Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna ~ The Golden Country

 Switch
User Score
8.5

Generally favorable reviews- based on 446 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 376 out of 446
  2. Mixed: 34 out of 446
  3. Negative: 36 out of 446
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  1. DrZomboid
    Jan 17, 2022
    4
    Disappointing prequel of great game. Boring story and half of game is doing side quest. Deleted after 10 hours
  2. lalahand
    Mar 7, 2021
    0
    You need to complete all the boring side quests to advance the main story. I stopped playing and watched the remaining story on YouTube.
  3. 0wls
    Jul 13, 2019
    4
    As a big fan of XC2 I was fairly disappointed with Torna. This review is aimed at people who played XC2 and are deciding on whether to check out Torna. What I loved about XC2:
    -Deep and complex combat system
    -Customizability -Music -Incredible locations -Options to play as you see fit with many tasks In all 5 of these areas, Torna is a watered down version of XC2. Yes I know    As a big fan of XC2 I was fairly disappointed with Torna. This review is aimed at people who played XC2 and are deciding on whether to check out Torna. What I loved about XC2:
    -Deep and complex combat system
    -Customizability
    -Music
    -Incredible locations
    -Options to play as you see fit with many tasks

    In all 5 of these areas, Torna is a watered down version of XC2. Yes I know it's a less expensive game, but the amount of things that are poorly executed made me choose not to finish it, even though it's a much shorter game. Let me go through each point.

    Combat: There are no different options for blades, so you can't do things like in XC2 like choose whether to give Rex a healing blade or go full fighter, so the roles are blurred and your focus on what you should be doing in combat isn't clear. Blade combos are now anything combos into anything, so there is much less strategy. Every blade special attack adds an orb to the enemy (at level 1, 2 and 3 specials rather than just level 3) so the excitement and strategy of building up to a big chain attack is dumbed down.

    Customizability:
    One of my favorite things about XC2 was collecting core crystals and hoping to find a way to make a team that had ideal balance of healing blades on Nia, tank blades on Morag and fighter blades on Rex, to be able to create all 8 elemental orbs and also do driver combos (break, topple, launch, smash). This game gives you no say in your team, you get 3 drivers who each have 3 blades, you got each element represented and you have your driver combos, so no challenge or strategy there.

    Music:
    I loved the soundtrack to XC2. This game's new tracks are mostly forgettable, and it recycles a lot of XC2 or in at least one case, just remixes XC2 music. If you've finished XC2 you've probably spent 80 hours or so listening to those amazing songs so the effect has worn off a bit, and there is not much here to recreate the excitement of that score.

    Locations:
    Torna's environments are nowhere near as expansive, graphically beautiful or impressive as they are in XC2. Again, I know it's a cheaper game but there was not one area that was a "wow" moment for me, it's a lot more linear and a lot of the textures seem likely recycled from XC2 so they don't have the same impact on someone who completed that game. Also, much fewer titans (I won't spoil the number).

    Options:
    In XC2, I love that on top of customizing your blades and your team, you can then choose whatever you want to do with progression. Go straight through the story? Great. Focus on leveling up your blades' affinity chart? Do it. Sidequests? Go for it. Community level? Sure! Torna fails the most severely in this category. The game literally stops you from continuing the story unless you do sidequests and raise community levels. And not just a few. A TON. I just wanted to go through the story, so I ignored sidequests. Big mistake. At a certain point, the game told me I had to complete 15 sidequests before continuing. I hadn't even added that many to my quest log. The majority of these are very boring. An example: someone is hungry for a certain dish. So you have to go to a campsite to see if you can make that dish. Nope, don't have the ingredients. So I have to Google where I can find that ingredient. Then I fast travel to that location, look around, walk over and press A to grab the ingredient. Oh, but I need 5, and I only have 2. So I fast travel away, and fast travel back 2 more times to get enough. Then I fast travel back to my campsite, create the dish and then fast travel back to the NPC to give him the dish. He decides he wants a different dish. I repeat the boring process that has no sense of progression or excitement. Ok, now I have 1 sidequest done. This is about the average effort needed for sidequests, some are quicker and some are *shudders* longer. So I spend many hours frustrated that the energy of the game is being spent on fetchquests and finally complete 15. But THEN. I Google just to make sure this is the only time this will happen. NOPE. You're gonna have to complete 40ish slow sidequests to finish the game, in a game that doesn't dazzle with combat, music, or character options in a very limited number of locations.

    If you absolutely need more XC lore, this game has some but didn't dazzle me with story or characters. Everything that I loved about XC2 is worse in this game and while I completed that game twice I dropped this game at about 75% completion and don't care to finish it. Pretty disappointed.    … Expand
  4. Gamexpert
    Aug 17, 2019
    0
    DONT BUY if you dislike MMO-fetchquests.
    I never hated agame so much as Torna, and i loved the maingame very much.
    But they actually put a mainquest at the end of the game, before the final clash where you have to do 40-50 Sidequests to progess the story. And these sidequests are not interesting at all, almost all of them are MMO-like fetchquests, some of them with small dropchances. It    DONT BUY if you dislike MMO-fetchquests.
    I never hated agame so much as Torna, and i loved the maingame very much.
    But they actually put a mainquest at the end of the game, before the final clash where you have to do 40-50 Sidequests to progess the story. And these sidequests are not interesting at all, almost all of them are MMO-like fetchquests, some of them with small dropchances. It completly broke this game for me.    … Expand
  5. Nowakowski
    Nov 2, 2018
    1
    First off.. This game does nothing new. If you like quirky characters you might like this ever but and still very bad design...a waste of time....it is not a complete game in some way.
  6. macunix
    Oct 19, 2018
    0
    still very bad map (guide) design...a waste of time....it is not a complete game in some way.
  7. 1969
    Feb 9, 2019
    4
    At one point the game forces you to do a metric ton of sidequests in order to proceed (~45 of them or so)
    Most of them are of boring fetch-quest variety. That's hours of pure mind-bogglingly stupid busy-work.
    The game has other flaws, but forcing the player to do hours and hours of boring busywork in order to proceed is just pure BS and tanks the score from 7 or 8 that it would have    At one point the game forces you to do a metric ton of sidequests in order to proceed (~45 of them or so)
    Most of them are of boring fetch-quest variety. That's hours of pure mind-bogglingly stupid busy-work.

    The game has other flaws, but forcing the player to do hours and hours of boring busywork in order to proceed is just pure BS and tanks the score from 7 or 8 that it would have normally gotten.    … Expand
  8. quallll
    Feb 20, 2022
    3
    The original game is great, but this DLC is just a hack. Story for 3 hours, the rest of the time you will complete monotonous side quests to get the opportunity to move on
  9. FusionBreeze
    Mar 24, 2023
    2
    The UI, field skill system and some other mechanics, makes a game that could be really enjoyable, a massive cancerous disappointment. I am spending 80% of my playing time literally navigating the menu, trying to find field skills in order to proceed on my quests or trying to understand the ridiculously designed map. So disappointed because I really enjoyed the first game and was coming inThe UI, field skill system and some other mechanics, makes a game that could be really enjoyable, a massive cancerous disappointment. I am spending 80% of my playing time literally navigating the menu, trying to find field skills in order to proceed on my quests or trying to understand the ridiculously designed map. So disappointed because I really enjoyed the first game and was coming in expecting a similar experience. But no, everything was made more complicated, frustrating and some features removed altogether like the costumes.… Expand

Awards & Rankings

87
#87 Best Switch Game of 2018
19
#19 Most Discussed Switch Game of 2018
89
#89 Most Shared Switch Game of 2018

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
80

Generally favorable reviews - based on 41 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 35 out of 41
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 41
  3. Negative: 0 out of 41
  1. FNintendo
    Mar 13, 2019
    80
    Torna is a marvelous expansion of the no less amazing Xenoblade Chronicles 2. Adding to what the original game already does good, Torna manages to improve the combat system and acts as a very good buildup on the original game's plot. This is an especially recommended additional experience to those who enjoyed Xenoblade Chronicles 2, as it is designed to be especially appealing to fans of the original game.
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  2. Vooks
    Feb 21, 2019
    60
    While Torna’s story unfortunately turned out to be a huge let down, the gameplay does more than enough to pick up the pieces. Ultimately, exploring the world of Alrest is still a delight, and any excuse to re-enter this gorgeous universe is one worth taking.
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  3. Cubed3
    Dec 27, 2018
    80
    With refined combat, a far tighter script, and an infinitely more likable cast, Torna - The Golden Country manages to address almost all of Xenoblade Chronicles 2's core problems without ever straying too far from its source.
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