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Main Topic:
Epic board games to fill the time.

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How to Save a World from Burnt Island Games
Metrorunner from Thunderworks Games

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A piece of sci-fi goodness

I’ve been thinking about how to approach this game in writing. Describing a shorter game is way easier than tackling the enormity that Xenoblade Chronicles X (XCX) is. First, I never thought I’d ever be able to play this game. It was originally released on Nintendo Wii U in 2015, and despite not owning the console, the chances of it coming to Nintendo Switch were also very slim. For a while, I opted for watching playthrough snippets online. Some time later, a Definitive Edition of the game was unexpectedly (at least for me) announced for the Switch. I don’t possess the technical knowledge to explain how the vast open world of planet Mira can run so seamlessly on the aging hardware. The graphics are sharp, the field of view goes as far as the eye can see, loading times are minimal, and the landscapes, textures, colors, and lighting are all optimized for this edition. 

I still haven’t forgotten how weirdly flat other games looked on the Switch compared with their versions on other platforms. The Switch doesn’t always do well, but when it does, it’s breathtaking. And I think that’s the word I’d apply to XCX: a breathtaking game that I didn’t expect to immerse myself in. I can’t say that the story gripped me as much as in Xenoblade Chronicles (XC). Even with all the side quests we got in XC, I always had a sense of the main story in the back of my mind. In XCX, I can’t really say I remember much of what we are actually trying to achieve in the main plot. Still, the overload of missions is fun to complete, and new characters are always joining the fold, opening up new possibilities for team building and new affinities.

If alien creatures are to exist, it may be that they decide to attack our planet. As humans, we aren’t expected to imagine alien creatures having behavioral patterns that are truly alien to human understanding. That was exactly what happened. Alien creatures attacked planet Earth and decimated everything – just like a human would. However XCX took it even further, and set the stage for not one, but two alien species fighting over Earth! Earth was definitely on the losing side, so humans created interstellar arcs to flee and find a new place to live. 

Seriously, the game’s opening act is tremendously epic for anyone who enjoys space battles. We saw the arcs being swarmed by alien ships, and it’s known that many didn’t make it, but the one that landed on Mira while dodging enemy fire did. It gloriously landed on planet Mira like a meteor, and then boom, a human-made city emerged from inside the USS White Whale arc ship! I enjoyed the idea of a ship carrying a city. It would take forever if I were to recount the whole story. I didn’t particularly enjoy it, but I don’t think it’s awful or badly written either. It’s a solid setting to keep us engaged, but the best part of the game is, in my opinion, the exploration, customization, and the combat system.

As much as XC’s story was meaningful to me, carrying many layers of existential crisis, and a complicated relationship with the notion of faith, humanity, and the divine, my favorite activity was simply swimming on a lake in Valak Mountain during the day, or exploring areas and defeating titans to level up. It’s one of those nerdy gamer moments I’ll always carry with me. I saw XC as a game that gently invited the player to appreciate the experience of simply being in the moment and enjoying whatever there was in front of us, even if it was deadly. 

I decided to bring that same spirit to XCX. I started by exploring within reason, trying to balance story progression, side quests, affinity quests, and learning the Frontier Nav properly. I must admit I may have overlooked a lot of game mechanics. The game is complex (not difficult), and navigating through it wasn’t easy either. A lot of information available on the menus and sub-menus wasn’t immediately explained, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing. It’s all part of the exploration. Eventually, we learn how gear and damage types work, and what we need to do to buy or craft more and better weapons and equipment. I started creating my own augments for weapons, armor, Skells, and so on, long after I got my first Skell. Until that point, I was using the ones I got from missions. After a while, I began to understand what defenses I wanted to improve, what types of attacks and debuffs I wanted to apply to enemies, or what protections I needed against damage reflect based on the type of damage I was going for. It sounds overly complicated but it isn’t.

I didn’t relate very much with the main story, but I think that’s something I share in common with many other players. I think it’s the experience that counts, and the satisfaction of collecting a bunch of stuff we won’t be needing, or defeating big titans and getting new, shiny gear and augments that we will most definitely need. 

There were also some roadblocks. During certain affinity and normal quests, I had to deal with the frustration of being sent to areas with enemies 10 to 15 levels above my own, even though the mission recommended a much lower level for completion. I had to use appropriate arts to stealth my way to my objective. Once I arrived, the enemy levels downscaled to what was originally described. Though this wasn’t the case for all quests, it was still very frustrating. During exploration, we’re expected to fall into a titan lair, or unassumingly stumble into a very high-level area only to be blasted back to the last auto-save in a matter of seconds. It’s part of the fun and diversity of XCX, especially when we start engaging with Mira and its expansive territory, once described as “bigger than Skyrim, Fallout 4, and The Witcher 3’s maps combined.”

I believe the game was already a technical achievement on the Wii U, according to Digital Foundry and my favorite YouTuber Food4Dogs. The Nintendo Switch version is no longer an achievement – it’s a miracle – and one that I am enjoying for the good portion of 150 hours and counting (edit: 185). The main story has 12 chapters and an epilogue (Chapter 13 is divided into acts). I often forgot the plot from one chapter to the next because I could easily put 10 hours of gameplay between each chapter, and nearly 20 between Chapter 11 and Chapter 12. This is not a critique – on the contrary – I enjoyed these interludes and they were a very important part of my experience of Mira’s beautiful landscapes.

There are six main regions on the planet: New LA, where our arc ship landed, Primordia (mountains), Oblivia (desert), Noctilum (jungle), Silvalum (snow), and Cauldros (volcanic). Sometimes I find myself wondering which area I am more passionate about… Did I find my ‘Valak Mountain’ in this game? I’d say Noctilum is very beautiful because of the alien vegetation, the mountainous terrain, where the exploration becomes easier once we unlock a flight module for our Skells. There are curious life forms around every corner, sometimes even falling on us from above. Some parts are dense jungle, with gigantic trees and flowers whose petals we can land on, and suddenly, the landscape opens into a clearing with little springs of water, lakes and creatures going about their lives. The northern part of Noctilum is where a Telethia lives. I tried to steer clear, but still managed to take down three titans living nearby. I can’t say I didn’t burn through a good portion of my Skell insurance on these personal side-adventures…

Our entry point in the game is the area of Primordia. One of the first creatures I remember seeing was Luciel, the Eternal, a level 92 millesaur, peacefully drinking from Lake Janpath. I wondered when, or if, I could ever take him down. It didn’t take long to see that some players were defeating him at egregiously low levels. Underleveled overachievers are impressive, but I don’t think I could make a millesaur-proof build just yet. My greatest delight was to fly across the mountain ridges eroded by millenia of alien weather, my party undisturbed by aggroed enemies which turned into a distant spot in the landscape in a matter of seconds, all thanks to my Skell’s thrusters. Some time later, after finishing Chapter 12, I rapidly grinded the materials to craft Ares 90: an overpowered Skell preloaded with equally overpowered weapons, dealing physical, thermal, and ether damage. Its strongest art is the Agashura cannon. It can wipe out almost anything, and with the right augments (crush appendage, deny reflect damage, opening art damage, and something else I can’t recall), it blasts enemies many levels above its own. It’s incredible; I love to play the game with it, and I’ve cleared the map (except the Telethia), including Luciel.

At that point, I had completed over 90% of Mira’s exploration, and didn’t have much left to do. I planted all probes, found all treasures, killed all titans named on the map (Telethia: “You liar; I’m still standing!”), took down a bunch of other optional titans, completed all normal quests and all affinity quests so far. Chapter 13 is structured in three acts, and I had recently finished Act 1. 

If you aren’t already fed up with this text, I’d like to hold your attention a little longer to talk about how the game is written and paced. When two or more people talk to each other, there’s a certain rhythm to the conversation. It can speed up or slow down depending on the subject and the emotional responses of those involved. There’s a certain dynamism and liveliness to human interaction that is, more often than not, well replicated in video games. 

Unfortunately that’s not the case with XCX. The voice lines are either flat or oddly exaggerated, there’s no voice acting, only reading. The transition from a dialogue line to the next during a conversation takes the same amount of time all the time, no matter what the characters are talking about. Not to mention the unnecessary banter, sentimentality, and other things, though to be fair, those are tropes, not flaws. I’m mentioning all this in an attempt to justify the fact that I skipped a lot of plot, not because I wasn’t interested, but because the pacing and acting (or lack thereof) were maddening. The gameplay is so spectacular though, that for me it could have done well without all those hours of cutscenes. 

In the menu, we can find a summary of the story so far, which I’ve been using. The menus may seem complex at first, but it’s that richness that makes Xenoblade games so appealing. All progress, enemies, affinities, gear, collections, locales, species, quests, and so on, are indexed in those menus. It’s where we get access to online features, which are very helpful for grinding materials or earning material tickets to get rare resources and build end-game weapons, armor, Skells, etc. The game has a learning curve, but as I mentioned earlier, everything comes together in time. With some persistence and progress it becomes easier to understand how the different classes work, what certain augments actually do, why we need them, or how to make a solid build to defeat a specific enemy. 

My end-game report:
I finished as a level 99 Full Metal Jaguar.
Maxed affinities and class levels with all characters.
From the level 60 Skells, I built the Formula Zero, Laila Queen, and Ares 90. All are great to play as. Ares 90 is the Skell I used to defeat many titans that were giving me trouble, especially plants and sabulas. It all worked well except for the Telethia in Noctilum, which I didn’t bother to make a nice build to defeat.
I defeated titans that weren’t marked on the map, like Gradivus the Headless Emperor, who had an (almost) infinite amount of health. There were many more titans hidden around Mira or just standing there in plain sight, like Gradivus.
I installed all probes at FrontierNav sites. I didn’t unlock all quest hexes on the map though.
My exploration of Mira landed at 98.77%. I’m very happy with the result!
I’d love to have completed my Collectopedia, but sometimes you have to finish a game when it’s time to finish it: Primordia stayed at 95%, Noctilum 98%, Oblivia 98%, Sylvalum 94%, and Cauldros 100%. I’d have to check a guide for the rest.
As for achievements:
Story 201/204 — I don’t really understand this one. It’s maybe quests I wasn’t able to find.
Combat 174/315 — I’d have to have killed all enemy types many times and maxed out all player classes, etc.
World 199/222 — This is mostly surveys and secret areas in Mira.

I’m happy with my progress. I didn’t expect to stay in the game for as long as I did. I don’t think I’ve found a world that beats Bionis yet, but Mira is a close second, or maybe it’s just as good. I’ll miss this planet!

#adventureGames #ares90 #gaming #JRPGs #longGames #monolithSoft #nintendoSwitch #planetMira #sciFi #skells #storyRich #VideoGames #videogames #XenobladeChroniclesDefinitiveEdition #XenobladeChroniclesX

I had Xenoblade Chronicles on my “play later” list for a while. It was in the pile with the rest of the series as well as many jrpgs I carefully curated for the Switch to avoid being overwhelmed by games. This way, I can dedicate time and attention-span – the little I have left –  to the games I’m actually going to play. There aren’t many, just enough to take over my free time for a couple of years, or maybe more. Xenoblade Chronicles was included in the section of “long games beware” plus “can be addictive.” I didn’t get the last part wrong. My intention was to play a game that could hold my attention and also be on the contemplative side, especially after the emotional ending of Persona 4 Golden and the philosophical themes Persona games tend to delve so deeply in. 

I think it was a great choice. However, I don’t feel like playing Xenoblade Chronicles 2 right after finishing the first game. Games that span over 100 hours are requiring more and more stamina from my side, of which I have less and less to give. Regardless, it was a hell of a good game. I don’t regret a second I spent in the company of Shulk and his companions in the first half of the game and Fiora in the second half. I ran a lot – and I mean kilometres of running and discovering the maps and locations in Bionis and Mechonis. The dormant titans that fought one another contained life within themselves – one organic and one mechanic. It’s both worlds we visit in the game in order to save them. At first, we are on a revenge run to avenge Fiora, but after some key events, Fiora is found in good health with some very intrusive mods in her body. She joined our team to fight against the bad guy from Bionis, and after that point, I decided to use her as my party leader.

Exploring the world

I have never played a game with so many sidequests. Upon arrival in Colony 9 and after the first cutscenes, when we get control of Shulk and are able to explore a bit, I saw those exclamation marks and immediately knew what they were. Among the funniest are those along these lines: “I want to give a present to my girlfriend. Please find the materials to make it.” – I go and find the materials – “Now give the present to her. No, I can’t go because I’m shy.” Many sidequests help people relate to each other, make amends, challenge themselves, find a job, find friends, find a loved one, etc. Our role as a problem fixer and important role model of a community is clear in the way that we offer help for the integration of others inside their own communities. By helping and talking to everyone, a big map of relationships between Homs, Nopon, High Entia and Machina starts to grow and consistently changes the more we interact with each named character and find a solution to something they’re struggling with. It’s a nice way to engage with the vast world of Xenoblade and an invitation to explore the game on a deeper level.

As many may have experienced on their first playthrough, the time spent with the optional content is way longer than completing the main story. But since the content is so vast, almost infinite at first sight, it’s easy to forget our main role in the story. We can lose ourselves in the open areas and visit them again and again for quests, exploration, and special bosses. There’s so much to do that the main story almost falls into oblivion. It’s not a bad thing either. We can progress the main story if we wish to or play the side content until there’s not much else to do and then make some main story progress. Some things change in the world after certain events, and it’s good to be aware of what kind of places we’ll be locked out of. I’m glad I stumbled upon that info. I wasn’t going for 100% achievements, but I was far from breezing through the game. 

A long sidequest

At first, I wasn’t investing anything in the reconstruction of Colony 6, and something told me it was worth the time investment to find all materials, some of them quite rare and late game. I started the reconstruction a bit before the Mechonis Core and the bulk of it after this event. Mechonis Core is a key event in the game that locks you out of almost all areas in Mechonis, the Bionis rival, the neighbouring planet/titan, whatever you want to call it. Come to think of it, it’s pretty badass that instead of living on a planet, people live in and on a titan, a primordial being that can be reawakened by the will of gods. Anyway, I had to check a guide for the locations of those materials that can be acquired by exploring or trading. The same materials are also required to complete the Collectopaedia, so if there’s something rare, we need to wait a few days for a respawn – I’m looking at you Black Liver Beans. 

After reconstructing the Colony, I had to invite people to live there. Without a guide we’d have to scour through all the locations and speak to all the NPCs to see which ones were interested in joining us. Some of them were mutually exclusive, some only joined if another NPC was already living there, some were already there, some were locked behind a side quest, it was very much impossible to do it without a guide and I appreciate the people that explored the game so thoroughly and wrote those guides for us little people with no time to waste, but still wasting it regardless. After I finished inviting everyone, I had a fully populated colony with commerce, housing, defence buildings, parks, you name it. It was beautiful! Two of those constructions had heart-to-heart events, so those who want to 100% the game have to reconstruct the colony, but that was to be expected. Then, almost out of nowhere, a myriad of exclamation marks populated my map. I was guaranteed at least 5 more hours of gameplay. 

Timing is everything

When I played MMORPGs, mostly on mobile and without any type of commitment, I wished for the day we could have something similar but single player, without guilds, timed events, or microtransactions. It seems that the game can well be Xenoblade Chronicles. This MMO idea came from the curious type of combat. I don’t know if it has a name, but it probably does. It’s a timed action type of combat. We can freely move around the enemies, but the character we’re controlling auto attacks. The player controls the movement and the special abilities called arts that can be unleashed and have a cooldown time. The auto attack keeps the fight going, but it doesn’t do a lot of damage. It’s the arts used when the character is well positioned against the enemy and the effects of the chain attacks that give big damage. When the party gauge is filled up there’s an opportunity for a chain attack, and then every party member attacks in turns, and we control which arts they use. The chain attack can be prolonged by a timed button press displayed on the screen, and every chain attack increases the affinities between party members. This is a lot more complicated to explain than to experience first hand. 

I don’t know why, but I vibed with this type of combat like anything else. It gives room for a lot of experimentation with equipment, gems, arts setup, synergies between characters, and between arts themselves. Every character has a kit and can only equip a limited number of arts. For example, Dunban can use an art called Gale Slash, but if we add another art called Wordly Slash and use it after Gale Slash, it breaks the enemy. However, if used alone, it doesn’t. And if Dunban inflicts break on an enemy, he can then use Steel Strike right after to topple it because this art topples an enemy after inflicting break. Therefore, the enemy loses their stance, falls to the ground, and stays unresponsive for a while. This connection between arts is fascinating, and if we intend to control a given character, we can build their kit to take advantage of the order we use the arts, to better script the attack flow. 

It’s impressive how much we can do against higher levelled enemies. In some cases, we can also get one-shot and have to level up and try again later. I still remember sneaking behind those level 98 dinosaurs in Makna forest (aptly named Deinos Saurus) in order to keep exploring  or getting ambushed by a special flying enemy in Bionis Leg, or trying to beat Immovable Gonzalez for the first time when I was still at level 25. Didn’t go so well, but I got my revenge some time later. We can run away from most high-level fights and still uncover the map and landmarks for fast travel. I admit it was one of my favourite activities in the game – to explore every corner of the map. It took me ages to discover everything in Valak Mountain, taking long walks up and down the mountain to the sound of the delicate daylight waltz and opening paths through the ice. 

Listening on repeat

Xenoblade Chronicles has incredible music. The battle songs are memorable and vary whether we fight a field boss or a normal enemy. All locations have their own tune for night and day cycles. In general terms, the songs in Bionis are more orchestral and soothing, whereas in Mechonis are more electronic and synthetic. There’s much variety in sound work, and all tunes are rearranged for the Definitive Edition. It’s tradition to use a special song for the final boss and, in many cases, the song has some special elements that weren’t used across the game like the inclusion of vocals or elements that express the urgency and finality of the fight. Such is the song called Zanza the Divine, a beautiful song that gathers in itself the souls of Bionis and Mechonis and stands out by the inclusion of vocals. It’s wonderful. When I heard it for the first time it reminded me of the punch I felt when I heard Nemesis’s song at the end of Verdant Green in Fire Emblem Three Houses. So, if there’s something divine in these creations, it comes from the hearts of people whose inspiration and skills serve as food for our souls, if you’re so inclined to believe in souls and all that. Let’s put it this way, it serves as a vehicle of signs and signals that directly connect with our capacity to perceive beauty and to be enraptured by it. Something so simple as small video game music loops can have that effect.

A world without gods

When I was reading the last bits of dialogue at the end I wondered why these biblical or mythological stories about the creation and the influence of gods in our lives are such a strong source of inspiration in Japanese video games. In the game, we see how a jealous, arrogant, and punishing god can destroy the world of his creation on a whim without any regard for humans, their connections, and their ability to change their destinies. How in fact that creation occurred was revealed in the last moments of the game and it was a funny mindfuck, so I won’t write about it here. I have so many questions but I believe we will get some answers in the subsequent games. 

So, this guy Zanza is a god and the creator of all organic life within Bionis, including humans made in his image – the Homs. Meyneth is another god, and like Zanza, she is the soul of Mechonis, and its population was made in the form of Machina. The Machina still worshipped Meyneth because she wasn’t an asshole but Zanza felt a little lonely. The existence of more than one god usually leads to some form of conflict, and that’s exactly what happened. The titan Bionis attacked Mechonis, and after a fierce fight, both titans fell dormant. They would eventually reawaken and fight again. I previously mentioned Shulk’s mission to save Fiora, but he and his companions will have bigger challenges along the way. 

As happens when people are shackled and constricted by religion and gods, they tend to exercise some faith in themselves and move on with their worldly lives and, moved by curiosity, they think about exploring new worlds. Zanza didn’t like this at all, and in order to strengthen himself, he decided to start a cycle of renewal, meaning the destruction of all life within Bionis. You know: mass murder. The lifeforms in Bionis had the sole purpose of creating ether to feed the god. Imagine if those creations started thinking for themselves (the gall) and decided to explore other worlds outside of Bionis and Mechonis – how would Zanza get the ether of the deceased to feed his own life? 

Ether is a substance that gives life, to where life is returned, from where materials are extracted and energy is produced. The Monado is Zanza’s sword and has the ability to manipulate the ether around it. Wilded by Shulk, it later gets the ability to kill gods. This puts us in a difficult position: if humans and other lifeforms stop producing ether when they die, Bionis and its vast ecosystem would eventually wither, but so would its creator. By eliminating his creator, Shulk is given a choice, whether to be the new god or recreate a world with no need for gods. It’s a bit ironic that in order to recreate a world without gods, you must first become one. This was exactly what he did, putting an end to the tyranny of Zanza and recreating a world where all species lived together, with no gods, only themselves.

This tells us something about our world, doesn’t it? How people still find inspiration and guidance from a book they believe was written by God, by the will of God, and are instructed to spread His message of love, blood, judgement, and fear. But worse than that it’s how people police each other to live according to what’s written so long ago, intending to mirror a society no longer in existence with total disregard for human rights, executing acts grounded in faith only, mimicking the divine with tyranny and political power. No wonder video games get inspiration from such a monolithic force over minds, bodies, relationships, and dreams. I’m far from being judgemental in matters of faith, and yet religious dogma still doesn’t account for the variety of human experience. No wonder games portraying any kind of religious group or some form of theocracy are to be fought against and reveal themselves as the worst villains. 

This has been a recurrent theme in some games that I’ve been playing. Humans against gods, humans finally giving themselves some credit for their own creations, humans fighting for freedom against divine entities, humans facing themselves and destroying worlds created by malevolent gods, the list goes on. Xenoblade Chronicles provides a nice twist to the creation angle, and I wouldn’t like to describe it here, at least for now, because I believe the other games in the series will shed some light about what transpired at the end of the game. Believe me, when I started, I thought this would be a revenge story and maybe some political intrigue. I wasn’t expecting to enter the realms of the divine and dwell on these subjects once again. 

Future Connected

After the credits roll, we unlock some extra content, namely all the cutscenes and an extra story – Future Connected. This story is focused on Melia alongside Shulk and Riki’s children – Nene and Kino – one year after the main events. The setting is the green and vast Bionis Shoulder and the fight to take back Alcamoth from a new force called the Fog King. The story doesn’t take long to play through, and some things change in the combat system to accommodate a new set of Nopon characters called the Ponspectors. These Nopon treasure hunters follow us everywhere and are extremely helpful in battle. They’re part of the longest side quest in the game and very cute to have around. They always walk in a straight line behind us. 

I didn’t engage too much with this Fog King story but was very eager to see Melia’s coronation as Empress and saviour of the High Entia’s future. The most endearing part of Future Connected were the little side quests to help Machina, Homs, High Entia, and Nopons with their problems and feuds. Also, definitely the best part, was the reconciliation between Tyrea and Melia, the two sisters-not-sisters. I wished they stayed together and at least they managed to find a functioning type of relationship – one of them in the light and the other in the shadows – to work towards a better future. In the end, the Nopons were the big heroes of this story with their funny dialect and excellent voice acting.

In conclusion, yes, I’d play it again. I’d gladly walk kilometres of digital space again and encounter all the characters for the second time. It’s incredible how much game they packed into the Nintendo Switch and how beautiful and sharp it all looks. How those long walks in Makna Forest, Valak Mountain, Bionis Leg, Satorl Marsh – just to name a few – are kind invitations to contemplation and fruition. How exploring every bit of the map is adequately rewarded but it shouldn’t necessarily be, because the rewards are seeing more beautiful landscapes from another perspective and feeling a little bit lost, despite the icons on the map. I prefer knowing precisely where to go just to deviate a bit from the beaten path and find treasure, special bosses, or climb to locations with a good view over the area. Bionis Leg during the day, Valak Mountain and Satorl Marsh at night, and Eryth Sea during shooting stars were the most striking atmospheres I experienced in the game, and I just took it all in.

https://swordofseiros.wordpress.com/2024/07/15/a-world-without-gods/

#contemplation #creation #Games #gaming #gods #jrpgs #longGames #monolithSoft #nintendoSwitch #religion #sideQuests #storyRich #videoGames #videogames #xenobladeChronicles #XenobladeChroniclesDefinitiveEdition

So many games to try, so little time to do it… We always want to try new things, and end up leaving behind what we used to love. Is it that easy to go back to a game you’ve already finished? Let’s find out!

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https://blisscast.wordpress.com/2023/10/05/the-dilemma-of-replaying-games-my-journal-page-71/

#gaming #gamer #ilovegaming #longgames #completedgames