's next project was announced, which was at the Switch reveal last year, so... yeah.