Xenoblade Chronicles 2

 Switch
User Score
8.5

Generally favorable reviews- based on 2500 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2,077 out of 2500
  2. Mixed: 183 out of 2500
  3. Negative: 240 out of 2500
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  1. Renzokuken
    Dec 4, 2017
    6
    Xenoblade II is an decent JRPG, but a huge step down quality wise from it's predecessor. The game has a rich world, an in depth story and complex nuanced systems. However the story is tainted by a one of the worst protagonist voice actor choices I've ever seen, the undocked mode looks offensively low quality with resolutions dropping as low as 386p. Acquisition of your blades is locked toXenoblade II is an decent JRPG, but a huge step down quality wise from it's predecessor. The game has a rich world, an in depth story and complex nuanced systems. However the story is tainted by a one of the worst protagonist voice actor choices I've ever seen, the undocked mode looks offensively low quality with resolutions dropping as low as 386p. Acquisition of your blades is locked to a gatcha style randomized system meaning building a meaningful party setup as you play is all but impossible without massive amounts of grinding. Many areas and sidequests in the game are gated behind field skills tied to blades, and as blade acquisition is totally RNG, your ability to progress is heavily determined by your luck, or willingness to grind. Some of these field skill gates are in the middle or end of a side quest meaning you can potentially waste hours on content you can't actually finish yet.

    Xenoblade II is still well worth a look if you can stomach it's glaring problems, but the further I've gotten into the game, the less I find myself wanting to pick it back up.    … Expand
  2. Kaprawiec
    Dec 11, 2017
    7
    Update - was 10 now its 7 from me. Great/ now ok RPG.
    Ill leave that its like playing Ghibli Studio animated movie. Idea behind this world is so good that the only thing I can say is that I just love it.
    Now on to what changed my mind - boring, bad designed combat! Its basicall just same combat system as the one in Final Fantasy 12. You run around, and the combat pretty much is getting    Update - was 10 now its 7 from me. Great/ now ok RPG.
    Ill leave that its like playing Ghibli Studio animated movie. Idea behind this world is so good that the only thing I can say is that I just love it.
    Now on to what changed my mind - boring, bad designed combat! Its basicall just same combat system as the one in Final Fantasy 12. You run around, and the combat pretty much is getting done by it self. Im usually not even looking on the screen, because it really doesnt matter in most of fights, they are either to easy or just imposibble to win. Oftenly they also piss me off with stupid crap - example:
    Im on lvl 10, fight with couple of lvl 5 bunnies (hitting them with ridiculously big swords obviously made from cardboard because 1 hit takes 5 lvl lower than me rabbit 5% of its health so the fight drags on forever) and then out of nowhere flies a bird or runs some gorilla on lvl 78 (!?) and one shot kills me. FUN...not... really wtf.
    I was hyped, after reading so much praise about the combat system, but really its bad for me atm. You cant just git gud when enemies oneshot you out of nowhere, and its not like I could run away either, because even when I try they will kill me from mile away.

    Ill update this when I finish the game, but hell, this game doesnt deserve 10.
    And for this stupid Tora character which I really start to hate with all my heart and this dumb infantile "mememe" or what the hell hes yelling all the time when fighting I would rate this even lower, but the game is actually good.    … Expand
  3. mattlarrubia
    Sep 24, 2020
    7
    Delete Rex and the game would be really great. The gameplay is one of the best in the genre.
  4. Mistoltean
    May 14, 2020
    7
    The open-world, MMORPG-like offline game, and gacha that you can get with grinding or in-game currency. XC2 looks ambitious and promising, but the execution is kind of awkward. The following issues are
    1. Mobs can unfairly overlevel and kill you without being provoked. Some can fly and no way to run from it consistently.
    2. Battle system is innovative but lacks proper tutorial and    The open-world, MMORPG-like offline game, and gacha that you can get with grinding or in-game currency. XC2 looks ambitious and promising, but the execution is kind of awkward. The following issues are
    1. Mobs can unfairly overlevel and kill you without being provoked. Some can fly and no way to run from it consistently.
    2. Battle system is innovative but lacks proper tutorial and cannot look back again. PPl who don't want to rely on external help might be turned off.
    3. The field skill relies on Blade, which relies on gacha and luck. The other annoying thing is you can equip only 3 blades then have to swap them around to get the needed skill to unlock or obtain the items from the field. Kind of clumsy, unpolished system.
    4. The story is dropped down for the sake of open worldness.

    In conclusion, the new ideas in the game are promising, but it lacks polishment and unfriendly to newcomers of rpg and non-hardcore players. I feel they are keeping it for a remake or definitive version. If you are into MMORPG, you can check this out. If not then might wait for the remake with quality of life improvement.    … Expand
  5. MadMaxxieXD
    Mar 1, 2020
    5
    I want to love this game so badly, the gameplay is very fun and the story is mostly, engaging, but the fan service, the sheer level of cringe, unnecessary fan service, just ruins the story and makes me actively want to stop playing. Pyra is supposed to be this powerful, ancient weapon, but she acts like a 12 year old trapped in the body of a magic stripper, constantly having cringe sexualI want to love this game so badly, the gameplay is very fun and the story is mostly, engaging, but the fan service, the sheer level of cringe, unnecessary fan service, just ruins the story and makes me actively want to stop playing. Pyra is supposed to be this powerful, ancient weapon, but she acts like a 12 year old trapped in the body of a magic stripper, constantly having cringe sexual interactions with Rex. So many scenes that just close up on female characters chests, or are weirdly pervy and sexual for no reason while grinding the story to a halt and ruining what these characters are supposed to be in the story by forcing them to be cringe, cliche anime waifu, wank bait for neckbeards and it's really a shame.. it actually gets to such a level that it ruins the experience.… Expand
  6. Xaphnir
    Jul 11, 2020
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. A strongly mediocre game.

    The story is decent. Pretty standard JRPG fare, doesn't really hold a candle to Monolith's previous work. Good concept for a world, but it's lacking in development.

    The characters are a mix of good and bad. Rex is annoyingly optimistic, Pyra/Mythra barely have personalities, Nia brings some much needed sarcasm and cynicism to counter Rex, Mòrag is cool, Zeke's an idiot, but not in an annoying way.

    Then there's Tora. Tora somehow managed to take the title of Most Obnoxious JRPG Character away from Zell, a feat I never thought could be done. He has an annoying voice, talks in an even more annoying way than the rest of his race, and is generally an idiot in the annoying way. And then there's his constant string of Meh!Meh!Meh!Meh!Meh!Meh!Meh!Meh! in battle.

    Overall, I'd say the story is probably the most enjoyable part of the game, but it's not going to rank anywhere close to the greats of the genre.

    The battle system is by far the worst I've ever experienced in a JRPG. It's designed as if the developers went to painstaking lengths to remove as much control from the player as possible. Each character can have up to three other characters called blades equipped that they may switch between them in battle. Each blade is of a different element, and using the right elements is key to performing combos. It's centered around using your driver arts to charge your specials, then using your specials to perform driver combos, then using completed combos of different elements in a big chain attack to finish the boss. Problem is, you can only control one character at a time, and cannot switch in battle. The only control you have over the other characters is to tell them when to use their special. You cannot control which blade they have active, leading to frequent frustrating situations where you want them to use a specific blade and they simply will not use them. You also cannot control the AI's positioning in any way, meaning that you cannot include positioning of party members in your strategy. Now, what are you allowed to do in battle beyond what I described there? Nothing beyond reviving downed characters. No items, no magic, no other abilities whatsoever. This leads to very binary difficulty in the combat. If your characters are high enough level and set up right, the battle is near-effortless. If not, the battle is impossible or only possible with very good RNG rolls. There is no in-between. If I were basing this rating solely on the battle system, this game would be rated around a 2 or 3.

    As for the gatcha system for blades: I'd long wanted to see a gatcha system without the pay-to-win and other monetization mechanics games such as Brave Frontier and Fire Emblem: Heroes have. it worked fairly well for this game. You have a bunch of blades to pick from and if you like grinding and leveling things in RPGs, you will love this mechanic. The drop rates are reasonable (except for one particular blade), and your ability to resonate with more blades is limited by your ability to grind them and how much time you spend, and not your bank account. That said, I'm not sure I want to see any other games experimenting with a system like this. It felt more limiting than anything while playing through the main story, and fortunately by far the strongest blade for the main story is tied to the main character.

    Overall, this is a game that could have been good but is held back by an atrociously bad battle system.    … Expand
  7. Neku_Tennyson
    Jun 26, 2020
    6
    Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (XC2)

    XC2 is a mixed bag I love the story and the characters but I despise the gameplay you play as a treasure scavenger called Rex and met his humanoid blade called Prya, you only have 5 playable characters that can switch between their blades Rex, Nia (a catgirl from a race called Gormotti) a Nopon called Tora who makes a robot that is his only blade and there    Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (XC2)

    XC2 is a mixed bag I love the story and the characters but I despise the gameplay you play as a treasure scavenger called Rex and met his humanoid blade called Prya, you only have 5 playable characters that can switch between their blades Rex, Nia (a catgirl from a race called Gormotti) a Nopon called Tora who makes a robot that is his only blade and there is a 4th + 5th member I won't reveal who they are. The Problem with XC2 it takes until chapter 4 to finally start going as a game if you didn't like Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword's Proluge damn. XC2's prologue exceeds it in lengthwise, oh, and a lot of tutorials like EVERY FLIPPING 10 steps. One mechanic is you have to have multi-blades due to them have special overworld abilities that are required to progress and at least in my game I had to have them equipped some require like fire mastery rank 7 very late game so I think 40 hours of 180+ Hour playthrough was grinding and DLC was good but not that great, this review is not counting XC2: Torna in this review because it's also its own game tbh and that will get reviewed someday. But the Soundtrack in Xenoblade is always so great. You have different element blades btw and element enemies you can have 3 blades on all blade masters except Tora which elemental battles are a slightly fun but get repetitive really fast. The Overworld is you exploring these giant creatures called Titans up in the clouds and some maps are great some are average at best    … Expand
  8. SaintJames012
    Jan 22, 2018
    7
    Xenoblade Chronicles is a good game riddled with issues and problems. As a JRPG on the Switch, it is a definite recommendation for anyone who wants a solid game; however against other JRPGs across multiple platforms, it falls flat in its appeal. The issue with XC2 is in the game outside of the main story. The side quests are either laughably bad or frustratingly boring. They consist of oneXenoblade Chronicles is a good game riddled with issues and problems. As a JRPG on the Switch, it is a definite recommendation for anyone who wants a solid game; however against other JRPGs across multiple platforms, it falls flat in its appeal. The issue with XC2 is in the game outside of the main story. The side quests are either laughably bad or frustratingly boring. They consist of one of two different formulas, the first is either a glorified scenic route in which you are required to go to point A only to be told to go to point B then C, or it is a boring fetch quest that requires you to either get ingredients or get loot. What makes the fetch quests especially boring is the game won't tell you where some of them are, so you will end up running in circles trying to find the drop spot for these items. The voice acting for the English setting is pretty bad, as the actors must not have known what emotions were supposed to go with what scene. This is especially a problem for the character Nia, who in some scenes will be animated as hysterical or animated, but the voice actor will deliver the lines in a calm demeanor, undermining the entire point of the scene or otherwise diminishing the emotions that were supposed to occur. The game does boast some pretty fun characters and is smart enough to have them evolve both emotionally and combat-wise over time. The chemistry between the characters is also fairly strong, as cutscenes and dialogue between the many party members is always fun to listen and watch. Combat-wise, the game separates classes into 3 basic types: Attack, Tank, and Healer. These are the baseline for all party members. Added on are elements that allow for combos not only among individuals, but the initiated between the party as a whole. The sense of scale and the world are extremely fun to explore, although there are moments where the game does feel a little unfair. A great example is in a world a couple hours into the game, most of the creatures are fairly low level (about 4-17 for range), but included is a freaking bird that is a level 75. Mind you this is a starting location as soon as the game starts teaching you the more complex aspects of its mechanics. This dumb ass bird moves across most of the map, and if it spots you will attack indiscriminately. Since this is the location for many story and side quests, there are moments where you are stuck, since the bird can kill you one shot, and you cannot run away. This is not the only issue. Combat against creatures can also draw in others in the vicinity. While this does cause many fun brawls and struggles for survival, the enemies will never target each other even if they would do so by the world building standard. If mercenaries attack you on the road, and a herd of big buffalo type creatures join in, the buffalo will not attack the mercenaries as well. Rather everyone ends up attacking you. There are plenty of instances in other titles where the use of the environment and its habitat can be used to your advantage, but in XC2, this does not exist. Sometimes getting from town A to town B is a monotonous, frustrating endeavor because if a single enemy spots you, then you will end up fighting the entire colony of rogue death bees or hungry wolves. Still the game is not all problems. It is still a fun adventure to partake in, and the characters are for the most part likable and interesting enough to carry the story. While the side quests are a drag and grinding is going to be an issue, it can still hold itself as a competent JRPG. The problem is is it not a 10 by any means. If we are being completely honest, this game benefits from being on the switch. If it were to be on the Playstation for instance, it would not hold up against titles like Final Fantasy or Persona. This game is fun, but it is a 7 at best.… Expand
  9. friendzone215
    Mar 2, 2018
    5
    Pros: Initially the game was really charming -- fun music, the story is entertaining and funny enough, the characters have colorful personalities and there are huge animated boobs bouncing around all over the place. So in short -- the setting is a pretty traditional JRPG

    Cons: Where do I begin... to start, the menus are redundant and extremely convoluted. Just getting to the world map    Pros: Initially the game was really charming -- fun music, the story is entertaining and funny enough, the characters have colorful personalities and there are huge animated boobs bouncing around all over the place. So in short -- the setting is a pretty traditional JRPG

    Cons: Where do I begin... to start, the menus are redundant and extremely convoluted. Just getting to the world map is tedious and the map itself does not serve you well. Combat is clunky and tries to be super complex -- so much so that 10 hours into the game you're still getting lots of tutorials. In the end, it doesn't really matter and all the upgrading and stat boosting feels super irrelevant. The battle controls are just over done and the movement feels like it's from older generation systems like the Gamecube -- glitchy and clunky. Sometimes it has very poor & simple "dungeon" & level design that looks like late ps2 era graphics and I KNOW the Switch is much more capable than this. It makes some levels very boring to explore.

    Not the best comparison, but After playing Zelda on the Switch it set a standard for beautiful smooth gameplay that showed us what the Switch can do. XC2 is a game that could be played on the Wii or possibly even the Gamecube -- all in all this game was a huge letdown for me because systems are too deep, redundant and convoluted.

    I really wanted to love this game and looked forward to it for months, I even pre-ordered it. At the end of the day - Monster Hunter World turned out being everything I wanted XC2 to be and I'm much happier with it.    … Expand
  10. Brentinitis
    Jan 24, 2019
    7
    An overall pretty good but disappointing game. I've been playing these games all the way from Xenogears till now and this is definitely my least favorite of all the games in this franchise. I will say I did enjoy the Story despite a few criticisms I have for it and I like all the main characters... except Rex that is. Unfortunately this game suffers from a lot of really bad game design.An overall pretty good but disappointing game. I've been playing these games all the way from Xenogears till now and this is definitely my least favorite of all the games in this franchise. I will say I did enjoy the Story despite a few criticisms I have for it and I like all the main characters... except Rex that is. Unfortunately this game suffers from a lot of really bad game design. Convenient and streamlined features that were in previous games are just gone with no reason or explanation. For example the loot system was improved going from Xenoblade 1 to Xenoblade X, but in this game they took more than a few steps backward with that. When an enemy drops items and money they fly everywhere and more often than not land somewhere unreachable. This means you could end up spending a long time trying to get an enemy to drop a specific item only to have it fall off a cliff once it finally drops; this is incredibly frustrating and is a problem for the entire game. I could write a book on all the problems I have with this game but I'm deciding to look at the positives. The story is pretty good, I like the characters, I like the music, and the gameplay is fun sometimes. Overall 7/10, if you liked the first one give it a try.… Expand
  11. MrAptronym
    Jan 16, 2018
    5
    Note: I haven't beaten the game, but have >36 hours logged in my save, so I think I can form an opinion at this point.

    I genuinely don't get the praise this game is getting. I've been playing RPGs (Japanese and otherwise) for 20 years, since I was a kid, and I just think this game is a mess, I can normally understand the appeal, even in games I don't like, but not here. I do think the    Note: I haven't beaten the game, but have >36 hours logged in my save, so I think I can form an opinion at this point.

    I genuinely don't get the praise this game is getting. I've been playing RPGs (Japanese and otherwise) for 20 years, since I was a kid, and I just think this game is a mess, I can normally understand the appeal, even in games I don't like, but not here. I do think the environments are lovely and the music is good. However, the writing is boilerplate, the characters are bland things I've seen done better before, the voice-acting is mostly pretty bad and repeats endlessly in combat. (THINK YOU CAN TAKE ME? DON'T FORGET ME!)

    The maps are open world, but lack both the proper waypoints towards objectives modern games have and the narrative directions and in game signposting older games used. Instead, exploration is tedious guess and check. Exploration is rewarded primarily with boring collection spots where you gather bland, lifeless icons. Occasionally you find a Heart-to-Heart spot where you get a fun cut-scene and this is actually pretty great, but also pretty rare. I will also note here that the map system is abysmal. especially when the map frequently features height variations as obstacles. I can enjoy exploration in games, Morrowind is a contender for my favorite game ever, but XC2 doesn't seem to get that its not enough to make navigating your game obtuse. You have to encourage exploration by making an interesting world where I genuinely wonder about what will be around the next corner. XC2's world is pretty but ultimately boring.

    The gameplay takes a solid basis and proceeds to ruin it in innumerable small ways. Combat starts out bland, but builds up to something more engaging if somewhat overcomplicated for what depth it has. takes a longer term, strategic view for the most part. You use normal attacks to build up your bars for your special moves which build up your super moves which you chain together with your teammates super moves of specific elements to land debuffs and elemental orbs on your opponent which you then burst with moves activated by a party-wide gauge to cause massive damage. There are plenty of small complications to timing for these and your choice of both specials and elements but this is the overall flow and it honestly is just a bit too much watching bars slowly creep up for me. Plus, sometimes your allies, needed to execute the most damaging of charged bars, are just not cooperative. Still, it isn't a bad system overall.

    What is bad is the way you acquire blades. Blades are characters that are bonded to your main characters (drivers) and determine your element and provide your specials as well as various field abilities. The game focuses heavily on how important and sacred the bond between a blade and their driver is, and your male and female lead are a romantically involved driver+blade pair. Imagine my surprise when it is revealed that drivers generally form bonds with tons of different blades. Imagine my further surprise to discover that you get new blades through a lootbox/gacha system that is inexplicably in a game that doesn't seem to have any microtransactions. Blades are divided into common and rare varieties, with the common ones all being generic looking robots while the more powerful rare blades are designed by a huge team of guest artist with varying degrees of success. Yes, the roles and elements available to your character are up to RNG lootboxes you open from the menu screen. Remember that elements are pretty key to forming these important party combos. My surprise was further maxed out when I started recycling my blades into element boosters to try to aim for rare blades of the elements I needed. The gameplay and world here just do not match up, and furthermore this system is miserable.

    More lore friendly but perhaps most annoying of all, with one sort of major exception, your blades are bound to whatever character you chose before opening the lootbox. You can transfer them using an incredibly limited item you get a few of throughout the game, but if you happen to randomly get that great rare tank on your healer? Well, it isn't of much use to you outside the automated missions you can send unused blades are. (this is just Progress Quest)

    The annoyances go on and on. The game just seems insistent on not explaining what anything does outside of the combat tutorials, the menus are sluggish and the game doesn't even run consistently or well on the switch. I have sunk a complete day and a half of my life into this game and I have to say it has only gotten progressively less fun as it goes on. XC2 has tons of small, mostly insignificant systems that don't ever form a larger whole. I went into XC2 with high hopes thanks to countless recommendations, but I do not get it. The game is an inelegant mess and probably the least fun I have had with a JRPG in years.    … Expand
  12. SailorWave
    Jan 6, 2018
    5
    One of the most time wasting games I've ever experienced. If you dig mobile games, mmo's and flavor of the week anime you might really get a kick out of this game. Otherwise, I highly advise staying away. While the original Xenoblade Chronicles had a very compelling plot that brought back memories of epics like Star Wars, Lost Odyssey, and even the original XenoGears, Xenoblade ChroniclesOne of the most time wasting games I've ever experienced. If you dig mobile games, mmo's and flavor of the week anime you might really get a kick out of this game. Otherwise, I highly advise staying away. While the original Xenoblade Chronicles had a very compelling plot that brought back memories of epics like Star Wars, Lost Odyssey, and even the original XenoGears, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 does nothing but slog through a mediocre anime trope story that brings back memories of the worst of the Tales series or even Hyper Dimension Neptunia. The gameplay feels like an immense time sink, with redundant open world concepts such as long winded fights and RNG loot box style dice rolls for new party members. I wanted desperately to like this game - I beat it with a 120 hour playthrough, but my time spent was entirely in the name of integrity. How could anyone like a game where the combat has next to no user input? Where even the easiest of mobs take 8 minutes each to fight? Fights where there are upwards of 12 characters SCREAMING THEIR MOVES AND BARKING THEIR TAUNTS AT THE SAME TIME? And where there exists no actual area map except for the local fast travel map (I played before the patch which didn't even add a map but made the fast travel menu simply start on the area you are in)? I just had to know what everyone was going on about. And I never saw eye to eye with any of these other players, which has never happened to me before. I simply see so very little to enjoy. I can't even comment on the music because I never got to hear it over the battle commands, which can't be turned off without disabling the voice acting outside of cutscenes entirely.

    The game feels half baked, which is a shame because I wanted so bad for it to rival Persona, Final Fantasy, and other RPG's in terms of quality and I felt that Xenoblade 1 came close. But I feel completely gypped of my time and money and can't recommend this game for anyone looking for a good or serious plot with any good characters, or anyone looking for a game with compelling gameplay.    … Expand
  13. DreamCore
    Jan 8, 2018
    7
    + Great story
    + Interesting combat system
    + Beautiful environments and level design - The map is utterly useless, worst I've ever seen. - Side quests suck and are all the same (gather resources or salvage) but with different "story". Unfortunately you have to do them unless you want to grind. - Enemies has way too much hp. Killing regular enemies with the same or even lower level    + Great story
    + Interesting combat system
    + Beautiful environments and level design

    - The map is utterly useless, worst I've ever seen.
    - Side quests suck and are all the same (gather resources or salvage) but with different "story". Unfortunately you have to do them unless you want to grind.
    - Enemies has way too much hp. Killing regular enemies with the same or even lower level can take up to 5 minues which is the reason why this game is so long. Enemies aren't hard but just takes forever to kill even when using Specials, Blade Combos etc. Three characters beating on a tiny little lizard 5 lvls lower for 5 minutes is just ridiculous.    … Expand
  14. vahn
    Feb 14, 2018
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This is the most mediocre JRPG I've ever played in my entire life.
    Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is...neither good or bad, it's just mediocre, and I'm going to give my literal 2 cents about why:
    1)Bad story and characters: the game starts incredibly fast, WAY too fast, and in less than 2 hours your dull main protagonist - called Rex no less - will become the next savior of the earth...nothing too different from your general jrpg plot so far.
    The problem starts at chapter 4 because the plot literally stops and instead of giving us a good presentation of our main protagonists and antagonists and their backstory, we get to do literally nothing until chapter 7: this is when the plot decides to come back and explains all the motivations and the reasons for their action, at about 70-80 hours.
    Suffice to say, this is really bad pacing and writing and I recall getting bored most of the time because nothing was happening: all I was doing was just filling the time with pointless and meaningless cutscenes, which explained nothing to me!

    Add the fact that the main plot is quite literally two bad guys wanting to destroy the world "because", I really couldn't bother to follow it and I just rushed through to the end. 110 hours of gameplay, but it felt like it was triple at least...

    And to top it all off, the main protagonists are just dull and uninteresting, to say the least: Rex is the usual boy with a big heart and no brain, and Nia is just your generic tsundere cat-gurl who has a crush on Rex because...she likes blandness I guess. Morag - a potentially good character, great even - is just another bland soldier with no character development at all and will remain the generic "tough woman in male clothing", without much else to add. And Tora is Tora: He's a nopon, the comic relief, so you either like him or hate it. I prefer Riki: Nuff said.
    But among all this blandness, I'm glad to say that Zeke is probably the best character of the bunch and it's odd to say this, because he starts off as a comic relief himself and will get himself defeated twice for silly reasons, only to show his true nature later during the filler chapters. He is quite literally the representation of "don't judge a book by its cover", because he is far smarter than he looks and has something that the rest of the cast hasn't: a personality.

    To be honest, also the rare blades have great personality and their sidequests are probably the best bits of storytelling you'll get from this bland of a game, so not everything is lost. Just look for their quests: you won't regret it.

    2)First and foremost, I did play Xeno 1 and X, and both combats had their issues but it wasn't so big to be bad - at worst it was unbalanced. Xenoblade 2 combat, however, is just too slow, lacks the adrenaline and the impact that 1 and X had, it heavily tunes down the arts and overall it's an objectively worse combat than its predecessors.

    I could explain how the combat is slow, the cooldown for each of the 9 arts are slow and how you can't auto attack while moving, but it doesn't matter: all that matters is racking up orbs after doing elemental combos and doing chain bursts to kill bosses: that's really all there is to it, because you can't kill enemies or bosses with normal arts due to their enormous hp pool.
    Meanwhile, a full burst can do up to 6m+ damage within few minutes so, it's probably just best to look for the right elemental blades and rack those orbs up!

    that is if you have enough luck to find the right blades since they had the great idea of locking rare blades into lootcrystals (it's actually core crystals but do you care?), which makes the entire ordeal frustrating. Seriously, why random lootcrystals? Did they have microtransaction planned? I think so because you can get 3 kinds of lootcrystals (common, rare, and legendary) and even then it feels useless: I've wasted about 30 legendaries and I've had zero rares before I called it (I have about 25 blades now, give or take). Not cool Nintendo/Monolith, not cool.

    What wasted potential...I spent money for the collector's edition and after playing Xeno 1 and X, I expected greatness from this,Instead all I got is a piss poor jrpg that was clearly rushed to meet a deadline and just not enough polish in the story and content.
    Do I recommend it? Barely, because it still has enough content to get 40-50 hours going, but wouldn't recommend it at full price: it's not worth it and you can find much better jrpgs about anywhere and on any platform.

    Or if you didn't, just play the original Xenoblade Chronicles and forget this travesty of a sequel: Xenoblade Chronicles X is a far better sequel than this, and that game had nothing to do with Shulk and the Monado!

    At least it has quite the Xenoblade in it!    … Expand
  15. SuperDylan
    May 2, 2018
    7
    I feel like i am fairly qualified to review this game. I've got every rarer blade. beat the game twice. and i feel as if i have experienced the game with everything it has to offer. so do i recommend it. thats tough
    for a average person who hasn't played that many JRPG's this is a fairly good entry. it as a descent, but cliche story. and the story is probably the worst out of the series.    I feel like i am fairly qualified to review this game. I've got every rarer blade. beat the game twice. and i feel as if i have experienced the game with everything it has to offer. so do i recommend it. thats tough
    for a average person who hasn't played that many JRPG's this is a fairly good entry. it as a descent, but cliche story. and the story is probably the worst out of the series. But it is still an amazing story and it has pretty good characters.

    one of the biggest turn offs for people is that the game has a lot of fan-service. many of the character designs are skimpy and the girls are overly exposed, besides Mia. There is also a lot of **** moments in the game design department. These flaws are the reason why this game is a 7 and not a 10. let me list all of the bs aspects of this game at the end.

    The music in this game is nowhere near xenogears, or xenoblade 1. It sounds pretty forgettable. also the voice acting is borderline tolerable for a lot of characters. while that could be attributed to having boring cringie dialog, there are some really good voice actors such as Pyra, Mythra, sometimes Rex, Zeke, Mia, and the villeins. everything else seams flat and boring. Tora is especially annoying.

    1. there is a level 80 monster that can one shot you in the opening field. this is not only one time. this is many times and over level monsters are a reacureine appearance in this game. in fact Mor Ardain is crawling with level 80 monsters

    2. some of the boss's are bs as well and require shear luck to beat.

    3. the mini game Tiger Tiger is to tedious and boring. this game is used to level up and get new skills for a couple of new party member's (poppi, I'm not naming this a spoiler because its so early in the game. Its in chapter 1)

    4. Some rare blades (like KOS-MOS) require an obserd amount of grindeing, If you want to get every rare blade its going to be tough.

    5. Mercenary missions are boring and they should have had a mini game for them instead of a real time timer.

    in the end i do recommend this game, but it will sometimes test your patience, and durability, take brakes with it, and have a fun time.    … Expand
  16. ImperialKnight
    Dec 7, 2017
    7
    This is a very classic JRPG with an "open world" shoe horned in. It's not bad, it's just average. And what's worst, it comes out AFTER Breath of the Wild. It contrasts how well BotW was designed with the world in mind and how in Xenoblade, it's an after thought. The minor irritations within Xenoblade slowly adds up, and eventually you just want to tear through the main campaign and forgetThis is a very classic JRPG with an "open world" shoe horned in. It's not bad, it's just average. And what's worst, it comes out AFTER Breath of the Wild. It contrasts how well BotW was designed with the world in mind and how in Xenoblade, it's an after thought. The minor irritations within Xenoblade slowly adds up, and eventually you just want to tear through the main campaign and forget about the rest of the game.

    The battle system is over complicated. It throw dozens of mechanics at you, but ultimately none of them really makes much of a difference. The mechanics don't allow you to take out much higher level enemies and in the end, it's still a classic JRPG grind for levels to match the enemies    … Expand
  17. dennislam
    Dec 29, 2017
    6
    Pros:
    - Wonderful music
    - Exciting story and animation
    - Astonishing and attractive open world setting

    Cons:
    - Extremely boring and repetitive combat system (Currently in chapter 7 with over 80 hours in into the game)
    - Combat pace is slow. At level 20, it still costs over a minute to KO a level 12 monster
  18. Kenmei
    Jan 12, 2018
    6
    I personally wasn't a fan of the first two games in the series, both Chronicles 1 and X, but I was hoping that this game would buck that trend. And, while I thought this game was better then the first two, it still didn't do enough for me to stand out from the crowd in a very cluttered JRPG scene. There are tons of similarities from the previous two games in here that fans of those willI personally wasn't a fan of the first two games in the series, both Chronicles 1 and X, but I was hoping that this game would buck that trend. And, while I thought this game was better then the first two, it still didn't do enough for me to stand out from the crowd in a very cluttered JRPG scene. There are tons of similarities from the previous two games in here that fans of those will enjoy. However the series continued reliance on a very inactive battle system, very similar to an MMO battle system, and the horrible side quests that mostly focus on extremely random RPG elements to complete did nothing to hook me. Even if the storyline here was more interesting then the previous two entires, with a good cast of characters (even though they all were seemingly ripped straight from a Guy Ritchie movie with how British they all were). I was hoping to see a bit more change with the elements from the previous games that everyone admitted were just tedious. Instead those elements are very obvious from the start and I could never get over them. Thankfully for the Switch, this wasn't the game that needed to sell consoles during the holiday season. I was really hoping for more from this game but the series in general seems to be a bit stagnant at this point.… Expand
  19. Risax
    Jan 13, 2018
    7
    I got Xenoblade Chronicles 2 because I heard good things about the first Xenoblade Chronicles and felt bad about never getting it on my own Wii. Overall, this is the first game in the Xeno series I got. Mainly because I don't think Xenogears and the Xenosaga games ever got released in Europe.

    Anyway, on to the review. I got Xenoblade Chronicles 2 about a day before release, and I    I got Xenoblade Chronicles 2 because I heard good things about the first Xenoblade Chronicles and felt bad about never getting it on my own Wii. Overall, this is the first game in the Xeno series I got. Mainly because I don't think Xenogears and the Xenosaga games ever got released in Europe.

    Anyway, on to the review.

    I got Xenoblade Chronicles 2 about a day before release, and I don't think I played for more than an hour. The English voice acting got on my nerves too quickly. The voices didn't seem to fit most of the characters and their shouts during battle sounded flat and easily started to grate on me. It also felt like I was watching an old Kung-Fu flick dubbed in English with how badly the movements of the mouths of characters synced up with what they were saying, but when the patch for Japanese audio was released the next day I found that it was still kind of "iffy"

    Speaking of combat, throughout the game whenever I had to fight I was just...bored. You had to slowly move over to an enemy with you drawn weapon before you could attack, since your character wouldn't swing his weapon while moving. While auto-attacking you do load up skills that can give benefits if you attack at certain times or from positions, but combat never really got exciting. Even when your Blades performed certain moves. Usually that was just a mess of QTEs. Not that your skill level at handling any of this really mattered, because the difference in level between you and your enemy usually determined how easily you would win or lose anyway.

    As for the Blades I mentioned, they are what made me interested in Xenoblade Chronicles 2 in the first place. Now, I have a weakness for sentient weapons. Whether they can talk to their wielder, or have some sort of body of their own like in this game. I just really like it. And I was not disappointed. Aside from the Blades you get through the main story, you can also gain new ones through Core Crystals. And each Rare Blade has a personality, quest lines and Heart-to-Heart scenes of their own.

    Unfortunately, GETTING said Rare Blades is a mess that determines heavily on RNG. I've wasted plenty of Rare and Legendary Crystals, that supposedly up your chances of getting Rare Blades, to get nothing of importance.

    And raising the affinity of said Rare Blades and gaining better skills and actually getting to their quests can be a pain in the ass too. Expect a LOT of slay x amount of monsters in y place. Gather this amount of wood. Deal that amount of damage in one hit. And so on and so forth.

    Aside from the Blades the parts of the game I loved where the music and the areas you got to explore, which all looked beautiful in their own way. Exploring and gathering stuff could be a bit annoying with the way you had to organize your Blades, however. As they can only use their Field Skills when equipped, but it's something you have to deal with.

    Now, I'll try not to spoil much of the story but honestly I thought it kind of dull. If you played RPGs before, the plot and characters probably feel rather clichéd with the all-loving hero that only sees the good in everything and wants to save everyone. The Tsundere chick that keeps tagging along for some reason. The cute mascot character. The serious one and the comic relief. I did like some of the party members and Blades, but honestly I don't think I really ever grew attached to anyone.

    That being said, there are some fairly good twists and darker parts that caught my attention, but those didn't happen until I'd gone about half way through. It also isn't really necessary to play the first Xenoblade Chronicles, but there were some damn important things related to at the endgame that I had to look up. So I probably spoiled myself a little on Xenoblade Chronicles should I want to play it. But that's my own fault.

    Anyway, I've rambled for a while so I'll leave some PROS and CONS before giving my verdict and ending this review.

    PROS:
    +Amazing music
    +Beautiful areas to explore
    +Some good lore and world building
    +Blades

    CONS:
    -Bad English voice acting
    -Boring combat
    -Uninteresting characters and plot
    -GETTING Rare Blades
    -Raising the affinity of Rare Blades

    Overall, Xenoblade Chronicles isn't a bad game. Unfortunately, it isn't great either. I had fun with it, don't get me wrong. I'm sure I easily spent over a 100 hours playing it. But I don't see it sticking in my memory as a game I should pick up again some time to play for the beginning.

    I'd say, get it on sale if you're a big fan of JRPGs and don't have anything else to play.

    Final verdict: 7/7.5    … Expand
  20. ObjectiviTea
    Feb 18, 2018
    6
    This game is horrible. It has made me cringe so many times. I made an account on this website just to warn anyone that is looking to play this game... Don't buy it. If you do buy it, don't buy the DLC. I played the original Xenoblade and I loved it. The original Xenoblade had a great story and great characters. Most importantly the original Xenoblade had a feeling that it wasn't justThis game is horrible. It has made me cringe so many times. I made an account on this website just to warn anyone that is looking to play this game... Don't buy it. If you do buy it, don't buy the DLC. I played the original Xenoblade and I loved it. The original Xenoblade had a great story and great characters. Most importantly the original Xenoblade had a feeling that it wasn't just another Japanese RPG, it had a very European feel. And the mouths didn't move like I was watching some old Bruce Lee English Dubbed movie (as it does in Xenoblade 2 :( ). I can tell that there is still a bit of Monolith Soft in there. There are good things scattered throughout this game. But Nintendo put some... person... in charge of the team for this game or something and they just screwed everything up. I really wanted to love this game as I did the original but it is just so bad that I can't. I got to this cutscene in the third world and I was watching it with my sister and it was just so painful to watch and she agreed. I couldn't play it anymore after that and I don't know if I can pick it up again.… Expand
  21. Garbagio
    Jan 19, 2019
    5
    As a huge fan since Xenoblade and I went back and played almost all the developer's library this is probably the weakest game they've put out since saga II. That being said it's worth a play if you're a fan of 1 not so much X though. The combat is dumbed down from X with many combat features being removed/downgraded. Auto Attacking in previous games served little purpose besides interimAs a huge fan since Xenoblade and I went back and played almost all the developer's library this is probably the weakest game they've put out since saga II. That being said it's worth a play if you're a fan of 1 not so much X though. The combat is dumbed down from X with many combat features being removed/downgraded. Auto Attacking in previous games served little purpose besides interim damage while you waited for arts to charge on a timer but now they charge with it instead. There's ways you can change this with the new pouch items which is basically a brand new kind of equipment except it's on a timer and you can only hold an incredibly limited amount of them (Until late game you gain access to shop deeds) Auto attacking is now restricted to when your character is standing still so now positioning yourself in combat is now tedious instead of challenging. Because of this height no longer matters in the game. This slows down combat A TON in the early game. You wont get that familiar speed until well after the midway point of the game. But when you finally hit NG+ you'll enjoy almost instant arts charges and ridiculous combos faster than even X. Also removed: the soul voice mechanic but now instead we get... a button press. party members get a button you can push to do a super move. This is probably one of the bigger losses combat wise. Aura arts are also all gone. There's no more build variety now everyone fits solidly into Healer, DPS, or Tank, while characters can maintain multiple roles between them you're gimping yourself a bit by doing so. Returning from 1 though is Chain attacks which are now INFINITELY WORSE, made more powerful by the orb mechanic. when you set up these easy to execute blade combos that inflict orbs onto enemies. You can now control EXACTLY how long your chain attack lasts with these and these ALSO has a damage bonus. if it wasn't for mid-battle cutscenes you could easily just take a boss from nearly full health to dead with just one chain attack, given you aren't severely under leveled. To make matters worse you don't execute specific arts now you execute specials which are super moves that normally take a little while to charge but if you successfully bust orbs while in a chain attack you steadily progress until you're literally unleashing super moves after super moves. New to 2's mechanics is the Blade system, which is a generic Gacha system. you're given a core and you awaken a random blade and just hope it's a unique one and not one of the random generic ones. Thankfully they don't charge for these but it's still incredibly obnoxious. Other removed features is the UI customization, the affinity chart (Instead we get these skill trees that are called affinity charts but are nothing like prior affinity charts), the collectopedia, the quest system is revamped for better or worse I couldn't decide, 1 and X's incredibly robust equipment system (most characters get at max 3 slots with no visual changes except for weapons), The amount of arts was reduced significantly, there is FAR less options for long range weapons as well. Weapon switching is now on a cooldown (this one is timed). As for the world there isn't much to say here. It's not nearly as nice to look at as X or even 1. The areas aren't connected. you just sail to different continents. There's one area that's literally just a massive field with nothing but enemies in it. It's just a huge step down there. The story is infinitely worse than X or 1. Say what you want about X but it at LEAST showed promise and a cohesiveness that a sequel could easily fix. 2 has some great ideas but it is executed so horribly and it turns into the MOST generic shonen plot you can think of which becomes worse because there's multiple chances for it to break but the characters make the MOST inane choices to drag the plot back onto the generic shonen rails. Not to mention how obnoxiously contrived it is. Near the beginning 3 characters decide to take the direct approach and go right to the final area of the game, BUT it's guarded by a beast and a giant hole in the sea that are both well known about. Except one of them knows a way to go almost DIRECTLY there and she literally forgets about it until the last 10 hours of the game. Literally everything between the party setting out to the World Tree in ch 3 and when the characters land on the Cliffs in ch 7 is just complete filler, because one character forgot that the place existed. They turn around and immediately get swallowed by a Titan which is INCREDIBLY CONVENIENT because it has a mercenary group whose leader just so happens to have a dead son who the main character reminds him of and he just so happens to know a guy who has an in with the effin Pope who just so happens to know how to get past the void but not before he sends you out on his filler quests. And that's just 1of the contrived plot points, there's at minimum 3 points the party survive a huge fall because of a random updraft.… Expand
  22. p1nky
    Dec 14, 2017
    5
    My first attempt in XENOBLADE series. I decide to give it a try. Before chapter 3 all good, but then for new player is hard. Map is horribe, get some where without proper map is impossible for me. It take ages to get some where, because in quest log is not clear to how to get there + horrible map where you cant open in it in full and view the whole titan to figureout how to get some whereMy first attempt in XENOBLADE series. I decide to give it a try. Before chapter 3 all good, but then for new player is hard. Map is horribe, get some where without proper map is impossible for me. It take ages to get some where, because in quest log is not clear to how to get there + horrible map where you cant open in it in full and view the whole titan to figureout how to get some where is not pleasent experiance. I start to google thing to make it faster, but then after few quest I just gave up. It not fun to google and play this game. And its just hard time getting into it for me. Most of the time, I didnt know what to do or where to go. If you are not a fun of this series, please avoid. Enjoy Zelda!… Expand
  23. Kvr
    Dec 2, 2017
    7
    Bought the game and brouth ik back. The optimalisation is really bad ... lot of fps drops and pop up, also the UI is so demanding.. when you walk in a town the only thing that you see are the icons of the several shops, for me this really takes away from my immersion, also the graphics of Xenoblade X on WiiU looked strangely enough better then this title.
    I can see that this game can be a    Bought the game and brouth ik back. The optimalisation is really bad ... lot of fps drops and pop up, also the UI is so demanding.. when you walk in a town the only thing that you see are the icons of the several shops, for me this really takes away from my immersion, also the graphics of Xenoblade X on WiiU looked strangely enough better then this title.
    I can see that this game can be a good game but for me the technical problems are too much in front of that... the game feels rushed tbh, I will buy it again in a few months when Monolith has optimized it more. For now it not worth my 60 bucks... In this state i give this game a 7.0..    … Expand
  24. Fenriswolf
    Dec 25, 2017
    7
    At this point the game is so unpolished I can't give it the Rating it could have.
    Hope they will fix it.
  25. LocustOfChiron
    Dec 4, 2017
    7
    This game feels like it's one step forward, two steps back. The changes to Xenoblade Gameplay we've come to love over 2 games are interesting, Specials comboing with the now expanded Topple mechanics are provide nice bursts of extra damage and extend CC, but enemies have huge amounts of HP past a relatively early point in the game and the extra duration really only breaks even with pastThis game feels like it's one step forward, two steps back. The changes to Xenoblade Gameplay we've come to love over 2 games are interesting, Specials comboing with the now expanded Topple mechanics are provide nice bursts of extra damage and extend CC, but enemies have huge amounts of HP past a relatively early point in the game and the extra duration really only breaks even with past stuff like daze. Cool ultra customizable party member, but actually getting the stuff you want to customize him as you want means grinding a minigame until the RNG gives you the thing you want, the list goes on and on. All in all this game is a let down as a member of the Xenoblade family. It's still good enough by it's own merit to be worth a purchase for a JRPG fan, but by bearing the Xenoblade name it'll inevitably have to be compared to the original Chronicles as well as X, and in that regard, it comes up short.… Expand
  26. lilkillpappy
    Dec 18, 2017
    5
    The greatest and most obtuse and opaque game I have ever played. This really is a great game, but figuring out how all it's mechanics work can take more time and effort than your average gamer wants to invest. I thought this game would be more accessible, but don't be fooled, it is not accessible unless you are an experienced JRPG and Xenoblade gamer. If you can use all of its systems andThe greatest and most obtuse and opaque game I have ever played. This really is a great game, but figuring out how all it's mechanics work can take more time and effort than your average gamer wants to invest. I thought this game would be more accessible, but don't be fooled, it is not accessible unless you are an experienced JRPG and Xenoblade gamer. If you can use all of its systems and understand how to buff all your stats and figure out everything that is going on in combat then you will probably love this game.… Expand
  27. Siggy88
    Mar 2, 2018
    7
    +0- Little brother to Xenoblade (Wii), playing XC first is recommended, but not vital -0+

    A game that feels closer in style to XC than XCX. The game offers an original universe: a sea of clouds on which titans live (some of them are only a few meters, some others are literally organic continents on which people live!). There are several species (humans, Nopons...) living on titans, but    +0- Little brother to Xenoblade (Wii), playing XC first is recommended, but not vital -0+

    A game that feels closer in style to XC than XCX.
    The game offers an original universe: a sea of clouds on which titans live (some of them are only a few meters, some others are literally organic continents on which people live!). There are several species (humans, Nopons...) living on titans, but there are also Blades. They are immortal beings that other living creatures can summon for help.

    +++Good+++

    + good story, although with more clichés
    + team consist of up to 3 characters and one Blade each. You can assign 3 Blades at a time for each char and switch them during battle to adapt your strategy
    + superb OST
    + several amazing characters
    + great variety in environment. Although each individual titan feels a bit useless outside of one or two story-related places (mostly one main city per titan)
    + convenient cutscenes viewer, but you need to restart the game to use it
    + the game gives you the same sense of wonder and curiosity as XC. Every new titan, every new character, every new chapter is a discovery.

    000Meh...000

    0 many QTE and some button mashing in battle. Sometimes even a mix of the two. Erk!
    0 combat system kind of discourages you from moving. You will spend a lot of time in battle just standing around waiting for skills to charge up
    0 devs took good note of all the praise they got for the British VA in XC and decided to do that again. Sadly the cast in unequal in skill and some chars have very thick accents.
    0 oversexualized female characters, you like it or you hate it. Poor Pyra can't even see her feet :'(
    0 a character whose role is so cliché that he complains about it himself (RIP 4th wall) and another character complains about wasting time right after a padding section of the game. That's a bit frustrating.
    0 the game keeps receiving patches, but clearly it has been released a couple months too early for Christmas
    0 tutorials are not great and can only be seen once
    0 the game keeps giving you low tier stuff (lowest level cores for the Blades, notably) nearly until the end. Drops and chest feel underwhelming too often.
    0 resolution is low in handheld mode, but AA is surprisingly good
    0 a lot of menu navigation

    ---Bad---

    - if you don't like games where everyone keeps shouting for no reason this game is not for you. (chars comment on practically everything: sunrise, sunset, fast travel, opening a chest...)
    - the fighting mechanics seem to have been designed with complexity in mind, rather than depth (slow, hard to learn, messy GUI...)
    - a RPG that tries way to hard to be a platformer at times. The jumps are terrible and the collisions are sometimes treacherous.
    - likewise, physics applies to loot too! Items can fall off cliffs and be lost for ever (WTF?)
    - AI is probably as good as in other games in the series, but the more complex geometry of the levels will make your team mates run around, get stuck or jump over cliff often. It gets old real fast.
    - padding!
    - bosses are big bags of HP, fights take forever
    - ridiculous difficulty spikes on some story bosses that will halt your progress and force you to level-up. Then you will tear through everything for the next 3 hours...
    - the way you unlock new Blades is a disaster. It is a GATCHA! And a very bad one. You will have to collect cores in fights and from chests. Using one leads to an unskippable cutscene (nearly 40 seconds total!). To be fixed soon apparently?
    - most of the time you will get a basic Blade from your gatcha. Good luck collecting all the unique ones!
    - upgrades for one of the Blade are locked behind a 8bit minigame. It is not fun, but since it's mandatory...
    - the game spoils many things due to poor design and oversights. For example, you can tell which enemies will become allies later on by looking at the silhouettes in the Blades menu.
    - some cutscenes are just too long
    - inconsistent names of main chars between Japanese and English localization. You can have JP VA with EN subs if you want, but it will be hard to follow.
    - I can tell that at least the French localization tends to be very inconsistent with the English one at times. Overall quality of translation is sometimes amateurish.
    - some weird design decisions: just like in the other games, you heal automatically out of fights, but now there are inns. Their only real purpose is to level-up chars, instead of doing so immediately on the field. Ins feel shoe-horned in the game.
    - very predictable lines of dialogue and many classic character archetypes
    - the game keeps introducing new rules for the universe, but it never takes very long until a new character arrives to brake that rule before you even had time to get used to it
    - ended sooner than expected. I was expecting the game to pull a "Ha! You thought it was over, but there's 15 more hours to go!". It did not.
    - some cryptic things to do to unlock some rare blades...    … Expand
  28. WolvenAshes
    Mar 8, 2018
    5
    The story is great and the world itself is vast as well, but this game is far from great. Combat is slow to get into, doesn't really get that engaging until late game honestly. Bosses were ok at best, and the music was pretty decent. The quests were a nice change of pace, but the characters in the game are a strong point. Overall, I enjoyed Xenoblade Chronicles X a lot more than this..butThe story is great and the world itself is vast as well, but this game is far from great. Combat is slow to get into, doesn't really get that engaging until late game honestly. Bosses were ok at best, and the music was pretty decent. The quests were a nice change of pace, but the characters in the game are a strong point. Overall, I enjoyed Xenoblade Chronicles X a lot more than this..but it's worth a play-through. Just don't 100% before doing new game +, I did that and quickly shelved the game after restarting due to boredom. Not game of the year, for sure.… Expand
  29. vince14_evil
    Jan 16, 2018
    7
    How can I say ? It is not a game of the year like Zelda but I had good time played it.
    If you want a kinda like solo-mmorpg, it's the game for you!

    The graphic and the presentation are very disappointing comparing of the first X.
  30. jcvandan
    Feb 13, 2018
    6
    First of all, the combat system in this game is incredible. I really enjoyed getting to grips with it. Western RPG's could learn a thing or two from this game about implementing deep combat that takes many many hours to master. However the combat is the only thing that kept me playing to the end, as I don't think this is a particularly good game. The storyline is total nonsense with a hardFirst of all, the combat system in this game is incredible. I really enjoyed getting to grips with it. Western RPG's could learn a thing or two from this game about implementing deep combat that takes many many hours to master. However the combat is the only thing that kept me playing to the end, as I don't think this is a particularly good game. The storyline is total nonsense with a hard to understand plot that has nonsensical twists and turns constantly. Characters seem to behave in odd ways at random times, and many of the characters motivations are completely impenetrable. There are also waaaaay too many cut-scenes. I don't mind long cut scenes, but the way they are done in this game is totally obnoxious. You watch one cut scene which lasts 5 minutes, then it goes back to the game, you run forward for literally 30 seconds, then there is a 2 minute cut scene, then so on and so forth. This got a lot worse in the last few chapters of the game, and this is when I really stopped enjoying it and just started ploughing through to finish it (as I had already sunk so many hours into it I felt the need to complete it). One thing I will say though is I quite enjoyed the banter between the main characters earlier one when it wasn't so serious and exposition heavy, and despite what other reviewers have said I quite liked the english voice acting and it's nice to hear regional British dialects in a game like this.

    In terms of graphics it can be a wonder to behold at times, with a very pleasing anime art style and incredibly vast open areas. This all changes in handheld mode though, as the resolution drops to something close to standard definition and the frame rate chugs along even at this low res. It also has some weird artifacting effect round the edges of models in handheld mode which makes it look very amateurish. Graphics aren't everything but when it's this bad it actually takes you out of the game. I think they should have been less ambitious with the textures etc so as to keep the resolution up.

    This is the first JRPG I've played since FF8 on the PS1, but I don't think I will be playing another tbh.    … Expand
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Awards & Rankings

25
#25 Best Switch Game of 2017
3
#3 Most Discussed Switch Game of 2017
3
#3 Most Shared Switch Game of 2017

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
83

Generally favorable reviews - based on 92 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 78 out of 92
  2. Mixed: 13 out of 92
  3. Negative: 1 out of 92
  1. Game World Navigator Magazine
    Mar 2, 2018
    73
    A fight with an ordinary enemy whose level is slightly higher can drag on for minutes, especially if you’re fighting it alone. The combat itself is also rife with problems: sometimes main character even fails to draw his weapon, or locks onto a far-off enemy, while another already is eviscerating him in close combat. [Issue#226, p.64]
  2. Nintendo Force Magazine
    Feb 26, 2018
    80
    Despite some rough patches, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is a worthy addition to any Switch owner's library, especially if you have a predilection for RPGs and enjoyed either of the previous entries in the series. [Issue #32 – March/April 2018, p. 75]
  3. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    Feb 16, 2018
    80
    Extensive and massive JRPG. Although with a rather cliché story and characters, it comes with a beautiful world and a fighting system growing more and more complex with every hour played. [Issue#282]
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