Finished Xenoblade Chronicles and can say with some confidence that it's my Game of the Year so far. With only a few months left and only a few things on the horizon which could be contenders, it's looking good for Monolithsoft's epic RPG extravaganza.
Of course, my Game of the Year vote is of interest only to my friends. Gamer culture at large will undoubtedly vote Battlefield 3, Modern Warfare 3 or Uncharted 3 (hang on a minute… there's a pattern there somewhere) as GotY. But that doesn't matter.
Xenoblade Chronicles toes the line perfectly between JRPG and WRPG. On the J front, you have your floppy-haired protagonists who wield physically improbable weapons; you have your large-breasted female companions (one of whom spends most of the game clad in "armour" that really wouldn't protect anything besides her modesty — and even then only just); you have your small, annoying creature; you have your ultimately quite predictable JRPG finale (I still love 'em, I don't care how cliched they are). On the W front, you have a huge open world with minimal loading breaks — individual zones are huge in area and packed with things to do: monsters to kill, quests to complete, people to find. Straddling the line between both, we have an excellent combat system somewhat reminiscent of MMOs like World of Warcraft or, probably more accurately, Guild Wars.
Why the Guild Wars comparison? Well, like that game, you only have a finite number of skills which can be "equipped" at once, from a larger potential bank. The number of skills you acquire in Xenoblade Chronicles isn't as ridiculous as NCSoft's title, but then you do have several characters to manage all at once. Mercifully, you only have to control one of them at once, with the AI doing an excellent job of performing whatever role each character is ideally suited to in the party.
Gameplay-wise, it's top notch. Simply proceeding through the areas, completing quests and following the story when I'd "cleared" an area was enough to get me almost to the very end — there was only a few levels' worth of grinding required to safely get through the home straight, and by that point you've learned plenty of EXP-boosting skills so it's not as painful as it could be.
This is all very clinical and mechanical — and that's fine, as an RPG can live or die on its mechanics. But the real star of the show in Xenoblade Chronicles is its cast. Brilliantly voiced by an English cast, the characters are all memorable and, despite my "floppy haired protagonist" comment earlier, manage to not fall into the usual stereotypes. Each of them is an interesting individual whom you get to know throughout the course of the game, both through story sequences and through optional "heart to heart" conversations, where two characters have a chat and come away from it either liking each other a little more or a little less.
Characterisation isn't just limited to story sequences, however — different combinations of characters in a battle party elicit different battle cries and responses to one another. And, as characters develop their Affinity for one another, they start to talk to each other during battle differently, often engaging in some light-hearted banter that makes them seem a lot more human. Okay, you'll hear "what a bunch of jokers!" and "my rifle's getting hotter!" an awful lot throughout the course of the game, but on the rare occasions where they start teasing each other after a successful battle, it'll definitely raise a smile.
For me, the sign of a good RPG is whether you have a kind of "empty" feeling after it's all over — you won't be spending any more time with these characters, and that's sad. I felt it particularly strongly with Persona 4, whose ending sequence made me tear up, and I'm not ashamed at all to admit it. Xenoblade Chronicles gives me that feeling, too. It's a different sort of ending to Persona, but once it's over you have very much left those characters behind to get on with their lives in their post-adventure world. It's a bittersweet moment.
By far the saddest thing about Xenoblade Chronicles, however, is how few people will get to play it. While it got a release in this country, it's likely to become harder and harder to find as the months go on — and there's sure to be plenty of people who will dismiss it out of hand purely because it's on the Wii. This isn't even getting into the whole fiasco of Nintendo of America stubbornly refusing to bring the game to the States, despite there clearly being an audience for it. The game is already translated and ready to go — we Europeans have to deal with American spellings in most games, so would it really kill you to put up with the words "armour" and "learnt"? No — but Nintendo of America apparently doesn't see it that way, presumably believing that sales will be poor.
The thing is, though, Nintendo is in a difficult position right now. The 3DS is ailing, the Wii is fading and the core of the gamer community has all but left the company behind. For Nintendo of America to bring Xenoblade Chronicles to the States would be a gesture of goodwill to all the loyal fans who still defend the company, even amid its gradual move away from the core audience. It would give people more faith in Nintendo's current and future products, and, in the long term, it would help attract people to the Wii U as people see it as a system that will cater to the core.
Sadly, it doesn't appear it's going to happen — so if you're an American and you would very much like to play Xenoblade Chronicles, I would say don't hesitate — import it, mod your Wii and enjoy. There's over a hundred hours of absolutely top-tier entertainment there, and you will not regret the time you spend in its highly distinctive world.
Now I better go to bed. Off to Legoland tomorrow!