| Valdath said: Imo it's a good game but not even close to being one of the best JRPGs ever, if this wasn't a Wii exclusive most people wouldn't even put it in a top 5 jrpg of the gen list. I haven't finished it though so maybe it gets better, but the combat is really.... dunno, MMOesque? i don't like it, also the side quests are generic as fuck. When people said this game felt like an offline MMORPG i though they where trolling... but sadly i very much agree. |
StarOcean said:
This. Doesn't help the 7th Gen was starved of JRPGs, so anything even remotely good was hailed as perfection |
I have played probably over a hundred JRPG's and over fifty WRPG's. I can gladly say Xenoblade is in my top ten JRPG's.
Why?
It has a great atmosphere. There is something magical about climbing the Bionis and seeing the places you were at, or will go to in the distance. The scale of the world is magnificent. The characters are interesting for a JRPG, and felt real. The story is above-average and is basically an allegory of Gnostic mythology. The combat while MMO-like, is enjoyable to me - as I have played and enjoyed MMO combat systems. The better side-quests open up after you get later into the game: for example there is a side-quest that is the summary of three different side-quest lines in which you find out that a certain nopon you had helped is actually a drug dealer. The world changes very dynamically, you see the connections between characters and how they influence one-another and how they know eachother through the affinity system. You are rewarded for exploring, and while there isn't tons to do in the world besides side-quests, finding those awesome views is great enough. The music is amazing, and the cutscenes are well written, scripted, and paced.
That is why Xenoblade Chronicles is in my top ten Japanese Role Playing games, and probably in my top twenty RPG's period.
So there you go, at least this person wasn't influenced by whether or not there were good JRPG's last generation.
