Xenoblade Chronicles has been one of the broadly popular JRPG series as of late, particularly within my own social circles. I have heard mostly good things about the games, and some vocal criticisms about the second game in particular. After finally picking up a Switch last year, I have now made my way through most of the series.
Before trying Xenoblade myself, I had a mixed history with Xeno series creator Tetsuya Takahashi. He’s had quite a career, having worked on games in the Ys, Final Fantasy, SaGa, Mana, and Chrono series. Xenogears was his first project as a director, and I knew next to nothing about the game when I picked it up at release in 1998. It surprised me in a lot of ways, being my first real dip into the mecha genre, accompanied by a truly massive and thought-provoking script (both big changes from the SNES’s smaller scripts and censorship). My continuing experience with Xeno was less successful. Xenosaga’s move to a more cinematic style gave it a plodding pace, packed with jargon and word salad. I also didn’t connect with most of the trilogy’s characters, I found most of the gameplay boring, and I’d somehow missed the memo that Xenosaga was a reboot and not directly connected to Xenogears, souring me on the experience in general.
I didn’t have a lot of success with Xenoblade Chronicles for a while. I came to the first game late in 2017, spurred by positive word-of-mouth that had resurfaced after the announcement of XC2. While I got along with the characters better than I did in Xenosaga and enjoyed the excellent setting, I ultimately had to make an effort to avoid the game’s numerous sidequests. Being an MMO player, they would have felt dated to me even back at the game’s release in 2010, and their supporting elements in the UI were extremely basic. The game’s saving grace for me would be the gameplay, a fun romp with a squad that I enjoyed tinkering with.
My experience with Xeno changed with XC2. I had a rough start at first when I picked the game up last year, not really sure what to make of the main character and light-hearted tone of the game, a huge departure from the previous games in the series. But when the conversations with Pyra started, a deep hook set in. I immediately connected with this character, someone that seemed eminently competent but had a pensive demeanor, hinting at a darkness within. After I learned more about this character as her whole story unfolded in both XC2 and its DLC Torna, Pyra became my favorite character in the series. For the first time in 25 years, Xeno was finally starting to hit some of those same emotional notes it did for me in Xenogears. Hitting on that nostalgia also led to me thinking about interesting similarities between Fei from Xenogears and Pyra and Mythra.
In hindsight, making those connections across the series seems to be half the fun. Xenoblade Chronicles 3 and Future Redeemed are packed with little (and not-so-little) nods to much of past Xeno. I had a good time with this aspect of XC3, and in some ways it picked up where XC2 left off with getting me to be interested in this cast and world. I also really enjoyed the gameplay, seeing the results of refinements to the UI in particular that were sorely needed, culminating in my being thrilled at controlling A and seeing her flip around the battlefield in the DLC. An impressive achievement, considering I almost always hate playing healers in this type of gameplay!
I know fans of Xenoblade Chronicles have strong opinions about their favorites, but there were things that I loved (the setting in XC1, the cast in 2, the gameplay and Xeno callbacks in 3), and there were things that drove me nuts in each of the games. I’ve given up on the stories getting some much-needed pruning (every Xeno game and DLC I’ve played has padding or spots that just don’t work), so I can roll with that. I also don’t know if I’ll ever get to XCX or Future Connected. Xeno isn’t exactly my top ongoing series at the moment, but I’m still interested in what Takahashi is cooking up next.
I could start again to tell why i don’t like xc2, but everyone tells me i get better and 10 hours in is not far, so i make a game out of it, for every upvote here i play 1 hour mor xc2. Maybe i struggle or i like it at some point. I don’t think the gameplay ever, but pyra, if her conversation are really that deep. Already 10 upvote, so 10 hours so far
Hah, I don’t know if it’s so much deep conversation as just something I personally connected with. 10 hours might be enough time to know if you’re into her character or not.
Oh man, I loved Xenogears. My friends made fun of it endlessly when I got it for my birthday, but then all became hopelessly addicted to it.
I really appreciated this write-up as I bounced almost immediately off Xenosaga and wrote off the remaining Xeno-titles as a result. Where would you recommend starting with Xenoblade chronicles?
Honestly, I mostly feel the urge to go back and play Xenogears again.
I mean, I could see how getting a game with big robots and a tagline of “Stand tall and shake the heavens” on the cover invites mockery 😂 I actually did a replay of Xenogears last year just before my XC2 play and was really glad to see the story still holds up, even if the English script could use a revision. I even liked the infamous Disc 2 a lot more this time around. The gameplay is still the gameplay, though, warts and all. Still one of my all-time favorites regardless, and freshening it up in my memory might have enhanced my XC3 experience.
I’d say you could start with either XC1 or 2, in case you bounce off one and don’t want to continue to write off the trilogy. I don’t think starting with XC3 is a good idea. A player new to the trilogy would probably miss a lot without having played the previous two.
